This year

Wow, has it really been a year since my last post here? I guess it has. I’m not sure why exactly I haven’t been as enthusiastic about blogging as I was the past 7 years. I can’t really claim to be more busy. I’ve always been too busy. Maybe I’ve just been better about staying focused at work. I’ve still been writing a lot, just been keeping it to much smaller posts on Face Book, embroiled in conversations. Been having a lot of fun interacting with other heretics there. Speaking of heretical beliefs, I think I’ve been drifting at pretty much the same trajectory as I have been since I started this blog. Still contemplating all sorts of things, but I think I’m over a hump where every new thought is profoundly unsettling. I’m thinking that the very basic issue at the root of my heretical bent has to do with the limits of language. After recognizing that all religious talk is highly malleable metaphor, I realized that all the debate about the details is close to pointless. I’m still developing a clear and succinct way of expressing this.

But in the mean time I’ve been really excited about a video project I’ve been working on over the past several months. It started with the last post on here about story in video games. I developed the idea a bit further and had some great conversations with some smart, articulate game critics, and developed it some more. One of them told me I should make a video about the topic. And eventually that got my creative gears engaged. And as my mind works, it expanded into a huuuuge project. But I really think it has the potential to pay off big dividends. I’m basically making a video essay, but a really entertaining one with lots of characters, skits, art, etc. employed to make my point. It’s got a message that I think is very timely and can hopefully get popular enough to actually shape my industry. (Which can’t hurt my career.) I’ve been working on the script for a couple months and collecting all the costumes, props, and equipment. I think I’ll be shooting footage within a month or so.

And I might look good by the time I’m shooting. I’ve FINALLY got to some internal milestone where I’ve been able to keep up a fitness/weight loss routine. I’ve been working out regularly since October. Started out jogging, then got a system for the Playstation 3 Called EA Sports 2 where you put on sensors and follow along to workouts. Then I got a program called P-90X, which a lot of my co-workers have done and said great things about. I actually forced myself to figure out how to cook, and now I make all my breakfasts and lunches for the week on Sunday night and have salad for dinner every weeknight. Around this time last year I was around 210, the heaviest I’ve ever been. Now I’m down to 184, and hoping to get down to 170 before I start filming. Oh vanity. At least it gives me a goal and incentive. The thing that sucks is that P-90X takes all my time. Most week-nights I’m home from work, start working out, and by the time the shower is over, I’ve had my salad, it’s time for bed. So hopefully after I’m done with P-90X I can find a decent balance that lets me maintain a healthy weight AND have a life outside of that.

Sadly, two things are hindering my health progress. First, all the food repression I do during the week goes out the window on the weekend. I turn into super glutton-man on Saturday and Sunday. It’s an obnoxious game my brain plays, telling me I’ve suffered so much during the week that I deserve the break. Problem being it always goes beyond a break and goes overboard. So while I passed a maturity milestone, it’s clear that I still have a ways to go. The other thing slowing me down is a shoulder issue that developed a couple weeks into P-90X. There are some pretty intense weight training, and apparently my muscles in the left shoulder weren’t qualified to do what I told them to do. So I’ve been seeing physical therapists for a couple months and it’s only been getting worse. So I can’t follow the program, and I’ve just been doing parts of it that don’t involve any arm stuff, and now I’ve been hovering at 185 for weeks. Very frustrating.

Let’s see… what else has happened this year? Oh, I can say that I’m excited about the way the game market has opened up to small and indie developers with platforms like iPad/Pod/Phone, Android, etc. I’ve got a couple games in pre-production that I’ll be getting to in earnest when I’m done with my video project. Been finding programmers who want to help with my stuff in return for me making art for them. I’ve also got a real website in development for Breath of Life Art Studio that will be a really cool hub for all my creative output. I guess that’s enough of an update for now. Hopefully I’ll be back in less than a year.