There are a couple of moving pieces.

In my web exploits today, I came across an article on a blog that is aiming to build their own working internet tablet. It was, of course, no small undertaking, especially for a blog that would attempt this for the first time. When I saw the picture of the rough prototype it struck me as a very no-nonsense design, which the editors contended they would try to make more "industrial".

When I went to the comments section, I came across a bystander who asked, "What are the hardware specs you have defined for the first beta?..." The answer from one of the team was, "we'll talk about the hardware once it's nailed down, there are a couple of moving pieces."

A couple of moving pieces.

Now it struck me that this was an excellent way to describe their device. It's very sensory; it's as if you were holding the device in your hands and as you move it around it makes clanking noises, indicating that the parts have not been nailed down. In essence, it gave an abstract quality of the device (the fact that its hardware specification has not been finalized) a physical dimension (that of the parts not being nailed down).

As I reflected on those words further, I realized that they offer some insight as to why I have so many projects. My life, as well as everyone's life, is always undergoing some major redesign. Everyone does have a couple of moving pieces. I'm beginning to see that my projects are a dramatization of these clanking noises. That is, if I were the TechCrunch Tablet prototype A, and you were to turn me over in your hands, you would hear the sound of Planet Run, of imo, of Kykonian and Samnite, and much more.

I think that it is a healthy thing to have a few moving parts. That way, when the specifications change, when the consumer wants a different functionality, only a few screws will need to be turned.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: Abba, "Our Last Summer".

P.S. I will be going around the island tomorrow. (That is not a trivial feat, but neither is it profound.) Let me see if I could take some pictures of the effort.

Circumspect

I guess it does take a few years to notice any kind of pattern.

Today I finished writing Planet Run 2.5. As I think about it now, I remember that it was in early 2006 that version 2.0 came into being, as little more than paper cutouts, a borrowed chessboard, and an OpenOffice document. One broken leg, two years' worth of playtesting, and countless hours of ruminating on the matter later, the project is the closest it has ever been to completion. Is it true? Will Planet Run be my first ever completed project?

We'll see.

I also seem to have regained the ability to stay up past 2:00 am. I'm not glad at all, as it comes right at the point when I do not need it. I mean, where was this ability when I was trying to study for my exams this semester?

In other news, I still have not sent out any Christmas cards. I still am determined to send them, but perhaps I have to tweak the wording now a bit, seeing as how Christmas is almost over.

Thanks for reading. And a belated Merry Christmas.

Song in my head: Journey, "Any Way You Want It".

A selfish streak

I don't know why I thought this was the time to buy myself a Nintendo DS. Perhaps I've waited long enough, you know? I mean, the DSi is already selling here on Guam, so I thought I'd pounce.

When I prophesy that my Christmas season was going to be busy, even I did not realize just how busy I was going to get. People left and right were having parties, performances, and the like. A big disadvantage for this year is that the beginning of the Christmas season cut into Final Exams week. So I don't know just how poorly I did, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see the damage. This time around I know I am at fault, though, because I was supposed to have already learned the lessons last semester. And here I am, once again singing the alma mater song for a class I am not graduating with.

At the same time, though, I have a feeling that this time something will be different. It's not really a "good" feeling per se; I guess I'm just feeling a bit... expectant. I haven't felt that in a long time.

Hopefully I could get cracking on those Christmas cards.

Thanks for reading.

Song in my head: The Darkness, "I Believe in a Thing Called Love". I apologize if I already had put out this song, but I find it apropos in two levels. One is that it's one of the songs on the game Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS that I bought.