I was a second year Engineering student, and encouraged the head of one of the research groups on campus to allow me and two fellow students to work on a VR project over the summer break for credit.

We improvised a poor-man’s VR helmet (a stack-hat) with a poor man’s stereoscopic HUD (two video camera viewfinders) and poor-man’s motion tracking (two POTs on the helmet for 2 DOF head tracking, and a Nintendo Power Glove). All of this was driven by two Amiga 500 computers, one for each eye, using custom software written in AMOS and AMOS 3D. One of the most challenging parts of the project was synchronising the displays via a null-modem link, and reading the POTs, which had to be timed off the vertical scan (something arcane like waiting until the electron beam of the display reached the 7th line, and then reading some register or other before it reached the 12th line).

We were excited, but, in truth, the project sucked balls.

While working on that project, we became involved with the Perth Virtual Reality Interest Group, which held meetings in Tech Park (Enterprise Building 3, funnily enough, where I returned 15 years later – ack – to work at Interzone). The SIG organised a special, private viewing of the Virtuality Arcade Machine (which also used the Amiga computer) when it made a brief appearance in the Perth Myer store.

I remember being very excited by the potential of VR at the time, in part due to a documentary that aired on TV that featured Marvin Minsky, Jaron Lanier, William Gibson and Tomothy Leary. It’s funny and embarrassing in hindsight, but it was a strange time, with people absolutely convinced that VR would be the future of entertainment, medical imaging and stock market manipulation.

I wonder what the modern equivalent of VR is? Social gaming, perhaps?

D. and I have been watching BlackAdder. I received the “ultimate collection” box set for Father’s Day, and we’re working our way through the episodes, watching everything twice (to hear the commentary), and thoroughly enjoying it.

Ben Elton did a fantastic job of re-imagining BlackAdder when Richard Curtis invited him to join the writing team for the second season, suggesting that the characters of Edmund and Baldrick should be swapped. Each episode was filmed in under two hours in front of a studio audience (apart from, of course, location footage).

Channel 7 co-financed the first season, which was the most expensive to make, but pulled out from later seasons. Nine years later, after all four seasons of BlackAdder had been released, Channel 7 created an embarrassing BlackAdder rip-off called Bligh, which starred Michael Veitch from Fast Forward. I can’t find any footage of it online; I can only remember it being very, very bad.

I find it inspiring that it’s possible to create a long-lasting piece of television in such a short amount of time. It seems that the advice to follow is do what you love, don’t compromise on quality and just damn well get it done. Speaking of which…

2008

• My next-door neighbours are involved in making a feature film, shooting tonight nearby.
• Conan the Barbarian or Super Mario Galaxy? Just one of life’s puzzles. Who am I kidding? Mario beats Arnold hands-down.
• Listening to TMBG’s new children’s album… after E. has gone to bed. Is it bad that I enjoy it as much as her?
• Just saw Eastern Promises. Great movie, great eye-stabbing scene.
• Four chicken frames -> eight litres of chicken stock, frozen, to last us for the next few weeks.
• Time to spend some time in the curious village.
• How would YOU matchmake a bunch of humans into groups that then play each other at some game? Huh?
• Basking in the glory of a freshly cleaned car.
• Bowling is easier on the Wii. Beginning to suspect same for boxing.
• Car stolen, crashed and written off. Up since 4am with the police.

2009

• Back home; squeeze in an hours coding before bed at 3:30am, then wake up at 8:30am to get back to the Jam.
• Been indoors for 8 days. Finally starting to feel on the mend. Was quite worried there for a bit – thought we were goners. Swine flu sucks!
• Dana wants to push up to jump. Eighties child can’t handle more than one button. A to blow, B to jump… how hard can it be?
• Final Twin Peaks sesh tonight. Dinner: T-Bone with Diane sauce, potato au gratin, salad, beer. Snacks: showbag goodies, beer.
• Just tried to get into the wrong car. For five minutes.
• Coffee and croissant at Perth airport, waiting for flight to Melbourne. Go!
• Whisky poisoning not too bad. Coffee and shower, then off for Jaffe’s keynote.
• Farbs: fan e-mail is a gateway drug to self-Googling.
• Best advice for startups from the big publishers: “don’t build an MMO”.
• Yahtzee says Project Natal is a “creepy little boy simulator”.
• Dinner at Attica… Rob Sitch and Eddie Maguire just walked in. Only in Melbourne!
• Plan to polish & release KranzkyEngine, and develop PostalWorker, which was devised at the hotel bar.
• What’s up with the Hawkeye 4wd driving around with like 20 cameras mounted all over it? Seen in Northbridge.
• Great party last night; 21yo scotch, good cheese, and arthouse cinema in the back garden. All while the kids went berserk. In a good way.
• I ran 14345m before hitting a wall and tumbling to my death on my iPhone.

2010

• Mixed a brandy-and-dry, and drank while munching green olives with pimientos. I think my hair will turn a swept-back grey soon.
• Frankly, you should quite frankly prototype your GUI. Frankly, I say!
• Channel 9 commentary: “he’s universally known in America”
• Note to self: don’t type “anal” into the address bar as a shortcut to Google Analytics.
• Counted dozens of smashed car windows walking to train station. Some brand new luxury cars in dealerships too.
• Arrived at beautiful holiday house on the beach in Eagle Bay. Now, to figure out the optimum way to relax…
• Played San Juan at 399bar last night, and I must say it was pretty cool. More German board games in small bars!
• “I saw it on YouTube” not a valid defense for making daughter Cheerios fried in butter. But it seems so American! And we had no popcorn!
• Curse you, Desktop Dungeons, for stealing my Friday night.
• Chicken livers and ladies fingers at The Prophet. Good friends, good wine, good times. Great party at Tee’s afterwards. Eh, what kids???
• Oh man that was totally fucked up. In the most awesome of ways. Breaking Bad, you’re the best thing ever.
• Off tonight for a beef injection (1.5kg 400+ day dry aged wagyu ribeye to share, with roasted bone marrow and potatoes gratin). And wine!
• Meat Stylus.
• I am the mayor of crumpet (unfortunately NOT a euphemism).
• Just realised I’m sharing my iTunes library at work. Trouble is, I’ve only used this laptop to assemble a playlist for my mum’s 60th.

Hmmm… what a strange way to look back on your life! But, I gotta say, I prefer myself in retrospect :)

In one of tonight’s episodes, a recently shot Agent Cooper has a visitation from a giant who tells him “the owls are not what they seem”. Afterwards I mentioned how, back in ’91 or ’92, the idea of owls as replacement memories for alien visitations spooked me out. I think I was reading Whitley Strieber’s books at the time, and I took them semi-seriously. Daz reminded me of something I’d forgotten; I used to speak of seeing a “golliwog” – a living, breathing creature – behind the shed of a neighbour when we lived in our childhood home. I must have been about four at the time, and I guess I remembered it vividly enough when I was 18 or whatever, and watching Twin Peaks for the first time.

I can only think that my neighbour (a boy a year older than me) and I snuck around the back of the shed, and…

1. saw a toy golliwog on the ground. Or…
2. got surprised by the boy’s father, who was holding a golliwog and trying to frighten us. Or…
3. it never happened, and I’m just remembering a nightmare I had as a child. Or…
4. we saw a frickin’ alien.

Should I Facebook this childhood neighbour and put the question to him? Or will he think me insane?

And, yes, she deadpanned it because she wasn’t joking.