Pac-Man redux
26 Jun 2010 5 Comments
in Digital art, Life, Thoughts Tags: google doodle, Pac-Man, video game memories
It’s been a month since Google celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the video game Pac-Man.
According Google VP Marrisa Mayer, Google was “overwhelmed” but “not surprised” with its success.
So, due to the great demand, access to the interactive Pac-Man doodle is now permanent and can be accessed at:
Notes:
1) To begin a game, click the “Insert Coin” button, it’s located where the “I’m Feeling Lucky Button” is found. If you want to play with two people, click the “Insert Coin” button twice. Additionally when two players decide to go at it, Ms. Pac-Man joins the fun.
2) Want to / Need to mute Pac-Man’s sounds? No problem. A mute button is located in the lower left corner of the game. Click to toggle it on, click again to toggle it off.
3) From the Google blog, “Pac-Man is controlled with arrow keys or by clicking on the maze, Ms. PAC-MAN using the WASD keys.
~MadSilence
Art of the YouTube Video
15 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in Art, Life, News Tags: Digital art, Guggenheim Museum, social media, video contest, YouTube, YouTube Play
Museums have embraced social media like Facebook and YouTube. Now the Guggenheim is turning YouTube into an art form, worthy of the venerable Guggenheim itself.
A Biennial of Creative Video aims to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video. Developed by YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum in collaboration with HP, YouTube Play hopes to attract innovative, original, and surprising videos from around the world, regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget. This global online initiative is not a search for what’s “now,” but a search for what’s next. Visit youtube.com/play to learn more and submit a video.
With video now available for anyone to produce and watch, almost anytime and anywhere—be it on cell phones, digital cameras, computers, or tablets—it has become the medium of choice for many aspiring artists. YouTube Play will recognize the current effect of new technologies on creativity by showcasing exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of digital media.
It is the goal of YouTube Play to reach the widest possible audience, inviting each and every individual with access to the Internet to submit a video for consideration. The end result will hopefully be the ultimate YouTube playlist: a selection of the most unique, innovative, groundbreaking video work being created and distributed online during the past two years.
Complete Rules and Entry Info Available Here.
Entries Close on July 31, 2010
~MadSilence
Holy Moly! and Kreativ Blogger Award
13 Jun 2010 1 Comment
in Blogging, Life, Thoughts Tags: Kreativ Blogger Award
Hey all! I’m absolutely flabbergasted and so pleased that you enjoyed the post on the Yoshida Brothers! I’ve often told my co-workers how the most rewarding part of my job as an English-language teacher in Japan is being a cultural bridge for my students, but it’s not often that I get to be one in the opposite direction as well! Thank you so much for responding so positively and for the WordPress team for selecting MadSilence for Freshly Pressed. The comments included interesting links I’ve listed here:
LadyRuby found a re-make of a Nightmare Before Christmas track by the Yoshida Brothers:
OneRetweet links to AutoTune to the News:
Kreative Blogger Award!
Also, in today’s awesome news, we’ve been selected to receive the Kreative Blogger Award by the lovely Elaine over at Latefruit!
There are 5 things you have to do when you receive this award – so let’s give it a go!
- Thank the person who nominated you for this award. Thank you so much Elaine! I hadn’t stumbled across her blog before, and I’m glad she came forward so I could! Elaine writes very positive and inspiring entries about aging and art, which I think is terribly important in our youth-centric society. She helps us remember that aging is not just about the failures of health and beauty that TV and drug companies like to remind us of, but a time of wisdom and enrichment of the soul that’s more important than an unlined face or un-experienced heart.
- Copy the logo to your blog (that’s it, no link or anything) Done! And a very cute logo it is!
- Link to the person who nominated you for this award. Done! LateFruit is now featured in the Blogroll as well as this post.
- Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting. 1) MS the Younger has a serious Lois McMaster Bujold obsession. If any of you like SF or just good lit, please please go and read some Bujold, especially the Vorkosigan series! 2) MS the O&W used to write for AntiqueWeek on glassware and other collectibles. 3) MS the Younger refuses to eat natto. Ever. No matter how long she lives in Japan. 4) MS the O&A had been known to wear lederhosen in his younger days. Hooray for German club! 5) MS the younger has been known to wear medieval clothing and attend the occasional SCA event. 6) MS the O&A has an amazing singing voice. 7) MS the Younger and MS O&W have the same face! It’s scary how much we look like each other!
- Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
MadDad recommends the following:
I discovered Six Orange Carrots last year, a WordPress blog dedicated by Beth to “my very small chicken named Pocket. And the very silly things I fall in love with on eBay. And to ongoing adventures in home improvement, gardening and making things myself.”
Garden History Girl encourages the reader to take seriously the study of garden history. “…gardens were–are–so much more than just a pretty place. So much more than just a collection of plants.” Arcady’s blog “include[s] recent garden history…spaces and objects of interest now, as well as what is past. No generation has a lock on what is beautiful or innovative, so the best understanding, the best design, the most satisfying garden places, have something of both past and present, now and then.”
The Younger Suggests:
Foodie At Fifteen (now 17), a wonderful blog by a boy with love for food after my own heart. I love reading about his adventures in the restaurant business and making food with professional techniques I’ve never heard of!
BubbaChic, a fun blog I discovered through Etsy! She makes amazing handmade dolls and her quilting and decorating projects are inspiring, not to mention fun pet and family stories as well!
WiseCraft who creates super-cool crafts from thrift-store finds…
Argot, full of crafting, cats, food and fun!
Last but not least, New Dress a Day.
One person’s trash is becoming my treasure this year. 365 days. 365 items of clothing. 365 dollars. And the blogging begins…
Need I say any more? Surfing in each day to see what sexy, stylish outfit Marisa has cobbled out of a few vintage buttons, ripped-out shoulders and muu-muus has become a daily obsession!
~The MS Team
Manic Monday: Off with his… beard?
01 Jun 2010 3 Comments
in Japanese Culture Tags: beards, Japan, News
Oh, Japan… the land where wearing your wife’s leopard print toilet slippers to the local convenience store is ok, but having facial hair is not ::sweatdrop:: It’s interesting to see what counts as ‘ok’ and ‘not ok’ in different countries. Tattoos, piercings and facial hair are so rare here that the last time I went home (for a friend’s wedding in Denver) I felt seriously weirded out. After living for so long in an atmosphere where tattoos are only for yakuza (even gaijin aren’t allowed into public baths if we have a tattoo, they don’t want any trouble with the local underground) and piercings and strange hair-dye are only for weirdos in Akihabara, America is certainly a change of pace.
Japanese bureaucrats face up to the clean-cut look
Isesaki authorities order staff to shave off beards and mustaches after complaints from public
Isesaki authorities order staff to shave off beards and mustaches after complaints from public
“I am designing beards for my customers that are considered acceptable in the company workplace,” Minoru Fujii, a member of Hige [beard] Club, a Tokyo beard advocacy group comprising mainly barbers, told Kyodo News. He added that there was little he could do to help the put-upon pen-pushers of Isesaki.
In feudal Japan, a beard was considered a symbol of power or a declaration of belligerent intent but bureaucrats in one town could find themselves sent to the bathroom, razor in hand, for sporting even the suggestion of a five o’clock shadow.
Authorities in Isesaki, Gunma prefecture, have ordered all male employees to shave off their facial hair, and banish all thoughts of growing any, following complaints from members of the public who said they found dealing with bearded bureaucrats “unpleasant”.
The ban, the first of its kind among Japanese public officials, applies to any manifestation of facial hair, from lovingly cultivated full beards to trendy goatees and designer stubble.
The only acceptable public face of Isesaki, the local government said, is a clean-shaven one. “Some citizens find bearded men unpleasant, so beards are banned,” an in-house notice warned this week.
The notice acknowledges the growing popularity of facial hair among Japanese men, encouraged by sportsmen and celebrities, but insists that “public servants should look like public servants”.
The ban was introduced this week to coincide with the start of Cool Biz, a summer campaign now in its sixth year that allows male staff to work without jackets and ties to cut down on air-conditioning and help tackle climate change.
The Isesaki ban is reminiscent of the strict rules on physical appearance enforced by conservative companies in the postwar period in the belief that Japan’s rise to economic superpower required absolute conformity.
But this was the first time that an absence of whiskers had been enforced among civil servants, the internal affairs and communications ministry said.
Bearded Japanese men sniffed at the town government’s belief that a workforce of smooth-chinned bureaucrats would “improve decorum”.
~MS the Younger
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