Today was much less zombie-like than yesterday, and I can’t explain why. It just was. I came downstairs, put on some jazz, and checked my email, where I finally received 1) more than 2 pieces of email, and 2) a response from Jody, the head of the EXCEL program at Union Institute and University, reviewing my EXCEL essay thus far. I got a very favorable response, though there was an overwhelming request for more personal examples of what I was talking about. This is difficult for me, as I find it hard to write both personally and what I deem “professionally”. I’ll just have to do what I can, though. It’s due the 22nd, which means it needs to be in the mail by the 19th, which means I need to be done by the 18th. 17 days from now, essentially. This shouldn’t be too hard, though. I don’t have that much more to do.

In other news, I had a meeting with some folks from PA today, concerning working with them to bring UberCon to the Seattle area. This went over VERY favorably, and I’m back to being excited about the prospect of organizing the convention again. I need to send them some information, but that’s mostly information I need to confirm with Kevin, first (such as any changes made to the sponsorship forms, et cetera). I can’t talk too much about it yet, but it’s definitely a “Yay” situation.

I’m a little frustrated with my content right now. Nothing wrong with blogging, I suppose, but I just feel like I should have more content that is relevant to more than just people who know me. More essays, reviews, and art. That said, I just picked up criticalgames.com, which will be a site dedicated to discussion of games as a serious medium for creative expression.

I’m really excited by the concept of criticalgames.com, and I’ve already gotten some pretty favorable interest in people wanting to write for it. The whole idea of it is a place for critical thought on games and the game industry, in an effort to educate the public about games and validate their credibility as a serious creative medium. This is in response to the great number of people who don’t take gaming seriously or feel it is deserving of protection under the First Amendment. It’s surprising and disheartening to realize just how many people out there think of games as nothing more than PacMan and Pong (no story, simple), or (worse) GTA and CounterStrike (gory and destructive).

It’s a topic I feel very strongly about, and I look forward to bringing this concept to fruition. (This will be a sister site to Uri’s originalending.com, which I’m also working on.)

Okay, that’s enough from me for now, but do check out my wife’s blog, and go harass my brother and Eli about not updating their blogs. (Well… Uri is excused, since he’s been in the process of moving and without a connection. And Eli’s been busy busy busy at work. Still wish they’d update, though… just as much as my site is a way for people back home to keep in touch with me, their sites are a way to keep in touch with people back home.)