Follow your dreams!

On my quest to become a legitimate writer I'm doing some freelance work for other blogs! This particular freelance job has to do with video games and going to the Montreal Game Summit and writing about the talks I attended.


Here's one about following your dreams!

An Argument for Following your Passion

I am no stranger to inspirational speeches. After watching Steve Jobs’ commencement speech on YouTube the day after he died, I went on a commencement speech rampage that I hoped would thrill and inspire me. And it did! So when I had to choose the talks that I would attend at MIGS 2011 it was only obvious that Alex Alvarez’s talk would be one I wouldn’t miss. The description alone made it a worthwhile speech to attend even though it was classified as being in the “design” category.  My fellow ‘gamedevourers’ were confused as well but we went with it. There was a very real chance I’d end up in a technical talk I wouldn’t understand, but it would be inspiring as it was described as: “Inspiration through lifelong education-The importance of creative development in the world of entertainment art”.  I like to feel inspired!

I was pleasantly surprised when the talk was essentially a commencement speech and, as advertised, an argument for entertainment art. Alvarez is a pretty staunch advocate for the fine arts. He was an artist as a child. He loved drawing, he loved experimenting with computers and, as most of us do, he loved Star Wars. However, his education in his formative years took top priority and that education did not include art. He is quite right in saying that school is not a place where you can get a proper art education. We are always told it is a difficult path to take. We are told to stay in school, become business and science majors and take over the world! Well I am a living proof that fancy pants undergraduate and graduate degrees need not necessarily lead to the easy life as promised. So why should an art degree be any more ridiculous than a business degree? In my experience, it is difficult to find a job that you’ll like in any professional area, so why not choose one that you love and just be done with it? This is the crux of Alvarez’s argument. Do what you love and you will be happy.

As Alvarez was recounting the events that led him to doing what he loved, it was apparent that this is a route most people take to finding their passion. After years of setting his art aside to be a good student, Alvarez ended up in an Ivy League college doing a degree that he found useless and discovering that there is probably more to life than the Ivy League, a fancy degree and conforming to the so-called norm. So he dropped out and decided that he was going to have a career in the arts. After exploring many avenues like colouring for comic books for $7 an hour, he signed up for a design school where he learned about graphic design. As he went on to become a professional in the arts, he decided that he wanted to create an art school that would benefit amateurs and professionals alike and that would foster artistic creativity. This would be a school where amateur artists would learn from real working artists and would be given the resources to follow their dreams. And so he founded the Gnomon School of Visual Effects which boasts a staggering 95% placement rate due to its "pretty treacherous portfolio requirements". The goal of the school is to promote a creative environment by bringing like-minded people together and to be able to learn from others and to teach others about the craft. It’s an amazing and inspirational idea. Be critical of your educational environment and, if it doesn’t suit you, find a way to make it right.

All in all the talk wasn’t really about games, and yet I found it critical for someone trying to get into working in the gaming industry. We are always told about how important it is to stay in school, get a degree and that somehow, that route will be the key to instant success. And it is! But study a subject you love! Work in something you love! If you do, you will definitely be happy. 

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It's not posted yet but check out gamedevourer.fr!

Overheard on the train

When I need to go into the city for work and other city related things I generally take the train in to avoid traffic. It is WAY cooler than the bus and is a guaranteed 30 minute journey.

With the exception of occasional crying, screaming children, a hippy playing the guitar, high school students and girls fighting with their significant others on the phone and crying, train people are very quiet and peaceful. They read on their various devices, listen to their music, watch their TV shows and look out the window as they slowly fall asleep with the soothing rocking of the train on its tracks. If people are talking it's usually in hushed tones about business ventures or their Thanksgiving dinner. 

Today was different.

I was unintentionally eavesdropping on the the most revealing, depressing conversation I have ever been privy to in my entire life. 

Two ladies speaking a mixture of French and English seemed to be having a competition for who had the most depressing story to tell. 

Lady-sat-diagonally-from-me seemed to have won. See her mother was very sick when Lady-sat-diagonally-from-me was a child and had a life threatening illness for as long as Lady-sat-diagonally-from-me can remember. Her mother died when Lady-sat-diagonally-from-me was 11 years old of something OTHER than the life threatening illness though. It was something that put her in a coma that inevitably killed her. Her brother was 13 and very distressed by this. Also 13 is a distressing, life-altering age in general so Lady-sat-diagonally-from-me says her brother was basically a little shit after her mother's death. Her father didn't take it well either. See he was never really home. He worked a lot and so she didn't really know him. It was rough. And then her father died when she was 17. How, you ask? He killed himself because it was all too much for him. He had the whole thing planned out. Left his kids all the money and killed himself. Apparently her brother was a little shit then too. So basically she was on her own.

Lady-sat-diagonally-from-me's husband also has a depressing job. Also her daughter is married to a guy who doesn't want to have kids but her daughter wants to have kids and is sad but has basically given up on trying to have kids for this guy.

In other news, Lady-sitting-next-to-me's friend's daughter was pregnant. She was due this month but today she was taken in to give birth to a stillborn child. The sadness doesn't end there. Apparently the father of the child died in August of diabetes related causes and so, though that was really sad, everyone was really happy this baby was coming along. It's just ridiculously sad and depressing.

Also a man that both these women work with is having an affair that exploded in his face. It was a weird situation in which his wife broke with him because she found out he was having an affair but then his mistress broke up with him too because she ended up being married or having another boyfriend or something. So his life is in the shits too. It's really ridiculous and depressing. 

Yeah. I'm not making this up. 

Helloo again!

Hey all!


I've been a horrible blogger! And I call myself a person who LOVES to write! But as most of you know I've been busy getting a JOB! And then being SICK! And then recovering from being sick which took [is taking] FOREVER! And then trying to find a NEW JOB! Times are tough.


But hey that's no excuse! It's been almost one year since I started this thing and I really haven't been great at updating it. I would say that that will change now but it most likely won't. It's best to not make promises because then if you break them you don't look like an epic douche :). Non-committal nods and smiles all around. 


So we left off with a tomato and raspberry becoming friends in a friendly yet morbid tale of fruit shelf life and the childhood angst I felt over uneaten grains of rice. (Seriously though take all those uneaten grains of rice? You could feed the world! But I digress). Powerful stuff. 


I have many things to write about. Some weird. Most funny. Some sad and a little pathetic. A smorgasbord if you will.


Until then enjoy this two lined poem I wrote when I was 16. It's wonderful in its simplicity.

Bubbles

I blew a bubble in the sky

It disappeared I don't know why

À bientôt!