I’ve actually liked selling old junk on eBay… probably because somewhere inside I hate to throw things away, telling myself "but it’s worth something."  Well at least this way I get to realize some of that worth monetarily, and at the same time I am uncluttering myself.  Michelle would probably say I’m still far too cluttered, and I am still a pack rat at times, but I am trying to get better about that. 

If you think reading a book is hard, you should try writing one. Because it’s even harder. It’s still not as hard as writing a game, though. If you discount the purely visual pop-up parts, a book is made almost entirely of words. As a novelist, you just need to think of a few decent strings of words and then fill the other 98% of the book with more or less random descriptions of things and exclamation points. In a game, the 98% garbage section is filled with the actual game. Even worse for game writers, the 98% garbage part of a game isn’t even usually garbage because instead of reading something boring about the history of Belgium, the “reader” probably gets to jump a Camaro over a dinosaur. That means the pressure’s on to make the two percent wordy part that you’re responsible for really, really spectacular. It’s a tough job.

Source: RPS Interview: Valve’s Erik Wolpaw

Anyway, I found the interview insightful, and it was neat to read something concerning not one but two of my favorite hobbies, gaming and writing. For anyone who completes Portal, you’ll be treated to a great song by Jonathon Coulton, whom I’ve mentioned before. For the lazy, check it out on YouTube.

Michelle continues to wait, patiently, or perhaps not so patiently from time to time. The doctors say she is getting close, I’ll spare the details but suffice it to say her body is getting ready. We continue to wait. Eliana, we’re ready for you. Or at least as ready as we’ll ever be.