hartnell 1187607558|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
The Naked Madman :
Sorry, no nakie. Keep reading.
Return of wdthemes
I write much. I like to think I write a lot of quality material. In truth, most of the material I write is flat documentation and information, created for the purpose of someone who wants to understand something — and I just happen to have taken the time to understand it. However, I can count on my fingers (and have some left) the number of things I can say I truly and very happy to have written. I can now say I've begun another. In celebration, I've renamed the The Wiki Madman to The Naked Madman for this issue.. But before I tell you what it is, let me prepare you for my best writing style by showing you samples of those things I am truly proud of :
A very short critique of mathematical teaching methods :
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/math
Math gets a bad reputation for being boring. Smashing things with hammers, however, is quite entertaining.
Why do people have a hard time understanding the concept of mathematical expressions? No more!
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/expression
An expression is a way to express meaning. For example, if you were to shoot someone, that would express to them that you do not like them ..
The very beginnings of math, One to One Correspondence
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/gamemath:one-to-one-correspondence
Since the early sheepherders and cavemen of the world lacked the benefit of a public education, they did what all dumb people do — they pulled out their fingers and started counting.
Also there is my two out of (was supposed to be) three, series of object oriented programming tutorials about zombies :
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/brutus2d:basic-oop-tutorial-i
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/brutus2d:basic-oop-tutorial-ii
Let's say you wake up one fine morning and decide that you want to make a zombie game. You think about the idea for a minute and then realize something very profound — you're going to need a metric buttload of zombies.
Before last night, the last thing I was proud to have written was portions of my 2D Physics in PlayBasic Book :
http://gamedesign.wikidot.com/playbasic:2d-physics-in-playbasic
Science is anal by nature. It holds up a yardstick and precisely measures everything it can. From these measurements we can deduce and calculate. For example, if we were to measure the height of the Statue of Liberty, we could deduce that it is Really Freekin' Tall (RFT). If we wanted to, we could then calculate how many RFTs it is to the Freekin' Moon. This, of course, is the kind of science practiced by those people who have their thumbs stuck up their butts.
And now, I have done it again. In the process of re-starting wdthemes.wikidot.com, I have begun writing an introduction to CSS that is so simple, so shockingly bizarre, and so absurdly full of hype that it would make David Bowie, Bill Gates, and Don King blush.
An instant introduction to CSS
http://wdthemes.wikidot.com/introduction-to-css
Musicians, as a rule, wear clothes. Sadly, it's true. Musicians don't walk around naked like they used to.
Those of you who haven't a clue about CSS should read it immediately. It's not complete, but already you will understand much CSS after reading it (and there's no actual CSS in it.) For those who don't know what the purpose of this article is, it is two-fold :
- I wanted to show off my gems (hey, it's your dirty mind)
- I wanted to re-introduce wdthemes with a bang.
It is my hope that I can bring my best writing style to wdthemes and that everyone can learn to make their own theme.
What's A Niche? My Evil Plan Part Duex
A niche is a small bird that lives in the woods, far back over yonder, and if you want to see one, we'll give you a bag and show you how to catch one. (Sorry, only American southerner's will get the joke.)
A niche is really that interest of yours that bores your friends and family to tears. Everyone has one, and it seems that only on the internet can you find people with similar niche-ly interests. Many of you who didn't immediately throw their minds in the gutter already have a niche in mind simply by the mention of the phrase bores your friends and family to tears. Many of you who's mind did fall in the gutter, well, you're probably thinking of a niche too, but it's not allowed on wikidot. :)
Those of you who now know what their niche is — get started. If you need help, PM me. If it involves a sheep, Gomer Pile, Severus Snape and a length of rubber tubing, please, do not PM me.
In the interest of helping the nicheless, each issue of the Naked Madman will feature a small list of niches. This is the first list of niches :
- Classic movie poster collecting.
- Painting miniatures.
- War games (played with painted miniatures.)
- Encyclopedia of Boogiemen
- To get you started, the US has the infamous closet monster, the boogieman himself, and the mysterious stranger. In Chile, they have a similar, but different boogieman el cuco and a much more evil stranger : El Viejo Del Saco (The Old Man with the Sack, essentially. The sack is for snatching up kids).
- Greek Mythology
Greek Mythology
(or My Evil Plan : The Trilogy, or The Corpse of 400 II)
Speaking of Greek Mythology, I studied it for too long. I could have taken the easy way out and have listened to Hotel California (as everyone knows, it contains the secrets of the universe), but I was the scholarly type did much study. Part of this study was based on the now public domain A Dictionary of Mythology by Lewis Spence (1910). The said book was scanned, converted and expanded by myself and a friend [1]. (In fact, I just picked up the very same book to confirm my memory of the date. It was one of the few public domain books that were not destroyed in the process.[2])
This Greek Mythology content is a part of the Corpse of 400, and therefore I have the capability to create a respectable Greek Mythology wiki in a matter of days. Here's the problem: I don't want it.
As a part of 400, this content would have settled nicely in the background where if could have been adopted by mythology buffs. However, after about three years studying the whole of human belief, I'm weary of the whole subject. I'm looking for someone who has a deep interest in Greek Mythology and is willing to maintain and improve on the many hundreds (if not a singular 1000) pages of material I have to give. PM me, we'll talk, I'm giving away this part of the Corpse of 400 with no strings attached to the right Greek Mythology fan. I'll even theme the site and make you a userbox. :)
[1] Some of you are aware that I once had a promise to this friend in the event that he died first. The promise was that I would never mention the real cause of death, but rather, create a new, hopefully funny fate for him upon every mention of him. While I mourned, I did. However, I've finally moved on. He died in a chocolate factory incident. (not really).
[2] I still have Lewis Spence's An Encyclopaedia of Occultism, first edition — in a box, as that happens to be convenient to hold the lose pages. Lewis Spence was a marvelous "mythographer" and at the time was my hero.
—hartnell