Transneptune

I fear I have gone a little mad. My mind and time have been so occupied by one thing—linguistics—that I retaliate by thinking about another—games and their design—as much as I can. I am filled with a manic energy, and sleep goes by the wayside. I read for my classes as fast as I can, internalize the ideas and render them almost automatic, and then go back to grappling with whatever the question of the week is—how to encourage this sort of story in a game, how to model that. I get to bed at 3am, I wake up at 9 on the days I can get up late. It all fits, somehow.

The theme of one of the games I am working on is this very madness—not the madness of someone trapped by their own mind, but the madness of someone driven, someone with ideas fighting their way out, demanding to be realized. Jonathan Strange in his time in Venice seems not an altogether inappropriate comparison; I fear that were someone to enter my chambers, I might very well be distracted by the sensation that a pineapple were issuing forth from their mouth, rather than words. Except, here, a pineapple is meant to stand for a narrative structure, or a game idea, or perhaps a strange discourse pattern.

This is what I came here for.

And yet, there is more. I do not simply overflow with game design and lack of sleep. I teach, and hopefully clarify. My students are a joy—they ask questions, they understand the material, they dig deeper until they reach the limit of what I can usefully explain and they can understand. I hope I help more than hinder, of course.

So, I ask your pardon if I have been monomaniacal. I am still here, just full-up. I’ve been singing, some. It helps.

Tags: madness, singing, time management by Kit
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Today, I was staring blankly at Information Structuring in Papago Narrative Discourse (Payne 1987), and getting nowhere. Ever alert and ever insightful, Allison suggested we go for a walk, and get out of the house.

And what a walk! We went up the Wonderland Creek Trail (how perfect for her, right?) where she’s been going for runs lately, and saw the hordes of grasshoppers bouncing around the tall grass. We walked along the creek under the shade of the trees, and it felt perfect. I am glad to have water like that so close.fantastic

But the best was yet to come. On the way back, we went through a tunnel that the creek and the path take under the road. And there, we found the echo. The perfect, amazing echo. We sang Foggy Dew and then I sang Patriot Game, and Allie observed that, given the melodic structure of the song and the strength and timing of the echo, I was accompanying myself. It was just what I needed.

Now, about that information structuring in Tohono O’odham (“Papago” being not the right name).

Tags: grad school, singing, water by Kit
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So, I went to another board game party with coworkers, this time at Aaron’s.  It was great fun, there was Settlers, beer, guitar, geeking out.  The best bit came, however, at the end: it was THUNDERING by the time we all left, so Theban drove all of us as far as he could manage (except for Vesa, the Finn, who decided this was fine weather to bike home in).  This left me at the Boulder Transit Center, a few blocks from my house.  I had thought, for some reason, to bring an umbrella, and it was definitely a good idea.  This rain is torrential, and I had a bag of games to keep dry!  But the weather lifted my spirits like nothing else I could imagine, and I started belting out Bold Riley as I walked.  A girl walking a bit ahead of me noticed, turned, smiled, so I commented that “you have no idea how much I’ve missed weather like this.”  Her rejoinder: “I’ve been in Cairo for a year.  I do!”  It was lovely, to sing in the rain, and, I must admit, frolic a bit.  Puddles may have been splashed in.

The thunder out here is spectacular.  When I was in Hakodate, I saw the most amazing fireworks of my life.  Part of that was just that the Japanese know their fireworks, but part of it was that it was a sonic display as much as visual: the sound was designed to have some impressive deep notes and booms, and best of all, echo off of the mountain at the end of the peninsula.  Here, the thunder—already impressive—has a whole mountain, and particularly good sounding boards like the Flatirons, to echo off of.  You get it all twice, at least.

Tags: board games, rain, singing, weather by Kit
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