An Entry that is Not about Pornography
...not that any of my other entries are about pornography. Just thought I'd try to catch your attention somehow.
It strikes me that my LiveJournal plan for this year has failed. My thought was that I had never really posted on LJ during high school because I'd have nothing to say. Everybody who read my journal was likely as not present for the events I would be describing. Therefore, I figured that when I got to college, my isolation would give me more occasions to post. Turns out that I'm just lazy. Things will happen over the course of the day, and I'll think "Hey, I should write about that on LiveJournal" and when I get home I play a videogame instead. But right now I have a homework assignment due tomorrow morning, so I might as well post. Here's a handful of amusing interludes from this year:
-David Lorant. David Lorant is my good friend here at UCSD. Imagine Sean's volume and Kaitlyn's frenetic energy/curiosity/interest-in-webcomics and Aaron's Jewishness in Ted's body, and you get something that's really nothing like David at all, but it'll do for now. I mention him because two of these episodes involve him directly.
-Recently I made a videogame, as has always been one of my goals in life. Here's how it went down: David is taking a Communications class on the subject of narrative structures in videogames. He had a choice of assignment, he could either write a five page paper analyzing a game of his choice, or he could make his own mod (module; basically, a game using another game's engine) for the game Neverwinter Nights. Naturally, since David is a Math major and avoids all unnecessary essays like herpes, making a mod was the obvious choice. So he assembled a team including him and a nocturnal gentleman by the name of Daniel Ching for programming, and me for storyline and dialogue. This is basically my dream job. I got to think up a plot, tell it to a couple of guys, and a week later play the game. In the end the plot was not phenomenal and the game was more of a story with occasional interludes of the player walking the character from place to place, but it still looks pretty damn snazzy for a first time effort. Definitely better than anything else submitted, at any rate. The gameplay clocks at about an hour, depending on how quickly the player solves the two puzzles and on whether or not he reads the dialogue. An hour of gameplay, for a game that took two back to back sort-of all-nighters to complete on time. It represents one of the three pieces I "wrote" over the course of this year, the other two being "Obsession" and my (ill-fated) Dark*Matter campaign.
-I was recently in a play, or rather, a collection of one-acts chosen seemingly at random by my director, the scattered Paul Scudder. The production was originally going to be performed under the title Giuseppe Garibaldi out to Sea (wikipedia him), but the title was later changed due to an inside joke and Paul's particular sense of humor to Massive Erection. The rehearsal process was haphazard, given that one of Paul's distinct skills is in writing confusing e-mails. At least one of the plays was not performed in its entirety until opening night. Also, we were not performing in one of the actual theaters, but in a smallish rehearsal space in the basement of the Drama building. Opening night had an audience of around 15, none of the actors had their lines memorized, the lighting cues failed constantly, and it overall felt like an AVHS AIDS benefit. Second night the house was overflowing, the actors were on the ball, and it was a great show. I had three roles of the course of the once acts. In the first one I delivered a tragicomedic monologue in which I pondered how to enact revenge on a former lover. In the second one I narrated rather over-dramatically. In the third one I played a loser possibly-homosexual teenager desperate to fit in. That last one was actually a bit more comedic than it sounded based on that description. The one act was called Cunnilingus and When Do We All Find Our Way. I think I made off with Paul's pants.
-I'm trying to contact Jed to get a job over the summer. Cie Probst had hinted to me that I might be able to seek employment at the Tri-Valley Young Performers Academy over the summer, an academy staffed in part by Jed and herself. I have E-mailed them. I have called him. Once I even got through; he told them to send my resume. I completed my resume and sent it along, but the E-mail bounced. All I want to do is work somewhere reasonable over the summer, but it's difficult when Jed never answers his phone and all of my e-mails get sent back saying "user's mailbox is full." Ah well. Looks like Starbucks, then.
-I'm the UCSD RPG Club's treasurer/ librarian for next year; I don't know if I posted that before. I ran more or less uncontested in the election. David was going to run against me, but I nominated him for a higher position to clear out the playing field (note: he won in that position against two other candidates, partially due to my political mechanisms). What the position amounts to is 1. Asking the members for a "voluntary" donation each quarter 2. Spending their money on RP books/boardgames which I'm interested in and 3. Putting these purchases in the locker which is our library, a locker which only I have access to. Can you think of a better job?
-In preperation for the above, I downloaded a bunch of free online RP supplements in .pdf form which I can stick in the library if we happen to have a slow month. Some of it is utter crap, but I have also discovered a fairly awesome campaign setting for D20 Modern. Check it out. It's adaptable, it's free, and it's over 200 pages long. http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54314&motds_id=2503&from_home=0&filters=0_0_0&free=1
Enough for now. More the next time I need to procrastinate.
It strikes me that my LiveJournal plan for this year has failed. My thought was that I had never really posted on LJ during high school because I'd have nothing to say. Everybody who read my journal was likely as not present for the events I would be describing. Therefore, I figured that when I got to college, my isolation would give me more occasions to post. Turns out that I'm just lazy. Things will happen over the course of the day, and I'll think "Hey, I should write about that on LiveJournal" and when I get home I play a videogame instead. But right now I have a homework assignment due tomorrow morning, so I might as well post. Here's a handful of amusing interludes from this year:
-David Lorant. David Lorant is my good friend here at UCSD. Imagine Sean's volume and Kaitlyn's frenetic energy/curiosity/interest-in-webcomics and Aaron's Jewishness in Ted's body, and you get something that's really nothing like David at all, but it'll do for now. I mention him because two of these episodes involve him directly.
-Recently I made a videogame, as has always been one of my goals in life. Here's how it went down: David is taking a Communications class on the subject of narrative structures in videogames. He had a choice of assignment, he could either write a five page paper analyzing a game of his choice, or he could make his own mod (module; basically, a game using another game's engine) for the game Neverwinter Nights. Naturally, since David is a Math major and avoids all unnecessary essays like herpes, making a mod was the obvious choice. So he assembled a team including him and a nocturnal gentleman by the name of Daniel Ching for programming, and me for storyline and dialogue. This is basically my dream job. I got to think up a plot, tell it to a couple of guys, and a week later play the game. In the end the plot was not phenomenal and the game was more of a story with occasional interludes of the player walking the character from place to place, but it still looks pretty damn snazzy for a first time effort. Definitely better than anything else submitted, at any rate. The gameplay clocks at about an hour, depending on how quickly the player solves the two puzzles and on whether or not he reads the dialogue. An hour of gameplay, for a game that took two back to back sort-of all-nighters to complete on time. It represents one of the three pieces I "wrote" over the course of this year, the other two being "Obsession" and my (ill-fated) Dark*Matter campaign.
-I was recently in a play, or rather, a collection of one-acts chosen seemingly at random by my director, the scattered Paul Scudder. The production was originally going to be performed under the title Giuseppe Garibaldi out to Sea (wikipedia him), but the title was later changed due to an inside joke and Paul's particular sense of humor to Massive Erection. The rehearsal process was haphazard, given that one of Paul's distinct skills is in writing confusing e-mails. At least one of the plays was not performed in its entirety until opening night. Also, we were not performing in one of the actual theaters, but in a smallish rehearsal space in the basement of the Drama building. Opening night had an audience of around 15, none of the actors had their lines memorized, the lighting cues failed constantly, and it overall felt like an AVHS AIDS benefit. Second night the house was overflowing, the actors were on the ball, and it was a great show. I had three roles of the course of the once acts. In the first one I delivered a tragicomedic monologue in which I pondered how to enact revenge on a former lover. In the second one I narrated rather over-dramatically. In the third one I played a loser possibly-homosexual teenager desperate to fit in. That last one was actually a bit more comedic than it sounded based on that description. The one act was called Cunnilingus and When Do We All Find Our Way. I think I made off with Paul's pants.
-I'm trying to contact Jed to get a job over the summer. Cie Probst had hinted to me that I might be able to seek employment at the Tri-Valley Young Performers Academy over the summer, an academy staffed in part by Jed and herself. I have E-mailed them. I have called him. Once I even got through; he told them to send my resume. I completed my resume and sent it along, but the E-mail bounced. All I want to do is work somewhere reasonable over the summer, but it's difficult when Jed never answers his phone and all of my e-mails get sent back saying "user's mailbox is full." Ah well. Looks like Starbucks, then.
-I'm the UCSD RPG Club's treasurer/ librarian for next year; I don't know if I posted that before. I ran more or less uncontested in the election. David was going to run against me, but I nominated him for a higher position to clear out the playing field (note: he won in that position against two other candidates, partially due to my political mechanisms). What the position amounts to is 1. Asking the members for a "voluntary" donation each quarter 2. Spending their money on RP books/boardgames which I'm interested in and 3. Putting these purchases in the locker which is our library, a locker which only I have access to. Can you think of a better job?
-In preperation for the above, I downloaded a bunch of free online RP supplements in .pdf form which I can stick in the library if we happen to have a slow month. Some of it is utter crap, but I have also discovered a fairly awesome campaign setting for D20 Modern. Check it out. It's adaptable, it's free, and it's over 200 pages long. http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=54314&motds_id=2503&from_home=0&filters=0_0_0&free=1
Enough for now. More the next time I need to procrastinate.