Braid
When you become a game programmer, there is this frequent question you try to figure out.
"What makes a good game?"
From time to time there appears a game that is so mind blowing that it breaks out of every convention in creating good games.
That sort of game has this unique way of connecting to people.
Some connect by gameplay, with a game that reacts to the way they want and allowing them to do what they want.
Some go by story, enjoying plausible and very deep narrative, with consequences to players actions.
Sometimes we get superb character development, and either identify with a character, or sympathizes with the characters reasons/decisions.
In some other cases we get this connection by feeling deeply immerse in the world, feeling as if it were real, not because of realism, but from because of what it proposes to be, and is.
Jonathan Blow is a remarkable game programmer. He alone created a puzzle game that has this feature.
You sympathize for the main character, you feel satisfaction from completing the oftenly difficult puzzles, the sound and world are what you expect from the gameplay, and the game brings new ways of playing, while keeping you thinking in ways to solves the tasks to complete the game.
It was cute at first sight, and difficult, which alone is enough for my interest. But it is very mysterious, drawing you deep into it each time you play. It is sweet and romantic, at the same time as insightful and analytic.
It is a great game and I recommend to anyone who likes a challenging puzzle.
It is available for xbox360 and for PC. You can see a demo on steam.
It is simple... but incredible in epic proportions.

I wish more games were like this.

Sunday Night Shift.
I came out of work around 19:00... It was sunday and four more days of work ahead before any good night sleep.
Things were getting more stressful in my project.
I walked up the dark street up to the parking lot to get my car.
I was already dark enough, and the street lights were dim, barely enabling a full sight of the street.
Walking toward my car I looked up to a nearby office building.
It struck me as odd, as almost all the windows were lit, as if it was a regular week day.
Do people always work on weekends?
Was it just that building?
Maybe it was pure coincidence... but at that moment it felt like a normal day of work in any week day, and I was not one of the few working late.

Voice of freedom.
I'm all for justice, anyone who knows me knows this.
So I'm in favor of freedom of speech, and the internet serves that well.
But people forget that your freedom should end when it crosses the barrier into someone else's life.
I'm a silent reader. I read web comics, my discussion groups, among some other things, but as a silent reader I only comment or say anything when it becomes clearly relevant.
While I can ignore most inane comments in most places, I sometimes have to raise and join the band to say that the internet has in some ways gotten some people more dumb.
I can let the awful grammar slide, even though I should not.
I can look away from the pointless spamming just for the fun.
But it really gets under my skin when I go to newgrounds.com or youtube to watch something funny and for some reason end up reading the comments.
I do recognize there are some insightful comments, and some are at least a simple representation of one's opinion. But most of them... and I mean MOST of them, are pure babbling about how stupid some one is, or how they praise something REALLY stupid.
The need to say incongruent words, to curse needlessly, to criticize for the sake of saying something is the worse thing to happen to the internet.
Come on, didn't anyone else's mom say to them that if they don't have something useful to say that they should (jump off a bridge) shut up?
I keep hoping that people will realize this. XKCD put it in great perspective with this comic strip: http://xkcd.com/481/
I ask if the people behind this are 8 year old kids, or maybe someone that has REALLY nothing better to do with their lives than to try to demean others', or maybe it is someone with no intellect that feel superior by doing this. By searching for flaws in others and pointing, so that they never have to look to their own flaws.
This is something I like to tell.
When I was little, insulting someone 10 years older meant pummeling. Simple and hard. And we knew it, we respected older people, and they mostly left younger ones alone.
Nowadays you see a 8 years old insulting people as if he/she was the dictator of a country with a million man army behind him/her. I don't know if it is the way kids are raise, the game/TV/movies they come into contact, or if the social pressure in school has risen to the point where this is a mean of survival. All I know is that it is wrong.
You know that feeling of wanting to toss someone in front of a bus?
Humans will never learn to respect the unknown this way, because they don't fear the consequences anymore.
Pitiful.

Time passed, time owned.
Time is one of the prime forces of the existence.
So it is no big surprise the amazing power it has. Especially when it comes to collect unpaid interests.
No I'm not talking about money here.
I know a wide range of different people, each with a sleeping characteristic. Some HAVE to sleep at least 8 hours, some need absolute silence and darkness, some get sleepier when they sleep more than 7 hours and some can sleep through any circumstance which is my case.
I've slept about 6 hours per day for as long as I care to remember. People have told me along the years that this life style would eventually catch up with me.
I was never a believer, but sometimes it does seem to be true.
We say that each body restores a certain amount of energy by sleeping some time. If you fail to meet your body requirements but still push on, someday you'll have to pay up. As a child, the weekend can be used to this end.
As a young adult your weekend is more busy than your weekday. So you have little time to pay up. Eventually the dept become to large for you to control and you end up facing some consequences.
For me it is interesting how I have much more trouble getting out of bed when I sleep a lot, but I can sustain a focused mind better after lunch.
Now when I sleep 6 hours only, I have more trouble focusing my mind, even though my body is still in perfect condition.
Time has a way to collect its interest. After all, it is a prime force.

A Brief Moment
That most beautiful sound, echoed endlessly throughout the empty room to reach a lonely heart.

Wandering
By the time you realize all that I said was true.
By the time you discover that I was away, in the streets, observing while you enjoyed your party.
By the time you notice I'm no more.
You'll see only but the shadow that I leave behind, in the dark corner of that room.
The same as everywhere I go.

Reaction.
Who do you react when something really important to you is taken away?
When you REALLY like a job, but get fired over mass cuts due to economic problems?
Or when you lose a loved one, be it family, friend, or lover?

Humans react each in their own manner. Not something any one can analyze. But it is curious to think of how people react.
My said she dreamed her mother was dying. The despair she described as her reaction shows she would most likely fall apart to lose something so precious.
It got me thinking.
In the end, do we think about how other will take an event before we set it in motion?
I know we are that self involved. But hopefully people will be more thoughtful once they are aware of the harm.
As for things out of our control, well, we need to be prepared.

Finally
After so much time...
after so many troubles...
countless worthless tries...
many moments where I wanted to fall apart...
after so much skip and wait...
after wake and go try again...
after the many blank times with no internet.
I've got an apartment.
One with MY name on the rent bill.
Even though I do not live alone (the complications of this are not mentioned on this post).
It is my place, and I have internet in it.
It is walking distance from work, even though I go by car.
It is reasonably cheap.
Though not well furnished, as I have little money to do so.
It has the essentials, fridge, stove, microwaves, washing machine and a bed for two in my room.
I just need a desk to keep my PC in my room.
So I should resume writing here as soon as my time stabilizes.