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Buddhism isn’t just about meditation and denying self-gratification to attain a higher state of being. When I was bute a chylde, I visited a Buddhist Hell Theme Park in Thailand. Fun for the whole family: sculptures depicting tongues being torn out, lots of spikes and bodies on said spikes, and certainly heaping amounts of simulated fire and brimstone that would make other religions’ demons feel inadequate. With great joy, my wife and I visited Higashiosaka (click to teleport), the first Buddhist Hell Theme Park in Second Life — the first I’ve ever seen, and likely the first there ever will be. Filled to the prim (pun intended) with scampering souls, corpse-crushing demons, and good ol’ Saṃghāta, that mountain that keeps squashing the sinners. If it isn’t obvious, we had a rollicking, remarkable time. The quality of the build is superb, surrounded by metropolitan buildings out of a Godzilla movie (several demons stood watch), and centered by a pointy temple protruding out of the earth. Around the temple, sculpted little people with crudely-drawn faces and pubic hair ran around in circles, flailing, feeling ever-so-hopeless. And surprisingly animated. See Ravenelle’s video for an in-motion adventure: While you can’t hear it in the vid, a pleasant and/or bone-chilling soundtrack of guttural screams surrounded the whole work, while skeletal hands out of an Iron Maiden album cover intermingled with firetongues. Those who aren’t so rapt on their history will also draw comparisons to certain World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings creatures. Goes to show how creative human imaginations have always been! There was so much to see and do here, and I really appreciate extra attention to detail like the flaming rocks coming down from the sky, the birds circling the temple’s top, the lightning bolts which (among other things) were reminiscent of the Peacock King trailer I saw the other day (wifey and I have been watching various Wuxia films), etc. They all add up for a cohesive, powerful place well-worth visiting. All in all, terribly rich, and enhanced by custom environment settings. And now when my not-yet-Resi friends ask, “What can I see in Second Life?” I can point them here, which might be kinda edgy for the Showcase but worth the visit all the same, and it’s especially meaningful if your cultural background is attuned to the relevance of… BUDDHIST HELL! MUHAHAHA. The only downside? Not knowing who to thank for this experience epic, and why they made it. I didn’t see any advertising, and the main builder’s profile was empty… empty! Seems like they’re of Japanese origin, tho. I’m curious, so if you know, fill me in. Wikipedia has more info on Naraka and hells in Buddhism, and you can’t go wrong with Flickr pictures either (WARNING: NOT FOR SQUEAMISH).

I like to keep in touch with what’s out there. After all, Second Life is my fave virtual world, but once upon a time, I had never heard of it — hard to believe, I know. I’m in the closed beta for Just Leap In, and one neat thing is you can embed a player to their world in a webpage. Another neat thing: you can throw around other avatars. To put it subtly, DON’T OVERREACT THESE AREN’T REAL PEOPLE I’M NOT GRIEFING!

You may know that in addition to other things, I’m also a stand-up comedian. Download audio file (definition-of-drama.mp3) » DOWNLOAD MP3

Author: ChokeonThis Added: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:59:09 -0800 Duration: 326A Video I did on some of the actualities & my experiences with cyber-dating. SLIGHTLY Comedic (LOL).

Stop calling me dude! OK, but you must take this scepter of awesomeness and bonk your head with it — 4 times. No more, no less. The truth will then be revealed. Verily, I accept this noble bonking. *thunk thunk thunk thunk* Now hail the name of bonkkyu Bonetto. And watch this. I hail thee, bonkkyu Bonetto! I m watching this. Wait a for few moments and the excitement must begins! Bow before thine new Masters and Maidens and behold! The pixelogy does not obscure the spirit of a truly badass work and/or play, with its intro genetically descended from an empire of anime and fighting games. At first, they re all doing this perpetual walking-forward thing before it ascends into utter uncanny wisdom of the sage-ages. Girl with enlarged eye-visor, Transformer-cycle yellow mecha, and even a doll-figure who strongly resembles Chun-Li. Flashes strike the darkness down like the biznotch it is. The music roars on, bombastic and dramatic, prompting some sort of showdown between the lead characters — or at least cinematography with airy angles and particle ker-blam! But wait, I must have more to be sated! My appetite grows and like Sinistar, I hunger! Well then, gaze upon the moment in spacetime where a black-haired chick wearing more guns than clothes does a fancy spin and fires em off (1:27)! Thrill and wet your pantaloons as the color schemes do your head in! Gape in utter astonishment as a giant robot and a comparatively diminutive female do some progressive ambulatory behavior while the sky aches and shudders into different colors (2:04). AHHHH TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT! Slow your roll then listen to Dynasty-like strains accompany The Abyss @ 2:30. Rewatch that while you scheme innocently. Then prepare for a reload of the ultra-energy when a split-screen closeup (first time I ve seen that done from SL, natch) helps move product @ 2:46! XD!!!! If you like anime girls dressed as maids, boy do I have a treat for you just shy of the 3-minute mark! And then you can watch an epic chase scene while highly-stylized battles rage on and an impressive guitar solo scores explosions round the city! This is the kind of ad that ll make people want to come in Second Life and say, I want one (or more) of those!

I enjoy the waves of wealth the Web has brought us to create new things with, even in fields we may ve shied away from traditionally. Lowering the barrier like this can only be a good thing, for it turns the craggy peaks of an intimidating learning curve into rolling hills, encouraging development of one s skills and potential future expertise but keep in mind I think expert is a largely meaningless word! Nevertheless, the fun cannot be denied. Heard a few days ago about FontStruct, brought to you by FontShop. In previous years, I wouldn t have thought of fonts as a social networking activity like swapping music or sharing pictures, but with the emergence of more media made easy (like the music-making programs that are continuing to rise), it was only inevitable. FontStruct is at once easy to use and enjoy. It s the easiest font editor I ve seen so far that blends a reasonable amount of modular power with an elegant, minimalist interface that lets you focus on your fontage with the glaring exception that keyboard shortcuts do not work in fullscreen mode. (It s a Flash app, and a well-done one at that.) FontStruct even has a well-made video tutorial (you know how fond I am of those!), and it indeed helped me get up to speed in a few minutes. A little over 1.5 hours later of browsing and dabbling with the FontStructor to make my darling new font, here it is: I call it Crimbelle , because it sounded right. Very, very nifty that you can embed fonts like this; that s the first I ve seen, and a very catchy way to share the fonts for sure. I would imagine as this catches on, we can expect to see more people who ve never made a font before have some fun with this. Fonts don t have to be literal, either; there are many pictoral ones, some very impressively designed like this gallery of robots: Another design inspiration usage: quickly creating some glyphs to be used as vector scalables in a larger design. With the whole process of build, share, download a quick one, your ideas won t get stale/forgotten. A side nicety about this is, FontShop is a business, so FontStruct is a gateway to their offerings; their advertising is delightfully non-intrusive: Go, create a font and let me know how it went!

I often get asked to suggest music I enjoy. The following is some of what I ve been listening to recently. It s mostly electronic, but if you re not into that techno stuff , don t worry, don t be scared off: I love melody meshed with a memorable momentum of production, and it isn t boring robot music. (And hey, even Kraftwerk had a sense of humor.) My point being: listen, and if you like and want me to suggest more, let me know in the comments, kay? Aril Brikha - Winter and Bergain Download audio file (SF255851-01-01-01.mp3) Download audio file (SF255851-01-02-01.mp3) This guy s been known for making techno that sounds like trance . Hmmm. What does that even mean? Heck if I know, labeling evils are near-meaningless to me, but what you should care about is he s got bouncy beats + bass underpinning a sparse weave of echoey chords and a lovely sensibility that makes you go, If I was in the 80s in a Ferrari driving to the beach with mirrorshades attached to my face, I d totally be bangin my head to this! Only not so obtrusively. A fine choice to photograph models to. Vangelis - Pulstar: The Hits of Vangelis Alas, no sample here. There s a funny story behind this, tho: years ago, I found this in a Thai music store on cassette tape, and put it in my Uncle s car deck. He s deaf and a damn good driver, so he was cruising down a Bangkok road (before running into one of those notorious traffic jams) while my bro and I were bopping in the back. The first track is a kickass version of the classic Pulstar with a heavy disco beat and synth tom action. It influenced my choices later to use many synth tom rhythms myself. In case I haven t made it clear, this is an album of covers by some unknown source, but they re well-done parallel universe versions of the originals. None of the others are as dancy as the Pulstar remix, tho. Good to sleep to. Peter Gabriel Make Tomorrow This song looks like it took a small army of cooks to put together: chiefly noticeable in the production mix is BT (Brian Transeau), endowing the river of this 10-min. aural masterpiece with his distinctive beats and flanged stutter edits. There s beautiful strummed acoustic guitar and other instruments, making for a very down-to-earth yet soaring sound. The sublime, excited jam that kicks in past the 7-min. mark is UNMISSABLE. What an optimistic message, too. At least on some levels. Wish there was a music video; this track is one-of-a-kind. If you want to browse music samples at your leisure, I recommend the smartly-designed Trackitdown, the MP3-well-linked Juno Records, and the taste-catering Pandora. Round the bend, I ve got an action-pax0red review of Pendulum s In Silico (released today!) coming up, so stay chooned!