ARAC Day 10


List of activities:

  1. Last night Harry Teague invited me out for dinner. We went to the Woody Creek Tavern which used to be his local. The tavern has a storied history in the late 20th century as it was also the local for the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Harry described a rarefied and boisterous salon that included physicists, philanthropists, actors, and ranchers in addition to Thompson and Teague — an architect of international renown.
  2. At the tavern Harry ran into some folks who once were neighbors and associates from his days living in Woody Creek. They shared a short reminiscence of a trip to Fiji (and/or Tahiti). One of them had been raised in Fiji, I think his name was Tom. I am probably wrong. Tom had put the President of French Polynesia, who admired the grand Aspen tent, in touch with Harry who had designed the structure. There was want of such a gathering space in Polynesia. Harry and his team were flown out for three weeks for research and charette. They had to follow the path of a great row-boat race — because the president had sponsored a team — as they worked out sketches. I asked Harry if there was some indigenous material that could provide structure. He said “no, we would use steel because it has to withstand a typhoon. I had had a glimmer of guadua, or something like it in my imagination. No such luck.
  3. last night I made some exploratory pencil sketches of guadua.
  4. Harry asked me to name something about Colombia that he didn’t know. He asked me if they played Pelota in Colombia. I said that they didn’t, and mentioned my surmise that the Darien Gap was a geographical feature that may have stopped the spread southward.
  5. Harry mentioned the book Inventing Nature and its focus on Alexander von Humboldt. I think I have to add that book to my reading list. Humboldt continues to have an outsized influence on Colombia and the Bolivarian states. Harry mentioned that Humboldt was a mentee of Goethe. I need to look this up. My hours in Leipzig are growing resonance.
  6. On our way out of the restaurant I asked Harry if he know about guadua. He said he didn’t. I gave a cursory explanation and realized I need to research more. It’s on the agenda for today to gather some resources.
  7. Also on the agenda for today is to learn better how to create, manage, and manipulate variables in Bitsy. Variables are a crucial programming element for keeping track of inventory items which are, in turn, necessary for fetch quests.
  8. Another agenda item for soon is to change the theme on this blog. I think it no longer fulfills the needs I have. Its limitations are being foregrounded over its virtues.
  9. Guadua:
    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadua
    2. https://bambusa.es/en/characteristics-of-bamboo/guadua-bamboo/
    3. https://www.guaduabamboo.com/blog/guadua-species-list
    4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRc3TxL1sn8
  10. Variables:
    1. https://ayolland.itch.io/trevor/devlog/29520/bitsy-variables-a-tutorial
  11. Made draft itch.io page for Nemo’s Helper
  12. realized “8,000 Feet Above The Sea” should be incorporated to help anchor the resonance with Verne.
  13. met with Olivia who shared with me the curriculum. It is in its final state so only big errors may be fixed.
  14. made itch page for Nemo’s Helper public and submitted to Unidos game jam. I wanted to go through the whole process so I know where the holes are. I need to make a cover image.
  15. translated pencils sketches of guadua to Bitsy items and assigned values to various thicknesses.
  16. still a long way to go for interactions and mechanics.
  17. have remembered Cafetales and Caucho and Cacao, which haven’t been added.
  18. Brain is addled so I’m calling it a day. 3:00 pm.