Facebook Launch

And so it began…

Lair of the Nerd, , , ,

So, now the dust settles, the leaflets and business cards have been delivered, myriad forms have been filled out, sent off, sent back, and so on… Press releases have been released, things have been arranged… And the waiting… oh god so much waiting, and some of the waiting is not over with yet.

Yes, Lair of the Nerd v. 1.0a has been live for a little more than a week, and people have been sharing things, liking things… some people have even been ordering things which is awesome.  More information after the jump.

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Now someone make me an awesome brick hurling robot..

Science, ,

Boston Dynamics, who have a lot of US military and DARPA money invested in their work, frequently build awesome things that I want, like littledog:


(CUTE!)

Bigdog, and other robots being developed for troop support:

And even robots that move like real people and make Asimo look like a kid’s toy:

And now they’ve given bigdog a robot arm so it can hurl bricks, (bbc news) because Skynet will find all of these remarkably useful when the time comes…

So now I need them to build me an army, one worthy of the Nerd Lair.

To Business!

Lair of the Nerd, , , ,

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were proposing a toast..” – Ford Prefect.

So.. yeah; things have been quiet on the blog front for a while :oops: but that’s because fun and interesting and.. erm.. <_<  scary.. things have been happening.

To cut to the chase – I’ve decided to make Lair of the Nerd a business – it’s what I’m doing to try and make a living from now onwards.  O_O

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Scrabbling up a cliff

Self, thoughts, Writing, , , , ,

So, I’m still here, still out of work, still trying to Make Good Art* and keep myself alive

Working on writing things is becoming increasingly difficult, as my depression has caused motivation to be very hard to come by. I stare at a blank canvas and nothing seems to flow.

I am trying to continue to be positive, making little dumb animations – made from CG cardboard for a reason I can’t quite recall but hell, doing something stylistic is reason enough sometimes.  I’ve also tried putting my opinion out there a bit in a pixel-art inspired video too.

And yet, I feel like I’m falling at times, like I’m scrabbling up a cliff-face made of loose shale, cutting at my fingers and knees and only succeeding at slipping ever backwards.  I try to get people interested but it doesn’t seem to happen, engagement seems always to be so low; I feel disheartened.

There’s no positive twist to this blog post unfortunately; I can do nothing more than explain my feelings and thoughts and then I feel as though nothing more can be done. :sigh:

* thanks to Neil Gaiman for that one. :)

Pets and microchips

Art, funny, Lair of the Nerd, thoughts, , , , , , , ,

So, I made another Cardboard Theatre animation.  8)

If you like it, please like it on Youtube, go to http://facebook.com/lairofthenerd and like the link on there, and share it with your friends. :)

I admit, I am quite new to this whole social media promotion thing and am struggling to know how to get more people interested.  Any real meaningful word of mouth or “going viral” all seems very far from what I am capable of, and all the while is the ever-present doubt, and the feeling that I may be struggling in this area simply because I am actually just.. well, shit.  :sigh:

Oh, and for those who missed it, here’s the first Cardboard Theatre video:

Biographical

Lair of the Nerd, Self, thoughts

So, I spent a while making an autobiographical post for my IndieGoGo campaign, and decided the best form for it would be a video.

At first I considered a blog video style post of me looking straight at camera, but I was too worried about my appearance to do that, so I filmed my cat, and a few other things and threw a not-particularly-fantastic video together.

It’s brutally personal though.  I’m not normally this forthright about my depression because I worry so much of the time that people will view it as a weakness, but in the end I decided that the IndieGoGo thing is all about people believing in me, even if at times I don’t really feel that I’m worth believing in.

So.. now what?

thoughts, Writing, , , , , , ,

My fantasy novel, which is now renamed “The Harbinger Rises” – Book I of The Red Bargain has now been completed.  Or at least, the first draft has been. 116265 words including the glossary, which is about at the level I expected it / planned it to be.

So; now I need to get a printout so that the friend who’s agreed to do a readthrough can do so, and I need to go through it myself and edit it; I am n ot wholly sure what to look for and what to do but I suppose I can find guides online.  Part of me can’t help thinking to myself.. now what? :-S

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dishonored-corpse

Violence in Video Games

Computers, Gaming, thoughts, ,

There’s been a lot of talk in the wake of E3 about how very violent video games have become.  I want to talk about it in detail when I have more time, but below is a bit I wrote on the subject in order to spark off discussion a couple of years ago that I thought I’d post here.

Violence in video games.

Does it turn kids into mindless killers with a bloodthirsty thirst.. for.. er.. blood.. <_<  erm… whatever… or is it just that people who are already violent are attracted to violent things?

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