Skillful Observer

The Sun is running an article today about a statement some old lady made. Apparently, in her view, people with deminished or vanished mental capabilities should be put out so that their relatives haven’t have to burden themselfes.

I am leaning out of the window if I say now that I agree … at least to some extent. I would not say that they have to be killed, but they should atleast have the right to opt in to euthanasia. Most of mankind today is heavily dependent on their mental abilities. Without them we can’t socialize and can’t solve problems. I would feel terrible to vegetate for possibly a few years with other people, maybe great minds, scrificing time to care for me. I would be glad if I am presented with an option to let qualified personell terminate my life in such an event, as well as I would never consent to euthanasia of myself as long as my mind is woking and I have a channel to communicate. I wouldn’t even think of anyone “disposing” me, but as me giving them much needed resources (time).

I am quite alone with such a view … teh fuck I care? It’s like this quite often … I got used to it.

… that there are no dumb questions. All the time in school. But today I learned … there are.

But it aren’t the questions per se that are dumb, but your motivation to ask them. Basically, if you have no idea what answer to expect, the chance your question is dumb is pretty high. You gotta think of “why” you are asking your question because if you have no general idea of what the answer would be you can’t get information out of it.

Even if you can’t believe it with all the snow last week …

This episode is really just about nabi chasing after doki. She left of to the airport after her little pet hedhog got killed in the 4th episode. At the airport a big showdown happens. Prepare for a massive influx of happy endings.

The original video can be found on Sambakza.net.

See also Forbidden Love #1, Forbidden Love #2, Forbidden Love #3 and Forbidden Love #4

After the high, the depression kicks in. Some folks seem very upset about doki and nabi beeing together. Stones through the window and graffiti on the wall are just the precursor for a much larger wave of rejection they both face. Eventually their friends launch a counter campaign, but as doki gets hurt nabi breaks up. At the end of the episode, really everything seems lost.

The original video can be found on Sambakza.net.

See also Forbidden Love #1, Forbidden Love #2 and Forbidden Love #3

AAAAWWW the first official date. This time, it’s all about the shy guy. Though this episode is especially cute, the real reason to watch it is the cliffhanger ending. It will set the stage for the both climaxes following in the next two episodes. Nevertheless, the issue of their love beeing kinda outcast is pushed further in the episode.

There is also an easter egg. Hidden in a cloud on the right side of the loading screen, you can switch on an alternative intro, showing doki preparing the present. As always the original video can be found on Sambakza.net.

See also Forbidden Love #1 and Forbidden Love #2

After giving in to doki, nabi decides to bring cake to her birthday party. In the crowded streets of a big city, that’s easier said than done. After some enounters with pedestrians, a rhino, a dog and a frilled lizard, he bumps into rabbit friends of doki. The gang must have heard of the situation but does not approve, because they think nabi is forcing her while it’s kinda the other way around. Nabi evades, but can’t prevent the cake from dropping on the floor. Doki clears up the mess, but eventually they get thrown out of the restaurant … something to remember in the later episodes.

Again this episode features catchy music and some really nice animation. Definitly a must see. The original video can be found on Sambakza.net.

See also Forbidden Love #1

Flash animation has come a long way. From tiny buttons to medium sized ad-banners, flash evolved into an art form somewhen between 2001 and 2002. In 2003 I found a particular well made animation. Little did I know that it would turn out to be great because of it’s art, but also because of it’s story.

The story is set in a urban city inhabitatet by antropomorphic cats, rabits and other animals. In the first of the 5 parts we encounter a female rabbit (named doki) and a male cat (named nabi). The rabbit falls for the cat during the opening and is chasing the fleeing guy through the city until he gives in. Eventually this whole thing will turn out to become a romeo & julia setting, but with a slightly more social touch. Of course the real trouble just surfaces in the later episodes I will post over the next couple of days.

Produced by the korean art team of SamBakZa.net. The site is not only the creative outlet of the group but apparently developed to a social site for fans of the series. I bet most people like it for the same reasons I do. The songs are catchy, the animation lovely and the story and the situations are so naive, yet true.

The movie is just a few megabytes in size, but due the servers beeing located in Korea, it might take a while.

Last week, someone gave me the link to PlayAuditorium.com. The game combines music, colors and a little bit of physics. It’s a simple, flash based and addictive.

You start out with a grey particle stream and a ‘box’ you have to steer the stream into to make some music play. To do this, you get forcefields that you can move and change in size. Within the bounds of this fields, each particle is deflected in the direction indicated by the forcefields. At first you just get one field that pushes the partiles to the left and one that pushes them to the right. Soon however, you also get fields that push them up and down and later on you even get fields that deflect the particles to their center or just act as an barrier.

If there would only be one box to get the stream to, this all would be terribly easy. So why not make it so that you have to direct the stream through up to 4 boxes in succession? Still not hard enough? Well, just add color. Later on, you will find colored asteroid rings. As soon as your stream passes such a ring, the particles will change their color accordingly. The use of this is, of course, to direct the stream to boxes that are only activated by a certain color.

The levels of the demo get increasingl difficult, but the gameplay is easy to get and fun to experiment with. The levels are not that much of an obstacle but more kind of a playground where you test how the stream of particles behaves through various combinations of the forcefields. Really nice is the fullscreen mode, where you are not confined to the narrow borders of your browser anymore. Just hit “f” to activate fullscreen and “esc” once you are done.

The demo has some 15 levels and will keep you busy for a little bit over an hour. If you are still not satisfied, you can buy the full game for 11 US$ and get 70 additional levels.