Cataloging the Detritus of my Life
Two years ago I wrote an article for Gamestooge.com on the assassination of Lord British in Ultima On-line way back in pre-historic past of MMOs: 1997.It’s a fascinating little tidbit of videogame history. Today, Cracked.com linked to the story in one of their own stories: The 7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of On-line Gaming (Lord British’s assassination is #3 on the list). Gamestooge.com’s Editor-in-Chief, Jonah Falcon, informs me that the article is getting a bunch of traffic. So, go me?
The last two days I’ve typed just over 16,000 words… None of which my own, in the sense that I wasn’t writing my own thoughts or works, but rather for work. The two days before that I probably wrote another 10,000 plus. If this was NaNoWriMo I’d be half way done?! For my office, this is one of the two busy times of the year, after the Appropriations committee has held their suspense hearing and lots of bills get moved to the floor. All those bills need to have an analysis done for them and that is my office’s job. This was compounded this year by the fact that I was given new policy committees, so I’ve had to learn a lot in the past six months.
So, no post today. Just these pictures of my work area covered in Fact sheets, bills, checklists, drafts, and letters of support or opposition from interested parties. Enjoy…?
I was going through my old journals (yes I keep one and yes it goes back 13 years or so!) and found this printed out old email exchange. It appears to be a letter I wrote in 1999, to Denny Atkins, who at the time had just left Computer Gaming World. I don’t recall ever writing this email or getting the response. I do want to thank him publicly now though for taking the time out of his busy schedule to write to me! I did take his advice, by the way, I started reading video game magazines and websites earnestly as well as emailing various authors/editors. I even landed a gig as a reviewer for Gamepen.com and then after that at UGO (2000-02). Sadly, I didn’t cultivate relationships with the people I worked with and I couldn’t tell you what most of them are doing today or if they even remember the young, eager high school graduate they were working with back then. When the dotcom bubble burst, writing assignments dried up and I found myself with a girlfriend, friends, a part-time job and a full-time students’ workload. For me, video game journalism fell by the wayside. I never picked it up again…
PS – well maybe a little, I’m still listed as a senior writer for GameStooge.com, a small news site, where an old friend from the Gamepen days is the Editor-in-Chief.
Do you like the spoken word? Poetry? Skepticism? Great animation? If you do you need to watch the video below. If you don’t you should still watch the video below.
WATCH IT! The Internets command you!