My Aerovelociped..

My Aerovelociped Propeller needs a Fix

I went to the window moments ago and noticed it was snowing again. Right across the street, at the same level, a few people were watching the snow from their windows too, enjoying the moment. Next thing in the morning we will all walk muddy street and breath a cold, foggy, poisoned air. This reminded me of something we so easy forget, about how fragile everything is and how what's good can pass in the blink of an eye. I don't want to lean carelessly towards philosophy here, but that is in the nature of everyone of us. It's part of (maybe the core of) being human.
I am reading online newspapers frequently and I believe it's well over 3 years since I last read 2 good news in one day. Everywhere there's something wrong, bombs are dropping off, jobs are lost, a showdown of business backed media with morbid entertainment. And with every day passing I find myself getting more and more addicted to be part of a community that is not in any way related to the cruel realities of modern life. The community here at Garage Games helped me. And I really mean that. Well beyond words and nice regards stamped at the bottom of an email.

Now, to avoid writing this blog away from the general guidelines (no project, no pictures and so on) I will just say if you're lurking around gg.com for longer than 3-4 years, you already know this. But if you're one of those guys finding your way around, remember this: the community, this community, is not about everybody else helping you. It's the other way around. It's about you helping the others; If you do so, you will be surprised to discover that the rest of the community will react in the same way. I really can't describe the felling one can get when help is offered, at no cost and / or royalties for that matter.

I am not talking crap out of the bag, it is true. It happened to me, and it happened to others. I am not special in any way, in fact, in the first year I think I was a pain in the arse asking the silliest questions ever.

You know, English being my third language (second being Childish, since I'm a dad) sometimes I worry about getting it all wrong out there and it feels like going home after hours, without the glasses, in a mist so thick you can't see your fingers. I stray sometimes in a weird sarcasm and miss typed irony but I try to write my posts clean and respectfully. If I fail, I do it under the pressure of the moment, I never hold on to it.

What's the story then?

I was always fascinated by flying machines, with no particular tie to my very never-leave-the-ground nature. It gives me creeps and dizziness only thinking of taking of aboard a jet, however big the thing is. However, I always felt like I could try one of those early machines in the 20's. It's something relay crazy and adventurous about it. We got our own pioneers here in Romania, 3 of them quite famous around the world; For instance, Henry Coanda invented the jet engine whatever Discovery Channel is trying to sell you.

I also had a passion for crafts, building contraptions and what not. Never really care what the contraption was or did, the making of it was the whole meaning and driving force. Exploring stuff and making stuff that goes woof and woooz and weee and kaboom after a short(er) flight.

Then Steve Jobs decided to push Steve Wozniak into putting together the personal computer, you know the story, some disagree with it, thing is, in a short while we were able to move the entire shop from the basement in a computer. All kinds of nifty stuff now were possible, from drawing with a rat-thingy to recreating entire worlds with a degree of realism well beyond our dreams.

I guess what really attracted me at Torque was the simplistic approach of the demo; a sky, a terrain, a guy in there with a weapon and a cottage. In my attempts to learn the thing and make something out of it (no, not the next big mmo) I walked many side paths, from personal development to learning how to compile a build.
There's more to learn because we are all moving on and things change around us. Sometimes without notice. Except it's really hard to kill that little thing in you, the kid playing with a toy and dreaming of becoming a hero. We all have a bike, a doll, or a book somewhere in the garage or in the attic. We keep them there for some reason, maybe hoping one day we can play again all day.

This is what torque does to me. It keeps a dream alive, however worn the term is. And sure as hell I ain't throwing my aerovelociped away. In fact, I plan on taking it for a ride as soon as I fix the left propeller.

Edit: HTML Formatting is back :)