My Design Strengths and Weaknesses

Since I was in high school, I've always been told it's important to be able to answer the questions "what are your strengths and weaknesses" during an interview. While that certainly is true, I'd go one step further and say that it is always worthwhile to know where your abilities lie and don't lie, as well as those of your team. To paraphrase Sun Tzu. knowing yourself is one half of the key to victory, and it's the one that's easiest to do on your own.

I like to think I know myself pretty well, and considering this is the one place dedicated to me speaking about myself, it seems natural to talk about my strengths and weaknesses as a designer (and in general). If anyone reading is a potential employer, then this is a chance to save you the trouble of asking these questions. Now then, without further ado:

Strengths

Organisation

This is perhaps the one that is the most commonly known about me. I am an extremely organised individual, or at least I aspire to be. Sorting things into systems and structures comes naturally to me. I like to build things up in an orderly manner. Schedules and documentation are things that I actually enjoy doing (ask anyone that knows me about my reputation with documentation), because they give me consistent systems to work within. One of my favourite pastimes is finding ways to make systems more efficient, and information more accessible.

This does have an influence on my design preferences as well. I tend towards clean ordered systems, more akin to sleek science fiction rather than grunge and the like. Cleanliness and precision definitely do more for me than chaos or the grotesque. That's not to say I'm incapable of dealing with disorder, but in my mind even the most chaotic thing has an underlying structure to it, even if it isn't readily apparent. I hold this view because of my next strength...

Perspective

I spend a lot of time observing. Not just in the literal looking at things definition, but in the sense of considering a subject and its various connections. I had a great deal of alone time during my younger years, and I spent a lot of it thinking about something, then trying to figure out the underlying components of that thing. Physics is my favourite science simply because it involves the most fundamental building blocks of the universe, ergo it is the base upon which all connections are built. Mechanics are incredibly cool to me because it gives us a glimpse at how a set of parts can create something greater than its sum through their interactions.

As a designer, seeing how art, code, and interaction can come together into a fully crafted experience is something I really like to contemplate. It's a large part of why design appealed so much to me in the first place. It's also part of why I find code quite easy to read, as it is simply a network of cause and effect systems. It particularly helps when it's well structured and transparent code for that matter, because then my organisation skills can further supplement that ability.

More recently, I've taken a particular liking in applying my perspective to social spheres of inquiry. Why do people behave a certain way in certain contexts? Why do social structures form so consistently across history and geography? What are the cause and effect mechanisms that drive society? Contrary to what a lot of people say, I like to think that society has a lot of inherent order within it, through its most fundamental building blocks. Figuring out the nature of those building blocks is something I actively pursue.

As should be evident by now, the implications of how things are interconnected is something I love pondering about. Those ideas are something I would like to play around with more in my games. As a designer, I really want to place people in situations that force them to reevaluate their assumptions of a game and/or make them consider the underlying structures that form the world. If I can get just one person to think about the inter-connectivity of the universe as I have, I will have achieved my dream.

Working Within Boundaries

Part of that inter-connectivity I just mentioned is understanding limitations, and how despite the presence of a boundary, there are immense possibilities for creativity within it. I actually quite like working within boundaries. Perhaps that's my orderly nature speaking, but they strike me as an excellent way to push towards getting the most out of what you have. Depth will always trump breadth in my opinion when it comes to the subject of making something good. I'll almost always choose quality over quantity.

Something that may have become apparent through my artwork is that I do a lot of crossovers. In fact, I adore taking things from one context, and finding ways to adapt it to another. Figuring out what "X subject would look like in Y context" is something I do for fun. So when I'm tasked with adapting something to fit new different boundaries, I can honestly say that I consider it an enjoyable challenge.

Likewise, this strength applies to most real world work contexts. After all, in an industry like games, even the highest ranking designer has limits being imposed on their vision, be it from above or below. Fortunately, that's something I'm prepared to deal with. I've proven in the past that if I'm given a task but with some limits imposed, such as figuring out how to make a game while keeping to a subject or buzz word (game jams being a perfect example), I have very little trouble coming up with ideas. In fact, the more restricted I am, the better I am at fleshing something out of it (the flip side of this will come up again in the weaknesses section). Part of my ability to work through limits comes from this next strength...

Versatility

Though I specialise in video game design (namely character and system/mechanics design), I was trained as a generalist, and I consider myself competent enough to do well in art (concept, graphics, sound effects, 3D modelling, animation), programming, testing, and just about every other task involved in a game. Heck, I can even do some half decent voice acting if I really try. I do have all the skills to make an entire game on my own.

I know the tendency of a lot of large companies is to shun generalists, and to a degree that does make sense to me. After all in a big company, people aren't jumping between different positions. Better to have someone in a dedicated position that focuses specifically on the tasks they will actually be performing. But when it comes to designers my logic is this: a designer, by virtue of their position as the one that must bring together all the individual elements of a game into a holistic experience, should have a good understanding of every aspect involved in making a game. They may not be as deeply entrenched in these other tasks, but I think it's important that they be able to understand them well enough to know the technical boundaries they can push towards through their design. Otherwise you end up pissing people off by building unrealistic designs (and trust me, I know a thing or two about non-technical individuals attempting to drive design).

Though I may not excel at many of these secondary tasks, I'm not a slouch either. Part of why I did so well in my program is that I was fairly quick to adapt to wildly different contexts. With a couple exceptions, my grades were almost universally in the 80%+ range, and that's across wildly different subjects (and even if you don't believe in grades, it's hard to argue that someone who gets such results on a consistent basis isn't doing something right). What's more, I'm perfectly comfortable making those jumps. In my senior project, I would switch hats multiple times everyday without blinking. I had to, and thankfully I was good at it, or we never would have gotten as far as we did (I'm speaking with complete humility here).

Communication

Speaking of speaking, communication is another thing I consider myself to be particularly good at. Part of wearing many different hats is that it forces you to see things from different perspectives (I guess the hats all have goggles? Steampunk hats, perhaps?). During different times, I've had to communicate to teammates, friends, enemies, professionals, laymen, developers, artists, testers, clients... You name it.

One of my first jobs was with QNX as a technical writer for the Blackberry 10 Native SDK. Something I learned quickly about technical writing is that you need to be able to simultaneously understand complex technical material and developer jargon as well as simplify it so that complete laymen could understand what you're talking about. This leads to two things: one is that technical writers are easily the best at working with the tools they write about (even better than the developers that write them, since they only have to understand the intricacies of their specific elements, without understanding how they relate to everything else; take that specialists), and two is that they will spend most of their day going back and forth between techno-babble and simple explanations (and the rest of the time digging into code documentation that hasn't actually been written, because they're the ones that have to write it). It's an extreme exercise in communication skills.

Thinking back on it, I'm very thankful to have had that job, because it taught me a lot about how different groups of people communicate. I remember one instance where a developer would never answer more than one question at a time, and would only ever answer in "yes" or "no". Generally speaking, I found that programmers are a lot more linear and direct in their communication. Contrast that with the subjective analysis artists require, the filtered diplomatically-minded talk of marketers, and the unabashed emotive speech of many gamers. Designers have to interact with pretty much all of them at one point or another. I like to think I'm pretty good at doing so, mostly because I can understand each of these groups, and see where they're coming from. After all, not only do I have my skills in perspective, but I've been right there with them in the past.

One last thing about my skills in communication that I think is worth noting is my patience. I consider myself an extremely patient person, and most people I know agree with me. I've also developed a reputation for being fairly easy to get along with (if nothing else, I don't make many enemies), as well as for being quite trustworthy. It's a set of personality traits I've often used to help others through tough times, but it's also helped me greatly when it comes to this last strength...

Stress

I work well under stress. In fact, I tend to excel while under stress. I like to joke that I'm always busy, but the truth is, I am because I set myself up to be. I'm at my best when I have a lot to do, because the rush of accomplishment I get from doing it fuels me ever further. I even set up my recreational activities as tasks, because it pushes me to relax more effectively (I realise that probably doesn't make sense to some people, but I challenge you to find anyone who doesn't feel more satisfied than they would normally be when they have a tangible checkbox they can cross at the end of a task, even if that task is just "watch a movie").

While I can't always sustain it indefinitely (especially if say, an unexpected event puts me well behind schedule), I can handle very heavy workloads without too much trouble and am able to sustain long hours for extended periods of time. I know my own stress limits very well, and I've organised my life in a way to be able to handle unforeseen circumstances without too much trouble. No matter how hectic my life gets, I'm usually able to make time for new things and still find ways to balance it out. Snapping under pressure isn't something I do. And given the field I'm going into, I think that alone is an extremely valuable asset.

Weaknesses

Stagnation

And now I show the other side of the stress coin. While I do work well under stress, when the opposite is true, I tend to wilt. I energise myself through deadlines and clear tasks to accomplish, so a lack of those things is as detrimental to me as an engine without fuel. 

I call myself a "creature of momentum". So long as I'm going, it's very hard to stop me. However, when I am forced to stop (or never started in the first place), it can be hard to get me going. I can genuinely say that I'm at my worst when I have nothing to do. Without a clear task to motivate me, my energy levels decrease rapidly. I'm the kind of person that has no trouble getting up really early in the morning when there's a good reason to do so, but without one I'm just as likely to wake up in the mid-afternoon.

My solution for this over the years has been fairly simple: always keep busy. Even when I don't have a job and I've taken care of my chores, I keep a large list of things on my to-do list. My watch lists are huge, as are my reading, writing, drawing, and other lists. So long as I keep myself preoccupied in a way that seems meaningful, I can sustain my energy levels.

However, there are times when this isn't enough. If, say, I've been forced to do a task I see as completely useless (like say something that involves sitting around doing nothing for long periods of time) without having the means to do something in the meantime, I'll have a hard time motivating myself. Repetitive menial tasks can suffice, but not if they involve a lot of waiting (for example 3D modelling is fine, but rendering will get me restless if I don't have a book or something to do while I wait). Another great example is when I'm stuck waiting on someone else to deliver. I'll touch on this later, but few things annoy me as much as being completely gated by someone else and having nothing else to do.

Blank Slates

As I mentioned my strength when working within boundaries and building from existing premises, the reverse is also true to some degree. I am admittedly someone who doesn't like working from a completely blank slate. If you were to ask me to come up with something while providing no restrictions, I might have trouble dealing with overchoice. I'll usually come up with something eventually, but it will take me longer than it might for someone else. It will certainly take me much longer than if I were given a restriction at the beginning of the exercise.

I attribute this weakness mainly as a by-product of my perspective. In my mind, nothing stands completely independently; it's always connected to something. That, accompanied with my tendency towards order, predispose me against spontaneity or true randomness.

I have a few ways that I work around this particular weakness. The first is to use my view of connections to my advantage by creating simulated randomness. Thanks to that strength, I'm able to leap from one connection to the next fairly fast. It's almost like doing a Wikipedia run from one entry to a seemingly completely unrelated entry simply by clinking the links within the articles. I usually use this in conjunction with the context I'm working in to set up the restrictions from which I can build. For example, if I'm playing a game like Quiplash (where you are asked questions and prompted to give answers that other players will vote on), the first thing I will do is try to read the room: what sort of sense of humour would these people have, and what pop culture references are they likely to be familiar with? From the basic premise of these questions, I can filter my thoughts sufficiently to come up with an answer.

My other primary way of dealing with this weakness is to come up with answers ahead of time. Some questions come up often enough that I have default selections. That's not unusual. But in the cases of things that are more nebulous, what I do is keep track of a list of potential items, from which I filter. A good example of this is how I coordinate with my friends on the ever-challenging "what do you want to do" question. I have a list of video games, a list of collaborative writing projects, and a list of other activities. All of them I've mentally tagged with factors which might make them more appealing or less appealing depending on the circumstances. The person is inclined to write something and I'm not feeling too energetic? I'll check through my list and find a possible subject that requires minimal concentration (usually this is associated with the characters involved, which makes it easy for me to filter them). I have lists for basically everything, so it's not hard for me to come up with answers to many questions that would otherwise require random responses. I've done what I can to plan for as many contingencies as possible.

I will say though that this weakness does manifest in another way that is a little harder to avoid. When it comes to development, I have a notable dislike of setting up a new project. This is partially an issue of momentum and my general dislike of the somewhat esoteric project setup requirements in a lot of development software (Visual Studio comes to mind). Fortunately, this isn't something that comes up too often for me as a designer (it only really applies for programming tasks), but it is still an annoyance. My usual solution for that is generally to just take an already set-up project, adapt it for my needs, and build off that.

Trust/Reliance

This is perhaps my biggest weakness, since it's the one that is most likely to actually come into play in actual work situations, and it's one of the ones that is a lot harder for me to find simple workarounds for. That is why I've left it at the end. That weakness? I have a hard time relying on others.

I consider myself to be extremely independent. It's a value I put a lot of emphasis on and it's something of a defining characteristic for me. I expect independence and high levels of competence from myself, and I wish to see it from the people I work with (and people in general). Seeing sloppy or ineffective work bothers me, especially if I am in a position to do it better. More often than not, if I'm not convinced the person working on the task can do a better job of it than me, I'll have a strong urge to correct it myself (I'd be lying if I said there weren't any projects on this site I want to go back and correct).

Now, in an ideal world this wouldn't be a problem, because everyone I would be working with would be competent. I would never receive a model with misaligned vertices, or files that were incorrectly formatted, or text that wasn't run through a spellcheck. In school this can be unavoidable: sometimes you're just stuck with the group you have. In a work environment, consistent incompetence will usually get you fired (unless you're in the public sector, zing! I kid... Mostly), but it's not something that can be banked on. In reality, there will always be situations like this.

As might be apparent, I've been burned several times in the past. I've often ended up in group projects with people who don't or cannot pull their weight. I definitely have a few horror stories. The worst situations are ones where the lead programmer would misreport (or not report at all) their progress and leave us without a working prototype by our presentation deadline. More often than not, I've found myself taking leadership and editorial roles for this reason. The moment it becomes clear that someone cannot deliver, I'll usually take it upon myself to redistribute tasks to other more reliable team members or sometimes to myself. I've made it a habit of requesting submissions well before the due date so that I can curb these situations.

Then again, they do still show up. Sometimes, despite all my requests for communication, I don't get a response. It's something that can genuinely frustrate me, and it can permanently sour my perception of someone's competence. In fact, I would go so far as to say that seriously gating me on a task without keeping me informed on the matter is one of the easiest ways to get on my bad side, because not only does it slow the project, it personally wastes my time (at least if I was given a forewarning I can find a way to solve or work around the delay). I do have a lot of patience, but this will drain it rapidly. This issue isn't exclusive to a few bad apples either. It's happened with people I previously considered to have excellent credentials.

As a result of these situations, it's become very difficult for me to simply entrust someone with an important task, especially if it is a key component of the work. Furthermore in some cases where I take the initiative to do the work myself, I have upset others. This is especially true if pride or "doing things by the book" are involved; these aren't usually things I prioritise over the bottom line. That said, I have gotten better at dealing with such sensitivities over time.

Fortunately, my trust hasn't completely eroded; I can still view people as innocent until proven guilty (or competent until proven otherwise, as it were). If someone has proven themselves to be dependable and consistently capable, I'll have little problem leaving it to them. Additionally, with time I have gotten better at dealing with many of the other scenarios I mentioned, particularly ones where the problem lies not in outright incompetence, but in a misalignment of skills.

One such example was in a fairly recent project: one team member who had previously been very reliable suddenly encountered a great deal of trouble with certain tasks. As it turns out, while he was a very fast worker when it came to simple executions, he was much more prone to giving up when he encountered technical challenges. My initial solution was to teach him to perform basic troubleshooting, but the problem persisted. Fortunately there was a large number of simple but tedious tasks that needed to be done, and he completed them in a much shorter time frame as a result of his talents.

In cases like that, where I might previously have simply left that team member to complete the initially assigned task and overwritten his work later, I've learned to become better at identifying alternate ways of optimising the project workflow. As I've learned to notice people's individual strengths and weaknesses, I have become more at ease with trusting people with tasks I've found them to be well suited to. It's a skill I fully intend to develop further, so that the frustrations I've encountered in the past won't come back to irk me. I'm not all the way there yet admittedly, but steady as she goes.

Conclusion

And so, there are my primary strengths and weaknesses, at least as I see them. With time they might change, but to tell the truth, I think they are in large part born of my core personality traits. I'd like to think that it's a good distribution, and it allows me to work well in my selected field. I've gotten myself this far, and I know that I've improved in many ways over time. Hopefully, with the right experience, that trend will continue.

To anyone who read this, I hope you found it interesting, and that it helps you understand me just a little bit better. Rest assured I'll be writing quite a bit more about myself here soon enough.

My Formative Video Game Collection

For all my claims of wanting to be a video game designer, and this being my professional site, I've spoken very little about video games in my blog so far. I think it's about time I fix that.

For this first entry on the topic, I'm going to present a list of games I consider to have been significant in my development as a gamer and as an aspiring professional game designer. Some are of a historical nature, while others just had elements to them that influenced my views on game design. I'll try to keep this chronological to when I played them as best I can, but it is a fairly long list. As for rambling, I make no promises. This is after all a big part of my personal life, and that is the subject I ramble about the most, especially when there's no one there to stop me (like right now). So without further ado, here we go:

Pokémon Pinball

I'm fairly certain this was the first game I ever played. When I was young, I would often visit my cousins, and they had a Game Boy colour (my mom at the time didn't let me have video games), and when I'd come over, I'd frequently play this game. I had already gotten into Pokémon pretty hard by then, and I loved this thing. It eventually led me to play a lot of other Pokémon spin-offs, like Puzzle Challenge, which in turn introduced me to puzzle games.

Pokémon Red

Another game I played that technically belonged to my cousins, though they lent this one to me for several years. It was my first real Pokémon game and the one that got me hooked on the idea of collection and team building. I still kind of wish I had Blue instead (because I like that colour better and Blastoise ftw), but I definitely owe a lot to this game.

Pokémon Silver

This is the last Pokémon game I promise! I got this game (along with Gold and Pinball) with my Game Boy Colour as either a birthday or Christmas present (probably the latter, given the release date). Technically speaking, that makes them my first owned games and console. My mom wasn't too happy at my aunt for that (to her credit, she eventually changed her mind about video games).

Silver has easily been my favourite game in the entire series. I played it for ages and actually did get a team up to lvl 100 and came damn close to having a complete Pokédex. The only reason I stopped playing it was because being a dumb kid I used the multiplication glitch to get one too many copies of my Feraligatr and ended up corrupting my save. Anyway, I learned a whole lot about game design for combat, collectibles, strategy, and world-building from that game. I wouldn't say it's the game that made me a gamer or a game designer, but it's definitely the one that got me to fall in love with the concept of video games.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

This was the first game I ever played on console. It was a guy that was living with us that owned it and a PS1, though he'd often let me play it. I like to think of this as my other big entry into gaming, since it formed a lot of my gaming behaviour from then on. Platforming, checking for secret paths, silliness: all penchants I got through this game. It also holds up remarkably well, and I do still play it from time to time.

Roller Coaster Tycoon

I don't know that this was my first PC game, but it was the first that I really explored a great deal. It got me into the strategy genre, which for the longest time was pretty much the only genre I played on PC. It also got me into a lot of other Tycoon games, such as Zoo and School Tycoon. Now that I think of it, it's here where I developed my interest in building things in games, which extended into my love of world-building, collecting., and customisation.

Age of Mythology

Another game I got into for PC. I was really into Greek mythology as a kid, so this was my jam, and one of the ways I discovered that you can learn things through video games. The scenario editor also contributed to the whole world-building thing. It's funny now that I think of it: I usually consider character and mechanics design to be my stronger design domains, but with respect to games I started with levels...

Oh, and I did try online multiplayer with it once, which I think may have been the first time I tried online multiplayer. I only ever tried once though, because within the first few minutes I was promptly destroyed by some guy who was playing the Norse (pro tip: the Norse are OP in that game's multiplayer because their workers are also fighters).

SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals

Technically this was the first console game I ever owned. My step-dad bought me a PS2 for my 10th birthday along with this game (again, to my mom's displeasure, though I think that was mostly because he got me an M rated game). I never got all that far with it and I never played it online, but I remember adoring the idea of using stealth and tactics to outsmart the enemy and get around levels. It's something that struck me as a great gameplay style, which I suppose explains my love of the Metal Gear Solid franchise and why my favourite personal game concept is built on the idea of tactical team combat.

Ratchet and Clank

This was one of the first games I rented (back when Blockbuster was still a thing), and effectively the first game I "chose" from a large selection. Something about a cat dude holding a giant rocket launcher with a robot on his back and a whole bunch of cool weapon designs in the background was very appealing to me. The series ended up being one of my all-time favourites (I still consider Going Commando to be in my top 3 favourite games). It introduced me to mixing shooting and platforming (which in turn influenced my gameplay style in a lot of other games), as well as the idea of weapon variety and later weapon leveling. It was also one of the first games I played with a story I actively engaged in.

EDIT: Something I neglected to mention but touch on later is that this was also the first franchise I'd ever become a true fanboy of, and the first franchise whose online community I joined and actively engaged in. Those were good times...

mc3de_ps2box_2.jpg

Midnight Club 3

Though I did have both Gran Turismo 3 and Moto GP2 a little prior and Need For Speed 2 a long time before (though to be honest while I really enjoyed NFS2, I forgot about it completely when I shifted over to console gaming), Midnight Club 3 was the first racing game I personally really got into. I think this almost entirely because I really REALLY liked customising my vehicles to make them look cool. I also just generally found racing through streets with obstacles, alternate paths, and special abilities way more interesting than classic driving. The whole "spending more time customising my aesthetics and making designs rather than actually playing the game" thing is something of a recurring theme with me. I guess that's proof of my prior inclination to become a game designer, if anything.

Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus

Comically, as far as FF games I've played, it's just this and X-2 (I didn't even play the original X; in my defense I was young and didn't know any better at the time). I know this is generally not considered to be that great of a game, but it was my introduction to the concept of a shooter with RPG elements. Besides Pokémon, I hadn't really tried RPGs yet, but a lot of the ideas behind it: leveling characters and gear, customising equipment, exploration, and a heavy plot, all of these really resonated with me. That alone earns this game its spot in my list.

Soul Calibur III

I was never a huge fighting game player, but I played a bit of 2 with friends that owned it, and turned out to be pretty good (mostly because I figured out how to throw and parry before anyone else). 3 was the first one I really played and engaged with on my own. I probably don't need to say it at this point, but I spent a great deal of time in character creation for this game. Despite not playing them nearly that often, I still quite enjoy fighting (especially sword-fighting) games as a result of the Soul Calibur series, and it helped me understand a bunch of game concepts later on down the road.

God Of War II

I credit this game as the one that killed my original PS2, alongside the original God Of War which I had rented when I got the sequel (the disc was in really bad shape). This was my intro to character action fighters. Fortunately a lot of the knowledge I got from SC3 translated well, as did my exploration and puzzle senses from platformers. Additionally, my love of Greek mythology helped me understand a lot of stuff as well. One thing I really loved about this series in particular was its creativity with respect to its amazing visuals. The designs of characters, the world, and even scenes (especially the brutal kills) were very appealing to me. It also showed me a cool alternative way of interpreting real world myths into games which was fairly novel to me at the time.

The Sims Complete Collection

I only ever touched the original Sims when the second game came out. I was conflicted between getting this or the sequel, but decided this was the better choice since it came with all the expansions (to this day I do not regret this decision, though it did lead to me being fairly shocked at how relatively little content there was when I eventually bought the Sims 3; not having access to teleporters out of the box was a real drag). The Sims is probably the most serious case of me barely actually playing the game and spending all my time in the character and house creation modes (Minecraft may have broken that record since, though). So many mansions. So much rosebud;!;!;...1.

Halo Combat Evolved

Strangely enough, this is perhaps one of the most significant games in my personal life story, but almost entirely because I didn't like it all that much. Looking back and having played it again I appreciate it as a significant game, but I'm still not huge on it despite it having a lot of things I should enjoy. I think it almost entirely comes down to the controls: the aiming felt too stiff and movement felt too floaty. Plus the Xbox controllers feel really awkward to me for some reason.

Anyway, it's significant because a lot of my friends at the time loved it, and it became the go-to party game. I wasn't big on it or the Xbox (a lot of my favourite games were PlayStation exclusives too), and that was in part used as a factor in splitting me apart from my small group of friends at the time (well, it was part of the premise under which I was bullied and subsequently ostracised by them; I'll probably write about that story here eventually). So, for a long while, I associated Halo with why I didn't have any friends through the majority of high school. That said, those years alone proved to have helped me out in a lot of ways, so I don't consider it all that much of a bad thing.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Before our split, I played this a lot with my friends. After that, it became my main gaming outlet for a good long while. In fact, it was the first game I played online for significant amounts of time. After this, MW2, and Black Ops, I became fairly good at the series and the FPS genre in general, if I might say so myself. By now I'm easily the best at CoD in my group of friends, and though I'm far from MLG tier, I was in the top 5 or so in online matches I played with fair consistency. That said I'm fairly rusty these days, but enough about that.

I developed a lot of ideas about playing games through this series, such as applying map exploitation and psychological concepts from other games to outsmart and flank enemies. I got really good at being an infiltrator and marksman. I'm still pretty proud of those talents, and it has helped me define the types of games and characters I play in a big way. Additionally, this game franchise was another instance of my real world interests (modern and 20th century political history) and video games blending in an interesting way. Truth be told, for all the critisism of its popularity, I think CoD earned its place in the bestsellers through overall solid execution, and I respect that, despite its flaws.

247557-sid-meier-s-civilization-iv-windows-front-cover.jpg

Civilization IV

My introduction to the 4X genre came fairly late, but hot damn do I love that genre now thanks to Civ. Not only did it feed my love of world history and culture and teach me how to install mods for games, but it also showed me the wonders of turn based strategy. One thing I've never really liked about RTS is that everything feels so rushed that you basically have to establish a gameplay formula for each time you play lest you end up way behind an enemy that optimised their process. I liked being able to look through a whole bunch of complicated systems and carefully choose among the myriad of different tactics to outwit my opponents over the course of a long campaign. More than that I really like it when combat isn't the be all and end all.

My favourite tactic was to use a combination of rapid expansion in unclaimed territory, culture, and diplomacy to establish peaceful relationships and make myself untouchable by virtue of being "the one guy everybody likes". All the while I would build up internally as an economic powerhouse. Then anytime someone gave me an excuse to attack them (or I felt the game was going on long enough), I'd use my massive funds to buy my army and effectively create a force bigger than everyone else combined within a few turns. There were a few elements I neglected to mention here, but this technique translated to my tactics in a lot of contexts, including social (though usually I never need to use the "build an army" part). There was something really enjoyable about that over the standard aggressive nature of so many other games.

Oh and one more thing: Baba Yetu is easily one of my favourite main menu songs ever.

Bejeweled

This is kind of a weird one, but Bejeweled was easily one of my favourite games to play on the computer when there was nothing else to do and I didn't have the time or means to play my other games. Visual puzzles are something I like a lot, and this had them and strategy in spades, all the while not having the time component that made things like Tetris too stressful for my tastes. I think this game is the reason I ended up being so amenable to mobile gaming, particularly things like Candy Crush and Angry Birds, later on. The idea of a quick simple little puzzle game you can use to pass the time is something I can relate to. In fairness though, Minesweeper and Spider Solitaire share credit on that front.

Resistance 2

I was a huge Insomniac fanboy, so I played and really enjoyed the first Resistance before Modern Warfare. However, I only kind of got into the online multiplayer. After Modern Warfare though, the Resistance 2 became my FPS of choice, and I loved it. The mobility and possibilities for creative tactics with the weapons and perks fit well with my preferred play-style. I distinctly remember one moment when I was in a 2v2 match. I was using a Marksman rifle and my partner was using the minigun that can pop up a shield. The combined tactic of his suppressing fire and my skill at headshotting, as well as his ability to attract attention while I flanked with a cloak and took them out from behind... These were moments where my mind went "YES! This is how teamwork should be!" Furthermore the co-op was a great revelation to me. Class-based co-op is still something I really love, and it surprised me that it took as long as R2 to introduce me to it.

One other thing about this game is that it was the first one in which I joined an online clan (the Royal Marines). It wasn't big or especially skilled, but they were my friends and that along with the Insomniac forums were my big introductions to having a true online social life. Kind of a big deal when you don't have any real-life friends. I even learned to use the cloning tool in Photoshop to make my forum signature (this was before I knew anything about using Photoshop properly):

The Elder Scrolls Oblivion

Not counting my dips into games with RPG elements (and excluding Enchanted Arms and FFX-2 as JRPGs), Oblivion was my first attempt at playing a classic Western RPG, and my first major introduction to the genre in general, alongside the traditional fantasy setting. Admittedly while I do like the structure of these types of games, I didn't get all that into Fallout 3 or Skyrim (mostly because they felt too brown/grey and monotonous). Oblivion I played a good deal and got fairly far, but I think by then end I was bogged down too much by my obsession with collecting absolutely every item and having full sets of every armour/weapon in the game. That said, I did still put many hours into all three of the aforementioned games, and though I wouldn't consider them my personal favourites, they did plant the seeds of interest in Western RPGs.

Metal Gear Solid 4

Given how huge of a fan of MGS I am now, it's kind of baffling that I only started with 4. In fact, I played 4 with barely any prior knowledge of the previous games. As should be obvious by now, the gameplay style encouraged with Tactical Espionage Action was exactly my cup of tea. It was kind of like one of those moments when you already have something in your head as being your ideal thing, and then you discover that it already exists. Stealth, customisation, multiple ways to go through levels, Easter eggs galore. I was an instant MGS fan...

Most people assume I followed absolutely nothing of what was going on the first time around, but surprisingly I was able to piece it together fairly well, and after some research in the database and online, I became pretty well versed in the lore too. I later went back and finished all the previous games, and I'm currently playing MGS5 and am already loving it as expected.

Assassin's Creed 2

Though I did play and enjoy the first Assassin's Creed, I shared the common opinion that it felt like it lacked something. I subsequently shared the equally common opinion that 2 successfully brought everything I hoped for from the series. The solid parkour mechanics were well complemented by the beautiful and vibrant new setting (it helped that I had been to most of the places visited in the game) and multitude of places to explore, and the additional side tasks added meat to the franchise's bones.

There is one thing that makes this game special. I was already fairly down with the premise of the Animus as a means of exploring different settings, but what struck me the most about it came near the end of this game. I remember beating AC2 in between exam study sessions, and being completely shocked when Minerva turned to speak directly to Desmond/me. That was genuinely freaky, and I loved it. It was a small thing, but it stuck with me. The fact that the game could get me so invested in Ezio, then subsequently tear suspension of disbelief to remind me that I was playing a game within a game struck me as something so fundamentally unique to video games. Since then, I've seen many explorations of meta-narrative, but this was one of the first I experienced and that alone put Ubisoft (and eventually the entire Montreal games scene) on my radar.

Deus Ex Human Revolution

I had briefly touched the original Deus Ex, but never got into it. Later I watched a playthrough (this was during a time where I watched playthroughs of games I was unlikely to ever play, but thought might be culturally significant enough for me to know about them) and found out it was exactly the kind of game I'd like, since it touched on all the same stuff I like about MGS, but with the addition of RPG style choices that can affect the story, which I also loved. So, I asked for Human Revolution as soon as I heard about it.

In a strange twist, I had originally asked to get it on the PS3, but my mom made a mistake and got it for PC (cue "I didn't ask for this" joke here). I installed it anyway and that, quite simply, is how I converted from a console player to the PC master race. I never realised the PC could be such a good system for shooters (I didn't follow much about gaming culture outside of G4 and Playstation Magazine back then). It was a revelation, and I've been headshotting with my mouse ever since. This game also prompted me to look into Hitman and Eidos, and I've been a huge fan of those ever since as well.

Mass Effect

When I was in university, several of my friends got really hyped for Mass Effect 3. I didn't know anything about it or any Bioware games at the time (again, I was ignorant back then; but I was learning quickly). In part at their insistence, and my own desire to not have everything spoiled by waiting too long, I ran through the first two games and then the third. I came to realise Mass Effect was another one of those franchises that hit on a lot of my favourite things: class-based gameplay, choices, engaging story and characters, sci-fi... In fact, I noticed that a lot of Mass Effect's plot matched fairly well to the story I had conceived for my own game idea. As such, this series got me to become a big fan of Bioware, which led me to playing Dragon Age, which I played around the same time I was introduced to the Pathfinder Tabletop game, which in turn introduced me to a whole bunch of fundamental RPG concepts. The fact that it's only been a few years since I learned so many of these things still kind of astounds me, but I have Mass Effect to thank for fast tracking me through it.

Also, ME3's multiplayer. Loved it. Introduction to gauntlet-style team co-op and class synergy that wasn't restricted to just 3 classes. I incorporated a lot of those ideas into my own game design concepts.

Borderlands 2

This was one of those games where a friend who was really into the series insisted I play it with them. I did, and though I did eventually burn out on it in the higher levels for various reasons (the main one being that power scaling became completely unreasonable after lvl 60, especially if your partner played more than you and was a few levels higher so all the enemies were scaled to them therefore you couldn't do any damage... But enough rambling about that). It was another dip for me into the realm of online co-op on PC, but also to the idea of drop-in/drop-out co-op and having the co-op be a part of the main campaign. I had done this a bit before in split screen, but seeing it online through the PC felt very different. I suspect it was primarily because it wasn't all that linear as a game and it allowed both players to do as they wished (even if it meant going to completely different parts of the map), but still emphasised teamwork. It felt like a more liberated form of co-op. Oh also it helped that the game was really funny.

Spec Ops: The Line

Speaking of funny games... This isn't one. But it is a game that made me think. Some games had certainly challenged me to think about subjects, and definitely consider exploring game design through a meta lens... But this game really did a great job in challenging what gamers take for granted, and as someone who at this point had already decided he wanted to become a game designer, that really struck home. Those tough, thought provoking moments are something I want to see more of in games. And if at all possible, I'd like to in some way be responsible for some of them.

The Stanley Parable

Another though-provoking game. Not only did I love the commentary it presented on game design, it was just a joy to play and explore. Truth be told, a game that is as self-aware as this didn't initially strike me as something that could get made in this industry. But the fact that it did, and that it worked brilliantly and received critical acclaim for it really impressed upon me that video games are truly where I belong.

Warframe

At this point, I think this is the game I have played the most in my entire gaming life. I'll admit, it's not my favourite game ever, nor is it the one I consider to be the most important, but I'll be damned if it doesn't do exactly what it says on the (metaphorical) box and does it very well. It has a lot of my gaming standards: mobility focus, creative weapons, character classes, teamwork, co-op. I've played this game with my friends on a fairly regular basis for a little over 2 years now. I've slowed down on it a lot now, but I've enjoyed my time with it. More importantly, I learned a great deal about game design by watching the devs talk about the game as they make it, and seeing the constantly updating feedback on it while playing myself. For all the system's potential flaws, that's one thing I really enjoy about open betas and free-to-play games: they serve as excellent study material for game design in action.

I'd be remiss to say that's my entire list. There are several other games I've neglected to mention that I felt pushed the boundaries of gameplay and narrative in unique ways while still being fun. There have been an equally large number of games I've simply enjoyed or found to be extremely well executed. Heavy Rain, Infamous, Uncharted, Telltale's The Walking Dead, Flower, Journey, Little Big Planet... Heck I just finished Undertale yesterday and that already strikes me as a game that deserves a spot on this list.

There are many, many more I could add here. Unfortunately, this list is incredibly long as it is, and that would inflate it enormously. And so I restricted the list as best I could to games that shaped me personally as a gamer and game designer. For now, this is its conclusion. But no doubt there will be more in the future, and perhaps then I will update this list...

...I probably won't. Not for a very long time, anyway.

Pins and Personal Logo

I meant to write about this quite some time ago. Before I moved, in fact. However the move to Montreal happened much faster and as a result writing about this topic went to the back burner. But now that things have settled a bit, here we are.

You may be wondering what that is, or at least why I posted it. If you've met me before, or looked at one of my online accounts or business cards, you may recognise it. You've probably already noticed it on this very site. The pin on my jacket is of my personal logo. In this post, I'm going to talk a little about what it is, and what it represents. It's not especially deep, but it may serve as a little window into my mind and interests.

The first thing to note is that this logo is a combination of several elements: the Greek letter psi, a trident, and a fish hook. All of these combine to form the letter J (my first initial). Each of the components of this symbol represents an interest of mine.

Psi is a fairly straightforward symbol. I am an avid fan of psychology and the social sciences. How the mind works is something I find fascinating to study, especially in how it relates to others in the grand network of what we call society. The mind is the domain I feel most strongly connected to, as it is perhaps the subject I find most interesting to learn about, and the one I wish to direct my efforts towards. My greatest ambition is to not only better understand the mind, but to give others pause to explore that venue themselves, and perhaps in the process learn something about themselves, others, and the world they live in. Video games have a unique place in how they can affect people, both emotionally and intellectually. That is a power I wish to harness and use for the betterment of mankind, even in the most seemingly mundane ways.

The second component I mentioned was the trident. This is more thematic than the other components. Simply put, I really like water. Blue is my favourite colour, I always played with Poseidon in Age of Mythology, most of my favourite animals growing up were aquatic, and at one time I thought I wanted to become a marine biologist. You should have seen my rooms prior to moving. The first was completely covered in dolphins and aquatic themes (I even painted the room with that in mind), and the second had an underwater wallpaper across a sizeable chunk of the room. See below:

Yeah, I really liked aquatic stuff. I still do, though I'm perhaps not as obsessed as I once was. Nonetheless, a lot of things about water I find relate to me. Calmness, going with the flow, adapting to one's surroundings, knowing how to find the most effective path, playing the long game (think erosion)... I think there is a lot to be said for having a "watery" temperament, as opposed to a fiery one (same with the other elements; that reminds me, maybe I should toss my idea of the elemental personality types up here some time).

The last aspect is the hook. At first glance, this could very easily be tied in with the trident aspect, and that wouldn't be inaccurate. But it also wouldn't be accurate to just stop there. A big part of the hook's symbolism related to interpersonal relations and the idea of debate and tactics. I've always been a big fan of debate and discussions. My father was a lawyer and my grandfather a diplomat/real estate agent, so I guess it's something of a hereditary predisposition. One of the ideas I value highly is the that of letting your target come to you (i.e. baiting). It simply makes tactical sense to prompt your subject to spend their efforts coming to you. When done correctly I've found it to be far more effective than any offense, and as such I've integrated that philosophy into a lot of my behaviour. I don't impose, I ask. I don't attack, I parry. I let others come to me, and provide what benefits I can to keep them coming. That may sound more devious or creepy than it actually is, and there is a lot more complexity and nuance to the idea than I can properly convey without turning this into a wall of text, but sufficed to say the hook represents my appreciation for the effectiveness of luring techniques.

And finally, they all come together to create a J. A J that stands for Justin. Me. Not much to say there beyond that. So, why put it on a pin? Well, I've always liked wearing self-identifying symbols for one. In high school it was a shark necklace (which now that I think about it, I got while in Montreal, heh), in university it was a Homestuck Virgo pin, and now it's this. Furthermore, I find it to be a good ice breaker (people like to ask about it: see what I mean about the hook thing?). Plus, it shows off my aesthetic and design skills. In a way, this pin allows me to wear my heart on my sleeve. And for someone who doesn't like talking about himself to other people (don't get me wrong, I like talking about myself, but only if the person wants to listen. That's why I like writing here: people only read it if they want to), that's worth slapping a piece of plastic on my chest.

Seems like a lot of consideration to put into a simple symbol, doesn't it? That's just how I roll.

EDIT: There is one thing I neglected to mention, and that's the concept of three. You might notice I mentioned that my symbol is made of three components, and at least two of those components are three-pronged symbols themselves. This isn't accidental. Three is my favourite number (Actually it's 31, but 3 is my favourite single digit), however it's also indicative of another perspective of mine: that of the trichotomy (which you might have guessed is also where I got my user and website name from). More and more I've found modern culture to focus on the ideas of dichotomies. Us versus them mentalities that place everything in black and white, good and evil, right and left. In terms of social and political conditions, polarising radicalism has become more and more rampant lately.

This attitude is something that has always concerned me, but in more recent years I've come to appreciate the importance of dispelling false dichotomies. The term trichotomy is my way of pointing out that there is a path besides any two extremes, and that path is the nuanced approach of the moderate, that can see the values and validity of both sides and pursue solutions that work towards a benefit without alienation. Of course, the various spectrum of opinion are rarely split into just three sides either, but the simple leap from black and white to black and white AND grey is a significant enough distinction that I believe it must be brought back to the common conscience. As someone who holds many liberal views, but finds the radicalism and exclusionary tactics of the extreme left distasteful and even harmful, a big part of my identity is trying to bring to light the moderate perspective of someone who has not been indoctrinated to a single "side", but instead seeks to understand and mediate the two extremes. If that seems like a confusing or overly simplistic statement, rest assured I'll explain myself in due time, as I further populate this blog with my thoughts.

Montreal: A One Month Impression

As of writing this, it's been just a little over a month that I've lived in Montreal. I've made my first trip back to my old home as a non-resident and had my first out of town guests over. I think it's safe for me to consider myself a resident of the city. And with that, now seems as good a time as any to give my impressions of it.

Coming from a town like Ottawa, Montreal is a massive change. The city is bustling. There is a variety of people, culture, places, and experiences here that simply cannot be compared. It helps that in this city I live just a stone's throw away from downtown, right in the heart of everything, whereas in Ottawa I lived in a suburb close but not quite in the heart of the city. However even with that taken into account, the difference is staggering.

Among the first things I observe in a city is the people. And call me vain, but what I noticed first was their fashion sense. Comparatively speaking, people in Montreal dress very well. For context here, Ottawa is a government city. People there by and large dress like bureaucrats: pret-a-porter suits or simple dress shirt, tie, slacks... And sneakers. With all due respect to the Tenth Doctor, there's something wrong with wearing a suit and sneakers to work (I know why, but still). As someone who dresses in three piece suits all the time and sticks out like a sore thumb more often than not, there was something deeply satisfying about coming to this place and finding groups of people similarly dressed. Right away it gave me the sense that I fit in. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of hoodies and t-shirts and guys with beards too, but at least my style has some representation in there as well. Oh, and I neglected to mention, but the girls here seem to take way more care of themselves and their appearance. Maybe the over-exposure to university students wandering around the campus in sweatpants and pajamas is to blame here, but there's something really refreshing about seeing people (both guys and girls) putting in the effort to look pretty.

Another factor is the language. Montreal is unique in Canada in that it's distinctly French, but is sufficiently metropolitan that you will still find plenty of English. It's funny considering Ottawa, what with being the capital and sitting on the border to Quebec, is dominated by English save for a few pockets of French. I know this because I spent my childhood in those pockets and University out of them. In the first year out of a French school, I started losing my French so fast it terrified me (and I was good at French too). Coming here, I feel it's much easier to be bilingual. Of course, my Ontario accent is glaring enough, but I imagine it will change with time (for the record, Ontario French is like a weird half breed between France French and Quebec French; not all Canadian French is the same).

And then there's the culture. Food, entertainment, lifestyle... Everything here is just so much more flavourful. As one might expect from a government city (especially a Canadian government city), Ottawa is fairly milquetoast. Granted, for the most part it suited me well enough (don't get me wrong, I do really like Ottawa, as much as this post may suggest otherwise; it was simply too dull for me), but there's something about the looseness and easygoing attitude in this city that I feel I really needed in my life. It's encouraging me to go out and see things I might otherwise have ignored. I'm experimenting. I'm wandering and looking to unlock the secrets of the city, and I can tell that there is so much more here for me to explore than there ever was in my home town. I won't deny, it is a huge perk that I am an absolute sucker for French Canadian food (lumberjack breakfasts, poutine, smoked meat, bagels, etc.) and this city is known for most of my favourite dishes (heck, my favourite seasoning is called "Montreal steak spice).

I should note that though most of my comparisons have been to Ottawa, I've had the good fortune of traveling a lot in my youth. I've been to many large cities in Europe and even a couple further East (before it became quite as tumultuous as it is today). I've seen both historical cities and modern cities, and everything in between. Montreal of course has many of these things. Just from looking at certain parts of it the historical influence of the French is obvious. I live very close to the Old Port area and have visited it a few times now. It's as touristy as any tourist trap might be. Admittedly, that's something I've never been fond of in cities. It usually lacks the authenticity of the real thing in favour of snagging a few extra coins out of tourists who don't know any better. Fortunately, as a modern city Montreal isn't nearly as caught up in this aspect of its culture as many other cities are. The Old Port is nice to visit, but it's also fairly well delineated and distinct from other regions of the city, which cater to every type of interest that might be sought (except of course the quiet farmland). There's something I appreciate deeply about a city that can acknowledge and celebrate its past, but doesn't dwell on it (comments about Quebec separatism aside).

So, all that is to say, in the month I've lived here, Montreal already feels very much like home. It is a city that is very much my speed, that I feel not only comfortable in, but also exited by. As I've returned to my efforts to find employment (no luck so far, but I'm preparing for my next volley as I write this; business cards, networking, new personal projects, the whole shebang), I do so with a sense that I'm on the right track, and that I made the right choice in coming here to forge my new life.

Now, I just have to start building it.

A New Home

Since last Wednesday, I had been visiting Montreal. I only just got back today a few hours back. I'm happy to say, it was a trip well worth taking.

It has been my intention to move from Ottawa to Montreal for a good few years now. There was a myriad of reasons for this, and I'll get to those in a moment, but to me such a move has been something of a no-brainer for quite some time. And as of this past weekend, I can proudly say that I've found the condo of my dreams. It covered everything on my list and then some. And thanks to a wonderful real estate agent by the name of Stéfanny Fodor, I'm happy to announce It will be mine come August.

So, why the move from my hometown? Don't get me wrong, I love Ottawa and all things considered this house has proven an ideal base of operations, but this move is in many ways necessary for me. The most evident reason is the career opportunities: Montreal is a massive hub for game development, AAA and otherwise. There is a massive thriving industry there that simply does not exist in Ottawa (at least not right now). Additionally, Montreal is a much bigger and more lively city (let's be fair, Ottawa is about as tame as it gets as far as major population centres go).

But most importantly, this move is also a change. Barring my visits to other countries, I've lived in Ottawa my entire life, and truth be told I've grown a bit too comfortable here. In this period in my life, that sort of stagnation isn't something I want weighing me down. So, to me it makes perfect sense to go out of my comfort zone by going somewhere new. It forces me to break old habits and take advantage of all the opportunities life has given me. I'm still young after all, so this is exactly the time to build a new life for myself.

Of course, as far as risks go it's still pretty safe. I'm only a short bus or train ride from my home and family. I already have friends who are staying in Montreal. I'm also bilingual so there's no language barrier. Not to mention I have financial support at the ready if I really need it. I'm extremely fortunate to have all of that going for me, but you can be sure I'm not about to squander it. I'm going to put in the effort to make the most of my advantages.

I'm already updating my CV and applying to jobs. With any luck I'll land a position before I move. If not, well I'm just going to keep trying. Persistence is necessary when it comes to this sort of stuff. I'm confident that sooner or later I'll find my in. Not certain (because one can never be entirely certain of anything), but confident. And for now, that's enough.

Wish me luck! I'll take care of the rest.

 

PS. Stéfanny Fodor really is an exceptional real estate broker. She was highly professional and competent, made sure to filter options to match my needs and budget, carefully detailed and explained every step of the process, was fluently bilingual, and was also just a very enjoyable individual to spend time with (the coffee and free rides around the city also helped). Having seen how other brokers handle their tasks and how this process can go, my experience was remarkably smooth, and she is in large part to thank for that.

If you happen to be looking to buy/sell a place in Montreal, she's definitely worth looking up. She comes with my highest recommendation. Merci, Stéfanny!

Starting Content Complete

I'm proud to say that as of now, I've added all the content I can think to add at the moment for this site. Barring a couple small exceptions, I've included just about every worthwhile piece of content I've produced in recent memory. Those few exceptions I'll be looking into at a later date. For all intents and purposes, this site is on its gold release.

Now I can go back to making new things to add to it. Or at least, I will after my trip to Montreal.

New Beginnings

As of yesterday, I have officially graduated from BIT (the Bachelor of Information Technology, more specifically, the Interactive Multimedia and Design stream). It was five years of difficult work and many challenging projects, but it was greatly valuable for me as a designer. I left high school with very little design training; all I had was some artistic skill and a whole lot of ideas. Now I've also come to appreciate how difficult bringing ideas into reality can be. That said, I also know that it's well within my ability.

And so, with school done, I can begin the pursuit of my dream: to become a video game designer. I've already begun the job hunt, and am seriously pursuing a move to Montreal. As much as I love Ottawa, it's much too quiet for my tastes, and Montreal has the big studios and international recognition I want to tap into as I start making a name for myself in the industry. I have the skills and the knowledge, so now it's just a matter of getting the experience.

That makes this the perfect time for me to start this site. It will serve as a record of my quest. I have no illusions that it won't be difficult, and I can't pretend to know where it might take me. Will I achieve the dream of becoming the creative director for a major franchise I came up with? Will my ideas be the source of inspiration for future generations? Will I make games that people around the world enjoy? Or will my life take me somewhere else? Perhaps I'll find fulfillment in something I've never considered. Who knows. But some day, I'll be able to look back through this site and be able to answer those questions.

I invite you to follow me on that journey. As I go, I'll update this site with my work, the major events of my life, and whatever thoughts I might think pertinent enough to write about. Hopefully, it will be inspirational, thought-provoking, and entertaining. With any luck, all three at once. But, as with everything else in life, only time will tell.