Snowdown and Prop Addiction and So On

I’ve got some time to kill before the funeral, so I’m doing my best to keep myself entertained and happy. This is generally a successful process. I had my phases of depression and anger about this early on, and now that it’s over and all that remains is the funeral… I’m actually coping reasonably well. The tension’s gone, and acceptance has settled in. So, let’s discuss (mostly) other things.

Snow hit the local area last night. Not a whole lot, but enough to cause Highway Madnesse… nobody bothered to pre-treat the roads with salt, resulting in commute times six times longer than normal, assuming you can even move, period. It is a disaster, a debacle, and completely expected from the yogurt heads that run things around here. Thankfully I’d arranged telecommuting already so I’m sittin’ pretty. I feel I should have a smug of cocoa or something. Yes, a smug.

I did have a minor depressive bout last night, triggered oddly. I was playing Rock Band, testing out my replacement guitar… and doing very, very badly. It’s annoying. The buttons, the whammy bar, the star power activator, everything is better on the Stratocaster… except the strum bar. Without that click and the feel of it my timing is completely off on my strums. I was doing very badly, but frankly, even if I switch back to the xplorer (and I will be, sigh)… I’m not that great at GH style games anyway. Not nearly enough to take the show on the road online.

So, I busted out the mike to do some vocals online, and was in a number of quickie bands who had absolutely no love for the vocalist. They can’t hear me, they can’t see me, and my only presence in the band is my score at the end… which they were ignoring. I nailed 100% on Dani California for the first time ever, on HARD difficulty, and… they’re busy giving props to the drummer for getting 82%, then three seconds later, are out of the score display screen and on to the next song. I bailed after that (but without a snitfit). Why bother playing if nobody cares? I’ve sung these songs so often that the fun’s a bit tapped from singing them again and again, so if there’s no performance aspect, there’s nothing to offer.

I think, though, my dour turn was more due to lingering ugh over the funeral situation, and the family loss. Keeping spirits up is no easy task, and when you feel small and insignificant in the face of death, feeling small and insignificant in the face of a video game is a tiny reminder of that. Not pleasant.

I decided I’d switch tacks from something I’m only okay at to something I’m good at: SL coding. Making games. I haven’t made a new arcade game in awhile, and was seriously considering packing up and saying that I’m done building them because I had no ideas. So, while en route to the bathroom to take a shower (why is it ALWAYS the bathroom..?) whammo, out of the blue, two viable and workable SL game ideas.

What’s more, a prototype I built in-world after cleansing my filthy form worked like a charm on the first try. I was stunned. I did it on a whim, from a half-baked idea, using a code trick I was pretty sure was made of fail, and it just worked on first compile. That’s insane. And possibly a sign. So, in the weeks ahead, I think I’ll be focusing more on creation and roll out a game or two. My token rally against life’s futility, I suppose.

Oh, and Tin Man was kinda weaksauce. Good concept, good visuals, needed a better writer and director to give it depth and not cliche depth.