Raw Consciousness

VIDEO GAMES- where is Sven?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, when ATARI was marketing the Jaguar, there used to be an Atari Jaguar mailing list. A guy by the name of Christian Svenson used to moderate it (and I think created it too), and he did E3 videos/reports.

Christian Svenson eventually lead Next Generation Online - and lead it to imho great heights. And then Raist started palacing in Next Generation Palace - that used "The Palace" chat software which allows for nice graphic backgrounds, graphic avatars whose text is enunciated from bubbles like a comic book coming from them....

And I was named a Wizard (moderator in Palace terms)... and I met a lot of "kids" (12-18 years) which to this day, many of them are still my friends and we keep in touch. In fact, a couple of them are my "new cool online game - let's play" buddies... from eons past to the present.

So my question is, where is Sven? Where is Christian Svenson? Anybody knows him? His wereabouts? Last thing I know is when he left Next Generation to join a position to be "da man" in a retailer-video game type publication.. that was years ago.

Anybody knows? Much appreciated.

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - playing with shadows...

Here's a photo that surprised me because I noticed something by accident.. I was just trying to take the photo of the pipe but I like how the shadows played... what do you think? (click on the photo for a 1024x768 shot)

DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY - blue n' clouds

It's been a while since I have posted some photos so here are some that I took today while driv.. er.. while going to close the escrow...

MY LIFE - HRC campaigning...

For obvious reasons, I feel the need to post the link for donations for the HRC campaigning against the constitutional ammendement proposed by our current president, to ban gay marriages:

Click here.

I already did my contribution. If you can contribute money for this, go for it. Fortunately after looking at the list of sponsors for HRC, I see some big corporations seem to be against what Bush wants to do.

MY LIFE - technology, industry, educative

Glanced at The Inquirer and noticed a *very* interesting talk by an ex-Intel chip architect... you can see a lot of commentary not only on the technology but on the politics between the P4 core and the Itanium team.

Here's the link.

Very very interesting. Design decisions, issues, politics and a human face on all the process.

MY LIFE - depression....

Ska-dum. Depression hit today. To my credit, it's been really *a while*... probably at least two months. And I am already recovering. But boy did it hit *hard*. Amazing how my own creativity sides with "my own bad guy" inside of me and does negative visualizations.

MY LIFE - Sometimes I flash back...

Sometimes I flash back
and I think about the same things
in the morning hours, in my dreams,
a taste of the past becomes an alarm

Sometimes I flash back
and the nostalgia of old things grips my soul,
daydreaming, during lunch
a sweet dessert turns old

Sometimes I flash back
and wish it to all go away
when I find a reference in the evening
it makes me feel like I am screening

During the day the past becomes present
while my present becomes an unlived past
And the future, indiferent as always,
when I flash back, sometimes...

(C) RHM 2004

MY LIFE - internet dating services

Any reader has used any of these ever? Did they work/not work for you? What do you think?

MUSIC - American Life (Madonna) final comment

Well, I bought the CD and I gotta say, it's pretty good. I think before this one, Madonna's Ray Of Light was Madonna's best CD in her career overall, and it may still be.. but American Life is still pretty good. If you like Madonna, I highly recommend it.

MY LIFE- 1st year at Insomniac...

Today marks my very first year, my anniversary at Insomniac Games. Right on cue, I also got my first "serious" review (I have gotten a couple informal ones that I asked for myself). I kinda of expected what I got but nevertheless my self-concept took a toll on this expectation a bit - but it was actually very, very good.

I have to say that taking out for a moment the fact that I have improved in my carreer over the years, I have never ever worked at a games company with such a disproportionate high amount of honesty, a real clue about why games are good and fun, a company that also consistently listens to what I have to say and seriously considers it (accepted or rejected, and same with everyone else), a company that treats me and peers with utmost respect, a company that cares about my career, a company were peers will try to laugh with you and not *about* you. That at least 20-30% of the people I talk to on a random basis can follow me with my weird ideas in a conversation on games/game design and show a real care and interest about games; a company were most of its game programmers have a natural knack for art, frame rate issues, little details that separate a polished game from a could-have-been-more-polished game.

I don't want to pretend Insomniac is perfect, as nobody is... and I am well aware I tend to idealize people and entities too much sometimes (sometimes or most of the time?), although this is also changing in me since last October/November. I also don't want to imply I didn't enjoy moments or learn in previous companies I have worked at, because I did and I even maintain friendly contacts with some of my ex-coworkers. But I have never ever seen the whole combo at once in one place.

Thank you Insomniac, for letting me work, learn, and even shine a bit.