blueZhift Blog

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 development tools aimed at indies, students, and hobbyists are in beta and available for download today! I can’t wait to see what I can do (or fail to do) with these tools. I’ll start with something goofy just to get my feet wet real fast.
XNA Game Studio Express

Yesterday I got some news that I really did not want to hear. Fortunately, I had already taken some steps in the right direction to solve the problem, nevertheless it was not welcome news. If a hurricane is coming, it’s great to be prepared, but it is still bad news that the hurricane is coming!
I […]

Some things just take a long time to recognize, carrying a man purse is just one of them. Few men go out looking to buy a man purse. Like me, they probably had a problem they were trying to solve. I had been carrying a laptop bag, but after a year discovered that the steel […]

I have a lot of Japanese anime songs, JPop, JRock, and Canto Pop in my music collection. For a long time I’ve been annoyed by the fact that iTunes on my Windows XP box would only display the titles of Chinese and Japanese songs with those little boxes that mean it didn’t know wtf to […]

Out on my walk today I noticed an overabundance of cute women in skirts with skinny legs. Given all of the news about how Americans are overweight, all of these skinny women just stood out that much more. Regardless of the reason, it was a nice sight to behold.
Another lovely sight is the release of […]

Since I started working on the first costume for my cosplay project, also my first major sewing project, I’ve been noticing women’s fashion with what I’ll call a deconstructed view. No longer is that skirt just nice, or that blouse oh so sexy. Instead I’m seeing front and back patterns, interfaces, and fused linings! OMG! […]

Today I discovered that my son also has the coveted onigiri hands of which I wrote previously. Together we fashioned 14 rice balls with a minimum of stickiness to our hands. The onigiri could not stand against our combined assault! It was a cool and super cute father son moment captured by my lady of […]

CNET News reports the denisons of the virtual world Second Life are getting together in real life at the second Second Life Community Conference. Even as it seems that people meeting online are getting together offline with increasing frequency, I’m always reminded of the line from Ghostbusters about not crossing the streams. In this case, […]

Gamesindustry.biz reports that developer Planet Moon has been signed on to bring Sega classics to the PSP. The first thing I wondered when I read this was whether or not NiGHTS into Dreams might be reborn on the PSP. The article doesn’t say anything about specific titles, but there was some speculation about games involving […]

Yesterday it was announced that Microsoft would make Xbox 360 development tools available to hobbyist programmers. The XNA Game Studio Express development tools will be available as a free download. Those wanting to share their creations with other homebrewers will have to pony up $99 to join what is currently being called, the Creator’s Club.
Even […]

Many weeks ago, when Google announced their Google Gadget Contest, I was totally gung ho and spent many hours hammering out the beginnings of my gadget. Now quite spent and exhausted I’ve just submitted said gadget with a couple of hours to spare! Every time I mention it, my wife gives me this dirty look […]

I rarely do anything just halfway. Whatever it is, I usually jump in and get all of the info I can to try and fully understand it. And so now I find myself sliding into the depths of otaku culture. Now this really isn’t a stretch for me since I’m a Star Trek fan from […]

CNET News is carrying a story about how tech savvy Chinese are bringing U.S. television shows to China. Essentially this is the same kind of fansubbing culture responsible for growing number of Japanese anime programs coming to the United States. And if the strong impact of Japanese anime and pop culture on U.S. pop culture […]

I finally got all of my Otakon 2006 pictures up. This is the most I’ve ever taken and I had a lot of fun getting them. I usually don’t have any theme in mind, I just try to get eye-catching costumes or cute girls. Though this year, for about an hour or so, I made […]

Oh my head! It’s still spinning after driving home from Otakon half the night. I left Baltimore relatively late because there was a really cool workshop on Remembering the Kanji that I could not resist. Ooooh! I had so much fun this year! But right now I’m just too tired to do very much. I […]