…is being up at 2am, feeling lousy, but wide awake because you messed up and took the non-drowsy meds instead of the nighttime ones.

At least there are large quantities of somewhat amusing things on Google Video.

“Remember what the dormouse said” is wondering.

Well, I’ll give an answer.

No, of course not.

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I just got done watching Disney’s TV movie of A Wrinkle in Time, a book I would have thought was basically unfilmable.

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This one merits an explanation in advance.

I’ve spent a lot of my life around creative people. A lot of people dressed in black, long overcoats, occasional breakdowns (while I was the resident assistant for the creative arts floor, we “only” suffered through a few mental breakdowns, one drug-induced miscarriage, one fire, one suicide attempt, and a half-dozen alcohol poisonings…), and of course, talent.

I’ve also now gotten to know a few “guru” types — particularly from the world of SF (yes, Bruce, David, Cory, if you’re reading this, I mean you). There’s some patterns to be seen (and I hope they don’t take offence!). A habit of preparing and practicing good phrases to drop into conversation. A certain manner about them that combines a brilliant mind with a certain degree of performance — expansive gestures and a fired-up passion about whatever they happen to be talking about. Getting past that to get to know them can be a little tricky, actually.

Well, long ago, “The Imaginary Playmate Speaks” opened the door to a series that I called “the genius poems.” They were about an “invisible playmate” who was, in some ways, the dominant partner. Someone who had the qualities described above: the aspects of guru and of talent and of, yes, kook. Someone who was both right and also needed puncturing.

I wrote a hell of a lot of these; probably thirty or more. This one here is one of the more sarcastic ones.

Of course, by posting this, I am giving away all of my secrets, and now all of you can get as many speaking invites and interviews as you like!

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Dan Arey is the creative director over at Naughty Dog, and for GDC 2005 he put together a session on AAA games that interviewed numerous designers and collated their responses.

I didn’t answer all the questions, but I’ve finally gotten around to posting the ones I did answer in the Interviews section of the website. Some excerpts to whet the appetite:

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…anymore, that is.

I took lessons for a while. In high school, I started out with keyboards, not guitar. It wasn’t until midway through my first year of college that I first picked up the guitar, which means that I have now been playing it for almost exactly 15 years.

While playing guitar, though, I did actually spend a semester taking piano. I did OK, I suppose, but I struggled in some ways. My hands aren’t very big — could barely reach a full octave with one hand. I have a childhood injury that left my right hand pinky and half of my ring finger numb, and the pinky in particular is lacking in agility.

I also took music theory and composition classes, which were heavily driven by the piano. And that’s where this came from.

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And there we are… Whee!

“I’d like to thank the Academy for this honor…”

Yet another games conference, this one sponsored by ACM, with an eye towards a future games SIG.

Interesting that they chose to call it “sandbox,” given the turbulent opinions surrounding that tag within the gamer community itself.

The topics they are calling for papers on:

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fredshouse.net: the medium that is eating the world is a summary of the talk I gave at PARC yesterday. Interesting that he felt that I was “was trying a bit too hard to be academic and researchy” — yikes, that was one of the least researchy versions of that talk I have ever given…!

Anyway, he took pretty good notes on the fly; alas, without all the jokes.

This link popped up in a comment on the OGLE stuff, and it’s worth reading for the mercantile future it envisions for virtual spaces.

It may be quasi-dystopian (and it’ll certainly run into some issues regarding privacy and personal information) but it’s also highly plausible.