<@jasonw> diablocody: Picked up a new magazine, settled in contentedly, and opened to a page with David Edelstein calling me “a joke.” Good morning!
<@jasonw> That is why I could not handle being famous
< zole> Yeah, that’s a bit rough
< zole> Although to be fair Diablo Cody kind of is a joke
< zole> “Did you hear the one about the stripper who became a screenwriter”
< zole> “Stop me if Juno this one”
< zole> EXPLODE
<@jasonw> Ugh
< zole> That second line may not have been necessary
Just for the heck of it, I created a Facebook page for Death To The Extremist. If you’re so inclined, go on over there and Become a Fan!
I don’t know what happens after that. Probably something good.
Christian Finnegan observed that how you play Monopoly says a lot about how you handle adult life.
Six levels into playing World of Goo on the Wii, I’m noticing something similar. World of Goo challenges you to get a bunch of goo-ball dudes from point A to point B by fashioning some of them into bridges, towers, and so forth. As you build structures with the balls, they sag and sway and tip over as if they were actually made of semi-solid goo. It’s very cool.
The problem is that I never took high school physics. The physical world in general isn’t my forte; that’s why I got into video games in the first place. When I was a kid my dad pointed out to me that triangles are the strongest shape, which is true (albeit not really useful when you’re building Legos), but that’s about all the knowledge I can call upon to make these goo structures.
So I build my tower, but it starts to sway, so I shore up the base. I don’t want to waste the balls, since you get scored based on how many you have left over after you build your structure. This leads me to compromise the foundation, which doesn’t become clear until the tower’s tall enough that it’s really starting to tip over. I scramble to prop it up, but it’s too late, and pretty soon I have a U-shaped comb-over tower. Good thing the goo is flexible, or it’d be a disgusting scene.
On my next attempt I build slowly, making sure there’s plenty of support at the base, and being careful to maintain the tower’s balance as it goes up. I finally get it high enough to reach the series of tubes that the balls want to get to for whatever reason, but there are none of them left to climb the tower — they’re all in it.
And that’s where things start to feel like a metaphor. If I take a naive approach, everything comes crashing down before I get anywhere. If I slow down and really think about the problem, I still don’t get anywhere, and I waste more time and resources along the way.
World of Goo is a fun game, but try not to take it personally. At least with Monopoly I end up owning some property.