Our Creative Endeavor Reveals Itself
You know how I know I married the right person?
Today is the first day TJ is done with his deadline of last week (some paper he's writing with another student and his advisor, who we will call Fezzik in this scenario since he is a big giant man with an accent). So his mind is lighter and he finally got some sleep last night and Fezzik is off his back for the time being. Today he called me at work to discuss some banal thing like the location of the automobile or if I want to go out to eat tonight. Then, he gets all animated on the phone and says, "Oh, by the way, I figured out what our Creative Project is going to be!"
He and I have always been trying to figure out what our Creative Project is going to be. We thought for a while that it would be Our Act. Our Act was going to be him being all David Rawlings on guitar and mandolin, and me being all Gillian Welchish on strummy rhythm guitar and voice (since everyone knows it's the guy that does the meedly-meeing on the solos and the girl just goes boom-chicky while singing). The only problem was that we never practice, and by never I mean never ever. We sing in the car, but as awesome a musician as TJ is, he isn't a ringer at singing harmonies at all (well, actually his teacher apparently used to marvel at how bad he was at singing harmonies given his general musicianship, etc.) And, in order to help him I'd have to sit down at a piano and figure them out and I never do that because for one we don't have a piano and even if we did I wouldn't because I have no discipline and never get anything done these days. So let's just say Our Act never got off the ground, even though the potential is definitely there.
We have several other points of intersection that have lead us down some other paths for potential collaboration. We would occasionally talk about the software I use in my practice, and how it generally sucks in one way or another and how we could get together and write good software for architects who have been accustomed to using crappy, buggy software with no version control and no ability to really utilize databases to bring us out of the Neanderthal period. That never went anywhere because it's much too much like WORK for me to even think about that stuff when I don't have to, but we may return to it someday. It would be a pretty huge undertaking.
So today, TJ announces that he's hit upon Our Creative Endeavor, and we are going to write a video game.
So this is it, I actually agree with him and I think we can do this. This will be the greatest collaboration man has ever known... I will be art director and we will both come up with the dog-types and moves, and he will do most of the coding but it would be nice if I could get in there too and learn some... he can figure out how to make a physics engine that can produce accurate-looking dog saliva flinging motions, we can both learn Flash, maybe we can do it in Flash... we can both figure out the soundtrack and try to capture it from a Casio or something...
So that is going to be Our Creative Endeavor, and I am once again reminded that the Teej is my forever true love.
If you've read this far, then you get to also learn the secret I've been keeping from the blogosphere until now -- TJ and I have another creative project in the works, and it's due in June. But that is a topic for another post!
By the way, the image below is I DON'T KNOW WHAT, but I suspect it is not a real game.
Today is the first day TJ is done with his deadline of last week (some paper he's writing with another student and his advisor, who we will call Fezzik in this scenario since he is a big giant man with an accent). So his mind is lighter and he finally got some sleep last night and Fezzik is off his back for the time being. Today he called me at work to discuss some banal thing like the location of the automobile or if I want to go out to eat tonight. Then, he gets all animated on the phone and says, "Oh, by the way, I figured out what our Creative Project is going to be!"
He and I have always been trying to figure out what our Creative Project is going to be. We thought for a while that it would be Our Act. Our Act was going to be him being all David Rawlings on guitar and mandolin, and me being all Gillian Welchish on strummy rhythm guitar and voice (since everyone knows it's the guy that does the meedly-meeing on the solos and the girl just goes boom-chicky while singing). The only problem was that we never practice, and by never I mean never ever. We sing in the car, but as awesome a musician as TJ is, he isn't a ringer at singing harmonies at all (well, actually his teacher apparently used to marvel at how bad he was at singing harmonies given his general musicianship, etc.) And, in order to help him I'd have to sit down at a piano and figure them out and I never do that because for one we don't have a piano and even if we did I wouldn't because I have no discipline and never get anything done these days. So let's just say Our Act never got off the ground, even though the potential is definitely there.
We have several other points of intersection that have lead us down some other paths for potential collaboration. We would occasionally talk about the software I use in my practice, and how it generally sucks in one way or another and how we could get together and write good software for architects who have been accustomed to using crappy, buggy software with no version control and no ability to really utilize databases to bring us out of the Neanderthal period. That never went anywhere because it's much too much like WORK for me to even think about that stuff when I don't have to, but we may return to it someday. It would be a pretty huge undertaking.
So today, TJ announces that he's hit upon Our Creative Endeavor, and we are going to write a video game.
TJ: It's gonna be called Dog Park.
Me: Ok, I'm with you...
TJ: It's like Street Fighter except it takes place in the dog park, and you can choose to play different dog characters with different fighting [editor's note: fighting=playing, not real fighting] styles.
Me: Right, ok. Would it be sort of skill-based, like the Table Tennis game? Or more like Soul Caliber, where you just hit all the buttons at once and see what happens?
TJ: It should be somewhat skill-based, like you can strategize and create formations like in Madden '07.
Me: Uh huh. So the different moves could be "bite rear ankle" or "sit on face"...
TJ: Yeh! Or "jack-in-the-box" like Bernie, that Boston Terrier who just bops up and down.
So this is it, I actually agree with him and I think we can do this. This will be the greatest collaboration man has ever known... I will be art director and we will both come up with the dog-types and moves, and he will do most of the coding but it would be nice if I could get in there too and learn some... he can figure out how to make a physics engine that can produce accurate-looking dog saliva flinging motions, we can both learn Flash, maybe we can do it in Flash... we can both figure out the soundtrack and try to capture it from a Casio or something...
So that is going to be Our Creative Endeavor, and I am once again reminded that the Teej is my forever true love.
If you've read this far, then you get to also learn the secret I've been keeping from the blogosphere until now -- TJ and I have another creative project in the works, and it's due in June. But that is a topic for another post!
By the way, the image below is I DON'T KNOW WHAT, but I suspect it is not a real game.
posted by Dubin at 3:20 PM
14 Comments:
excuse me hello?! you dropped the big news and nobody commented yet? dang, people! how about nearly driving off the road like i did when mom told me (although she says she didn't really tell me, and i just guessed). (note: if you have a secret, don't tell our mom.)
I was waiting to see if anyone else would catch that wee sentence. I've been checking back all day in search of comments.
When people comment I get a copy sent to my inbox... when Amanda wrote "wee," google gave me some ads for "Puppy Wee Wee Pads" and "Wee Forest Folk."
Hmmm. Maybe it's 'cause all your regular readers already KNEW! Still, very bold to drop it in after a lengthy description of animated dogs sitting on each other's faces.
After Dog Park, maybe you can design Play Structure. That scene at my park is off the hook. It would be a bit like Sims (broad play-inappropriate wardrobe, handbag, and stroller selection for moms) mixed with Halo (kids engaging in widespread tactical slaughter of the perceived "other" -- i.e., smaller kids). Idle disengagement by Sims moms optional.
If Creative Project gets off the ground, baby Dubin-Green will have a fat college fund. Go team!
oh! dubin!!! congratulations!!!!!!
(i was wondering about what creative project could be "due," until i read amanda bee's comment. bob is, in all caps, demanding proof.)
Congratulations! I totally didn't get it. I never would have gotten it. Even if I had sentence-diagrammed the whole thing I wouldn't have gotten it.
Then again, I'm a guy.
Congratulations!
I contend that this entire post was a thinly veiled instrument for announcing the other project.
If N & I can ever figure out how to buy a house, we can get a dog, too, and then we can keep up with Dog Park. Or Bitches and Rabies.
Since AEW doesn't have a proper blog of her own (can I leave totally off topic comments on the Almanac?) and since she did bring up the playground, this is the part where you get to be totally psyched that you do not live in Brooklyn, this part where you start going to the playground. I have it on good authority that Brooklyn Playground Parents are insane. No disengaged parenting here.
well i just checked the blog now because i'm 45 minutes late to work and felt i should look sort of busy-ish before surfing the web. i guess i can't claim to be surprised because i sorta "knew" even before dubin. Wha? you say? Yeah, i don't get it either.
details! details! tell us details!
if you have a secret, don't tell alice right before she goes on vacation with melissa to vegas where the drinks are free and the women are loose.
alice already told me and i, too, have been waiting for the posting of baby's first picture sonogram or some other arty-dubin version of that.
i have a feeling that dog park will be shelved for "other" side project.
I already knew and I was SO excited because I knew that any combination of Dubin and Teej would be PERFECT, whether is it is a small new person or Dog Park, The Game! So damn awesome!
Oh gosh, thanks guys. I promise to put in some deets soon.
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