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Monday, March 15, 2010

A first effort.

I would like to use this blog to keep track of, share, and collaborate on a handful of projects and hobbies I am currently interested in, such as...




Food

I don't cook as much as I used to, but I do love to brag on my wife's baking.  We are big fans of the Richmond food scene, especially it's vibrant and diverse food festivals.  The Lebanese Festival in May is probably what we look forward to most out of the year (and we are lucky enough to have it coincide with our anniversary!)

I'm also fairly opinionated in regard to the restaurants we go out to, so maybe I'll write something about that, too.

Art

I bought my wife, Ellen, a set of watercolor supplies for Valentine's Day, and she has been gracious enough to share them with me (and teach me how to use them.)  I also bought myself a sketchbook and a set of pencils - I want to be able to draw well.  Unfortunately, I have the same level of talent that I had in elementary school (i.e. I can draw decent looking jet fighters, castles, space stations,and battleships...but not much else.)  I'm more interested in the watercolors, though, as its a great way to spend time with Elle, and its also more forgiving of my shaky hands.

Writing

In addition to the bedtime stories I make up for Ellen (last night's was about a space dog named Darth Tommy and his planet destroying weapon, The Breath Star,) I am also working on two other ideas for stories.  The first is an interactive fiction/virtual world type thing that my friend Jon and I are creating.  I don't want to give too much away, but it will once and for all expose the Montclair Mafia and the powerful and sinister artifact that they are hoping to unearth.

The other is more geeky (if that is possible.)  I have been working on writing some stories set in a sort of high fantasy setting, a land called Myrrdor.  I have written a couple thousand words so far, but I'm not sure how much I like them, so we'll see what happens.  Elle has suggested I share them online, in a serialized fashion, so perhaps I will try that.

Coding

The biggest coding project I'm working on right now is a delivery system for interactive fiction/virtual worlds in PHP.  I think purely interactive fiction is fairly easy; it can be executed with static HTML or very simple PHP scripts.  The virtual world direction is a bit more difficult to nail down, however.  I have a notebook full of ideas about how to make a MUD like environment, but I'm not certain that PHP is the right tool for the job (and I'm not particularly interested in learning C++ or Java at the moment.)


My good friend Sarah has been kind enough to encourage me to write this, so I must thank her (unless this goes terribly, in which case I must blame her.)  Her writing is eloquent and touching, and I can not recommend it enough.  Check her out at http://thedamnedmountain.blogspot.com/

1 comment:

  1. thank you, Joe, for helping me laugh during a work day. Unless everything said is meant to be taken seriously, in which case, there was no laughing. I wish you all the best as you continue your artistic endeavors.
    much love!

    ReplyDelete