The Particular Finest

Oculus and Facebook

So by now you’ve all heard the news about Facebook buying Oculus VR. My reaction is best described as “dismay,” and my Twitter and app.net feeds are oscillating between dismay and disbelief.

I’ve played on a friends’ Rift, and I was extremely excited for the potential; to the point where it was hard not to buy a developer preview. It’s just that amazing. I was beginning to look at working on a game involving clouds, as this XKCD comic could be truly realised with the technology of the Rift. Amazing things can be done when we have good VR, and Oculus was well on that track.

Remember How to Care

I care about stuff. If you’ve watched my twitter or read my blog, that fact should be evident. “Strident” or “vocal” are words I like to use to describe myself, while I believe that (at least some of) my opinions are well-informed and correct. I criticise and argue, and my tongue can be razor-sharp.

As I previously talked about, depression has been forcing me into a “run away” mentality a great deal of the time. When I can barely handle continuing to breathe, it’s impossible to handle the emotions required for my passions.

On the Long, Slow Road of Recovery

It’s been a long, long journey. Every day is hard, some easier than before, some harder. More days than not the black fire is extinguished, and I recover.

Describing recovery is among the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Crawling up the beach with shattered arms and legs as the tide pulls me back and erodes the sand beneath me. Explaining that I am sick and just living takes so much out of me. Worrying that the bad days are derailing my relationship, my work, the life I have worked so very hard to build.

Towards Amazing Cameras

I was in a Sony Store today browsing accessories for my Xperia Z1¹ when I saw something really interesting in the unimaginatively named DSC-QX100, more interestingly styled as a compact camera built entirely to work in conjunction with a smartphone.

I’d not seen this sort of thing before, a camera that sheds much of the legacy of “camera”, leaving the lens, sensor, and some electronics to connect to your phone wirelessly. The advantages of this are obvious, a wireless connection to the screen lets me look and shoot in two completely different places, around a corner, and in much more awkward situations than before.

Infinite Disappointment

I bought another Big Name Extravaganza during the recent Steam Sales, Bioshock Infinite. It’s been a while coming, but I finally played through and I have a couple of words about it.

So Bioshock Infinite fits into an interesting slot for me. On the one hand, while playing it, it was fun. I wanted to know more about the world, I wanted to see more of Columbia and I wanted to find the amazing narrative I knew could be there.

Boring Game is Boring

It was the Summer Steam Sale a while back, that glorified gamified gaming shopping experience we all know and cringe at. Often I find myself rendered helpless against the pressure of GAME! SALE! GAMESALE! BUYBUYBUY! during the seasonal sales, and this was no exception. Bonus feature from the last several is a new gamification-of-purchasing, so we can all bask in achievements for our consumerism.

I simultaneously adore and loathe the sales, but they aren’t really what I want to talk about. Rather, I’d like to talk about a game I bought during the sale, Far Cry 3.

Depression

I tweet a lot, and that’s probably how you know about the Particular Finest. Twitter is a huge deal to me, and acts as one of my primary outlets for thought, emotion, and self. As I’ve spoken of previously it often acts as my collective consciousness, giving me insight and nuance I couldn’t achieve on my own.

Twitter is also where I’ve been talking about depression, and my recent, ongoing fight against it.

Camerista

I try to make as many photos as I can. I love the art of making photographs through capturing small snippets of the places and lives that I touch. I love that I can have a record of being with my friends and share those moments with them later, a group context that only we can share.

I’m a photographer.

Target the Brain

I’m a smartphone junkie; currently I have four, though I only use one on a day-to-day basis. They’re for development, for testing, for playing around with new operating systems.

Or so I tell myself.

Homefront

Homefront is a game. A terribly-written first-person shooter written by Kaos Studios and Digital Extremes.

I can’t really state how awful the story in this game is. In it, North Korea takes over South Korea, Japan, and goes from there. The “Greater Korea Republic” is really a thing that this game puts forth as a result of US military withdrawal from Iraq. The pro-military axe being ground here is immense.

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