Well I certainly wasn't ready for 2010 and the fact that one lunar cycle has passed by (lets call it a "lunacy";do you see what I have done here?) without me even realising it certifies my unreadiness. The super-effective trinity of procrastination, moping around and ever-present sleepiness has severely dampened any productivity I might have hoped for this lunacy.
So, how will I rectify these problems? Well the moping around is definitely temporary. Changes have occured in my personal life. Ties have been severed, tough decisions made and I'm all for moving onward & upwards. The real challenge lies within the procrastination and sleeps. The internet is a horrible force of man-made nature (let's call it MaMa Nature - OMG I'm on some sort of cylindrical object here, maybe I'll call it a "roll"). It provides us with inspiration, knowledge and is a bounty of joy. On the flip side it also robs us of time and concentration. Time which we could be spending doing what we're supposed to be doing, or more importantly want to be doing.
I'm certainly not a workslave. In fact I despise the idea of "work". It is another farce of MaMa Nature, that is only present to keep the gears of our tax hungry clockwork government slick and greasy. We look forward to payday every lunacy and you'd be wise to know that they're rubbing their hands with just as much anticipation.
I've lost my train of thought. The internet has distracted me once more.. I'll finish this post one day! (This is due to part laziness, but then again it does prove my point about the internet being bad for you)
This post isn't about behaving in school, girls (heh), or your moral alignment. Nope, its about work. For nearly 5 years I've been at the same company, doing CG. Out of those 5 years I think I have spent at least 2 years working with a certain product that will remain anonymous. Watch this! Its funny! And totally unrelated.
As is common with many products, a mascot is involved - one that is burned into my brains and fills my soul with dread. I actually had a nightmare about it once. Anyway - we inherited this project from another (i assume from mass suicide) now deceased-cg company. We were sent files for the mascot that were incomplete and were forced to build something ourselves. At the time I was busy on another commercial, so we outsourced the work. The result was quite shoddy, but the clients approved it - much to my horror. In fact they liked it so much, they kept asking us to make more and more stuff with it - and of course no one will point out to them how shitty it is...
Being me, I wanted to take a tiny bit of pride in my work and produce something that at least looked decent. At the beginning stages of any commercial related to this product I've always asked if I could rebuild the mascot from scratch, so it would look right - perhaps even good. Such a luxury has never been granted to me and for two solid years I've had to put up with a sub standard mascot that frequently breaks and generally doesn't work.
But what's this? It's a bit quiet now, so in this downtime I've taken it upon myself to do a little R&D. In just two days I found an excellent solution for the rendering problems we'd been experiencing. The results do take a bit more time to achieve, but at least it won't break. With a bit o' tweaking, painting & re-rigging I could have a new and improved mascot ready to go! All good RIGHT?
The powers that be, are now saying that if we do show our clients these new developments, we run the risk of getting into their bad books. I understand that when a client approves something, you generally run with it till they ask for changes - but when you're able to deliver a product that is 400% better than what they have already, why the FUCK would they be unhappy with it? The vibe I'm getting for doing this work is pretty negative..
Is it my fault that they would never give me the go ahead to rebuild their crappy character for their past commercials? Is it my fault that nobody would put their foot down and say it looks shit? Essentially the message I'm getting from those in charge is not to do good work - Keep churning out mediocre crap and keep using shitty assets.
So the lesson today boys and girls, is not to waste your time - stay average.
Unlike the majority of England, I am still not back to work/school. I've actually still got ten days of leave leftover from last year to use up! I think I might take off every Wednesday again.. That's over 2 months of hilarious broken weeks! Well, that's if my work schedule will allow it (it won't).
Two days ago I finished up the first XNA 2d game tutorial. I've now completed a cruddy cannon-points-at-spaceships-and-destroys-them game. It should be noted that I've not touched proper programming for about 5 years, bar a few bits of MEL scripting...which doesn't really count. Object oriented programming is sort of making sense to me now. Classes are essentially magic structs that can contain everything. I wish our lecturers just said that back at uni.... Or maybe they did and I was just too busy doodling.
Stealth fake-update : this site is useful http://xnadevelopment.com
So how else have I been wasti- spending my time off? I have been exploring the underground ruins, the sprawling wastelands and insignificant potholes of Washington DC. Yes...... I've been playing Fallout 3 (yes, I'm late to the party). Despite my best attempts not to loot everything and anyone that crosses my path (in the game), my borderline OCD compels me to collect everything of value. Broken assault rifle? I can fix it up & sell it.. Motorcycle engine? I can fix it up & sell it.. Hockey mask? I can - yeah there's a clear pattern here. Within the game you're able to carry a defined weight before you become over-encumbered and are reduced to walking at a snail's pace. I often find myself in this state, so what do I do? Drop some excess junk and carry on? NO WAY! I resort to taking strength enhancing drugs OH YEAAAH!
I think if the worst comes to the worst and there was some sort of nuclear holocaust I would have a great career as a scavenger-repairman. Fallout 3 should serially be used as post apocalypse training.
Also, it's snowing! Just got back from the doctor, my knee x-ray came back all clear so they're sending me off to get an MRI scan. Maybe this time I'll gain super powers, or at the very least they'll get to the irking pain in my leg.
A new year is upon us and as false resolutions & hopes run riot amongst us, I sit here awake at 1.04am on the 2nd January wondering how I could be better-er..
To shame future Dave into recognising how lazy/unproductive/unmotivated he is, I shall list a few things I intend on doing this year, which currently seem like good ideas.
Jump onto the indie development bandwagon. Be it a cruddy game or a half assed app it's something I feel is worth doing. At the very least I'll gain some programming experience. I've signed up for a free XNA creator club account and sat through 2 hours of tutorials to get the ball-a-rolling on this 'un.
Start drawing again, as well as developing series/shorts ideas. Keep an actual organised and documented sketchbook...hey..it could be on this blog?!
That leads me to the subject of this blog.... I'll aim to actually keep it updated with stuff that isn't just code stolen from other sites (though there'll be plenty of that).
