I took a walk to nowhere in particular recently, just wandering on and around Drexel's campus and eventually gravitating over to the greener pastures of the University of Pennsylvania.
As I walked, I thought about random things in my life, occasionally casting my gaze around the landscape. A few items of interest momentarily broke my reverie:
- a hefty gentlemen jogging past
My first thought is always 'well, that is a hefty gentlemen', but then after that I realize 'that is a hefty gentlemen getting far more exercise than I've gotten today', and then I feel bad.
- a discarded, half-full Coca-Cola bottle
Why would someone waste half of a Coca-cola bottle? I mean, I could understand wasting some sort of nasty energy drink or vitamin water, but that's just not cool. Ack, I nearly tripped while looking at the stupid bottle.
- a squirrel
It was just standing there on its hind legs, standing up as straight as humanly possible, staring very intently off into space. Normally squirrels are at least looking at something, like a tree or a blade of grass or what have you, but this one was just smack-daub in the middle of the walkway outside of Nesbitt staring up into space.
- a butterfly
I saw a flutter out of the corner of my eye, and then two elderly ladies walking past commented "Hey, a butterfly." And lo, it was so. I didn't get a very good luck at it before it fluttered away, but there are so few butterflies in Philly, from what I've seen, that it still merits a mention.
- a sports car
It was a really cool car, and I had nothing better to do but stare at cars as I was waiting for the light to turn. The driver was going way too fast.
That's about everything of interest that I noted down. There's something intrinsically beautiful about a butterfly, despite it basically just being a more brightly-colored version of a moth (which gets no love), so I could definitely catch my in-story character's attention with a butterfly.
Which could be a trap! Dun-dun-duuuun.
Showing posts with label Homework. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homework. Show all posts
Monday, August 23, 2010
BrainBank Analysis
Looking back through all of my BrainBank entries, I can discern myriad categories into which the focus of my internet could lay. There are three recurring themes, however, that dog all of my submissions.
Visual Palette
Emotional Tone
Technology as Art
From these three themes, I can further narrow things down to several specific components that pop up repeatedly.
Visual Palette
Cartoonish hues
Neon colors
Minimalism
Emotional Tone
Cute/silly
Disturbing
Epic
Technology as Art
Photographs
Robotics
Re-purposing technologies
As I listed these off, none of them really rang true in regard to my writing project-- until the very last entry. I'm always enamored of the creative uses people find for technologies; even if I'm writing a fantasy story, there are still plenty of instances where this creativity could apply. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," or something such as that-- so I should endeavor to find some creative uses for any magic or technology that has crept into my setting.
Hmm...
Visual Palette
Emotional Tone
Technology as Art
From these three themes, I can further narrow things down to several specific components that pop up repeatedly.
Visual Palette
Cartoonish hues
Neon colors
Minimalism
Emotional Tone
Cute/silly
Disturbing
Epic
Technology as Art
Photographs
Robotics
Re-purposing technologies
As I listed these off, none of them really rang true in regard to my writing project-- until the very last entry. I'm always enamored of the creative uses people find for technologies; even if I'm writing a fantasy story, there are still plenty of instances where this creativity could apply. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," or something such as that-- so I should endeavor to find some creative uses for any magic or technology that has crept into my setting.
Hmm...
Monday, August 16, 2010
Chapter Thirty-Eight: MurderBoard (or: There's a Text File On My Computer That Says 'Murder Ideas' Now)
Based on an exercise outlined in the book "Thinkertoys"
I met with two of my good friends in the Digital Media Replay Lab in order to get some feedback on my Choose Your Own Adventure story. I took them through a sample play-through, and this is what they recommended to me:
- Need more emotional connection
- Really descriptive writing at intro-- try really descriptive writing at death / victory
- Develop each individual story as opposed to making the branches really short
- Decisions give you a few more decisions
- Parallel possibilities, both get you to the same place
- Easier at beginning, harder as it goes; don't allow for death until later
- Controlled RPG-esque tree
Those are the notes I jotted down. I like the suggestions, and I'm definitely going to try to implement all of them.
Closing thoughts on this exercise:
The best way to test the mettle of your creative ideas is deliver a prototype to an actual audience, and get their feedback. On a small scale, the feedback of family or friends is valuable, so long as they feel no compulsion to spare your feelings.
A short note about my creative environment:
We described our ideas to each other while sitting in the chairs in the Replay Lab, which are pretty comfortable. The room was air-conditioned, but a little stuffy from the sheer amount of unused things in there gathering dust. Also, Christian Hahn was there working on something, but he didn't say much.
I met with two of my good friends in the Digital Media Replay Lab in order to get some feedback on my Choose Your Own Adventure story. I took them through a sample play-through, and this is what they recommended to me:
- Need more emotional connection
- Really descriptive writing at intro-- try really descriptive writing at death / victory
- Develop each individual story as opposed to making the branches really short
- Decisions give you a few more decisions
- Parallel possibilities, both get you to the same place
- Easier at beginning, harder as it goes; don't allow for death until later
- Controlled RPG-esque tree
Those are the notes I jotted down. I like the suggestions, and I'm definitely going to try to implement all of them.
Closing thoughts on this exercise:
The best way to test the mettle of your creative ideas is deliver a prototype to an actual audience, and get their feedback. On a small scale, the feedback of family or friends is valuable, so long as they feel no compulsion to spare your feelings.
A short note about my creative environment:
We described our ideas to each other while sitting in the chairs in the Replay Lab, which are pretty comfortable. The room was air-conditioned, but a little stuffy from the sheer amount of unused things in there gathering dust. Also, Christian Hahn was there working on something, but he didn't say much.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Bridge Building
It's pretty late at night, but I will try to keep the items in my "reserve tank" intelligible.
At present, this is what I have nailed down:
I've thought about doing something else just because I'm so invested in the genre already, but I can't really find any other genre I enjoy quite so much, so fantasy it is.
I'm thinking of the old standby of amnesia, so I can start off in the middle of the story and branch back in several directions, as opposed to a linear non-linear story, if that makes any sense.
I'm flip-flopping on including a battle system, and how to implement that.
Since I'm not specifically aiming this at little kids I'm going to feel free to be a little more graphic in my descriptions of thing.
I want to have a story that is more modern in its sensibilities, in that instead of a painful 'Game Over' where you have to start from the beginning, your death flows naturally into the story and you can continue; or you lose, but don't necessarily die. Let's be honest: everyone who's ever read a Choose Your Own just flipped back to the page before that and made a different choice
Update:
Mulling it over while tossing and turning before sleep, and again while showering, eating breakfast, etc. I pretty much agree with the reserve tank stuff. I'm feeling a little better about employing the cliche of amnesia-- cliches are cliches because they're incredibly useful, the trick is just using them properly and not abusing them.
I was going to go with a completely decision-based combat system (Turn to page 57 to try to trip the gremlin!), but I've been researching a lot of Dungeons and Dragons related stuff so I may feel confident enough to put some sort of dice-based system in.
At present, this is what I have nailed down:
I've thought about doing something else just because I'm so invested in the genre already, but I can't really find any other genre I enjoy quite so much, so fantasy it is.
I'm thinking of the old standby of amnesia, so I can start off in the middle of the story and branch back in several directions, as opposed to a linear non-linear story, if that makes any sense.
I'm flip-flopping on including a battle system, and how to implement that.
Since I'm not specifically aiming this at little kids I'm going to feel free to be a little more graphic in my descriptions of thing.
I want to have a story that is more modern in its sensibilities, in that instead of a painful 'Game Over' where you have to start from the beginning, your death flows naturally into the story and you can continue; or you lose, but don't necessarily die. Let's be honest: everyone who's ever read a Choose Your Own just flipped back to the page before that and made a different choice
Update:
Mulling it over while tossing and turning before sleep, and again while showering, eating breakfast, etc. I pretty much agree with the reserve tank stuff. I'm feeling a little better about employing the cliche of amnesia-- cliches are cliches because they're incredibly useful, the trick is just using them properly and not abusing them.
I was going to go with a completely decision-based combat system (Turn to page 57 to try to trip the gremlin!), but I've been researching a lot of Dungeons and Dragons related stuff so I may feel confident enough to put some sort of dice-based system in.
Monday, August 2, 2010
My Metaphoric Quotient (No, I'm Not Sure That's a Thing)
So, here are a couple of exercises that don't directly relate to anything beyond flexing those old creative brain muscles. Enjoy!
TASK:
If there's one thing that I think about when someone asks me about a mindless chore, it's doing laundry. Generally I mentally insert the descriptors "tedious" and "agonizing." Unfortunately, it's something that has to be done on at least a bi-weekly basis if I want clean boxers and plaid shorts. Like most mindless tasks, however, I can take solace in focusing on the basic rhythm: sort, load, wait forty minutes, transfer to dryer, wait an hour, fold, hang up.
Alright, so it's a somewhat staccato rhythm. I suppose I could narrow the main rhythmic part of the experience down to just "folding laundry." Grab, fold vertically, fold horizontally, toss in the basket, etc.
THEATER:
Well, this is an easy one. For one of my previous Thinkertoy exercises I did "Brutethink," where you find a random word and then force relations from it to the subject at hand, and turned up the interesting word "plethora." This is a pretty close descendant of its original Greek 'plethore' (fullness) to plethein (to grow full) in Medieval Latin. At some point this took on a negative connotation, it seems, as plethora was used as a term for a condition wherein the patient had an excess of blood. I don't know how such a condition ever came to pass, come to think of it, since the cure for everything from a stubbed toe to demonic possession back then was blood-letting.
EMPATHY:
Let's see, whose shoes could I walk a mile in. The most recent movie I saw starred Nicholas Cage in some capacity, so let's go with him for the laughs.
Bobby Speck as Nicholas Cage
Suddenly, horrifyingly, I'm reduced to a single emotional output of vaguely goofy blandness. Once I was relatively attractive, but my sedentary lifestyle and the willingness of the studio to airbrush my musculature instead of telling me to get off my butt and work out for my movies has given me unfortunate jowls. On the plus side, I now have more money then I ever could have obtained from a life-time of honest labor. With this money I can move to some remote place, like Siberia, and hide myself away from the world in relative comfort.
Nicholas Cage as Bobby Speck
I'm incredibly but blandly frustrated. Whenever I jab randomly at the keys of a keyboard I don't automagically triangulate the position of buried treasure, and when I make logical leaps of faith that reach far enough to canvas the Grand Canyon I just wind up driving forty miles out of my way and feeling extremely silly. On the plus side, I no longer inspire derision from movie-goers and I have a few years left before junk food completely ruins my manly figure, so that's something I suppose.
... man, Nicholas Cage is really not someone I want to be. Empathy over.
TASK:
If there's one thing that I think about when someone asks me about a mindless chore, it's doing laundry. Generally I mentally insert the descriptors "tedious" and "agonizing." Unfortunately, it's something that has to be done on at least a bi-weekly basis if I want clean boxers and plaid shorts. Like most mindless tasks, however, I can take solace in focusing on the basic rhythm: sort, load, wait forty minutes, transfer to dryer, wait an hour, fold, hang up.
Alright, so it's a somewhat staccato rhythm. I suppose I could narrow the main rhythmic part of the experience down to just "folding laundry." Grab, fold vertically, fold horizontally, toss in the basket, etc.
THEATER:
Well, this is an easy one. For one of my previous Thinkertoy exercises I did "Brutethink," where you find a random word and then force relations from it to the subject at hand, and turned up the interesting word "plethora." This is a pretty close descendant of its original Greek 'plethore' (fullness) to plethein (to grow full) in Medieval Latin. At some point this took on a negative connotation, it seems, as plethora was used as a term for a condition wherein the patient had an excess of blood. I don't know how such a condition ever came to pass, come to think of it, since the cure for everything from a stubbed toe to demonic possession back then was blood-letting.
EMPATHY:
Let's see, whose shoes could I walk a mile in. The most recent movie I saw starred Nicholas Cage in some capacity, so let's go with him for the laughs.
Bobby Speck as Nicholas Cage
Suddenly, horrifyingly, I'm reduced to a single emotional output of vaguely goofy blandness. Once I was relatively attractive, but my sedentary lifestyle and the willingness of the studio to airbrush my musculature instead of telling me to get off my butt and work out for my movies has given me unfortunate jowls. On the plus side, I now have more money then I ever could have obtained from a life-time of honest labor. With this money I can move to some remote place, like Siberia, and hide myself away from the world in relative comfort.
Nicholas Cage as Bobby Speck
I'm incredibly but blandly frustrated. Whenever I jab randomly at the keys of a keyboard I don't automagically triangulate the position of buried treasure, and when I make logical leaps of faith that reach far enough to canvas the Grand Canyon I just wind up driving forty miles out of my way and feeling extremely silly. On the plus side, I no longer inspire derision from movie-goers and I have a few years left before junk food completely ruins my manly figure, so that's something I suppose.
... man, Nicholas Cage is really not someone I want to be. Empathy over.
Monday, July 19, 2010
I Choose You, Pikachu
I've gone over this in some previous posts, but just as a refresher, I would like to write a Choose Your Own Adventure story. To this end, I shall be brainstorming on the topic and reflecting upon the great questions of the universe.
Define the Problem
What am I trying to say, and why?
A Choose Your Own Adventure story is, for the uninformed, a novel written in second-person perspective where the reader is presented with choices and turns to a certain page to see how they've affected the narrative.
The genre fell into obscurity after the early 90's, most likely due to the prevalence of videogames, which presented a far more visceral experience for a "player" than the classic Choose Your Adventure. I want to return to the roots of gaming, as it were, with this project.
Who are you talking to, and why?
I suppose this story would be targeted at individuals such as myself who are old enough to remember Choose Your Own Adventure stories; probably not the originals, but certainly the Goosebumps ones at least. I want to stir up some nostalgia, and remind people that you can use that thing called an imagination in conjunction with text to make images in your head.
What can you say that the competition can't?
What competition?
What is your reason for being?
Omniscience.
Restructure Your Problem
1. Make it more global/specific
The Five Whys
- Problem: I want to write a Choose Your Own Adventure story.
1. Why? - I'm interested in the genre.
2. Why? - I enjoyed Choose Your Own novels when I was younger.
3. Why? - The fact that I could be involved with a story and influence its course was awesome.
4. Why? - It was the closest I could get to a videogame experience that leveraged all of my imagination.
5. Why? - There's no code or graphics involved, just traditional text used in a non-traditional way.
Who, What, When, Why, Where, How
Who: Myself as the author and my potential audience of children to young adults.
What: My handy-dandy Word Processor, and also a pen and paper on occasion.
When: Over the course of the next five-odd weeks whenever I have time.
Why: I've been over this already.
Where: My dorm room most likely, or wherever I'm struck by inspiration.
How: I found an old Choose Your Own Adventure book while volunteering at the library and it sparked nostalgia.
2. Separate the parts from the whole
3. Rephrase the problem
Change the Words
I want to write a Choose Your Own Adventure game.
I want the right to a Choose Your Own Adventure game.
A Choose Your Own Adventure game is right.
Choosing to write a game is an adventure.
I am game to write an adventure with many choices.
I choose to game, and write my own adventure.
Create a Word Chain
adventure
quest
road
travel
ground
catacombs
skeletons
scimitars
steel
superhero
law
light
warriors
victory
Make it a positive action statement
The Action: I'm going to write.
The Object: I'm going to reintroduce Choose Your Own Adventures.
The Qualifier: I'm going to go back to the roots of gaming.
The Result: I'm going to create an engaging story.
Switch perspective
Look for polar opposites
Well, this is easy. The opposite of a Choose Your Own is a normal book. If I were to consider my project from the standpoint of a normal novel, it would have a single end and an overarching narrative with recurring characters.
Da Vinci's Multiple Perspectives
My point of view: I would author an engaging Choose Your Own Adventure.
Alternate perspective: Many of the established Choose Your Own Adventures come across as cheesy.
Alternative perspective: The idea is sound, but in the end the choices always wind up being limited which disappoints the reader.
All-inclusive statement: In order to create an engaging adventure, I need to avoid cheesy elements and keep the reader from feeling that they have no true choices in the narrative.
Use questions
Why is it necessary?
It will reignite my interest in writing in a way that still ties into my interest in gaming.
What is unknown?
The plot and exact genre of the adventure.
What do you understand about it?
Choose Your Own Adventures are fun for children but can get frustrating easily.
What do you not understand about it?
I don't yet know how to construct a narrative that doesn't lead into an unwieldy number of forks.
What info do you have? Is it sufficient/redundant?
I've read every adventure story known to man, so that's probably helpful.
Can you draw the problem as a diagram?
o
->
->
What are the boundaries?
Good taste.
Have you seen the problem before? or something similar?
Why yes, I have. It was a series of books of the actual name Choose Your Own Adventure; Goosebumps also did a number of Choose Your Own Adventure stories.
What are the best/worst/predictable scenarios?
I create something awesome/everyone hates it/I create something mediocre that serves as a jumping-off point.
Why is it necessary?
Because I said so.
Think of the problem as:
a living creature. What would it look like? Draw it.
It would look like a hydra. I can't make a badass-looking hydra, so in place of that check this out.
being edible. What would it taste like?
Everlasting gobstoppers.
being the top of something. What is underneath it?
Treasure.
being a color. What color would it be and why?
White, because the essence of a Choose Your Own is free choice, and white represents an unlimited opportunity to create.
being a sound. How would it sound? Loud or quiet?
It would sound like classical music, intricate but with a definitive theme.
being a texture. Describe it.
A rough, gnarled texture with myriad ridges and whorls.
define something beautiful about it.
This adventure should be a pure link between text and the imagination, placing the reader directly into the story in the role of protagonist.
Define the Problem
What am I trying to say, and why?
A Choose Your Own Adventure story is, for the uninformed, a novel written in second-person perspective where the reader is presented with choices and turns to a certain page to see how they've affected the narrative.
The genre fell into obscurity after the early 90's, most likely due to the prevalence of videogames, which presented a far more visceral experience for a "player" than the classic Choose Your Adventure. I want to return to the roots of gaming, as it were, with this project.
Who are you talking to, and why?
I suppose this story would be targeted at individuals such as myself who are old enough to remember Choose Your Own Adventure stories; probably not the originals, but certainly the Goosebumps ones at least. I want to stir up some nostalgia, and remind people that you can use that thing called an imagination in conjunction with text to make images in your head.
What can you say that the competition can't?
What competition?
What is your reason for being?
Omniscience.
Restructure Your Problem
1. Make it more global/specific
The Five Whys
- Problem: I want to write a Choose Your Own Adventure story.
1. Why? - I'm interested in the genre.
2. Why? - I enjoyed Choose Your Own novels when I was younger.
3. Why? - The fact that I could be involved with a story and influence its course was awesome.
4. Why? - It was the closest I could get to a videogame experience that leveraged all of my imagination.
5. Why? - There's no code or graphics involved, just traditional text used in a non-traditional way.
Who, What, When, Why, Where, How
Who: Myself as the author and my potential audience of children to young adults.
What: My handy-dandy Word Processor, and also a pen and paper on occasion.
When: Over the course of the next five-odd weeks whenever I have time.
Why: I've been over this already.
Where: My dorm room most likely, or wherever I'm struck by inspiration.
How: I found an old Choose Your Own Adventure book while volunteering at the library and it sparked nostalgia.
2. Separate the parts from the whole
3. Rephrase the problem
Change the Words
I want to write a Choose Your Own Adventure game.
I want the right to a Choose Your Own Adventure game.
A Choose Your Own Adventure game is right.
Choosing to write a game is an adventure.
I am game to write an adventure with many choices.
I choose to game, and write my own adventure.
Create a Word Chain
adventure
quest
road
travel
ground
catacombs
skeletons
scimitars
steel
superhero
law
light
warriors
victory
Make it a positive action statement
The Action: I'm going to write.
The Object: I'm going to reintroduce Choose Your Own Adventures.
The Qualifier: I'm going to go back to the roots of gaming.
The Result: I'm going to create an engaging story.
Switch perspective
Look for polar opposites
Well, this is easy. The opposite of a Choose Your Own is a normal book. If I were to consider my project from the standpoint of a normal novel, it would have a single end and an overarching narrative with recurring characters.
Da Vinci's Multiple Perspectives
My point of view: I would author an engaging Choose Your Own Adventure.
Alternate perspective: Many of the established Choose Your Own Adventures come across as cheesy.
Alternative perspective: The idea is sound, but in the end the choices always wind up being limited which disappoints the reader.
All-inclusive statement: In order to create an engaging adventure, I need to avoid cheesy elements and keep the reader from feeling that they have no true choices in the narrative.
Use questions
Why is it necessary?
It will reignite my interest in writing in a way that still ties into my interest in gaming.
What is unknown?
The plot and exact genre of the adventure.
What do you understand about it?
Choose Your Own Adventures are fun for children but can get frustrating easily.
What do you not understand about it?
I don't yet know how to construct a narrative that doesn't lead into an unwieldy number of forks.
What info do you have? Is it sufficient/redundant?
I've read every adventure story known to man, so that's probably helpful.
Can you draw the problem as a diagram?
o
->
->
What are the boundaries?
Good taste.
Have you seen the problem before? or something similar?
Why yes, I have. It was a series of books of the actual name Choose Your Own Adventure; Goosebumps also did a number of Choose Your Own Adventure stories.
What are the best/worst/predictable scenarios?
I create something awesome/everyone hates it/I create something mediocre that serves as a jumping-off point.
Why is it necessary?
Because I said so.
Think of the problem as:
a living creature. What would it look like? Draw it.
It would look like a hydra. I can't make a badass-looking hydra, so in place of that check this out.
being edible. What would it taste like?
Everlasting gobstoppers.
being the top of something. What is underneath it?
Treasure.
being a color. What color would it be and why?
White, because the essence of a Choose Your Own is free choice, and white represents an unlimited opportunity to create.
being a sound. How would it sound? Loud or quiet?
It would sound like classical music, intricate but with a definitive theme.
being a texture. Describe it.
A rough, gnarled texture with myriad ridges and whorls.
define something beautiful about it.
This adventure should be a pure link between text and the imagination, placing the reader directly into the story in the role of protagonist.
Monday, July 12, 2010
The Path to Enlightenment (or: A Lantern Limerick)
1. Black and white
2. Metal
3. Matte
3. Frosted glass
4. Pointed top
5. Ornate
6. One of a pair
7. Bolted to a brick building
8. Dark and inert
9. Resembles a knight's shield
10. Squared-off, not rounded
11. Covered in condensation
12. No bulb inside of it
13. Electrically-powered
14. Flanking a doorway
15. Hung at head height
16. Weathered-looking
17. Bolts are rusted
18. Hatch on the bottom
19. Home to a caterpillar
20. Grass caught in the hinge
From these observations, I have composed a poem involving the dark lantern and its wriggling denizen, entitled:
The Caterpillar's Prison
A caterpillar went on his way
And nary a goodbye did he say
To the friends left behind
As he wriggled and climbed
Into darkness, trapped to this day
You may have noticed that the above list is suspiciously similar to one I made the other day about a hapless Drexel tree, and you would be absolutely correct. The difference between the two subjects is that I had all the time and leisure in the world to consciously select my subject this time around, whereas previously I was working under a time constraint. Given said time, I chose the lantern because I was intrigued by the dichotomy between the essential purpose of a lantern as a light-giver and the state in which I stumbled upon these dimmed devices.
Monday, July 5, 2010
My Creative Biography (or: Technically This is a Creative Autobiography, Because I'm Writing It About Myself)
If asked to write a creative autobiography on the fly, it would very likely consist of nonsensical rambling as I'd have no idea where to start or how to structure the piece. Luckily, I have here a list of questions that provide just such a structure for my rambling.
What was the first creative moment you remember?
Well, I can't say I actually remember the first creative moment I remember, at least not off the top of my head. But the first creative moment I remember that I can remember is actually directly related to my field. I built a laughably intricate underground water ride in Rollercoaster Tycoon, probably riddling my park with thousands of structural instabilities in my quest for the creation of the most insane ride ever.
I definitely played games before Rollercoaster Tycoon, but certainly none that provided any sort of creative license. Even today I occasionally reinstall the classic original and construct a wacky theme park out of the thousands of permutations in locations and rides, aided by the ability to actually construct certain rides like the titular rollercoasters and water rides from scratch.
Did anyone see it?
I showed my friends from Sunday school, as we had an informal contest of sorts to who could create the zaniest situations in the game.
What was your best idea?
What was the first creative moment you remember?
Well, I can't say I actually remember the first creative moment I remember, at least not off the top of my head. But the first creative moment I remember that I can remember is actually directly related to my field. I built a laughably intricate underground water ride in Rollercoaster Tycoon, probably riddling my park with thousands of structural instabilities in my quest for the creation of the most insane ride ever.
I definitely played games before Rollercoaster Tycoon, but certainly none that provided any sort of creative license. Even today I occasionally reinstall the classic original and construct a wacky theme park out of the thousands of permutations in locations and rides, aided by the ability to actually construct certain rides like the titular rollercoasters and water rides from scratch.
Did anyone see it?
I showed my friends from Sunday school, as we had an informal contest of sorts to who could create the zaniest situations in the game.
What was your best idea?
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Problems (or: I Got 99 Problems But A List Ain't One)
Ah, problems. For every one you solve, four more of greater magnitude arise. Still, there are some overarching problems that dog me at present, which I have narrowed down to present in a concise randomized list:
1. I like to write, but I rarely do in any directed fashion. I'd like to write a novel; possibly a Choose Your Own Adventure of some variety, as I greatly enjoyed those when I was younger and the genre is quite lacking following the 80's.
2. I like to eat unhealthy but delicious foods, but do not want to spill over into two chairs in a couple of years. To that end I need to start exercising regularly, and establish some sort of dietary plan that doesn't involve sacrificing my happiness as a man.
3. I need to pursue every possible avenue for co-op, chasing down potential contacts and knocking on the virtual doors of a host of gaming and other media companies.
4. I really do need to find out what my optimal time of day for work is, as purportedly such a thing exists uniquely for all individuals. I've never bothered to keep track of my 'Eureka!' moments when I sink my teeth into a task and look up seven hours later to find that the sun has waned in the sky.
5. I need to remember birthdays and other events of significance, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. I've hit more than I've missed recently, but that's like saying I save more trees than I kill. Either way concerned parties aren't very happy with me. At odds with this is my general disaffection for social networking sites, which I have to admit are pretty good about tracking that sort of thing.
6. I need to get on a more normal sleep schedule. I may enjoy the fact that on my days I don't have to wake up until the crack of noon, but this only means that I wind up staying up that much later; and I've found the closer you get to sleeping in some absurd amount the more the noises and other sleep-disruptors pile up, the more campus events you miss, and the less inclined you are to eat a balanced breakfast.
7. I need to find more clubs and actually attend meetings; I find that the moment I miss one meeting for a club I find it much harder to drag myself away from whatever project I'm working on or game I'm playing and truck over to socialize with people that share my interests.
8. I need to establish a corner of the web for myself and optimally build it enough relevance to show up on peoples' radar. I'm slowly but surely getting together the material, now I need to properly display it.
9. On a related note, I need to research and put together the most flattering reel possible that astutely and succinctly shows off the highlights of my media accomplishments.
10. I'm not even sure how to begin to go about this, but I need to somehow catalog every word that has made its way into my vocabulary and figure out the correct pronunciation for everything. I feel endlessly foolish when I badly mispronounce and mangle an innocent adjective or three in the space of a few minutes.
There you have it, voyeur of my innermost turmoils. Hopefully this list will shrink significantly before I have more items to append to it.
1. I like to write, but I rarely do in any directed fashion. I'd like to write a novel; possibly a Choose Your Own Adventure of some variety, as I greatly enjoyed those when I was younger and the genre is quite lacking following the 80's.
2. I like to eat unhealthy but delicious foods, but do not want to spill over into two chairs in a couple of years. To that end I need to start exercising regularly, and establish some sort of dietary plan that doesn't involve sacrificing my happiness as a man.
3. I need to pursue every possible avenue for co-op, chasing down potential contacts and knocking on the virtual doors of a host of gaming and other media companies.
4. I really do need to find out what my optimal time of day for work is, as purportedly such a thing exists uniquely for all individuals. I've never bothered to keep track of my 'Eureka!' moments when I sink my teeth into a task and look up seven hours later to find that the sun has waned in the sky.
5. I need to remember birthdays and other events of significance, Mother's Day, Father's Day, etc. I've hit more than I've missed recently, but that's like saying I save more trees than I kill. Either way concerned parties aren't very happy with me. At odds with this is my general disaffection for social networking sites, which I have to admit are pretty good about tracking that sort of thing.
6. I need to get on a more normal sleep schedule. I may enjoy the fact that on my days I don't have to wake up until the crack of noon, but this only means that I wind up staying up that much later; and I've found the closer you get to sleeping in some absurd amount the more the noises and other sleep-disruptors pile up, the more campus events you miss, and the less inclined you are to eat a balanced breakfast.
7. I need to find more clubs and actually attend meetings; I find that the moment I miss one meeting for a club I find it much harder to drag myself away from whatever project I'm working on or game I'm playing and truck over to socialize with people that share my interests.
8. I need to establish a corner of the web for myself and optimally build it enough relevance to show up on peoples' radar. I'm slowly but surely getting together the material, now I need to properly display it.
9. On a related note, I need to research and put together the most flattering reel possible that astutely and succinctly shows off the highlights of my media accomplishments.
10. I'm not even sure how to begin to go about this, but I need to somehow catalog every word that has made its way into my vocabulary and figure out the correct pronunciation for everything. I feel endlessly foolish when I badly mispronounce and mangle an innocent adjective or three in the space of a few minutes.
There you have it, voyeur of my innermost turmoils. Hopefully this list will shrink significantly before I have more items to append to it.
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