Virtual Memory Allocation

I love it when smells and tastes trigger memories long buried in my brain. Sometimes these relationships can be pretty random.

The taste of chokecherry jelly = flashbacks of me of playing in the work room in my old house.

Burning plastic = flashbacks of sitting on shag carpet playing Link.

Running outside in the fall = flashbacks of Skyway City (From City of Heroes)

That last one is different because it is a memory of a virtual place. You'd think that somehow my brain would treat it differently. But no... Memories of the digital world are treated exactly like any other. For some reason this only started happening when games switched to 3d. Perhaps something about our brains is wired to memorize 3d spatial information in a different way, even if it is virtual. How easily fooled we are!

As videogames become more immerse they will require the use of more subconscious skills that have been handed down to us by evolution. It started with basic hand eye coordination and basic competition. (Pong) Then came memory, intuition, logic, problem solving. Soon after came RPGs with character development thus tapping into our emotions. Things went 3d and started tapping into our brain's ability to visualize, memorize and interpret 3d environments. Sound designers began tapping into our brain's ability unconsciously model 3D directionality.

With the invention of MMORPGs the complexities of interpersonal relationships, and group dynamic were added to the equation.

Games are tapping into some pretty fundamental elements of the human mind. I used to laugh when a videogame caused my body to release an adrenaline boost, like somehow it will help my virtual avatar dodge the next attack. Now I wonder why my mind is so easily fooled by flashing lights and sounds...

What other evolutionary gifts are left for game designers to tap into?

Taste?
Spacial Orientation and the Inner ear?
Smell?
Force Feedback (Although this is currently being worked on)

These questions bring me to the next section of this article.

****


All this Richard Dawkin's stuff has been very interesting. The Internet chugs along as the religious right and the liberal left do battle via forum, news site, podcast and youtube video. Following the debate has been great for me because it allows me to see the state of the art in Science vs Religion.

Yesterday night I was listening to another Dawkin's lecture and he started talking about his Middle World argument. (Not Middle Earth!) The middle world argument comes into play when discussing the ability of humans to grasp things beyond their current sensors. What is beyond our senses usually stuff that is fast, big, small or complicated. Middle World is the world we can see where things are slow, simple and medium sized.

I was excited when he started talking about this argument because I came up with exactly the same thing while writing a philosophy paper in the last year of my undergrad. Coming up with something on your own and finding out that somebody famous has already done it can be disappointing. However, I take comfort in the fact that if I keep learning and working things out on my own, perhaps I'll come up with something new.

Reality: 1 Fantasy: 0

Enter Richard Dawkins

I recently saw a lecture by Richard Dawkins. He was talking about his book The God Delusion.
Watching this champion of science and evolutionary theory answer difficult questions about the existence of god was remarkable.

He politely tore apart and disposed of complex philosophical arguments that have been touted by theologians for centuries.

Origin of the universe,
Morality,
Intelligent Design,
Meaning of Life,
Role of religion in society,

Seeing him destroy the professors from Liberty University (A Baptist University) was very interesting. I felt bad for the Biology student from Liberty... People barely took him seriously.
He told all the students of Liberty University to leave the school and find a proper university. Pretty harsh. Hard for me to see that type of thing, even if I believe he is right.

The first part of the lecture can be found here:

Freeze Transorm

Something interesting fell out of my head a few weeks ago. I came up with a new method of organizing pitch material that produces interesting results. It came as a result of my thinking about the dissconect between some types of internal sctuctures and what can be interpreted by the listener.

I took it to my thesis adviser Sean Ferguson and he saw the same potential I did for what my idea is capable of. He said he hadn't seen anything like it but not being his area of specialization he encouraged me to talk to an expert on post tonal theory. Yesterday I organized my new method and took it to the post tonal analysis expert at McGill. Professor Niedhofer.

He hadn't seen anything like it before and encouraged me to develop and refine my idea further. "You know what this is... Perfect material for a thesis" he said. Which was exactly what I thought. Who knows where this idea will take me. For now I have a piece to finish. We'll see if these ideas work.

His stern warning will stay with me my entire life I'm sure. More on that next update.

Towards an uncharted performance

Already I am being pulled towards new performance opportunities. I had to figure out what I'm looking for in a musical experience... a way of keeping myself from getting bogged down by things to which I'm not fully committed. There is nothing more tragic than losing time.

Here is an excerpt from a letter:

*****

I'm all for jamming and being creative as long as the group is moving towards something real. For example, when I used to play jazz I was always frustrated because all my teachers wanted me to recreate some old ideal that was old before THEY started chasing after it. I liked playing jazz and I still do but somewhere in my undergrad I just asked myself "What is the point of this? People far more dedicated than I have worked their entire lives and died in obscurity chasing something that died long ago. There must be away to define my own tradition and get even greater enjoyment!"

There are many ways of creating the musical "zone". The head space where time slows down and your mind moves into another plane where only you and the sound exisit. I've had it explained to me by famous jazz clinicians, teachers, performers, virtuosos, athletes, artists, priests ... That state that comes when the energy you produce adds to an ensemble and starts to swell beyond the sum of its parts.

Jazz combos, Orchestra, Big Band, folk ensembles, chamber groups, Ska, Punk and Rock Bands, Klesmer, turntables, Live electronics, piano,DDR... The list goes on. All these performance experiences have taken me to varying degrees of "the zone" in one way or another.

But now... After all that, I want to create a new experience to call my own. Something that can take me to that other world and hold me there. The kind of thing that I can dedicate my time and not feel a tinge of guilt, knowing every day that I am moving into uncharted territory.

By brain is packed with ideas on how to make this happen. It drives me to keep working, keep looking. It won't be easy, nothing worth while is. One day I hope to tear it out of the either and do something truly unique.

*****

Pretty crazy I know but that's the kind of stuff rattling around in my head most of the time.

Zombie Friends

Another October come and gone.

Awwww... Look how good they look! All rotting and covered with blood. One thing that sucks about being away from home is I don't get to be involved in this kind of stuff. Bloodirific? Blood-o-rama? Brain mania? Brainalicious!

1) Decide that brainalicious is the correct way to describe the evening.
2) Head over to Osbourne where we pick up a couple extra zombies
(origin unknown)
3) Freak out some kids who are busy hot boxing a bus shack.
4) Shamble towards the fire station where the firemen manage to thwart
us with sweet sweet candy.
5) Hobble across the street and bang on the windows of Baked
Expectation's, Buccacino's, Spicy noodle house, Music Trader (where we
get more candy), Papa George's, and Starbucks (where a coffee artist
asks us to "move along", incidentally she is dating the guy whose
blood recipe I'm using).
6) Attack car # 2 of the evening, which, as it turns out, is occupied
by people I know; they didn't recognize me, and their brains were,
unfortunately, not eaten.
7) Mosey on down to Safeway, scare the staff and the customers. They
call a 1015 on us (zombie attack) but they don't kick us out!
8) Zombie up movie village where we are, again, driven away by fist
fulls of candy
9) Head to the toad for Brrrrains....I mean Beeeeer. The bartender
wasn't amused and politely asked me to specify a brand. "Moosehead" I
answered sheepishly then as his back was turned I grabbed more candy.
Muahahahaha.

Cooking from scratch. (Eliot's Cooking Story)

I made chicken soup from scratch yesterday and it turned out great. Both of my room mates were suffering from a cold that I brought into the house so I felt it was the least I could do. As I was eating the soup I started to wonder how it is that I learned how to cook so many things from scratch.

MOM: The obvious candidate is my mum. Even since I was a little kid she has always let me help her cook. I used to pull up a chair beside her in the kitchen and watch watch her cook. As I got older she started to give me more challenging tasks. At a very young age (like 6) I can remember being in charge of dessert which usually involved pre packaged pudding mix. If any of you reading this blog have kids one day, do them a favor and teach them to cook. Everybody has to eat right? Why not be able to cook cheap good and nutritious food?

DAD: I inherited a bunch of amazing recipes from my dad. These treasured family favorites have been selected for taste, cost effectiveness and ease of preparation.

Grandma: All Things Ukrainian.
Gran: All manner of English food. Mostly roasted meat.

TV: Growing up I always watched cooking shows. Before food TV, one had to be at home by 4:00 to catch the best shows. For the most part food TV is far to stylized and has little to do with teaching people how to cook at home. Those slick producers from food network Canada could take a lesson from Biba.


The Early Years: 1983 - 2000
Frugle Gourmet: Cancelled because of sexual harassment lawsuits with his male staff
Urban Peseant: Because he always messed up his stuff, through him I learned how to recover a seemingly lost recipe.
Biba's Italian Kitchen: Every time I cook pasta I hear Biba's voice in my head. "you cook the pasta with the sauce, not the sauce with the pasta!"
Yan Can Cook: I don't think I could ever really do anything this guy did because he went to fast. Mostly I learned how to use asian ingredients. Also, I picked up my cleaver skills from this guy.
We Cook You Smile: The Best Chinese cooking show EVER! This was a cable access show filmed in Winnipeg at the river mandarin. The lady spoke almost no English, she just did her thing, almost always looking at the wrong camera.


The Food Network: Post 2000
Iron Chef: Not that I really cook with unisex salmon... I just liked to watch them do their thing.
Two Fat Ladies: Again... These two were fun to watch but I was horrified at a lot of the food they made. They were always using wierd brittish food and cheese I couldn't afford.
Alton Brown: Very funny, very though rough. I can only imagine what his books are like.
Ming Tsy: His mixture of east west was very helpful. A little more up to date than Yan.
Rachel Ray: Can't say enough good stuff about his girl. Her 30 minute meals are exactly what a student needs. Some people don’t like her but usually it's because she's too fun and nice.

So, the point of all this is... It's not like I have some sort of magical cooking power. It seems that I have managed to acquire a decent knowledge of cooking from a variety of places. I’m glad I watched cooking TV instead of Full House… Not much you can do with that now is there.