So, through the wonders of the hive mind, the locations of all the monsters in the Google maps 8-bit quest have been uncovered.
To see the map with all of them pinned, go here: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http%3A%2F%2Fxhtml.im%2Fmonster%2Fall.kml%3Fmapmonsters%261&hl=en&ll=11.867351%2C-3.515625&spn=150.460005%2C335.390625&sll=28.304381%2C-15.117187&sspn=147.307759%2C335.390625&t=8&z=2
h/t David Schwab.
So, yesterday I posted about the cool 8-bit-style Google Maps option, where you can view thing is “Quest” mode, which basically looks sort of like 1980s-era Zelda.
The other cool thing they’ve done is added various landmarks, which show up at the more zoomed-in levels of zoom. Specifically, they are available in the four most zoomed in scales. If you want to see what landmarks have been included in a city, the easiest thing is to go to google maps, type in the name of a city, and then click zoom in twice (or maybe three times). For example, if you type in “Boston, MA” and zoom in twice, you get this:
You can see, Faneuil Hall, the Hancock Tower, and MIT. The little propeller-hat people just north of MIT signify one of the Google offices.
So, try it out (here). Just remember, the landmarks won’t show up at the default zoom level when you go to a city, so zoom in to see them.
So, here’s the latest cool, cool thing from Google. Google maps has a new easter egg. Go there (http://maps.google.com) and go to the upper right corner, where you normally select between the “map” and “satellite” views. There’s currently a third option, “quest,” which gives you something that looks like this:
If you zoom in, you can see 8-bit representations of various landmarks, as well. Also, while you’re in there, check out the street view.
So, when I started a webcomic a year ago, and made Dev the main character, I assumed that this would provide sufficient outlet for the fourteen-year-old girl inside me. It looks like I was wrong, as evidenced by the fact that I now have a tumblr. If this doesn’t do it, someone’s going to have to come sleep over and braid my hair.
Anyway, it’s going to be a place for stuff where I’m like “Hey, that’s cool,” but then don’t really have anything more to add. It will probably be mostly images, but we’ll see how things shake out. In each case, click on the image for a link to the source. In general, I will privilege linking back to the original source, like the artist’s webpage, over the intermediate source though which it may have come to my attention.
It’s called Subjective Correlative, because, you know . . .
Here’s the link: http://subjectivecorrelative.tumblr.com
I’m going to try to use the queueing function, so there will be multiple (maybe three or four) updates per day, posted at some sort of intervals (random? regular? I don’t understand the tumblr.) during the day between 8 am and 10 pm Eastern (United States) time.
So drop on by!
So, last night when I was catching the train home from Penn Station, I noticed for the first time that the platforms have these signs on them.
This struck me as mildly hilarious. My first thought was that it was a ridiculous sign for pedestrians, who were going to walk to New Jersey along the train tracks. Or maybe a dickish, passive-aggressive sign for people who were complaining about the trains: “Yeah, well, if you don’t like the train schedule, why don’t you just walk to Secaucus!”
My second thought, which I found much more charming, was that this was a sign for the trains themselves. You know, like, the train is ready to leave the station, but it has forgotten which way New Jersey is. Of course, train tracks are more-or-less one dimensional, and Penn Station is the end of the line for the New Jersey Transit trains, so there really is only one way to go when you’re leaving. Somehow that makes it all the more charming to me that these trains need a reminder of which way to go.
Silly trains!
Finally it occurred to me that the signs were so that the passengers would know which end of the train was the front. You see, some of the stations have platforms that are not as long as the train is, and I believe that the trains have a regular pattern of whether they have the front end or the back end of the train hanging off the end of the platform. For example, you can’t get off at our station from the rear three cars of the train. More advanced users probably know which end of their platform they need to be on to get their home (or car, or bus stop) with maximal efficiency. Knowing the orientation of the train allows them to optimize their seat choice.
When I realized that I had used my reasoning powers to reject the comically-geographically-impaired-anthropomorphized-trains hypothesis, I could not help but feel that my education had failed me.
So, this starts off cute, but gets progressively more awesome. I love that part of the mechanism for turning the newspaper page involves knocking a laptop onto the floor.
So, you know how you’re supposed to be able to take any fortune cookie fortune and add “in bed” to it? Okay, I just got back from having Chinese food, and I’m trying to figure out what it would mean when we add “in bed” to this one:
Remember to order your take out also?
I’m hoping somebody can help me out here. What’s your best guess as to how to unpack:
Remember to order your take out also? In bed?
There has to be a meaningful, puerile interpretation wrapped up in there somewhere. Calling for suggestions.
