Building Blocks

Well, it's been long enough since I last posted, I guess. And there's been entirely too much technobabble here for my taste. This is not an episode of Star Trek : The Next Generation. Or even Firefly. Life's been interesting lately, though it took me a while to realize it. There's been exciting news about Nintendo's Revolution, a massive influx of new friends and allies, and that elusive creative urge is finally rising again. It's been impressive to me to see the results of the Quark recruiting drive. We've got a slew of new members. The boards are finally alive again. And we've got new faces at every activity. We're up to about 240 members on the site right now, which I believe is a high. It's not huge compared to many other sites, but each of these memberships is linked to a BYU student. We're probably one of the largest clubs on campus. I've finally gotten myself in gear as the Games VP. I need to take a page out of Kimberly's book and really start getting things planned in advance. This Saturday is the Warhammer event, which has been due for years now. We finally got the critical mass of people necessary to make things lively for tabletop strategy gaming. I have barely any experience with this particular arena myself. I played a bit of the little clix games a while back, and I've painted a few figures in my day, but have never really been sat down to see what it's all about. I know that the people who enjoy this sort of thing really enjoy it. Hopefully I'll see what the appeal is. This weekend should be interesting, all told. Friday evening a slew of people are heading out to the Castle of Chaos haunted house. It sounds like one of the more impressive events of the Halloween season. It bears more of a resemblance to an elaborate horror-themed LARP than anything else, to me. There are puzzles to solve and prizes to be won. Saturday, then, is the hubbub of the Games Workshop introduction, and then Sunday is my birthday. I'm feeling a bit ambivalent about that at the moment. A few people are making a fuss out of it, and I'm just wondering if it's something I really want to acknowledge. I'll be turning 23, and I just feel.. behind. I first came out to BYU when I was 17. And now I'm just barely a Junior, with an extremely spotty academic record. I know that I'm being harsh on myself, and that there were extenuating circumstances of many varieties, but... well, I guess I've always been my harshest critic. On the other hand, to look at the way things are heading currently is to see true progress. I've got my health in check. I'm mostly financially self-sufficient. I feel as though I've regained my spiritual grounding. I have a job which I love and find rewarding. And I'm truly enjoying my classes. Well, except for one. But I can live with that. I still feel a sense of apprehension about this Sunday. Perhaps it's nothing and I just need to get over myself. I can see plainly some advantages to being here, now. I'm coming on to my job at a time when there is exciting work to be done, and the foundations I'm laying there will last for a long time. I'm here with my brother, who has really come into his own. I'm glad to have him near. And I've met an amazing girl, with whom I felt an instant bond. We both seem to have felt it, which is unusual and exciting to me. Having the opportunity to spend time here with her is not something I'll easily give up. Anyway, enough about my birthday and my complexes. I've been reading over at Lost Garden quite a bit lately. It's inspired me to put my hand once more to the task of video game creation. I want to start small and simple. Prototype things. Put my growing coding skills to work. Eventually I want to be able to make sweeping vistas and worlds waiting to be explored. But to try that at the first is to ensure failure. I have ideas. I just need to start making them concrete. Actually, that might as well be my motto for this time in my life. It's time to start making things concrete.