I decided to just go ahead and make a video on this, which is in the link above. Basically, I’m sick of idiots restricting freedom in America for no reason other than to hurt people they don’t like or agree with.

So now, I’ve decided to give a bit of a rant, and a bit of a guide on how to not chase people away from your fund raiser.

Number one: Do not be race exclusive.

The car wash i saw yesterday was entirely African American. roughly twenty to thirty members in the group, and not a single white, Hispanic, or oriental person to be found.

I am not a racist. But I am aware of race. When your race comprises roughly 15% of the population, and your group of 20 some odd people fails to have anybody of any other race in it, it implies that your group is excluding other races from being a part of the group.

When 85% of the population feels they would be excluded from your group based on race, you are unlikely to get much, if any patronage from them. Either allow a diverse group of people into your group, or split up so you can be identified as families rather than as a large group of racists.

Number two: be polite, even to non-customers.

When you are running a fundraiser, you are relying on the kindness of others to help you afford something. if you are impolite, or downright rude, other potential customers will be chased away as well.

In the car wash I saw earlier for example, the sign to draw attention from oncoming traffic was ‘manned’ by about 8 teenagers. When a car was approaching, they would frantically wave at it to try to get it’s attention, and when a car did not pull in, they would start screaming, yelling and shaking their fists at the car.

When I saw them do that to the car ahead of me, I had no interest in even giving my patronage to the store that allowed them to be present. You can wager that a fair number of potential customers were lost in this way.

Number Three: Keep your members under control

Still related to the last example, the teens yelling and screaming at the traffic chase business away. But those kids probably don’t realize that. You should keep an adult around the kids, both for their safety, and to keep them under control. If they had just one adult watching the kids with the sign, he could have told them not to yell at cars passing by.

If you don’t have control over how your group behaves, people will not feel comfortable allowing you to touch something as expensive as a car. Likewise, if you are selling home made treats and the group is completely out of control, customers might not trust the food’s quality.

It all really comes down to the simple fact, if you are doing a fund raiser, you are asking for charity. People can get more reliable service from a business than a random group of people. So, if you want to raise money, you need to take every step necessary to make your group appear welcoming and trustworthy to the average person right away.

I’ve begun working on fractal art, hoping to make some hypnotic designs. My first random fractal seems to have ended up being.. a little disturbing.

Random element from a dream I had last night were some weird guns. I am not skilled enough to draw most of them, but there was one fairly simple one I recalled well enough to try. Ended up scrunching it up a bit by accident, in the dream it was roughly 5 feet long, where here it seems more like 2. Mostly just more shaft was the difference though.

Probably should get around to updating my gallery with these images sometime XD Its so much easier to post images on the blog than to save the file, then save a thumbnail, then go into the FTP client, upload them both, then go into the gallery page’s code and add them ><

Floating all alone
Your mind is waiting
let yourself relax
close your eyes
Feel from your feet
to your head
let your body rest
and breath deeply
Wait for my count

Listen for the trance
Your mind is sinking
let yourself relax
you start dreaming
Send yourself so deep
as I count
down to one

4 3 2 1
You start sinking
drifting falling
floating weightless
sinking sinking down…

Second level down
Your mind is deeper
not a single thought
drifting sleeper
start to collect
all resistance
throw it all away
until we’re done
it’s so much fun

back at ground control
there is a problem
go to rockets full
not responding
“hello Major Tom
are you receiving
turn the thrusters on
we’re standing by”
there’s no reply

Down to your core
there are no problems
fall deeper now
you deserve it
listen to the song
if you enjoy it
let yourself drop down
now on my count
drift gently now

4 3 2 1
You start sinking
drifting falling
floating weightless
sinking sinking down…

Across your deepened mind
One last suggestion
Wake on my next count
and feel so good

In your deepest mind
you know my words will
bring you back just fine
in pleasure
now my words command
as you are drifting
wake as you understand
On count of four
you wake once more

One two three four

While wandering on minecraft, I ended up falling deep into a ravine. Fortunately, a lucky bit of water softened my landing. Unfortunately it seems I might have a bit of trouble exploring this place.

That is not to say he isn’t an idiot. However, as we ALL know, being an idiot is not a crime. Lets look at the facts shall we?

First of all, lets look at the fight.

Zimmerman is a 28 year old man, while Travon is a 17 year old teenager. Travon is depicted as a sweet innocent perfect child who would never do anything violent or bad in any way.

So how the hell does Trayvon get the winning edge in this fight? There is only one way; Travon isn’t a sweet innocent flower that media and his parents would have you believe. What he lacks in size must be made up for in skill. How do you get skill in fighting? well, if you don’t take a martial arts class, you have to get it BY FIGHTING.

Next, lets look at how distorted the evidence is. The 911 call shows clear blatant racial bias, because Zimmerman said without provocation that it was a black guy he was following.

Then it turned out that the news studio deliberately edited the video to remove the fact that the 911 dispatcher ASKED specifically for the race of the person in question. Why would a news studio need to edit that out? There is no good reason, and the only bad reason would be if they wanted to interfere with justice by enraging the public for ratings.

Lets hit this thing with Occam’s razor next. Now what, you may ask, is Occam’s razor. Well, Occam’s razor is a saying that out of any set of situations, the simplest is usually the most accurate. We need to make some assumptions about the character of Zimmerman.

So, if he did shoot Trayvon in cold blood, which would be murder, his personality would have to be hateful. So hateful, that he is unable to restrain himself from acting violently when the urge takes him.

So, the question is; why was he beaten and bloodied? if you have a gun, and you are going to kill someone, you do not start a fist fight. Occam’s razor would have to cut this. In order to believably be an act of hate, Zimmerman would have to have a calculating mind, one that cooly determined that he needed to start a fight with Travon, lose the fight, get enough injuries to claim he was defending himself, then still be able to draw his gun and shoot.

How many REAL killers do you know of that are like this? Who do we think this guy is? Hannibal Lector?

Now, what if we assign a more reasonable personality; lets say, an over zealous neighborhood watch member. While the dispatcher did say not to follow Travon, Zimmerman’s response wasn’t ‘but he’s BLACK’ it was ‘they always get away’ this implies that maybe he’s made reports before that have ended up with a criminal escaping because the police wouldn’t show up.

Occam’s razor wouldn’t touch that. His motivations make perfect sense and it isn’t overly complicated or twisted.

Let’s look at Trayvon’s personality.

If he is a sweet innocent kid with absolutely nothing bad about him, when put into a situation of a fight, why did he attack repeatedly? What causes him to decide after knocking his attacker to the ground that instead of running away he should grab the man and begin beating him repeatedly against the ground? It does not add up. We have to cut it.

But what if he isn’t so innocent. What if he didn’t like being watched, and got angry. If this is the case, him attacking first; and continuing to attack makes perfect sense.

The problem here is, the situation Zimmerman puts forward is one which you can easily see happening. Trayvon’s supporters would force you to accept that Trayvon has never done anything bad in his life, is a sweet innocent kid who is an expert fighter for absolutely no reason at all, and that Zimmerman is a sick twisted individual who is so manipulative that he would subject himself to a beating willingly just to have an excuse to shoot someone.

Honestly, you should never buy a story that forces you to make this many extraordinary assumptions for no reason other than to appease an outraged group of people.

The game would start with Dart, the main character, who has recently moved to a new town, where things are a considered to be a bit ‘extreme’

The story begins that Dart finds he needs to get some milk for making his dinner, and goes out to the store. The first stage is ‘on the way to the store’ during which cars will swerve to hit him, while shooting at him. Destroying cars causes item drops for power-ups and points.

At the mid point of the level, a pink haired little girl challenges him. The fight is very brief, and afterward the girl is upset that Dart was so rough with her, and vows to tell her big sister.

The end of the level, the big sister appears and almost straightens things out with Dart before mentioning they live there because their father had to get a job driving the 16th car on the level. Dart recollects that he might have blown that car up, leading to a fight with her.

Second stage is inside the shopping mall. In this stage cans and bottles fall from the shelves which do damage on impact, and can be destroyed for the same effect as the cars in the previous stage.

At the mid point, you meet a crazy shopper who screams about coupons and sales before attacking Dart.

At the end of the level, Dart is about to retrieve the milk when a mysterious figure appears to challenge him, as there is only one bottle of milk left.

The third stage is returning home. The cars are again attempting to murder Dart, and at the mid point, Dart runs into, and subsequently upsets some kids playing baseball, and has to fight three kids who attack with thrown baseballs.

At the end of the stage, the girl from the first stage, still injured arrives to re-challenge Dart, for the sake of her father. This is interrupted when her father shows up and reveals that the drivers have good protective gear for driving.

Unfortunately for Dart, after beating up both of his daughters, the father is obligated to fight him. This will be of course the most difficult battle.

At the end of the battle, Dart finally arrives home with the milk intact. As he begins to collect the ingredients he realizes he forgot the butter, and the game ends with a splash panel showing him running back out the door towards the store saying “Here we go again”

My only question would be; does this seem like a decent parody idea, or does it seem like something that would enrage fans of the TouHou series?

I believe I’ve gotten the basics down after making those various games. However, having functional mechanics and having something fun to play are not the same thing. My sense of humor has helped a couple of my games a bit, but a large part of my focus will need to be on making the game play well.

Which leads to a few design questions, which would be good to get opinions on, you can leave a comment below if you have a preference.

First on my list of things to decide: Should the Genie have a life bar?

I’m thinking no; Since she is a magical creature, her ‘body’ is more a construction of magical energies. A magic bar representing fuel for magic, and physical stability would make sense in this case, and would provide an additional challenge.

On the other hand, most people nowadays are used to life and magic being separate, and might be upset by the idea that they could spend magic to death.