errantember

My inner meglomaniacal sociopath is frisky this evening:

(music cue)
"There's a smile on my face
as I crush the human race!
It's almost like being...
In Love!"


It would be good to channel this into a game...

Undoubtedly tired after it's long nap, the Metro has been running quite rough since I got it running again.
Dealing with frequent re-starts and sluggish off-the-deck performance was bad enough, but I should have known I was really in trouble when I couldn't get the fucker started after four tries while an ambulance was crawling up my ass, lights flashing and horn blazing. Maintenance minutia follows:
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I'm proud to announce the beta release of my first ever commercial game, AstroMiner!

I made it with GameSalad Creator, a tool that makes it easy for non-programmers to create games for iOS and Mac. Anyone with a Mac and Safari can give it a try. Just click on the link, install the plug-in, and you're done. Once you have the plug-in, you can play any game on the GameSalad website for free, including your own games.

Click on the Yellow Question Mark inside AstroMiner for brief instructions. I'd love to hear any and all feedback. It goes to the Apple iPhone App Store in two weeks!

My new vow this week was to take a load of shit to Goodwill every day. I will soon be living in a space approximately 1/6th the size of my current suite, and I need to dump a *lot* of shit to make it!

I've also made substantial progress on my first iPhone game. I've really gotten the flow of GameSalad down better, and can generally solve most major problems the same day. I've got a ship zipping around the screen, herding asteroids like a champ with a variety of technology. As a Seth Godin fan, I can't allow myself to slip my submission date of February 10th. I must and will ship!
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Unlike many other people, 2010 was a good year for me. I'm sleeping late, have great relationships with friends and lovers near and far, am working on Permaculture during the day and iPhone development at night for myself and no one else, and on track to a new career doing what I love on the road.

o I successfully found and worked 6 months of an in-office job for the first time in about five years, and after being unemployed for about a year, and after working for the same company for nine years. I wanted to be reminded of how stupid and awful it was, while saving money to transition to freelance work.

o I successfully quit that same job to go on an extended vacation to Burning Man, Portland, Alchemy (the awesome Georgia Regional Burn), and Hawaii, following the advice in the Four Hour Work Week about mini-retirements. All of these trips except Hawaii were paid for in advance with money from my corporate job, and I arrived home from Hawaii with over 12 months of money in the bank to make my career transition. I met many current and made many new friends and lovers on the trip. This is the first step in becoming someone who can do his job from anywhere there's an Internet connection, allowing me to be on the road and visit people more.

o I've gotten a good start on iPhone and iPad development using Gamesalad, a tool designed to help non-programmers make games. I'm setting a February 10th date for my first submission to the app store, and I will then ship another twice a month for at least three months. If I can get $1000/game, I'll won't have to do any outside work to support myself.

o The Rate of Return on my retirement account, which I manage myself, was about 50% for 2010!

o I've navigated through Significant Drama to keep my little home-rental/co-op project going. As a result, most of my mortgage payment is paid for by my housemates, and my home continues to get nicer and more valuable a lot faster than I could do it alone. This year I'll finish remodeling the master suite and renting it out, while remodeling the garage and moving in there, which will net me another $300/month.

o I did a complete battery replacement on my electric scooter, enabling me to continue doing most local driving at around 1 cent per mile.

o I'm continuing to shrink my lifestyle and my Pile of Stuff to increase my happiness and personal freedom.

Thanks to everyone who made 2010 a great year!

In many ways, this is the First Day of the Rest of My Life. I just got back from a ten day trip to Hawaii with part of my poly pod, which was the last of four trips I intended to take after quitting my corporate job. While I've done a small amount of work to transition into my new career as a mobile application programmer, mainly by learning about Gamesalad, I now no longer have the excuse of an upcoming trip to delay my efforts. Also, after being inspired by sustainable living seen in Hawaii intentional communities, I'm finally going to start eating only what I grow in the yard once a month. If I don't have anything grown or stored, I don't eat. I need to figure out some guidelines, like whether or not it's ok to use spices, cooking oils, etc, during those days. One thing I'm considering is only using those items I can buy with money I make selling things I've grown or made. I'll be starting on January 1st, 2011.

Right now I'm working on getting my Hawaii picture processed and online so I can tell the story of our amazing trip there.

I got up deliberately late at 5:30 PM today, because I was catching up on about 10 days of little or no REM sleep. I dreamed like crazy!