Hey folks,

Sorry for the paucity of updates around here. As usual, things come up and Diana goes elsewhere. I'm sure most of you are aware, but there was a death in my family about two weeks ago. My grandfather Ben (Dad's dad) passed away on July 9th. It was a blow to the whole family, and I think to his community as well. My Uncle Mike put together an absolutely fantastic montage of photos of Grandpa...you can check it out here should you be so inclined: Ben G. Hughes Memorial. I'm not really a writer, but Grandpa was a teacher, so for me, the best way I can remember him is to remember all the things he taught me growing up. For those who knew him, I'm sure he taught you a lot of the same things and plenty more besides. And for those who didn't...you missed out.

1. Baking is the most important way to get ready for family coming to visit.
2. Put the charges on the ions!!
3. Any damn fool can play if he's got the cards.
4. Sitting next to Kelson means you will always, ALWAYS get your aces trumped. Grumbling about this is customary. Shouting for help from his mother will not do you any good.
5. Christmas is the most important holiday of the year.
6. Collecting things is fun...showing off the collection is even more fun.
7. Playing with little kids is fun...even if they are little monsters.
8. The computer is a toy as well as a tool.
9. It's a pain when someone else plays with your toys and puts them where you can't find them.
10. ABBA is the best band ever. Period.
11. Mama Mia is the best musical ever. See above.
12. Singing/playing all the right notes is okay, but singing with attitude is far more important.
13. The birthday song should never, ever be sung in key.
14. If your coffee gets cold, just put it in the microwave. This can be done several times, with no bad effect on the coffee.
15. All Hugheses are smart, talented, attractive, and fun. This is a direct result of Ben's genes and careful influence.
16. It is perfectly acceptable to wear black socks with sandals and shorts, so long as the socks are pulled up as far as they will go.
17. Suspenders are sexy. Yes they are, shut up.
18. Don't be condescending when speaking to children. They're smarter than they look...and probably smarter than you are.
19. There is no such thing as a stranger...there are only people who haven't seen pictures of your grandkids yet.
20. Board games are fun, card games are better. Really, though, it's just important to sit around a table to eat, tell stories, and play with people you like.
21. Baking is essentially chemistry. That's why it's so fun.
22. Organic chemistry, however, is not fun.
23. It's okay to like science fiction. It just means you're smart.
24. Families should always be expanding. If nobody is having babies, start adopting other people's kids.
25. When your baby teeth fall out, they don't come back in.
26. Teenagers are difficult to be around, but deserving of as much understanding and support as we can give them. Embarrass them in public whenever you get the chance.
27. Laughter is the best medicine. It is also an excellent hobby, form of exercise, and method of communication. Laugh more.
28. Pets (read: cats) are the same thing as kids. All should have their portrait tucked in your wallet.
29. Friends are like family. Treat them as such.
30. Stories are meant to be told. Often, and to whoever will listen.

Whew, okay. Summer? Not as laid-back as it should be. Lots going on, with highlights below. Also, I updated my Flickr with pics I've shot on my cell phone, so have a look if you're so inclined. Now then, what I've been up to since last we spoke:

Internship with Fox Interactive: Last week, I started a 40 hr/week summer internship with the division of 20th Century Fox that handles video game licensing. Basically, this group authorizes others to use Fox's properties (like 24, the Simpsons, Family Guy, etc) to make video games. The work I do generally involves looking for potential studios for us to work with (and playing their games, when possible), reading/doing preliminary evaluation on game pitches from outside studios, and playtesting games that are in production. It's a pretty sweet gig, and I'm having a good time so far.

Green screen shoot: Went home a couple weeks ago to spend two weeks working on a shoot for the Iona Group in Morton, IL. My former professor, Jim Ferolo, hired me on for green screen work. I can't really talk about what the project is, since it hasn't launched yet, but we did a week-long shoot on green screen, with digital effects and editing going on right there at the studio. For reference we basically shot and did very basic effects on the equivalent of a short feature film (about 120 mins) in a week. It was...difficult, but I think the site will be really fun. More on this after the site launches, which should be soon.

Transformers: Okay, I am a nerd. I think we've long since established this. I also have very nerdy friends. Therefore, it only makes sense that we went to see Transformers, on the day it launched, at the LA theatre that actually had the cars from the movie. Hooray for the Arclight! Pics below:
Optimus Prime is awesome. I will beat up anyone who says otherwise. Also, LA summer weather is hell on my hair :-P

Best Hummer H2 ever. I don't normally approve of Hummers, but I will make an exception because this one is a Transformer.

Bumblebee was my favorite in the movie, but this car was a little less awesome than the rest. Probably because it wasn't as massive and custom, and it lacked the Autobots logo that was featured on each of the others.

Touch panel: A project I've been working on since I started at USC is almost done. We've got this touch panel that drives our media lab, and all year we've been trying to redesign its interface. It took forever to get our hands on the code, and then another chunk of forever to get the graphics ready (partly because thesis show happened in the middle), but the project is almost done. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like:

This screen is used to route any digital source (a computer or laptop, for instance) to any of the projectors in the room, or to the plasma TV next door. Kind of cool, when you think about it.

Las Vegas: Did a weekend in Vegas this past week with my friends Ryan and Lily. It was pretty fun, and I didn't lose nearly as much money as I could have. I preferred to invest my dollars in things like show tickets and food. We had a lot of fun (read: ate too much and drank too much), and didn't take any pictures, which is exactly how Vegas is supposed to be.

That's about it, for now. I'll be working at Fox and at USC for the rest of the summer, possibly with some travel in there, and then classes begin at the end of August. I'd like to say that the blog will be updated more often, but let's be honest--my updates are sporadic at best. Hope everyone is doing well, and GOOD LUCK to Grandpa Ben, who will be in surgery tomorrow to recover from a heart attack and unrelated aneurysm in Springfield. I'll be thinking of you!

Okay, so many many things have gone down since the last time I posted here. The semester ended, the thesis show happened, I got an internship, etc. In the interest of keeping things straight, I wrote several posts (see below) relating what I've been up to when I'm not here entertaining you fine folks. The only thing I didn't cover in the below posts was a post-semester rehash, so I'll do that here:

Film class: Heaven save me from film classes, man. I mean, I know technically I'm in a cinema school, but I'm definitely not in a cinema program, so why all the film classes?? Anyway, so I took another film class. We made a movie in two weeks that we were supposed to make in a semester (got a B+, too...not too shabby considering). We shot approximately a bajillion photos for a photo book assignment (most of mine can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/dihughes/sets/72157600270334839/). And we met for 8 hours a day on Saturdays for the first half of the semester to listen to one Bruce Block teach us about making films that aren't ugly. Neat.

Game class: My first game design class is done. This is the class that we did Butterfly Effect and Guitar God for. Our latest effort, Photo Op, was a rousing success. People wore silly hats, ran around like idiots, and had their pictures taken. Good times were had by all.

Writing class: Writing for Interactive Media was a fun, fun class. I never thought I'd like a writing class, but this one was interesting and gave me a chance to do writing projects related to games (so, you know, awesome).

Seminar: Meh. I'm glad seminar won't be required next year. It was interesting, but you can only listen to so many people talk for 2 hours about their work before it gets repetitious and boring.

Visits: Several people came to visit this semester. Meg was here for a few days, and bless her heart, we did my homework for about half of that. Granted, my homework involved wandering around Hollywood taking pictures and going to thrift stores to buy costume pieces, but even so. It was awesome having her here, and I promise, next time we'll do ONLY fun things.

Colin came to visit while Meg was here. Shenanigans occured. We went to a shady-ass Wal Mart and a shady-ass grocery store to get liquor, and came back to my place to watch movies and enjoy said liquor. Amuuuusing.

Lejla was here for a weekend. She was even more neglected than Meg, sorry to say. I was drowning in thesis stuff, so we didn't really get to hang out much. She will be back this weekend, though, so hopefully we can have a little more fun.

Drove out to Vegas for a weekend to see Mumsy and Daddums. We saw the Producers (yes, the Hoff in a dress was exactly as awesome as I had hoped). We went down on the strip. We gambled a bit in the casino. I got more than 6 hours of sleep two nights in a row (since this was at the height of thesis insanity, I was really excited about the sleeping). It was a lot of fun! I wanna try Vegas again when I have more than a weekend, though. Who's up for Vegas this summer? :-)

Games!

Got a few games in the works at the moment. They include:

RagnaRøkk: This one should be crazy fun. It's basically a platformer adventure game (think Zelda, God of War, etc) that you play using the Guitar Hero controller. The premise of the game is that you're a viking, and the gods have given you the ability to use rock and roll as a form of magic so that you can save the world from various monsters and demons. Levels will be built around different metal songs, with the action of the level corresponding to what is happening in the song. The story will be heavily influenced by Norse mythology, with visuals that are appropriate to the Norse and heavy metal genres. A huge challenge to build, but it should be a lot of fun. The game is my friend Mike's thesis; I will be signing on as producer. I'm also taking this as my Advanced Game Project credit, so that'll be nice.

Errantry: This one is by far the strangest of the games I'm working on, in terms of premise. Basically, you're a knight's herald, and your job is to tell stories about your knight that make him look better than all the other knights. Think Geoffrey Chaucer in A Knight's Tale. The game is played on the Wii, and uses a tarot card based system to determine how stories are told. I know, trippy right? I'm only on this one for the summer, helping with tech testing on the Wii and helping to choreograph the motions that players will be expected to be able to do.

Tenth Power: This one is another thesis project, this time for my friend Garrett. Again, I'll be on the team as the producer. Tenth power is a more traditional computer game, in terms of the controls used (PC, mouse, etc). It deals with world building and scaling, as well as getting the player really connected to the world they're moving through. The player starts as a tiny bit of energy, and as they move through the world, they grow bigger by powers of ten (so energy, then molecule, then cell, then insect, etc) As the player collects resources, they have the option to put them into their character or the environment; as the environment is fed, it grows more colorful, it fills with sounds, more creatures appear, etc. Should be a lot of fun to see how this one develops.

484/489: In the fall, I'll be taking Intermediate Game Project. The end result will be a game...the rest is up in the air at this point. I'm hoping to build it in Flash, as I'm already familiar with that environment. Stay tuned for future developments.