Posts by Bic-B@ll

  • Brand spanking new portfolio!

    i love it for its sheer simplicity and the effectiveness of getting the message across. however, im not sure that's all that scouts are looking for. but wouldn't you also want to include what tools you're proficient in and other such info? it seems like all that's listed is you name, email address and pics of your work.

  • My Beautiful Mind

    What you’re reading absolutely affects how you read it, but I remember having issues like this when reading Tom Clancy books that I was in to. Don’t worry, 14 hours and I pulled it off…I haven’t gone to sleep yet and the final is in three hours, if I fall asleep I’ll forget everything D:

    Exercise is on the list of things to do, there’s a small exercise room in the dorms that I think I’m going to start use the treadmill and bike in.

    Making myself food isn’t really an option, I live in a dorm room and am not allowed to even have a microwave. The dining hall doesn’t have great food but I can still get square meals, I’m not big junk food eater.

    I don’t know if I could ever part with IRC.

    My homepage is like 30 RSS feeds

    Of the four forums I visit, only two are active enough for me to post in.

    I have my IM boot on start up, but it’s definitely crucial to close while doing any kind of work, I’d end up turning it back on though.

    Don’t have a physical phone, but my cell is on me at all times.

    I just went to sell my books back and they offered me $118 for $353 worth of books. That's not including the most expensive one that I still need. Pretty pissed about that but I'm going to go to an independent bookstore down the block tomorrow and see if I can get some better prices. Not sure why I wrote this as it's completely irrelevant, but fuck textbooks.

  • My Beautiful Mind

    I was on Facebook between refreshes (omg new friend ). Putting the computer away is key. When I started reading I had Pandora playing some music and I could see the IMs popping up and had to reply, within the first 20 minutes I ventured onto IRC and had an hour long chat about I don't even remember what. Even if I turned it off it would still be there haunting me. I literally tore all the cables out and hid it in my dresser 'till I was done. I was ready to hand it to my roommate and tell him to not let me use it. I think I'm going to start going to the exercise room and riding the bike and running on the treadmill a bit, physical activity is supposed to help mental stuff too. I do a lot of sitting around now-a-days. I think the best course action is alternative activities; it doesn't help that is like 4 degrees out, but just about anything is better, guitar is a legitimately excellent one.

  • My Beautiful Mind

    I like the guitar idea, my brother has one that I can pick up and learn, and I’ve always wanted to, but I’ve been too lazy. Problem is that I'd hop online to learn how to play and end up surfing the web for 12 hours with a guitar in my lap. It's something I can take back to the dorms though which is cool. I see what you're saying about losing interest and I'm definitely there, I'm taking classes on the atmosphere, business law, economics, and American literary history. Two of them are three hours long and they’re all beyond dry. However, I've always been able to pay attention in school. I never really did homework or studied but just always went to class and paid attention and did rather well in school. Luckily, my grades aren't suffering currently, well, as far as I know.

    I'm no slave to news, I have a few RSS feeds but only read things that peak my interest or are big stuff (F/18 crash ). A lot of it is technology stuff. I don't know if you've ever been on Digg but it's a stockpile of funny, interesting, creative etc type things that can keep you occupied for a long time. Maybe you should stay away if you're like me. I too used to have IRC on my second monitor to be a constant distraction. I only have my laptop at school but IRC is open as long as my computer is on.

    I'm not sure if I can call it an issue, but it's like there isn't much to do in society as a whole. You can only go out drinking or something so often. I spend hours in other people’s rooms, yet I still have tons of free time. Bowling and such isn't going to touch it. The internet and video games and such are always there easily accessible to entertain you. Combining the computer and education is absolutely a huge issue for me; how the hell am I supposed to concentrate on my paper in Word with people IMing me, people chatting on IRC and the internet right there. I have a class that has all its homework on the internet, it's awful. I think it's almost an unrealized society issue, technology is great and all but we use it all day and it takes away from socializing and normal interaction or even stuff like reading actual things.

    As for music, I love music, it's playing all day. The right kind can relax me and I listen to while studying, especially acoustic or instrumental stuff. But I don't find it very relevant, if anything it helps in shutting the environment out.

  • My Beautiful Mind

    So I’ve been in college for a few years and this semester transferred to another school. I now sit in huge lecture halls and stuff. Anyway, its finals week and being the procrastinator I am, I have to cram about 400 pages of reading, finished a thirty-six page journal on Sunday, and have a five page paper due. I’ve been noticing in class and when doing reading and stuff that I simply can’t focus. It’s been getting worse over the past couple of years. I’ll sit in class, look at the professor and then think about any random thing. I’ll think about random shit all class and if I’m lucky hear 4 words from the professor. I think sitting far back in a huge stadium lecture hall contributes to this but there is an underlying problem. I used to read books but haven’t in a while; when I read the ones for class, although dry as hell, I can’t focus for shit. Just like in class I’ll read something and then my mind wanders. I have to go back and reread the section, sometimes several times.

    I legitimately think that the root of this problem stems from my computer usage. I’ve used it daily and frequently since I’ve been able to walk. When I was in elementary school I played Counter-Strike all day, when I got a bit older I talked on forums and did some Half-Life mapping and played some console games. As I got older I got a laptop and could use the computer anywhere, plus I had a cell phone to txt on and play Tetris. I had a job for about two years and that suppressed my usage. When I did use the computer it was usually on the couch watching TV; I’d take hours to watch one 30 minute Daily Show because I’d pause it to read stuff on the internet. Now I’m away at college in a dorm with no job, no television, and once again spend copious amounts of time on the internet. My current trends are Digg, IRC, AIM, Facebook, 4 forums, and all the RSS feed on my iGoogle page. While my usage obviously is excessive spelling it out like that makes it seem really bad, I’d like to assure you that I do have friends, am not fat, do leave my room, do go out, and when I was at home rode a bicycle daily.

    For those of you who focus as bad as me and are scared of the wall of text, I'll break it up with a silly picture.

    [Blocked Image: http://msp38.photobucket.com/albums/e108/Funwithfood/IMG_1814.jpg]

    The way I browse Digg and the forums is to open whatever I find interesting in new tabs and quickly scan through each tab for a few seconds and read what I want. I read a few comments too. The point of all this explanation is that I think the quantity and type of usage has altered me mentally. I think in quick thoughts like a scatterbrain, I’m all over the place, on a new news article every 2 seconds, alt-tabbing, chatting etc. If you apply that to real life, that’s how I act when in class and reading. To compound it, when I have to do work I’ll do a bit and then hop on the computer; on top of making me not think straight, it distracts me. It’s hard to say it’s an addiction, but it probably is.

    Today I had 274 pages of business law to read, possibly the most boring thing ever. After doing the typical read and inch and then hop in IRC for half an hour, someone I know came in my room. I asked him about the Adderall he takes and tried one for myself (I’m not sure if this is going upset/offend anyone, but I don’t really care). It took quite some time to kick in but eventually I closed the blinds, closed the door, dismantled the laptop and hid it in a drawer, turned off the phone, turned off the music, turned a fan on for a little white noise and started reading. I soon realized that reading out loud helped me focus immensely. For 14 hours I read that damn textbook out loud and just finished.

    So what I really want to know besides reactions is if anyone else can see a relationship between the way their (or anyone’s) brain/mind/thoughts/focus is affected by their computer/internet usage. I haven’t looked into any type of research on the matter, but I’d be surprised if there aren’t scientific studies linking the two. School is over next Wednesday and I’ve got a month off. I’m going to make a conscious effort to cut computer usage back very drastically. Things like reading books, taking the dog for walks, watching some TV shows straight through, going snowboarding…any activity like that to help redeem my concentration. I don’t want to say it’s destroying my life, but I can’t continue in college like this and I don’t want to be like this for the rest of my life. I feel like I need to do something about it and cutting back/stopping is clearly the answer. I don’t want to be one of those kids who throws “ADD” or “ADHD” around because they think it’s funny or something but I’d be surprised if I didn’t have some of both. I don’t want to be medicated though. Just something I wanted to get off my chest and it came to a huge point today.

    /longest post I've never made on Mapcore

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Quote from Warby

    best mofo ref ever ! :megamon: this is gonna make a great map

    i like this one a lot too, i have hundreds of pictures of this place, i scour flickr and webshots often:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.zeroproof.com/bicball/giuliopic.jpg]

    I did some more work on the map this morning. im impressed with myself doing all this mapping, i typically get really distracted, i guess its just a matter of time. a far as the map goes i think i may have some scaling issues. i went through it this morning and moved bits around to make things align to the grid better so it should be easier to texture, but i think i may end up with some giant ass buildings that will be really hard to rebuild scaled down. this is combined with the fact that a majority of the island is going to have to be built at an angle and i lack reference images for basically everything not currently mapped or facing the water. but what the hell, its a cool project that hopefully i can see through.

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Quote from tofu

    I have a love hate relationship with hammers shortcuts, I think they're pretty friendly on the usability side but everytime I go into photoshop it messes with my head as I start shift+'ing all the PS shortcuts. What game is your level for, standard HL2?

    i have no problem with them, its just been two years since i used them., i was impressed with myself for knowing so many of them off the bat.

    Quote from m8nkey

    I like your reference Bic-B@ll. Do you have a specific game in mind or just making it for the sake of it?

    i have a few hundred pictures for reference but there are still several areas that i'm going to have to just invent since there are no pictures.

    thanks punky

    Quote from Skacky

    Bic Ball: that looks gigantic!

    thats what she said, and yeah, it's pretty damn big

  • post your pic extravaganza 2008!!!~

    is it ever taught to put the stock over your sholder and tilt the gun? ive seen pictures of it, especially with shotguns. id assume its to shorten the rifle, probably makes it harder to aim and recoil harder to handle, but its not much of an issue when your target is within 10 feet.