A room with a flame.

  

[sofiasiren]

2016

I have been silent for the last two years over yon blog. I’d make the excuse of being busy, writing a master’s thesis, graduating, moving to another country and starting a new job along with other volunteer projects, but it isn’t really a good enough excuse.

Resolutions to keep in no particular order: 

-take up Japanese again with a goal to complete the N5 this year, 

-write something every day, 

-get a hobby (that isn’t me sitting around trying to create a better sorting method in JavaScript, educational maybe, but also drives me crazy).

[sofiasiren]

Subscribe to Clarkesworld and never miss an issue of our World Fantasy and Hugo Award-Winning Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine. This page: Our Future is Artificial by Sofia Siren

I wrote an article about artificial intelligence over at Clarksworld Magazine.

It was a very good experience overall and I learned many new things surrounding the current state of artificial intelligence and how I could tie it to the science fiction I so much enjoy.

I hope this new year will bring many more exciting projects!

[sofiasiren]

E-books

E-books are easy. They come in a flat surface, with their own light, their own heart that beats with the percentage bar of your phone or tablet. But books, those delicious works of wood made into paper. With the rough uncut edges that I hate, the pages that range from translucent to crisp and satisfying. After reading e-books for a year, two if I'm being honest, coming back to a real book - that scrumptious feeling of something real under your fingertips - it changes things.

I read most of my books from a screen. It's so small, easy to transport, they are always there, those small pieces of your heart, all the hours you've spent on cultivating that feeling of love and wonder. Last week I picked up a real book. It was handed to me - take it and read it - was said and I did. I hated it. It made me feel so many things - tears and pain - I despaired. I haven't read a book like that in a very long time. Three days later I picked up another book, one I had been saving. I looked at the title and was reminded of all those hours 15 years ago when I first read the first pages of this series. My heart leapt with joy when I opened the book and my old friends came to greet me. I read and laughed and mourned with the joy and pain emanating from the pages.

I finished that last night, it was closing in on midnight and I couldn't put it down. My favorite character, the one I loved the most had emerged from the pages, I couldn't let him go so I read until, with a twinge of my heart, I flipped to the last page which had a promise for more to come.

Today I opened a third book. I thumbed through it - it had those torn edges that I hate - and read the introduction and remembered the controversy the title of the book had caused. I'm grinning as I write this - I will soon dive into the many adventures in this short story collection and my phone lies forgotten on my night stand.

[sofiasiren]

Blu Phacelia

Oh look, I made a thing!

[sofiasiren]

Girls with Slingshots is a great webcomic by Danielle Corsetto. The comic started way back in 2004 and revolves around the life of Hazel and Jamie with a revolving cast of 20+ characters. The comic style has changed drastically over the years as you can see by comparing the first and last strips, from a humble, raw humanity of black and white comics to a more comic and round style the art remains constantly gorgeous despite the differences.

[sofiasiren]

News Monday

Gamespy shutting down on May 31st, effects hundreds of multiplayer games. Gamespy was a third-party technology that many publishers and developers used to host online services. Effected companies include: EA,  Nintendo, Bohimia, SEGA, Volition, Rockstar Games, Namco Bandai, Ubisoft, and Capcom.

EA is going to take a huge amount of multiplayer games offline on June 30th. These games include: Battlefield 2 (PC), Battlefield 1942 (PC, Mac), Battlefield 2142 (PC, Mac), Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PC, Mac), Crysis 2 (PC), Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (PC), Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC, Mac), and Star Wars: Battlefront II (PC and PlayStation 2).

Nintendo is going to launch a new console for emerging markets at the beginning of next year. President Satoru Iwata said: "We want to make new things, with new thinking rather than a cheaper version of what we currently have. The product and price balance must be made from scratch." Also another product called Nintendo Figurine Platform which will be compatible with Wii U and Nintendo 3DS software. Games for this system will be announced at E3 in June.

Personal favorite, Don't Starve, is getting a multiplayer mode update. This update will be free for all current game owners, but will boost the price of the original game to $19.99 USD. Don't Starve is a survival simulator by Klei Entertainment in which you have to survive in a procedurally-generated unique world where your task is to not starve.

Microsoft Xbox is losing the kinect. You can now buy the new xbox one without having to buy a kinect! You can get one starting in June 2014.

[sofiasiren]

New Release Saturday

Child of Light:

A gorgeous artful story about a young girl named Aurora who must battle monster and find her way back home from a fairy tale land she has been transported to called Lemuria. Released April 30th, it is one of the prettiest games I've seen in a while. The fighting style reminds me of Final Fantasy and other turn based games, but it has it's own twist with timers and the ability to slow, speed up, and healing in game. Developer: Ubisoft Montreal.  Let's play, Lindsey Stirling Outlast: Whistleblower DLC Outlast was a gory bloody wreck of awesome gameplay. One of the best in the horror genre in a while. Whistleblower is turning out to be a fantastic and boundary pushing DLC. This game was released on May 6th and is really worth the cost. You play as the whistleblower, the one to call out the reporter who is seen in the actual game. If you enjoy horror games this is a must play sequel prequel for the original game. Developer: Red Barrels. Let's play

Dark Souls II:

The sequel to Demon Souls and Dark Souls, this game has been long anticipated. The concept is that you fight and you die (a lot). You kill monsters and bosses to gain souls to bring back your humanity. The more you die the more you start to look like a horrible undead goop monster, and when you gather enough souls you start looking more human again. The game is hard, but as it usually goes, not as hard as the previous versions even with its grueling death count it lacks the unforgiving-ness of true old-school games. The game also has an online mode where you can see other players as gray ghostly shadows in your world, dying and running from unseen enemies. Developer: Namco Bandai Games, Let's play

[sofiasiren]

Mother's Day Cake

Gluten free, full of berries, quark and other goodness. Completely done by eye. It was very good, but the cake itself was very flaky and crumbled a little while lifting onto the plate, filled with blueberries, lingonberries, black currants, raspberries and lemon quark. 

[sofiasiren]

Raw birthday cake

Raw chocolate, strawberries, base out of dates and nuts.

[sofiasiren]

xkcd is a classic webcomic that's been around for years. The simplistic stick figure style with scientific facts and silly pictures. There are reoccurring characters  such as the guy with the hat and the other guy with the hat. Don't forget to hover over each picture to get a surprise!

Updated daily.

[sofiasiren]

Easter 2014

Pasha, kulich, meringues.

[sofiasiren]

News Monday

A new version of Nintendo's very popular Sapphire and Ruby will be coming out for the 3DS in November, creatively called "Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby". No news of them redoing Emerald, though.

E3 officially runs this year from June 10-12, with various panels from high end gaming companies. Sony Playstation E3 date has been confirmed as June 9th at 6 PM/PST. Microsoft has a panel on June 9th as well at 9:30 AM/PST, EA at noon/PST and Nintendo Direct on June 10th at 9AM/PST. E3 official website, E3 Insider

Nintendo has received a lot of criticism for having and then deleting the option for same-sex marriages in Tomodachi life, which hasn't even been released in North America yet. It is a game where your Mii can go out and frolic with other Mii's in the world, make friends, build families etc. in its own Miiverse. First, due to a bug the game allowed all kinds of pairings of Mii's, essentially allowing same-sex marriage. This was seen as a very progressive and very unlike Nintendo, but soon, sadly Nintendo came out and said that it was just a bug and they would fix it soon. Due to criticism for the earlier criticism, Nintendo claims that they will be "more inclusive" with their next Tomodachi game. The meaning of which is still left to interpretation. The game will be available on June 6th.

The recently purchased Oculus VR has gotten its hands on Facebook wealth and has announced that they mean to create a fully virtual MMO experience with over 1 billion users. This should be a very interesting future endeavor. CNN, PCGamer

Elder Scrolls Online will be delayed for Xbox One/PS4 for another six months. Bethesda states: "We continue to work on the console versions of ESO, and game development has been progressing steadily, but we are still working to solve a series of unique problems specific to those platforms." With its gorgeous graphics, but new and simpler MMORPG feel of the game mechanics, the game doesn't bring anything new onto the table. And sadly it has lost something of the original elder scroll immersive feel while playing.

[sofiasiren]

ISS: Earth viewing experiment. See what the international space station sees.

[sofiasiren]

NANOWRIMO

Well, didn't quite write a novel. My story has around 20k words now which is a lot better than it did. Getting sick twice and moving and work didn't really help much.

I'll keep on writing and maybe I'll finish someday. I'll have to get into the habit of writing a few words each day. Doesn't take much to get the writing machine going.

[sofiasiren]

The Bear & The Hare

The John Lewis Christmas campaign has become a symbol of the start of the British Christmas season, and Hornet and Blinkink are proud to present The Bear & The Hare,&

Adorable little Christmas video for December 1st.

[sherlock-thegame]

Visit Original Link

SHERLOCK: THE GAME IS ON Highlights from Improbable Studios’ Interview with the Baker Street Babes 

(Developer Representatives: Lynxelia Nyx, Joey Haban, Yuri Ookino, CE Cooper, Becky Simpson) For the full interview, listen to the Baker Street Babes podcast at their website: http://bakerstreetbabes.com/podcast/episode-47-sherlock-the-game-is-on/

Interested in Being a Part of the Development Team?

Improbable Studios is an international team of over 200 artists, writers, composers, and programmers who collaborate online to create modern transformative media inspired by classic literature and popular culture. Our staff is currently made up of some of the most renowned artists and writers in the Sherlock fandom.

You can learn more about the development team here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyW-JBpBic4 You can also view our application procedure and apply online here:http://sherlock-thegame.tumblr.com/apply

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Official Video Game Development Blog

To stay up to date with the latest news from the development staff, follow our official game development blog at

sherlock-thegame.tumblr.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Or Find Us On

Tumblr: sherlock-thegame.tumblr.com Facebook: facebook.com/sherlockthegame Twitter: twitter.com/sherlockthegame YouTube: youtube.com/sherlockthegame DeviantArt: sherlockthegame.deviantart.com LiveJournal: sherlockthegame.livejournal.com SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/sherlockthegame Archive of Our Own: archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockTheGame

[sofiasiren]

Here is a cool indie game that I'm helping out with. Should be out sometime next year. Completely free and fan made.

It looks really cool so far! Can't wait to see the finished product.

[sofiasiren]

Saw Macbeth in the theater the other day. I really enjoyed myself! I've read it way back in High school and really didn't remember much of the story - mostly the dagger, ghostygoos and Lady Macbeth sleepwalking.

This version was pretty interesting. The stage was a church and the audience was in pews around the stage. There was a long walkway down from one end of the church to the other, muddy and real.

The beginning was full of rain and clashes of steal. I was really impressed. Also seeing it like a movie was pretty cool, I didn't miss any of the important things and I could see everything real close up. Of course being there would have been a totally different experience, but regardless I enjoyed myself. Also my seat was pretty much in the center and nobody sat in front of me! Being a short person this made my day.

There are two other shows that I'm looking forward to seeing, Frankenstein in January and the one I can never remember Coriolanus in February.

My poor friend said she was so confused throughout the play. There were english subtitles, but they didn't help her much because knowing english and knowing Shakespeare english are two totally different things.