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The twitching of overstimulated brains
So many things to do, so little time.
The problem is that when I have a flush of programming-related creativity - or any kind of creativity - it's across the board. I want to work on everything at once. I worked on the game last night, but I also thought of the perfect way to revise Colette to make it easier to use. If I divide my focus between the two of them, I will finish neither. Best I can do is make notes about the changes to one, and effectively table them. Put them out of my mind.
By the time I finish working on the project I have chosen to focus on, the fit will have subsided, and then I won't want to flesh out the Colette changes any further, much less do them. They will have to wait until the mood comes again. That could be months.
This is why it takes me so long to finish anything. I am seldom idle, always working on one project or another. The problem is that I don't work on the same project for long stretches.
I'm going to finish this game, though, before moving to anything else. I'm determined. Last night I figured out a way to make a tile set that would finally, conclusively, satisfy my finicky design needs for the game. Now I just have to draw all the damned things. That may take a while. Fortunately I can finish the programming part without needing to finish the art part first.
Why, no, there's no money in this. Why do you ask? Don't you know that the only kinds of projects I have any interest in doing are the ones that can't possibly pay?
Last night Marc and I were out for our semi-regular late night walk to get a hot beverage. Normally I'd say "coffee" there but my sleep cycle has been an utter mess, so I had chamomile tea instead. (Although it's not the caffeine keeping me from sleeping, it's that I'm in a creative fit right now and therefore can't shut my brain down at the end of the night. But when I didn't get to bed until five a.m. on Tuesday morning, why take chances?)
I stopped by the grocery store to get cookies, and when we came out, Marc went to throw his empty cup away and then didn't come back - he walked in the other direction, down the parking lot, to look at some commotion that was going on.
I thought, "What trouble is he getting in now? What is that thing? .... Oh, cool!" and went down to join him. As had about four other people. It was the line-painting machine, repainting the stripes in the parking lot.
As a species, we fascinate easily. That may be a problem.
I've gotten a number of comments about the gender chart. Most of them were along the "Oh, cool!" line - although Eric said (and I quote in full):
You are a lunatic.
Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that.
I'm not sure where the lunacy comes in. It wasn't even a major time investment: The little graphics took under twenty minutes to do, and the web page is just a table and it took about five minutes. Not much of a sacrifice for something that's that much fun to have around.
Now, if you want to talk about completely frivolous time expenditures, go back and see the light again. That beast took over an hour to make - it's one photo, fifty frames, with the black/white balance readusted very slightly in sequence for each frame. I suppose I could have automated it, but Painter's automation tools are finicky enough that it probably would have taken me just as much time to set it up properly.
I'm going to have to link to it again every chance I get - I need to get as much mileage out of the little thing as I can!
© Columbine
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For readers who aren't on my notify list: The list has been opened; other people besides me can now post discussion, replies, comments, etc to it. I don't expect this to change anything much, frankly - but I thought I'd tell you, just in case.
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