Derek Types Words

Grab your bag

2007-08-25T20:51:00.001-04:00

You can now pick stuff up in Umbrare. If you're walking along and find some flowers in an odd place, you can pick them up and put them in your bag to save for later. Walk a little further and you can "plant" them in a more appropriate place. Right now there's not a whole lot of items that are able to be placed in your bag, so I guess you'll need to stick with weeds and flowers for now... ...I'll work on that.

To start packing your bag, press "B" or click the bag on the bottom tool bar. Now when you walk over something that can be picked up, it shows up on the "Bag Bar" in the section delineated with the icon shown below. Click it and it is removed from the map and now shows up on the "Bag Bar" in the section delineated by the icon shown above. It has been placed in your bag. You can now walk off with it and drop it off somewhere else. To drop it off, click the item in the bag section of the bag bar, and it is transfered to the tile section and placed on the tile you are currently on. Try it out! As always, let me know if you run into problems.

Umbrare Remembers You

2007-05-25T21:41:00.000-04:00

Umbrare used to drop the players randomly on a trail somewhere on the map, but that's changed a bit over the past few days:

If it's your first time visiting Umbrare
And someone else is currently walking around in Umbrare
And they're walking on or near a trail
You'll be dropped somewhere near them - this makes it a better experience for you as a first time visitor because you will hopefully meet up with this other player who can show you the ropes (if they're not too new themselves).
If there are no other players currently in Umbrare or the ones that are were not near a trail
You'll be dropped on a trail - this will hopefully inspire you to go exploring and give you not only the simple joy of discovering new things (howbeit smallish discoveries since it's just a computer world, not the real thing) but also a desire to make your own creations in Umbrare that others can eventually explore for themselves.
If you're not new (at least as pertaining to using a given computer)
You'll be dropped right where you left last time you visited Umbrare - you will even look the same and be facing the same direction and you might even find yourself saying the same thing you were saying when you left!
In any case, enjoy finding your way out of Umbrare!

Umbrare - the land of light-hearted living

2007-04-26T12:11:00.000-04:00

Umbrare.com is my latest project - It's an interactive game/chatroom/toy that places you on a world with other folks. Once on Umbrare, you can edit your surroundings to your heart's content, go exploring, or discuss the wonder of life with everyone you meet. If you use the link provided above, try going Northwest - that's my brother's realm - he's probably the world's biggest land developer up to this point.

Umbrare is still very much a work in progress - "beta" if you will - so you will probably see a few glitches here and there. Also, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

(FYI: it works best on FireFox and Internet Explorer 7... ...no news from Mac users, and Internet Explorer 6 is currently treating Umbrare pretty rough.)

Baby Boy!

2006-08-17T16:17:00.000-04:00

My wife and I brought a brand new baby boy into the world yesterday morning. Yes, he's our first, and, like any proud father, I just wanted the world to know!

More about Baby D (including pictures and the like)

Retoddiation

2006-05-05T09:23:00.000-04:00

Outer Banks Easter

2006-04-20T21:18:00.000-04:00

My wife and I went on vacation this past weekend to the Outer Banks of NC. This is the Easter Sunday sunrise.

We visited the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kill Devil Hills, Roanoke Island's Museum, and both the Bodie and the Currituck (?) lighthouses. It was great!

Baby Boy!

2006-03-15T11:24:00.000-05:00

It's a boy! I have another picture to prove it, but decided to keep this blog in the G-rated category. Actually, I'm just looking out for my boy. He has to have a little privacy.

Alright, back to work...

Wikified

2006-02-22T08:42:00.000-05:00

I built a really simple wiki. Feel free to play.

Children's Story

2006-01-22T18:37:00.000-05:00

My wife and I are quite different when it comes to our interests. I like computers and doodling. She likes telling stories and coloring. We decided to try our hand at merging them together.

The result is CHILDREN'S STORY.

We decided to blog children's books that we create. It's much easier than trying to find a publisher who would be willing to publish my equivalent of 3rd grade art...

I'm not sure that there's a huge demand for kid's stories online, but it sure was fun putting it together! Not sure when we'll do our next, but I'll keep you informed.

(Yeah, the name is pretty original, eh?)

Marriage Monday - God's Picture

2006-01-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

So I had this brilliant idea tonight: I took a picture of my wife and a picture of me and tried to merge them together. I thought maybe it would look cool and show us what our baby will look like 24 years from now.

After spending over an hour on The Gimp trying to get the two faces to merge in a semi-natural way, I was no closer than I was 5 minutes after I started. In fact, the more I played around with it, the worse it looked.

I tried using semi-transparency. Sometimes my face would show through really well, and other times her face would show through really well, but our facial lines would not match up no matter how contorted I managed to make them. The more I would adjust either her picture or mine, the worse the over-all picture looked.

Then I tried taking pieces of her face and super-imposing them over mine and taking pieces of my face and super-imposing them over hers. This looked even worse, because our pictural faces were at slightly different angles. Finally, about 5 minutes ago I realized that I do not have the talent for merging two faces into one.

Ah, but I thank the Lord that He gets the picture right. Somehow he takes both of our characteristics and manages to not only paint them into one but also make that one baby completely unique from either of us. What I struggled to do and failed to do in 2D, God is able to accomplish in 3D. Actually, it's more incomparable than that, since He even adds life to the whole equation.

This seems almost allegorical. I think I am going to go to bed now. Maybe I'll find something better to do with an hour tomorrow night.

2005-07-27T21:22:00.000-04:00

These are two portraits I drew. The closest one, my wife, I drew for her as a birthday present a few months after we started dating. The second one I drew of me for her the following Christmas. (She thought it would make a nice set.)

Opening Eyes

2005-07-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

Paige has some really cool looking drawings. They remind me of children's book illustrations.

2005-03-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

"Opinions are immunity from being told you're wrong." - Relient K