I had planned to make a post about LittleBigPlanet yesterday.

I had planned to talk about how bad the online component has crippled even single player enjoyment and how they took down the servers to fix it, and they were reportedly back up with a marked improvement in performance.

Then this happened.

As you can see from the pictures, a huge tree took out power lines in Main Street Ellicott City, which of course in turn took out power for my apartment complex. I spend most of the night in the lobby (where there was still light from back-up generators) talking to other people as they came in and working a puzzle with other residents. Lots of people simply left to stay at a relatives dwelling, or a a hotel for the night. I didn't because any place that I could stay would have been 30 minutes away or more.

I slept in my apartment freezing my ass off in low 60s temperatures that continued to fall as the night went on.

What a shitty night.

Oh, and the power was not back as of this morning... :-(

I read this comic from start to finish a few days ago, and it got me thinking.

It started with a small premise:

Why is it that films, anime, comics and most other forms of art seem to always be better when they are shorter?

My answer to this question was a process:

First Answer: Because the artist(s) had something to say, said it, and that was it. No extensions or expansions, no retconning to allow the next seasons story to make sense, nothing. One and done.

Second Answer: The fans are actually at fault for not being able to accept a piece of art as is without wanting more. Fuck the fans.

Third Answer: It's really more the inherent nature of Capitalism, fans like it, so give them more. So instead of allowing to work to stand on it's own, it has to be whored out, modified, extended, explained, extrapolated, and eviscerated until the original idea is gone. Capitalism fucks up art.

Fourth (and Final Answer): Really it just boils down to the one thing that I do remember from my art classes: Art has to be for Art's sake. It is an abstract idea, but one that can be immediately sensed when you see actual art. When you read a comic, play a video game, or watch an anime sometimes it just clicks: This is Art. Taking a mainstream example:

The Matrix.

The first film was groundbreaking. It came out in 1999, the height of technophobia with the Y2K Bug looming overhead. So the content was perfect for the general feeling of uneasiness in relation to computers. Also the film itself was superb. No one had ever seen anything like it before; it's moral lessons were profound and the stunts were unreal. The audience was completely smitten (myself included). It will go down as a very well done modern art piece for all of those reasons.

But wait, it wasn't enough. We wanted more. So the market responded. Two more films were slated and immediately put into production. The films came out, and the feeling of "art" was gone. They felt forced, and strangely manufactured. The stunts were still good, but didn't seem like they were as innovative as the first movie. In short, they sucked.

This isn't to say that you can't have a piece of art that is spread across multiple pieces. Kill Bill and Lord of the Rings come to mind. Both were split up. But the difference is that it was still one complete thought.

The lesson? Support actual art and not manufactured crap.

Hmm... that sounded really pompous and it's a pretty unrealistic unrealistic goal to begin with.

So I guess the lesson is to support art when you can, and keep the guilty pleasure crap to a minimum.

...you know, that still sounds pompous, but I don't give a fuck.

I haven't posted for a while.

Lots of things to cover.

- My car was hit by a new driver a couple weeks ago. She only hit my side view mirror and was very apologetic about it. I got it fixed and have been too busy to contact the family to get reimbursed for the damages. I will get to it eventually.

- The current project that I am working on just blew up on Monday. The project team lead is quitting CA, and since there is a hiring freeze, he can't be replaced. This means that I am taking up the slack for him; a guy who has been a Software Engineer for 20 years. I have only been doing this for 7 months... fuckberries.

- I am attempting to reboot my workout regimen (again) and it is going well. I do 5 sets of 30 push ups and do jack-knife crunches until failure in between those sets. After I hit 100 push ups a couple months ago, I didn't have a concrete goal anymore and I just got lazy.

- House is great, The Office is better. Holly is quickly becoming my favorite character.

- I made my own salad for the first time tonight in over a month. I had forgotten how delicious it is when you make your own vinaigrette. Red Wine Vinegar + Dijon Mustard + EVOO + Salt & Pepper = EPIC WIN.

- The title of this post goes out to the movie I just finished watching: Gone Baby Gone. This is one movie is worth the price of admission.

- Kongregate is awesome. They just need to give me my fucking badges, dammit.

- Buckethead is unreal in a live performance. That One Guy giving the best opening act ever just made it just that much better.

- Tyler's party was bananas for so many reasons. Epic night.

- Little Big Planet being recalled by Sony because of complaints by Muslims is such bullshit. Living in the age of Terrorism has caused us to be hyper-sensitive to Muslims and their practices. You don't see games being recalled because they include bible passages. You don't see games recalled because they have stereotyped Jews as characters. Un-fucking-believable.

- Weekly Frisco Grille outings with Tryke and the Cack has been fun. It is going to take a while for me to get 100 beers in my book though. Not that I will be complaining along the way.

That is all for now, I hope I don't have to make another one of these posts anytime soon, they take too long.

In case you have not heard of this internet sensation, watch this video and be happy:

Keepon is part of a new breed of robots called BeatBots.

"The BeatBots project develops rhythmically intelligent robots for research and entertainment."

Beyond it's very uncharacteristic human like movements, it is also the cutest damn thing to ever exist.

Basically, everyone that has seen the video above has said the same thing...

Where can I get one?

Well now you can... for thirty thousand dollars. And no, that is not a typo.

They hope to eventually make a much more affordable model that uses a bit more simple mechanics, but at the time they are only targeting insanely rich people and research institutions.

Oh well. :-(