Ben's Busy Blog

Cool! Bill Harris included my album cover in his blog. It's already on the first page when I vanity Google myself. I really enjoy Bill's blog and he deserves every bit of industry respect that he gets. I hope he only profits by his pastime, be it financially or via simple satisfaction.

I'm not sure what all to put in the blog tonight, but I'm trying to blog more often, now that it's all more laid back and fun. This might sound confusing, but should anybody want to check it, I want to leave something for them. It's all gratis folks.

Heath Ledger died today, an unlooked for tragedy. Inasmuch as he affects my life, I set to wondering about The Dark Knight, but that's finished filming already, so I suppose it will be his last film. It probably won't have any sort of effect similar to The Crow, as Brandon Lee died onset in what could be seen as a continuation of the mythology around his father's death.

I had a reasonably productive night. Cooked a simple dinner for Natty. Cleaned out the cat boxes. Downloaded some of the latest XNA updates with an eye towards getting back on my feet with that. The greatest motivation behind this was my discovery of the Dictionary class.

Anyway, I'm going to crash, Hope you all have a good night.

Labels: just bloggin

Maybe you've already seen it, but Kotaku posted a collection of photos of the work desks and entertainment centers of famous game designers (and some other folks). To the critical eye, all sorts of things can be discerned...

• Ken Levine's a suck up! Okay, I like GWJ too. But did you know he apparently plays guitar, likes HeroClix and needs a better iPod case?


• David Jaffe likes bobbleheads, Kevin Smith, and... hrm, just who is that mini-bust of?


• It seems like someone in the house of god-game maker Sid Meyer has got the Jesus. Is that symmetry?


• Ted Price's desk is clean... Suspiciously clean. Wait! There's a loose USB cord on the floor! Whew, for a second there I thought the marketing & PR guys had his place cleaned up and artfully placed merchandise with labels showing.


• Peter Molyneux's workspace has an empty Aeron chair, empty coffee cups, and EMPTY PROMISES! You bastard! You brokes ma heart!


• Richard Garriot's included a single picture of his house, a woeful understatement of his ri-goddamn-diculous house.


• Dan Hsu likes Sandman! And he likes the Ultimates! And he has the original Weiss and Hickmann Dragonlance soft-covers! Gasp! I'll be he thinks that Ziggy's gotten too preachy too!


• I approve your keyboard, Crecente

Labels: just bloggin

I'm not quite sure what's going on, but in our kitchenette here at work, there is a wailing coming from the air vent. And when I say wailing, I mean whale wailing. Sure, taking a moment away from my desk to grab a cup of tea becomes only that much more relaxing when accompanied by the soothing songs of the cetaceans, but the comfort level is compromised by the perplexing nature of how one fits a whale in a vent.

Labels: just bloggin

The always enjoyable and insightful Bill Harris posted in his blog about fun meme that goes like this:

• Your band name is the title of a random Wikipedia article


• Your album title is the last four words of the very last quotation from this random list


• Your album cover is the third entry from Flickr's Interesting Photos From The Last 7 Days

Hence I bring you the "Vagaries of the Crowd", the debut album of Coat of Arms of Vermont!



In other amusement, I love this picture from a gallery's tribute to Stan Lee. The Hulk looks so thoughtful as he sips tea with his chihuahua. Oh, and the awesome Brandon Bird had a piece in it, and can be seen here shaking hands with Stan.

Labels: just bloggin

A month ago, I decided to discontinue the Busy Blog and stated my reasons to friends and family, but never got around to posting why I'd stopped. I originally started this blog as a way to keep track of my efforts to be productive and also to publicize them. By letting other people know what I was doing and what I felt about it, I thought that I'd generate sympathetic support for what I was doing. In retrospective, I was trying to croudsource my self-discipline. This never worked. Friends and family are people that want to spend time with you, who like being with you. They might have your best interests at heart, but I believe it's antithetical to their human nature to detract from their time spent with you. You always hear about driven people neglecting their personal connections. This is because aside from edge cases friends and family are counterweight to work. I can't expect my friends and family to help me become a better worker. They'll try to help me be happier, because sadness is shared among those who you're close to, but they can only go so far. And I can't blame them for that one bit.

As part of the new year, I've confronted the fact that I will most likely never become a videogame programmer or designer. Not only is it difficult to find a job in the industry, it is even more difficult to find a job there that doesn't wreak havoc on your personal life. I love my wife and she needs me. I can't afford to throw that away for any job. I can't expect to become a part of the videogame industry, and it's hurtful to my future if I waste time pursuing it as anything other than a hobby. It makes me sad to think it, but I guess it's another case of giving up on being a rock star or a famous actor.

Anyway, I guess I'm going to be looking at the logic for getting ahead in life, and trying to pursue my hobbies too. I'll also be trying not to go insane doing this. I can't say I dislike the idea of taking this blog and just turning it into a general purpose beast. It could even be kinda fun really. Who doesn't love a vanity project?

Labels: End of the productivity posts