Well, maybe not. I actually DO have a post floating around as yet unformed int he back of my head but I haven’t had time to sit down and think it out. My Best beloved is having surgery tomorrow so I’ve been a bit wrapped up in getting ready for the fun that is the hospital waiting room. I’ve got 2 knitting projects, a magazine for the San Diego Comic Con, a novel, and about 4 DS games to help me wait out a 2 hour procedure. Think I’ve got enough stuff? Maybe I need another game….

Anyway, I have a slightly random question to all you folks out there (more than likely all y’all that are moms, let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?) I have a teddy bear that needs a bath, but I know that washing machines are a bad way to go (glass eyes should not be smacked around, you know.) and besides I really don’t feel like spending $10 on the dryer to get the stuffing dry. Any ideas on surface cleaning stuffed toys?

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This past Saturday was World Wide Knit In Public Day (no I am not making this up.) The point, I think, is somewhat dependent on the person who is knitting in public, but for many people it is a way to get others interested in knitting. It’s a way to start a dialog with the public, many of whom stop and ask questions and comment on the work.

I started pondering this as I prepared my projects for Saturday (I decided on my lace shawl, if anyone’s interested,) and I started thinking how impossible this sort of thing would be for video gamers. First off knitting is a bit more portable. Also it doesn’t require electrical outlets.

Sure there are handheld game devices, but they seem to somewhat defeat the point. It would be nigh impossible to drag a big enough screen out into a public square to ensure that the public could see the game in question, thus hopefully sparking conversation. Then there is the insanely wide variety of games to showcase- ranging from Old School Super Mario Brothers to Grand Theft Auto to Dance Dance Revolution. And, naturally, no matter what game one chooses others are sure to have extreme objections to that game.

It’s kinda sad, I think really. There’s a great capability for common ground and community for this sort of thing, if it’s taken out of the scary (and loud, and often dark) arcades and brought into the sunshine and the public, but the very things that make it so powerful and interesting and varied are the very things that make it impossible to ‘take out to the people.’ I guess I’ll have to stick to knitting video game inspired sweaters, and explaining them to anyone who asks.

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Thanks to a medical command regarding diet and general health here at Chez Spwug my dearest and I have started on a diet. Also I am making him take a couple of short walks every day to help him get into better shape, as he is, well… prone to sitting rather than moving. Thanks to the demands of various works (including helping out with Diginin Publishing,) and then the natural desire to relax after a day full of various work, he is fairly chair-and-sofa prone. Upon reflection I realize that I, too, have gravitated sofa-ward. I mean, I even play WoW from my sofa (can I just mention off topic here how much I love love love having a laptop these days?)

This sudden need to shake that lifestyle up has coincided rather interestingly with the advent of the Wii Fit, thus making me really start thinking about geeks and health. It is, after all, a fairly well known stereotype- the overweight pimply geek that either games nonstop or hangs out at the local comic book store. We all know the image, but how many of us actually conform to it? I have a number of friends who, in addition to rather serious gaming habits manage to make time for rock climbing, for body building, and for martial arts to name a few. They are distinctly not conforming to that geek physique image. The advent of Dance Dance Revolution got millions of gamers off their butts, and the Wii Fit is sure to do the same, though for a somewhat different reason I suspect. I’m personally looking forward to seeing how it pans out. I myself need to find an exercise based fun thing that I can do to get ME off the sofa a bit more- is there anything you guys could recommend to busy chick?

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Ok, so we kinda caved a bit this weekend and downloaded the new Wiiware Final Fantasy game “My Life as a King.” I might be a bit of a sucker for both the FF mystique and also for a shiny new city builder. And this is definitely both shiny and full of Final Fantasy goodness.

You start out, a child king, walking into an empty city with your two advisers- Chancellor Chime, and Sir Hugh. After a quick chat with the giant glowing crystal in the middle of the town’s main square, you get right to work effectively summoning houses (thus conjuring a population to live in your city) and other assorted buildings. The twist to this RPG-lite is that you can’t go clearing out the dungeons yourself- you must commission adventurers and send them off to do the dirty work for you while you stay in town chatting up the common folks and basically waiting.

The game is divided up by days (Chime also acts as nanny, sending you “to bed” to cycle through the days,) and at the beginning of the day you issue behests, thus telling your adventurers what you want done. I’m only about a ‘month’ into it, trying to collect buildings from the dungeons so that I can find out about the shadowy monster mastermind, and solve the riddle of what happened to the old king who disappeared mysteriously years before.

I’m really enjoying this game, and look forward to the inevitable million or so hours that I will be lost to it entirely instead of participating in “Real Life.” Hell, I was barely able to tear myself away from the game to go out to a Jonathan Coulton concert last night, and man, I’d have missed one hell of a show. I didn’t know that three average-to-geeky guys could remove clothing that fast!

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First of all I want to grovel at your feet a bit. I have been utterly unreliable for pretty much anything except getting to work on time lately, and even that has been a bit shady. Even things like housework have been getting seriously neglected- a sad state of affairs here at Chez Spwug. Why all the neglect of responsibilities? It’s been mostly because I have had to put so much energy into the business of keeping this business going at all. Fortunately I think I’ve filled out the last of the paperwork and things seem to be coming unstuck again. Hurrah!

Which brings me to the thing I wanted to rant on about. In pursuit of some Things Geeky (and also maybe in a serious bout of procrastination,) I did get out to see the Iron Man movie (twice.) I’m not going to review it here, since that’s been covered by many folks who are better at that than I am, I did want to point out a cameo that I thought was interesting. It was not a cameo by a Famous Movie Star, nor one by a Crossover Character (although if you didn’t stay through the credits you’ve missed a good thing,) but one by Jim Cramer. A stock investment show host. Yes, I realize he was discussing the merits of stock in Stark Enterprises, but still. Did they just get some Wall Street in my Geekdom?!

Of course they did. I have recently noticed more and more financial anylists discussing things more commonly discussed in comic book shops. From pundits frothing at the mouth about Grand Theft Moneymaker, to those who are gleefully watching their Take Two stocks take off, to CNBC spending an entire half hour segment discussing the Vivendi/Activision merger, to stock tip stars making cameos in summer comic book blockbusters- the economic power of The Geek is being recognized for the juggernaut it truly is.

don’t get me wrong, now. I don’t think that all this Wall Street attention is sullying the geek cred of our video games and comic books and whatnot. I just think it’s interesting that sometimes money does buy respect.

Also- Iron Man really does kick serious Hollywood ass.

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I’m awful sorry that I’ve been so absent of late. Life, sadly, has a way of screwing up schedules right when you don’t want it to, and that’s pretty much what happened. Ah well.

While I’ve been trying to cope with life’s little insanities over the past couple of weeks, the calmest moments have been coming at my job. You see, I am an office temp right now, and I’m currently assigned to a financial firm. The branch I’m working in is fairly relaxed, since it’s where all the paperwork gets shuffled and things get processed, but it’s still a financial firm and I’m wearing more suits and high heels than I ever have before.

I’ve been there for a few weeks now and I only just noticed something that made me think. I was jolted a bit out of my paper-shuffling stupor by an overheard comment across the cubicles: “You two are like Mario and Luigi!” *blink* now I’m not sure exactly what he meant by that statement since I hadn’t been paying attention to the conversation till that moment- whether the two in question were always seen with each other, were color coded, or were constantly rescuing inept princesses- but it made me sort of look around. I realized that I’d been working in a cubicle farm with distinctly geeky slant to it. There was a Hello Kitty toy here, a Transformer figure there- traces of geekdom dotted the desks.

The more I looked, the more I realized that this is the result of the total cultural saturation of things like Nintendo and anime. Now that I’m looking around more a bit, I realize that it’s everywhere I go, and on the one hand I’m glad to see that it’s more socially mainstream and accepted, but on the other I feel a little bit like my secret clubhouse has been ransacked. I dunno.

How does anyone else feel about it?

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It’s been a little crazy here in my little ol’ weekend, I’m afraid, and I have to be at a job in 45 minutes, so hopefully I will have time this evening to expand on this, (Assuming that I get to leave this job after a normal workday. It might happen…)

Anyway, I came across this BBC article last week regarding the debate over the best way to regulate video games. There seems to be a proposal to have an official ratings body that will replace the industry’s self regulating rating methods. On the one hand, I feel kinda relieved to know that the US isn’t the only place that this argument is raging (I know, I know, it’s everywhere.) but on the other hand I have to weep a little that we as adult type persons raising children need to be told what to do all the time.

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I do hope that you don’t mind if I take some time in my column to reminisce a bit. I’ve been telling this story all weekend and I just can’t get it out of my head, so I’ve decided to bother you all with it.

It starts out at the Maryland Renaissance Festival, which if you’ve never been to a ren faire, is across between a themed Halloween party and an arts festival, with a little bit of county fair thrown in for good measure. You will find all types there from people wearing street clothes and boggling at the crazies in costumes, to girls with fairy wings, to pirates (and yes, I’ve seen a ninja.) For many people it’s like LARPing, without the need to think up rules for monsters or magic users. I tend to go on Pirate Weekend, so I can wear my fabulous hat (It’s wide brimmed, black velour, with two rather amazing feathers coming out where the brim is turned up Crocodile Dundee style,) but I don’t get too overwrought about costume details. Black jeans and my leather corset-top-thingie are more than good enough of an excuse to wear the hat. I love the hat. (Hey, if I want to play dress up at 26 I am perfectly well allowed to, thanks.)

Well on this particular Pirate Weekend a couple of my friends and I were heading to the food stalls and try to choose between the many bad for you but oh so tasty options for lunch when I caught sight of a pair of reenactors. They were an olderish couple, decked out in full period accurate garb, and the man had the most fantastic beard. I knew full well that I knew them from somewhere, but thanks to my amazing memory I was drawing a complete blank. Worse still, they’d seen me and were heading over. As I slowly made my way towards them (not wanting to be rude and all, I mean, it doesn’t hurt to say ‘hey how ya doing?’) I kept trying to think where I’d seen them before. Must have been a theatre somewhere. Maybe the summerstock I did a few years ago? Oh man, I HAVE to come up with some NAMES or something!!

As we drew near to each other I glanced at the beard again and it dawned on me suddenly. A ray of light pierced the clouds in my brain and I knew. I knew that beard. I knew it perfectly well and I was apparently a bit of a dimwit not to have recognized it instantly, or the couple, for that matter. I said the only thing I could in the situation. “Aunt Wendy! Uncle Skip! How are you guys?!”

I felt a bit relieved as my aunt (who I’ve only known my whole life and see all the time,) looked at me with startled recognition, glanced down at my costume, and said, “Katy!! You’ve got BOOBS!”

That’s pretty much the whole story. My aunt and uncle were indeed there with the pirate camp, so I got to have a tour of it and meet everyone which was pretty cool. My uncle had to go off and give a cannon demonstration and I lost track of them both as my friends wanted to do something on the other side of the fairgrounds, but it was a pretty cool day to be able to spend with some relatives in a completely different environment. My uncle passed away last week, but I’ll always remember that he had the best beard I’ve ever met.

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There’s something really unfortunate about being sick on a weekend. It kinda feels like your body is cheating you out of a day off, instead of during the work week when it’s more like an unexpected reprieve from the drudgery of the office. Fortunately for me, Sunday wasn’t ruined, really, since I did basically what I’d been hoping to do- I sat on the sofa, bundled up, and played video games. Specifically Psychonauts.

Now, if you haven’t heard of this game, it’s a pity. While it came out a few years ago, it’s wasn’t wildly popular like, say, Madden. Which is too bad, because this game is super sharp. The writing alone makes this game worth playing. It’s hysterical, even the throw away dialog that you hear when you walk past other characters on your journeys around the camp. Just wander around and stand near people, honestly it’s worth it. The game basically is this: You play Raz, a young boy who’s run away from home (at the circus) to go to summer camp. Not just any summer camp, of course, it’s a summer camp for kids endowed with extra mental powers. It quickly becomes clear that Something Is Not Right as Raz witnesses a strange and creepy man stealing the brain of one of the other campers!

Now I haven’t gotten too far in the game yet (I kept having to take time off for naps and tea and suchlike. Curse this being ill.) but so far Raz has learned several new tricks including pyrokenisis and what can best be described as mind bullets. I’m not sure how they will top the amazing level where I got to play a godzilla style monster in downtown lungfishopolis, though. There is something deeply satisfying about crushing buildings with a single footstep and throwing tanks at each other, then finally fighting an endboss styled after Ultraman.

Now I do have to admit that Psychonauts has an appropriately bizarre art style, and some of the levels are definitely strange, which can be somewhat offputting, but I think that the genius of the writers and the geme’s designers trumps that. So, if you’re looking for something new and maybe a bit quirky, this game is definitely for you. G’wan, help Raz through the special troubles of a summer camp for really special kids. It’s a fabulous way to spend a sick day.

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Still another tough question! Aren’t I full of ponderous philosophy lately? But really, how DO you put a price on artistic work? Let’s think about it from a purely business standpoint for a moment. There are the materials to consider, (and if the work is digital, that can be pricey indeed! Yeah, Photoshop and Wacom tablets!) There is the hourly rate of the artist, which will naturally vary from person to person. There is printing, mounting, blocking, packaging, and shipping, that all might be necessary to consider. Then there is a big question- what if it’s a movie of some sort? Distribution is another cost- do you go with DVDs or release it on a digital download system?

Assuming you aren’t going to make one person pay for your entire Adobe CS bill, how do you decide how much to charge for that print? How much should a hand knit sweater cost? Or the CD that took your band 2 months to put together? Or the quilt that your grandmother made? It’s really hard to be honest with yourself when putting a monetary value on your time, your talents, and your passion. Most artists do it because they love the art, not because they want to get filthy rich, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be fairly compensated for what they do.

When I asked Hawk about his work, he talked about his Ebay auctions from a few years ago. He was raising funds for… um… something, and posted a few sketches up on Ebay to help. Auctions are wonderful for determining the value of a piece of work, though it’s sometimes tough to get perspective. Hawk’s work ended up in a last-second bidding war and the sketch sold for several hundred dollars. “I was freaking out when it up just to 20 bucks! In my mind, it’s just a sketch, a drawing. I’m not dead!” The not being dead part seems to be a sticking point- DaVinci and Degas are dead and their work is priceless! That must be the trick! I can’t be alive while my work is valued highly!! What do you do if you’re not dead but still want to make some money off your work?!

I asked Garth Graham about how he puts a price on his art when I talked to him recently- he’s a professional artist making a living off his work. “A lot of it is having a heart to heart talk with yourself and saying, ‘how much am I worth?’ A realistic evaluation of the quality of your work, and how long it takes to make it, and how much that time and effort is worth.” It’s hard to be honest enough with yourself to come to a fair price for your time, but there are ways to start: “I took a look at how much the ‘professionals’ make. I probably should take a look at how much their clients get billed (as one is always bigger than the other in industry). Then I averaged how long it takes me to do a particular kind of drawing and used that as a baseline. I charge commissions based on complexity, using that baseline as a minimum.”

It really still boils down to being honest with yourself about your skills and talents, and how strongly you feel about the work in question. How do you price a creative work?

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