Here's something you may not know about me: I really enjoy playing tabletop role-playing games. (Oh, don't act so surprised about it. You've all known how strange I am for a long time. :) ) I suppose I should say that I really enjoy running tabletop role-playing games—since that's what I've mostly been doing in the hobby for the past couple years—but I still consider the narrator/storyteller/gamemaster to be playing the game, so it's pretty much the same thing. But as I've been looking at my RPG hobby habits, I've noticed a very disturbing trend, one that I've also seen reflected into my other hobbies and even my non-recreational endeavors.
I have a hard time staying with things.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Tetris and Story Addiction
As enjoyable as our trip back to New England two weeks ago was, I'm starting to regret the amount of time I took off work. For some reason, it seems that whenever I take more than eight hours of vacation time, I end up needing to take another eight or so hours of sick time just to shake whatever disease I come down with upon my return. Luckily, it's usually nothing more serious than a head cold or an allergy flare-up, but it's still a little irritating (and embarrassing, because I always feel like an idiot when I have to take sick time after just taking a bunch of vacation).
Friday, May 25, 2012
My New Project
Well, welcome to my new blog. I seem to have fallen into a bit of a creative slump over the last year, and I'm hoping that this will help me break out of it. Mostly by forcing myself to write something semi-regularly and putting it up where people can read and discuss it. (Who knew that a nerd like me would end up needing so much social interaction?)
Let me explain the point behind this site. A few years ago, I started up a little game review blog that eventually went nowhere. (You can look at the dessicated corpse here, if you like.) And one of the issues I ran into was that it felt a little too constrained for me. I have a lot to say (apparently), and some of it doesn't necessarily fit in well with reviews and news about all the facets of modern-day gaming. I also fancy myself something of a fiction writer, and that kind of thing definitely doesn't belong on a gaming blog. Locke'd Life is here to serve as my general purpose canvas, to let me write what I want to write and put it all up in one convenient(ly ignorable) place on the internet. I'm hoping that what I post will have some value and be relevant to at least a small portion of the world's population, but at the very least, the act of writing it will be of value to me.
So why "Locke'd Life"? Do I feel trapped by my surroundings and situation? Am I raging against the machine or despairing at my intellectual impotence? Nope. I'm using that title because I find it catchy, and also because "Locke" has become kind of an internet pseudonym for me. There have been many theories as to why I frequently use Locke to identify myself online (philosopher John Locke, fictional ideologue Locke from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, that crazy bald guy from Lost), but I'm proud to say that it's because of a video game and a great group of friends on an online message board.
You see, Final Fantasy VI (known in the US as Final Fantasy III) was the very first video game I ever purchased with my own money, and it was also the very first role-playing game I had ever played through. (I had fits and starts with the Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy IV (II, in the States), but never really got into them.) In the opening chapter of the game, a gallant and swashbuckling thief is introduced, a character that I instantly identified with for his chivalrous nature. Can you guess his name?
Locke Cole became something of a video game idol to me, and I still hold a very special place in my heart for good-natured and honorable rogues everywhere. And when the internet became the Next Big Thing, I carried my special regard for Mr. Cole online with me, taking lockecole_13 as my very first Hotmail address. The years progressed, and I soon found myself at BYU, interacting with members of Quark, the campus's science fiction and fantasy club. The club runs a messageboard for its members, and still hanging on to my fascination with Mr. Cole, I took "Locke" as my username. Over the five-plus years I've been a member of Quark, Locke has stopped being just my handle and has become part of my actual identity. In fact, most of the Quarkies I talk to off-line call me Locke instead of my actual first name. It just seems to fit now.
Let me explain the point behind this site. A few years ago, I started up a little game review blog that eventually went nowhere. (You can look at the dessicated corpse here, if you like.) And one of the issues I ran into was that it felt a little too constrained for me. I have a lot to say (apparently), and some of it doesn't necessarily fit in well with reviews and news about all the facets of modern-day gaming. I also fancy myself something of a fiction writer, and that kind of thing definitely doesn't belong on a gaming blog. Locke'd Life is here to serve as my general purpose canvas, to let me write what I want to write and put it all up in one convenient(ly ignorable) place on the internet. I'm hoping that what I post will have some value and be relevant to at least a small portion of the world's population, but at the very least, the act of writing it will be of value to me.
So why "Locke'd Life"? Do I feel trapped by my surroundings and situation? Am I raging against the machine or despairing at my intellectual impotence? Nope. I'm using that title because I find it catchy, and also because "Locke" has become kind of an internet pseudonym for me. There have been many theories as to why I frequently use Locke to identify myself online (philosopher John Locke, fictional ideologue Locke from Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, that crazy bald guy from Lost), but I'm proud to say that it's because of a video game and a great group of friends on an online message board.
You see, Final Fantasy VI (known in the US as Final Fantasy III) was the very first video game I ever purchased with my own money, and it was also the very first role-playing game I had ever played through. (I had fits and starts with the Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy IV (II, in the States), but never really got into them.) In the opening chapter of the game, a gallant and swashbuckling thief is introduced, a character that I instantly identified with for his chivalrous nature. Can you guess his name?
Locke Cole became something of a video game idol to me, and I still hold a very special place in my heart for good-natured and honorable rogues everywhere. And when the internet became the Next Big Thing, I carried my special regard for Mr. Cole online with me, taking lockecole_13 as my very first Hotmail address. The years progressed, and I soon found myself at BYU, interacting with members of Quark, the campus's science fiction and fantasy club. The club runs a messageboard for its members, and still hanging on to my fascination with Mr. Cole, I took "Locke" as my username. Over the five-plus years I've been a member of Quark, Locke has stopped being just my handle and has become part of my actual identity. In fact, most of the Quarkies I talk to off-line call me Locke instead of my actual first name. It just seems to fit now.
TLDR: Welcome to my Locke'd Life. Hope you enjoy your stay.
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