Ubuntu.

I was talking today with someone about the different virtues Western societies promote compared to non-Western societies. In particular what came up regularly was the idea of isolation common in capitalist societies - the idea that a person's value is demonstrated by how well they can stand on their own two feet without the support of others.

The thought behind this is that a person's self-worth is more inherently valuable to the society when that person can survive and provide within their own means. They do not drain from the others around them, and are therefore not a liability to the societal economy. This is well evidenced by the value we place on economic-based milestones through early development; first bank accounts, pocket money, mandatory tax file number registration at high school. Most people consider moving out of their family's home to be the equivalent of a coming-of-age rite. It's when we get to feel like a Big Person.

Right now.

My lovely wife bought me a magazine yesterday, a periodical devoted to entrepreneurs and management-type people. It has key points on the cover like "Learning from the young rich" and "Motivation is the key to success". Bono's there with his weird glasses looking out of place with the corporate blue backdrop and non-rock'n'roll typeface floating around his head.

I've read more than half of the articles in the magazine now, and all of them seem to have the same premise, a familiar one I find in a lot of business literature;

You want money now.
I've got money. I can tell you how to get money.
It's a spiritual thing. It's a people thing.
You should do what I do.
And here's an advert for what I'm selling.
This is how I do it. You should do it like this and make money now.

Thing is, a lot of these guys have good ideas I agree with. Great ideas. Common sense business ideas that no matter how many times they are reiterated with catchy slogans ("The attitude that matters is gratitude!"), people forget them. So what's my problem with this style of advice? Two things!, one small and one not-as small.

My vote on game censorship.

I've been meaning to do this for a while now, but I've wanted to dedicate a good few hours to it, and these days in my adult and criminal life I struggle to find the time to link a few good hours together. So alternately, I'll try getting my thoughts together over a few sittings, so forgive if it gets a little long and disjointed.

I'm unsure exactly where to start this, so I'm going to go with the central thought that runs through every argument I come across: Michael Atkinson is allowing children to participate in adult content. Regardless of what he says, his actions prove vastly different in the real world outside of his politics. He's quite happy to talk political rhetoric about his constituents, how the OFLC has failed to hold up its own regulations and that the vested groups behind the R18+ rating are solely economically interested in the debate. He admits to the censorship label of his politics, and talks quite candidly about his own children playing the video games he disagrees with.

(Didn't realise this got so long. Follow the cut for the rest!)

TTYL!

It wasn't until today, when saying goodbye to my mum with "See you in L.A.!", that I realised how close we are to leaving for Vegas.

I'm excited! Food, shows, and the wedding of course. I'm coming back a married man!

I'm actually more excited than a single exclamation mark can express, but multiple exclamations could be construed more as a form of instability than excitement. Just take my word for it: I'm a little jumping boy on the inside.

-Anthony

one two three woah!

[ding!]

Like a lightbulb, see.

Derek Sivers' notes on Hugh MacLeod's Ignore Everybody.

I really would like a copy of this book now, if you're listening Santa.

[edit:] You can get the first 12 chapters online here. Thanks Mr MacLeod!

-Anthony

i got my box of crayons: now what

EiP: The Misuse of Internet Tools for Fun.

So I had an idea the other day, which has lead me to create this in the last half hour.

It's an experiment-in-progress for a new method of interactive fiction using my recently newfound joy, Prezi. The writing isn't special (as I said, half an hour!), but as far as experimenting with the medium and the execution of the idea, I think it worked pretty well?

Any comments would be appreciated! If the format is well received, I will definitely consider spending the time to try a proper composition.

-Anthony

[edit:] The WiP version can be found here for those interested, but I'm going to finish writing all of the parts before pathing it.

seems you're mouth is still open: you might want to do something about that

Works In Progress

In reply to Nick's semi-recent post, I thought I'd too write down what I've been doing recently. As I load more projects on to my plate, I've found it becomes easy to forget about everything I've done as they're overshadowed by the great big Piles of Still To-Do.

And then once I do take those few introspective moments, I go "Woah, I've managed quite a bit!".

And then I pat myself on the back.

And then I try to high-five myself with limited success.

Prezi!

So one of the most excellent indiegamer.com dudes pointed me towards prezi.com, a (relatively new) mind-mapping presentation tool. You can use it to create really great interactive presentations without having to use boring old slideshows!

Check out the totally sweet RocketHands mission statement I made in a few hours that we're going to use to replace our old XtraNormal video. It's pretty plain, but without graphics it's sleek, swift and loads like the Flash.

What I like about Prezi is that you can go off track and click on stuff that looks interesting without having to wait to get to it (except I've managed to bugger this with ours due to my own cleverness! Just schzooom in and follow the path, you'll enjoy it regardless!), so it's pretty great for live presentations too. Or just letting someone explore your presentation on their own terms. Plus you can create really fun spaces!, instead of [Next], [Next], [Next]. Go up! Down! Upside down!

You're probably getting the hint that I find prezi pretty fun.

Writing.

I'm right in the middle of a new piece for The Penfolk. I've started and scrapped a whole bunch the last few weeks, experimenting with unfamiliar territory, but as I've already discovered from previous postings I'm exceedingly crap when I don't know what I'm talking about!

For a little while I thought was going through a serious creative-blocked period, but I've since started this piece in very familiar territory and I'm feeling a lot more comfortable writing with it. Although there's a lot to say about pushing creative boundaries and succeeding at failing, but I was starting to get really bummed about not writing anything I liked. So even if this piece doesn't turn out great, I'm happy to have discovered I have a creatively comfortable zone that I can work with and enjoy!

Business Stuff.

And then there's a whole bunch of business-y numbers and columns and stuff that while I find interesting, I'm sure the rest of you won't. So just take it on my word: numbers are okay!

In other brush-with-fame news, Tim Schafer told me to man-up and use Invisibility. Divine intervention? I think so!

-Anthony

residual earnings are just alright, oh yeeeeah, baa naa bada bada baa naa naaaa