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Pink Floyd Edition Converse Shoes Selling Fast

Pink Floyd Edition Converse Shoes Selling Fast

We were contacted by Converse letting us know their special edition Pink Floyd shoes are selling fast. If you haven’t seen them, have a look at the pictures. They sell them in both the Lo-top and Hi-top versions. Our thanks to Converse for letting us know.

From Converse: “Pink Floyd’s inspired footwear designs are part of the Converse music collaborations for SP09. Available at the stand-alone Converse store – part of Size – in Carnaby Street as well as online; visit http://www.converse.com for further information on the entire Converse range including clothing and footwear.”

I started off this month charting my fertile symptoms and BBT. I was gooad at it for about a week and then insomnia hit me. From what I’ve read, to get an accurate BBT you need to take it after you’ve been laying down for at least 4 hours. Well that hasn’t happened since last Thursday night. Either the dogs constantly wake me up, P wakes me up or I just can’t sleep. So BBT charting went out the window. I’ve also had ZERO signs of ovulation and today is CD 13, so theoretically I should be having signs that it’s approaching if I’m actually gonna ovulate. So because of the lack of symptoms and no longer charting temps, I am not going to use OPKs this month. I cannot tell you how freeing it has been to not worry about POAS at all and just having fun sex

In keeping with the Thanksgiving season, here is a list of some of the things that I am thankful for this year :
1. My awesome, understanding husband who tolerates my crazy hormone induced mood swings. He is wonderful and I cannot imagine spending the rest of my life with anyone else.
2. My new Twitter and blog friends. It has been so wonderful to have people who completely understand IF and all the emotions that come with it. Seriously, y’all ROCK!
3. My IRL friends who have been such an awesome support system over the past months. LOVE YOU <3
4. My zoo of furbabies who snuggle me and lick away my tears.
5. My wonderful family and awesome in-laws <3
6. My job. I seriously love my job and the friends that I've made here. I will be sad to leave but I know that I have found lifelong friends here.
7. My health insurance that pays for the testing and drugs associated with IUI. (Hopefully it works the next time around and we don't have to worry abour funding IVF.)
8. My health. Other than PCOS and endometriosis I am healthy and happy.

There is way more to be thankful for but I am having blogger ADD right now thanks to the 2 cups of coffee I've had today. I'm sure I'll be adding to this list when I am more focused

so, how fun is it.
when you are sitting across
from your past.

and it’s even better than it was before.
i’m not trying to sound like a creeper,
i swear.

you see, last night
i had quesadillas with maureen.

aka Mo.

and Mo was my mentor reporter
at WCTV newschannel 6
in sweet tallahassee.

it was six(ish) years ago.
and i am convinced

that Mo taught me more about
communication
that i would’ve learned through a degree.

i mean,
i have always thought that we speak in stories.
that every time i talk,
i am embracing the opportunity to tell a story.

whether it’s a

new one fun one
old one true one
fabricated
sad or continued one.

it’s a story.
and it gets better
when others dialogue with you.

and i always thought like this.

but Mo
taught me the multi-layers and
varying mediums of storytelling.

she taught me through experience.
she let me pick the news story.

and taught me how to engage others
to give permits and interviews.

and how to tell the main story
with breakdown stories.

and to not speak in such
a minnie mouse voice.
while leaving the emotional puns out.

then to edit it together, to try
to best express the idea clearly.

and then
ohh la la wa lah.

we had a news piece for the 6oclock news.

and i looked forward to my news time with Mo.
because yes, she was successful and talented.
but even more, she encouraged herself to be a teacher.

and then
she bought a one-way ticket to
newyorkcity.

and then i graduated from college.
and then i moved to newyorkcity.

and a few months ago,
i was in sweet tallahassee.
and WCTV aired a new story about 100cameras.

and i said,
hey guys,
this is great. so good
to see you. but really,
where’s Mo at now.
i miss maureen.

and they said,
afb. she lives in the city.
you need to contact her.

and then a month later,
i was meeting with bill.

and bill is a social media extraordinaire.
and he gave me a tour of some studios.

and i said,
whoa. that machine is so WCTV tallahassee.

i mean, it looked like it was used in 1999. it was so analog.
[i'm a brat, i know. and they have since turned digital.]

and he said,
wait. did you just say WCTV tallahassee.

yes, bill. yes, i did.

and he told me
that he had just met with a woman yesterday.
and she was an affiliate of wctv.

maureen?

yes! angela, how do you know maureen!

and then we both raved about her intelligent and talented mind.

and then last night,
i had quesadillas with Mo.

and i have to tell you.
she is still impressive.

and i learned so much.
about how social mediums

can change and evolve.
but communication

will always be about storytelling
and finding your own voice to tell.
now,
it’s just allowed to sound more raw.

and hours went by.
while we brainstormed.
about
how we can tell stories for change.

and guess what. her production company
is on to something good.
for realsies.

check it, moped productions
uses quality social mediums

to mobilize missions.
of both nonprofits and forprofits.

and then ultimately
to bridge forprofit funding together
to provide pro-bono services
for nonprofits.

like i mentioned, both
intelligent and talented.
and unique. that’s Mo.

and i don’t know.

i just get all giddy
when the past full circles
itself around. into quesadillas
and thinktank teaching sessions.

and it’s even better than it was before.

–
so
if you’d like to meet Mo, too.
check out the moped blog.

exit sub: kullanıldığı yordamı (click, mouseover gibi) sonlandırır.

Dim a As Byte = Val(InputBox("0-5 arası sayı giriniz"))
If a > 5 Then
     MsgBox("5'ten buyuk sayı giremezsiniz")
     Exit Sub ' bu kullanım Button1_Click kod blogunu sonlandirir
End If
If a = 1 Then
     MsgBox("Girdiginiz sayi BIR")
ElseIf a = 2 Then
     MsgBox("Girdiginiz sayi IKI")
ElseIf a = 3 Then
     MsgBox("Girdiginiz sayi ÜÇ")
ElseIf a = 4 Then
     MsgBox("Girdiginiz sayi DORT")
ElseIf a = 5 Then
     MsgBox("Girdiginiz sayi BEŞ")
End If

bu ne yaa çok basit diyor olabilirsiniz ama unutmayın ki en karmaşık yapılar basit yapılardan oluşurlar.

a = val(TextBox1.Text)

If a Mod (2) = 0 Then
     MsgBox "girdiğiniz sayı çifttir"
End If
If a Mod (2) <> 0 Then
    MsgBox "girdiğiniz sayı tektir"
End If

ya da

a = val(TextBox1.Text)
If a Mod (2) = 0 Then
     MsgBox "girdiğiniz sayı çifttir"
else
    MsgBox "girdiğiniz sayı tektir"
End If

Sıfır, tek sayı mıdır yoksa çift sayı mıdır? (Göktürk Kutluhan)

Bu soruya cevap vermeden önce tek ve çift sayı kavramı üzerinde durmamız gerekiyor. Matematikte kavramlar söz konusu olduğunda tahmin edebileceğinizden daha fazla farklı fikirle karşılaşırsınız. Ancak bu tek ve çift sayı konusunda matematikçilerin büyük bir kesiminin ortak bir kararı olduğunu görebiliriz. Tanım şu şekilde yapılmıştır: İki ile bölündüğünde sıfır kalanını veren sayılara çift sayılar, bir kalanını veren sayılara da tek sayılar denir. Bu tanıma göre iki ile bölündüğünde sıfır kalanını veren sıfır sayısı bir çift sayıdır.

Dim a As Short
a = InputBox("bir sayi giriniz")
If a Mod 2 = 0 Then
     MsgBox("sayınız ÇİFT")
Else
     MsgBox("sayınız TEK")
End If

' farklı bir  kullanım
If a Mod 2 <> 0 Then
     MsgBox("sayınız TEK")
Else
     MsgBox("sayınız ÇİFT")
End If
' farklı bir kullanım
If Not (a Mod 2 = 0) Then
     MsgBox("sayınız TEK")
Else
     MsgBox("sayınız ÇİFT")
End If

basit bir örnek, girilen iki sayıyının büyüklük küçüklük karşılaştırmasını yapar. zate herşey basitten karmaşığa değil midir : )

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim a As Byte
Dim b As Byte
a = Val(TextBox1.Text)
b = Val(TextBox2.Text)
If a = b Then
    MsgBox("iki sayi esittir") 
End If
If a > b Then
   MsgBox("birinci say ikinciden byktr")
End If
If a < b Then
  MsgBox("ikinci say birinciden byktr")
End If

' ILERI SEVIYE: sayilardan birisi veya ikisi de girilmediyse uyari versin.
If a <> 0 And b <> 0 Then ' eger saylarn ikisi de girildiyse demektir
If a > b Then
     MsgBox("birinci sayi ikinciden buyuktur")
ElseIf a < b Then
     MsgBox("ikinci sayi birinciden buyukutr")
Else
     MsgBox("saylar esittir")
End If
Else
     MsgBox("en az 1 sayi girmediniz !!!")
End If
End Sub

Hi Ladies,

For those of you here from the ICLW, there are big cyber hugs here for you! I wish I could be like Oprah and buy everyone a car, or better yet, make your biggest hope come true. I bet if we all put our hopes into the universe, someone will hear us…

When I started this blog. I felt a little like the elephant  from “Horton Hears a Who”, listening closely to that little dustball of mine and wondering if there was life within it. Wondering if anyone would believe or care about my story. Then I met others. Others with similar hopes and dreams, and together we proclaimed “We are here! We are here!”

I have said before that there is strength in numbers. I believe that there is healing and power there too….

I started RubyFeather Social Club in Boston because I wanted to break through that fourth wall of isolation and anonymity  that IF brings,and proclaim “WE are here, and we matter.” I have realized through this group, that women have a wellspring of wisdom and strength, and sometimes that strength grows exponentially when we are together. (If you are in New England, we welcome you to RubyFeather. If you are not, you can join us on facebook…)

We all have different stories, and I treasure reading as many as I can find. Please leave a comment so I can find you in the blogosphere…

No mater what your journey, I wish you the greatest success, happiness and love!

Shell

what if i say yes and you say yes then i change to say no but then you still say yes?
then i say yes but you say no then you turn to yes but i change back to no?
what if i never say yes when you say yes and i say yes when you say no or i say no when you always say yes?

let us stay in the past.
and let the past belong to the past.

we need to move on, yes?

Janet did a great job. I see nothing wrong with the way she perfomed. *Why do ppl want her to still be 25?* and dance like she still that age? But anywho here are the titles of the songs she did in her performance:

Control
What Have You Done For my Lately
Miss you Much
If
Make Me *Her new single*
Together Again

“You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?” said he.

“Never.”

“Aye, there’s the genius and the wonder of the thing!” he cried. “The man pervades London, and no one has heard of him. That’s what puts him on a pinnacle in the records of crime.”

Of course, it’s not true that no one has heard of Brian Moriarty — this sort of slipped under the radar as far as I can tell, but Moriarty recently appeared at a M*U*S*H event and gave a little /rant on the state of text games.

Andrew Plotkin, Jota (I’m assuming Admiral Jota of Lost Pig), and Emily Short (again an assumption but I think the Emily in the transcript is the same) were there too — it’s an interesting read all around.

The log is typical of mush transcripts so I’ve liberally edited the thing into a more readable presentation — however keep in mind you lose out by not taking in the transcript in its unadulterated form.

Also note that this is an IF-heavy conversation taking place on a mush, with about equal representation from the IF and mush sides — so sometimes people are talking past each other with respect to what text games mean to them.

By the way, there’s a surprise appearance halfway through the log that I’m not including in my transcript — so check out the link above.

My edited transcript after the cut:

zarf takes a seat in the Right Front Row.
Moriarty looks around the lecture hall.
Jota takes a seat in the Right Front Row.
Emily takes a seat in the Left Front Row.

Moriarty has arrived.
Moriarty peers out over the hall to study the attendees.
Moriarty shuffles his notes importantly.
Moriarty pokes curiously at the holographic projector. “Don’t have these where I teach …”

AnneLions says, “It’s just like an overhead projector! Only… holographic.”

Zebranky has arrived.
Zebranky says, “Welcome, everyone, to the eighth(?) annual(?) Innovations and NEw Directions in Text-Based Gaming Conference! Or ITBG.”

Nämmyung applauds!
Orange_Guest applaud
Chaz claps his hands!
tramp applauds.

Zebranky says, “Our first speaker this afternoon is Professor Brian Moriarty, of such renowned titles as… well, you can read the announcement I made yourself. And with that I’ll give him the mic. Please give him a warm welcome!”

tramp applauds.
jaybird woot!@
zarf claps
Nämmyung applauds!
AnneLions applauds and stuff.
ToadyOne cheers!
Purple_Guest applauds

Moriarty steps up to the microphone, which (he notes with some
disappointment) is NOT holographic.
tramp chuckles.
AnneLions snickers.

Moriarty says, “Thanks for the introduction, Zebranky. To begin with, I invite you all to take a look at the emote I typed a moment ago. No graphics game in the world I am aware of is capable of expressing disappointment. But here, I was able to do it easily. In 16 bytes, without a schedule or a budget. I suppose I’m preaching to the choir when I say this, but despite 20+ years of development, graphics games STILL have not even begun to approach the expressive power, subtlety and suppleness of text.”

AnneLions says, “Hear, hear.”
jaybird says, “Yeh”

Moriarty says, “Yet, it’s also obvious that these unique qualities of interactive text are not particularly valued. I was recently appointed to the position of Professor of Practice in Game Design at Worcester Polytech. This has two happy results. First, I am now truly and actually PROFESSOR Moriarty.

“Second, I am now in a position to teach students about the wonderful properties of text-based gaming.”

Orange_Guest laughs
AnneLions says, “Hooray!”
tramp applauds.
jaybird says, “Yay for text games!”

Moriarty says, “Yes, strangely, and perhaps sadly, I find myself reluctant to do so. The reason for my reluctance is simple. If I show an 18-year-old aspiring game designer a modern text game, they will simply wrinkle their nose at it. This not so much because they have to READ or TYPE to use it (although some might not be particularly excited about that). It’s simply because the actual screen appearance of modern text games is so GOD DAMNED UGLY!

“The interface I am using to address you today looks essentially identical to the interface I was using to play GEMSTONE back in 1987! I simply don’t understand why the visual appearance of text games has not evolved in the past 25 years.”

“Aside from a few IF systems capable of presenting UGLY screens that look like HTML circa 1995, text games seem to be stuck at around 1986, the year I completed my game Trinity. There is exactly ONE interpreter, Gargoyle, that even BEGINS to address the issues involved in making interactive digital typography attractive. And even Gargoyle is basically designed to mimic the DEC VT-100 terminals used by the Infocom implementors to write Zork!

“Text games enthusiasts seem curiously unconcerned about this issue. I believe that, for this excellent medium to attract new reader/players and writers, the community needs to take a long, hard look at basic presentation issues, and find ways to make these things more appealing to look at.

“Another long, hard look is needed at the natural language interface (which, to save time, I’ll call the “parser”). Despite 20+ years of hardware evolution, the parsers found in contemporary text games are essentially no different in expressive power than the one I used to write Beyond Zork. This is simply inexcusable. An average desktop machine is capable of much, MUCH more than the glorified toys we were writing for back then. But contemporary games don’t exploit this massive power at all.

“This is partly the fault of what I call Z-Code Nostalgia. Z-Code Nostalgia is a wasting disease which originated in England. It has hampered the development of IF by locking writers down to a technology standard which was cutting-edge in 1990, and laughable in 2009.

“Did I write 1990? Excuse me. I meant 1980.

“I know that better virtual machines have been implemented since then (GLULX, for instance). But these standards aren’t yet fully supported by the most popular development systems yet. And even if they WERE supported, the standard libraries of the popular dev systems aspire to no more than Beyond Zork-level parsing ability.

“I remember going to a trade show to exhibit Beyond Zork back in fall of 1987. The story was always the same. Some curious retail executive would sit down in front of a computer loaded with BZ. I would explain that you typed ‘real English sentences’ to interact. They would nod, turn to the keyboard and type WHERE AM I? End of demo.”

Zebranky grins.

Moriarty says, “Now, I know some modern games attempt to handle these embarrassments by sensing common ‘mistakes’ like this and nudging the player towards simple imperative sentences. But THAT is exactly the problem! Typing WHERE AM I is NOT a mistake!!! Why can’t my 3 GHz Core 2 Quad, with hundreds of times as much processing power as the DECSystem-20 mainframe I used to create Trinity, understand and ACT on a simple sentence like WHERE AM I? It’s a scandal, pure and simple.”

“The standards for natural language parsing in IF are laughably, pathetically low. I find it a supreme irony that Inform 7, the most popular IF dev system, is capable of being programmed (in a limited way) using natural language … to create games that are utterly incapable of doing so!”

Moriarty turns his flame off.

zarf brushes ash off his smoking jacket

Moriarty says, “These are the two main challenges for the IF community, as I see it. First, to design a user interface (or better, a whole suite of interfaces) that take advantage of the extremely high resolution and color depth of modern displays to create text games that are BEAUTIFUL … that is, attractive to look at and easy to interact with. The utilitarian thing is NOT working.

“And second, to get up to speed with the enormous advances that have been made in natural language processing, and harness the raw speed and massive storage of modern PCs to ACTUALLY fulfill the promise of typing in real English sentences”.”

Moriarty says, “I should leave time for some questions. Anyone?”

Taladan raises a hand with more of a comment than a question.
Taladan says, “What you’re talking about is a paradigm shift in the way text based games are approached. I think this is awesome, however, we’re talking about a group of people (currently) who have projects (like TinyFugue) thatare developed by one or a select few people that tend to show no interest in ‘keeping up with the jonses’ as far as Graphical games are concerned. Unicode is one example, the language parser is another…how do you see your vision for the future of TBG’s meshing together with the established models of text based gaming out there? Or are we talking about a need for a generational shift in thought instead of personal shifts?”

Moriarty says, “I don’t think this community should be trying to ‘keep up with the Joneses’. You can’t … and you don’t have to. As simple a technology as Adobe Flash is more than capable of creating beautiful animated text displays with full kerning and antialiasing, on every significant platform (except iPhone).

“What’s needed, I think, is an ORGANIZED effort to unite all the people making different clients. Failing that, a single visionary could do the trick. This is NOT that difficult, technically. It’s more of an AESTHETIC challenge now.”

Nämmyung says, “Regarding the parser, what would some example of syntactic complexity that games should be going for?”

Moriarty says, “What you use is important. The development tools must be able to express the new aesthetics. And that is really the issue. The current dev systems are only able to express a limited range of nostalgic aesthetic choices.”

Taladan nods, “As an addendum to my question, if I may: I see what you mean, but too, you do have a lot of folks who are invested in the clients/scripts/whatnot that they use…that personal investment in useage lends to them perpetuating the use of that client because, well, that’s what they know, no?

Moriarty says, “Certainly. Plenty of chickens and eggs to go around here. “

Moriarty says, “Anyway, it’s past my hour. Thank you all for listening. Hope I didn’t offend anyone. Despite my remarks, there is some truly heroic work going on in the IF field. I simply fear that much of it will be for naught if beauty and power aren’t added to the equation soon.”

Moriarty says, “Thank you all very much.”

AnneLions says, “I’d like to note that I’ve been hearing the mantra ‘text-based gaming must change’ for the past 10 years (how long I’ve been on MU*). In that time, I’ve yet to see any really decent suggestions/ideas on exactly how to go about that. I’ve seen Pueblo, which was a nice idea but seemed to have been implemented poorly. I’ve seen FANSI, which is pretty, but doesn’t work across all platforms (yet). Unicode would be nice, yes.. But what else is there to change about text-based gaming? If you start to get away from the current (telnet) technology, you start to lose the ‘text based’ aspect. You’ll also lose a subset of players; the blind. I’ve met a significant number of blind people who use text-based games as essentially the only games they _can_ play. This counts MU* more than IF, which is a different ballgame altogether. On a related note, a book of today is would be recognizable and is essentially the same as a book printed 400 years ago. Parser aside, text is text, so I’m not sure what else COULD be changed. In other words, after hearing this sort of thing for a decade, I want to see a mockup that /works/ and doesn’t alienate the current playerbase.”

Moriarty says, “AnneLions, you are exactly correct. What is needed is an EXAMPLE that makes it obvious what COULD be done. One really compelling example will do more than any number of years of griping.”

jaybird says, “Yeah… I was just going to say, as a blind person, text-based games are really valuable to me. Visual flash is nice, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of blind people being able to play.”

Jota says, “Are you presently working on such an example?”

Moriarty says, “Jaybord, there’s more than enough power available to fully accomodate the needs of both sighted and non-sighted people. The truth is, NEITHER group is being particularly well served by current technology or aesthetics. Jota, the answer is: Try and stop me. “

Emily says, “There are some fairly strong reasons not to give the player full natural language (and not to pretend you are doing so: ‘just type English sentences’ is effectively a lie). I think Facade is a decent example of why not to do that. Leaving the lid off what you can express to the computer means it’s much harder for the player to understand his range of effective actions in the game world.

“It’s easy enough to make WHERE AM I produce a room description(and in fact various games do do that). It’s much harder to cope with the expectations raised that way”

Nämmyung says, “Well, the underlying point seems to be that games need to be more ambitious / capable in handling a wider range of player interactions, rather than just dropping in a fancier parser while keeping the same restricted set of choices in what they can do.”

Moriarty says, “Obviously, if we make the parser understand more, we will need to find a way to accomodate the potential content explosion. But raw power can help us here, too. Look at chatbots, for instance. Some marvelous work being done there … none of which has made its way into IF, as far as I can see.”

Emily says, “People have experimented with chatbot assimilation to IF”

jaybird says, “Also, I don’t really see the Z-machine going anywhere soon, limited though it is. It’s probably the most widely available IF VM.”

AnneLions notes that chatbots can be /very/ tedious to program.

Emily says, “The problem is that they don’t really deal with the problem of agency” If the player can type anything and everything he wants and the results are handled mysteriously, it’s much harder to understand what effect he’s having”

Moriarty says, “I’m not suggesting that chatbots are the solution, of course. But they ARE an example of using raw processing power to solve a problem that would have been impossible to address in 1980-class PCs.”

Emily says, “Oh, sure: but I think it’s naive to invoke raw power and assume that that’s going to solve what’s essentially a game design problem as well as
a programming problem. Facade had buckets of power, it accepts all input, and it’s deeply unsatisfying because it’s not clear how you’re steering the thing.”

Nämmyung says, “Galatea, on the other hand, did a pretty darn good job at handling unexpected / ‘lateral’ player interaction using z-code.”

Emily says, “(many people would disagree about that, but thanks.)”

Moriarty says, “Emily: I violently agree. Simply increasing the range of inputs that can be understood does not solve the MUCH bigger problem of doing something meaningful and entertaining with those inputs.”

Emily says, “I see a limited application for what you’re asking for, in the sense that broadening acceptance of basic questions, etc., does seem to improve player experience, and people like Aaron Reed have done some tests with novice audiences on this and produced better libraries for input handling.

“Even beyond the massive programming problem of “how do I handle all these inputs” however, there’s the game design problem of how the player should know what to type. ‘Type anything’ is a TERRIBLE kind of game guidance. It’s confusing and boring. The parser feedback informs the player about what’s possible and reasonable in the world. And sometimes, admittedly, that’s done badly, but I think it is in fact a needed aspect of any text-input game, not a flaw.”

Moriarty says, “Let me suggest that actually LIMITING the player’s inputs in some novel way might be a fruitful avenue? In playing some recent works, especially those by Aaron, I sometimes felt I was using the wrong technology — they felt more like hypertext novels.”

Emily says, “Now I’m confused about what you’re advocating.”

Moriarty says, “Emily: We agree again. The problem, for the NON-SAVVY player, is that the input line itself STRONGLY SUGGESTS that anything can be typed, leading to frustration and disillusionment when the fraud is discovered. Is there some other technique that would not feel too limiting?”

zarf says, “Limiting as in not using a text parser, or only accepting one-word inputs, or only accepting words highlighted in blue… ?”

Emily says, “My approach lately has been to try to teach the command possibilities more explicitly.”

Moriarty says, “Zarf: Those are old techniques. Is there something BETTER than all this power we have makes possible?”

zarf says, “I don’t know.”

Jota says, “What do you feel would be better?”

zarf says, “But my basic view is that the old-fashioned IF input line *is* a limiting input mode, and its flaw is not how it works, but making the limitations apparent to the player in a smooth and playable way. If that’s what you’re saying, then the lack of power *isn’t* the problem, because the limits are a feature.”

Gunther says, “hmm, auto-complete of commands?”

tramp says, “auto-complete of commands would be interesting to try, but I already hate that on my cellphone.”

Emily says, “ADRIFT does auto-complete and it generally drives me up a wall.”

Gunther says, “The problem is, if you want to make the parser *seem* to accept anything, you can just program it to reply to “frooble snooblewitz” with “You frooble the snooblewitz!” etc., but that’s not meaningful, and in fact makes it *worse* to find out what *does* do something”

Taladan says, “Unless you’re talking about something like bash’s tab-completion.”

Nämmyung says, “a part of it also probably depends on the writing. If the player can get a sense of clear choices on what he should be doing at a given point in the game, then the parser probably becomes less of an issue.”

Taladan says, “If you let the player have a choice on whether to complete or not, I could live with that.”

Gunther says, “Taladan, I mean it as a help for novices, to see what kinds of commands are available. So, strictly optional, yes.”

Moriarty says, “Zarf: Here I must complain. We ALREADY KNOW that players can be ‘trained’ to speak in 1980-era Infocomese using a text input field. I’m just afraid that the community has settled into a false sense that this is sufficient.”

zarf says, “I think we have some awareness of the problem.

“(Managing community effort is a different problem and I think it would be distracting to get into it here)”

Moriarty says, “The tools available are confining us horribly. Have you seen some of the beautiful animated poems that people are making with Flash? I simply think the community needs access to much broader range of aesthetic possibilities.”

tramp says, “we want the interface to not be an impediment to the potential fullness of the experience.”

Gunther says, “Anyone can write text. Not anyone can make graphics, music, and animation.”

Emily says, “I think there are some ways to add to player expressiveness, but they’re a bit orthogonal to what you’ve been saying so far. One is to add better handling for non-physical commands (such as conversation); another is to do better with sort of broad commands that entail many actions, like CHECK INTO HOTEL or similar. And those things are in fact a lot easier to handle now than they were a few years ago, I would say (though obviously I have a lot of bias in the game)”

Gunther says, “IF also isn’t an animated poem, because you can interact with it in a hopefully meaningful fashion.”

Jota says, “Wouldn’t something that took its inspiration from Flash animated poems be a completely different field? As in, wouldn’t this not really be the thing that current IF authors are interested in authoring?”

Moriarty says, “AnneLions: I teach my students with Flash. Believe me, I am depressingly aware of its limitations. “

Moriarty says, “Jota: Well, if authors are content simply writing games for each other, which are never seen by a larger audience, they can simply go on doing what they’re doing. But I recall a pleasant time when people could actually GET PAID to write text games. I would love for that time to return.”

zarf says, “Man, I never thought about that!”

Moriarty says, “Anyway, I seemed to have stirred the pot a bit. This, as a Professor, warms my cockles. . Thank you all again. And please remember, it’s not my intent to offend anyone, or denegrate any of the wonderful (and in some cases AMAZING) work that has been done in the past decades to keep text games alive.”

Emily says, “I’m not exactly offended, but I think you’re underestimating the amount of discussion there has already been on a lot of these topics, and in particular on what the parser is useful for, and how. The current state of the discipline isn’t the result of complacency, exactly.

“On the presentation side, my own experience suggests that a moderately attractive and reliable browser-based interpreter does more than anything else to attract new players, and one of the things we’re working on with I7 is a way to publish with a playable website with attractive stylesheets”

Moriarty says, “Emily: I’m a daily lurker on RAIF, and I’ve followed it all with keen interest. Your contributions in particular, which are often in the AMAZING category I noted earlier. ”

Nämmyung says, “Regarding many of these issues, let me just pose another question: how much difference would it make if we introduced more player interaction in the form of more players? Is there room in IF for side-by-side reading / acting?”

Zebranky says, “Co-op, effectively, Nammyung?”

Emily says, “There’s Floyd, which allows people to play a game with one PC but talk about it as they go; there’s also Guncho, which is designed for multiplayer IF. But that hasn’t seen a lot of development yet. Guncho is a bit like a mud but programmable in Inform 7″

Moriarty says, “Nammyung: Adding more players is the heavy magic, of course. Here’s another irony: Most of the top roleplaying sims in Second Life allow ONLY text chat. Voice chat is disabled. ”

Nämmyung nods, “yeah, most MMOs are really just text games in disguise, but rather than the hack+slash we get in many muds, what other kinds of gameplay could we get? Just co-op roleplaying is not quite the kind of crafted narrative fiction we can get in IF. In my ideal world it could be something that feels like IF for each player, but in whole looks like a boardgame.”

zarf says, “Yeah. True multi-player IF, whether on Guncho or a MUD platform, is barely explored. It’s one of the things I’d like to work on if I had three more lives”

Emily says, “I have a half-finished Guncho project I keep meaning to get back to, but it’s buried under a heap of conversation system work”

Moriarty says, “Did any of you know that there was a project inside Infocom to create a commercial multi-user Zork?”

zarf says, “I don’t think so. I imagine it went less smoothly than Cyan’s effort to make a commercial multi-user Myst. (A disaster that I watched from close-up.)”

Moriarty says, “It died when Activision closed its jaws. But it was actually working in prototype.

“Wow, it’s fun to talk about text games with a group of people that really cares! I wish RAIF had a better signal-to-noise ratio.”

Emily says, “Heh, I was worried I was coming off as defensive. RAIF is pretty bad these days, unfortunately. A lot of the theory discussion has moved off onto blogs and Planet-IF”

Moriarty says, “Emily: Naw. You know what this communitu needs? A real meatspace conference. Zarf, can’t you get MIT to sponsor something? “

Emily says, “There’s been some discussion of having a bunch of IFfers get together at Boston PAX, but I don’t know if that will come off”

Moriarty says, “Hey, a PAX meetup could work. I’ll bring a bottle of Scotch. “

zarf says, “I am totally in for Boston PAX IF activity. Also, may I interject an ad for the Boston monthly IF meetup. It’s a small bunch, but we have ambitions”

Moriarty says, “I kind of need to go, myself. My email is [obfuscated - ed.] by the way, if anyone wants to contact me. I’d be very keen to know if a meetup actually gets scheduled for PAX.”

Zebranky says, “Thanks again for coming!”
AnneLions waves.
Sketch claps, cheers.
zarf says, “Thanks for speaking”
Nämmyung says, “Thanks for the presentation! It was a lot of fun, and it certainly gave much to discuss.”

Moriarty says, “Zarf: I’ll try to come sometime, if my schedule permits. It sounds wonderful.”
tramp applauds.
Emily says, “Thanks”
Chaz applauds! ^^

Moriarty waves to the audience. For a moment, you see him as a sinister old man in an Edwardian longcoat. Then the vision fades, and he is gone.
Moriarty has disconnected.

bu yapıda şart doğru olduğunda ve yanlış olduğunda yapılacaklar verilir.

If şart Then

             Komutlar 1

Else

             Komutlar 2

End If

Yukarıdaki kod parçasında şartın gerçekleşmesi durumunda yani şart doğru (true) ise Then deyiminden sonraki komutlar1 ifadesindeki komutlar çalışır. Eğer şart yanlış (false) ise Else deyiminden sonraki komutlar2 ifadesindeki komutlar çalışır.

DERS NOTU İÇİN tıklayınız.

DERS ÖRNEKLERİ İÇİN tıklayınız

şart doğru ise birden fazla satır yazacak isek bu yapıyı kullanırız

IF şart THEN

    ifade1
    ifade2
    ifade3
   ………….

END IF

ÖRNEK: dışardan girilen sayı 5 ise 5 girdiniz yazan birden fazla satırlı karar yapısı

Dim a As Byte = Microsoft.VisualBasic.InputBox("bir sayı giriniz")
If a = 5 Then
   MsgBox("5 girdiniz")
   MsgBox("true alanındayım")
   MsgBox("ben de true alanındayım")
End If
If  a = 5 Then MsgBox("5 girdiniz")
If a <> 5 Then MsgBox("5 girmediniz")
If a = 5 Then MsgBox("5 girdiniz") : MsgBox("ture alanındaym") : MsgBox("ben de true alanındaym")

‘ yukaridaki msgboxlardan birini altsatira atsaydik end if kullanmak zorunda kalirdik

Bu yapıda Eğer şart yanlış (false) ise şartımıza bağlı komutlar çalıştırılmadan program akışına devam eder.

*** If yapılarını iç içe de kullanabilirsiniz. Bir şart gerçekleştiğinde ya da gerçekleşmediğinde bir başka şart daha arayabiliriz. Aşağıdaki örnek kullanım şekillerinde iç içe If yapıları verilmiştir.

If şart Then
              Komutlar
              If şart Then       
                            Komutlar
              End If 
End If 

DERS NOTU İÇİN tıklayınız

DERS ÖRNEKLERİ İÇİN tıklayınız

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Continuing the theme from yesterday’s post about the fantastic community I’ve discovered online, over the next week I’m participating in November’s ICLW (International Comment Leaving Week).  This is a great opportunity to find some new blogs, and get some new readers as well!  I’m so excited to meet some new people and hear about their IF journeys…so in honor of ICLW, a quick recap of me and my blog!

My husband (S) and I got married in June of 2004 and threw out the BCPs in March of 2006.  I had never had a regular period and suspected that we would have problems getting pregnant, so we started “trying” sooner than we might have.  Good thing we did!  After six months with no period, I got tested and was diagnosed with PCOS.  The next step was Metformin, for several months, followed by Clomid, but still no period or ovulation. 

In September of 2007, I started seeing an RE, who re-did some tests and two cycles of Clomid (ovulation, but long, un-trackable cycles), and then took us through two cycles of IVF (in February and June 2008).  The first cycle produced 16 eggs, but only one mature embryo, and was a BFN.  The second cycle had similar results, but I had some complications after ER (internal bleeding and OHSS), so we had to freeze our one embie.  In November of 2008, we did an FET, which unfortunately was another BFN. 

At that point, we had lost our insurance benefits, and decided to try to regulate my cycle “naturally” for a while.  So for nine months, I did acupuncture, dieted (no dairy or sugar), took vitamins and herbs, etc.  In all that time, I had one spontaneous ovulation, but no luck.  I recently started seeing a new RE (the IVF director at Mass General Hospital in Boston) and have started back up with Metformin, in preparation for IVF cycle #3 in January.  I’m SO hopeful that this January will be the end of my story!!

So anyways, that’s me – thanks for visiting!

“Live as if your going to die to tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever”

Gandhi

Waters Says He’ll Perform if Israel Tears Down Wall

Waters Says He’ll Perform if Israel Tears Down Wall

Pink Floyd’s former frontman Roger Waters said Tuesday he’ll take to the stage the minute Israel tears down its West Bank separation wall, just as he did in Berlin two decades ago when another wall came down.

Visiting a Palestinian refugee camp in the shadows of the towering concrete structure, the British rocker who co-wrote the iconic 1970s album “The Wall” said he hopes “this awful thing is destroyed soon.”

Waters, 65, said the West Bank wall has been on his mind since he first saw it up close in what he described as an eye-opening visit in 2006, following a concert in Israel.

“People who haven’t actually seen this, what’s going on here, can’t actually imagine the impression that it has on you, the sick, kind of churning feeling that you get in your very heart when you see this, how depressing it is,” Waters told The Associated Press in an interview.

Water’s comments didn’t sit very well with Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, who, quoting The Wall’s most famous lyric, said “we don’t need no education” from Waters.

Israel began building the barrier — a concrete wall in urban areas and fence with sensors and barbed wire along rural stretches — in 2002 following Palestinian bombings and shooting attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel insists it’s a temporary security measure.

Palestinians says it’s a land grab because, once the final third is built, it will slice off 10 percent of the West Bank, part of the lands they want for their state.

The stretch of barrier between Jerusalem and the biblical West Bank town of Bethlehem consists of graffiti-covered gray slabs, with army watchtowers rising up at intervals. At an Israeli-run wall crossing, large crowds of Palestinians wait in long lines, particularly during morning rush hour, to reach jobs in Israel.

On the northern outskirts of Bethlehem, the Aida refugee camp, home to about 5,000 Palestinians, abuts the wall. Palestinian officials often escort foreign dignitaries to the camp — among them Pope Benedict XVI during his Holy Land pilgrimage last month — to illustrate the disruption of daily life by the barrier.

Waters dismissed Israel’s security argument, saying he believes the wall “is not here to stop Israelis being blown up on buses.” He said if that was the sole reason, “what’s it doing in the occupied territories, surrounding settlements and cutting (Palestinian) farmers off from their olive trees and so on and so forth?”

“This is an exercise of colonialism,” said Waters.

Regev said the barrier has sharply reduced Palestinian attacks, which have killed hundreds of Israelis since the outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000.

“We don’t need no education about suicide bombers coming into Israel and murdering innocent people, and how the security barrier has prevented that by more than 95 percent.”

But Waters said he believes the barrier is indefensible.

“When you stand in front of an edifice like this, whether it’s here or outside a township in South Africa, or in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War, or in Berlin in the 60s and 70s, it’s something you know instinctively that this is wrong. It’s a bad thing,” he said. “It cannot survive forever.”

If it does come down one day, he said, he’ll perform at the site, just like he did in 1990, at a spot where the Berlin Wall had fallen just a year earlier. “In fact, I would insist on it,” he said.

In the meantime, he’s considering performing elsewhere in the West Bank, perhaps in the town of Ramallah, but has not made firm plans. On Monday, Waters visited a refugee camp in the northern town of Jenin to support efforts to reopen a local movie house that closed in 1987.

When he played in Israel in 2006, he was criticized by Palestinian activists trying to organize a cultural boycott of Israel. Waters said he now feels ambivalent about having performed in Israel.

Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, ruled out a reunion with his former band mates; their last joint performance was in 2005, for a Live 8 concert. “We had a great career as Pink Floyd. We all enjoyed it. We all worked together and enjoyed everything and it was brilliant. I think it’s over,” he said.

Air drums!

image courtesy bamkapow.com

The Hulk (or an individual with Hulk-like power) was a black man? What if this man existed during slavery? Could you imagine the havoc? The delicious destruction? How would this affect America?

by ChiefJimbolaya:

©2009 Aaron Klein:

It only took 24 hours for Activision to sell 4.7 million copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in North America and the United Kingdom. The video game publisher estimated first-day sales in excess of $310 million. That is a little more than $215,000 per minute, or $3,529 per second.

So Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 made a lot of money, but is it any fun to play? Yes, it is a lot of fun to play, if you play online. It will keep you up into the wee hours of the morning. It will have you daydreaming at work. It will strain your relationships.

• Modern Warfare 2 Vid 2

Infinity Ward built on the success of 2007’s widely acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, considered one of the best multiplayer games ever.

It sold 14 million copies, won more than 50 game of the year awards and has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Played Online Video Game in history.

Players earn experience points for performance in multiplayer matches. As you level up, you unlock new guns, perks and equipment. Your arsenal can be further customized to match your style of play through attachments such as a heartbeat sensor or thermal scope.

There are a number of enhancements to multiplayer in Modern Warfare 2. Most notably there are more than a dozen killstreak rewards, which you can customize. New rewards include powerful predator missile strikes, a sentry gun, a Harrier Jet airstrike and even a tactical nuke (which kills everybody and gives your team the instant win).

On the flipside, deathstreaks will give players respite after being killed several times in a row. One of the more helpful is the Copycat perk, which allows you to steal the weapon outfit of your killer.

New equipment includes a riot shield that can be used to soak up bullets in diversions, throwing knives for stealth kills and tactical insertion smoke grenades that allow snipers to create their next spawn point.

Certain perks that were considered cheap, such as Last Stand and Martyrdom, aren’t unlocked until higher levels. Perks can now level up with use to provide additional benefit. The level cap, too, has been increased to 70.

Players can also further tailor their characters by unlocking call signs that identify a player onscreen with a picture and a nickname. Call signs are distributed based on how you play the game.

Infinity Ward also added an entirely new, cooperative mode called Special Ops. These are a collection of missions that include new missions and highlights from the single player game and even missions based on Call of Duty 4. Between these two online modes, expect to spend dozens if not hundreds of hours with this game.

If your system is hooked up to the Internet, Modern Warfare 2 is one of the best values in gaming.

November 10th was the busiest day in the history of Xbox Live. More than 2 million players logged on that day, undoubtedly many of whom were playing Modern Warfare 2.Many gamers who stood in line for midnight launches in Omaha relayed plans to stay home from work or school and dedicate an entire day to playing online.

Microsoft took advantage of the fervor by simultaneously banning from Xbox Live hundreds of thousands of users who had consoles modded to play pirated games.

Microsoft has not released official numbers, but estimates have ranged from 600,000 to 1 million banned accounts.

Without doubt, the company was hoping to send pirates to retailers to purchase new consoles so they wouldn’t miss out on the biggest video game release this decade.

The story-driven campaign mode is not nearly as refined as multiplayer. But since multiplayer sells this particular game, Infinity Ward decided to take larger gambles in campaign mode, evident in the level called, “No Russian.”

In that level the player assumes the role of a deep-cover CIA agent. Your character infiltrates a Russian terrorist group and participates in the brutal slaughter of civilians in a Moscow airport.

There is an option to skip this level, presented at the beginning of the game. But that it can be so easily skipped by the squeamish betrays the fact that its true purpose is to shock and generate controversy.

If you don’t skip the level, you are forced to walk through the airport watching the your terrorist comrades spray bullets into frantic civilians and inept security guards. While you don’t have to participate in the massacre, you can’t prevent it.

The level elicits grotesque feelings and immediate comparisons to tragedies like Virginia Tech and Westroads Mall. Anybody who lost a loved one in a mindless act of violence will surely be sickened and emotionally distraught by seeing the “No Russians” level.

The first-person viewpoint increases the shock factor. But while Infinity Ward could be condemned for being insensitive to victims of mass shootings and their families, it could also be commended for brave experimentation by forcing players into uncomfortable situations.

All great art must elicit an emotional response in the viewer, and the “No Russian” level does accomplish that. But it does so with the brutality of a jackhammer and visceral images compared to thoughtful nuance and introspection of higher art.

And while the presentation is alarming, the act is not entirely gratuitous. The airport massacre is a lynchpin in the plot, providing the Russians a motive for retaliation. Unfortunately, the rest of the plot is so discombobulated it minimizes any message Infinity Ward might have been trying to communicate.

• Modern Warfare 2 Vid 3

None of the characters has anything that might be mistaken for a personality. Their motives are cloudy and irrational. Unless it is directly portrayed on screen, the larger plot is vaguely described and difficult to follow.

Video games as a medium are still discovering their narrative strengths. Movies are strictly passive experiences allowing for strict directorial control over presentation, but novels can sometimes deliver richer experiences by relying on the reader’s imagination.

Video games, on the other hand, are interactive, meaning that players can project their own motives on the character and effect changes in the narrative landscape. The games that are the most successful at spinning engaging stories are those that experiment with interactive aspects.

With the “No Russian” level, Infinity Ward is experimenting and pushing the boundaries of interactive storytelling. The attempt sadly fails because the effort is fleeting as chaotic action and a “shoot everything” mentality supplants plot in importance as the game progresses.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a brilliant multiplayer game that will reign supreme through 2010 and beyond. The addition of Special Ops cooperative mode offers new challenges for online play. But the single player mode is short and squanders opportunities for relevant commentary on war and conflict through muddied storytelling.

©2009 Aaron Klein:

Note: Aaron Klein is a U.S.-based freelance video game writer. Read more of his reviews at cornfedgamer.com.

• Average press score according to TestFreaks: 9.3/10

“8.5/10

• Other games in genre at discount $’s for ALL OXCGN readers + Bonus Points

9/10

Well, here we are on the second of my blogs.  As I was eating my Munchibix and drinking my Lady Grey tea (and fighting off the cat’s depredations on the milk in the cereal bowl), I was hit over the head by a number of completely unoriginal thoughts:  having now lost my BlogVirginity, what now?  Can BV be restored?  After some consideration the answer has to be ‘No.’  Excuse me while I dispose of the recalcitrant cat who has now wiped her milk-covered whiskers on my black jeans.

Am back.  The cat is banished to the nether regions of the house – which is variously known as The House of Usher/Bates Motel c/w emaciated figure in rocking chair in the upper front window.  However, I digress (it happens, bear with me.)  Now – being a BlogNewbie rather than a BlogVirgin, the question is how to proceed without boring the brains out of any passing readers’ heads.  Questions, schmestions!  I think – and this is in keeping with my typical Gemini persona – that some blogs may be written as this and the previous one (as me, myself, I) and others may be *cue hysterical laughter from those who know better* under the guise of a late 18C/early 19C lady.  Cod ‘Georgian’ spellings, vocabulary etc – what japes!  But that is for another day.

One big highlight is that today and tomorrow sees the end of a decorating project which has transformed my living room from shabby chic to not quite so shabby chic (though the furniture is the same).  Funky magnolia walls, white ceiling, paintwork and covings, dark red velvet curtains and red carpet (of course, dahling).  The room looks pretty good.  Shove some pictures up, and as we say ‘Job’s a good ‘un!’

And now, dear readers (all 2) I shall leave you with a wonderful picture of the mountains behind my son’s house in Tirol, Austria – a nice cheer up for a horrible stormy day

]]> http://markofstatus.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/if/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:12:23 +0000 poisonrain http://markofstatus.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/if/

By  Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

Poster for Tank Girl; image courtesy of 24hourstomidnight.files.wordpress.com

So I was originally gonna roll up all cavalier-like and blurt out my opinions on Tank Girl, which I watched for the first time a few nights ago. I had some pre-conceived notions about the movie and what I’d think of it, as the film adaption of the beloved Jamie Hewlett comic is widely regarded as a commercial and critical flop.

Now I’m not entirely sure how to approach the subject matter, because a) I’m not sure how to read this movie, as it is disjointed and oftentimes inscrutable, b) I didn’t realize going into my viewing that several friends were fans of both the movie and the comic, and c) . . . I haven’t gotten around to reading the comic. I’m more than willing to read it, especially since I’m a fan of Hewlett’s work with Damon Albarn on Gorillaz and am interested in their ongoing professional relationship. I simply haven’t had the chance yet, as I just finished Truman Capote’s super-dense In Cold Blood and started Margaret Atwood’s promising The Blind Assassin. If anyone has a copy they’d like to push into my hands, my palms are flat and open.  

I'll gladly read this; image courtesy of hero-trailers.blogspot.com

But I still wanted to see the movie and write about it because:

1. Lori Petty stars as Rebecca Buck and I wish her career had taken off instead of stalling around the time of this movie’s 1995 release. While she’s recently run into some legal troubles and I still haven’t seen Point Break or Prey for Rock’N'Roll, I’ve long had a soft spot for this tough, mouthy, gender-queer tomboy ever since her turn as Kit Keller in A League of Their Own. It’s too bad that she was replaced by Sandra Bullock in Demolition Man and that Gwen Stefani sounds just like her, with both women having more visible, financially successful careers.

2. Speaking of Stefani, did she rip off Tank Girl’s style to cultivate her own look, because oh my damn do they look alike. 

But maybe I’m being unfair in pitting Petty/Tank Girl against Stefani against one another and instead should remember the cultural context from which they were formed. I’m reminded of my thesis adviser Mary Kearney, whose dissertation focused on contemporary discourses around girlhood and youth culture. Joy Van Fuqua draws on Kearney’s work in her essay ”‘What Are Those Little Girls Made Of?’ The Powerpuff Girls and Consumer Culture.” In her discussion of the show’s popularity, Van Fuqua borrows from Kearney to suggest that, like many other girl characters during the 1990s, Bubbles, Buttercup, and Blossom had to embody both genders in order to succeed in athletics and other male-dominated activities.

Buttercup, Blossom, and Bubbles are gonna fuck yr shit up; image courtesy of msdn.com

3. Speaking of promising actresses, Naomi Watts plays her sidekick and was a total nobody in the states when the movie was originally released. She’s also rockin’ a brunette bob haircut, which I appreciate.

4. Speaking of wacky ladies, Ann Magnuson makes an appearance as a madame who runs a state-of-the-art brothel where folks like Iggy Pop run around in drag and the talent break out into Busby Berkeley-esque routines to Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It.”

5. Speaking of musicians, the soundtrack is an alternative rock behemoth. Hard to imagine many of the artists represented here got radio play in 1995. Alternative was commercially successful, allowing rock music to splinter off in various, musically diverse directions. Hootie was of course a major player, but Pulp could get a hit single. Beck was at this point a one-hit wonder, but was working on an era-defining record that would come out the following year. The bubble hadn’t burst yet. Man, 1995 was a strange and amazing time. Bush, Björk, Veruca Salt, L7, Belly, Portishead, Hole. They were all on commercial radio playlists and they’re also on this soundtrack.

6. Speaking of Hole, note that Courtney Love was the movie’s music consultant. Now, I’m not entirely sure what her title means here. Titles like “music consultant” and “music supervisor” tend to be flexible. The latter term is usually held by people who work closely with the director, the editor, and multiple representatives from various record labels, as well as help tend to legal matters like acquiring publishing rights, and clearing songs to be used in the movie and often the accompanying soundtrack. 

Courtney Love, 1995's burgeoning hyphenate; image courtesy of rollingstone.com (Ouderkirk/WireImage.com)

My hunch is that Love’s duties were picking what songs she liked and would work with the movie, but had little involvement in the production. After all, she was a busy lady who was trying to heal from the death of her husband, raise her daughter, become a respected actress, and headline Lollapalooza with her band Hole. I don’t think she had time to field phone calls with label execs, although I’d like to imagine what those conversations might be like.     

7. Oh, and since the first six points all involved women, let’s add the cherry on top. Tank Girl was directed by a woman named Rachel Talalay.

But as far as reading this movie . . . hummina. I don’t know what I saw. I know it takes place in what is now a not-too-distant, dystopian future and involves our fearless heroine leading a rag-tag group of girls and mutant kangaroo boys against a corrupt faction that control the earth’s water supply. Still with me? Here’s the trailer.

So, things I enjoyed or found interesting about the movie.

1. Naomi Watts kicks ass as Jet Girl. At first shy and fretful, she learns to embrace her intellect and technological savvy and develops the confidence to take charge of the crew and help beat the cast of baddies.

Jet Girl holding it down; image courtesy of kideternal.com

2. Tank Girl has strong relationships with Jet Girl and Rebecca, Tank Girl’s boyfriend’s young daughter. Homosocial bonding and female mentorship, holla!

3. OMG, the costumes. They could be a chapter in a dissertation on third-wave feminism’s fragmentive, performative, and self-reflexive relationship with fashion (note: if such a chapter exists, I want to read it). Tank Girl never wears the same outfit or hair color twice, and her wardrobe toys with historical periods, film genres, youth culture movements, often playing with age, gender, and race as well.

What are you wearing, Tank Girl?, image courtesy of theage.com.au

4. I can’t tell if Ann Magnuson’s Madame, who briefly kidnaps and attempts to employ Rebecca, is a sex-positive feminist, a critique against the then-timely rise of media’s interest in d0-me feminism, or just morally bankrupt.

And then there were things I hated.

1. While Tank Girl’s costuming is fascinating, that’s really the extent of her characterization. Much of this seems to be the fault of the writing. Petty is engaging enough, but Tank Girl is written as less a complex action heroine and more of a buzzword-and-slogan dispenser. Thus, she brings to mind characters like Itchy and Scratchy’s Poochie, who was created to make fun of corporate-friendly extreme, in-your-face, subcultural cash cows. Perhaps her perceived lack of depth speaks to the awkward process of adapting a comic book into a movie, but her cinematic flatness betrays the torpedo bras.

Torpedo bras don't always provide dimension; image courtesy of mermaidligan.blogspot.com

2. Tank Girl also kicks a disappointing lack of ass here and has questionable methods. I can’t speak to her defense strategies in the comic, but the movie repeatedly has her lure disgusting men with her feminine wiles. Sometimes they get kicked in the balls, but she still shows them her bra or promises sexual favors beforehand.

3. Man, how did Malcolm MacDowell fool people into thinking he could act? He’s the villainous Kesslee here and is making himself quite the ham sandwich. Some may want to bring up Al Pacino and note that some actors deliver progressively broader performances as they age, but I think MacDowell’s accent played a role in snowing audiences as well. I think his Britishness even convinced people he was better in If . . . and A Clockwork Orange than he actually was. Charismatic and handsome? Yes. Once a great actor? I don’t think so.

4. I feel like there’s something racially problematic about the mutant kangaroo soldiers who take up with Tank Girl’s crew. Thoughts?

In short, Tank Girl makes for a maddening but interesting spectatorial experience. Now to get a hold of the source material . . .