Ends and Means of Characterization

My first real introduction to participatory storytelling was through Dungeons and Dragons. There I was introduced to the idea of an alignment chart. The concept is both incredibly simple and incredibly powerful. It is a map to help define both the goals and behaviors of a character.

Alignment Charts

This is a 9 cell 3x3 chart with two axis. Dungeons and Dragons describes these axis as “Law vs Chaos” and “Good vs Evil”. In the middle of each is “Neutral”.
You probably have an idea in your head of Good and Evil. For descriptive purposes it’s easy enough to ...

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Mechanical and electrical systems, part 2. The booger trap.

In part one, we introduced the booger trap and explored internal mechanical connections of components. In part two we’ll spec out the trap.

The booger trap has three main interface components, and one “internal” component. First, we’ll explore each component individually, and then we’ll figure out the connections between components.

  • Trigger
  • Speakers
  • Controller (probably an arduino or a raspberry pi or something)
  • Booger Storm Mechanism

Trigger

We need to determine if the victim is in the area of effect or not. That’s it, we just need an affirmative response when we have a victim, and we ...

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Ship your thing! Mechanical connections part 1.

Disregarding mechanical connections will ruin your projects. Proper use of mechanical connections will level up your projects tremendously. Often the difference between an eventual scrap heap and an heirloom are the mechanical connections and components. Many of us tinkerers ignore them completely, so I’m going to give a crash course.

At the end of this series, you’ll have an understanding of some of the concepts involved in designing both small scale pieces and installation projects, by way of two examples. The first is a contrived project. We’re going to make a booby trap. Step in the box ...

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Looking for Gigs

I’ve given notice to Nonchalance of my departure as Director of Technology. You’re seeing this because I have to be a little self-promotional to get my next gig.

I am seeking contract gigs (2 weeks to 3 months probably part or full time)

Things I can do for you:

  • Line of business applications
    • Intranets
    • Integrations with third party software
    • eCommerce
    • Industrial Automation
    • Systems design to support operational efficiency
  • Application and Web development
  • Technical Architecture, Writing, Documentation
  • Embedded Hardware and Software
  • Rapid Prototyping (Physical or Digital products)
  • API Design
  • Help Determine engineering hiring needs and job descriptions

My specialties ...

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Issac Kelly