I went to school with Ross Richie, who went on to found BOOM! Studios, which is currently running an ARG based on one of their graphic novel properties.
I will not post Ross’s 6th grade yearbook photo in the hopes that he’ll extend me the same courtesy.
BTW: I’ve misplaced my 2nd grade yearbook. Boo.
What’s the state of caring in the world today? Is it limited to “There’s a weird smell on my floor… could my neighbor be decomposing?”? Or are there people out there going the extra mile – or willing to go the extra mile, if they only knew how? How do you care? These are all questions that Ruby’s Bequest wants you to answer.
If you sat on the sidelines for World Without Oil and wished you’d gotten in on the game, now’s your chance to jump in on a similar serious game, designed to make a change in how people approach a subject – in this case, caregiving. And although the Baby Boomers get all the press as their population gets older, there are more people out there needing caring than just the elderly. Who are they? That’s something we want to find out.
Dreamed up by Ken Eklund, who was also responsible for World Without Oil. this is sure to be just as thoughtful and compelling. There are also a lot of interesting entities behind it: production by Institute for the Future and sponsorship by United Cerebral Palsy and AARP.
Plus some names you might have seen before working behind the curtain. 😉
Let’s cut the fake coyness, hmm? It’s really great to be working with Ken again, and getting the team back together is so comfortable (and as Gupfee mentioned, there are others who haven’t outed themselves yet). There’s some fresh blood in there too.
If you’re interested, there’s an interview I did with Ken Eklund up at the Culture Hacker site.
So go tell it to someone who cares!
You ever have one of those moments where you realize that the events of the next little while will either make you or break you? I think I’m having one of those moments. Hopefully there will be no restraining orders.
Oh and by the way, I would like to commend the local forecasters for saying it would only get into the mid 40s last night. Because that’s why I planted the strawberries. And then ended up zipping out to the garden with a poncho to cover them up when they revised that to the (whoops, heh heh) mid 20s. Sheesh.
Last spring I posted that Dave Szulborski was seriously ill and could use some good thoughts. He was in the hospital for treatment of leukemia for several weeks, and was happily declared in remission after a grueling round of chemotherapy.
Unfortunately, after spending a Christmas with an origami crane-decorated tree and his wife and baby, Dave has suffered a relapse and is back in treatment. And things are not looking as bright this time.
It just tears me up to see this happen. Utterly shredded. Devastated. Hence the disquieting dreams and the decision to become part of the marrow donor database. But I do believe in the power of positive thinking over recovery, especially on Dave’s part, and I think that if he realizes how many of us love and adore him it will help him through the immense difficulty he’s dealing with. So if you have a moment, there is information in this post on how to snail mail and how to email him a card.
Personal heroes? Well, the rules are that it can’t be someone who’s a friend, but honestly, Dave’s the first (and so far, only) person who came to mind when I read the blog post asking about what living, non-super-famous person is someone you really admire. Been wracking my brain to come up with someone who falls within the guidelines and I can’t think of anyone else. So that’s why I’m saying lots and lots and lots of prayers for Dave Szulborski, my hero.
Starting Very Soon Now (an interview is in the works) I’ll be contributing to Culture Hacker, which is a blog that inspects the intersection of new media and storytelling. I’ll be joining the ranks of some of my favorite homeskillets, Nick Braccia and Haley Moore, as I attempt to write intelligently about what I can’t even articulate to myself half the time. Wish me luck!
A quick FYI – I’ll be on a panel this year at SXSW Interactive entitled “You’re Living in Your Own Private Branded Entertainment Experience”. It’ll be headed up by Campfire’s Brian Cain and include luminaries such as Steve Peters (who also likes the word “luminaries”), Brian Clark, and Lance Weiler.
Edited to linkify.
With absolutely no good reason, forethought, or plan, suddenly I found myself in the midst of a site overhaul this afternoon. Â My husband says it looks like a lower back tattoo; I think it looks like the Rock Band graphics. Â Well, the old one was getting a little tired and this one seems to load quicker, plus it’s sexier. Â
I also moved my portfolio pages from static HTML over to the blog site (and now I’m sort of wishing that the entire website were under the loving care of WordPress and I hadn’t just quarantined it to the /blog directory back when I did the original install of Movable Type back in 2002). If you’re interested, there’s a write-up of one of my puzzles for Vroengard Academy with nifty yucko Dee graphic vs. slick professional artist graphic comparison.
Man, I miss going all-out on building a grassroots ARG. There’s something so liberating and scary about the freedom and malleability of a game that’s not beholden to corporate sponsors, but to its players. Where you can just totally change direction midstream without waiting a week for approval from the client’s legal team. Where you work insane hours and make exactly no money. Where you make such excellent friends with your fellow team members and alternately cry and laugh yourself silly at the latest crisis. (“What do you mean, our site was defaced by Somali hackers??”)
Reading back over some of our old chat logs, and then reading the ARG class presentation on Dread House (or Urban Hunt, if you’re so inclined), plus reading the all-too-infrequent checkins from past team members on our super-sekrit forum have me all melancholy.