Oct 28

Percentage Gadget Privacy Policy

Percentage Gadget is an Android app which I’ve had in the Google Play Store for many years. I wrote it for my wife, and I thought it would be fun to publish it, and since then, quite a few folks apparently like it (10,000+ installs!).

Lately, Google has been bugging me to post a Privacy Policy for Percentage Gadget. I don’t really mind doing that; I understand that mobile app development is long past its Wild West phase, and now we have to be mindful of the fact that many apps are just bad actors.

I’ve never had to add a Privacy Policy for this app before, but it’s not hard, since the app doesn’t collect, store, use, or transmit any user data of any kind. Therefore, here is my Privacy Policy. Therefore:

PERCENTAGE GADGET PRIVACY POLICY


I take your privacy and the security of your personal data seriously. Therefore, Percentage Gadget does not, and never will, collect, store, process, or transmit any user data of any kind. It does not attempt to read any data from your device or other apps installed on it.

 

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Nov 15

TERMS OF USE Reviewed in the Monterey County Weekly

An original new play contends with commerce, death and technology.

by Walter Ryce

http://www.montereycountyweekly.com/entertainment/theater/an-original-new-play-contends-with-commerce-death-and-technology/article_27ab638c-e85b-11e8-8ac6-17f71aa32c4f.html

 

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Nov 08

TERMS OF USE Opens Tonight in Monterey!

And now it’s really real.


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Oct 27

TERMS OF USE Video Trailer : Miss V Introduces Virtopia

Terms Of Use Video Trailer

Terms of Use Video Trailer

Miss V (Alyssa Matthews) introduces the amazing world of Virtopia!

See TERMS OF USE at the Paper Wing Theatre in Monterey, CA, November 8-17, 2018. Tickets are available at https://www.paperwing.com/terms-of-use/

TERMS OF USE by Patrick M Brennan

Directed by Erin Davison
Featuring Alyssa Matthews, Jay Brew, Lucy Tran, Alanna Youngblood, and Jason Roeder.
Video and FX by Persisanne Tomingas

Thank you Paper Wing!

PS: Compare this to my original scene. Sometimes I get it (nearly) right the first time!

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Aug 31

Terms of Use Final Poster

Here is the final version of the poster for the Monterey production of TERMS OF USE, at Paper Wing Theatre! Rehearsals begin in just a few days – I can’t wait!

Posted in Terms Of Use (Play), Theater, Writing | Leave a comment
Aug 24

BITS will be playing in Chicago in November

BITS, my 10-minute comedy about life, death, love, marriage, information theory, and teleportation, will be performed at Otherworld Theatre’s PARAGON Festival in Chicago this November!

https://www.otherworldtheatre.org/paragon


More information as it becomes available.

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Aug 09

New Poster for TERMS OF USE in Monterey

This is the poster for the November production of TERMS OF USE at Paper Wing Theatre in Monterey CA. I’m thrilled about this production and I’m very much looking forward to it – this will be the first time this play has had a full-up production on stage!

Poster for TERMS OF USE

Poster for TERMS OF USE

TERMS OF USE is a sci-fi/horror mashup, a cyberpunk thriller about the world just around the corner. In this world, Martha wants to save her hacker brother CC from a dangerous obsession with virtual reality. But she discovers that he has learned how to open a door to a realm darker than she could have ever imagined. Can she rescue him before he is lost forever?

The play will be directed by the talented Erin Davison, who previously directed the reading of TERMS OF USE at Paper Wing in June 2017.


TERMS OF USE will be performed in Paper Wing’s Gallerie Theater, at 8:00 PM on November 8-24, each Thursday, Friday and Saturday except on Thanksgiving (November 22).

Paper Wing Theatre is located at 320 Hoffman Ave, Monterey, CA 93940. Ticket availability will be announced shortly.

original artwork by Dean Calusdian, © 2017

Posted in Terms Of Use (Play), Theater, Virtual Reality, Writing | Leave a comment
Aug 04

Toward a Markup Language for Stage Plays

For several years now I’ve been building and using a LibreOffice macro package to format my plays. It helps my writing because I spend a lot less time manually formatting my plays, and a lot more time writing with a good state of flow. The key to my system is a simple markup language that allows me to quickly bang out dialog and stage directions, which can be easily formatted into my word processor’s format at any time during my writing process. I can also easily convert back from my word processor’s format to my markup language, allowing me to do plain text tricks with my play (e.g. compare between different versions) which I would otherwise be unable to do easily.

It’s still a work in progress, and there are rough edges. Moreover, I’d love to be able to write adapters for this markup language to LaTeX, RTF, and Microsoft Word. Currently I’m too strapped for time to be able to do this, however.

This is what a page of dialog from Terms of Use looks like as markup:

## CC gets up to retrieve the V-HELM, but MARTHA is quicker, and she gets it first.

/cc/ Give me that.

/m/ CC, this is an _intervention_.

/cc/ What?

/m/ I love you, and I can't let you do this to yourself any more.

/cc/ Martha, stop being ridiculous!


/m/ I can't let you do this to _us_ any more.

/cc/ What are you gonna do with that?

/m/ You want it? Come and take it from me.

## A BEAT.

Now here is what it looks like on the page:

If you’ve spent any time writing stage plays, you will probably imagine what a time saver this can be.

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Jul 13

TERMS OF USE: Author’s Notes for Pear Reading

Some people say that we’re on the cusp of a media revolution, that Virtual Reality is just around the corner, and that it will change everything. I’m old enough now to remember that Virtual Reality has been just around the corner, ready to change everything, for several decades now. One of these years they might be right! In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy this fantasy I’ve concocted about the collision of the virtual world with the real. When you hear it, I hope you will reflect on what theater artists have known for thousands of years: that virtual reality really isn’t about technology, it’s about imagination. I hope you will find our performance to be an enjoyable catalyst for your own imaginary journeys, and I will look forward to hearing your reactions.

Posted in Terms Of Use (Play), Theater, Virtual Reality, Writing | Leave a comment