Ammunition > Heroics

...But we won't get to that for a while yet.
Have patience, child.

And prepare for a somewhat lengthy post.
Now with 90% less hasanythingtodowithgaming! Except for one section, I guess. But it's interesting, so bear with me.
If you so choose you may skip over it, however. Today's post will have at least five distinct subjects (plus other random interjections), so you should be able to read something that interests you.


Yesterday I came to the realization that just because what I do most of the time is boring, that doesn't mean that my life in general is uninteresting (quite the opposite, actually), and it might not be so terrible if I talked about normal things every now and then.
Thus, I will endeavor to do so now.

Yesterday was one of those days where I just sat around and didn't get enough done. Everybody needs a break now and then, after all. Particularly since I tend to not take Saturdays off. =P
So I sat at my computer, listened to music, and talked to friends through MSNM, Facebook, etc. Actually, I'm not sure what et cetera means there. Because it was just MSNM and Facebook. If you have not already done so, add me on both so that I can bother and/or baffle you when I'm feeling bored.
Which is pretty much all the time. Oh, I have plenty to do, of course. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't bore me.
Anyway. I'm pretty sure I have everyone on Facebook already, but it seems to me that more people must have MSNM. But if you don't, you should get it because it's handy.
...It's funny how I still call it MSN Messenger, even though it has been called Windows Live Messenger for probably at least two years now. But you see, if I just say "MSN" I can pretend that the "M" doesn't stand for "Microsoft". It makes life more relaxing.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, right.
So yesterday I didn't do a whole lot. I just sat around. Then I went out to lunch with my youth pastor, and we talked about some things.
Then when I got home I did more nothing. Then I went to our youth group meeting thing at church. It was Andrea's birthday, so we had food. Except a lot of the time we have food anyway. But this was more celebratory.
We discussed divorce. I don't know where all of you stand on that issue, but I think it's a very sad thing.
I also thought it was pretty relevant; a lot of the time I see people going into relationships without any seriousness at all, and they're headed for trouble. I mean, I suppose they may not even be thinking about marriage at that point. But you should give a lot of thought to something that's supposed to develop into a serious commitment. And most of the time, people don't. If you're making decisions like that flippantly, it might not be a whole lot better when you get to marriage...
I was going to bring this up, but we were sort of pressed for time. I think we're following up on it next week, though.

...I get the feeling that whole portion was not even marginally fascinating. Meh!
Now for something a little more interesting, hopefully.
Recently I determined that my normally organized lifestyle is starting to unravel. So this morning (when I got home from school), I decided to check if I could reasonably work with some things that were starting to get neglected. If not, it would have been best to drop some stuff, as there are many things I do that aren't terribly important.
I timed how long it took to deal with various things (the blog being one of them) without distraction. I managed to get everything done within an hour, although that will probably be longer with more significant blog posts (obviously this one is being written outside that hour -- I already posted one today... I did sort of start it yesterday, though). But still, that's pretty good time, there. So I should be fine. I tend to move slowly, however, when I'm talking to people (which isn't really surprising), so in the future I'm not going to sign into MSNM until things have been taken care of.
...Actually, that was probably not interesting at all to some of you. Ehh, you can't keep everybody happy. That's why I often have multiple topics per post.
Moving on, then.

A lot of my best ideas (perhaps all of them) come from dreams. Most of the time it isn't the details that matter, but the mood. Unfortunately it becomes difficult to replicate that mood later on... But a lot of the time I can do a pretty good job of it.
I realize you may have no clue what I mean when I start talking about things like "moods", but I do hope you know what I'm talking about, because it's hard to explain.
Anyhow. The overall mood and setting of !°μ1.53 (in case you missed it or have forgotten, this is a game I'm working on) is based on weird dreams from the dark corners of my brain. Most of them are recurring nightmares (ones that I haven't actually had in a very long time) that won't sound frightening if I try to explain them... And really, they're not. They're just weird. So the game isn't really a horrific thing. It's just strange and mysterious... or at least that's what I'm going for. I think I'm succeeding so far, but we'll have to see if the mood sticks out as well for other people as it does for me.
Everything is dark and gray. There's a lot of machinery and the sense that there's this very direct, forceful, military sort of order that's driving everything forward, running it from behind the scenes.
...I don't know how else to explain it. And when you actually get to see the game, you may get into it and still not have any idea what I'm talking about. But I really do hope that it works out, because the mood is supposed to be a big part of it.

I had another dream last night. I think that when it started out, it had to do with the Muppets, but over time it mutated into something very different.
At one point there was a very run-down looking alley-type area, and it was filled with fog. And there was a bus there, and a feeling... I guess a sense that one life had come to an end, but also the realization that it would be a long, long time before a new one began.
So now I've taken those concepts and sort of applied them as an interesting game idea. So once again I have an idea that I shouldn't do anything with... this one seems very promising, though. =(
I may actually start doing something with it somewhere down the line, especially since Purple Jelly is now at a stage where I don't really need to be working on it much... or at all, for the time being. Nobody seems to be able to get past the first level yet... Evan suggested that I do some kind of video of me beating it, but my camera isn't working right now and I haven't found any good screen capturing programs that are free (they all murder the framerate, butcher the quality, or do both at once).

So I've been having some strange conversations lately.
I mean, I make them strange. Usually on purpose. But it's fun, so yeah.
Anyway, I have decided to save more logs. Or maybe log every conversation I ever have. So if you say something to me now, it will never be forgotten! GWAHAHAHA!
...Well, maybe not quite like that.
So I was talking to Ben on MSNM, and we had a conversation that went like this:

Ben says:
I ordered your birthday present on Sunday.
Paul says:
Is it useful and/or entertaining?
Is it shiny?
Does it kill bugs?

...

Paul says:
Anything can kill bugs.
The real question is: Does it make killing bugs fun?
Ben says:
You are creepy.
Paul says:
Thank you for your time.
Please leave your comments in the suggestion box.
We will be sure to file them for future reference.

From now on, whenever I need to know about something, I'm going to ask the question "Does it kill bugs?"
Why? Because it's fun! You should try it too.

Subject change!
(Nice seque, right?)
I've been doodling in my notebook lately. Not that I don't normally. The only difference is that normally I would draw on paper that is actually good for drawing on. But this is just lined notebooky paper, because I don't have anything better at the moment. Except for some huge, huge paper. Does anyone need huge paper? Goodness me, do I have a lot of it.
Anyway. There are certain things I like to draw a lot randomly. Among them are trees (usually with only a few leaves left on them or none at all, because they tend to look cooler that way), birds (usually in a fashion reminiscent of heraldry), and skulls.
I'm not creepy. I mean, wait. Yes I am. But what was I saying? Oh, right. Skulls. I've found that I enjoy drawing silly cartoon skulls. It's fun to mess with little details to make them look different (such as giving them star-shaped eye sockets).
So I more or less filled up a page (not a full page, because it's a tiny notebook) with skull drawings. More would have fit, but I added them up, and it comes to 55, which is a great number. So I've stopped with that. I'll probably be doing the same thing with trees and birds and things as well.
At some point I'll be scanning the page, I think. Then I'll draw over them in the GIMP and use them for various... random... stuff. I dunno. I'll probably share the page with you. But maybe not all at once. One a day or something might be fun.
Anyway, I got to thinking about drawing. This would have been maybe a week ago or something, but whatever. I got to thinking.
And I'm pretty thankful that I'm able to draw with reasonable competence. It's a very useful skill. If you're explaining something and somebody doesn't get it, you can sketch something up to show them what you mean... If you're sitting around somewhere and you didn't bring anything to do, you just need to find paper and a pencil and you will be occupied. It's quite nice.
I feel sorry for people who just cannot draw...

Now we're finally going to get to the part of this post that the title comes from.
I was talking to Seth and Molly. First we were talking about money, and how I didn't want to spend a lot because I have to save for college-related things. And Seth said "Those things cost money? But it's a free country." (Obviously, he was just being silly.) I repeated an analogy that is used often in the software world: "Free as in freedom, not free as in free beer." That got me strange looks, so I said, "Well, it makes a ton of sense!"
But then when I thought about it, I realized that it didn't really apply to the situation, since the freedom that is talked about there is freedom of an entirely different sort. Then I thought of how hilarious an open source government would be.
If there was something in the constitution that was unclear, you could just revise it at any time. If a law was dumb, anybody could just remove it.
I thought at first that this would quickly deteriorate into anarchy, but that's not how it works with software. I figured what would probably happen would be something more like this:
"Well, you want to change this, but not many other people do. So you can go off and make a branch mod of the government, and ours will be the official one."
...I thought I would have more to say on this subject, but that about sums it up. Think about it for a while; it's funny.


...So my last poll got nine votes in total. That number sounded pretty accurate for my readership, but today I decided to count up who exactly all of those nine people were (assuming everyone voted), and one vote is unaccounted for, as far as I can tell. I suppose somebody could have accidentally voted twice... Once when logged out or something. But I assume there's just someone I'm forgetting, or someone reads this and I'm not aware of it. Whatever...
Anyway, nine is a pretty respectable number for a humble blog such as mine, but I think more people could be reading it. You should tell your friends and such. I don't even have to know them yet; I don't really mind.
But at the same time, I have plenty of friends who don't have anything better to do than read my strange ramblings. It must be entertaining if so many people are doing it.
=D

:::Source expected
:::19.02.09
:::STOP