Web developer, composer, writer.
Father of two.
Portfolio Site (and homepage)
Link for Net Slum
Link for Count Victus
MurCity
Idle Worship is a new game I’ve tried out.
It’s actually pretty cute and seems to be more game-like than the calculators Zynga’s (been) producing. I only tried it out because it was called “idle” worship, meaning someone could visit once a day and get supreme benefits. Nope, but you can at least moderate yourself.
I can’t say I’ll play it forever, I’m sure I’ll get bored quickly. But for what it’s worth, it’s a very cute little game. My only complaint so far is that they’re just walking me through EVERYTHING. I understand there’s a lot to the game, but I really don’t need to be walked through the leaderboards or searching for a player. x.x Still, if you’re bored enough, give it 15 minutes.
The fiance is wearing a suit from theleesshop to the wedding. :) I’m excited. It looks like the first suit.
I wish to own these.
www.youstar.com if anyone’s interested. I’ll look this good when I have the money! :P
But yeah, ordered a few shirts from these guys and have never been disappointed. Though, be careful: they are korean, they don’t accommodate you fatties too well.
update: NO THAT WAS THE WRONG URL.
http://www.doublju.com/ has all their stuff, better for men than womens (for once)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA =D cannot preorder any harder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
lol Vael listens to only epic heavy metal for six months and game 3 ends up being super bloody and full of chants
DARK ATLANTIS FATE!!! DARK LANTIS;;;; !!! A TIMELESS DIMENSION!!!!!!
Posting here because Google Docs currently thinks I speak Czech, and generally I just dislike Google Docs and will just post this here. However, I’ll miss the pyramid.
This is in response to this article that Demi showed me.
— —
immediate goals will not be documented because I put them in Simplenote and will certainly not be updating this post in lieu of simplenote
recurring goals
health: stay fit, keep a good physique, adopt better sleeping patterns
learn about anything and everything
short-term goals
release MurCity
obtain a much greater source of income
begin honest work on the development of the game 3 engine
start a nice Guild Wars 2 career with Eve :}
long-term goals
stop being so angry about everything
complete the game 3 engine
secure permanent lodgings
marry Eve?
primary goals
own nine-person game studio
achieve zen-like state
become an inspirational paragon; utopianism?
~~~~~
Indeed I have no idea how I will stop being so angry about everything; I believe that my general temperament will be more positive through achieving these goals in a reasonable time and that should help me. My kids aggravate me a lot and that will only take time to stop as they get older.
No more code exercises for others, no widgets, no responsive design. I learned what I need. Now I have to finish what I started: learning kohana, backbone, and creating Bean Grower through those. And if I know what’s good for me, I’ll probably drop backbone for another time.
Looks like someone’s making something similar to game 3’s engine. Suddenly feel pretty bad for do anything but coding game 3’s engine the past year.
We’ll see how it goes. :}
Here’s my support ticket to tumblr:
Hello Support,
My user account is vael@vaelvictus.com and when I make a reply or ”like”, it doesn’t show up to others. I believe there may be a flag on my account from a long time ago. “Tumblarity” or something to that effect had been recently released, and I figured out that someone could just post, reblog themselves, and delete that reblog in order to get higher tumblarity. The system later punished me for it, and I forgot what it did, but I believe it restricted my posting at the time. I know I could no longer reblog. (I can now) Anyway, I think that I’ve kept a flag for ‘spammer’ or otherwise terrible system exploiter, and I’d like to have it removed. I have no interest in exploiting anything anymore.
Thanks,
V
Their response:
Hello Vael,
If a large number of users block a particular blog, our background systems may take measures to keep that blog from being seen by additional users. Based on your email to us, we’ve now removed those measures.
Please give thought to why others may have blocked your blog. Keep in mind that Tumblr is a community where you should always treat others with dignity and respect. Changing your behavior will likely keep this from being a problem again in the future.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.
Thanks for using Tumblr!
Best regards,
Support
Well, I have given it thought - my notion is the same. I’ve really not done anything remarkably terrible on Tumblr in the three years I’ve been here, and I’m quite certain it was due to the tumblarity exploiting. While I know I’ve been blocked by a few people, it doesn’t justify a complete nulling of my communication. If their “large number of users” is = 3, I’d be pretty surprised. Even of those that have disliked me in the past, and that I’ve followed, I still remained able to see their content. (Lily) Finally, I haven’t been able to do it -since- the tumblarity exploit, so I just can’t believe I’ve been so hated.
The bottom line is that now, apparently, you’ll be able to see my likes/reblogs/replies. I’m glad it had a happy ending after all. And look, now I see a “highlight this post” feature!
For anyone unaware, Chronicle is a movie that’s come out recently. It deals with telekinesis, and some highschool kids get the power to prank people and some guy turns evil of course because he was bullied and that’s what this is about.
Full spectrum lighting! My workplace should be getting our office completely done over in these really nice lights. If you haven’t heard of full spectrum lighting, in short they can:
give you vitamin D
make you feel better
see better, less eye strain
actually view the color of objects without a yellow tint
give you cancer
Wait, what? Yeah, UV rays can kind of give you cancer. Thankfully, my company bought the lights that don’t have UV rays in them! ^O^ I asked a sales rep from the supplier regardless:
A site operator will be with you momentarily. Please wait. Thank you for your patience.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
You are not currently in a chat session.
All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with ‘Audrey’
(11:57:04 AM) Audrey: How may I help you today?
(11:57:53 AM) you: Hi, my company is installing some bulbs from your company.
(11:57:55 AM) you: “Natural Spectrum Fluorescent Medium Bipin”
(11:58:11 AM) you: I’m looking this up and at the bottom for the F32T8VLX4, it says the tubes contain no UV.
(11:57:23 AM) you: What is the significance of UV on your bulbs?
(12:04:53 PM) you: Are you there?
(12:29:53 PM) you: Should I just call in?
(12:58:53 PM) you: Where’d you go? I miss you so. Seems like it’s been forever that you’ve been gone.
(2:30:53 PM) you: boop
So yeah full spectrums, I’ll buy some for the house soon. This is the kind of technology I want to be seeing.
~~~~~~
Entering captcha info for Google will help transcribe books! How interesting.
http://www.google.com/recaptcha/digitizing
Our sharp project manager asked “Well if we’re transcribing, how do they know it’s right?”
They don’t. They take a best guess, and then people key the word in 20 times and they’ll see what it’s most likely to be. This means, in fact, that you only have to get one of the words right. Remember this knowledge, but do not use it to your advantage; it would be dystopian to key in one word and then lazily spam the rest.
~~~~~~
Finally, parallel universes!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction)
I’ve been having a time (a time) with figuring out what exactly I want out of game 3’s world. Right now I’m settling for a world very much like ours, but tainted with a different course of history due to various fauna and flora of the world, and generally some other law-of-nature bending that would make it interesting. This spells creatures that generate a form of renewable energy, humanity figuring out how to harvest and generate an electricity equivalent, and thus discovering a very great energy source. Further, various other implementations can exist like steam and clockwork being popular for the time. (perhaps the creatures are too scarce but are being bred; perhaps manufacturing hasn’t caught up to plastics yet)
The best part is that with this world, my needs as a writer are met: I can be very creative, and even at worst if I have to be a bit arbitrary with my imagination, I have the room to nurture that idea into something solid. I have the freedom and proper restraint to make my world both fascinating and believable. Sure, if we found some slugs in a forest that are just full of energy we can harvest - such as the way we milk cows - why would humanity fart around with giant generators and fossil fuels? Breed the damn things, store their milk, and throw it into your vehicle.
Okay, and if some folks go insane and start creating death masks, happen to unlock some innate ability within humans to expand the laws of nature a bit, and happen to sacrifice their bodies to spread their plague that will slowly turn the earth into their own psychotic utopia… why in the world wouldn’t that make sense?
Team work. Cleared 11 damn zombies. Awesome.
(note to others: the chances of keeping your rusty chain and cat without losing them, in these conditions, is quite a feat of luck)
Here we have some kind-hearted political parties willing to make a change. They’re also inadvertently trolling other politic parties. A whole party for freedom: that’s rich. Rich.
~
I think I’ll spend some more time on English Stack Exchange. Check this out.
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/62953/difference-between-ignorant-and-uninformed
From “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
—
I have always found that Angels have the vanity to speak of themselves as the only wise; this they do with a confident insolence sprouting from systematic reasoning:
Thus Swedenborg boasts that what he writes is new; tho’ it is only the Contents or Index of already publish’d books.
A man carried a monkey about for a shew, & because he was a little wiser than the monkey, grew vain, and conciev’d himself as much wiser than seven men. It is so with Swedenborg; he shews the folly of churches & exposes hypocrites, till he imagines that all are religious, & himself the single one on earth that ever broke a net.
Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth:
Now hear another: he has written all the old falshoods.
And now hear the reason. He conversed with Angels who are all religious, & conversed not with Devils who all hate religion, for he was incapable thro’ his conceited notions.
Thus Swedenborgs writings are a recapitulation of all superficial, opinions, and an analysis of the more sublime, but no further.
Have now another plain fact: Any man of mechanical talents may from the writings of Paracelsus or Jacob Behmen, produce ten thousand volumes of equal value with Swedenborgs, and from those of Dante or Shakespear, an infinite number.
But when he has done this, let him not say that he knows better than his master, for he only holds a candle in sunshine.
—
The work was composed between 1790 and 1793, in the period of radical foment and political conflict immediately after the French Revolution. The title is an ironic reference to Emanuel Swedenborg’s theological work Heaven and Hell published in Latin 33 years earlier. Swedenborg is directly cited and criticized by Blake several places in the Marriage. Though Blake was influenced by his grand and mystical cosmic conception, Swedenborg’s conventional moral structures and his Manicheanview of good and evil led Blake to express a deliberately depolarized and unified vision of the cosmos in which the material world and physical desire are equally part of the divine order, hence, a marriage of heaven and hell. The book is written in prose, except for the opening “Argument” and the “Song of Liberty”. The book describes the poet’s visit to Hell, a device adopted by Blake from Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Every musical should have one minor character who is aware that everyone is singing and dancing and extremely confused and terrified
Hah! A surface dweller made me laugh.
Of course I know how to make grim movies. Just dim the lights, google a bleak color palette and find some goth kids with nothing better to do.
I regret to inform you that I will be unable to write to you for some time, as my left hand’s fingers have cramped up attempting to hold the W key on the keyboard for 90 minutes while playing Dear Esther.
An associate of mine is transcribing this for me.
You are a cruel mistress,
Count Victus
It’s okay Pluto, you’ll always be a planet to me.
It’s okay I’M NOT A PLANET EITHER.
FUCK YOU ALL, PLUTO IS A PLANET.
PLUTO WILL ALWAYS BE A PLANET.
YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A PLANET.
PLUTO DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A CHANCE TO SHINE!
It’s posts like these that remind me of why the surface world is so hated.
“Oh, waah, pluto isn’t a planet!” “I’m not a planet either, haha! :(“
Pathetique. Typical surfacer who doesn’t think, instead, “Pluto has been declassified as a planet. Let’s make it a planet again.”
Pluto is the grimmest ex-planet in this solar system. Cold, dark, lonely, rejected. If that’s not a reason to make it a planet again, I don’t know what is.
Some associates and I are currently drafting plans for the planetization of Pluto once again. Currently we plan for the project to be done by 2030, but it may take longer, naturally. They’re only drafts, and this may not even turn profitable.
If not for the lack of current fashion opportunities, then for the loverly color that’s made when the blood hit my brown leather gloves just now.
T’was the night before Christmas and all through the lair,
many creatures were stirring, the weather was fair.
The corpses hung from the ceiling in cages,
with hope they’ll soon undergo some changes.
The assistants were sipping on premium tea,
preparing for their next departure from sanity.
The Count strode ‘round his premises with glee,
the presents retrieved from the docks by the sea.
Oddities, curiosities, and knicknacks galore!
And soon the celebrations were no more.
As the night panned out, mutations brimming,
and straight-jacketed horrors girating and quivering,
The Count unleashed a final sight:
Santa Claus, undead, resurrected with blight!
It caused even The Count a bit of fright,
such that he proclaimed with utter delight…
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”
I stumbled upon this while going through my old Facebook messages. (I use Facebook to keep up with various surface contacts)
So apparently Igor III, now deceased, had written a plea for escape through someone who I had him transcribe a message to. It’s a shame it never worked out for him - in early September I had to do away with Igor III after he ate a few chickens I had intended to use for an experiment. I wasn’t fond of him, and trust me here, readers: this was not his first act of defiance. Igor IV lived for about a month before falling into the backyard pond.
I’m rather tired of the Igor line. I’ve drafted some plans for assistants who are not only intelligent, but also beautiful. Unfortunately, reanimated corpses (especially female ones!) just happen to really lack that beauty I require. Mind control is the mad science of the underworld - where all our science is the mad science of your world. It’s not an option, and even attempting it would have me a laughing stock of underscience for the next three years. Alas, obtaining a beautiful and intelligent assistant may be the only thing I simply am not capable of…
In other news, I finally killed my peggle habit. There’s only so much a Count can take.
I’ve got to hand it to this “Adagio”. It’s not often that I listen to music, let alone surface music, but I praise Adagio for coalescing the brutality of death metal (I use that term loosely) and the elegance of orchestral compositions.
Oh, and of course, Tumblr - I have permission to upload this… ;}
[adagio - r’lyeh the dead]
“Trick or treat!” they scream, not realizing that it is a question.
I open the door slowly, holding a small plastic pumpkin full of delectable candies. They reach in. I’m smiling. The first child goes to grab the first treats and -
“Trick!” I answer harshly, at my side pulling a steel lever. The entire yard shifts into a funnel, as the children and their caretakers slide down into the darkest depths of my dungeon, forever enslaved.
Happy Halloween.
Oh…!
Who lives in a dark castle under the earth?
It’s Count Victus!
Swore destruction and fire since the first day of birth?
It’s Count Victus!
If science and discord are something to see…
It’s Count Victus!
Then put on your lab coat and sing this with me!
It’s Count Victus!
READY?
It’s Count Victus, lord of all death.
We. All. Love. Him.
It’s Count… Victus!
Ah ha ha ha, hoo hoo ha har…
Adorable. “Oh, 120 MPH winds!”
To be fair, sure - that’s more than usual. Your pathetic surface-level homes will be battered. But 80 MPH? 120 MPH? Creatures of the underworld pass wind faster than that, and sometimes, it’s just as wet. Definitely more stinky.
I don’t think, when it comes time to destroy the world, that I’ll be pursuing a natural way to go about it. If I were to create a hurricane, however, I think my first alpha test would probably be the size of this “Irene” hurricane.
When I’d be finished with Hurricane Victus, I would not settle for East or West coast. All the coasts would be reborn fifty miles inward!
Death Waltz by John Stump
I can read music and play piano, but this makes my brain hurt. Look at how insane that is! Heres a computer playing it and one of a guy actually playing it( although its toned down a bit). The piece was originally meant to be impossible to play due to how it was written.
geni:
It sounds surprisingly modern
That’s because it’s probably been composed quite a few years from now. So how did it end up on the Internet?
A brilliant pastsender. I’m positive my tumblr readers don’t know what a pastsender is, so allow me to explain. There exist small pockets of error in time itself - most are aware of this. What most aren’t aware of is that we can enter such pockets, and manipulate them. The scenario went like this:
The pastsender - we do not/could not know his name - composed this piece, perhaps years from now, and finished the song. He then thought to himself, “but no one could appreciate this song, even if I inscribed it into my skin, poured kerosene in the inscriptions, and lit myself on fire to death.” He then knew what he had to do, which was pastsend. I will not go through what it takes to make a pastsend happen, nor do computers even have the adequate language to detail it with. Know that it is incredibly chancey and, as far as I’m concerned, a waste of one’s ability.
We next come to this hack musician John Stump. Lacking inspiration and ability, he futuresought constantly. Futureseeking is a very easy, pathetic form of sorcery. He essentially cast his spell into the Nether and hoped something would return… for countless years. Maybe he’d pick up a stray thought, a terrible dream here or there, as is the fate of most futureseekers. Nay. John Stump caught Our Impressive Pastsender’s donation at the right time and we’ve ended up with this. He inscribed it to paper and has taken the credit for the work of someone who may not have even existed in our own timeline yet.
That being said, this is one catchy tune.
I recently published, in the underworld, a slang dictionary. It met great acclaim, and I decided to whip up a short post for you English speakers out there. Today’s a lazy Saturday as I revel in my latest release, and I only saw it fitting. So without anymore extraneous blabber…! I present to you, The Count’s Mini-Dictionary of Grim English Words. (that everyone should know)
bookmark this excrement
~
Apostasy (uh-pos-tuh-see)
A total departure from one’s religion, principles, cause, etc.
Atrophy (at-truh-fee)
Degeneration, decline, or decrease, as from disuse. An old man’s skin and musculature may degerenate, but it’s most proper to say atrophy.
Augury (aw-gurr-ree)
A sign of what will happen in the future; an omen: “They heard the sound as an augury of death.”
Barbed (barbed)
Having barbs. Barbs are pointed parts projecting backward from a main point, as of a fishhook or arrowhead.
Castigation (cast-ih-gay-shun)
A severe scolding. “The castigation ceremonies of Count Victus have been known to render one’s spine inoperational.”
Desolation (dess-oh-lay-shun)
A desolate area. Barren, unfriendly, potentially unpopulated by creatures.
Defile (duh-file)
To make foul, dirty, or unclean; pollute; taint; debase.
Desecrate (dess-uh-crate)
Like defile, except the defilation of a holy place/object. “You will not desecrate this holy sanctum!”
Despotic (dih-spot-ik)
Of the nature of a despot or despotism: autocratic; tyrannical. A tyrant with absolute power, as opposed to a tyrant without absolute power.
Dirge (durge)
A somber song expressing mourning or grief, such as would be appropriate for performance at a funeral.
Discord (diss-chord)
Lack of harmony; chaos.
Epitaph (ep-i-taff)
A statement written in memory of a person, usually on a tombstone. “Here lies… “
Hallow (ha-low)
Holy, typically referred to as holy ground or territory.
Harrow (har-row)
To cause distress; typically seen as “hollowing” one’s stability. Shaken.
Necrotic (neck-rottic)
Describing something killed by necrosis: death of a circumscribed portion of animal or plant tissue.
Misanthropy (miss-an-throw-pee)
A dislike of humankind. A person can be a misanthropist as well as a misanthrope.
Pyre (pire)
A heap of combustible material, especially one for burning a corpse as part of a funeral ceremony. “a funeral pyre”
Shamble (sham-bul)
To walk or go awkwardly; shuffle. Typically used in regard to the navigational difficulty that undead creatures have.
Stygian (stij-ee-uhn)
Hellish; dark. Typically refers to creatures or elements of the underworld.
Surly (sur-lee)
Bad-tempered and unfriendly: “he left with a surly expression after seeing his daughter partaking in the ritual”
Vitriol (vih-tree-ahl)
Cruel, bitter, and acidic - a historic name for sulfuric acid, thus the modern usage.
“This is a truly exceptional apartment! With 13 windows in the apartment, sunlight penetrates every room, making the apartment wonderfully bright and cheery.”
Looks like I’ve found the next target for testing my Homing Demolition Bots. Hoo-ah.
Some time in February of the year 1672, Roger Williams built a zoo. What most people don’t know about Roger Williams is that he was actually an agent for the underworld.
It began with some basic creatures: insects he collected, some cats he’d rounded up. Pigs, horses, and a zebra. After seeing the zoo’s popularity, he used his earnings to sail abroad and collect animals from other continents. Finally, when he was ready to leave this world, he left his zoo to his associates and that is the zoo we visited today: Roger William’s Park Zoo.
The name may be misleading to the history I’ve presented. Over its history, it’s evolved into a park-zoo. It holds both humans (who can leave freely) and animals. (who are trapped for eternity) Becoming a father has been a great excuse for me to leave my lodgings to visit such a place.
The zoo hours are 8AM-4PM. This is why I’ve taken my family today to zoo’s after-hours, from 7PM-3AM. It is common knowledge among Rhode Island’s finest citizens that, since Roger Williams was an agent for the underworld, his zoo has two forms: one, in the daytime, which is the normal zoo that overweight Americans attempt to walk the full length of so that they may see… giraffes and elephants. I’m not exaggerating, readers. These people waddle into the zoo so that they may not see mammoths, but elephants.
The other form of the zoo is when, at the stroke of 7PM, all creatures of the zoo shed their ephemeral forms consisting of skin, veins, and fur. The lights fizzle out and the sky - only from within the zoo - turns a hazy, dark red, which provides enough light to see the zoo’s current animalia. The middle of the zoo normally holds the restrooms and food provisioning stations. From this area now rises the throne of Roger Williams, his reanimated corpse cackling madly as he descends from the sky upon his thunder chariot.
I’m consistently impressed. I’ve seen this spectacle on five occasions and each time he seems as lively - perhaps, not the best word - as any other time he’s done it. He is joyed to be the lord of these beasts that, without him, would probably have been disenchanted in the bowels of the underworld. At best, used as table salt. He’s given these transmogrifying misfits a home. For a crowd of maybe 20, 30 each night? I’ve only been on a weekend, but I doubt there’s more on a weekday… I digress.
The moonbears in the normal zoo are not really from the moon. They are bears, which is admirable, but at night they turn so vicious! Elongated front teeth, and their fur retracts inwards and pulsates, as if a miniature black hole were sucking their organs inside their own rib cage.
Spiders grow thrice their size. Snakes get their appendages back. Bats are no longer blind, and are released from their cages. The mice they feed upon grow fatter, full of meat.
The giraffes don’t change. They’re hideous enough.
It was a great experience. Probably my favorite so far. The kids loved every soul-harrowing minute of it, of course. I bid farewell to Roger William and we casually left.