Suboptimist
I’m not quite a pessimist. I’m more of a suboptimist.

What can I say? I haven’t had a lot to say to you people.

I’ll give some updates as to what has been transpiring lately.

First, it’s hard to believe I’m already to October this semester. I am coming along on graduate school applications and will probably take the [computerized] GRE this December. I still haven’t narrowed down exactly where it is I want to apply. The University of Utah is obvious. As a graduate, I won’t even need the GRE. I can only have three others. ETS will only send GRE scores to three schools: University of Arizona, University of Washington, Northwestern University, University of Texas – Austin, Ohio State University and…one other. Honestly, I have an anxiety attack each time I even look at the applications. Poor, neurotic Rob.

Next, I’ve been trying to decide on a topic for my big Phonology III research topic. I’m actually pretty excited to work on the project, but I should, you know, think of something to do first. I considered looking into cross-height vowel harmony, characterized by languages like Kinande, and a rather interesting and not-too-understood Guatemalan isolate called Xinca. However, that’s been taken. Understandably, it’s been taken by my friend whose dissertation topic is on Xinca. Another idea is doing something in the realm of Optimality Theory (I’d link to the Wikipedia article for this, but it sucks). I’ve become pretty interested in learning algorithms, and Optimality theoretic explanations of diachronic phonological change. We’ll see what happens.

I also have to decide on a linguistic variable (specific to Utah) to study for sociolinguistics. While I am allowed to work on the same variable as somebody else, I want to do something unique. It can be syntactic, morphological, phonological…whatever. Any ideas?

Now, I hate to turn this into a LiveJournal post, but I’ve been struggling with the whole religion issue again lately. Spirituality is an important thing to me. A lot of people seem not to me seem not to want to allow me the privilege to worship how I please according to the dictates of my own conscience. The issue arises when I try to bring up religiously neutral topics. It gets frustrating.

In other, less serious news, my Xbox 360 experienced the infamous red ring of death. That pissed me off, now I can’t use my Saturday evenings, typically set aside for the pursuit of frivolity, to play the wonderful Eternal Sonata. Microsoft is repairing (or replacing) it for free, though. That’s not bad.

Finally, in closing, this poignant quote from the first emotionally stable female member of this organization since Meg, Emily Ward:

“Sex is funny.”

Wow, I’m updating. I really fear that updating this blog may become a once-a-week affair. That’s no good.

I had to present on an article I read* [which I can't post for copyright reasons] in class. The presentation was supposed to take about an hour, but since I had the shortest article on the list, it ran short. I began to ad-lib, and brought up a question I raised while reading the paper: are phonological features innate or inferred? In other words, are phonological features pre-specified for us by Universal Grammar, or do we figure it out for ourselves by some sort of stochastic learning mechanism? I’m not sure.

The article I read presented experimental evidence in favor of the latter explanation. Infants, being keenly sensitive to phonetic contrast, when exposed to a bimodal distribution of speech sounds discriminate speech sounds better than infants that are exposed to unimodal distributions. That is to say, they better pick up on relevant properties of the different sounds.

On the other hand, when we make vowels, human languages only contrast in tongue height and tongue backness. However, it isn’t physiologically impossible to move our tongue, say, right and left. We just don’t do it for anything involving speech. That could be evidence in favor of innate specification.

As far as Universal Grammar is concerned, I remain agnostic. I see how it can be a useful construct in the realm of syntax, but it seems less relevant to things like phonology, notwithstanding Chomsky’s desire to have a unified theory of syntax and phonology. Syntax and phonology are very different things. Syntax is only concerned with what is happening in the mind of a speaker. Phonology, on the other hand, necessarily interacts with the physical world, for example, the shape of the vocal tract, the construction of the auditory system, and so on. So yeah, big questions.

Also, Eternal Sonata.

Peter Ladefoged and D.E Broadbent conducted an interesting experiment in 1952 examining the effects of previous phonetic context on vowel perception.

Using the Parametric Artificial Talker, Ladefoged and Broadbent synthesized the sentence Please say what this word is and altered the F1 and F2 frequencies across the sentence six times to produce six versions of the sentence, all of which were easily understood. Four test words – A(375, 1700), B(450, 1700), C(575, 1700), D(600, 1300) — were also synthesized, taking the form b[V]t. F1 was incrementally raised across all four words, and F2 was lowered for word D. The authors’ hypothesis was that subjects would identify the ambiguous sounding vowels of the test words based on the previous phonetic context of the introductory sentence.

The subjects (n=60), who were from diverse socio-linguistic backgrounds within the United Kingdom were asked to listen to randomized list of ten test words and asked to check what they thought the word was. In the second part of the experiment, subjects listened the introductory sentences followed by the test words and asked to check what they believed the word was. It was found that the subjects were clearly influenced by the introductory sentence in the second part of the experiment. For example, when 87% of subjects identified word A as bit when it followed version one of the sentence, while 90% identified it as bet when it followed sentence version two in which F1 varies over a lower range, clearly demonstrating the influence of the previous phonetic context on identification of a speaker’s vowels.

Nifty, eh?

I just dropped $2,122.92 on tuition and $60 on a parking pass.  Now I want to buy something cool while the cost will still remain obscured by the tuition bill.  Any suggestions?

Yes, I know. It’s been a week since I updated, and all you get is this lousy BioShock review.

I finished the game, among the most highly anticipated and subsequently reviewed games in history, last night while at the Reverend’s house. He and I rented the game, actually, likely being the only gamers who decided to rent it first. What proceeded was one of the greatest gaming presentations I have seen in some time.

I have always been skeptical of reviews from the gaming press. Often the review criteria are too specific or superficial. Often, the game is graded on a scale that begs whether 9.6 is significantly better than 9.5 or worse than 9.7. My review will cover the three most important aspects of a next-generation game: story, presentation, and gameplay. The game will be graded on a scale from 0 to 10 with a half-point interval. Let us proceed:

Story

In BioShock, we assume the role of “Jack,” a man who is the sole survivor of a plane crash ocer the Atlantic ocean. The crash occurs conveniently near a strange tower sticking out of the ocean, and located in it is a bathysphere leading to the strange, underwater city called Rapture. Rapture is the dream-child of industrialist-idealist Andrew Ryan, a character modeled after writer Ayn Rand. Upon arrival, Jack finds the city in ruins, Ryan’s idealism run amok, with a few elite survivors sealed behind locked doors for survival, the residents driven mad with lust for a chemical called ADAM, and mentally conditioned little girls — called ‘Little Sisters’ — roaming the corridors looting corpses. What follows is a journey to unravel the mystery of the Rapture, ADAM, and the Little Sisters.

In this imaginative critique of Rand’s pseudo-philosophy of Objectivism, the plot is revealed through in-engine cutscenes, radio transmissions from allies, ghostly apparitions, and audio-diaries scattered throughout the halls. To me, the story was the most impressive part of the game. Rarely does one find a first-person shooter that features such a riveting story and attempts to tackle deep philosophical issues. While some storytelling devices could have been explained further, and there were some small plot-holes here and there, BioShock is sure to impress the gamer who plays for story and moral challenge.

Presentation

Despite one or two popped textures, the game is visually stunning. The textures and filters are realistic, and the colors are deep and vibrant. The game encourages you to lower the gamma on your television do add to the dark, gritty atmosphere, an atmosphere enhanced when played in a dark, hot room. BioShock is a game that truly demonstrates the processing power of the Xbox 360’s Xenon processor. Aside from the realistic graphics, the game features a flawlessly developed physics engine and some of the best artificial intelligence presented in a video game to date, based on an AI engine the developers dub Ecology. Essentially, enemies are programmed for two things: harvesting ADAM, protection, and survival. As an example, if you shoot an enemy in the leg, he may attempt to find a first aid station. If you ignite an enemy with your incinerate ability, he runs for water (which you can then electrify). A high technical achievement, if I do say so myself.

Gameplay

Fundamentally, BioShock is a first-person shooter, and it’s playstyle is such, though the gameplay has clearly been influenced by the survival horror genre. Unlike other games in the genre, however, BioShock is more than running from point A to point B and killing everything that moves. Instead, as Jack, we must roam the corridors completing different objectives and finding Little Sisters to either rescue or kill for the ADAM they carry (a moral choice which took me minutes to solve, ultimately choosing to rescue the young ones), which is then used to purchase player upgrades essential for survival in the game.

BioShock is a game that takes graphic violence to the next level. It doesn’t shy away from showing blood splatter or heads fly when, for example, you shoot an enemy in the head. There are numerous ways to kill an enemy, and, as mentioned above, some are very gruesome indeed. As such, the game is not for the faint of heart. Despite the seemingly endless killing the environment remains very much alive, with a seemingly endless supply of enemies to. However, the dead stay dead, but residents continue to roam the streets, which can be frustrating to some players, as the game does require a fair amount of backtracking. Some less patient players may be turned off as the game is considered long for the genre, standing at about fifteen hours of gameplay (it took me several nights to play). Additionally, some experienced shooter players may complain about the game being too easy. If you are killed, you are resurrected at the nearest ‘Vita-chamber.’ Not to worry though, that happens to be an essential plot point.

Altogether BioShock is a gaming masterpiece that demonstrates how video games belong in the category of art. It is my opinion that the game belongs in the library of every Xbox 360 owner, whether or not you are a fan of the genre or not. Final tally: 9.5.