the ramble dump

[rolls in on a unicycle, playing the trumpet or something.]

I've very nearly finished The Aberration Chapter 4. Car chases are difficult to write. Fun, but difficult. Does it count as a car chase if the chaser isn't a car? Anyway, I've practically done that bit now. Just need to do the closing bit. I probably won't be 100% happy with it when I'm done, but I never am. I can always edit it some other time if I want.

Either tonight or tomorrow I need to start the next Agaffa chapter. There's a pointless flashback scene set in Miss Darley's mansion that needs writing. :P

Labels: agaffa, the aberration

# posted by Chris @ 11:21 PM 0 comments

Olli and Eye finished the first draft of Agaffa Chapter 6 last night. That brings us to the halfway point for what we're aiming for by the end of next week, which is just about right.

We also talked about how we were going to have the LOTR parody sketches and Agaffa accessible to both of us. One idea was for one of us to have a section of webspace where we could put all the 'shared' files, with a password, so that either of us could use FTP there. However, apparently Rydia (the webhost we'll probably be using) doesn't let you do that sort of thing. Also, there's the issue of consistency when it comes to webdesign. Both of our sites are going to be portfolios of our stuff, so if we want all of it to be under one design, the shared area wouldn't really work. In the end, we decided it would be best for both of us to have copies of the texts, put in our individual page templates.

With the LOTR parody sketches, because it's not really a collaborative effort (we both write sketches, but each sketch is written by one person or the other, not both of us), I assumed I'd be taking all of my sketches and putting them on Fat Man In Tweed, leaving Olli to do whatever he wanted with his own, but that might not be what's happening. It might be better to have them all in one place, but if we're both going to have copies anyway, I wonder if there's actually any point in us both having each other's.

I got my first bit of feedback for Release 1 of A Room Full Of Zombies from him last night. And that's only 'cos I downloaded it onto his laptop and started playing it. :P It kept him interested for around fifteen minutes, which isn't bad considering how little there is to it. He thinks he's roughly figured out the order you're supposed to kill the zombies in, but he hasn't.

Hm...this blog should really be more exciting. I think at the start of my next entry I'll roll in on a unicycle, playing the trumpet or something.

Labels: agaffa, webtechnical

# posted by Chris @ 2:46 PM 0 comments

Chris says:
what's the shield made of?

plaid says:
hm.....

Chris says:
i'm hesitant to say plasma, because that's been used in things like Halo (and possibly Star Wars) and i don't want to seem like i'm copying

plaid says:
let me think...

plaid says:
it should be made of something random and unexpected, but plausible...

Chris says:
some sort of electric pulse? they'd have to time it right, though

plaid says:
like... really really hot... something.... some sort of magneticized substance.

plaid says:
electro magnetic.... um...

Chris says:
and that wouldn't really effectively deflect weaponry, which is what it would be designed to do with a ship like that

plaid says:
electromagnetic something. fumes. some kind of fumes.

Chris says:
electro magnetic..if you look at the Matrix, they used an electromagnetic pulse to cut off the power of everything within a radius

plaid says:
electromagnetic blank fumes.

Chris says:
electromagnetic fumes?

plaid says:
i don't really know what im

plaid says:
talking about

plaid says:
i don't know...

plaid says:
i just thought it might sound good

plaid says:
:P

Chris says:
the pods wouldn't be obtaining their air supply from an external source, so fumes wouldn't really work :P

plaid says:
hm?

plaid says:
but if they were electromagneticized, they'd be all... electromagnetic...

Chris says:
fumes wouldn't be able to get inside the pods if there are no air vents or grids or anything

plaid says:
well, that's not what i meant anyway. i don't really konw what i did mean though

Chris says:
we wouldn't have to go into depth

Chris says:
it could just be 'energy shield'

Chris says:
i dunno

plaid says:
that's true

plaid says:
how about you just pick some impressive sounding phrase and use it?

Chris says:
it's got to be technically correct though. this is a comic story in some ways, but still.

plaid says:
technically?

Chris says:
it's actually got to be plausible

plaid says:
because energy sheilds actually exist in the world?

plaid says:
maybe they do. what do i know?

Chris says:
they could do.

Chris says:
we don't want something that just wouldn't work, plain and simple

Chris says:
like electromagnetic fumes :P

plaid says:
heh

Chris says:
we could cover it up with a name...a proper noun that they've given the shield

Chris says:
and it'd be alien technology anyway

plaid says:
like what?

plaid says:
yeah.

Chris says:
like McBob's Zaptasterum Shield

Chris says:
but not as stupid

plaid says:
heh. hm.... organic nitrogen-based powersheild. or super-enforced electron barrier.

plaid says:
how're those random random off the top of my head ideas?

Chris says:
crazy

Chris says:
you're razy

Chris says:
*crazy

Chris says:
organic?!

Chris says:
shield?!!

Chris says:
heh

plaid says:
heh

plaid says:
it could happen...

plaid says:
it's like... recycling.

plaid says:
only... um....

plaid says:
okay i'll shut up

Chris says:
'Quick, switch on the organic nitrogen-based powershield!'
'It's not working!'

Chris says:
'That's because it CAN'T! HAHAHAHAHA!'

plaid says:
you come up with it then. i give up.

Chris says:
we need a sensible yet alien sounding name

Chris says:
an alien scientist's name

Chris says:
Zaptasterum

Chris says:
:P

plaid says:
hm...

Chris says:
Kaltruxan Generator....generates the shield

plaid says:
okay

plaid says:
except i don't really like the letter k

Chris says:
Caltrux is a company/person's name anyway

Chris says:
Gantruxian

Chris says:
created by the scientist, Pierre Gantruxi :P

plaid says:
okay

plaid says:
i really don't care, chris. do whatever the heck you want

Chris says:
*sniff*

Labels: alien conversations, starcustard

# posted by Chris @ 10:53 PM 0 comments

I've started working on Release 2 of A Room Full Of Zombies. The basic elements of the flamethrower are now in place, as are a few other random quirks (like replacements for default messages). For example:

Are you sure you want to quit?

is now

Are you sure you want to randomly drop dead?

Nice and cheerful, because it's that kind of game.

I've done about a page and a half of Starcustard today, handwritten A4. There are a couple of issues that need to be sorted out, but aside from that, I've made some good progress. And that is always a good thing, children.

I also did half a page of The Aberration. The bit I'm currently on is IMMENSELY fun to write.

Labels: starcustard, the aberration, zombies

# posted by Chris @ 9:48 PM 3 comments

670 words. Not bad for a day's work, considering the usual pace. If we can keep this up (which is unlikely, but we're going to try), the next couple of chapters of Agaffa will be done in no time. We're aiming for them done by the end of the fortnight at least. I think we'll manage that.

(That doesn't include typing it all up, by the way.)

Labels: agaffa

# posted by Chris @ 11:45 PM 0 comments

I got the FTP thing to work! I don't know what I was doing wrong last time, but I'm now posting an entry into Kommingle. I tried the SFTP thing and it did that constant page-refreshing thing again, but when I retried the regular FTP, it worked.

So...problem more or less solved. I can take it off Kommingle now that I know I can do it, and put it on Fat Man In Tweed in the Summer.

Olli's sent me what we've written of Agaffa Chapter 6 so far. Today I'm going to work on that and send the whole lot back to him so he can do his next bit, and then I'll get some Starcustard done.

Things are moving along nicely, and I'm happy. :)

Labels: agaffa, starcustard, webtechnical

# posted by Chris @ 1:14 PM 0 comments

Now that the Easter holidays have started, I can start getting things done. And who knows? Maybe I even will. I have exam revision to be doing, but I'll still have quite a lot of free time.

The Aberration, Starcustard, Agaffa, A Room Full Of Zombies...and fatmanintweed.com. It's odd, I never really considered Kommingle as a 'project' as such...at least, not in the same way I consider all these other things to be...but with Fat Man In Tweed, it's different. It's a much bigger challenge now that I don't have anybody to rely on for the financial side of things, or for the webdesign.

Anyway.

Something completely unrelated: Master Beef, the protagonist of The Aberration, was originally created as the main character of a spoof of the first Halo game. The spoof was called Bananas and Laxatives. I intend to bring back some of the characters from the spoof. This will mean some nice Halo references for fans of the game(s), but it won't ruin it for those who don't really know anything about it.

You could always go and look up some information on the Halo games if you want to try and guess which characters' spoof versions are going to be used. :P

Or, alternatively, you could just not bother. Up to you, really.

Labels: agaffa, bananas and laxatives, halo, starcustard, the aberration, videogames, zombies

# posted by Chris @ 10:44 PM 0 comments

'What's she doing?' asked Winnie.

'Interrogating him, I think,' said Mike.

For a moment, the fat man in tweed seemed quite stunned, and even took a step backwards. But then he became a little more defiant.

'He's walking towards her!' exclaimed Phil. 'Woah. Now she's backing away. Looks like she's still talking to him, though.'

'We can actually see all of this, you know,' Mike pointed out.

'And now she's backing away even faster,' Phil continued, ignoring him. 'And he's advancing towards her.'

Winnie gasped.

'Ooh, that was quite a vicious swipe,' observed Phil. 'Nimbly avoided by our detective, I must say. Now she's turned around and she's running. She can actually run quite fast. Oh...woah...so can he, it appears. Very fast. Oh shit.'

---

From The Aberration Chapter 4.

Labels: excerpts, the aberration

# posted by Chris @ 9:14 PM 0 comments

I decided to try out the FTP thing by temporarily putting the blog onto the Kommingle webspace. Supposedly, this would allow me to have it on the site, but I would still be able to update it through Blogger. I haven't managed it yet.

The settings for publishing and archiving are definitely right, because I've checked, double-checked and triple-checked, and made all the necessary directories on Kommingle, but each time I try to republish the thing, it's saying there's an error. The connection is refused for one of the archive pages.

On the Blogger help thing I found something that said it didn't allow active FTP any more, and I'm guessing that's why it's coming up with this same error over and over. But, being the ignorant soul that I am, I could be wrong.

I've tried STFP. This is supposed to be the more secure option, but I can't get this to work either. It's stuck on 'Files published... 0%', and the page has been refreshing for ages. I did a little research, and it could be because it's a very slow process (I think Kommingle has to receive one block of data at a time or something similar), or it could be that the webhost, Rydia, doesn't support it, although this is very unlikely.

So...a little disappointing. I was hoping to get my head around that today, but never mind.

Labels: webtechnical

# posted by Chris @ 10:01 PM 0 comments

One of the purposes of this blog will probably be for me to talk at ridiculous length about the projects (writing, sketching and otherwise) that are going to end up on the site. I'm pretty sure I bore all my friends to near death by going on about these things so much on my regular journal, so this is a good place to try and redirect all that stuff to.

On fatmanintweed.com, in the hope if generating at least some vague interest, each story is going to have a small blurb. Just being there isn't really going to make anyone want to read them. People tend not to like reading stories off the computer screen as it is, so I should at least make some kind of an effort.

There's a thought...printer-friendly pages.

I think I'm going to edit/redo parts of The Aberration Chapter III (or 3, if you don't like Roman numerals. Why have I been using Roman numerals anyway? I don't know)...possibly even pad it out a bit, although anyone who gets through to the end of the second chapter will still be trying to recover from its stupid length, and will probably appreciate a shorter chapter if they decide to continue with it. A large part of Chapter III/3 was written in a day, and reading through it, aside from all the typos, it definitely shows signs of being rushed. I don't want to slow the pace of the plot, but some things are just a little too sketchy. I think the whole court case definitely needs to be expanded, but maybe the small parts with Master Beef and Phil need a little more attention too.

Well, I'll see how it goes. Consider these notes-to-self. Same for all entries in this blog for the next few months, really.

Labels: the aberration, webtechnical

# posted by Chris @ 9:23 PM 0 comments

I've been playing around a bit with Blogger and its various options and functions, and I should be able to do what I wanted, but if I'm going to avoid the use of frames, it'll mean having the whole index page being whatever I put in the Blogger template thing.

Once the design's sorted, it should just be a case of taking it and placing the weird Blogger code in it, rearranging some things. Then I'll have to sort out the FTP thing. Truth is, I don't have a clue about what it is I'm really doing, but pretending to is fun.

Labels: webtechnical

# posted by Chris @ 4:19 PM 0 comments

Hm. So here it is...the fatmanintweed.com news and updates blogthing. I don't even know why I've made it so early. If the site is created at all, it won't be for a good few months yet. Eventually (hopefully) it'll be embedded into the index page on the site, customised to fit in with whatever the site design is.

It's pretty much definite that we're going to end kommingle.com and start up two independant sites. Despite my lack of knowledge and expertise in the field of webdesign, I like the idea of having a website where I'm in (more or less) complete control. A collaborative effort certainly has its merits, but we both agree that having two independant sites will allow both of us to express ourselves exactly how we want to, without getting in each other's way.

So...here I am, talking to nobody. It's kind of pointless, but if anyone ever bothers to look in the fatmanintweed.com news archives in the future, this'll be here to show the early stages of how the site came to be.

Stay tuned, folks. The creation process starts here. :)

Labels: webtechnical

# posted by Chris @ 8:25 PM 0 comments