Alive!

Oh, hello. So I've finally set up a blog. Actually, I set it up a while ago, but I'm finally writing it! Well, I really wrote most of this before, but now I'm publishing it (or at least editing it)! I suppose for the first entry I should talk about the grueling ordeal I went through in order to get it, as well as explain why the hell I chose this name.

Instead, I'll talk about why I'm setting it up. I suppose they're all related, really. It started with me making sure how to spell the word "concerned" at work. Too lazy to launch a program with a respectable spellchecker, or even look it up in an online dictionary, I simply input the word into the little google search bar built in to Firefox. And what was one of the first entries? Well, it was this: Concerned.

And so started my obsession with Chris Livingston, the writer of Concerned. After reading through his comic, I started on his temping site, NotMyDesk. I don't quite know if that was a blog, but I thoroughly enjoyed his writing. I'm less than pleased with his current topic of discussion - videogames. But that's a hypocritical topic for a later post.

While reading through the mountains of content that NotMyDesk offered, I was also trying to program a videogame, and I wanted to start keeping a production log. That would be something to write about! Oh wait, I just said that I didn't like the topic of videogames. What I needed was a theme for the blog a little more interesting than a game production log and chronicling the stupidity that is me trying to figure out the most rudimentary of ActionScript. So I figured my passion for ridiculous signs would be a good theme. I decided on "Sign of the Times" would be a clever name for the blog, and I could post signs that I've found from time to time.

Well, turns out that I wasn't the first one to think of that name. Apparently every conceivable deviation of that name on every conceivable blog-supporting website had been taken. Some had used it a number of years ago and their sites now sat in disrepair toting 2 year old content as their latest entry. Others apparently had gotten as far as posting "Test. Blah bla" and gave up. Wow, I'm glad to see that it went it to good use.

It turns out that registering for a blog is too easy. Really, registering for anything is too easy these days. There is no cost to set something up, and never use it. I've seen friends do it, and it pains me. I've done it, and it pains me. Or it maybe I shouldn't have eaten so many donuts. Anyway, if you're going to go through the trouble of collecting online resources, I'd hope that people would actually make use of them, as opposed to simply scorching the earth of their presence. So, if anyone ever wants to take this blog over because it has been abandoned and it's in disrepair, or you simply think you could do a better job, let me know.

So I gave up on Sign of the Times, and tried to come up with something else. Yes, Side of the Scroll was the best I could do. I figure, I'm trying to make a side scrolling game, so why not? I realize that it's kind of lame and it sounds like I'm a complete geek who spends his evenings with 12-sided dice and arguing about how pointy wood elves' ears are on forums with 40 year old men that look like Comic Book Guy. But I'm not! I swear! Okay, I am a geek (I am programming in my spare time) and wood elves' ears are damn pointy. But there's a line. And I feel I'm on one side, and my blog name is on the other. I'll have to figure out a way to redeem it.

So, Side of the Scroll isn't about arcane, alchemical parchment viewed at oblique angles, but it is about games. Not playing games, but making them. I think that's important. And there will be signs. In the next few days (weeks), I'll try to post the game that I'm working on in its various stages so far. I figure it will also act as a running tutorial for others trying to learn ActionScript if I'm ever motivated to comment my code. But to be honest, my comments are probably less helpful than the raw code (e.g. "// Grr engine: Avoid Yums, and move Grrs to Holy Crap! it actually works!!"). Also, I'll probably go off ranting about my eco-fascist ideals and thoughts on cognition from time to time, but I'll be sure to find out how to sort these by topic, so you the reader can get to what you want easily (which most likely won't be commented AS3 code...).

So with that, let's finally click that Publish button and forget that I ever had a blog!