Ryan
Chasing greatness

So I’ve been having problems sleeping lately. That is fine, except I’m tired and cranky during the day. Oddly enough, that is about the right demeanor for used car shopping, which is what is occupying my time.

By the by, the movie, “The Code” isn’t so great. It has got some A-List actors, but it tried way to hard and failed.

So my ideas. First, I thought about creating a website. I’m sure it exists already, and I don’t think I have the energy to do it, but what it would be is a central resource for gamers.

Wow, breakthrough stuff. I know.

What I really want it to function as, is a social networking site for gamers to find other people, their million different names, stats, and games that they have, so they can have a better time playing games with people they like.

So your profile would have bare bones information about you, and then all of the various games you had on various platforms and poll whatever statistic collecting sites there are, for live updates of those players’ informations. That way, everything is in one place and people can check up on friends, rivals, and clans.

The other idea is for a game that I should have made by now, but I didn’t have the angles worked out. Of course it is a zombie game.

Now, there are humans and zombies in a procedurally generated town/city. There is a certain number of humans that can exist based on map size. They are naked and helpless. They have to forage for food, water, and supplies, while being attacked by zombies. Their scores will be based on survival and zombie kills.

The Zombies are endless, but there will really only be a certain amount roaming at a time. The zombies can be either human controlled, or player controlled. The beauty of this is that the zombies serve as a lobby while you wait for your turn to be a human.

Those who wait can see a top down map of everything except where humans are, and jump into a zombie that isn’t in use and run around doing their best to find and kill a human. If they die, the kick out to the map, and another zombie starts.

I have lots of other ideas to make the game interesting by restricting player-to-player communication, and various other sensory issues.

If I were a better man, I would create a team and make this game.

First up, I’m on Twitter.

Take a deep breath.

While on there, I found a great little article I wanted to share. If you’re not up on the nerd, you might not get it.

Here it is.

By the way, its a hoax.

Anyway, I finished my video game resume, and after the upcoming bachelor party I’ll be kicking ass and sending it out to all of the companies that my dearest friends have thoughtfully sent to me.

I also recently heard the Dave Ramsey show on the radio during my 18 hour car ride. The man makes sense. Check it out if you are interested in your finances.

Yesterday I put Megan in my car and drove from 5AM until 1AM to get to NC for a bachelor party. It was tiring, but I wound up feeling pretty accomplished by the end of the whole deal.

Tennessee never ends. It is forever.

Anyway, I’m catching up on the internet this morning and so I thought I’d share a story that sounds more like a myth than anything else. It is from Megan’s grandfather.

Well, he was working on a ranch in California back in the 60s and there was a 25-30 acre lake there. Koy Sr. (Megan’s grandfather) was always having to run hippies, campers, and fishermen off of the lake. Most of the time it was peaceful, other times, he had to bring a gun or 6-foot pipe wrench to persuade people.

Anyway, there was a little boy out there fishing and doing a great job. Eventually is family found him down there fishing, and when they asked how he was catching all of the fish, he said, “I found me some of those bitin’ worms.”

He then put his scabbed up hand into his pocket and pulled out baby rattlesnakes.

He died before they could get him to the hospital.

If you check the date, I’m writing this late. Mostly because of the lack of internet. Lots of little things have happened between the last entry and the 4th, but I’m going to skip them.

First, I should bring up the preparations. Koy (Megan’s father and I) kicked ass for 2 full days. Working from 7:30AM until 7PM getting everything perfect.

It involved tractors, chainsaws, the occasional gunshot, lawn mowers, pole diggers, and some other things I’m not familiar with.

What all of it amounted to was the potential for great fun. We had a fishing tournament, Texas Hold’em Poker tournament, Cornhole tournament and a golf chipping tournament.

We even had t-shirts for the teams. Team “Lattatudes” represented well, but did not place high enough for the prizes.

Megan’s father had just finished his 14 hour night shift when the festivities began at 8AM. He kept going until midnight that night. The man is insane.

Really everyone had a great time, and everyone was looking forward to the next year, which made Megan’s father the happiest kid in the group.

So here I am in Oklahoma.

It is hot.

I spend most of my days reading books or drowning in the iPhone APIs.  I’m trying to get 2 applications done before I get to NC.

It is a really good exercise to learn to program on a new technology with an unfamiliar language without the internet.  It is also a pretty big exercise in patience.

I can’t paint such a depressing picture really, because I have had a good time.  Megan’s Dad has taken me to play golf and is teaching me how to shoot guns.