I have had the goal of making a full video game for many years. I have not developed any games since 2002. But that hasn’t stopped me from planning.

Here’s a list of what I call “Guiding Principles,” the rules that I need to remember during the whole process. I showed it to a roommate and he told me it should be online. Here it is, Internet. Enjoy.

• Don’t let originality rob familiarity. Employ creativity when necessary to find a balance.
• If it’s not simple, it’s probably not necessary.
• If the plot is supposed to be engaging, it better be Dang engaging.
• Above all else, a game must be fun.
• Don’t be so absorbed in development that you can’t parody your own work.
• Never break the rules. Gamers will notice. If necessary, change them.
• Bugs can become features. (Remember invisible bridges in Doom.)
• Furniture is the easiest part of the design to change, followed by walls, then framework, then foundation. But if you build modularly enough, each change can be relatively pain free.
• To avoid unexpected ripple effects in design, everyone decides on acceptable exceptions.
• Remember the M. Night Shamamalamayama principle: don’t be more clever than your audience.

When your neighbors have gone to bed and your thoughts have turned in for the night, the world comes to life. You experience the sensation of sensation.

Stepping through an open door, the sound of every direction comes in solitary isolation to your ears. A car the next street over revs its engine as it takes off, this alone telling you where it’s headed and where it’s been. Footsteps in the distance come from a woman walking to her apartment. The care of the day still wearies her mind as her eyes are down cast. In the next lot over, some hundreds of feet away, you can hear two men talking, and in the absence of the hustle and bustle of the external and internal you can hear every word. Far off you can hear someone attempting a trick on their skateboard, again and again stumbling and getting back on.

The air is crisp and chilled, just enough to tighten your skin as you stand with short sleeves and jeans. There’s a faint scent of fresher air than your apartment. Not enough to discern a particular fragrance, but enough to remind you that you are outside now.

In the sky are tiny dots of light, struggling to be seen against the blackness of night and space as all around you are street lamps and building lights to secure against prowlers. The parking lot is crowded with cars, leaving not a spot open to stragglers. The trees around the perimeter are motionless despite the faint breeze.

As you notice the world alive around you, you become aware of two things: the magic of being and the steady pace of time. There is so much to hear, to feel, to see, to smell, and to taste. So much to emote, to think, to do. And the wheel of time keeps spinning, moving each moment, closer to another day.

I was with some friends a few months ago and we had a blast just spending time together. We ate tomato soup and grilled ham & cheese sandwiches and we giggled profusely. I developed the same headache that always tells me I had a good time. (Don’t need a drink for a hangover.) After dinner, we laid down on the floor in the living room in a spoked triangle around the hub of a book and spent an hour or so trying desperately to learn our personality color, guessing and second guessing every trait that the test would use to define us. After a lot of hard thinking — headache as painful as it was during dinner, putting off as many questions and answers as we could until we or others figured out the right answer — tallies were added up, scores were compared, and colors were decided.

The result: I’m blue.

I’m glad I have those four letters to define me. Editing profiles on every social network and dating website should be a breeze for me now.

So what does ‘blue’ mean? I’m not sure, though as we read the description I nodded a lot. I must have agreed that someone found some way to define me as simply as that. There were some things that surprised me. First, when another color was read, that one being ‘white’, I got bored a sentence or two in. I don’t know if the narration was poor — which I doubt, and not just because the girl who narrated may read this — or if I really didn’t care about the definition of someone else. That’s possible, although inconsistent with what I was told and already know about myself. Second, I learned that blue personalities seem to have a tendency to talk about their faults in order to establish a meaningful connection with another human being. Well, as ridiculous as that may seem to some, I found it strikingly accurate. I have noticed that when I meet a new girl for which my heart flutters and my mind clutters I decorate the battlefield of conversation with the debris of personal fault grenades. I was glad to know someone found a reason for this. (Apparently I just want a woman to see all the cruft and say, “That’s rough. But you’re still pretty cool. Let’s get some Mountain West and watch Avatar.” Deep inside, I must know that she’s out there somewhere, and so my social stumbling blocks await a stepping-stone woman, and forward I go.)

Wouldn’t you know it, on the verge of this contemplative episode I was pondering on the good old Myers-Briggs test and a roommate came out explaining that’d he’d just been studying that very test. He then summarized all that he had learned from hours of research on wikis and blogs and other online sources. He and me and another guy talked about it. And so I gained four more letters to define me: INTP. That’s what we concluded after about ten minutes of deep post-midnight thought. And then we read the explanation. It really didn’t fit me. We explored a little more. We read a description of a similar personality beginning with an E and that seemed to offer a better fit. Although here we went from a 10% match to a 25% match. That wasn’t it. So, we returned to INTP, flipped a bit (or “changed a letter” for you less Computer Science-ish minds), and read about INFPs. I now had what felt like an 80% match. Huzzah!

What did these four extra letters teach me? They taught me that I had the same personality type as one of my roommates. We read the same description and agreed with a lot of points. What’s unusual? We didn’t agree on the same points. There was some solid overlapping, but some things that just seemed weird to me he agreed with, and those that I thought were solid representations didn’t resonate with him. Is it possible that we aren’t really a match? Maybe, but I’m not sure there’s a better one at this time.

Now, I want you to understand something: I don’t care much for personality tests. They’re curiously interesting to study, but nearly useless for defining. Me, the thing that’s meant to be labeled by these tests, continues to evolve, and sometimes just defies explanation. For example, have you ever sat beneath the brim of the Hogwarts sorting hat and waited to hear the name of your proper house? I did that once when a friend couldn’t figure out where I’d belong and sent me a link to an online quiz. It was 100 questions long, but I dutifully answered. And the result: a ten point difference between the highest match (Gryffindor) and the lowest match (Slytherin). (Ravenclaw was second, Hufflepuff third.) What does this tell me? That I’m well rounded? That I’m undefinable? That the test is flawed? Probably all of the above. But I’m reminded of Harry’s own experience beneath the hat. “Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin…” was his plea. The hat never said, “It’s a good thing you don’t want to go their because you’d never fit in.” Quite the contrary, Harry could have gained a lot from being in Slytherin. I think that’s one of the things that’s magical about it. The houses represent ideals. As the hero, he represented the proper balance of each. If I could fit just as easily as Harry in all four houses, or with all their associated ideals, then maybe I really am turning into the hero I yearn for in media, the one who balances all influences for good.

The reason I bring all that up is because I’ve noticed that finding who I am is not so important to me as becoming who I am. I don’t like personality tests for their outcome so much as their explanation, because I’d rather not be defined so much as refined. I appreciate learning about different personalities so I can learn what makes them good and bad.

This may seem a bit unusual, but knowing some of the bad doesn’t make me want to change it. Remember that idea of gabbing about my flaws during first date chatter? I can see why that would be troubling to a date, I even referred to my gabbing as a series of stumbling blocks, but I can’t imagine changing that behavior for another reason. It might be difficult to explain this, but I’ll give it a try.

I think that there’s a difference between who we are and where our consciousness lives. It’s possible to have an out-of-body experience without the process of death. You might want to try this some time: Take a spiritual step back from your thoughts and feelings for a moment and think about who you are as a person, a being apart from your awareness. It’s tricky to do at first, but it gets easier over time. That person is just like any other person. They have desires and dreams and hopes and fears and doubts and troubles. What you do with that person could be just as heroic as what you do for others. It’s important to care for their needs as well. I fear that people will think I mean to pamper that person. I really hope you don’t. But you shouldn’t destroy that person with unnecessary criticism either. You may find this a little ridiculous, but that person, that body, is a very natural being, and as such needs a bit of training if it’s going to be happy, otherwise it will do what it wants and be completely unruly if it doesn’t get what it wants from the experience.

Here’s the remarkable thing: you aren’t that being alone. You have a higher awareness than that. As such, you can make decisions that can change your life for good. You can decide to change and train your body. You can also decide what not to change. In my case, I don’t want to change the characteristic of my psychology that talks about faults to make a connection. And why not? Well, because part of that process is building a relationship of trust and honesty. These are principles that I value highly. The more important thing to choose is who I build these relationships with and when I talk to them about these things. A first date is a bit much. But during a quite time alone with a good friend, I would expect to take advantage of our time together to build unity. Talking about my flaws in this case keeps me accountable, which means I’m working on improving them if possible and moving on if not.

Strange thought: perhaps I say the phrase, “I need a woman,” so often to convince myself that it’s true, perhaps to keep myself motivated enough to keep trying.

Motivation is a tricky thing sometimes. There are plenty of trials we face to accomplish our goals. Plenty of work brings disappointment. The hardest part is to believe that trying again will get us closer to our goal, and that ultimately we will succeed.

Dating…oh dating. I can think of nothing in my life as hard to believe in. I’m still not sure that I’ve ever had success. It’s hard to measure. The yard stick of secularism is the Facebook status update, and by all accounts I’ve never made one of those. I don’t plan to. The goal for me is much more personal. I’m not sure I can sum it up in a sentence or two, so I’ll do what I do best: write too much.

The first goal of my dating is to build a friendship. I ultimately want to marry my best friend, and best friends aren’t made over night. The thing that makes them best? Communication. If I believe that I can talk to them about anything, I can listen to anything they have to say, then there is a friendship that will last. I was watching Awake a few nights ago and heard one of the most disturbing thoughts on television. Marriages typically don’t end with an explosion of emotions, with obstacles so insurmountable that they’d fit well on Jerry Springer. They typically end as husband and wife grow increasingly emotionally distant and silent, until they stop talking about the important parts of life and become strangers again. I don’t want that. Just as I make the habit of daily prayer and scripture study, I will talk to my wife, my best friend, even during the hard times, when I make a mistake, or I’m exhausted, or whatever it is. It’s never so bad that I can’t stretch myself to draw nearer to my spouse. This is exactly why my mission president advised me to get married while struggling through school. I don’t know if I’ll make that date, but I will make the practice of drawing nearer to my wife while struggling through life.

The second goal is to make Family Home Evening a priority. There are plenty of other pieces of religious worship that are important, from church attendance to tithing to magnifying my calling. None places a higher emphasis on the importance of my wife and children than FHE. I’ve been told time and time again, “No success in [the world] can compensate for failure in the home.” I believe that. So, even in my bachelor years, I am going to make it a priority. That means dropping all projects to be there on time, to be there the whole time, and to not allow the outside world to interrupt at any time. This seems like an odd thing to many of my friends. So many think that if there’s a place where the pressure has to give, it must be here. Surely school, and work, and dating, and everything else is more important since we don’t even have a family yet. Why should attendance be a priority? Because it’s a habit. A habit of skipping is just as strong as a habit of dropping everything else to attend. For my families sake, I will drop everything else to attend.

I remember my first calling in Provo was as an FHE co-chair. I remember that there were some in our group that couldn’t attend because of work. Thinking back, I may have over-stepped my bounds, but, with the help of my “spouse”, I coordinated a time later in the week when they could meet together and taste of the fruit of the activity. It was very important to me. It still is. I want a wife who feels just as strongly about it.

The third goal is a date a week, for the rest of my life. If there is any that makes me falter more consistently, I haven’t found it. Making friends is a long process, FHE is an easy time commitment, but a date a week is a work commitment. Each week I need to think of a woman to ask, think of an activity to do, and do the best I can to fight off discouragement, depression, and loneliness, each of which makes the prospect of one more date seem impossible. I want to make it a casual experience, not in a lack of creativity or commitment, but in a lack of pressure. I want my date to be comfortable because I’m comfortable. The thing is, I’m not comfortable. I’m a horrible mess most of the time. I also want it to be fun, but frequently it isn’t fun for me. And that’s not because the activity isn’t fun, or my date isn’t fun. It’s because I’m a mess and I’m trying my best to put her first. I can only imagine how fun it is for her, to be on a date with a guy who can’t relax.

I’m certainly not going to let discomfort and a lack of consistent fun discourage me…every week. I want this to be just as strong of a habit as FHE attendance has been. That’s going to take so much work and time. The thing is, I know how important it is. The habit is important, of course. If I want to stay close to my wife, I have to make time to be with her, just the two of us. And it can’t be a decision I re-make every week or I’ll crack. It needs to be a habit so I won’t have an issue putting the rest of the world on hold, and finding a baby sitter when necessary. Right now, it’s not my wife I’m going out with. At least I don’t think it is. The women I take out likely aren’t going to marry me. The woman I spend the most time and energy and conversation with will. These other dates are still important. These are when I learn to be the best man I can be. These dates, silly enough, are when I make mistakes so I can learn and grow. These are when I fall and moan about it in blog posts.

I like these goals. I like the idea of being a man, and getting the woman. I want to be a husband and father. I want to be worthy of the love of my wife and children. Can I just have some love in the mean time? It’s really hard not knowing what I’m doing, and feeling like every bit of pain is something I did wrong. I mean, I did do something wrong, right? I can’t be so good a person that I’m going through all this just to show everyone else that I’m worthy of the best woman the world has ever known. Really, I’m not that good. Really, really, I’m not. But, supposing I am, can’t I start a relationship now with the woman who will eventually be the best, but now is just as messed up as me? Okay, maybe a little cuter than me? (Um, because I want cute babies, see? Yeah…that’s it…)

Okay, I’ll be good.

I was told by a couple of friends yesterday that I’m “very judgmental.” Too bad they didn’t respond to the invitation to elaborate. So I’m left wondering, what does that mean? Is it as bad as the connotations imply? Did they use the wrong words? In this case, I choose to believe they were caught up in the moment, and meant to be helpful. However, the lack of a follow up did more to separate than support friendship.

I will concede that I’m vocal about my opinions, when prompted for them. But they change. Anyone who’s close to me, as these friends are, should be aware that the tone of my argument isn’t an indication of the strength of my opinion. No matter how strong my words may sound, I work hard to understand other perspectives, to the point of fighting for them when necessary. I even own products from companies that compete with my preferred brands precisely so that I can form a more objective opinion. I can get short with opinions that are ill-formed or shortsighted, but this is hardly a strong character flaw. Most people act the same way when something that matters to them has minimal value to others.

I don’t feel that judgement is something I deal out. I know that perspectives can be far from accurate. (I remember Alma 60 & 61.) The more I know about myself, the less I ask of others. Yet, I do contend that in some of the simplest aspects of living, many are careless in their decisions. There’s usually an underlying issue that clouds their understanding, so I try not to press these surface-level issues. However, if I care about the individual, and they know I care, I feel more inclined to probe for these root issues.

Does pointing out this occasional careless behavior make me “very judgmental?” Do people generally take criticism as judgement? Are people too sensitive to accept even well-meaning criticism? Or are they too insensitive to say precisely what they mean, even if their words could be damaging?

I told one of these friends that something they did recently upset me. I left a room that they were in because their actions made me uncomfortable. They asked me later whether they had done anything to make me angry, so I felt it was appropriate to say how I felt. The medium was a private conversation, the point was direct, and the tone was careful. I told them I was uncomfortable with what they had done, so I left the room. They accused me of being judgmental then as well. I don’t think I was. Being bothered by someone’s actions is not judgment. People can do whatever they want to do, within obvious reason, but if someone’s actions make me uncomfortable, it’s not judgmental of me to leave. I figured that their actions were not reasoned behavior. My suspicions proved accurate. After trying to justify their actions to me, they eventually told me of other issues in their life that made things difficult for them. Among these issues, they stated that they were trying to juggle the happiness of others by living up to expectations. I found it sad that they thought I had expectations for them to live up to. I don’t. And they shouldn’t worry so much about the expectations of others. Though I can hardly hold it against them. I’ve spent much of my life acting the same way, particularly with the women in my life.

I’m not sure if that experience is what brought on their criticism yesterday, particularly with the friend who was not involved in the earlier exchange. Have I done something more that I didn’t notice?

As usual, I may be missing something here, but I feel the label they gave me was not deserved. Yet I am who I am. I don’t see myself and my actions from another’s perspective. Maybe I really am “very judgmental.” I would hope that with this plea for understanding I’d have some friends that could guide me. Though I understand if the subject is too messy for this public forum. If a private forum works better, I welcome it.

Your thoughts…

Have you ever felt like you wished more people recognized your strengths and accomplishments, and at the same time hoped that no one would recognize your existence? That’s my life. It’s a tough duality, but it’s everyday.

I write Facebook status updates. I tweet. I blog. I visit apartments. I do as much as talent shows will allow. I want the spotlight. I want friends. I want a wife and children. And frequently, I just want to be alone. I want to get away from everyone and just live with me. My thoughts, my feelings, my life, my loneliness.

It’s a rough place out there. Living is hard to do. I live in a body that needs people. It needs contact. It needs fun. It needs love. And it’s all mine. It comes with feelings that just need a break sometimes. I don’t like them to be too high or too low. I don’t want them to be too strong or too weak. I just want to understand them.

I hope that you understand. Sure, it may help you to know me better, but I hope that’s not all you get from it. I hope you can learn about those around you, not because everyone is like me, but because everyone isn’t you.

One of my best friends taught me how important that is. He’s a little like me: he’s a nerd, he’s friendly, he’s contemplative, and has problems with the ladies. And in other ways he’s nothing like me: he’s outgoing, he’s impulsive, he’s restless, and he loves gangster rap.

Why are we friends? Certainly for our similarities. If we had nothing in common we’d never hang out. Why are we good friends? For our obvious differences. He makes me grow and I hope I do the same for him.

There are times when I’m most lonely and I really don’t want to be, when all I can say is, “Do you want to go somewhere?” He’ll gladly take me somewhere, usually to a girls’ apartment, where I’ll still act completely aloof, but at least for the moment I’m not alone.

There are other times when I don’t want to do anything, and instead we’ll just talk, or go for a long walk. It’s not that I’m incapable of doing anything. It’s just that at those moments the inner turmoil is physically debilitating. A release is what is most needed and most welcome, and he’s given me that.

And then there are the moments that make me grow the most, when he does exactly the opposite of what I want him to. He’ll do something that makes me worry about him. He’ll do something that makes me angry at him. Or he’ll completely blow me off when I ask him for something. I’ll get really angry for a while. Sometimes a long while. Then I’ll think about it.

Most of the time, he’s a great kid. And the times when he’s not have nothing to do with me. Those are usually the times when he’s struggling the most. When dating is going horribly. When he just can’t keep up with classes. When his goals in life just seem impossible to him.

I never realize this when it’s happening. But I’m glad that at the time I’m strong enough to let my frustrations go for awhile and realize that there’s more to him than what’s bothering me.

It’s funny but in a roundabout manner I gain two things from this:

1) I learn that love is about more than people who give you so much. It’s also about people who need so much, and you’re the only one there who got God’s message to help.

2) It gives me hope in my future. If I can learn these lessons, putting my feelings aside for friendship, then maybe I could be the kind of husband and father I want to be.

Maybe I’ll be the strength my wife will need to carry her through all her trials, from separation to motherhood to age. Maybe I’ll be the one my children can turn to when the “drama” the world is so sick of hearing about is a very real and very confusing influence in their lives.

I’ve spent nearly three decades in loneliness, so it’s easy to feel hopeless. I just don’t feel that way. I’ve grown in ways I wanted but didn’t know how. Despite my weakness, I know that I am and can be happy because of these line-upon-line lessons that God has given me through mortality. By my seeming failures, progress is measured. The circle of time is still a long line fading to nothingness from my finite perspective, but I can see the scenery getting prettier on this road of life.

Little by little I’m heading back to my heavenly home, and with the Atonement as an active force in my life, I won’t get stuck outside the gate without a big enough party to merit admittance. I’ll marry someday, and the struggles I endure with my wife beside me won’t break our bond, they will forge it. We’ll raise children together. As crazy and scary as that sounds, we can do it.

We have God above watching out for us. We have friends on earth listening to the Spirit. We have each other to grow with. With all the love working around us, we can have Eternal Life.

Intro

A friend of mine asked me a question:

“Ok, I keep hearing about google +. Is it better than facebook? Whats the difference??”

I tried answering on Facebook, but as usual my comment was too long. But that’s not a problem, because now that I’ve moved my response here, I can get a lot more detailed. I hope others find my answer useful too, because it’s a very relevant question right now while Google is finally serious about stepping up to the Social Media plate. (This isn’t just Google Buzz 2.0.) So, is it time to convert, expand, or move along? Read on and decide for yourself.

Response

I wouldn’t say Google+ is any better than Facebook or any other Social Media outlet. It has many similarities to Facebook in that you have a news feed of all the people in your social circles and you have a profile with all your info, but it’s also like Twitter in that you can add anyone, whether they want you to or not, and not only get the news you want from the people you want, but also interact with their posts. Although there are a number of similarities, there are also many differences. The biggest difference, though, is Circles.

Circles

Circles are a way to group people so you can limit who you interact with and how you interact with them. You can create as many circles as you want, and you can add people to as many circles as you want, and they have no way of knowing which circles they are in. Then when you post, you decide what circles can see your posts. And when you add information to your account, such as work history and the past locations you’ve lived, you can restrict who can see it. Essentially, any person in the world can add you if they can find you, but they won’t be able to see anything unless you add them to a circle with privileges, or post to Public.

By default, a new Google+ account has four circles: Friends, Family, Acquaintances, and Following. Those in the Friends circle can finally include only those you consider close. Those who aren’t close go in Acquaintances. Those you don’t know but want to hear from anyway go in Following. Family is obvious, though, as the circle indicates, you can limit the number of in-laws if you wish. 🙂 The thing is, Google+ doesn’t add anyone to any circles, so you decide who’s in your Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and Following, and unlike the joke parents have told for decades, “I put you in my circles and I can take you out!” is actually true.

Those four circles are handy to start with, but the cool stuff comes when you add more circles. You can add people to a Book Club circle, for example, and then when you make a post to that circle, no one outside of the circle will see it. In other words, you avoid cluttering other contacts’ feeds. You can also view your feed by a specific circle. So I have a Geek circle where I follow a few geeks in the media (most are also in Following) and have a few geek friends (most are also in Friends). When I want to see geek news, I change my feed to my Geek circle. And when I have something particularly geeky to say or share, I share it with my Geek circle. No one outside will see it, so they aren’t bothered. And anyone in my Geek circle won’t have it on their feed unless they’ve added me to their own circles. If they haven’t, the only time they’d see what I shared with them is if they visit my wall on my profile.

This is powerful stuff. With Circles you can interact with everyone from your grocery store clerk to Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook), and you can still limit how others can interact with you. It’s wide open and still very secure.

(Edit: Facebook has a similar feature called Lists. It’s been around since the beginning of the service, but it’s gone through a few metamorphic changes as the engineers tried to find its place. I personally never used it. I didn’t see the need. In addition, it was awkward and hard to organize, especially if you decided to use the feature later, when you already had a few hundred friends. I’m not the only one who felt this way (Zuckerberg himself said, “Nobody wants to make lists.”), so a few engineers at Facebook made a quick hack called, appropriately enough, CircleHack. You can read about it here. It brings a drag-and-drop interface (complete with circle graphics) to Facebook that works with and simplifies your existing lists. This makes creating lists far easier, but it doesn’t make using them any easier. Anyone who’s poked around Facebook’s settings knows how awkward it gets if you do anything but type a status and hit Share. Also, these list settings are not available on mobile apps, whereas the Google+ app features circle settings very prominently. If you’re worried about what Facebook will change next, I’d be looking at Lists right about now.)

Chat

So, you may have gathered that Circles is an incredible feature, but that’s not all the Google+ brings to the table. With all the integration with other Google services, Gmail is just a click away, and you have access to all your GTalk friends right from the main page. In addition, you can add circles to your chat experience and both see if others you follow are available for chat and let those you follow know that you’re available. (Surprisingly, I could have a video chat with Timmy, the mascot of ThinkGeek.com, if I felt so inclined.)

Hangouts

There’s also Hangouts, if a one-on-one chat experience isn’t enough for you. When you create a Hangout, anyone in the circles you give access to will be able to join the Hangout and experience a video chat with all parties. How’s that for conference calling your friends? (Also, the little pop-up that starts the experience reminds you to check your hair and microphone level before proceeding. So thoughtful…)

Sparks

There’s another feature that’s unique to the Google+ experience, and it’s called Sparks. What Sparks does is let you do a Google search of news feeds and subscribe to the page of results. If you have interests like “Android”, “Botany”, or “Water Purification in Third-World Countries” you can create a spark in your side panel just for those. Think of these as Likes in Facebook land (not the the Likes you do on posts and comments, but the ones on things with Facebook pages). You can click on a spark just like a circle, and it will show the most recent results of the search in your Stream. Unlike Facebook, your sparks are private. No one will know that you really love Miley Cyrus if you only have a spark about her and haven’t added her to your circles.

Other Benefits

Another feature that’s a huge + (teehee) for grammar nuts is an Edit button on all your posts and comments. That’s right, you no longer have to delete and re-enter or post an embarrassing “*” comment to correct mistakes. However, next to the time-stamp on your comment will be a parenthetical time-stamp of your editation.

Android

If you happen to have an Android phone, more fun can be had. The official Android app includes support for a feature called Huddle. This is about the same as a Hangout without the video and audio. It’s a group messaging party that’s currently only accessible to users of the app.

The app also allows you to upload pictures and videos from your phone very quickly and easily, and includes many options to restrict what will be uploaded and when it will be uploaded (such as when connected to a WiFi network and the phone is plugged in). It also has GPS features integrated with Google Maps, so you can share exactly where a post was made, if you wish. And you can also use your present address to view a Nearby feed, which shows all Public posts from people that posted near you.

Problems & Annoyances

Now that may be a lot of coolness, but the service is still young and has some issues.

• Although many of my friends say it looks cleaner, I think it looks more cluttered. The font size is much larger, but the width is the same. This makes for taller posts that are harder to read. At least there are no ads, but I haven’t seen those in Facebook for a long time either.
• Finding friends is awkward. When you visit the Circles tab, you’re presented with three sections: “People in your circles”, “People who’ve added you”, and “Find and invite”. You’ll spend the most time in the last one, but it’s name is misleading. There is currently no way to invite people to Google+ in this view. All you can do is add them to your circles so that they’ll be properly sorted once they do get an account. Granted, the default setup allows you to share your posts with them anyway via email, but having the invite option right where it says it should be would be great. The only invite button on Google+ is currently on the bottom right pane of the main page, and it disappears sometimes when Google thinks they’ve reached their limit of testers for the time being.
• It doesn’t have any support for Groups like Facebook does. I run three groups on Facebook and I’m a member of several more. Sure, if I want to send a message to everyone in the group, I can create a new circle, add them all, and post to just them. But they might not see it if I’m in a circle that they don’t view frequently. And if others in the group want to send a message to the whole group, they’re out of luck unless everyone in the group has the same circle setup.
• There’s currently no integration with Google Calendar. Do you like people remembering your birthday on Facebook? Well, they won’t know on Google+.
• Google Search isn’t as well integrated as it could be either. You can search for people, but you can’t search through posts and comments.
• You can’t set your feed to show a selection of circles; only all at once, or one at a time. And there’s no way to order your circles to decide which ones show up in the side bar when it isn’t expanded. Right now, the four default circles show up, along with whatever circle happens to be the first custom circle, alphabetically. You can leave your list of circles expanded, but it pushes Sparks and Chat off the screen if you have a lot of circles (which you probably will if you keep things organized well enough).
• There is not way to post on someone’s wall. If you visit someone’s wall, you will see all the posts they’ve made that you have permission to see, but there’s no where to post something of your own. Instead, if you want to post to just them, you make a new post and change the share settings to only include them. Over time this may be preferred over Facebook walls, but it is a difference that takes some getting used to.
• Sparks are private. While some secrecy is good, it’s also fun to learn about mutual interests when stalking others on Facebook, I mean while learning more about your friends. About the closest thing you can do on Google+ is see who people have added to their circles. Again, you can’t see which circles people are added to, but it’s probably a safe bet that if someone added Josh Groban to their circles, he’s probably in Following and maybe a circle related to music, as opposed to a circle entitled “People I Would Kill If Given A Chance”.
• Sparks aren’t visible on the Android app. You can’t view them or add them at this time.
• Once you fill up the Circles view with custom circles, the Android app will no longer allow you to add circles. There is no restriction in the web experience, so this should be changed eventually…hopefully.

Wrap-Up

These are my impressions after a week on the service. Feel free to pipe in if you have any thoughts to share, or corrections to make.

(Editor’s note: First, I’ve always wanted to say that. Second, for whatever reason, I had a saved draft of this entry from a few weeks ago that never got published. It was intended to be published the day after I read the article. I have changed the date of this posting to reflect that. However, it was not actually published until the 23rd of May.)

A friend of mine posted a link to an article online that let us know that this year Summit Entertainment (the studio that brought you the Twilight series) has the license for Ender’s Game films. Unfortunately this article was so upsetting (I’m like that) that my reply wouldn’t fit in Facebook comments. So I’ve included it here, in its entirety. If you’re an Ender’s Game fan, feel free to pipe in with your own thoughts.

That article was a painful read. I’ve read all the books, and this editor’s synopsis was cringe-inducing. Also, he (she?) seems to have missed Ender in Exile, as well as First Meetings. Plenty happened to Ender between Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. I’m not sure he knows what the right course is. Who is he to critique Summit?

Aside from obviously missing the mark on Ender’s timeline, as well as falsely summarizing the series, let me point out that Ender’s Game is very much a book written for young adults. However, the story is about the potential end of the world, and not a few kids having a coming-of-age moment. Andrew wasn’t “discovered to be a great tactical genius,” he was born to be. Laws were broken because of a very strong hunch that this kid, this “Third”, this “Ender”, would have exactly the right traits to become the leader we needed. This story is every bit about the adults who shaped Ender as it is about the young heroes of Battle School. Most young adult films pack in parents out of necessity, but in Ender’s Game, they’re every bit as vital as Ender is. This editor, however, seems to forget they were there, instead making Ender’s Game seem like a graphic remake of Twilight with younger stars, and aliens.

Another thing that bothers me is the general opinion that this movie — which will more than likely bump around Hollywood to a few more studios before anyone really takes it to cinema — must contain every graphic detail in the books or it misses the mark. I very much disagree. The recent influx of heavy PG-13 films (Dark Knight, anyone?) should illustrate that point nicely. I think that there are a few details (ie, language and nudity) that aren’t necessary to drive the story, and the “murders” wouldn’t even need to be depicted to have narrative weight. It’s been shown in film for years that sometimes the creepiest events are those we don’t see; just ask Hitchcock. And it wouldn’t be necessary to see them if the film followed any character other than Ender, which honestly makes a great deal of sense.

I personally would love to see the film from the perspective of Graff. He’s every bit as compelling a character as Andrew “Ender” Wiggin. The magic of Ender’s Game wasn’t that it had smart kids that fought to save the world. It was rich with deep characters, each needing to be their own kind of hero if mankind was going to be saved, and, indeed, worth saving. Anyone of them could have a film dedicated to their perspective of events. There’s no need to single out Petra and Bean, as this editor has done, just because they play a bigger role in the spin-off series. The real star of that series was Peter anyway, the tyrant who became a benevolent world leader.

As for who makes the film and who they get to play the child roles, I don’t particularly care to whine anymore. This film has gone through these news updates several times before. (Anyone remember when Haley Joel Osment was considered for the role of Ender?) Some have stated that it would work better animated or CG. Maybe it would work better as anime. Maybe it would work better with British actors, as Harry Potter did. What it all comes down to is that better movie makers than I will be involved, and this editor clearly shows they have much less knowledge of the source and film making in general to even make a case for their opinion.

Their last point seems to indicate that the core of great films is action. They may have missed the fact that Ender’s Game was not the only book in the series with a Hugo and Nebula Award. All the action scenes in Ender’s Game would be worthless without it’s compelling plot and incredible characters. While I don’t think Xenocide and Children of the Mind had either, Ender in Exile and Speaker for the Dead had both. Speaker for the Dead especially is just as compelling as Ender’s Game, and I wouldn’t be upset if it was made into a film first.

All three of their main points are fraught with error, and I wouldn’t trust them for a second to call the shots on a more talented crew.

I found a new (old) video on YouTube this week that really got me going:

I don’t know how some will react when they see a video like this. Jake Shimabukuro obviously spent many years perfecting his talent with the ukulele (29 to be exact). For some it’s probably just a cool video to see. For me, I pulled out my juggling equipment and went nuts. I like to think of it as a blessing: when I see talent at it’s peak, I develop so much energy and put it into building my own talents.

I’m glad I had a chance to learn about Jake. (I have to thank Chris for pointing me toward a TEDTalk featuring Jake playing “Bohemian Rhapsody”.) Through the comments, I learned he had many more videos on YouTube and took a few moments to browse them. (I highly recommend “Let’s Dance” and “Crazy G” as well.) I’ve been juggling regularly for the last few days because of it.

There are some other great shows I highly recommend if you enjoy developing talent as much as I do.

Cirque du Soleil is one favorite. Not only do they have incredible jugglers, but nearly every act in this weird, French attraction requires a level of dedication to a particular act that’s inspiring. Seriously, if it’s too rough to watch, by all means, make fun of every character between acts and enjoy it when you find something that’s genuinely interesting to you. I’ll give you two examples that I really love:

Another favorite is So You Think You Can Dance. I had one friend ask the “Are you serious?” question once. “Yes, I am.” This show starts with incredible audition episodes and moves right into some of the most incredible competitive and cooperative shows I’ve ever seen. This show really gives a great look at human flaws with equal measures of human potential fully realized. It’s an incredible character study that always leaves me feeling like I can do anything, as long as I don’t get in my own way by focusing too much on myself.

There are too many examples of great contestants and great performances, so I’ll just give one. He’s not the best, but I admire his persistence in taking the criticism of a previous season to heart and returning to try again. He’s one of my favorites:

And before I forget the subject of juggling, I’d really like to point you to a great resource for anyone who loves to juggle: the Internet Juggling Database. Try to avoid the early habit some people have of simply looking at videos with a large number of objects. All it takes is a kid like Ori Roth or a simple theme to show you that even three items can defy conventional creativity.

I hope you enjoyed some of these. Occasionally we need someone to inspire us, and sometimes we need to remember the people that do. I hope that this simple list will help you find inspiration to dig up some lost talent and try again.

• The shower is one of my best friends. He only takes five to fifteen minutes of my time, depending on my mood and energy level. He never complains, though sometimes he takes a couple minutes to warm up. Sometimes he really gets drained serving others, but he always tries to give me his best. And last, if I haven’t seen him for over a day, I really miss him, because he always makes me feel better about myself.
• I have a love-hate relationship with my bed. She’s the most demanding of all my friends. She wants 25% – 33% of my time every day. Sometimes I come to her exhausted and she completely refreshes me. Sometimes she makes me uncomfortable and I depart from her feeling worse than when I came. But she’s always there when I want her, and she never complains if I turn to the couch for comfort occasionally.
• Speaking of the couch, underneath his soft, comfortable exterior, he’s a sneaky little pick-pocket. I don’t have much more to say about him.
• The toilet paper dispenser has very dry humor. It gets its giggles from dispensing underhand, rather than overhand. (For such tomfoolery, I will not even dignify it with a gender!)
• My car. She’s a real beaut! But she’s expensive. She eats more than any other friend I have, and always expects me to pay. I regularly spend as much on food for her as for me. And I’ve had to take her to the doctor more than I’ve gone myself. But when she’s done eating and finishes a checkup, I can just coast through life for hours with her a feel so free. She must have many connections because she can always help me get where I wanna go. She also never complains about my singing, and she really takes a lot of my personal baggage without complaint. I have real love for her, despite her neediness, and I’ll really miss her when she leaves.
• My cell phone is pretty flighty. He’s more like an employee than a friend. (Believe me, it’s better to think of him like this. Otherwise it may be hard to “fire” him when a better friend comes along…every couple of years.) I “hired” him because I thought he was all caught up with the latest and could really help me. Then he stagnated and expected that I’d be satisfied with the same old thing. He also gets fussy and tired all the time. But at least he helps me keep in touch with my myriad other friends.
• My computer is one of those friends where I visit her to help me with homework, or projects, or whatever, and if I’m not careful, I’ll leave her hours later with not a bit of work completed, but with the addition of several random bits of trivia added to my memory. Since I made friends with a laptop, I’m in even more trouble. She follows me everywhere I go. So now I can be anti-productive at any time and any place. As if it was hard to do that without her.
• The surround sound system always helps me to appreciate the finer details of music and other aural media. He can point out everything from a pin drop to a cannon blast with equal detail. He really helps me appreciate what making friends with ears has brought me. The only problem is, the neighbors say we’re being too loud when ever we play together. Their ear friends just aren’t as hip, I guess.
• As for the eyes, the HD big screen has treated them well. She has got looks like you wouldn’t believe, and I keep trying to convince myself that she has substance too. I may be in trouble, because I find myself justifying my friendship with her often. Perhaps my other friends are jealous, or perhaps she’s only an object of lust, and I’m losing sight of what “true beauty” really is. We’ll see if our friendship is based on her tightly toned physique or real depth when she gets old like cell phone boy. If I still care for her then, we’ll know.

These are just a few of the personifications I’ve made of late. There are so many more that I could make. Do you have any that you’ve made? Feel free to share!