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Creativity Blockage

Filed Under Category Rants by Benjamin M. Strozykowski

I haven’t made much time recently to sit down and write. Between summer class AppIndie 2.0 work and family stuff, I haven’t exactly been a maven of productivity.

Just as I haven’t been writing any blog posts (the last one was when?), I haven’t been working much on my novels, or any of the other creative pursuits that I’ve come to enjoy. Though I make an effort to show up for my writing time, but nothing seems to come out when I sit down.

Writer’s block is probably nothing to stress about, but just the same, it feels me with that bit of anxiety that seems to permeate through the rest of my life.

While some of my friends and colleagues seem to be moving forward with their work and creative pursuits, I seem to be just stuck in the mud.
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June 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment  |

Video Game Ratings Are Worthless

Filed Under Category Rants by Benjamin M. Strozykowski

Note: This is not meant to be a post about how the ESRB ratings system itself is worthless, rather that there is a giant portion missing from the concept: parental involvement.

I recently purchased The Sims 3 for my wife, and we had a short discussion about the opinions some parents had over the “sexual content” in the previous Sims games.

Though I’ve been involved in all kinds of gaming communities for M-rated games, I failed to understand how a parent could be outraged by such a small thing in a video game that they themselves bought for their children.  It was only then that I realized that these parents were completely clueless about the games they were purchasing for their children, then had the gall (or stupidity) to be angry at the game companies for the content that the parents allowed their children to experience.

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June 3, 2009 | 2 Comments  |

Living in an Open Society

Filed Under Category Rants by Benjamin M. Strozykowski

I recently had a conversation with a close friend about the topic of Intellectual Property, and in the course of the conversation, my ideas were thrown back at me, and I realized that I’ve been looking at the topic in the wrong light.

This event has been spinning through my mind since that day, and I’ve been working toward deciding where I stand with regards to piracy, giving things away for free, and being a creative person for a living.  Though there are so many shades of grey in this type of debate, I’d like to share my thoughts in a semi-organized fashion.
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June 2, 2009 | 4 Comments  |

Resistance and Creativity

Filed Under Category Rants by Benjamin M. Strozykowski

This may be an unorganized mess of a post, so please stick in there.

It has been a long time (far too long) since I last updated the blog. I have been getting a steady stream of hits to some of the relevant posts here on Worthless Genius, but truthfully, everything has been a bit stale.

I’ve updated the theme here, to make it look a little nicer, and a bit more modern, but that’s just about all the work that I’ve put into the blog lately.

The lack of update could be due to a large number of unrelated circumstances, or it could simply be that I’ve been lazy lately. So, I just want to touch on a few ideas that have been circling around in my head for the past month, with a brief explanation.
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May 29, 2009 | 1 Comment  |

WTF Wednesday – Parking Poachers

Filed Under Category WTF Wednesday by Benjamin M. Strozykowski
This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series WTF Wednesday

I missed the mark with this WTF Wednesday, but I’m still here.

What is a parking poacher?  ‘Parking Poacher’ is a term I came up with (but is apparently already used) to describe the people who, in a large parking lot, see a person coming out to their car with a cart full of groceries, and wait incessantly for that person to finish loading their car up in order to take their parking space.

While this doesn’t sound so bad, the fact is that these parking poachers tend to block the aisles, completely demolishing the flow of traffic.  Often, one finds oneself behind a parking poacher without knowing it, and soon a long line of people waiting to get by builds up, causing even more disgruntled shoppers.

What motivates a parking poacher?  That perfect spot.  They have to be within 30 feet of the entrance to the store, or their hearts will explode under the exertion caused by walking an extra ten feet.

If you go to a parking lot, and it is very full, please, please use your brain, and bust a few extra calories instead of waiting ten minutes for a parking space that is only 20 feet closer to the entrance.  In the time that you have been waiting, you could have already been partially done your shopping trip, and you wouldn’t be pissing off nearly as many people in the process.

It feels good to get that off my chest.

An Aside
I’ve been planning a lot lately where I’m headed with this blog, and the state of my workflow which hasn’t allowed me to post nearly as often as I would like.  It’s been a year since I started doing this whole crazy thing, and I’ve done all kinds of things that I wouldn’t have been able to experience in the process.

I have 4 or 5 new comics planned, which need to make their way into Fireworks.  I also have gotten over my sickness, so I’m planning the next podcast episode.

So, if you are a loyal reader, stick around, I’m not going anywhere.  Things are coming, but I can’t guarantee dates or anything of that nature.

April 30, 2009 | 3 Comments  |

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