Stuff that I have written.
I don’t have any Christmas poems.
But since my brother and his wife are expecting a baby boy in June, and my friends Todd & Heather just had a baby girl, and my friends John and Michelle expect a baby any second now, here is a little thing about that moment when you first get the news.
Many thanks to Kiyoshi Shin for the first review of A Theory of Fun in Japan!
Looks like you can pick the book up at Amazon.jp and at O’Reilly Japan.
Gotta Love Google translation, btw:
You think in the one which has interest in game design theory whether it was added new necessary book-reading. Furthermore, the place, Japanese, is grateful after all don’t you think? is. He the プレゼン chaos is good, it is is, it is the book to which the atmosphere is transmitted that way (new)
It was a tremendous fall:
From the height of the hay bales,
Stacked two stories high, to the floor
Of the barn and the bicycle that broke
The fall and nearly my neck.
I prefer not to think about how close I came.
The scar, a tiny spot of weaker flesh
Shaped like a distant crescent moon,
Remains, as does the barn;
But the hay bales are gone.
I expected to see them still
There, and myself caught midair,
Pudgy childhood hands, shirt
Flapping and exposing skin tanned
By a reckless summer. Me, suspended
Forever, before the bruise and the poultice
Of stinging herbs.
I’d walk under me, pretend
To catch me, poke at my smaller limbs,
Try to recognize my face
Full of its incredulous joy and fear, even try
To pull me down
From that ridiculous frozen flailing position.
But no proof remains that I ever flew.
Just that once a bicycle stopped my face.
No evidence of anything tremendous,
Except the way my eyes avoid a spot
Precisely 17 feet and 4 inches above the floor,
3 yards from the tool rack’s
Southern edge, right under
The rafter I missed, a spot
Roughly boy-shaped and soaring.
My friend Masaya Matsuura, he of Parappa the Rapper fame, tells me
Yesterday, I got the japanese version of “A Theory of Fun.” It is a “red” book instead of blue, and looks a little different from the original, but I think people from O’reilly Japan has been committed to make good book. Only one thing I told them was about the japanese title. Original title they named was “Omoshiroi game design” This sounds a little like, “fun of game design” So I said was, “Omoshiroi-no game design” sounds like “how game design can make fun?” also this sounds a little like strange japanese, english person speaks.
So if you are in Japan, this might make a lovely gift. 🙂
Also, I see that Amazon.com is almost out of the American edition, so if you want one for the holidays, you had better buy it now!
The best sort of shark,
Chasing longfins too large
To mouth, graceful grey,
Paint fleck fins, a lofty
Catfish, small, not big
Enough to eat but proud
Of hunting, his name
An attitude, a look, and
All the teeth he needs.
