Quiet Little Corner of the Interwebs

Dear Player One,

It has been another week and of up and down but I missed your post on Monday. Work has been going along and I've been trying to get better at this volatile work environment. I have found my work in person suffers a great deal more for my metal state than working from home. I suppose this is not a surprise but it is a foreshadowing of a potentially difficult spot to work through. It is not impossible but it is not something I’m particularly looking forward to.

Concept art in person has been interesting. It is not a task that I’m unfamiliar with, but delivering it in person and having the ‘customer’ able to see the pieces unfinished has introduced a new twist to the work. All unfinished work always is up for interpretation but concept work that doesn’t even necessarily have a set direction. I want input but I also don’t want to have my general flow broken up ‘randomly.’ It is not exactly random, it is more a miscommunication between sketches and what the finish pieces are going to look like. While I can look at a piece in process and try to extrapolate to that point, I understand that people that aren’t involved in its creation may have a harder time of it.

I have been playing a number of new board/card games this week. Burred Treasure and Loot are both pirate themed games that focus on card order and collection of points. While Tichu is a card game that I don’t understand so I’ll have to get back to you on the details for that one. I have also revisited a few that I have played before like Bonanza. That one gets easier the more I play it and the more I recognize the cards. Planning ahead and trading away beans I don’t want has greatly improved my ability to collect points.

I have downloaded all Blizzard games available on Battle.net and I’m looking forward to playing in familiar territory. I do enjoy new games but I would really like to just trop around in something I know and have fun where it is not a hugely taxing experience learning new mechanics and environment. I’m hoping this weekend to catch back up with dallies and get back in the flow of regular game play that ‘cares’ if I log in or not.

I have also been crawling up the League of Legends ladder. It has taken a little time, but doing it regularly and in small chunks have shown more success than trying to binge. I might make it to gold if things keep going along the way they have been. We’ll have to wait and see. It is entirely possible that I’m just not a gold level player to start with. It is not a happy idea, but it is certainly a possibility that needs to be examined if there is heavy plateauing at somepoint.

I’ll be looking for your post on Monday.

Your,

Player Two

Uppity Ups

Dear Player One,

I have not heard from you this week. I know this regularly scheduled posting can be difficult. It might be best for us to discuss changing your posting day so it does not cause such a problem. It seems that if things stay the way they are you will just be racking up punishments. I’m not sure what the best solution for this would be, so I’m open to suggestions on the topic.  

This week I have been up and down. I’ve been able to work on concept pieces for most of the week. It is something I really enjoy doing. The down side is the tension that has been building as the presentation day approaches. Monday will be the end of our small group pitches and one with move forward to being the main project for the next seven months.

I think I already feel removed from the process due to the fact my pitch was passed over in the initial phase. My two biggest critics of my own pitch turned out to be exactly what pulled it down. I had too many interconnected systems and involved AI to really justify the seven month time line. I did however get complimented on the interesting world and I was encouraged to peruse the pitch after the program.

I think my biggest contribution to actually presentation process, art aside, has been in recognizing nervous habits or tendencies presenters have. It seems they don’t realize they are pacing, crumpling paper, or making fists while they are speaking. I think this is all part of the high stakes nature of the presentation. Three of the four projects will be terminated and all the work for those projects will be shelved for the remainder of the program.

I have continued to watch Hunter X Hunter and I am really enjoying it. I believe I am approximately half way through the currently available episodes. The show often presents itself as a happy sort of show but the content is certainly not aimed towards children. Death, betrayal, and sacrifice as common fixtures in the main and side character stories. It is refreshing to have a show that takes consequences seriously. Life or death situations maintain their gravity with a conclusion on way or the other.

I have also been watching Gotham. I’m rather fond of several of the characters already and I hope the quality stays high. It has many of the expected themes with only a few details here and there that I find distracting. I realize working with established characters and work even if it is in an earlier timeline has a fine line between believable and appearing to be some sort of convoluted workaround or retcon.

Finally I’ve been climbing slowly in my League of Legends solo queue. A game or two everyday has settled into a good pattern for advancing out of my placement rank. We’ll have to see how long my upward climb can last, but I would like to be in Gold as a goal. I will have to keep you appraised of the situation as it develops.

Your,

Player Two