2008-09-30

Kitty day!

Filed under: Family,Graphics,Writing — Tags: , — D. Moonfire @ 21:44

Its time to visit the kitties again. And to pay my rent, but that’s secondary since its going to be late (mailed checks take a bit to deposit) but not drastically. I’m not worried about that actually.

I am worried about Baby Squid God, of course. The contest starts tomorrow and I’m fighting that fear of failure thing. I’m going to do it anyways–courage is doing something that scares you–but it still sits there on the back of my mind. Fluffy saw the style of artwork I’m considering doing for the game and said it looked interesting; if I’m really lucky, she’ll like doing it and I can use my own wife as an artist. That would be wonderful, since it means that I might not have to do this all by myself.

That and I’ve always wanted to find a way of working with Fluffy on a project. There is something about having a common ground like that I would love to have, more so since we are so far away. Forcing it never works, so I’ll just see if she finds it interesting and goes on, otherwise I’ll just doing what I’m going to do.

In the complete irony of life, I’m now on day two of not having a writer’s block. Managed to get five thousand words written in about an hour and a half last night, which is just about my normal rate of writing. I can’t really describe how happy that makes but, but a tiny bit of me wished I had writer’s block for about 39 more days. Completely unrelated to that number: the contest entry is due in 32 days and I always take at least 7 days to recover.

I’m excited and frightened at the same time. I’m also tremendously relieved that I’m writing again.

Don’t eat the crayons

Filed under: Games,Programming,Writing — Tags: , — D. Moonfire @ 14:25

I saw an interesting quote in the middle of a highly inappropriate website last night. It was a small essay called “Don’t eat the crayons.” I started reading because the next sentence, “Even the purple ones, despite them being the tastiest.” I don’t remember the essay but it talked about the different crayons in life: television, video games, worrying about your body and hair. All time wasters when you just do it mindlessly. It took me a few second to realize what they were saying, don’t waste your creativity (it was on a writing board so that makes senses). You can spend your days watching television or playing games, but you aren’t really creating anything. There is some use in it, recharging your batteries, but I think a lot of people watch too much television or play too many games compared to the amount needed to recover their energies.

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2008-09-29

Productive weekend

Filed under: Family,Writing — Tags: , — D. Moonfire @ 19:04

It was actually a very productive weekend. I worked on some story critiques and cleanup stuff. I also wrote just over ten thousand words on the two commissions, so I feel like I’m actually a writer again. We’ll see if the trend continues in the next week, but it feels good to really get into a story and just… write.

One of the problems with writing on commission is that you don’t always write what you like to write. Sometimes, the requests are just slightly different than what you prefer. A good example is one person once asked me to keep the descriptions to a minimum, which is nearly impossible for me which is why I turned down the commission. But others are doable on the surface, but when I get into writing it, sometimes they just don’t click with me and I find myself struggling. One of the commissions was like that; it didn’t quite mesh with my various interests and quirks and I just couldn’t get myself into it. It was like talking to someone who just doesn’t agree with me.

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2008-09-26

Cusp of locale

Filed under: Family,Writing — Tags: — D. Moonfire @ 17:57

I love the word “cusp”. It isn’t as pretty or lovely to say as “moist”, but it stands right up there as a fun word to just use. And appropriate to describe my day.

In the process of switching banks, from the Illinois-only one to my current one, I’m at a point where I’m standing with a paper paycheck in hand and having to figure out how to get it somewhere useful. You know, like a bank account. Since I switched my direct deposit last week, the paycheck today is paper. And none of my banks are in the local state and none of them actually allow deposits in Iowa. So, either I mail it to Fluffy to deposit it in the bank that thinks deleting everything is a good way to transition their accounts, or mail it to the new bank account in yet a third state. Too bad the office two blocks from my apartment (new bank) got closed.

I ended up mailing my paycheck to the new one, but it adds a few more days to the process of getting it into the system enough to pay the two big bills in my life: mortgage and apartment rent. Both of which might be a tad late this month; this does nothing for stress levels.

Said stress levels are probably accounting for the writer’s block I’m still suffering through. I haven’t had a serious writer’s block since I started writing again in 2001 (the day after I was first fired). Yesterday’s story was fun to write, a one-off that I hope at least someone else enjoyed, but I then spent three hours writing 300 words on a commission. On the other hand, as Urban Fiction horror goes, John dies at the end is a great series. And going away at the end of the month, but very addicting to read. And, completely unrelated to my inability to focus on commissions, Rockbox is a great replacement for the firmware of my Sansa; after installing it, it actually remembers that I keep the volume at near minimum levels and that it is possible to play while being plugged in to charge.

Yeah, completely unrelated.

This weekend, I hope to get at least one of the commissions done, sign up for new classes, and maybe get a haircut. Beyond that, I just want to not stress about anything and play Zelda or something. Somehow, I doubt it will be the lazy; I’m having trouble relaxing and that is just exasperating the problem.

2008-09-25

Only five days?

Filed under: Games,Programming,Writing — Tags: , — D. Moonfire @ 19:38

Only five days left until I officially start on Baby Squid God. Only five days, that’s kind of scary. And, for once, I don’t have a 1-2 week vacation right in the middle of it so I might actually have time to complete this entry. I’m looking forward to it, but it is still had the stage where everything is new and everything else is possible.

Ask me again in three weeks, everything will probably change.

Until then, I’m trying to focus on commissions, getting ready for the next quarter of classes, and basically just keeping a clean house. Commissions are doing well, almost done with the second draft of the first and about a quarter done with the second one. Having some writer’s block still on the writing side of things, despite the story I posted earlier wanting me to really write a yaoi romance novel (that story has potential, I think).

I hate it when I have two good ideas but only the time to work on one. The game will probably win, simply because I have a good idea of what to do and I have the first part already planned out. The 30 day challenge of the TIG games is nice, since I have to keep terse about my ideas and its forcing me to identify my boundaries in a way that my meandering projects just can’t do.

Edit: Actually three ideas since I had this idea for a web game called Ultra Mega Super Premium Mall that has been distracting me when I hit the point of too much paper planning for Baby Squid God.

A Damn Shame

Filed under: Writing — D. Moonfire @ 16:37

Over at Merry Fates, they had this little writing prompt based on this picture:

I decided it looked like fun, so I wrote a little flash fiction. Inspired by that picture.

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2008-09-24

Potential futures

Filed under: Family — Tags: — D. Moonfire @ 19:42

I really miss Fluffy, and it is always worse watching her drive off right after her car breaks down in a Wendy’s lot. I took lunch off to spent just a few last desperate moments with her before we’ll potentially not see each other for a month or more. Gives me more appreciation for spouses that leave for a tour of duty for months at a time–it’s painful and miserable at the same time.

One of the things we are considering in the near future is just getting another apartment until our finances stabilize (i.e. sell the house). This is, remarkably, giving me a lot of stress since I’ll be juggling two apartments and a mortgage up to six months until the first lease ends. Yes, I could probably find a sublet to get out of it, but you have to plan for the worse. If we do the second apartment thing, it would let us bankroll a large down payment on a house, or at least remove that bit of juggling from our trials later one; just moving there might be the painful bit.

I don’t really see many options in our near future. We need a place that we can take care of our animals. The available pool of choices for dog and cat sitting are growing shorter with every passing day and soon we are going to be struggling even more to find someone to watch the dogs for a day much less a week. Noises from the in-laws indicate that FiL would like to see the cats gone soon, or at least what Fluffy told me. In addition, either she could find a job in Illinois, which will make it harder to move here, or we find temporary housing that puts us back under one roof and she gets a job here.

This… is stressful. As I may have mentioned, I set down roots and it looks like I might be uprooted again. Something has to change in the next 70 days when Fluffy’s unemployment runs out. Either she manages to find a job or we start cutting fat from our lives and that would be a lot easier with only one active household.

This will pass, but it doesn’t help when I’m staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night.

2008-09-23

Idle question

Filed under: Uncategorized — D. Moonfire @ 17:48

Have you ever had that point, as you are closing the door to your house or apartment and you thought this?

“Wow, I might never be back here again.”

Just the idle chance that you’d be hit by a bus, abducted by aliens, or lost in some mad-cap adventure around the world that you are not even remotely qualified for? Or, just simply because the house burns down or something more mundane? Not that I had that thought (for more than a second), but it got me to thinking.

What if just thinking that thought was enough to send you off on a story?

… I’m voting for the aliens, to be honest.

2008-09-22

Weekend productivity

Filed under: Family,Graphics,Programming,Reviews,Technology,Writing — Tags: , — D. Moonfire @ 20:08

Apparently, one way of getting over writer’s block is to decide not to write and work on something else. The sheer desire not to do what I’m “suppose” to do is enough to make me want to do anything else. In this case, writing. After deciding to work on the baby squid god for the weekend, I managed to find the energy and desire to write just over five thousand words in a few short hours, finish the first draft a commission, get feedback, and update it. Nice feeling, even if one of the feedback items was “too romantic”. Oh well, easy to fix tomorrow and I’ll send it right back out with a couple hundred more words worth of expansion.

Went to Fluffy’s family reunion. Rather nice, talked a lot, relaxed a bit, enjoyed some good food. Found out I have a uncle-in-law three blocks from my apartment who is into realty. Well, guess I knows who is going to probably help us find a place. Also ended up have a long talk with Fluffy about the future of our home, mainly how to juggle so many parts around in the next few months. Painful, but I think we needed to talk.

Finally, worked on the baby squid god. After three days of work, I came to a realization. I hope too much for things to go well. While I could make it perfect, it is going to take another week. And, if it takes me two weeks to do the squid, what about the eleven levels (seven plus inter-stage areas) and 10-20 opponents (i.e. victims to drive insane). I could do it, but not in a month. So, this morning after sitting up about it, I decided to switch to 2D. I have a better chance of getting it done and I really want to succeed. Not to mention, I might get some help with graphics from TIG Source since they love the pixels.

I know, you are all excited about another game project. Bet you want me to write or something. Well, I still have a short story coming up and I really need to work on Scroll of the Lands this week. But, not tonight, Fluffy is leaving for Illinois tomorrow and I’d like a few more short hours with her.

2008-09-19

Reorganization

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — D. Moonfire @ 20:43

Last night, I trashed my baby squid god and started over from scratch. I just couldn’t get everything to line up and I realize that starting with the high detail 1/8th model is the wrong way to go. Two hours later, I had just about the entire low-poly model done, a basic armature working (which I’m going to redo later), and it in the range of 600 triangles (I’m aiming for 1000 maximum for this model). It isn’t quite as incredible as the model in my head, but its fairly close to something usable which is more important.

I did realize something. Squids don’t have eyelids or eyebrows and this is actually going to cause me some problems with expressing emotions. Furthermore, I’m using eyes from the vampire squid which are basically… just blue orbs. And the mouth is under the mantle, so it can’t be used either. (Gave up on the tongue for now.) So, if I do any closeups of the figure, I’m going to have a big struggle to make it look lovable (which is what I’m hoping for). (As a side note, I’m having a bit of trouble the Klein baby bottle, so I might give up on that unless I can find a good model to steal.)

I also reorganized the categories on my blog. Since WordPress now has categories and tags, I moved the tags into the tag section and left the big categories behind. This means the tag cloud is a lot smaller and those on LiveJournal won’t be able to see the tags, but it seems much cleaner to me.

I might start putting up my % complete bars again. This weekend, I need to put at least a few hours on story commissions, go to a family reunion, and write a story for scienceprincess. Do a bit on Scroll of the Lands. And work on the BSG of course. Ah, too many projects and obsessions, this I know.

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