- The Siege of Smolensk -

After a Massive Military Buildup on its Western Front Germany Declared War on the Slumbering Russia.Tzaress Catherine , Addressed the nation declaring a state of war , and urging all able - bodied Citizens to join thenational army . under its charismatic leader , The russian EmpireProspered in the last 20 years . Catherine has emphasized building upthe Nation's infrastructure, building up the natural resources . The Russian economy prospered under the Free market and open borders with the neighbouring countries .

German Forces descended on the small Northeastern desert city of smolensk .
German cavalery battalions ravaged and plaundered the country side
while the main assault forces prepared to lay siege to the city .
Smolensk reknown for its booming economy driven by 2 very prosperous gold mines ,proved to be too attractive of a target on the german-russian borders .

It started at dawn . German Canons pounded the city defenses ,
and german musketman and cavalry launched a massive offensive
against the battered city .
Lightly Garisonned , the defenders dug in anticipation for
the onslaught . canon rounds tore through the city walls and
flattened building wherever they landed. grey columns of ash rose
to the sky everywhere and a bevy of fires started raging on .

the russian musketman fought valiantly . fighting door to door ,
they ambushed and Frustrated the numerically superior advancing
germans inflicting severe casualties and taking many casualties
themselves . Wave upon wave of infantry and cavalry continuously
assaulted the barricated russian positions inside the city ,
tenaciously gaining ground.

In nearby St Petersburg , the russian military was making preparation
for relief efforts. 3 regimens of Cavalries , and 4 battallions of infantry
marched north to assist the sieged city .

...The defenders must hold their ground ...
... Smolensk Will Stand ...

- The Arm chair General -

What you looking at ?

Tobii technology creates special screens that track where your eyes look.
Market research companies use such screens to see “hot spots” -
which parts of an ad or Web site draw your attention and hold your gaze.

http://www.tobii.com/

State : a How-to guide to dysfunction

The EU is celebrating its 50th anniversary today .
back in 1957, The European Union Started as 6 nations
banding together for economic/social develepment
following a devastating World War II conflict that shattered
the old continent economies and infrastructure .

Nowadays, the EU brings together 27 European countries
and 490 Millions Citizen from a plethora of ethnic, religious
and linguistic backgrounds .It unites diverse nations and regions
that in the not-too-distant past fought wars against each other,
practiced economic isolationism or were subject to dictatorship and clientelism.

Today, differences are resolved via dialogue and negotiations.
matters of joint interest , like trade and economic issues, security ,foreign policy, crisis management, judicial affairs, social policy and migration are discussed and voted on
in the various European institutions in which the 27 member states have entrusted
some of their sovereignty.

If the EU is a shining Example of Multi-state collaboration
and economic growth, Lebanon on the other hand is a
how-to guide to dysnfunction . Located in the heart of the Middle east ,
Lebanon boasts 10k square kilometer area ,
a whopping 3 millions citizens (of the same ethnic background)
subscribing to a multitude of religious beliefs , and a faltering economy
shouldering 38Billions Dollars in state public debt due to years of civil war
and strife and further handicapped by conflicting political agendas .

In recent Develepments , Government and Opposition have been deadlocked
for 6 months in an ongoing political impasse that paralyzed the country's economy .
Various efforts to diffuse the sitution has been in vain . the divison between
the sparring political parties is so big ,The country has sent 2 delegations to the Arab state summit This week.

Now that begs the Question , if 27(twenty-Freaking-Seven) european states
can cooperate and present a unique stance for issues like social and economic policy , balanced development, security, and foreign policy , How could the tiny ethnically homgeneous
so-called state that is Lebanon Send 2 delegations to a State summit ?

What a Disgrace .

What a laughing stock of a state .

if you can't agree on a single representation for a single State ..

Stay

Freaking

Home .

Third Sphere

with the big success of world of warcraft ,
MMOs as medium of entertainment has become mainstream .

There are a lot of excellent single player games, that have never
achieved the level of success world of warcraft is having.
Furthermore , The most Successful ones boast robust
Multiplayer components .

So, what's the appeal of Online gaming ?

To make an analogy lets look at coffeeshops.
on sunny days, They seem to be bustling with Customers.
Most patrons though are there alone .they sit at their table
enjoying the hot beverage ,while reading a book or flipping
through the local newspaper.Now ,I can argue that i could
brew the same coffee ,sit ona chair in my sunny backyard
and abosultely enjoy it alone.
So , what drives people to flock to coffeeshops ?

As people , we spend the majority of our time in 2 social spheres.

The first sphere is the Home . At home , we eat , sleep ,
enjoy our families company , entertain friends among many other things .

The second social sphere is the work place. whether it is aneducational institute , corporate environment , or a local businessthat's where we spend a lot of time earning a living and interacting with our colleagues.

Even though we spend majority of our time in the above 2 spheres,
The leftover time (i.e Leisure time ) is our own .
Social animals as we are, where would we seek social
interaction in our leisure time ?

Enter the 3rd social sphere .

Coffeeshops as they are a good example of the 3rd place theory .
A coffeeshop is a neutral locale , where people withthe same taste
in coffee head to enjoy their brown beverage .the "possibility" to
connect with peers with similar interest is present
if the person decides to seek it.

Another example is an amateur sports league team .
The members of such teams come together twice or more a week
to enjoy their activity of choice , and play competitive games
against other teams of similar minded individuals.
Similarly to the example above , the "possibility" to establish
personal social relations beyond the activity itself is available to be pursued .

To generalize , any location where a random group of people
congregate to partcipate /enjoy a certain activity
(that activity not being work related ) can be considered a 3rd place .

MMOs are the new 3rd places .
Virual Worlds to engage in and explore alone ,
share and enjoy with a buddy, or compete against
other like minded individuals under a predetremined set of rules .
Or pretty much do just about anything .
With this new Medium , The possibilities are Endless.

The Wifeometer

GDC 2007 , an excerpt from Miyamoto keynote sharing

Nintendo's vision of accessibility in game design :

I’d like to talk about a personal experience of [mine]: I have a personal way of determining if a product will be succeed with the intended audience, I call it the wifeometer.

[laughter]

This wifeometer measures one variable: the interest level of my own wife. Maybe some of you can remember when you played Pac-Man, or a game like Mario. And maybe you think that these were important moments in your lives. They were not important moments for my wife. But then Tetris came out. The problem was that, when I thought my wife would be interested in this game, she was not, but then when my daughter started playing Ocarina of Time at home, there was a little change. My wife had gone from complete disinterest to a background observer. She watched my daughter play. I thought, oh maybe there is hope!

[laughter]

Then came Animal Crossing. Now when this game came out I assured my wife there were no enemies to fight in this game, so she agreed to actually touch the controller. She was soon happy cutting down trees and exchanging letters with our children. The wifeometer went up a bit more. I thought I’m going to get that thing higher!

As some of you may know we have a dog in our house, and my wife loves cats but I’m a dog lover. This is our dog. He’s 6. He sleeps on a better mattress than I do. If you look at his face, he looks like a guitar pick. So we named him Pick. Now since Pick joined us, we’ve been studying dog training, and we made new friends through the other dogs our dog has met. He brought us new joys and discoveries.
Getting back to my point today... growing the wifeometer.
I was watching our dog friends and my wife, I thought maybe if we could get these people and turn them into game players, if we could interest them, we could expand the user base, there were elements too of dog training that I thought I could turn into a videogame. So when I showed her Nintendogs, she finally saw a different perspective.

Then game Brain Age. This has turned her into a true gamer. She has accepted games as part of her daily life. She understands the unique interactive entertainment found in games. And today we have a Wii in our house. So last month, on Valentine’s Day, in Japan on Valentine’s Day women give chocolates to men, it’s very nice!
As usual I came home rather late from work, expecting her to be asleep. I opened the door and heard the sounds of the Wii, so I thought she waited up to give me chocolates, so sweet, but actually she was just casting her votes on the Everybody Votes channel. So she herself downloaded the channel and voted on her own, this is an incredible occurrence in my household, it would be more normal to get home and find Donkey Kong eating at my dinner table!

[laughter]

This is the second version of Brain Age. It has a mini Mario game in it. Now my wife comes to me and says, I can beat you at this game, anytime. She’s bragging! To me!

[laughter]

Looking at her scores, she’s right. She turned into a hardcore gamer much faster than I expected. Wifeometer has shot up dramatically. So there it is. Now she’s playing Wii sports. Not only that, she invites our friends over to play Wii sports. I don’t know if she’ll stop making Miis - she makes them for everyone in our neighbourhood. This is very lucky for me, see because now she’s getting a taste for what it‘s like to create something. I see this as a first step towards game design. I think we’ll be competing going forward, eventually she’ll come up with a unique idea, and when she does … I can retire!

[laughter]

A strong drive to expand the target audience , coupled with Hard devotion to the entertainment business , and strong creative innovation , That is what define Nintendo as a company.

It is no surprise to see the Wii and the Ds as bestsellers in todays fierce console market.

Ps : Original Article can be found at : http://www.wonderlandblog.com/wonderland/2007/03/gdc_miyamotos_k.html#more

California , Rest in Peace ...

I Love The Art on the this Album Cover .

"She's a runner, rebel and a stunner "

"A little loaded she was stealing another breath "

"I love my baby to death "

"Who knew the other side of you "

"Too true to say goodbye to you "

"Gone too fast .."

Hauntigly Fitting ...

RHCP - Stadium Arcadium

Blissfully oblivious of the music scene, I somehow
Missed the Release of "Stadium Arcadium" ,
"Red Hot Chili Peppers" latest Album . Nominated
for seven grammy awards , it was the biggest
selling album of 2006. I believe it is one of their
best works to date.

The songs "Dani California" , "Tell me baby "
among others showcase the Lyricist ingenuity of
frontman Anthony kiedes.
The Album Features hard Rocking riffs that alternate
with a catchy Chorus to deliver a a very addictive
1-2 musical knockout that worms itself into your head ,
dig deep and never Let go .

"They come from every state to find
Some dreams were meant to be declined
Tell the man what did you have in mind
What have you come to do ...
Tell me baby ,
What's Your story ,
Where you come from
and where you are going
come on .."

Alternative Rock / Funk at its best .

Vertical Limit

Aggressive stance ,
Anticipation,
Incoming set,
Swift step ,
Eyes on the kill ,
Acceleration,
Elevation ,
Explosive contact,
Floorbound velocity,
Impact.
~
Terra Ferma.

Normal , or The definition thereof

Quirky ,odd , off beat , puzzling.

All could describe Murakami's characters. However Funny,
charming , witty or sarcastic they are inherently human and
that's what makes them so engaging .
Murakami's short stories are an introspective foray into
the quirks of the human soul. He plays with the concept
of normality , stretches it, dances around it and then
stretches it some more.

what is Normal ?
Normal is not what makes us tick .
Normal is not what makes us react .
Normal is not what makes us rage
with anger or brood with melancholy .
what's Normal ?
Humbly, Normal is boring.

"We are all human, after all, and everybody 's
got something a little off somewhere. " Haruki Murakami

California Sunday

an Idyllic Sunday .
Unseasonably warm for a March weekend.
Outdoors , in the waning hours of the afternoon ,
the jibber of my son exploring the high school next door
makes for pleasant company . time seems to idle .
here's to many sundays to come .

A Race Car Called Lebanon .