Elemental Easter Eggs

I posted earlier about wanting the Elemental Font in a .ttf file, and said something about how great it was when I first realized the runes on the Ultima IV cloth map could actually be read. Well, I didn't get a response about the font, but guess what I discovered when my cloth map came in the mail today... there is script around the border of the map and the poster. And yes, they can be read.

I love the game like crazy, and realize it had a rocky launch (to put it kindly), so I'm not being snarky or sarcastic when I say I discovered a few bugs cropping up in the poster text. Quite a few of them actually.

If you want to decipher it yourself, stop reading now.

Cloth Map:

North: "Seven thousand years ago, was the noontide of the mortals of Elemental. It was the age of the Magicians. The world was filled with magic and wonder. Its power shines as a beacon, and gains attention of Titans."

East: "The Immortals found a world lush with life and rich in magic. They set out to dominate this world and became in conflict."

South: "The Immortals were dominated by two leaders of terrible might. One was named Curgen, the other Kirtion. The shards became rooted in place. Their source of power gone, the mortal magicians were swept away (I think the word "by" was edited out here, and should be inserted between this and the next sentence.)."

West: "the Channelers, mortals who could channel the magic from shards. Life hangs by a thread. The only hope for Elemental is you."

Poster:

Top: This should read "The Kingdom of Men (ELEMENTAL) The Empire of Fallen"

...but there is a typo. It actually reads: "The Kingdom of Men (ELEMENTAL) The Empire fo Fallen"

Bottom: "Part 1 of the Elemental Cycle - War of Magic."

Right: This should read "In the First Age after the cataclysm was born the one who would bring life back to the world."

...but it doesn't. All I can imagine is that at the last minute, a graphic designer decided to scrunch the text around so that it would appear more balanced on the edges of the poster. However, when they did this the text got garbled and became nonsense. It actually reads: "In the First Age after the cataclysm was born the the(printed twice) (smudged letter) bring life back to the world."

Left: This should read "In the First Age after the cataclysm was born the one who would cover the world with death."

....but thanks to the mysterious graphic designer, we get something even more bizarre. It actually reads: "In the First Age after the c(smudged letter)orn the the (this time the second "the" is mirrored, actually printed backward and reversed) one who would cover the world with death."

And finally, my LE box came with a flier for the book Destiny's Embers (In stores now! Order today!). I had already placed my order for the book and was about to throw the ad away, when something caught my eye across the top of the page. It was a script of text, and it had a final typo for me to find.

It should read: "Elemental Destiny's Embers"

...but it actually reads

"Elementala Destinyas Embers"

Maybe it's for the Spanish version of the book?

Big Bear in Summer

I made a quick trip up to Big Bear Lake today to get away from the heat which is racing through Victor Valley right now and showing no signs of letting up. The altitude there is about 8,000 ft, which means it's much cooler up there than hanging around the cacti in town. Yes, it's touristy. But it's also clean and earnest which helps a lot.
I'll pack the camera next time. There's plenty of wildlife around and I want to get some shots of the lake. What I wasn't expecting was the display in the nature center. It would be perfect for Halloween. It's a large, new complex which features stuffed owls and large native mammals in natural settings. However, the taxidermist who worked on the poor guys really didn't do that great of a job. Either that, or the animals he was presented were worse for wear. The result is that each critter is haunting in some unsettling way and will do more to keep people respectful of the environment than Smokey ever could on his own. Watch out kids, or nature will come to haunt your dreams!
Speaking of Halloween, Big Bear hosts a film festival and Horror fest every year. Yeah, I'm checking it out!

Elemental War of Magic

This is the game that I've been waiting to arrive since the late 80's. One of my favorite games of all time is Master of Magic, with very good reason. It's full of strategy, allows random worlds to be created so each game is different, and with some careful consideration a person is allowed to completely dominate the opposing empires in the world. All in all, and excellent game!
Now it's needed a revamp for years, and not for the obvious reasons. Usually when a game requires an update it's because the graphics haven't aged well and on faster systems can be an ugly grind to play. Not so with Master of Magic. The graphics are rough, no question. But the concept and execution of the game is done so well that high end graphics aren't needed.
But stability is, and MoM hasn't aged well because of it. When it was released back in the 80s it was one of the last great games of the DOS era. It could be played on Win '95 with a few tweeks and an understanding computer. But even then it was a roll of the dice whether the game would work as well as it should. When Windows upgraded, the chances of having a good MoM session dropped dramatically.
Now there has been lots of interest in remaking the classic title, but nothing has come through completely. Home-brew projects never really came to completion although a few looked very promising. Age of Wonders got close, but was bogged down by micromanagement and lack of a random-world generator.
OK, let me justify that last statement. AoW DOES have a random world generator, but it misses the mark. You see, they tried to get too good with the graphics. So instead of having one 'tile' indicate a mountain and another tile represent plains, they had tiles that went: plaines, steppes, hills, mountains, peaks and finally volcanoes. Yeah, thats good and everything, but if you can only build on plains then your options for laying out your empire were limited. The maps were beautiful, but you were shoehorned into only building a certain way.
Warlords V was a good effort as well, but was less focused on empire building than combat. Not a bad thing, but not as satisfying. When Warlords looked like it was on the cusp of making a worthy successor to MoM, they decided to take the RTS route like every other publisher in the business. Yeah, not cool.
But then out of the blue is Elemental: War of Magic. This game looks fantastic and has captured the same spirit and wonder that was embodied in every aspect of MoM. True, it's billed as the "Not Master of Magic" game, but take one look and you'll see it's influence on every screen. Elemental has added some wonderful features, but appears to avoid tampering with what worked in the original title. This is something that every other remake has failed to take into account. Yes, you can make MoM a RTS game, or even FPS, but at the end of the day you've lost what made MoM so great in the first place!
Elemental avoids the pitfall, and has me salavating waiting for it's launch date to finally arrive!

Revamping the Chrome

So what to do with an unplayable guitar? Weep bitter tears over the frets while your fingers caress its now unmusical body of course. But what about after that?
Well, I've always wanted to modify my chrome resonator so it would be an electric guitar. And I do have this useless guitar just chock full of parts... All I'd really need to do is to cannibalize the thing, stuff the parts into my chrome baby and make a few holes. Of course, I've never used a dremel tool to cut through curved steel before, but how hard can it be?

Actually, not that hard as it turns out.

Do you see that block of plastic with the equalizer controls? That wasn't there this morning. The same goes for the cable out jack at the base. The guitar is now an electric/acoustic hybrid. A working one! How does it sound? Well, weirder than before, but about 80 times more awesome!

When Life Gives You Lemons, Break Your Guitar

Awhile back I was taking a VVC class for guitar. It was very introductory, but also a ton of fun. Since this was a class aimed at the guitar beginner, there were many people who brought in whatever guitar they could get their hands on.
Some people had guitar's they'd inherited from their father or mother. Others had been given a guitar for a Christmas gift years ago, and were just now getting around to actually learning to play the thing. I brought my chrome beauty.
This guitar is a resonator. The thing weighs a ton, and I've written about it before. It's a beast to play, and the sound is unusual to say the least. I loved the opportunity to show it off, but as the class progressed it was obvious that it was unsuitable for my recital. For one thing, it really IS difficult to play. Also, a more normal guitar has a richer tone and would make my playing sound pretty sweet. I do have a straight acoustic guitar, but it's got a curved plastic back. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. So what, right? Well, some people look down on guitars like that. I think they look awesome, but the purists seem to think the tone is flat. They might have something. Of course, it's also an opportunity to get another guitar, so that's what I did.
I picked up a cheap acoustic/electric guitar on eBay and used it instead. It sounded great, heck even I could tell that. But there was a danger lurking in my purchase which I didn't realize until much, much later.
The guitar sat in it's case for a few months. I'd imagined that it was safe as kittens, until I opened up the guitar case to do a bit of fiddling around. I found that one of the strings had snapped. That was weird, because I deliberately loosened all the strings when I knew I wouldn't be playing for a bit. I didn't want any extra strain on the neck while it sat.
So I tuned up the remaining strings, and found something weird and horrible. The notes were, well, weird. I kept tuning down to the last E, and found that the 6th string had a horrible buzz. I've only had buzzing sounds on electric guitars, nothing from acoustic before. This was terrible. It sounded like a wasp nest which was on a heavy duty spin cycle in the washing machine. I looked closer and noticed something was wrong with the guitar itself. Something with the neck.
The string was hitting the first three frets. I checked closer and saw that the neck had warped. So I tightened all the other strings to see if it would bow back into position.
And another string snapped.
Fine. So I did some online research. It turns out that guitar necks bow in three different ways. Either forward, backward or with a twist. Forward and backward are bad, but not expensive to fix. A twist is bad, but some guitars have a special tension rod in the neck that you can make the adjustment yourself to correct the issue.
Did I mention this was a cheap guitar? No rod on this one.
To fix a twist, you take it to a guitar shop and pay money. And yes, the cost of the repair was more expensive than this guitar was worth.
Now about lemons and lemonade...

Mockingbird Mama

I found a baby mockingbird in the back yard today, or I should say that the friendly neighbor's cat Apollo found the bird, much to the concern of it's Mom and Dad. I found the baby just in time! They parents were kicking up a fuss, chirping and bouncing around to distract the gangly orange tabby. The baby was imitating a stone, and didn't move or make a peep. Good instincts on the baby's part. The cat was returned to the neighbor to keep inside while we decided what to do.
I eventually picked up the bird (with gloves, natch), and placed him in the bird feeder which is a good 5 feet off the ground. This way he would be safe from prowling cats, and the parents could keep an eye on him.
I checked on him about an hour later, and he was no where to be found. I'm thinking he probably jumped down onto the bushes below, but didn't go out to check. I'm counting on Mother Nature to take care of him from here. Go nature!

Catwalk

Another View:

This is a pretty cool project that took two days to finish. The idea is to create a catwalk where the house cats can climb a set of stairs up to a long shelf running across the top of some double doors. The stairs were made from cigar boxes which have been covered with unusual papers. the ones in the center have been left open to be finished later. In time, they'll be filled with artistic touches and details. The tops of the boxes and shelves are covered with carpet, so that the cats won't slide off. The same goes for the shelf, a strip of carpet is glued to the wood so that they can play freely, without the risk of plunging off over the side.
The boxes are attached by heavy angle braces, and then screwed into the wall behind them. When attached, the boxes were firmly fixed to the wall, and can support a cat's weight without bowing.
The boxes are narrow, but large enough for the cats to easily climb and descend. It took Tommy awhile to catch on to the concept, but Debbie figured it out quickly. Smart cat!