My SOTU Response

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Jan 262011

…As I Experienced It Through Twitter

I did not watch the State of the Union last night, though it sounded fascinating. Obama can speechify with the best of them and it’s hard to deny he is a talented speaker. I did follow the SOTU last night through Twitter, so let me reflect on that nugget through the use of bullet points.

I follow a bunch of smart asses on Twitter who are hilarious especially in the context of following a Presidential speech. Did I miss actual content of the speech, the red raw meat of vague governmental policy spoonfed to the base of each party? Of course I did. But a loss on “facts” was a net gain on laughs from people mocking the whole thing. Few people were spared the drawn rapiers of comedy. Is that a bad metaphor? Who cares, we’re moving on.
The whole mixing up the seating thing? Yeah, a nice gesture, but let’s see Congress actually talk to each other without donning their Impenetrable Shield of Rhetoric (in either Gingrichian or Carvillian flavors).
The Republican response? Well, at least he talked about some specific stuff. I always thought it was a bit unfair to have a response to the President’s speech, especially when the text of the speech is available to the other party beforehand, essentially granting the last word to the other party. But on the other hand, less people watch the response, so I guess there’s a trade off. It just doesn’t seem like the bully pulpit seems so big this way.
- As pointed out in a Slate article today, the GOP hopes to cut spending but not touch the four top economic drains in the government (Defense, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security). Proposed cuts don’t even cover the cost of the extended Bush tax cut, so what the hell. Riddle me this, Batman. How the hell do you hope to make any progress on the budget by gutting everything else, leaving little left but an empty shell of a nation? Research? Education? Transportation? Doesn’t this seem awfully short-sighted to gut infrastructure and investment? I know, it’s tough to make big-boy decisions about stuff when the results won’t be seen for years and your constituents want everything for free NOW. But when can we expect a grown-up response to budget troubles?
Oh, Michelle Bachmann…what crazy fun we can expect from you this next two years. Love how you have assumed some sort of leadership mantle of the strangely unguided Tea Party Caucus. How you must be driving GOP leaders up a wall by causing such divisiveness in your own party. After all those years of getting all the Republicans to toe the line giving their party a legislative cudgel they constantly use on the Democrats, you flit in claiming the Tea Party tiara and hold your own response, confusing the GOP message and pissing off other Tea Party adherents and your own party. Fun!
- On a side note, let me say how thrilled I am that she’s back in Congress throwing herself in front of every camera she can find and not walking up and down the streets of our good streets of the rest of America, getting kids to eat the crazy candy with her. As a recent father, I’m happy that she is locked up in D.C. where Fox, CNN and CSPAN can keep a good eye on her, letting me know it’s safe for my child to play outside.

As a final note, I’m not looking forward to the next two years. Presidential campaigns have already begun (*sigh*), chances are we’re going to have a lot of gridlock, little legislative movement, and lots of GOP crowing about how the economy is recovering–which was more the result of convenient timing rather than actual policy. I hope it’s a quiet two years, but I really doubt it.

Five Goals for 2011

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Dec 312010

Of course it’s that time of year again. You will note I said goals and not resolutions. Resolutions can be nebulous and for me, it has an aura that those things you set out to do would be nice, but if you don’t get there, oh well. Goals to me seem more concrete, more tangible. Let’s start off.

5) Improve Health

Hockey has helped quite a bit actually, plus I walk the dog once a day. I’m not carrying any extra fat and for being forty, that’s something. But I’d like to improve my cardiovascular so it’s a bit easier to breathe, so I’m not so winded after a hockey shift. Also, Audrey keeps growing and I’d like to be able to carry her for a bit yet. On top of that, I need to eat better than I have been. I don’t get my three meals, usually settling for two and fueled by a bunch of caffeine.

4) Regular Blogging

I did okay this last year, but was inconsistent. That’s not such a big deal and I’m pretty happy that I didn’t drop off the map for months at a time. I’ve got time set aside to do more blog posts, but I’ll likely not blog on the weekends again. I like spending time with my family and weekends are the only times that I can spend hours at a time with them on a regular basis. We’ll see though. Part of this also includes a blog update to make it a bit more personalized.

3) Learn Something New

I like learning. I’ve got a few things in mind this year when it comes to things I would love to understand. I’d like to get my German language courses back on track. I understand a fair amount of words, but I’m not fully conversant. I’ve got the tools for it, just need to set aside some time to get it done. I’d also like to learn more about Calculus, strangely enough. Y’know, bone up on some nerd cred. It’s not just that though, I’m really interested in it as hopefully I can better understand some of the cool science that’s happening out there today.

2) Positivity

This may be the hardest one that I may need to really put a lot of work towards. It’s not that I’m not positive about life. I find that I’m optimistic about a great number of things, but I do let little idiocies get under my skin. Many of these just don’t matter. They are minutia, barely even deserving attention, but yet I let it bother me. It happens most apparently when I’m driving. I’m kinda vocal about how I think other drivers are pretty selfish and moronic on the road, but why do I let it bother me? There are other things that I’ve let trouble me as well, but on the whole, most of that aggravation is unneeded.

1) Publish

Yeah. This is tough. But I’ve got a plan. And the point isn’t just to publish for the sake of publishing. The point is to work on something, make it as best as I can and then release it and see if it gets out of the slush pile and some editor smiles upon the work enough to want to include it in their publishing schedule. Like I said, I have a plan, I’ve got the will to do it and God willing, I think I may have the talent.

So there you go. Down on paper, as it were and of course, we’ll revisit how I did in a year.

Five Found Songs in 2010

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Dec 302010

Note that these are not five songs made in 2010, just ones I found and dug. In fact, they may not be representative of the band’s work, but still, I like these particular songs. Enjoy!

5) NEU! ”Hallogallo”

In one of my trips to the Cities, I listened to Sound Opinions on my local NPR station where they interviewed Michael Rother about NEU! It was really my first introduction to what became known as Krautrock. I loved it immediately.

4) Marion Call ”In the Black”

I’m not sure how I found out about Marion Call, but my guess is Twitter. Never got to thank the person who linked it. I already blogged this video earlier this year. It deserves a second play. It has fun Firefly related scenes in the video as well.

3) The Decemberists “Sons and Daughters”

The Decemberists have been a buzz band for awhile now so it’s not surprising that I would eventually listen to them and enjoy their music. What impresses me about them is their storytelling style in their lyrics.

2) Cee Lo Green “Forget You” or “F@$* You”

Was there any other song out there this year that was as fun as this one? No, there wasn’t. I’m also tickled to think that this song could possibly win another Grammy for Cee Lo. I’m including the SFW version, but if you want the original with all the swearing, here’s the link.

1) LCD Soundsystem “Pow Pow”

No album made me just happy like this one did. When LCD Soundsystem came on the radio, it invariably lifted my mood. Fun song. Fun album.

Five Cool Articles from 2010

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Dec 292010

As JB’s comment from yesterday ‘s post reminded me, sometimes I get bogged down in the details and whatever focus I have is not on what’s real or beautiful, but mired in trivial inconveniences that lead to negativity. It really got me to think about today’s Five Things topic and how I could reflect my concerns in a meaningful way.

This is a mix of five articles plus two I decided to tag onto the end as a sort of honorable mention. The five articles may not represent the whole of 2010, but gives you a glimpse of how I saw it, both bad and good. Plus, they’re just good to read.

5) Andre Agassi’s Education Mission

I’ll admit that I really didn’t like Andre Agassi when he first burst on the international tennis scene. He was brash and arrogant in his early years which rubbed me the wrong way from the start. As he moved from tennis superstar to an elder statesman of the sport, his attitude changed and a maturity bloomed. This article from the BBC reveals things about Agassi I would have never guessed and focuses on his new passion in life, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy.

4) The Road to Hell is Paved With Compostable Bags

One of two recent articles I included. One of my Twitter friends linked this story and there are bits of it that ring true for me. It baffles me that as a society, we’re more concerned and motivated to action by minor irritation such as how noisy a plastic bag may be, rather than real issues like poverty and genocide. The writer draws a parallel between where we are as a culture and Colonel Kurtz’s worldview in the movie Apocalypse Now. It’s not much of a stretch.

3) Cook’s Source Internet Implosion

Maybe you had heard of this, but in writing circles, this was the WTF moment of the year. Cook’s Source was a small internet magazine who ran articles on food and provided recipe information to their subscribers. It was then discovered that an article had been lifted from the internet and published without the author’s permission. This article describes the bizarre responses from the publishers and the comments are just a slice of the internet rage which followed. While the original article doesn’t provide the denouement and demise of Cook’s Source, it does provide the insight of the original author who got ripped off. After all this time, some people still don’t get the internet. Later investigations found that most of their content was lifted from numerous sources. Those stories can be found with a quick internet search.

2) Geek Culture Must Die

A very recent article. And normally, I don’t pay attention to Wired as they are about as relevant to tech culture as Cosmo is to world politics, but this was by guest writer Patton Oswalt who makes a series of good points on the first page. The main thrust being that geek culture has been made mainstream and that we geeks who used to be so proud in our singular pursuits no longer have that shelter that stood us apart from everyone else. Geek culture is popular culture right now. I don’t know if I really agree with him on the second page of what to do to fix the situation and I really think he’s trying to be funny with it, but he makes you think about the situation.

1) Best Story of the Year

I blogged about this earlier this year and it deserves a second mention. It’s simply the best story to read this year. It’s about a community pulling out all the stops to do something special for a young boy with cancer. My God, they shut down I-90 for this in Seattle and if you’re familiar with the area, you know that’s no small feat! It still brings tears to my eyes reading it. The video included is good as well, but you have to endure a non-skippable commercial before you can view it.

Two Extra Articles:

In the same vein as my best story of the year, you should really read the whole hubbub around “May the Force be with Katie“. Another story about how people bind together to help a kid overcome.

Lastly, I wanted to include this link from io9 who found an old interview with Rod Serling. It’s a fascinating insight to the man who was a sci-fi television pioneer.

Five Disappointments of 2010

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Dec 282010

Yesterday, I blogged about the good in 2010 and now it’s time to look at the other side of the coin, the disappointments. I won’t say bad, because in all of it’s weirdness, 2010 was not a bad year. It was just filled with strangeness and some real head scratching moments. Let’s get to the list.

5) Bad Customer Service

Am I alone here or was 2010 really bad for getting your needs met at certain establishments? And I don’t really consider myself a bad customer, but in my growing up, I’m willing to put up with a lot less than I was used to in my youth. And it was just weird things, too. My bank screwing up very simple requests, forcing me to make multiple visits to get it cleared up. Getting a simple drink right at a restaurant. Taking nearly a month to get internet installed at my house. Getting the wrong shirt shipped to you from the one you ordered in person, right in front of the person who runs the business. I don’t get it. What made it so that 2010 is such a bad year to get good service?

4) Buying the House

This one get’s it’s own heading. In the past, I would have expected the purchase of a house to be a bit of an ordeal, mainly because I just wasn’t that good with my own money and that caused problems. But a lot has changed since those days and though I’m not an expert in financial issues, I’m not a liability any longer. Which is what baffles me to why getting our house caused a lot of headaches with Melanie and me. There was nothing complicated about the mortgage we were trying to do, no fancy tricks, no zero money down hoo-ha. It was a conventional mortgage for a sum which we were well able to afford. When the bank stopped answering our correspondence for two weeks, it really confused the hell out of us because we were kept in the dark during a critical time of the purchase. Granted, everything worked out in the end, but I’m not one to really relish surprises when I’m making the biggest purchase in my life.

3) Internet Noise

I can’t really read the Star Tribune online anymore. The inmates have taken over the asylum. It’s not just the Star Tribune, but on a number of websites. Commenting has become such an expected part of some of these sites, I’m not sure how much they realize that it’s a hindrance rather than a facilitator. The lofty goal was to create a community discussion where people can engage with each other. However, the trolls are more persistent, more rancorous, more interested in defending their ideology rather than debating the merits of their position. News sites in particular seem loath to turn off comment sections because it can drive page views, but they do that at the cost of sacrificing the story to those trolls. Editorials are shredded down to partisan broadsides, ditto for any story dealing with government. Even sports sections are fraught with the homers who support the team no matter what and those yelling for wholesale change. None of this started in 2010, but it did seem to grow exponentially this year.

2) The Election

I’m not going to write too much about this as you can look back to my post-election rant I wrote in early November. And to the surprise of some, I’m not even going to say that the Dems losing was much of a surprise and I’ll admit to some extent, they deserved it. Hell, I was pretty disappointed at their lack of progress over the last couple of years and was apathetic to the election. But to see such a swing to the Republicans was shocking to me. It was a shock to me that candidates pledged not to compromise at all when they were running for the Senate, the deliberative body of Congress and the half of government where many deals are created. Regardless, I’m not going to rehash this. It’s depressing.

1) Accomplished Goals

I’m calling myself out on this one. I had a bunch of goals set, most of which were attainable. Of those goals, a handful were reached while there were a good number more either half finished or nothing done at all. I could give myself a pass on it and chalk it up to all the stuff I did get done this year, plus the big events of this year. That’s not who I am though and before anything here gets misunderstood, let me tell you that things are fine. Actually, it’s helpful to me to see what I set and where I fell short so I can address those items. They are my little failures, but I know what they are and on at least some of them, steps have already been taken to correct for those missteps on the year.

The areas I fell short? In writing, I only partially achieved my goals (blogging more regularly) and didn’t follow through on more creative writing. At home, I have an established routine, but still not one that completely works. Health-wise, I need to work out more, eat better and take better care of myself. I need to be a better husband and father. It’s all attainable stuff and ones that I’m not completely horrible at doing, but improvement can be made. That’s why my life keeps getting better as I get older. Hard to believe, but it’s true. The disappointments drive me to be a better person and hopefully I can hit those goals this year.

Five Good Things About 2010

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Dec 272010

It’s December 27th and to finish out the year, I thought it would be fun to have this week be a “Five Things” week where each day I do a short list with different topics each day. Obviously, you can read the title for the topic du jour, so let’s get started.

5) CONvergence

Ah, CONvergence. Where have you been all my life? How did I not know the entire time I lived in the Cities that this hotbed of geeky goodness was right under my nose. Seriously, I worked a mere two blocks from the convention center where it’s held and I never noticed it? I was informed of it by our good friends, the Lynsens, who attend it every year. It took us moving out to the east coast, meeting good friends through an entirely chance meeting (lucky!) and then those friends being former Minnesotans who just happen to go to this wonderful convention. Regardless, it was a lot of fun, I met some really cool people and I’m looking forward to 2011.

4) Return to Form

Most people who know me are aware that I try to do NaNoWriMo every year. However, the last three years of my attempts were underwhelming and I fell short of the goal in those years. This year I made it a goal to cross the finish line once again, to prove to myself that I could definitely put down 50,000 words of utter crap on a page in some sort of order that might make sense to someone. It wasn’t pretty, but I did finish in the last day. It was a minor victory in actual words and story, but it did wonders for my self-confidence.

3) Return to Hockey

I got to play with some of my former teammates when we moved back. I can’t say I’m a great player at all, but I love playing and I really love playing with my team. It’s a good group of guys and we have a lot fun together both on and off the ice. It’s hard to describe how I feel about playing hockey because it’s intangible. One would wonder why I play seeing that I’m not terribly good, I have to drive an hour each way to play, I usually am pretty sore the next day as well as groggy from getting home at some late hour. But I love it. And I’m glad I’m playing with a team who’s fun to be around.

2) The House

Getting the right one took awhile, the process was a pain in the ass, and now that we’re here I’m finding all the little things you discover about your house that can annoy the shit out of you, but it’s ours. Truth is, I love the house we bought this year. I could not ask for a better neighborhood or neighbors. We like the town we’re in, and for all of the faults of our house, they are correctable. What we do have is a warm, inviting older home which we are hopefully going to enjoy for many, many years. Not to mention that we don’t need to move again for quite some time.

1) Audrey

Audrey with Duckie Onsie

Was there any question? Melanie and I were absolutely blessed with this wonderful little girl. I’m sure any parent will say it’s a challenge to raise a child, but she’s been amazing. Sure there are tough times, but they’re worth it.

All right! Tomorrow, new Five Things topic. Should be fun.

Goals in Review: 2010

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Dec 162010

Way back in January of this year, I made a list of things I wanted to do or get done this year, goals to hit and such. I’ve always found it helpful to review those plans at a later date to see where you are and perhaps what you can do. Here we go:

1) Blog nearly every day.

I’m going to call this a moderate success. Of the 365 days of the year, I blogged something on 102 days and counting since this month is not yet finished. Not quite one third of the days and if you take into account that I rarely blog on weekends, that’s not too bad.

It also occurred to me that blogging every single day was ambitious. I see other people do it and I have to admit I’m a bit jealous. But then I realize that they have journalism backgrounds and are used to putting out copy quickly on a daily basis. It’s what they do. I’ve never really had that training nor have I had to do so for any job I’ve done. In that vein, 2010 looks pretty good.

Also consider that in February we had our first child and in early October, we bought a house. Post counts in both months were staggeringly low and understandable for those two very good reasons. Still, I’m looking to improve for 2011 and hopefully I’ll be blogging on weekdays consistently and might even throw something up on the weekends as well.

2) Write a book.

*sigh* I’m going to call this a partial success. I did finish NaNoWriMo this year, but the product was such a mess of disjointed writing that it’s hardly even worth showing to anyone, nor is it even really worth revising because it wouldn’t be worth the effort. Perhaps I can salvage some bits and move them into individual stories or maybe take a couple of ideas and flesh them out somewhere else, but as a single story it’s not going anywhere.

As for what I can do to improve for next year…let me get to that after my next point as they’re both related.

3) Write a short story a month.

Big fat fail. I wrote exactly one story this year. That means I was way short and missed eleven of twelve. So what happened?

Writing for me is a funny thing. I write on the blog and it’s fine because it’s a conversational part of me. At least it’s better than me talking to myself all the time which I do anyway, but less so because of the blog. However, when I write a story, I’ll start it and it doesn’t go anywhere. What I end up with is a bunch of fragments, story bits started and unfinished, flat and uninteresting.

It’s not that I don’t have ideas and can’t get them on the page. When I was in college, I’d often write a couple stories here or there between class commitments. What’s different is back then I had other people who wrote with me. It was good because we could share amongst ourselves and just roll with it, embracing anything that came to mind. But now I really don’t have a group of people with whom I can write. It’s not even that they need to know exactly what I’m writing about, but just that I’m writing and they’re writing. In short, I should try to find a writer’s group.

Also, I think I would be helped by taking a class. It just occurred to me that for fiction writing, I’ve never really taken a class. I took a class that I thought was short stories and it turned out to be poetry as they changed the syllabus at the last minute. I don’t regret taking the poetry class and I’m glad the teacher convinced me not to drop it, but I would have much preferred the short story class.

But what can a class do for me? I see it this way. I feel reasonably confident in being able to express myself, I feel that I can string together a premise and support it well. I find that I do have a certain voice and I understand part of the craft of writing. But I don’t have any feedback about my fiction from people who make a living writing. I need that feedback, that criticism, and it will give me a community to react with as well as deadlines to get my ass in the chair and write.

So, two things then; I need to find a group of people I can explore my writing and I should take a class to hone what I have.

4) More Twitter updates.

I did. Good for me.

5) Read more.

I don’t know if I can quantify this. I did read things this year but I found that for literary works, it was difficult. Take for example, Proust’s Remembrance for Lost Time: Swann’s Way. I did enjoy it, but it is a dense book. It’s one that it takes time to understand where the plot is going, not to mention all of the detail he put into the book. It was hard for me to find the necessary blocks of time to dedicate to read it properly.

However, I did read a good number of other books, both fiction and non-fiction, so I’m going to call this a partial win.

6) Baby and dog related stuff.

There was a lot of it. And add the house purchase, it was a full year.

As for next year, I’ll likely come up with another list for 2011. Some of the items are going to look much like they were for 2010, but maybe altered a bit after learning and experiencing this year, what’s possible and what’s not.

What’s Out There for New Dads

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Dec 152010

Before Audrey was born, being the insufferable weirdo intellectual that I am, I wanted to read books about being a dad and what I should expect when I cross that threshold. I really just found two that were really good. One was The Expectant Father which I have found to be the most helpful. The other one was unexpected, but it was The Baby Owner’s Manual which presented good information to know about your baby in a non-insulting yet irreverent way.

If you compare it to what’s available out there for new mothers, it’s not even close. Bookstores will have entire sections dedicated to the new mom and successful prints such as the “What to Expect” series will fill a shelf by itself. On this wall of baby and birth books, what’s available for new fathers fills maybe a half of a shelf in the entire baby section, a small percentage of the books available for moms.

Of the books that were available for dads, most of them were awful. Mind you, there are a couple out there that are not bad and might work for some guys. One that I picked up and put right back down again had the introduction from the author which tried to establish himself as a “regular guy”, whatever that means, who couldn’t just believe that he was a father but also wrote a book on it. And yet, in just the introduction alone, he came off like an insufferable prick.

Those books were really just about being a new father. There were no dedicated books that I saw about being a stay at home dad and the challenges that come with it. I realize it’s a pretty small audience. Truth is the whole fatherhood segment is under-served.

I know this has come off as something of a bitch post. It sort of is. When I look at the lack of good books for being a father, stack it with the books written by various doctors who take concepts that would fit neatly on a pamphlet only to pad their “ideas” with pages of dull testimonials while repeating themselves over and over (can you see that I have a bone to pick with a couple of authors) and then I think about what could be done, it frustrates me.

Game Number Seven for 2011

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Dec 142010

I did not expect this. Just last week I posted my Six Games for 2011 which I was looking forward to playing and then one of my favorite game companies, Bioware, releases the following trailer at the Video Games Awards ceremony recently.

And my reaction is “are you kidding me, Bioware?” but in a good way. I salute their tenacity and aggressive release schedule (are you taking notes, Valve?) and I am actually shocked that they look to have three major releases next year. Just. Stunning. It makes me a happy camper, to be sure, but it’s ridiculous. How am I going to find even more time for a plethora of game goodness?

Just a quick note on DCUO as well. I’m still forming an opinion of it, but I have to admit that it looks fun. However, I am really wary of MMO games that are released simultaneously to console and PC as I feel that mechanics are often dumbed down for PC players and eventually feel lacking in depth. It’s a huge difference when you have to cobble together button combinations for a controller versus a keyboard where you have so much more control. That said, if there’s a trial available, it would definitely be worth a go.

Oh, If You Haven’t Seen This

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Dec 092010

Kevin Bacon is a Kevin Bacon fan. He’s really funny here.

Good and Not-So-Good Stuff

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Dec 092010

Another short post today. I wanted to put up a couple of links I found today

First is the story of “May the Force be with Katie“. I don’t know if you saw this a few weeks ago around the inter-tubes, but Katie really likes Star Wars and had a themed thermos she took with her to school. That is, until she was shamed to not take it anymore because some kids told her Star Wars was just for boys. The story has a great ending though as people from all over the internet rallied to support her, from the sheer number of comments left on her mom’s blog and the number of supporters on Twitter…well, it just made my day. You should read the article as it provides an update to where Katie is today. It’s a great story.

*sigh* Now for the other one. I just saw who is going to be the chair of the House Science and Energy Committee. If this means nothing to you, carry on. If you want to depress yourself a bit, go ahead and follow the links in the story.

Good day to you.

A Video For You

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Dec 082010

Thought you might enjoy this. Enjoy!

Six Video Games for 2011

Games, Thoughts 8 Responses »

Dec 032010

2011 is fast approaching and one thing I always look forward are the game releases during the year. I’ve been looking forward to putting this list together and sharing it with people. In comparison to 2010, next year looks more exciting. Where 2010 had the great releases of Mass Effect 2 and Rock Band 3, next year easily has six games I’m already itching for as well as a handful of games that have certainly piqued my interest. Let’s get to the list.

1) Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Anyone who has been following me in the last year knows that SW:TOR is something I highly anticipate. Some people have lamented that this game isn’t going to be very good and spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about it. The sheer desire of a good Star Wars game brings out an absurd level of expectation and negativity from people with specific desires naturally follows. With each news release, people have spent a good amount of time complaining about the graphics, the gameplay, the lack of free roaming space combat and a myriad of other perceived problems.

The only thing I can say to these complaints is this; if you’ve enjoyed Bioware’s other titles as I have, SW:TOR is likely going to be fun. If you’re looking for anything else, you’re going to be disappointed. This is not going to be an X-Wing/TIE Fighter game any more than it’s going to be a rehash of the Jedi Knight series. It’s going to be a storyline based MMO in the tradition of Knights of the Old Republic. I really liked that game and can’t wait to see what they do with this one.

2) Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars 2

Ever since Lord of the Rings Online went free to play, I’ve been looking for a good replacement. Guild Wars 2 may just be the ticket. First of all, it is unique in that you buy the game once. There are no subscription fees. That in itself is unusual in the MMO gaming community. But GW2 promises so much more as it wants to emphasize a changing world and the ability to join in a battle without necessarily going through the drudgery of trying to pick up a group. You join the battle in progress. Quests happen on the fly. The team at Arena Net wanted to keep you in the action and not going back and forth between quest givers or killing an arbitrary number of monsters or enemies to hit some strange goal that resets when you turn it in. Such efforts sound promising to me and make this a title worth playing.

3) Portal 2

Portal 2

When Portal 2 was announced, you could almost hear the cries of delight from the gaming public. The first Portal game was damn near perfect and still remains one of my favorite games. What was meant as a little side addition to the Orange Box which released a couple of Half-Life episodes and the long awaited Team Fortress 2, it became a sleeper hit and racked up a number of glowing reviews. The good people at Valve have taken that game and fleshed it out a bit, promising the return of GLaDOS and a myriad of brain puzzles even more fiendish than the first game.

Not very much is out about this game right now, but early game play videos look really good, still seeming to have those brain teasers and a healthy dose of black humor. Valve’s game offerings have been consistently good and they never seem to release an unpolished game.

4) Little Big Planet 2

Little Big Planet 2

What? Another sequel? Well, yes. LBP is a fun game which used the talents of its users to offer loads of content and add to its replay value. It scores high in area of being able to play this game with your kids, playing up to four people at one time and being a clever platform game with puzzles to solve and fun to be had. You can customize your little sackboy (or sackgirl) to your hearts content, have fun in groups and if so desired, create levels and offer them up to the public. LBP2 offers all of this and more. In fact, it gives users to create their own games, whatever that really means. What it means to the ordinary player though is more fun.

5) Monaco

Monaco

I truthfully do not know if Monaco is coming out in 2011. You may not even have heard about this game as it’s an indy project and not one of the big players that I’ve mentioned up to this point. But it’s a game that I’m keeping an eye on because it’s got a certain buzz about it. It’s billed as a cross between Pac Man and Oceans 11, a heist game where you can play co-operatively with up to three other players. It’s an old style, top-down game where each player has their own special talents and the idea is to pull off the heist without getting caught. The one word I hear constantly with this game is “fun”. Isn’t that why we play? Plus, I’m a big believer in supporting independent game creators who focus not on machine crippling graphics but on the enjoyment factor in a game.

6) EVE Online: Incarna

EVE Online

Okay, a bit of a cheat here as EVE has been around since 2003, which makes it a venerable, old game. But one of the unique things about EVE since inception is the release of two game content updates every year. It has done a number of graphical updates and keeps getting better looking as time goes on. It is the only MMO game which exists as a single universe rather than one broken into server shards (unless you want to count ST:O and their laughably inane concept of “single server”).

The winter update this year lays the groundwork for something long planned by CCP which they’ve dubbed Incarna. Incarna comes out next summer and for the first time, player avatars will not be the ships they are currently flying, but fully human avatars who will be able to walk in the stations. Because of this, there’s a lot of grousing about the dumbing down of the EVE universe amongst some of the player base. Players have enjoyed EVE’s reputation as having a notoriously difficult learning curve and see the move as catering to the casual player base. But then again, any change in the game leads to someone complaining about it. Me? I’m looking forward to it.

The game play videos and the graphical screenshots CCP has offered up look beautiful and may actually inject some new blood into the game. Although subscribers have increased slowly but steadily, this addition may provide a good jolt of new players which is only good for a game of this nature. EVE Online is not a game for everyone, but Incarna may be worth checking out for those who have sat on the fence, put off by the lack of an actual avatar. If nothing else, it will offer areas of new and different gameplay, especially when you’re trapped in station with nothing else to do.

Keeping my eye on:

There are a couple other games out there that I thought might warrant some attention as well.

Max Payne 3 is coming out. I have no idea what it looks like but the game that took full advantage of bullet-time might be worth a gander.

Duke Nukem Forever might actually be released. This long cursed title and often mocked for it’s vaporware status may actually see the light of day. Whether it’s actually any good is another story.

Dragon Age II is scheduled to hit the shelves. It is amazing that Bioware can put out two top notch games in 2010 (Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age: Origins) within weeks of each other and still have DA2 and SW:TOR come out in 2011. Still, Bioware seems to do the impossible on a regular basis.

Diablo III should also be available. I’m not terribly excited for this one but I remember the original Diablo being fun.

And that’s it. There are likely other games coming up in 2011 that will merit attention, mostly indy titles which fly under the press radar until release. If you feel I’ve missed something, feel free to leave a comment.

Non-Nano-ing Nabobs of Negativity

Thoughts, Writing Comments Off

Dec 022010

In my long post yesterday, I mentioned something about the people who think that NaNo was a bad idea. Most of the time, I ignore such negativity, especially if it is talking about something in which I’m directly involved. Curiosity got the better of me and after a quick Google search, I found a blog post of a writer who thought that NaNoWriMo was an awful, even terrible idea. I wanted to know if there was a legitimate complaint about NaNo (God knows what though) and with the knowledge of an actual complaint about NaNo, steps could be taken to make NaNo even better.

Want to know what the complaint was? Said writer was tired of workshopping someone’s NaNo novel.

The other complaint I saw? It’s a huge waste of time that should be spent doing something else, like reading.

Let me address the first one. I’m going to assume that the writer is not doing a workshop for free and knows how to write. Now if the workshop was one for final polish before sending off to publication, well the NaNo writer should have recognized that, but it’s a good teaching moment to have a person start on the road to revision.

If it was just a revision workshop, then shut the hell up. This is what it’s all about. Having worked in a writing center in college, let me tell you that I’ve seen some God-awful writing. Not fun when a student comes in to the writing center just a couple of hours before the paper is due and it makes no sense whatsoever, poorly arranged, riddled with misspellings and awkward phrasings. Not much you can do for people there but fix egregious errors and then let the student know that the next paper needs to come in much, much earlier next time. But I do remember a guy who came into the writing center who I worked with over the course of a semester. It was the most gratifying thing in the world to work with him and watch his D+/C- papers turn into B- and then a solid B+ on his final paper, mostly with work on his own and with the guidance I gave him.

If a NaNo writer wants to revise his or her novel and is willing to work, why wouldn’t you want to help a writer who wants to improve? Get off your damn pedestal and earn your check.

Now, to the second complaint–that of NaNo being a waste of time better spent doing other things, which I will address rather succinctly.

Fuck. Off.

Seriously, where do people like this get off? People have been turning in unrevised novels for years to potential publishers and agents. It’s not hard to identify what’s essentially a first draft. Pain in the ass? Maybe, but from the 30,000 people who reached the finish line, how many of them will attempt to publish their novel? I’ve done this dance for seven years and have not attempted to send anything in to a publisher, or agent, or even have printed through Lulu and say I’ve been self-published. I would say most people who participate in NaNo are not going to take their efforts and send them to a publisher. So why poop on our party on the account of a vast minority of NaNo writers who are wildly hopeful in believing their stuff could get published? The people I know who plan to try and get their book published also know that there is a lot of revision that needs to happen first. Hell, there’s even a NaNoEdMo which is solely for editing that NaNo novel you spent November getting on paper.

NaNo does a lot of good, besides all the crazy writing that goes on in the month. It has started a young writers program which is funded by the donations from the various people participating in NaNo.

Besides, aren’t these people missing the point? It’s like they believe the first draft of what “writers” put on paper shines with gold and only needs the odd polish here or there. Hey! It’s a first draft. You can probably smell how bad it is from the computer screen and wrinkle your nose at it’s awfulness. It’s probably pretty bad and needs editing. Pretty sure most writers would say their first draft is not very good and in some cases, horrible.

Anyway, thought I should get these things off my chest. I’m now going to start on some short form stuff that’s been percolating in my head all this last month. Y’know. Like a writer does.

Post NaNo Wrap Up

Thoughts, Writing 3 Responses »

Dec 012010

As I mentioned yesterday, it was the last day for NaNoWriMo to get to that 50,000 words in thirty days and I managed to sprint across the finish line yesterday at about 4:40 P.M. Of all my previous NaNo efforts, this was probably my most scattered, most disjointed of all of the projects. However, it was one of the more fun ones that I partook because of uncertainties I had from day to day. I thought it would be fun to break down the month a bit and reveal a few things I found to help and also hurt my writing process.

I should point out that these are things that really strictly work or are potential pitfalls for me. And what’s funny is that although writing is a craft that can be taught, I find that most of that advice is for connecting with the reader. The actual physical act of getting your ass in the chair and banging out some words is strictly personal and no one way works for the majority of writers out there.

Before I get too far, thought I should put this up.

Fun, huh? Okay, let’s get to the things that worked for me.

Stuff that worked:

Two lattes. Not some slam-bang solution, but there was something different about the way I wrote between having one latte and after that second one. My words flowed a lot better after the second latte. There were the occasional day here and there where I did not have any type of caffeine at all. Those days didn’t seem to work at all. Let me draw this out for you.
- No caffeine: I struggle to get 500-600 words out.
- One latte (or the equivalent): Pretty regular to get 1200-1600 words on the page. Not bad stuff either but not particularly inspired. Workman like pace and words.
- Two lattes: Regularly get 2000+ words on the page, some of it terrible, repetitive stuff and others really inspired. Sheer output is nice, but I’m more excited about the really nice stuff I wrote and thought had good potential.
- More than two lattes: C’mon, really? Two lattes is four espresso shots and right at the limit for productivity in writing for me. That third latte has a Jeckle and Hyde effect on me, turning mild-mannered writer into wild, crazy guy who when he’s not spending the extra energy polishing the kitchen to a shine thinks that writing long treatises on the cheeses of the world is a good idea. Is it funny to watch? Possibly. Is it good for my daily writing? Hell no.
Writing blocks. Seems simple, right? That you should have a set time that you spend writing? I had two golden times for writing. One was during Audrey’s nap time. It was usually two to three hours of uninterrupted time. If I had to do some household necessities, I could usually get them done in thirty to forty minutes, leaving the rest of the time where I could crank out words during her nap. Not always ideal was the time when everyone went to bed, but it was still productive for me. Of course, the night time writing sessions will curtail a bit as I am really lacking sleep now, but the nap time session stays.
Writing for fun. Oh man, if I knew now what I knew then. If I’m not writing for fun, then what the hell am I doing in the first place. This doesn’t mean that I can’t explore things that I’m interested in or that I can’t write serious stuff, but it does mean that I need to enjoy the time I’m writing more than, say…cleaning out the fridge. If cleaning the fridge sounds more interesting than what I am currently writing, I need to change things up.
Music in the background. Minor thing, but I like having music in the background. However, it’s dangerous to have stuff that I can sing to as it takes me out of the zone. Instrumental stuff is good. Classical is always a good backup if I can’t find something appropriate.
Deadlines. Nothing quite puts the fear of failure in you like missing a deadline which is the beauty of NaNo. Having hard drop dead date where you either hit the target or not motivates certain people like me. Let me clarify that anyone who wrote even a single sentence for NaNo should be commended because it’s a wonderful step for creativity (watch for a separate post where I lambaste the naysayers who think NaNo is a bad idea). The goal is important to me because it is a testament that deadlines work. They work for me. There are plenty of people they don’t work for, but that’s not the recipe for my success.
Family and friends supporting. Understated in all of this is the level of support I’ve had during this year’s NaNo venture. Not that I haven’t had support in previous years, but this year I was more vocal to those close to me that I was doing it, that they should ask me about it and that any encouragement would help me along the path. Leading the charge was my wonderful, amazing wife, Melanie. She consistently asked me how things were going, made it a priority for her to support me, whether that be giving me a quick ten second shoulder rub or watching Audrey at night when I was trying to write. This would not have been possible without her support. A good network of supportive friends and family makes a huge difference when you undertake any project and I’m damn lucky I’ve got people who believe in me and want to see me succeed. To anyone reading this, thank you so much!

There were the good things. Time to visit the other side of the fence.

Stuff that absolutely did not help:

The internet. ”Oh really?” I hear you say. Oh man, you have no idea. Sure, it’s great for research and it keeps me informed and in touch with the world. Sometimes it keeps me too in touch with the world. I can’t count how many hours that were intended for writing that went up in smoke because I had email, Twitter and five tabs up in Chrome. It is so easy for me to distracted by the internet. The most writing I got done was when I shut down the browser, closed email and made sure that Twitter clients were no where to be found.
Not getting enough sleep. Not really surprising. The hardest part of this wasn’t with going to bed too late, it was the next morning when I had to get up and focus. As a writer, I need to be awake enough so that I can concentrate on writing and still have the ability to let my mind wander while doing so. The stuff I wrote when I was tired was boring, and boring writing is not inspiring. When I could really let my creativity flow and just immerse myself is when the words really came out and when my best writing happened.
Not reading enough. Sounds weird because it’s an investment of time, but I need to read more when I’m writing. It’s a bit dangerous because sometimes the writing I’m doing can be influenced by what I’m reading, but overall, it let’s me explore things I wouldn’t have considered before. And again, we’re talking first draft and not finished product. Not reading kept some of the ideas stale and made for boring writing.
Planning too much or not planning at all. There’s a sweet spot to be hit here. I can write with no planning, but it doesn’t work that well for longer works. I need a certain level of planning, but too much stifles what I’m trying to do, not enough has me doing things like scrambling for names and places to invent.
Striving for perfection. Most of my revising I do when I’m writing. In fact, that last sentence was revised as I was composing it. I do go through the blogs and try a couple of sweeps to see what I can fix and tighten up, but I also do a fair amount of it while in process. I’ll be chugging along and suddenly decide that something doesn’t work for me anymore. Along comes the delete key taking out anywhere from a word to a whole section of writing. Doesn’t really help the first draft nature of the writing. This year I really tried to just get everything down. Even as I was writing, I knew I was putting up long paragraphs of meaningless exposition, repeating myself over and over in sections and having vast sections of characters not actually doing anything but talking, usually about things not related to what was happening in the story. I kept most of it this year. I expect that if I ever get to editing this stuff (as I’m not confident that the stories are worth preserving), large swaths of words will be sliced away.
Not having a writing routine. I finally developed something resembling a writing routine toward the end of this month, but if asked, I have no real writing space carved out in my house. I have no set time each day where I hop down to a coffee shop and type away on the computer. As of late, my routine became write at the kitchen table during the day and on the couch in the family room at night. It’s not really ideal but it did the trick this time. Of all the things that might be the easiest to fix, this might be it. It wouldn’t take too much either, but I’ll likely save it for a post-holidays project.

And a couple other little things of note, particularly some statistics that I found interesting about this years NaNo efforts.

Final word count: 50099
Final word count (as verified by NaNo’s web-tool): 50008 — Not sure why this always seems to happen, but the verification tool never ever matches the word count in my writing software.
Average word count per day: 1614 — Notice this number is below the thirty day average you need to get to 50k.
Week one word count/average per day: 13414 – 1916 words/day.
Week two word count/average per day: 3975 – 568 words/day.
Week three word count/average per day: 2861 – 409 words/day.
Week four word count/average per day: 14467 – 2067 words/day.
Final two day word count/average per day: 15291 – 7645 words/day.
Total words blogged about NaNo 2010 in November (including this post): 5367

As you can see, weeks two and three were absolutely horrid for me, but I still eked out some words and kept working toward the goal. The last two days seem more dramatic than they were. I simply found bits of time during the entire day and spent it mashing out words as best I could. If I had fifteen minutes here or there, that was usually good for 400-500 words written, which is time well spent. Mind you, the night of the 29th, I was up until 2:30 A.M. getting words out.

Tools of the trade–what I used to write this year:

98% of the writing was done on my Lenovo X61s laptop.
Writing software: Scrivner for Windows (beta). This is my new favorite writing software. It really worked for me.
Backups: Dropbox. Loved this. Had my Scrivner files saved directly to my Dropbox folder on my laptop, which made them instantly available pretty much anywhere I could get an internet connection, including my iPhone.
Blogging software: WordPress. What you’re reading right now. Been with them for years.

And that’s about it for the wrap up. I do want to thank everyone who was supportive this year. This is all leading to good things, I assure you. NaNo has always been a great jolt of creativity that is a fun, low pressure activity that challenges people to finally get that “write a novel” item checked off of their life list. I’ve got a list of other writing projects that I can thank NaNo for helping me germinate those ideas.

It’s now a matter of keeping the pace up. Wish me luck.