Stick asked me the other night where if my sister Bethie picked a grad school yet.
“She did!” I tell him. “She’s going to Columbia! She’s going to live in the city, near me!”
“Columbia? That’s a great choice!” Stick says, “because that’s where Daredevil went to school!”
I’ve been reading a lot on my Kindle, and just as I was about to run out of money buying books, Roy told me I could check NYPL e-books out on my Kindle. This is pretty much the greatest thing ever.
The electronic library collection includes the type of bestsellers I love to read, and to have read, but not necessarily devote space to in my tiny Brooklyn apartment. I can get those from the library now!
Ok, so from time-to-time, I think that the person who designed the browsing UI and the checkout process secretly works for Amazon, and wants all the library patrons to give up in frustration and just order the bloody thing. But requesting library books for my Kindle is still pretty much the best thing ever.
When I hear a book review on NPR or read one on a blog, and then I search for that book in NYPL Kindle titles, and then I add myself to the waitlist after 50 or 100 other library patrons who already heard the NPR review and grabbed that title. Then later, the library sends me an email saying that my book is ready! Turns out those 50 or 100 borrowers read freakishly fast, too. So I sign in to download it, which can be done from pretty much anywhere (although one of the weirdnesses of the interface is that the actual eNYPL site isn’t smoothly compatible with the Kindle browser, so I can either use a proper PC or use the Kindle and swear a lot), and it magically downloads to my reader.
So I did that on the train, coming back from Durham, looking for books to request and to appear magically into my hands. Free.
I love living in the future! I hope I get my flying car next!
My company shares a floor with a bunch of media companies, social advertisers, and tech start-ups, and someone on our floor has gotten a contract with Arizona and left a crate of Strawberry Coladas in the office kitchen today. That person is my new favorite! These are so yummy!
Turns out, these Arizona Strawberry Coladas are 2.5 servings per bottle… so I’ve had 7.5 servings of pretend cocktail today. And the second ingredient, after water, is high fructose corn syrup, or as we writers with the extensive vocabularies like to call it, SUGAR. What’s seven-and-a-half times ALL THE SUGAR IN THE WORLD??? BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT I JUST DRANK!!
I’m not sure who has the Arizona contract and who left a crate of these up for grabs in the office kitchen, but that person is my new favorite! I’ll probably go hug them after I run around the building a couple more times!
This mission, Professor’s Kardsten’s Journal, is one of the tutorials from Next Island, and Professor Kardsten, a book-loving historian, is a character I really enjoyed working up.
Lots of the time, I wonder if players actually read through my dialogue, or just click through as fast as possible, trying to get to the reward.
But I guess some of them actually do read it!
I’d really like to send this back in time about two years, to when I was living in Cary, waiting tables and desperately looking for any kind of satisfying work.
Harold: …then we’ll go once you’ve finished your coffee, James Joyce.
Meg: What did you just call me?
Harold: James Joyce. Because of your Irish cream latte.
Meg: Oh, thank goodness! I thought you meant because I write long and annoying stream-of-consciousness ramblings.
After my pass delays, I came late to Evan Skolnick’s Learn Better Game Writing In A Day, and tried to slip quietly into the room. Oddly, the room for this all-day lesson was laid out not in lecture-hall rows, but in round tables of about eight people each. It seemed fairly awkward to squeeze in, late and trying to be silent, with my back almost to the lecturer.
There was a great mix of confirming how I see storytelling in games, introducing new ways to present interactive content, and tying the expected narrative flow in games to the narrative flow in other media.
We were assigned several individual writing pieces, and several projects with the group around our table. In college, I hated group projects, because there was always one student who hadn’t done the reading or wasn’t really understanding the material, and the rest of the group would have to float this person. (I am, ahem, not the most patient person in the world.) This was entirely different, the group work was one of the most interesting parts of the day. Everyone in the room works in the creative side of the games industry, and every one of us thought we could stand to get better at it.
Sometimes I think that I’m working in my dream industry, so I shouldn’t be complaining about any work struggles. You work in videogames, jerk, how can you ever be stressed out by work? But it was amazing to talk with so many others who have that same struggles I do with the gap between the work in your mind and the work on paper, with the gap between the work on paper and the finished project.
These are my people, I thought, looking around the round table. These are my people.
Meg: Hi Chip!
We were just talking about you. And about how you buy ALL the URLS!
Chip: hahaha
all the URLs in the world
alltheURLs.com is now mine
Meg: Of course it is.
My friend Nick was visiting our offices, and he redecorated my PC while I was away from my desk. I think he’s trying to send some kind of message.
I work developing missions and gameplay for an MMO, which has outsourced parts of development, and marketing, and works remotely with a distant platform, and is pretty great about letting folks work remotely when necessary. Anyway, my point is that I’ve got quite a few people I consider coworkers, but I’ve never met them in person. One of these distant colleagues just sent me an account and a password for a piece of software.
The password he choose is MegRules123, although he’s never been in the office and wouldn’t know my usual password.
