I really like reading through the comments on music videos sometimes- you find all sorts of sweet moments like people playing songs at their wedding, dedicating them to long lost friends and lovers, and people circling around back to a comment they left years before -The Mountain Goats’ song This Year has the best example of it- and reflecting on how they’ve changed in the time since.
I ran across some on BONAVEGA’s videos, so I thought I’d share!
I will comment on Bonavega… I am 54 and a truly old-school music lover. I listen to original Delta Blues, early scratchy Jazz (I’m from Chicago), and the Led on vinyl. As I graduated high school in '86… I was guilty of the Crue, Poison, and had a guilty please for Slaughter. I abhorred any new music until Winehouse… Mr. Vega, you fly your freak flag and wave it proudly! You have a fan in a particularly gorgeous and likewise (formerly) flamboyant man. […]
Absolutely, this was born about 50 years to late. Everything about his performance screams 80’s rock. The makeup, hair, wardrobe, and his overall style would have made him an 80’s Icon. Also, his music is spectacular. I dont know how to say this without potentially being offensive but his lyrics have that over the top tacky feel to them. Which was indicative of most 80’s hits. I mean all of that in a great way. This guy would have been battling at the top of the billboard with guys like, Bryan Adams, Billy Idol, and Axel Rose. I also dont think it would be a stretch to say he might have won that battle. If he was able to play in that era. I think people would remember Bonavega just like they remember Freddy Mercury. I really enjoy his music. Its both nostalgic and refreshing to hear something different. A revival of an absolute legendary decade of music that is sometimes forgotten.
My local library has Story Time for kids this week, so there are a lot of cute little toddlers singing and running around (but in a cute way, they all seemed well behaved). There was even a very young baby being cradled in the aisles. ;-; so cute.
Wrapped the kid’s gift. I love wrapping presents, it’s so satisfying to get a crisp corner scored. Made a little paper poof to go on top and while it came out way bigger than I thought it would, it’s in his favourite colour and he’ll have fun tearing it off.
Also while I’m working on the post-comp version of I Am Prey I have decided what my next game will be, and have starting making plans and a project document for it.
It’s going to be very strange. While I am having an absolute blast with it, I can only hope it’s not one of those things that slowly becomes noticeably-horrible over time.
I was mostly working on this because I was starting to get really uncomfortable off-meds and needed an outlet. Mostly just wrapping up a few more ideas, and then I’m back to chomping at the bit for finishing I Am Prey again, lol.
Overall, having a lot of fun, which offsets a number of major stressors!
Tuning in to catchup more from the Cymera festival of fantasy, science fiction and horror writing that I bought a digital weekend pass for. I have to finish watching what I want in the next week and a bit, so getting through as much as possible! Tonight a panel about spooky stories, and an interview with a physicist turned scifi writer about her life as a writer.
Yesterday I finished a pretty intense simulation calculator for my next game, and today I finished making the cover for it.
Why am I making the cover first?
It’s a proof of concept. That simulator figures out some viable designs based on the technologies available, and gives me the measurements and dimensions of the design. I used those to create a 3D model in Blender to see what one of the designs would look like.
It was a lot of fun! Both a major numbers/computation/coding challenge, and an art challenge! I was looking for an opportunity to practice my 3D modeling skills again.
Also, I’m very pleased with the result (if I’m allowed to say so), and I feel like I have an excellent starting reference, once this is all truly underway.
EDIT: I’m keeping the cover a secret for now, similar to what I did for I Am Prey. I’d rather make sure everything works out in the future first.
EDIT 2: Actually, here’s a cropped fragment of the image I modeled. I feel kinda weird making a big claim and refusing to show anything for it.
Our heat wave in Texas is making the national news. It’s brutal, and the hottest months are yet to come. The good news is that we built two big tall tiered rock fountains around stock tanks (if you’ve never built a fountain, it’s really fun) and they are covered with birds and bees and full of frogs. One of them was buzzing yesterday because there were so many bees on it, and I watched a hummingbird take a bath, which was the nerdiest-looking thing ever.
My kid brother was showing off to me and proudly said that “I made art, like you!” and that was the cutest thing ever, I could cry. He has his own sketchbook which I’ve mentioned in the thread before after he noticed I had one, and he’s been experimenting with different media lately.
I just went through all my game code and separated stuff out into reusable modules, or at least the really general-purpose stuff. I solved a lot of problems in this game, which I suspect with need the same solutions in future games, so hopefully this will shorten future dev time.
Camp NaNoWriMo is starting up in July, which means daily writing for me. (I have had a game idea that’s been chewing at my ankles for the last while.) The kid doesn’t have homework during the summer, and I’d like to have him practice his handwriting (even if most of their schoolwork is done on the computer these days.) Normally, he has about 40 minutes to 1 hour of homework everyday, and we also do 30 minutes to 1 hour of reading.
Since we’ll have that extra timeslot, and he was curious about my notebook, we’ve decorated his own with some of my stickers, he signed it, and he and his stuffed animals will be drawing and writing little stories in it while we have drinks (iced coffee for me, ice water for him at his request) in the matching mugs I bought for us ages back- (a bunny and a kitten soup mug.) He was very pleased with having “a professional pen like the adults” after rummaging through my stationery stash.
I’ve been to the library all week, and turns out the child/toddler event was all week long. So I got to see a lot of cute toddlers running around and being absolutely curious and adorable.
One even tried to have a conversation with me (it made no sense, but it was cute)
Managed to tune in for a morning panel of talks at a book history conference not a million miles from me, but I was able to watch online from bed, in my pyjamas. I’ve been asleep for most of the week, so to catch something live was a delight!
I got a game submitted to ParserComp during one of the busiest, most crisis-ridden weeks of my life. Even if the game is totally broken and awful, it was a major victory to get it submitted.
And it’s an unqualified joy that I’ll have games to play next week when the dust settles and I inevitably get sick. Plus, I missed all of TALP while it was going on, and so I have those games, too.
One half of a really major coding obstacle has been cleared. Once this other half is cleared, I will know with 100% certainty that my next game will be possible, on a technical level.
I’d rather make sure everything works out in the future first.
