#quo vadis meta

[peonymoss]

New fic: "Investigations

New fic! A prequel to a prequel - perhaps a little self-indulgent - but if you like my original characters, particularly Frank Sousa, you might enjoy this. No familiarity with any fic or fandom is required. The new fic is "Investigations", set in summer, 1913, in southeastern Massachusetts, chapters 1 and 2. It continues my fic "Introductions".

I am thinking about moving my fics on AO3 to registered users only to make it harder for creepy AI-type things to get at them. If you think this is a terrible idea, please let me know. If you need an invitation to register at AO3, hit me up.

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

Poll results - quo vadis, blog?

The poll is over and done. Thanks to everyone who voted! <3

So, let's analyse the result:

About 10% of my followers voted, I don't know if that's representative when taking into account time zones and online habits, but I get what I can take.

First, I'm happy that so many people enjoy my meta. It's one of the main reasons I created this blog. I would love to write more meta, but putting my thoughts into a form that has some analytical merit, takes time.

To be honest, I expected reblogs to be in first place because they get the most engagement although I am aware that most of my posts are reblogs and thus are the posts that get seen most often.

What actually hurts is the little interest in my writing. It's not actually that surprising because posts about my fanfics get the lowest engagement of everything I post on this blog (except for the big bang project, it's 2-3 likes at most). I had three people writing in the comments that their interested in these among others (thank you for that, I deeply appreciate your support! <3), but given that my stories are the other big reason I made this blog is... well, let's just say it's disheartening. Especially as my metas, which seem to be so well-loved, result from the same analyses that are the backbone of my works.

I have many theories why that is so. First, I'm a canon fanfic writer (this also includes pre and post canon) and I happen to write in a fandom where, at least to my knowledge, canon stories fill a niche and the stories that can be told in such a context have already been told over and over, which could mean that there is no need to have more like that. As a consequence, finding my audience aka people who love canon stories and who would be thrilled to read my works and get in touch with me isn't easy. I can't stop wondering whether I did enough to find "my people". (For context: I came here to share my stories with the world. Writing is a huge part of how I connect with other people. I've been here for 1.5 years and I still don't really feel as if I belong)

There are more theories, but I'm not going to discuss them because they will only drag me down.

Anyway, I will try to post more updates and not only chapter announcements+excerpts. However, I'm not the kind of person who likes sharing details about a wip that I will post in a year or so. It feels like giving away too much and lately, it feels like promising something that might never come to pass. Often, I end up deleting excerpts of a wip a few hours after I posted them because the wording isn't good and the text sounds weird when taken out of context. But I don't really see any other way to be more vocal about the fact that I'm a writer. I don't even know whether this will work and I might give up after a while even more disheartened, but at least then I won't blame myself for not trying hard enough.

If you're not interested in more writing updates, excerpts etc., feel free to unfollow this blog, although I'd be sad to see you leave.

[neonwizardheehee]

Vibrating and making 10min memos bc I finally finished Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz. And wow the writing style? The meta? The switching of POVs and main characters??? Sure it was long and tedious in between but alone the fact that Nero was merely described out of reach for anyone at the beginning and it took like what 50/70(?) pages until we finally have him actually in a scene vs. the end of the book where the last chapter is a Nero POV and OH THE BEAUTY OF IT

[sailorspica]

writing

canon x canon fanfiction

This House (2/6, hiatus): In the company of ghosts and their survivors, Hitch keeps doing her job. A nonlinear Hitch Dreyse character study through regime change and yearning, eventual HitchAnnie.

Husbandry (one-shot): Three years after the Rumbling, Paradis Island's cattle-rearing goddess sends two of the Survey Corps' finest to deal with a population of feral sheep. Literal fluff for ReiJean Week 2024.

one (1) x reader snippet

ilu kenny anon

meta

topics: #aot politics, #aot theology

hitch is jean in a different font

kenny ackerman apologism

zeke jaeger messiah claimant

wallist ecclesiology

the founder ymir eve-mary replacement theology run

krista/christa and mariology

titan biology and ableism

quo vadis iseyama and anti-judaism

mar- etymology

headcanons

queen historia

food allergies

aot characters favorite fruits

kenuri in school castes

kenny raising mikasa -> MP mikasa

GIFs

attack on titan: hitchannie, reijean

dungeon meshi

k-on!

sailor moon

sakamichi no apollon

shitposts

reinerplasty

hitch jean sibling chronicles

hange zoe's no good very bad days

kenuri zevi oral

[peonymoss]

Relentless plugging here. If you like my Sousa extended family OCs? (Frank, Ines, Tillie, et al)? You will definitely want to check this chapter out.

You guys

You GUYS

I did it.  I posted another chapter. 

Only took me (checks watch) nearly three years.

[bookofjudith]

alright everyone listen to me ab quo vadis captain chandler. Listen to me. YES chandler decides he is Christ because Christ is famously pacifist and chandler is so disgusted with his own actions he wants to be what he is not: a harbinger of peace and love. However. Consider that chandler is Christ not because he refuses to do any more harm but because he did harm. In His own image. What can be more god-like than unleashing untold wrath and fury and hellfire on unsuspecting people who don’t know any better. “I am like you; why don’t you love me?”

[thebreakfastgenie]

trapper

Trapper my beloved.

favorite thing about them

I love that he’s the one the locals go to for help. Also he has that good doctor but still somehow a himbo thing going on and I love that.

least favorite thing about them

I guess same as Hawkeye, the way he treats women, mostly how casual he is about Margaret nearly being assaulted. Unlike Hawkeye, he doesn’t get the benefit of eight more seasons of character development and writing evolution. Also, went to Dartmouth. Ew.

favorite line

I can’t think of a good one but I love “we have to do something about Hawkeye” because I like the scene and I always feel like Trapper is aware that Hawkeye isn’t doing great.

brOTP

Piercentyre for sure. I love the peas in a pod thing. They’re just so believable as best friends, more so than Hawkeye and BJ in my opinion. I also love them as a trio with Henry and the rare occasions that Margaret joins in. I wish Trapper and Margaret could have developed more.

OTP

I’m so lame for this but I think he actually loves his wife and stops cheating after he gets home and they stay together. I read this fic once where she was this tough woman from Southie and gave him permission to sleep around during the war and it was excellent. Other than that I think he and Hawkeye had threesomes together lol.

nOTP

None that people actually ship. I’d hate him with, like, Radar. Also, I’m okay with Piercentyre as a wartime fling but I don’t really think they’re in love. I have enjoyed fics where they are, though.

random headcanon

He does stay in touch with Hawkeye idc idc that deleted line from Quo Vadis Captain Chandler is my life. Also I think he doesn’t order martinis much when he gets home because he expects them to taste like in the swamp and they never do.

unpopular opinion

This is kind of a meta opinion but I think he’s much more interesting and developed than people give him credit for. I feel like I have a decent sense of who he is. I think Trapper has more personality than BJ does in season 4 and arguably season 5. While Henry Blake probably wouldn’t have made the transition to dramatic MASH well, I think Trapper would have if Wayne Rogers had decided to stay. Also, I think if they actually met, Trapper and BJ would get along well after some early friction over Trapper’s infidelity.

song i associate with them

You know, I can’t think of one. Let me ruminate. Only thing coming to mind is Leaving On a Jet Plane, lol.

favorite picture of them

Can’t get a pic but that one shot of the oatmeal on his face dndndndndndn Wayne’s face is so funny.

[frumfrumfroo]

What other stories do you love that deal with themes of trauma, forgiveness and compassion as you explore through your meta about Ben? I recommend Fruits Basket (a manga; there is a decent anime adaption, but the manga is better) and The Last of Us Part II. The Last of Us Part II in particular got a similar reception to The Last Jedi and I feel it's for the exact same reasons. Some people have so much hate and love for punishment in their hearts.

I am a fan of Fruits Basket! (I really love the original anime even though they had to make up their own interim ending, I thought they did a great job given the circumstances. I would still rec it to people as a gateway drug to reading the manga, because the manga does have some pacing problems. I’m also very emotionally attached to the English dub so yaaay they got the actors back for the new adaptation- which I will watch when they finish it.)

I heard there was kerfuffle over that game but I didn’t know what it entailed. I will put that on my list to check out.

Recs: still Phantom by Susan Kay. You don’t need to have read the original Leroux novel, just knowing the basic elements is enough. Seeing the ALW stage musical or just having heard the original cast album is loads. (Do not see the 2004 film.)

Les Misérables. The whole book is entirely about those themes and it’s beautiful. If you don’t read French, try to avoid the Denny translation.

Quo Vadis

Crime and Punishment

The manga Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts (B&tB-adjacent, every antagonist is humanised and ‘defeated’ with the power of compassion)

The original Final Fantasy VII is dominated by those themes (you can play it on the switch, you can run an emulator, you can acquire the original PC version, or the PS1 disc will work on PS2 or PS3, make sure to use a guide so you don’t miss any of the optional story because there is some very important flashbacks and whole major characters you can completely bypass without realising)

(FFIX is into those areas as well, though much less so than VII.)

Series 9 of New Who is the most uncompromising and demanding statement about compassion in mainstream media for decades, though you really need the anniversary special and series 8 for context (and series 8 requires a little forbearance before it makes its point). Classic Who is also HUGE on this, but that is a massive can of worms and I don’t know how patient you are lol.

The anime Twelve Kingdoms. This is a criminally underrated masterpiece with my other all-time favourite female character (other than Clarice Starling, that is). It’s a sprawling high fantasy epic, but it’s intensely character-driven and Youko’s arc is just... just the best. There is a tonne of dealing with trauma and learning to understand where hostility comes from and discussion of what constitutes justice.

The manga Rurouni Kenshin, it’s the post-redemption living and struggle for atonement you never get to see in other stories. Also: happy ending!!

The anime Trigun (Vash is the poster child for radical idealism)

Star Trek can be good for this, particularly TNG.

Some movies: The Fall (2006), Metropolis, The Fisher King, The Spirits Within, You Can’t Take it With You, Mirrormask, The Petrified Forest, Benny and Joon, California Solo

With the essential caveat that you must stop watching halfway through episode 11, the kdrama Robber is a full-on, balls out redemption romance which is not kidding about making its protagonist a very grounded and realistic asshole who genuinely needs redemption, and it doesn’t apologise for its optimism about human nature and the power of love at all. The female lead’s story centres on her recovery from trauma and there is a lot of forgiveness and a lot of humanising of characters who would be flat villains in most shows.

If you want my (narrative form) thesis on the things I rant about here, I’ve come to realise it’s basically my Loki fanfic.

[peonymoss]

Fic Update: "Quo Vadis", Chapter 68

An “Agent Carter” * prequel: How Daniel Sousa got that lead, and his long journey through recovery to the SSR.

This chapter: “Interviews”

[cauldronofmorning]

Just curious. Top 5 and least fave 5 MASH episodes ?

Rude, cos there’s just so much different kinds of episodes, but thank you. Let’s see, in no order: 1) Rally Around The Flagg Boys: one of the best comedy episodes, with probably explicit as they could get Hawk-bi, angry protective BJ, ridiculous Flagg and Winchester proving how much better he is than Frank

2) Dr Pierce And Dr Hyde: all the Hawkeye breakdown episodes slap me in a different way, but he sounds so much like a vulnerable child in this one that it brings out the parental instincts in me, and there’s fun Trapper meta to be had too

3) Dear Sis: Father Mulcahy deserves the world, as @transovid can attest to. It’s both heartbreaking and so found family, and I love it so much.

4) Dreams: I started this show when I was fourteen and over a decade later, everything in this episode has stuck with me, like the wind in Margaret’s dream, BJ having to completely ignore Peg because he’s working, the religious horror in Mulcahy’s, Winchester feeling like all he has is tricks, or Hawkeye breaking himself into pieces because he doesn’t know how else to cope

5) The Life You Save: I’m realizing this is a soft !Winchester biased list, but he always kills me in this one (runners up: Temporary Duty, Hot Lips And Empty Arms, Carry On Hawkeye, The Joker Is Wild, Quo Vadis Captain Chandler) --- 1) House Arrest: I don’t like Frank, and I don’t get the amount of tropers who wanted him to be the hero, but he didn’t deserve punching this time and all the rape jokes are gross

2) Operation Nosejob: at least Bananas Crackers And Nuts have five minutes of Hawkeye Sanity, I can’t think of anything redeemable in this one and Margaret deserves better

3) Snap/Snappier Judgement: there’s some interesting character moments, but it’s in a better season and it’s just pretty dumb

4) The MASH Olympics: why waste cute angry Margaret on such a fatphobic episode

5) The Ringbanger: @texasjew has good meta somewhere on weaponizing homophobia and what that means for our fave aunt Hawkeye, but still ugh to watch

[ratiovita]

Quo vadis

15.11.2019

Ho come l'impressione di non sapere dove andare.

Ho come l'impressione che gli altri sanno sempre dove andare.

Ho come l'impressione di non sbagliarmi quando loro chiedi e ti rispondono di non saperlo o non sapevano di arrivare lì.

Ho come l'impressione che sia solo certezza.

Ho come l'impressione che la mia meta sia solo perdermi all' infinito senza mai arrivare.

Perso in passato e perso in futuro.

[loseranthems]

fave movies and or shows? fave music artists and or bands?

mmmmmmmmhmhmhmmmm man good questions. i had to simmer on this for a hot minute but

some shit that id rewatch until my corpse rotted into the chair:

>the sopranos. theres seriously nothing on the level of this shit. there isnt a bad episode at all? this is spurring me on to rewatch it again for like the 9276th time just to prove myself wrong lol but, like, there aint. its solid and so fucking well written up until the very last second, and the amount of metas and psychiatric metas and character studies thatve been compiled over the past decade+ are tantamount to the fuckin quality on that shit

>low winter sun. got shelved on AMC for being too dark, so it only got 1 season, BUT, its probably the best one season of anything at all. sopranos level writing, a realistic and unbridled slice of politics and daily grind of detroit. corrupt cops, insane OST? religion as a blurry roadmap to self-destruction? its good yall, and it does it without being too voyeuristic about the state of the city either. had to scrounge gutters to find a DVD of it but if you can buy that shit physical, do it. build an altar for it. votive candles and all man. fantastic, fantastic show. one of the few times the US did a better job than the BBC version.

>wallander. KUHLASSIK yall. dont even come at me unless youve seen this. and not the BBC version either, but henning mankells version with subtitles and shit. wow. and if you go off on a search for it online, uh, lemme know where you find it? i cant find this thing anywhere unless i drop like 90+ on amazon for it and man i like it but for one season? lmao. dont let that draw you back though, its nordic crime done right. its subtle, its understated, its nuanced, its slow going and slow burning and gritty. it hits hard and it plays out like a novel because it was one. so actually if you can find the novels for it, read em first. brilliant shit.

FILMS. gunna go just for top ¾ off the top of my head since this is hard to condense:

>the grey. hoooo weeeeEEE, yeah, this makes me go catatonic for like an hour everytime i finish watching this. adapted from a novel, and it shows in how it tells the story. very chaptered, well paced. its fucking amazing. very lord of the flies, a bunch of dudes wrestling with masculinity and power balance, and its just… gentle about it all. poetic, languid, stark in its novelization of dialogue and how it handles silence. amazing, amazing, amazing.

>Q U O  V A D I S. or any biblical epic, really. but ill sing the praises of quo vadis until i die. forever. holy fucking shit i love this movie. watch in bluray, dont watch it any other way. ill be in your window and dab violently everytime i make eye contact with you if i catch you watching this in 720p. steal a 60" flatscreen and watch it in the back of your GMC savana, or hijack the local entertainment section of your local best buy and put this shit on and watch it there. its so good its worth the risk of prison. seriously. ill send it to you in jail if you fail

>brooklyns finest. hahaha oh my god, its good. its good. guy who did training day did this, and arguably brooklyns finest might be better/his best work? oh my god man, its like a shakespeare play, and all striations that emerge in the characters are tied up elegantly in the end in a way that rivals old plays. so incredibly well done. i guess i just get hard at corrupt cop stories, especially in the 65th precinct. its one of the best (if not THE best) crime dramas set in modern times. like, what if affleck’s ‘the town’ didnt have that shoehorned in romance? and was darker? its like that. and that soundtraaaaack hahaha oh maaaaaaan. anything with green lantern alongside the delfonics is good.

(also im shit at updating it, but i do have a letterboxd if you wanna peep some of my nore notable picks: https://letterboxd.com/vpuvwv/films/)

MUSIC. way too hard to pick TOP OF ALL TIME anything so - shit ive been listening to hard the past week:

>lots of františek jiránek ?? and choral evensongs. lmao i dont have anything to commentate on this since im clearly not a classist cunt from sussex with a posh garden full of basil. but shits good, esp this: https://youtu.be/dZReCxQtQ7U

>connan mockasin. i think i first picked up on him a few years back in some offhand mixtape i downloaded but im back on his shit and goddamn: https://youtu.be/Teyy1A_AJso (also in the same vain of soft spoken guys wailing; old MGMT live sessions, been back on that too lately. just imagine standing in a starbucks with screenplays clackin about and their arrogant hipster shit in the BG. thats what ive been back to lately hahah)

>WILEY: https://youtu.be/sa1glDxNvfk. been outside of its circle for a while but UK grime has been taking me over the past week so, wiley. and donae'o. p money.

[aurelliocheek]

The Art of Coding

What a milestone: The demoscene was recognized as a Finnish national UNESCO cultural heritage.

It is a breakthrough for Digital Culture: In April Finland accepted the demoscene on its national UNESCO list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The ­Ministry of Education and Culture listed the demoscene on proposals from the ­National Board of Antiquities and the Intangible Cultural Heritage Expert Group as national cultural heritage of humanity together with eleven other cultural ­practices.

And shortly afterwards the Ministry of Culture and Science in North Rhine-Westphalia announced that the demoscene was nominated for inclusion in the national German UNESCO cultural heritage register. Together with three other cultures, the jury selected the demoscene as worthy of recognition from a total of 18 applications. A great success for Tobias Kopka from the Cologne-based applicant Digitale ­Kultur e.V., responsible for the application in Germany and the community work of the overarching Art of Coding initiative.

Making Games talked with Tobias about Art of Coding, the demoscene and his further plans.

Co-initiators Andreas Lange (r.) and Tobias Kopka presenting at the internal UNESCO conference about “Immaterielles Kulturerbe im urbanen Raum”, Dortmund July 2019.

Making Games: Please give us a short overview of your career in the gaming ­industry and your current position. Tobias Kopka: My background started in the demo scene. From the early 90s on we gathered on so-called demo-parties, and from there many of my friends went into game development, or closely affiliated industries like tech and security, and so did I. In the 90s and 2000s I worked in the tech-space, too, while doing my master in Media Studies and Political Science in Cologne. First appearances in the games industry started around 2007 with academic exchanges and workshops on mobile content development and a research project on Serious Games at the international film school in Cologne. Within this project I was also in charge to organise my first conference, which was on physical movement, learning and games. Which was actually super-stressful, but gave me a taste of what it means to bring awesome people together, curate programs and be a facilitator of connections and projects – in short: which got me hooked on the dopamine conference work life cycle. Bigger projects started with the first two editions of Next Level Conference in Cologne, and really took off with joining Aruba Events in 2012 for almost six years – being the Conference & Program Director for Quo Vadis, Berlin, and Respawn Gathering of Developers, Cologne – and also part of the team in the first year of devcom before moving on to the international level. Nowadays I’m the Festival Director of ­Ludicious Zurich Game Festival and also Head of Community Relations for Reboot Develop Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia and Banff, Canada, whereas I have good chances to slip in demoscene knowledge and connections here and there.

Shader Showdown with Flopine & NuSan at Evoke 2019.

What does the listing as National Inventory of Living Heritage in Finland mean for the demoscene and for Art of Coding?  For AoC it was the breakthrough, as it confirmed majorly, that the scene is matching pretty well with the UNESCO criteria for an immaterial cultural heritage from an application standpoint. For the Finnish scene I don’t want to speak on their behalf, but let me just say: people were pleased. For example, Remedy Entertainment (founded by sceners) sent out a tweet that day celebrating the success with reference to Future Crews “Second Reality”, a true demoscene classic and self-reference to their history. On a meta-level the national recognition means, that the scene now can benefit from the responsibilities and duties for a UNESCO member state, which are connected to a national listing. In article 13 of the UNESCO convention, the signing countries are obligated “to ensure the safeguarding, development and promotion of the intangible cultural heritage present in its territory.” This may support party organisers to raise funds or sponsorships and acquire facilities very concretely. Also, it will help us with preserving and discussing our cultural heritage not only within the scene but also via professional heritage institutions and experts in archiving and preserving digital culture for the years to come. As it will also help them more easily to justify spending money on research, archiving and preservation of something like the Demoscenes cultural history. And lastly but most importantly, it can help tremendously raising the awareness and attract new and more sceners with fresh perspectives and influx as it might give a spike in mainstream media. It is also a nice experience for many sceners and ex-sceners to hear about, as they love the idea that their personal history gets looked at from a new perspective, as a living breathing culture with relevance in its history and style.

Koopee Hiltunen, Florine Fourquart, Anna-Liisa Mattila, ­Andreas Lange and Tobias ­Kopka at Nordic Game ­Conference 2019

How did you even get the idea to found the initiative and apply for it?  The actual idea goes back to a collaboration with Andreas Lange, founding director of the computer games museum in Berlin and nowadays secretary of the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums and Preservation Projects (EFGAMP), in 2010. Andreas was building exhibits for the newly opened permanent exhibition of the museum and I curated and edited three ­videos for the permanent exhibition on behalf of Digitale Kultur e.V. for giving an insight into the demoscene. We knew each other before but stayed in contact ever since, especially during my five years working on Quo Vadis during gamesweek Berlin, as Andreas was in charge of Gamefest. One thing which connects both of us is that we have a passion for not only the practical and historical side of game ­development and games culture, but also still feel attached to the academic and ­social discourses around it. The actual idea spawned out of a conversation between the two of us two years ago, on where we see digital culture and also the challenges around it, and why ­neither games nor the demoscene or hacker culture, let alone Open Source etc. were deemed as cultural entities on the same eye level then our ­traditional cultural heritage.

How long was the decision-making ­process, and how exactly was it? After the initial idea, it took us a moment to mull over it. As it’s clear this is a project which will go on for years. So far no ­money involved, but it involves a lot of community work – scenewise and on the external cultural policy landscape. Addressing one of the largest cultural institutions in the world with a mission to put a subculture of the digital sphere – which is by the way very cautious for its independence and self emergence – on its official lists, is not an easy thing. But with all questions in mind – we decided to go for it and build a process, which constantly has to balance the community work, the application coordination in different countries and the outward-­facing initiatives towards the public, press and institutions. But first and foremost it’s about the scene, not to talk over the scene trying to superimpose a discourse or theme which isn’t really there, but build momentum for positive results. Big part of this is to build trust and keep people attached while gaining momentum at the same time. For me, it’s a great method to connect the personal history with my professional perspectives in media studies, game ­development and conferences. And to tell the story how a decentral and pretty competitive culture can build an absolutely marvellous community at the same time, which is producing breathtaking content for decades and a strong identity of international style, but also not shying away from the challenges. Building or expanding the scene relations is especially key for making sure the community is involved (which is no easy task in a decentral and informed and very decisive culture). Also making sure that the content is incorporating many perspectives and aims of sceners, based on conversations all around – while integrating these perspectives into our approach of the initiative and formulating directions on a meta-level. As we don’t want to define one perspective about the scene, as there are many as it has members – which is a key component of a decentral digital culture. But so far so good, sceners and also supporting institutions have declared their support in many countries or have joined the mission already, so we are on a good way!

We remember the 1980s when game fans sooner or later came into contact with the demos contained in cracker intros. How big is the demoscene and how relevant is it today? As there is no official census, we can only roughly gauge the numbers. We estimate it’s around 5,000 – 10,000 active sceners and many more people semi-actively attached to the scene. This is based on the numbers of people we see active at main community sites. Based on numbers of submissions at demoparties and on community-sides like pouet.net the numbers of active groups are in the hundreds, and in terms of demoparties are all over Europe and also beyond in US or Japan for example, as you can see on demoparty.net. Of course the median age of the members goes up each year a bit, and this is also one of the reasons why we wanted to initiate this initiative. So more people can join if interested to share their coding, or music or artistic skills or any other kind of creative contribution to the scene, or just join the community for the fun of it.  And like all other events right now we have to face the same challenges: all physical events are postponed or moved online because of COVID-19. Revision, the biggest demo­scene party worldwide was recently aired online during Easter, and at Evoke we are assessing the situation. Sceners can’t wait again being in the same space for 72 hours straight, from competitions to awards, voting to seminars, personal exchange and also celebrating friendship and the newest achievements together. Why the demo scene is still relevant? There are so many reasons: The self-­imposed limits in the competitions generates creativity outside of the ordinary, the community centers around knowledge, challenge and excellence, making things happen in unseen ways, and there is also a kind of digital heritage which is preserved admittedly, keeping some of that early-­computer-time spirit alive, just to name a few aspects. Since I joined in ‘92, every year the scene was discussed “to be dead”, and it has seen many changes and iterations. But at the same time, the scene renewed itself, again and again, is very vibrant and developing furthermore.

The hall at Evoke 2019. Evoke is an annual demoparty and for more than 20 years. It’s taking place at AbenteuerHallenKALK in Cologne, Germany.

What are the characteristics of the ­demoscene in general and the Finnish demoscene in particular? Just a few examples in bullet points: Size coding, live coding, shaders- and engine creation, all kinds of platforms for producing demos, pixel graphics competitions, music-tracker competitions, newcomer awards, audience voting etc. As you said the scene has its background in the cracker scene of the 80s and 90s, with strong European focus, but worldwide influence especially on people who got into programming and game development. Many studios were founded or influenced by demo­sceners. Every demo has to be released on a demoparty, and only once. The demoscene is caring for the heritage in old school competitions, and at the same time it’s pushing for the boundaries what is possible technically and creatively in self-imposed limits. The Finnish scene has been one of the most active worldwide and is tight knit. In competition with some other Nordic countries, there is probably no national culture in the world that has been more influenced by the demo scene like the Finnish one. This is because Finland also identifies nationally with its technology companies and games companies that represent innovation. Accordingly, the companies that have emerged from the demoscene are also something that people in Finland might like to identify with. Concrete examples are Housemarque or Remedy. But also on the association level, in the museum landscape or in academic discourse – everywhere people are positively open-minded towards the demoscene, probably also because it represents their own technological history and the technical and intellectual founding field of the later games industry, be it in PC or mobile. And to this day there is one of the biggest LAN parties and games events in Finland with the Assembly, which has its origin in the demo scene, which dedicating till today a complete exhibition hall with an own fully equipped stage to the demo scene for three days every year. On a meta-level, one can perhaps say that the North has a certain advantage in digital contexts because of long winters, a strong community identity (if you’re part of the Circle of Trust, you feel it for sure), and honest and clear feedback. My experience is that Finnish culture is characterised by a knowledge-oriented, pragmatic “no-bullshit” attitude, without being unfriendly or demarcating at the same time, which is very helpful in creative-technical, but also social movements.  Our demoscene-group Haujobb was also composed in its high times essentially from half German, half Finnish members – which might explain my slight bias in this direction. Nevertheless, the scene has its own history in each country, and despite all the enthusiasm for Finland: overall, the transnational identity of an international scene is the core message – also in the application.

Where can I watch some of the works? If you’ve never seen some demos, a great start is on our AoC homepage (demoscene-the-art-of-coding.net), where we have put some Youtube playlists in the about section. Other great works, which won the Meteorits this year (kind of the yearly ­Oscars of the scene) are linked on the Meteroriks website (www.meteroriks.org). And if you like what you see, the best way how demos are meant to be shown and consumed are of course Software generated in realtime in a few kilobytes or megabytes. The biggest community resources for this are the community-site pouet.net and the file archive of scene.org.

What’s next? The final aim is to be accepted as first digital transnational culture on UNESCO intangible cultural heritage lists. Germany and Finland were the initial submission spots – now we focus on building momentum in more countries based on the submissions which were successful so far. The scene is a strong European phenomenon, but has activists around the whole world ��� and especially hundreds of thousands of people, who have been influenced by the scene in some point in time – and hence feel ­attached majorly. So, if you have background in the scene, and want to push forward an application in your country – or want to help sceners with this – check our website and get in touch via email or our Discord!

Tobias Kopka Festival Director & Community Activist

Tobias is Festival-Director at Ludicious Zurich Game ­Festival and Head of ­Community Relations at Reboot Develop. Pro-bono side projects include the European Game Showcase during Game Developers Conference and ­#ArtOfCoding, an initiative to bring the Demoscene as first digital culture on UNESCO intangible world cultural heritage.

The post The Art of Coding appeared first on Making Games.

The Art of Coding published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[peonymoss]

@fuckyeahnaturalphilosophy‘s tags:  #all for me grog #the more things change

Getting Wasted on Torpedo Fuel During World War II,

During World War I the United States Navy first instituted a rule decreeing that no alcoholic beverages were permitted on ship. This didn’t mean that drinking stopped entirely on US Naval vessels, crafty sailors still found ways to smuggle alcohol on board or produce their own.  During World War II many sailors resorted to drinking the fuel from the Mark 14 torpedo. The Mark 14 was the standard torpedo used by the US Navy in early World War II which could be dropped from the air, used by surface ships, and used by submarines. To power the torpedo the Mark 14′s engine burned 180 proof (90%) ethyl alcohol. For those who don’t know, ethyl alcohol is the potable type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages.  Sailors would mix the torpedo fuel with juice, preferably pineapple juice but also whatever they could get their hands on. The drink was commonly known as “torpedo juice”.

In response to an outbreak of sailors boozing on torpedo fuel, the US Navy began denaturing the fuel, which means they would add a 5-10% mixture of methyl alcohol to the fuel. Whereas ethyl alcohol is potable, methyl alcohol is poisonous, causing blindness or death when consumed. Denaturing was a process created during the Prohibition Era to prevent people from drinking non-beverage sources of alcohol such as fuel, cleaners, and sterilizing agents. The idea is that if you mixed it with  poison people would be smart enough not to drink it. In reality, people drank it anyway causing thousands of deaths. 

To this day denaturing is still done and taken for granted without a thought despite many thousands of people being poisoned to death, not just desperate boozers looking for a cheap drink but accidental poisonings of children. Regardless, the Federal Government and most other governments have yet to change their policies on denaturing. I guess it’s worth it to keep people from getting drunk on rubbing alcohol. However, the US Navy did modify it’s policy regarding fuel alcohol. Like denaturing in the civilian world, denaturing of torpedo fuel only led to hundreds of deaths of sailors by methanol poisoning. Sailors would try various methods of filtering out the methyl alcohol, some as harebrained as running it through a loaf of bread. Most methods failed resulting in illness and death. Thus, the US Navy ceased denaturing of torpedo fuel but substituted methanol with croton oil, which is a potent laxative. The Navy figured that if they weren’t going to poison sailors who broke the rules by drinking torpedo fuel, they could at least give them a really bad case of the runs. Unlike methyl alcohol however, croton oil can be successfully removed from alcohol, in particular through distillation. All over the Navy sailors constructed crude stills to distill the alcohol from the croton oil. 

So then the Navy found itself back to square one, with it’s hands full of unruly sailors drunk on torpedo fuel. The problem was mostly resolved however with the invention of the Mark 18 torpedo. The Mark 14 torpedo had several problems; it often failed to detonate or detonated too early, it would run too deep, it would run in circles, and of course sailors were getting smashed on it’s fuel. Thus in late 1943 the US Navy adopted the Mark 18 torpedo, which was much more reliable, more economical, and utilized an electric engine. Thus no need for alcohol fuel.  At that point, much of the supply of underground booze in the US Navy dried up.

If you want to “relive” World War II history and make torpedo juice for yourself, it’s relatively simple. Just mix one part 190 proof grain alcohol such as Everclear (found at any liquor store) with three parts pineapple juice. Please don’t use methyl alcohol or denatured alcohol. Don’t eat Tide pods either you dumb shits.

[beertengoku]

{:en}Nara Quo Vadis by Nara Brewing Company{:}{:ja}奈良酒造：ならクオ ヴァディス{:}

Nara Quo Vadis by Nara Brewing Company: Where are you going with this?・奈良酒造：ならクオ ヴァディス：このビールはどこにいきますか。 #craftbeer #beer #クラフトビール #地ビール #ビール

{:en}Nara Quo Vadis is a 4.7% golden ale from Nara Brewing Company, based in Nara, in Nara, Japan. It’s part of their regular draft line up but saw life in cans during the Covid-19 pandemic, so at the time of writing, it’s unknown whether Nara Quo Vadis will see life again in the canned form. Nara Quo Vadis is brewed using Pilsner Malt and Carapils malts, along with Hallertau Blanc and Nelson…

[autohasser]

CRITICAL MASS BERLIN: QUO VADIS?

CRITICAL MASS BERLIN: QUO VADIS?

Bereits in den Neunzigern des vorigen Jahrhunderts sah Tadeusz Szewczyk Plakate der sog. Critical Mass in Berlin Mitte. Diese Art gemeinsames Radfahren als „kritische Masse“ um einen gleichberechtigten Platz im Stadtverkehr ein zu nehmen schien so logisch und reizvoll. 

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