Fortytwoisms, and bursting the blurster

New project for 2014

For those of you who actually enjoyed following my creative pursuits last year, you may be interested in my new venture. It's a challenge I'm attempting with my mate Geoff Rose, and we're calling it "Fortytwoisms".

From the blog:

From February through December 2014, Geoff and Simon are exploring a range of different philosophical approaches to living. Commencing each month with a reading list, they will learn about the tenets of some of the great (and maybe not so great) philosophers and philosophies of history. Equipped with their new found and undoubtedly narrow understanding, they will conclude the month with a week of living within the bounds of those philosophical principles, hopefully not going crazy in the process. And by year's end, with any luck, they might just stumble across the question to the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

Follow along at fortytwoisms.blogspot.com.au

Bursting the blurster

The bubble blurster has finally completed their snarky shadow project, and the results are, well, blurst-tastic. They cut a few corners, broke some of their own rules, and missed some deadlines, but I'm hardly in a position to be critical about that. A thoroughly entertaining parody that has kept me on edge for months, I applaud the effort. Please check out all the posts at projectblurstyourbubble.blogspot.com.au/

But of course the questions remains: who is the bubble blurster?

Is it Mathew and Toby, as indicated by the bubble blurster's video mashup, or was that a sly misdirection? Perhaps Emily, operating from afar in Canberra? Did Dave and Mike join forces? - the t-shirt was certainly their style.

No. A careful analysis of writing style, cockiness and hubris suggests an obvious culprit. I'm calling it - Maciej Wasilewicz is the bubble blurster. Unmask yourself sir!

Year in Review

12 months ago I declared my New Years Resolution: to produce 12 distinct creative outputs in a single year. I wanted to challenge myself to actually complete things instead of just daydream about completing things. Quality was a goal, but not a requirement. The only absolute requirement was to publicly press the submit button 12 times.

Mid year I got into trouble and missed a deadline, and never really recovered. In the end, I had to submit 4 entries in December in order to catch up. Quality certainly got very hairy at times, particularly right at the finish line. But I got there.

The 12 projects were: a sketch self portrait, a short story, a video mashup, a web comic, a sonnet, a short play, cross stitch, a computer game, a food blog, a treasure hunt, a short video, and a caricature self portrait.

My favourites are the sonnet and the cross stitch. The most time consuming was definitely the cross stitch. The one I'm proudest about getting finished (it was really hard) is the short play. The forms I hope to continue experimenting in are the short play, the poetry and the short video.

Thanks for following along this year. It's been both fun and very stressful. There will be a different challenge for 2014. The resolution is ready, but the explanatory blog might take a few days to arrive. Stay tuned.

December 31st (USA time)

First up: the technicality. I'm in San Francisco. Over here it is still 2013. So I'm not late. My project my rules.

Ok, so, as Blurst entries go, this one is pretty much a disaster. If I was self scoring for quality, it would be an absolute fail. However, if you refer back to the purpose of Project Blurst (see the first post), it is only effort that actually matters. I wanted to force myself to produce creative output, and on that measure this entry qualifies. JUST.

My idea with project 12 was to provide a companion project to the self portrait sketch I attempted in project 1. This time, I would draw myself as a caricature. So I watched a couple of YouTube how-to videos, and settled in to produce a comic masterpiece of self reflection. Using my tablet to draw with. Whilst on an airplane. Which experienced regular turbulence for most of the flight. Yeah.

So, I saved every effort. They barely improve with time. Yikes.

Also, I'm posting this from my tablet, so my formatting/rotating capacity is very limited. But anyway, you get the idea. Not pretty.

And that is it! I'll submit an overall project wrapup post in a few minutes time.

December 29th

I'm going skiing in Colorado in January, so for Christmas I bought myself a GoPro camera, for filming all the sick and gnarly stunts and whatnot that I'll obviously be pulling. My Dad kindly built me a super backpack rig for mounting the camera onto. I thought I should try it out and get used it before hitting the slopes, so I made this little test video for Project Blurst.

A day in the life...


I'm now 11 projects down, with 2 days left in the year. Will I make it?...

December 24th

  

Secret Santa Treasure Hunt

How to succeed at Reddit Secret Santa in 9 easy steps.

[note: some data has been obscured for privacy reasons]

Step 1 - Sign up for Reddit Secret Santa.

Step 2 - Receive details of random secret santa, who by sheer coincidence lives in your suburb.

Step 3 - Devise devious plan to capitalise on recipient proximity.

Step 4 - Design a treasure map leading from recipient's abode to location of hidden treasure. Design a series of clues in the form of memes. Print the memes on the back of the map, and cut it up into pieces.



Step 5 - Insert the first three memes/map pieces into an envelope, address it to recipient, hand deliver into recipient's letter box in the middle of the night.

Step 6 - Wait 24 hours and then repeat Step 5 with the next three memes/map pieces.

Step 7 - Wait 72 hours (for added suspense) and then repeat Step 5 with the final three memes/map pieces.

Step 8 - Prepare treasure and place as marked on the map.

Obtain festive treasure box...

Insert Success Kid meme... 

Add chocolate Santas...

Fill with chocolate gold...

Lid and label...

...and hide where X marks the spot.

Step 9 - Check spot 24 hours later; treasure is gone, find note left behind:

SUCCESS! Glad you had fun fellow redditor!

December 9th

Hello blursters. Long time no post.

This little experiment is WAY behind schedule. You are going to see plenty of action this month if I'm going to achieve my goal of 12 projects in 1 calendar year. Strap in.

Today, a food blog. I've run a number of websites and blogs in my time for various endeavours, but never a personal blog. So, in conjunction with a new nutrition regime I've been undertaking lately, I present a companion food blog.

Charlie's Dodgy Dinners

For much joviality, may I recommend the chilli con carne stuffed capsicum.

Tuck in!

Vegetarians be warned: lots of pictures of meat.

September 6th

Still running late, but not as badly as last month, I present my latest effort.

Charlie's Election Voting Game

A text based adventure game in the style of 1980s classics like Zork and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game.

This game is very simple in intent, reasonably straightforward in story, and not very comprehensively constructed. As for playability? I can finish it, but I have no idea if anyone else will be able to. It could be ridiculously easy or stupendously difficult. I guess we'll find out.

It is election themed, and as such, will only remain topical for the next 40 odd hours. Oh well.

Enjoy, I hope. Here's the link.