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Wednesday, September 30, 2009 I would save more if my bank had ads like this. Listening to: Nothing. It's true. I would totally save more if my bank had ads like this and then called me to tell me about it. I would also "totally save more" if my bank started rounding off all the extra digits from interest calculations and started putting it in my account, a la Office Space. Related Link: Office Space - Special Edition with Flair posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 5:30 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, September 29, 2009 Shen Games - Going the Distance Listening to: Nothing. 
My latest game is called Going the Distance and should be released very soon. I wanted to take a very simple game mechanic (avoid crap falling from the sky) and present/execute the crap out of it. Basically to see if I could make a convincing experience (it's supposed to look like a paper cutout theatre) that exhumes a part of me and my personality. Something with soul and character, or at the very least superficial soul and character. You can play the almost finished version over at Shen Games. I just need to add some sound FX to the game, like when objects fall out of the sky or come in contact with our intrepid hero. Related Link: Going the Distance on Shen Games posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 1:12 PM Permalink | | Sunday, September 27, 2009 How Muni Stole $75 From Me Seething With: Rage. 
This is a copy (with sensitive information removed) of the citation I received today from taking the Muni after the Alice 97.3 "Now and Zen Festival". Let me regale you with a tiny tale of how this came to be, or at least the lack of empathy and understanding as well as taking advantage of a known situation. The Alice 97.3 "Now and Zen Festival" is a free festival put on in Golden Gate park. It's the first year that it's been free, so you can imagine the number of people who went to go listen to the concert due to the great lineup as well as, well, the economic climate for "I don't have money to do anything fun". Needless to say, it was packed. The four of us decided to take Muni to the concert from the Bart. We also decided to take the Muni back to the Bart when the concert was over. The problem here being that everyone else also decided to take the Muni back to the Bart after the concert (we left after Colbie Callait played). This caused the entire front of the Muni to be packed like sardines. You had just enough room to slide a small brochure between people. When the "N Judah" Muni arrived, the woman told the folks trying to get on to take residence somewhere in the back or middle of the train, where there was room. Makes sense. I also had my $2.00 out (the fare for an adult) to pay as soon as I got in. The problem was that I had no way to pay anybody. If they release the security camera footage of that Muni train, you will see a Chinese guy in the middle train with $2.00 in his hand, looking around for a place to put it. That's me. People started getting off at Civic Center, the very Bart stop we needed to get off at! How wonderful! Most of the folks exit from the front of the train with the few of us in the middle also making our way out. We proceed with the mob of people up the escalator to see three Muni officers (I'm calling them officers) waiting with their tiny ticket notebooks. I have my $2.00 out at this time. Thank God I can finally pay someone. I was feeling really guilty at that point. Turns out that these guys weren't here to take your money, but here to issue citations. I would put my $2.00 on a bet that states that these officers knew there was a big concert going on today and that a butt-load of people would be taking Muni today, many missing the opportunity to pay because it was just too full to get to the front. They must be meeting their quotas or something. So, a bunch of folks from the front car leave showing their tickets, some are slipping by the officers who aren't looking and others have those Transbay cards. The four of us, and another guy from what I remember, are stuck in line to get a citation. We each get fined $75 and I can guarantee that we'll be contesting this. Of course, I would also like to place a bet on the outcome: San Francisco will deny my the contesting of the ticket and I will be forced to pay the $75. They give you 3" x .75" box to write your "reason for contesting the ticket". I think that's just enough room to draw a sad face. To end, I would also like to point out on extremely disconcerting aspect of the whole citation... 
What the hell is this? The officer has clearly crossed off the "$50 (first offense)" fee and replaced it with $75, in writing. If these guys are out here, enforcing the law and taking in all of this money, you'd think they could update these citation tickets with the correct fee. In the end, I will admit that I was guilty of not possessing a proof of payment. However, I was also put in a situation where I could not obtain this proof of payment. I had considered getting out of the train and running to the front, but by then it was too late. The conductor said we were going to be in "automatic mode", which I assume means the Muni runs by itself when going through the tunnels. If she had had the decency to tell us that, she could have told the train, "Also make sure you have a proof of payment, otherwise you'll get a citation." If you feel the need to spread this story, please Digg it and e-mail it appropriately. I think a huge number of people got citations this Sunday, and I feel that Muni would be getting this "citation money" dishonestly. If you're one of those who got pooped on this weekend, feel free to "comment". posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:10 PM Permalink | | Friday, September 25, 2009 Pain in Pizza - Comedy Gold Listening to: Nothing. I found this little nugget of gold that I made many weeks ago (roughly 10, it seems) with a local writer by the name of Jeff Gire for our television show pitch, "Pain in Pizza", for CBS. Entertainingly terrible. Just like CBS! Hi yo! I kid. I love CBS and it's shows, like... The Mentalist...? Listening to: The Mentalist: The Complete First Season posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 5:44 AM Permalink | | Wednesday, September 23, 2009 How Google Maps Works in Japan Listening to: Nothing. A somewhat "new" video about how Google Maps work/are made in Japan. I think I saw this little guy down the street the other day. In America, it's a Dodge Neon with duct-taped VHS video camera. Related Link: Google Maps posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:30 PM Permalink | | Tuesday, September 22, 2009 Mr. Shen - It's a Conspiracy Listening to: David Tao - Regular Friends 
Uploaded a new Irish Uppercut strip the other day. Just thought about this hoo-ha when I was walking to work. Not sure the exact context or reasons why, but it just happened. Related Link: Conspiracy Theory posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:54 AM Permalink | | Monday, September 21, 2009 Craigslist Post of the Day: Good Trade Listening to: Nothing. 
I found this to be humorous in a very dangerous way, as the implications of what is to ensue based on the proposed exchange calls for a red flag of mass proportions. My boss puts it best when he says, "Dude, so I guess she said no." Related Link: Sterling Silver 3-Stone Cubic Zirconia Ring posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 2:18 PM Permalink | | Friday, September 18, 2009 Zombie Farm - Released Today! Listening to: Nothing. 
So today is the official launch of Zombie Farm! It's been a fun journey making it. It's put me a bit closer to understanding Flash development like I did with Game Maker development and I really feel like I've come a long way since my first attempt a year ago. The game took about two weeks to make, including all the art, sound and design. I'm pretty excited about it and have already started on my next game. I'll be posting a development diary of sorts relatively soon for Zombie Farm. I have a few scans from my sketchbook/gamebook that contains bad handwriting, incorrect math and silly drawings. To celebrate this occasion, I've also gone and created a desktop wallpaper for the game. You can download it in either Widescreen or Full Screen.  Download Wallpaper Widescreen or Full Screen Related Link: Zombie Farm on Shen Games posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:32 AM Permalink | | Wednesday, September 16, 2009 "LAYTON!" (as yelled by a super villain) Listening to: Professor Layton and the Curious Village OST - Professor Layton Theme 
My, what a mouthful! I recently purchased the three available Professor Layton soundtracks off of the internet and received them in the mail yesterday. I must say that the music, especially the live and "higher quality" renditions of the songs, is fantastic. It has a very Yann Tiersen (the guy behind such soundtracks as Amelie and City of Lost Children) feel to it, and that's a good thing. It's full of piano, accordion, strings and a lot of moments where I find myself looking for a puzzle to solve. Oh, look, there's a puzzle! A 9-to-5 job, eh? Very interesting. Related Link: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 7:00 AM Permalink | | Sunday, September 13, 2009 Mr. Shen - I'm Kind of Hungry Listening to: The rain. 
There's a chain bakery (not to be confused with a bakery that bakes chains) around the corner of my office and on especially hungry mornings I get a roasted vegetable, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich. I used to do it a bit more often in the past, maybe once every other week, but it's been a while since then. Recently, I've had this craving for it so I've gone twice in the last week. Each time, however, something was amiss. One time the bakery had run out of eggs. The other time they had run out of roasted veggies. Being the kind of person I am, I conceded to substitutions (a Vitamin Water for the one without egg and spinach and tomatoes for the one without roasted vegetables). Needless to say, I decided to start going to the Mexican place up the street for breakfast burritos. They make a decent veggie one for $3.00. Related Link: That chain bakery. posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:53 PM Permalink | | Friday, September 11, 2009 Dhalsim's got it goin' on. Listening to: Nothing. 
I've wondered this on multiple occasions at different points in my life. Could they only stretch their limbs, yet still have distribute the mass across the entire thing? Would the density change or could they alter that too? If you stretched it out, could you then use it like a lasso? Would it hurt as much or would the pain be distributed as well? Yes, a lot of questions. Related Link: Stretch Armstrong on Wikipedia posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:34 PM Permalink | | Wednesday, September 9, 2009 Wait, what? KICK FACE. Listening to: Nothing. 
Just a little news for those hip cats out there: the folks and I will be restarting Kick Face Design. It's been roughly over a year since the last post and I felt that this would be the kind of thing to jump start our career into the world of "vast opportunity". Related Link: Kick Face Design posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 9:45 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, September 8, 2009 Zombie Farm - Coming Very Soon Listening to: Nothing. 
This is the title screen to my newest game: Zombie Farm. It's part of my journey of finding the right niche and my latest endeavor into the world of Flash game development. The goal of the game is strictly to take over the world (keep in mind it's a fictional world, you worry warts) with your zombie army. There is no losing condition, but you are trying to do it as quickly as possible. The game features 13 different countries that you must infest, fun pixel graphics, my brand of humor (take that as a positive or negative) and a number crunching engine hidden by a tweened exterior. The game is inspired from my years of playing Drug Wars on the TI-82/TI-83+ as well as the Wii downloadable game My Life As King. I played both those games until the cows came home, fell asleep and milked all over themselves. Both games were fantastic and really provided the motivation to create my own simulation game. One key thing I changed from those games was that the game must be able to be completed in a reasonable amount of time (~5-10 minutes). This is expected from a Flash game of this size and I'm not trying to fool anyone into thinking it's anything more epic than that. Also, I'm hoping the Leaderboard component is what keeps players trying again. Also, the more you play, the more you realize which stats help you toward your success and starting a new game isn't really that difficult. Expect the game to be out by the end of next week: September 18th, 2009. Here's an outdated screenshot from two days ago. What an ugly "Infest" button! Look at that blood shooting out of that lady's nose! That's some sweet blood spray from a particle system a coworker built for me in 20 minutes specifically made to do just that. 
Related Link: Shen Games Website posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:20 PM Permalink | | Isogabamaware. Listening to: Nothing. Sounds like a type of software license, doesn't it? Most of the time when I find myself deeply entrenched in something, such as amigurumi, I need to go do it. For some reason or another, I've never found the time nor patience nor dexterity to actually do any crocheting of any kind. Strange, that. In any case, I found this video to be cute and needed to share. Hilarious. Related Link: Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 8:46 PM Permalink | | A reason to turn on your Wii again. Listening to: Nothing. Unless you're one of those people that have your weekly Wii Bowling nights and do not own a system other than a Wii, you probably haven't turned it on since someone brought over the Wii Fit for you to try and tell you that you have a terrible sense of balance. In any case, the remake/redo/upgrade of A Boy and His Blob released a trailer recently and it looks awesome. I almost feel like the actual in-game footage looks so charming and so much like the animation that it feels like one seamless experience that should be seen in a movie theatre as a children's summer release. In other news, I beat Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box this weekend and completed all 153 puzzles. Those sliding block puzzles and peg solitaire puzzles are BS. Related Link: Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:23 AM Permalink | | Monday, September 7, 2009 Happy Labor Day 2009 Listening to: Parachute - The New Year 
Hope everyone is doing well this fine American day of celebration! I drew this comic for Irish Uppercut last week when coworkers were talking about scheduling a BBQ to celebrate a release of a new payment option integrated into the platform. I thought how it would be humorous if someone was extremely serious about things, telling people to shut up and stop fooling around, so they could schedule the date for the BBQ. It's like someone telling you to be quiet because they're putting on socks. In America, or at least the Bay Area of California, Labor Day means BBQs and closing down the Bay Bridge. Related Link: Wikipedia: Labor Day posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:50 AM Permalink | | Friday, September 4, 2009 Auto-Tune Your Friday Listening to: Auto-Tune The News #8 I thought this most recent installment of Auto-Tune The News was great (#8). I think their use of the thick harmonies were fantastic. I would love to see a video of their production and how they get around to creating these songs (not so much the videos). In other news, the I Am T-Pain iPhone application released today. It basically allows you to sing, have your voice recorded and automatically auto-tuned (was that redundant?). I don't own an iPhone, but many coworkers do and they purchased the application. You can here my fantastically brutal version of "Buy You a Drank" at the appropriately indicated website. Shawty. Related Link: Jay-Z - D.O.A. [Death Of Auto-Tune] posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 4:12 PM Permalink | | Need Moar Comics Listening to: Nothing. 
I purchased a new sketchbook today from the local (those it's a retail chain) art store because I was done filling up my previous one. I will admit to being guilty of purchasing new sketchbooks when the previous ones weren't complete, but this isn't one of those times. I've been reading some fun, unadulterated, comic strips and realized that I really just need to do more comic strip drawing. They don't have to all be amazingly crazy, final portfolio pieces. Heck, the rawness of it and often times non sequitur nature of the content often made it even more endearing to behold. It's probably one reason why Mr. Goh did as well as it did and why I'm going back to that style for future installments of Robot in the City. In any case, I decided to just start drawing more comics and this sketchbook will be just for that or game design ideas. I have a few already lined up, so there should be a slight increase in comic flooding here on the site in the upcoming days/weeks. I was also inspired to comic more when reading Graham Annable's Further Grickle on the toilet this morning. Related Link: Graham Annable Comics on Amazon.com posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 12:00 AM Permalink | | Wednesday, September 2, 2009 Share Circle - Inappropriate Soundtracks Listening to: Nothing. Thought I'd put a nice video to spread around in the Share Circle (I made that up just now, whatcha think about that?) today. It's something I came across on Buzzfeed. Hm. To be honest, you don't really "come across" anything on Buzzfeed. The site aggregates all this viral junk on the internet and puts it in a singular convenient place for your consumption. It's like a salad bar or casino/hotel buffet line, I suppose. In any case, I believe this soundtrack would have single-handedly saved the sequels in the trilogy. Related Link: Carpenters Gold: 35th Anniversary Edition posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 11:50 AM Permalink | | Tuesday, September 1, 2009 I bet it smells like "freedom". Listening to: Nothing. 
If you sit around me in the office or have me on your Facebook feed, you're going to see this image numerous times today because, frankly, I find it hilarious. Back to work. Thanks Holy Taco for your daily shenanigans! Related Link: Nelson Mandela Air Freshener on Amazon.com posted by Mr. Alexander Shen @ 10:56 AM Permalink | | |
       
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