In spite of less than stellar graphics, and bad dialog, Iji manages to be both very fun, and very interactive. While the basic story line will stay the same, certain gameplay elements depend on how many people you do or do not kill. Personally, I played it the first time as your standard shooter, thinking the game play was fixed. On realising that my in-game actions actually had consequences, I actually felt bad for how many people I’d slaughtered in the game.

On top of this, Iji has excellent music, interesting characters, and enough unlockable content to keep you going after the relatively short game is over. Better still, it’s free, and can be found here.

What makes this so great is that they can raise a lot of interesting concepts and ideas, but since they don’t go as far as one might like, they’re great for generating ideas. You can part of the concept, and go your own way with it.

So, as the first game I’d like to recommend for this, I present Braid.

The basic concept of Braid is about a man who can reverse time at will. There’s some storyline, but not a lot. Most of the game plays out like a Marioesque platformer. While it seems to be a platform game on the surface, and includes jumps, and dodging enemies, it’s really a puzzle game, with platformer elements, and almost all of the puzzles revolve around bending time in some way to do something amazing. Each level also tends to have a specific element, in addition to the ability to reverse time. It’s nothing if not interesting. The other good news is that it doesn’t run on my laptop, so I can’t waste a whole lot of time on it.

I’ve been trying to be better about that.

I redid the first chapter of Fafnir, for what must now be the fifteenth time. However, I’ve at least not completely rewritten it. I’m sitting on Frogger for a while until I get some advice from a literature professor.

The good news is, I have a fairly detailed outline of Fafnir ready, with just a few kinks and details to work out, and I’m working on an outline for Frogger until I get some feedback.

If, somehow, this video has managed to slip under the radar for anyone, they may wish to look away now.

One of the major advantages to the internet is that everyone, even people like me, have an open forum on which to host their thoughts and artistic endeavors. One of the major disadvantages to the internet is that everyone, even people like me, have an open forum on which to host their thoughts and artistic endeavors.

A lot of personal attacks have gone out to the singer, Rebecca Black on this one. I, for one will back off a bit though. I cannot, in good faith, say that the song is anything above awful. Listening to this song has about the same effect on your sanity as a staring contest with cthulu. That being said, I feel bad so much hatred is going out to Miss Black. It’s not as if Youtube isn’t already filled with horrible songs, be they original compositions or lip syncing, that someone decided to put on the internet. The major difference here was that it was good enough to rise above what we casually dismiss as rubbish by just looking at the title, and then turn out to be just as bad. Miss Black is going to be just fine. Or she’ll spiral into overexposure and substance abuse. Either way, her family lives in Anaheim.

The lyrics have quite possibly broken my sanity. Stop thinking, Book Slave. I’m not sure if it’s in a good or bad way, however. On the one hand, my mind has trouble accepting lyrics that simplistic and, frankly, devoid of any form of meaning, emotion, or thought. STOP THINKING. However, at the same time, I’m already realizing that if one can make an entire song about how Friday is good because it’s right before Saturday, I could, in theory, write an entire song about how I lost my headphones this morning, or how fish is a funny word, because if you say it enough times, it starts to sound like a match dropped in water, and eventually it’ll be a day or two before you can hear it like a normal word again. Fish.

To be fair, it’s also not only the terrible lyrics, over use of autotune, and very awkward dancing that makes this awful. There are also some odd issues with the sound editing, that I assume isn’t the fault of Miss Black. However, there was a rapper. So, it’s a real song. Of particular note is the chorus, on the line “Partyin’ partyin’! (Yeah!)”. On the “yeah” you can hear the roar of a crowd, but only one solitary voice is actually singing the line, making me almost feel the line was recorded at a sporting event, where no one else was paying attention to the singer. Just hearing one person there wouldn’t be so bad, but with the crowd noise added in, it feels like there should be a lot more people there. Having just the one singer for that line, amongst a crowd, is almost a metaphor for the song itself. Only one in a sea of people is actually impressed.

If you’re thirteen years of age and wish to release a song, here is my advice: Don’t. Just don’t do it. The world needs thirteen year old pop singers about as much as it needs a close by gamma ray burst. If you want to be a singer, that’s great, go for it. However, instead of just jumping right in, I suggest you get singing lessons, learn to play an instrument well, and study both song writing and poetry. You may be doing all those things already. If you are, just keep doing them. You won’t get any worse. As for lyrics, that can wait too. If you’re thirteen, you have many, many years of drama yet to come that can fuel your song writing. Given the way society hates teenagers, you’ll even have a fair bit of legit drama. Just wait. Use the time to make yourself better. Then go for that video. Or don’t.

Sometimes the Evil Editor will eat the same thing for many, many meals in a row. One example of this would be dried pineapple. The E.E. ate dried pineapple along with (or as a substitute for) many meals. Then, suddenly, she realized that she never wanted to see another ring of dried pineapple again, ever. The end.

The above anecdote is not related to Miss Black, except in that both Rebecca Black and dried pineapple are things that the E.E. wishes people would stop talking about or offering her as a snack. Also, Charlie Sheen.

EDIT: What a lovely child! http://mashable.com/2011/04/01/rebecca-black-funny-or-die/

Often the idea of defending freedom calls to mind debates on what qualifies as free speech, and freedom of religion. However, America’s founding fathers also recognized and debated over the roll government should play in the lives of the average citizen. This debate has continued on into the present day, as demonstrated by Max Borders’s video, in which he describes his difficulties in doing so much as selling barbecue sauce, due to over regulation by the government. While these regulations can be inconveniencing, they still serve to protect the freedom of the larger population, without being unreasonably restrictive to entrepreneurs.

A successful entrepreneur will not be overly hampered by regulation. Borders states that the cost of regulation discourages and prevents entrepreneurs from succeeding. While a business may have difficulty thriving due to regulation, the most celebrated entrepreneurs are the ones who had to struggle to make their idea work. The barriers before an entrepreneur are what allows for the success of entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs who succeed are those who have overcome the trials ahead of them. These entrepreneurs are the ones with both the vision and determination needed to succeed. Removing the barriers only leads to more entrepreneurs with less vision, and less determination, leading to a market where the truly visionary entrepreneurs, the truly determined entrepreneurs, are unable to distinguish themselves. Borders himself admits that what ultimately prevented him from selling barbecue sauce was that the amount of regulation was discouraging.

Borders also suggests that starting small businesses would be better for the impoverished, allowing them easier opportunity to be productive, but it is exactly these people who would be hurt most by lack of regulation. The ability to choose products is a luxury. Those who have more money have the luxury of selecting better products. The more impoverished, such as those on welfare, have far less selection. These are the people who will have no choice but to buy cheaper products, and those who require protection in the form of regulation. In addition, allowing a company to cut costs by risking harm to a customer allows them an unfair edge over the competition. The only way other companies will be able to compete with the lower prices will be to engage in harmful practices themselves. Because of this, even customers who can afford a slightly more expensive option will still have to risk their own safety.

In the end, regulation and oversight does not take away our freedom. Instead it places responsibilities on business owners. When responsibilities are not enforced they become obligations, and, in a tough business world, obligations are often dropped in name of profit or survival. Without regulation there is no way to prevent businesses from neglecting the freedom of individuals. An individual man or woman is not powerful enough to take on a business. For that, they need their government.

Because of this, I have a lot of sympathy for novice writers. This might be because I am a novice writer and enjoy having sympathy for myself, but nevermind. Everyone has had a first try though, and no one ever writes perfectly. It’s also nice to be able to share your work with other people and get helpful feedback. That being said, there are some pieces that I think people should just keep hidden in that little locked drawer of safe, hidden from the light of day. It doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It just means that one piece is probably something the world doesn’t really want to see right now. Or, for that matter, ever. So, write on, don’t be afraid to write poorly some of the time, as long as you try to write well, etc. That being said, let’s just into the things I really hope you don’t ask all your friends and family to read.

#1: “It was about [blank] all along!”

These are usually poems or short stories that are written for the single function of looking like they’re about something else. For example something that looks like it’s from the perspective of a person turning out to be written by a house cat. The important bit is that this is all the piece is for. You read it, at the end it’s apparent the whole thing was told by the cat. Ha ha! It was the cat! How cute, and clever and coy!

No.

These are sort of like knock-knock jokes. Maybe one or two are funny, and you might have liked them when you were a little kid, but after the third or fourth one as an adult you’re sick of it. It’s just not funny anymore, or clever, or interesting. It’s just anti-climatic and unrewarding. They aren’t pointless to write. Write as many as you like. They can actually be rewarding to write if you get a learning experience out of having to try and write a cat like a person, or whatever it is you’re writing about. The important thing to remember is that a piece like that is written for the author. It’s for the author to learn from, and experiment with. It is not for an audience.

The other important thing to remember is that this only applies to pieces where the entire point is to write something to look like something else. If you want to write a story that’s from the perspective of a lamp, go ahead. Watership Down was a story about rabbits*, it just didn’t pretend the rabbits were people. Or, if you are going to write the story to make us think a cat is a person, or thing A is thing B make sure that there is a point. If there is a point, I’ll accept it. If you’re writing a cat to look like a person to make a point about, for example, how we sometimes treat animals better then people, you’re in shape! That’s something that at least has the potential to be good, if you can pull it off.

#2: “It was just a dream” poems

You should know better than this. Having it have all been just a dream is one of the oldest clichés there is. Again, it’s unrewarding and it just feels like a waste of time. I personally feel it cheapens writing as a whole as well. The more it’s used, the more readers will assume when things get strange, or take a really bad turn, it’s just a dream. It can be surprising when it turns out it really happened, of course, but it takes readers out of the experience.

I’m not saying not to use dreams though. In fact, if you write a poem where it was all just a dream, try taking out the bit where it all turns out to have been a dream. In most of the cases I’ve seen, it’s the last line. Usually when the narrator is about to fall to their death. Sure, it’ll make it look like the narrator died, but that should at least hold some attention.

Think of it this way. Let’s take a poem by Emily Dickinson:

Wild nights! Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!

Futile the winds
To a heart in port,
Done with the compass,
Done with the chart.

Rowing in Eden!
Ah! the sea!
Might I but moor
To-night in thee!
God how I wish,
We were having sex!

The last two lines shouldn’t be there. In fact, it’s fairly obvious they’re my addition. But even a similar addition that didn’t break the style of the poem wouldn’t belong. We don’t want to be told what the poem is about, we want to be shown. Having the narrator wake up isn’t exactly telling us that it’s a dream, but it might as well be. The poem should make it clear it’s a dream. You shouldn’t have to spell it out this way.

*I know this is an oversimplification. It’s about a lot of things. The main characters are rabbits.

In any case, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. It might be getting cold again, sure. The leaves are changing colour to remind us that soon the world will be a cold dead wasteland, sure. But it’s Halloween! And if you don’t love Halloween, you’re a cold monster who’s dead inside. The bad kind of cold monster who’s dead inside. It’s time for costumes, and decorations, and fantasy. Seriously, not only are their costumes, and that nice little break from reality, there’s also candy involved! And the ability to carve a face into veggies. Maybe it’s ideal for kids, but there’s no reason the rest of us can’t enjoy it as well.

Halloween doesn’t even draw the same irritating (if not invalid) complaints about being too commercial. It’s not a gift giving occasion. Sure, costumes and decorations cost money, but there’s not a whole lot of stress to get the best of the best. Even candy for Trick or Treaters doesn’t cost that much.

The other brilliant thing about Halloween is that it’s the night before NaNoWriMo. What could be more perfect for starting off a month of frantic writing and idea generating than a mish mash of costumes, characters, horror, and fantasy? That’s why I highly recommend, on Halloween night, curling up with a bowl of candy (If you can’t be bad on Halloween, when can you?) and waiting for the stroke of midnight to get a go0d start on that word count.  In fact, special bonus points* to anyone who organizes a Halloween NaNoWriMo costume party.

*Special Extra Bonus points may be redeemed for a 10% off coupon on Evil Editor Brand Sausages.

The site has just be reset for the new year. So please do log on, donate, update your account, whatever you do.  http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Work on Fafnir is continuing. At the moment, I’m trying to get a complete sketch for the novel’s framwork together, so I’ll know exactly what happens in each chapter in advance. I probably should have done this from the start, but better late than never*. Once that’s finished, or perhaps before that’s finished, the writing of new chapters for Fafnir shall commence.

It’s also not too early to start considering NaNoWriMo. Fortunately, I have a creative writing class this year, and can actually get credit for it. It’s shaping up to be a Yong Adult fantasy novel. Not my usual, but we’ll see what happens with it. And yes, this means yet another project. It will likely dominate over Fafnir and Frogger for the month of November, but hopefully it’ll be content to sit on the back burner after that.

I should say, I love Ray Bradbury’s writing. I basically grew up with it. It’s sad, because I think the people who are criticizing Bradbury the hardest are his fans, and I’m no exception.

Every November, when it’s time for National Novel Writing Month I reread Fahrenheit 451. It’s such a wonderful book, and it gives me such love for books and writing. And the story behind it, all that time in front of a library typewriter, rushing through, typing fast before you have to put in another dime, reminds me of National Novel Writing Month so much. It’s something that would never have been possible without the internet.

Maybe the internet is a distraction sometimes, but it doesn’t cut us off from the world, it puts us in touch with it. People know more about what is happening around the world today than ever before, because we can pull up that information in seconds. I have access to an extensive library here in my house, or even out on the street, almost wherever I go. There’s a lot of rubbish on the internet, but there’s a lot of wonder on it as well.

As for mobile phones… I don’t particularly mind them. Some people do, and I guess I can see why. I don’t generally blame the technology though, I blame the people. Some people are jerks when it comes to mobile phones. These people are capable of being a jerk with just about anything. It’s not really about the phone, it’s about knowing when to leave the phone alone. For example, the asshole behind the cash register can make you wait there while talking on a mobile phone, or while talking on a normal phone. In fact, normally it’s to talk on a standard phone, as it’s the line for whatever company they work for, and they’re putting whoever rang up ahead of who’s actually in the store. However, no one suggests that stores shouldn’t have phones. We normally just suggest taking a heavy wooden implement to the cashier. I don’t know when we started blaming the technology itself.

I guess the future is an adventure. For some of us, it’s like Star Trek, and for others I guess it’s like Blade Runner, or The Matrix. I just hope, when I’m 90 and living in the future, I can continue to enjoy the new technology available to me.

P.S. I know, Bradbury, I want to go to the moon too, and mars colonies really would be wonderful. But I think it would be better to develop the sort of technology we’d need to build colonies there, before we start trying to do it. I’m also not quite sure why it’d be any better than Earth, I confess. I suppose a backup would be nice, for when we wreck up this place, but there’s really nothing to stop us from screwing up Mars either. Endless preservation of the human race, it is not.