Posts Tagged ‘Jason Ward’

Fuzzy Wuzzy was not, in spite of the rhymes to the contrary, a bear. In fact he was a breed of dog called a “Newfoundland”-though he had no idea what the hell that meant or what land of any kind, new found or not, had to do with being a dog or a bear. As the summer once again crept across the heat-capturing valleys of Southern California he began to feel a little miffed that his fur hadn’t been trimmed in years. Now, we’re not talking dog years, because then we’d be into double digits as far as Fuzzy Wuzzy knew, but by the reckoning of people he was in fact five years old and as near as he could tell, his unfortunate name was the sole reason he had never received so much as a trim.

Fuzzy sat at the end of a long leash looped around the leg of a small chair at a sidewalk cafe. His owner, a singularly annoying woman called Missy, sipped a maple-scented black beverage from a small cup, her pinky finger extended into the air aristocratically. Fuzzy loved his sweet master, for she always snuggled him and fed him and let him sleep at the foot of her bed, where he felt most of the time like he belonged. On occasion she would kick him straight off the bed in her sleep, but Fuzzy always knew that when he awoke sore and disoriented on the floor it was not a fact caused by any meaningful malice by his owner. No, Fuzzy Wuzzy was loved.

So as the sun crept over the buildings across the street and began to warm the front of the sidewalk cafe, Fuzzy began to feel hot. His owner continued to sip the black liquid and in fact asked the waiter to bring her another while she gabbed away to the little pink, glitter-covered rectangle in her hand. Fuzzy had never figured out what was so interesting about this little rectangle that Missy would want to talk to it so much, but talk she did, and Fuzzy just panted away as sweat began to make the fur on his head droop down into his eyes. Read the rest of this entry »

While this isn’t a site about video games in any way, the topic is still near and dear to my heart. In no situation is this more true than in the case of small independent developers who overcome the amazing obstacles required to break into the big time. It is for this reason that I’m briefly going to talk about 2DBoy‘s new masterpiece of game design, World of Goo. In ways that most games will never achieve, WoG is simple, yet deep and complex. It’s graphics are simple yet strikingly beautiful. It’s so easy a child could pick it up and understand the basics, yet so complex that an adult could struggle for an hour on some of the harder levels. It tells a story, but only if you’re looking for it; it has a message, but it doesn’t preach at all. For a more full review, visit Ugly Baby Studios.

If you have a PC or you have a Nintendo Wii, you simply must get this game. You will find it on PC for $20 to download, or on WiiWare for $15. You can’t go wrong either way, and I encourage everyone to buy a copy both for your own selfish enjoyment and to support the two–yes TWO–guys who created this game while working on their laptops at a coffee shop. If that’s not passion, I don’t know what passion is, and in my mind that deserves to be rewarded. If you’ve ever thought a game could or might be art, you owe it to yourself to try this one out. This is art.

So if you’ve ever glanced a bit to the right of one of my posts, you may have noticed that one of my link categories includes “blogs I like”. What you don’t get is much of an explanation of why it is that I like these particular blogs. In order to rectify that a bit, I thought I’d take a moment and discuss each one just briefly. Hopefully that will provide a little insight into the world through my eyes, and perhaps even offer a little thank you to those who run these blogs. Don’t forget to read the whole post after the break! You can either click the link below the post or click the title to get the full scoop!

FreeSpace: This is the website of my friend Tim Sandefur, someone whom I’ve known for well over half my life and who is always at the ready with advice, constructive thoughts and a helluva lot of perspective on a lot of issues.

His blog primarily focuses on the political and philosophical meaning of events in America and the world, and his perspective is always extremely learned and well articulated. We don’t always agree (mostly because I simply haven’t the background to often understand the “big picture” of some kinds of events in the way a trained person such as Tim does), but I always find a new understanding and a richer perspective by reading his work.

Beyond that, I should also mention that in the many years that Tim and I have been friends I have also been well acquainted and at many times close to his parents Mark and Julie, and his cousin Danny. They are each of them exemplary people who have made an epic difference in my life and have served as examples to me of what a person can reach for and achieve with hard work, hope and optimism. I haven’t invested nearly enough effort in staying in closer contact with them in recent years, a fact that I need to change. Thanks, Tim-both for your friendship and for that of your awesome family.

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So if this thing is working right (Just testing), you should see an actual, honest to goodness PICTURE just to the left of these fancy shmancy words. If not, well, I don’t know what to tell you. In any case, I’ve decided that on occasion it might be fun to actually put a picture or two up here. I dabble a bit in various art programs (which allow me to fake some minor level of artistic skill) and so occasionally I produce something. Don’t worry, it’s not all that often, and none of it’s particularly good, but hey, maybe something somewhere will inspire you to think a little bit. Case in point: the image at left. Err, I mean above. Umm…included in this post. Yeah…that’s generic enough…

So I haven’t actually blogged in a whole week, but there have been stories, bad poems and general malaise in a semi-abundant quantity, to say nothing of the imbeciles in our Government preparing to hand over nearly a Trillion dollars of our tax money to a couple of private corporations who made some really stupid choices. However, this isn’t a political blog so I don’t intend to wax too far in that direction except to say this: Democrat and Republican parties, you are idiots and tools, and you’ve made it abundantly clear–again–that you are the best of friends, united against the American People. Let those moronic corporations sink and die as they deserve to. They made their choices!

So back on topic, I haven’t had much time for blogging this week for several reasons. First and foremost, I feel that stories are the most essential part of this site, so when I have time to only write one piece, it’s going to be a story. Second, I’ve spent a fair amount of time working on the new face for the site, which I’ve finally had some breakthroughs on, so you should be seeing it soon. I am very tempted to show you a screenshot or sample in advance, but I’m determined to maintain self control and debut it when it’s ready to be debuted and not a moment before.

I want to say thanks to those who’ve either commented or emailed me directly. I appreciate the effort it takes to read and review one of my short stories. I already am able to see an improvement in my work between the first story posted and the most recent couple, so that’s good news and progress that will help me to maintain my optimism and enthusiasm for continuing onward. See you next story or–with any luck–with the new UI this weekend!