Dojang Grand Opening

Master Amerson breaks a sheet of ice.

I don’t blog about my martial arts too much, but there’s a very exciting event coming up. Ownership has changed at my dojang, and we’re having a grand opening next weekend on September 12. If you’re in the area, come on down to see the new changes.

The dojang is now owned and operated by Master Jason Ladd. Here’s the website. Master Ladd’s background is in Tang Soo Do which is the primary art taught at the school. There are also supplemental programs taught by other instructors in the following areas. From 10AM to 12PM, we’ll have tables set up with all the instructors available to talk to you about their programs.

• Tai Chi
• Isshinryu Karate
• Okinawan Weapons
• Arnis
• Judo
• Brazilian Jiujitsu
• Zumba Fitness

This is a great opportunity to come meet all the instructors at one time and get a feel for what type of martial arts or fitness program is right for you. I guarantee that we have something you’ll love.

If you’re lucky, we may even do some cool demos like the picture above. dba

SIGGRAPH 2009 – Coming Soon

I’m heading down to SIGGRAPH this year, and it’s shaping up to be a good time. It’s in New Orleans which never hurts. There’s also a ton of interesting content this year. Here are a few of the courses and talks that I’m interested in attending:

• Advances in Real-Time Rendering in 3D Graphics and Games I – This is actually a two part course that will take up all of Monday, but it should be fun.
• Color Imaging – Color science has always interested me, but I’ve never had a chance to really sit down and learn or work with it.
• Efficient Substitutes for Subdivision Surfaces – A colleague wanted me to attend this one. I’m hoping to go, but it really depends on whether I get some pre-reading done on the topic.
• Beyond Programmable Shading I – Another two part course on Thursday about the evolution of the graphics pipeline.
• Rendering, Real Fast Rendering, Rendering and Visualization – I’ll hit up a mix of these. I’m interested in some of the bounding volume hierarchy work in there since I’ve been reading up on those for some upcoming Gamebryo work.
• I haven’t even gotten around to scanning through the actual technical papers.

Also, I’ll be on the ground solo this year, so I’m looking for cool folks to hang out and keep dinners interesting. If you’re in town for the show and want to grab a bite, let me know.

I will not promise to live blog the conference at this point. dba

Shipping Product, It’s an Afterthought… Sort of

Today’s Topics:

• Triangle Game Conference
• Black Belts
• Kites
• Gamebryo LightSpeed!

Triangle Game Conference

The Triangle Game Conference occurred over the past two days. I attended on Thursday. The conference was a great chance to gather with some other developers in the area and interact. The highlight session, excluding those from co-workers, was Martin Mittring discussing deferred lighting in CryEngine3. Mainly, I wanted to point out what a great accomplishment the conference was for all who organized it and what it means for North Carolina as a game development hub. I’ve always maintained that NC was one of the top 5 areas for game development in the United States, and this is another indication.

Black Belts

We’re graduating a class of black belts tomorrow at IMAA. I may even do a demo. If you’re in the area and want to check it out, come by at 10AM.

Kites!

When I was younger, I needed a job. I found one at the local kite shop. Kiting turned into a passion for me. I amassed a large collection of several dozen kites of varying complexity, quality, and artistry. I started out focusing on dual line kites and got into radical flying where you dump the wind from your sail to perform tricks with slack lines. From there I explored quad line kiting and single line kiting a bit. When a friend was moving to China and needed to dump his collection, I managed to get some flexifoils and get into  power kiting. It’s fun but dangerous.

Over the years, I’ve flown less and less. Two weeks ago, however, I got a chance to fly again. Since then I’ve had another outing, and I’m hooked on the feeling again. Kiting is truly relaxing and cathartic for me. It’s a great thing to get completely away from your computer, your phone, and pretty much everything to commune with the wind. Whether you’re flying something stable in a smooth breeze or going radical in a light wind, being in touch with the kite at the other end of the lines is amazing. I’m hoping to fly again this weekend if the weather permits. If you’re in the Raleigh area and want to fly, let me know. I’d love to meet up at Lake Crabtree and share my refound passion.

Gamebryo LightSpeed

Last but not least, Gamebryo LightSpeed is gold! I will espouse the virtues of our new product in another post. For now, I’ll just say that I’m very glad to have finished things and shipped. It’s been a long effort. The product is amazing as has been the effort of the entire time. I’m lucky to work with all the talented and passionate folks at Emergent, and I’m looking forward to the reaction in the market.

No plans this weekend. Heaven. dba

Bittersweet Return

After missing several Wednesday Updates, I’m back to blogging. Unfortunately, I have sad news to impart on my return. Let me first say that I’ve always been a proponent of Microsoft. Whenever anyone spoke ill of the Xbox 360, I was there to defend it. My launch 360 has served me well since November 2005 until… well, tonight. Red Ring of Death for me, and I’m outside the warranty.

[Update] I went looking for my new 360 today, and I’m not sure what to buy. If anyone has suggestions, let me know. I can save some bread and get an arcade since my current HDD is fine. However, I’ve heard that I want a bigger HDD now that I can load games onto it, so I was thinking I should get an Elite with the 120GB HDD.  I then  heard there was a bundle coming soon, and I would like Fable II which would effectively be a $50 discount on an Elite. I just don’t know when that bundle drops. Advice would be appreciated from those who have done this shopping of late.

I guess tomorrow is a good time to shop for a new one with a bigger hard drive. dba

Song Fight! Hajime!

Constant six day work weeks combined with too many hours a day has made content on my blog scarce again. One of the things keeping me going is a new game that Adam and I came up with. We call it the song fight. The premise is basically that at random times we’ll each turn on a song from our office. The other player in turn must pick a related song. We’ve been going back and forth for a week or more now, so I figured I’d post this Song Fight.

1. Transformers Theme by Vince Di Cola – Dan
2. G.I. Joe the Movie Theme by Ford Kinder – Adam
3. House Full of Bullets by Joe Satriani
4. Red House by Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson
5. Get Out of My House by The Streets
6. Where the Streets Have No Name by U2
7. Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant
8. Big Yellow Taxi by Amy Grant
9. What the Cowgirls Do by Vince Gill
10. Wanted Dead of Alive by Bon Jovi (Adam argued that Jon Bon Jovi basically was a cowgirl justifying this song choice.)
11. Dead and Bloated by Stone Temple Pilots
12. Happy Birthday by Weird Al Yankovic
13. Gansta’s Paradise by Coolio
14. Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J
15. Laid by James
16. Wait for Me by Rebecca St. James
17. I Can’t Fight This Feeling by REO Speedwagon
18. I’m Feeling This by Blink 182
19. I Touch Myself by The Divinyls
20. Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger
21. Crazy by Gnarls Barkley
22. Crazy by Seal Performed by Alanis Morisette
23. Insane in the Brain by Cypress Hill
24. Get the F#@& Outta Dodge by Public Enemy
25. My Own Worst Enemy by Lit
26. Drunk Girl by Something Corporate
27. Santana DVX by The Lonely Island

At this point, I declared myself the winner of this fight… mostly because I was out of whiteboard space and needed to clean up. It’s on Adam now to start the next volley.

Time to erase. dba

Post Christmas Miscellany

Arising from the food coma that is Christmas in the Amerson family, here’s some miscellaneous bits about furniture shopping for the weekend.

Some Tips for Furniture Shopping in the Raleigh Area

Theresa and I need a dining room table. Right now, we’re using an heirloom dropleaf table from my great-grandmother which is dwarfed by the room. Since we’re hoping to host larger gatherings, we need something that will seat 8 or 10. Over the last month, we’ve hit up a number of places. We eventually settled on this table. It’s got a really cool finish on the top which is unfortunately hard to see in the pictures. I’ve also learned some important tips for furniture shopping around Raleigh.

• Go to Whitley Galleries first.
  • http://www.whitleygalleries.com/
  • It’s a whole city block. When you walk in, they give you a map.
  • It is a small drive out to Zebulon, but it’s worth it for sheer breadth of selection.
• Check out Wayside Furniture House next.
  • http://www.waysidefurniturehouse.com/
  • Selection is smaller, but they can order things. Pricing is great.
  • Ask for George. He’s awesome.
• Go to Glenwood Ave./US-70 last.
  • There are a ton of places out there, but it’s such a pain.

Meant to post Friday, but I forgot. dba

Gag Gift Exchange

The annual gag gift exchange at Emergent is a source of great comedy. I figured I’d upload a couple of pictures. I got a copy of Red Means Dead, a custom made children’s book about the continuous integration policy that I named. I’ll try to post the full text later.

Also featured today is Santa! While he’s not technically pantless, it’s hard to tell from the picture. We do, in fact, refer to him as Pantless Santa. It’s a Christmas tradition.

Dan with his copy of Red Means Dead.

Santa shows up… with hairy legs.

But I just changed a comment, CI is insane! dba

I, for one, am loving it.

Short and sweet, like barbecue sauce. It’s back.

Raw Deliciousness!

It’s the pickles and onions that put it over the top. dba

Wanted

There’s a movie coming out Friday called wanted. You can check out the official site at the link below. In fact, I encourage it since I’m planning to talk about the comic it’s based on a second.

http://www.wantedmovie.com/

Knowing that this movie was coming out, I read the comic recently. The comic was fair, and it had a good premise. Wesley is in a dead-end job. He’s got no backbone. His father was a bad ass and just died. Yes, in the comic a woman shows up and changes his world. She tells him about his father. He was called The Killer, and he was a member of a fraternity of supervillains.

You feeling it now? Sounds like the trailer up until then, but we’re talking supervillains, as in the opposite of superheroes. See, the main conceit of the comic is that around 1986, all the supervillains teamed up and killed all the superheroes in the world, all of them. The supervillains now run the world. They can do whatever they want, and they have some serious technology that lets them revise history to hide all their actions. It’s a fun premise for a book. I don’t think the comic fulfilled it completely, but it was a fun read. I had no idea how the movie would handle it. From the trailers, it looks like the answer is that it won’t. I’m not sure if that’s fortunate or unfortunate, but I’ll probably go check out the movie to see.

Leave me a comment if you see it. dba

Hello world!

Welcome to my blog. I’m just starting to set up categories and formatting for now. More content will be forthcoming.