The beginning of the end...

Work has resumed full scale on the second book. I was maybe 100 pages in when I realized some major rewriting needed to be done, so that's being taken care of presently. The new scenes are much better, so even though I really dislike retreading old ground, I'm glad I'm replacing this stuff.

It can be difficult to throw out work you like. Sometimes it just has to be done. The "outtakes" file of this project is becoming quite robust in its own right. I plan on releasing a version with commentary at some point, so most of it should see print eventually.

The hardest part, after almost a year off, is reacquiring all my own slang. Luckily I built myself an encyclopedia as I wrote the first book.

In all, I'd have to say the time off was worth it. I've had a lot of insights into character interactions while we've all been on pause together.

The news from Little Big Planet

I'm off until early December, but go check out my Little Big Planet level!

"Angry Sky Workshop"

I'm "Thirdrail_" on the PSN. More levels soon! And hopefully the completion of my dirigible/locomotive hybrid...

Tree

This probably won't be on the quiz. But it's still interesting. I'm also trying to lure you to my larger youtube catastrophe here.

Floats and Rivers

Plotting my studio goals for the next 6 months reminds me of the raft trips we took as kids.

~ Finish second book, find publishing home for books.

~ Learn to produce decent video work.

~ Get Pandryll running again, both in theory and practice.

~ Complete at least half the games in this house and watch all my on-hold anime series. [This is where the plan will fall apart, and yes, that IS a studio goal. Imagination input is at least as important as imagination output. Perhaps more so!]

Now you might think this is all about budgeting time. In fact, that has almost nothing to do with it.

What I must carefully control is mood. Inspiration does not occur in a vacuum, and it does not work well against the current. Much like a rented inner tube, it was only meant to be inflated and ridden downstream.

Studio Update

I know, it seems like I'm not getting much done for the last couple of days. Podcasts and essays and books are all under construction and coming soon. I've gotten into this election (I don't often get a human in the race! It's exciting.) and that's been consuming some time...

But in my defense, I did just bring home Crisis Core, Madden 09, Patapon, Shadowrun, Days of Ruin, and DS language coaches (coolest thing ever, expect to hear more on those!) for both Chinese and Espanol. And a FlipCam. So in some ways, I'm staying remarkably focused.

Hi Greg!

Since you suggested the awesome Flip Camera, I made the first video at you!

People who aren't Greg... ummm... just understand, I have no ability to refund seven minutes of your life... yet.