ebritton.com

Kevin finished work on my website a few months ago and I've posted some content there. It's well designed and easy to post, change/update etc. Looking forward to posting more content there.

Just a quick update, I'm going to be doing my PhD at McGill. This means I need to finish my masters degree on time, which is going to be interesting. This has been a good year for learning and living.

Blizzard Baked Chicken

A few weeks ago my room mate made up a really good chicken recipe. I gave the recipe this silly name because she came up with this as we staying inside to avoiding a blizzard. I was very suspecious of her when she explained what she was going to do. I even told her I was sure it wouldn't work. I ended up eating most of it myself, and being amazed the whole time.

Breaker's Blizzard Baked Chicken:

You will need:

6 chicken pieces.
2 apples, quartered then thinly sliced.
1/4 cup maple syrup.
2 onions, chopped.
1 tsp salt.
1/2 tsp pepper.

Instructions:

Put all the ingredients in a small casserole dish with a lid. Bake at 350 for 45m - 1h or until chicken is cooked.

Amazing stuff.

Out of Province

I can't be a resident of Quebec until I've not been a student here for 1 full year. This means I don't get a Quebec health card. Manitoba is happy to provide me with an out of province health coverage but Quebec is the only province in Canada who doesn't accept health plans from out of province. So, this means I get treated like a second class citizen and I have to pay exorbitant prices in cash for every medical service I require.

This wouldn't be so bad if doctors charged me the same amount that they bill the Quebec government for local residents... They can charge me whatever they want, because I'm treated as an international. For example, a doctor charges 35$ to the province for every patient they see, but the minute they realize I'm "out of province" I have to pay 90$ cash. When I send the bill to Manitoba health, they say "sorry we can only pay the standard fee of 35$", so I'm out 45$ per visit.

Blood tests, scans, medication, anything like this I have to pay cash. The amounts charged by each clinic is random. Some charge 50, others 80... Doctors make up prices for things on the spot!. Also, sometimes MB health won't cover something... For example, I had to get a fancy antibiotic last year because I had a reaction to the normal one. It was synthetic so it cost more. MB health said "we don't cover that antibiotic when prescribed out of province"... So guess who was stuck with the bill...

This whole situation would be fixed if doctors did the following things.

1. Charged Canadians the same prices as they charge their Quebec patients.
2. Tell patients which medications won't be covered by their provincial health plan. In soon to be the year 2008, having access to information shouldn't be an issue.

Countdown to Codecs

Left foot, right foot, keep running, don't give up.

I have had a very difficult few weeks. First off, this session of exams was pretty difficult. It felt like my life was tearing apart. I had family there to support me which was an amazing luxury.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Now that the exams/paper/finals domino has toppled, I'm onto my next Piece. Codecs.

Codecs builds on the techniques in Evolution 5x8 and adds a live electronic component. Evoluition 5x8 used a very rigid system that created very interesting results. It reminded a lot of people of Steve Reich, but more dissonant and less repetitive. Now I'm trying to loosen the system and make things more intricate and expressive. Instead I feel like I'm driving myself crazy. I know what I'm trying to do, I can hear it and see it... but it's time consuming and difficult to do. Sometimes I do it and don't like the desired result so I have to start over.

I need to get this piece done to the best of my ability. Just keep those notes coming...

I'll keep a project log in here just as I did with Scars. Even though I have more time, I'm having a harder time than I did back then. I didn't have to out do myself.

Saved the world again...

This game was a lot of fun. Quite an adventure, and the perfect distraction when your brain isn't capable of any more school work. Even though this game is quite old and lame by todays standards, it was pretty intense for me. A typical testosterone flooded space opera. No apologies from me for anything quake related. I wouldn't have been accepted to McGill if it weren't for Quake. And I'm sure I'll never get tired of fantasizing about being a space marine.

Epic story, epic monsters, epic weapons, epic sounds, epic epic epic. There were moments where my jaw dropped at imagination required to put some of the scenes together. Other times I was kicking myself in frustration for having decided to play the game on hard mode. There were times where I had to memorize whole sequences of actions to clear a room without being killed. This one was fun because they surprised you right until the end. Oh... and you get to drive a tank.

20$ well spent. You can't beat video games when it comes down to bang for the buck entertainment.

Origins and The Ripple Effect

I was talking to somebody the other day about my early works on the net. They mentioned The World is Beyond Square but I quickly pointed out that the internet has turned over many times since then, and that piece is ancient history. A few days later I searched it to see what If there was anything left. I found much more than I expected One of the most outrageous being from some weird interview of a forum I've never heard of.

*******

Interviewer: What's your favorite song?
Subject: Hm... kinda tough decision. For now, let's leave it at... "The World is Beyond Square". The Artist is... Elliot... something... I lost the piece, but it retains a place in my memory as one of the best musical pieces I've heard. And longest. A single piece rating at 26:52. I've seen classical music pieces come close, but none has surpassed it yet.

*******
Obviously this person doesn't know anything about music, but whatever my artistic goals were back then, they seemed to have been successful. To be honest, I don't think I really had any artist goals, I was simply doing something personal and challenging. The whole thing is like a big inside joke made of thousands of funny musical relationships.

Now I listen to it and laugh at how I now know the names for all the things I was doing. Invertible counterpoint, modal mixture, an outrageous combination of baroque and jazz figurations. Along with fond memories, I cringe at all the structural problems.... The funny thing is that I knew about them then, I just didn't know how to solve them. My harmonic tool box had serious limitations. Sometimes I wrote myself into some funny corners.

I get strange looks when I say I learned to orchestrate though videogames. Teachers/profs/students look at me like I'm crazy. It's true though, I didn't touch a real orchestral score until I got to university.... Before that it was hundreds of midi sequences and hand notated video game transcriptions.

I could never write this piece now, even if I wanted to. My brain doesn't work like that anymore. The best I can do is look back and enjoy the fond memories it continues to trigger in me and other people.

Doom, UAC, Dave and Me

I was on Mars working for the United Aerospace Corporation again last night. Dave and I had some unfinished business that brought us back to the Delta Labs... The kind of business transaction that can only be done with shotguns and plasma cannons.
Yes, I was playing Doom again last night. I consider this to be an important way of maintaing our friendship at a distance. Why?

*****

For those of you who may think it's strange to meet in the virtual world, consider the fact that we live 2751 km apart and don't get to hang out much. Instead of talking on the phone or something we watch a co-operative interactive movie. The story is quite interesting, the people who put this game together at the top of their.... um.. game.

Unlike the massive multiplaayer games like Warcraft, Doom has a linear story with a carefully constructed plot filled with all the typical literary devices. The claustrophobic feeling of being on a remote research facility really comes across well. The artists over at id software did a very good job with lighting and sound design for this one. It was truly a labor of love, even if it's creepy as hell and crawling with zombies and monsters.

I love the way the real and virtual, cinematic and real time all blend together into one experience. Here [see above image] we had cleared a bathroom of threats and had some time to chat before moving on with the story. Friends, family and synchronizing our uniform colours... In a way it's almost like a 21st century equivalent of hunting. Guys often relate to each other indirectly though cooperative projects and common goals. Fishing, home improvement, music, camping, hunting, videogames... There is a very specific type of bond that occurs when people overcome obstacles together. I don't know if this behavior was built into humans though evolution or what, but in a way I think it comes down to trust and loyalty. "I trust he will shot that demon that just appeared behind me" "You trust I'll keep the flashlight on the zombie you're trying to kill". When we're in an airlock and the decompression cycle is taking a few minutes, THEN we can talk about how we're doing.

I'm not saying this stuff is a replacement for a REAL friendship in the REAL world, but when you're 2751km away, it beats the phone.