Baaaad. I dunno how it got so bad, but my cough is so harsh my stomach and back muscles are actually sore from coughing so much. The doctor prescribed me a bunch of medicine and put me off work for a week. There’s no way I’m taking a week off though 
Also some bonus pics of my cat sleeping where I least expected a cat to sleep:
What can I say? I’m a hobbyist. I like working on anything related to games. Even if I don’t finish a project per-say; I still enjoy the journey.
Modulus Software… Bakburner Etc… Arcadium Software. What’s up with all the name changes? Its just a branding really… nothing official. And to be honest they’re all 100% pointless. I’m pretty sure Arcadium Software is where we’ll stop, though. I’m confident in that because its the one that really means something to us; not just a name we invented just for the sake of having a name. We started out writing stuff for The Arcadium and all of our projects have evolved from that. It fits.
We’ve had our ups and downs as far as projects go. Those of you who’ve followed us from PGM to GATM until now have seen some interesting shit come and go. Successes? PGM+gNIX, Hoverboard, Firebox and MuseX, The Zinger Gamemode… plus Chad’s numerous useful modules. Failures and disappointments? GATM+Gear, Gadget, Zahmbeez!, The Zinger XNA Game/Arclyte, etc, etc, etc… lets not dwell on those; what we take away and learn from them is more important.
What have we learned? LOTS!
Chad and I both have what we’ve come to refer to as Developers A.D.D.! We really have a hard time focusing on projects. Its not a lack of commitment, its just we often find other things of interest that detours us from— holy shit that cat has a big nutsack!
Secondly, we’re also O.C.D.-ish perfectionists. Which is why we “start over from scratch” oh too often.
And finally… although we both retain the ability to do all sorts of extravagant stuff, including writing a game engine from scratch, what we’re really best at is developing for Garry’s Mod. Why? Its simple: its where our roots are at. And as a couple of programmers, using all the already existing content of Garry’s Mod makes our work so much easier. When we try to do standalone projects we find ourselves like a couple of bums wandering around town begging for content… “maps for the poor? a few models please? just spare me a texture or two? no I won’t buy alcohol with it… ninjas kidnapped my family I need assets to buy kung-fu lessons”.
So whats Arcadium Software up to these days? Surprisingly to most of you… LOADS. We don’t talk about our projects much anymore. We’ve learned that hype isn’t really something you need at the start. Sure, once you have something to show… something worth showing… then you can start fishing for interest and find yourself some followers to get decent feedback.
On my days off when I’m in my garage (because the rest of the family is sleeping) I’ve started working on the Arcadium Software website from my laptop. I’m trying to manage my time better. So instead of working on the website stuff during the day (when I have access to my desktop computer), I work on whatever project I’m currently occupied with. I’m maximizing my time! A concept new to me 
If you know what we’re up to, you sneaky bastard! If not… patience. Because we are up to stuff 
I’d like to invite you all the rejoin the forums and tinker with them; let us know of anything that needs to be fixed. (read this thread as to why you need to rejoin the forums)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhh. I never update my blog anymore. Its like… I can’t find anything to blog about. But I have stuff to blog about, just too lazy to blog about it. I have stuff I want to say and talk about, and to be honest I don’t really care if anyone reads it. But its shit I need to verbally (textually?) vent to help me sort things out. Sorta like when you talk out loud to solve a math problem…. yea, totally like that.
So to those who read this: Hi. Sup? Remember when I loaned you that $10? You totally need to pay me back now. Thanks.
Okay so I’ll post more about stuff I’m up to. K?
I stumbled across this video, really enjoyed it:
Tomorrow I’ll talk about my trip to the Jimmy Kimmel show.
I had to give up my PS2 this evening… why? It’s all about growing up.
No no no… you got it all wrong… I’m not growing up, silly goose. My son Aidan is growing up. Seeing as I have an Xbox 360, Dreamcast and 2 laptops in my garage, I figured I could spare the hardware (well not really, but I’ll find a way to cope with my loss). He’s 3 1/2 now and we’re trying to find ways for him to become more independent.
First thing first is getting him out of our bed. I totally blame my wife and she takes full responsibility, but he’s used to sleeping in our bed. It all started when he was really young and I worked shitty hours. My wife didn’t like sleeping alone so she brought him in bed with her. Now that’s all changed and its becoming really annoying waking up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in your back because his elbow or knee is digging in. So how do we solve this dilemma? Bribery. I told him I would give him the PS2 (along with the Guitar Hero controller) if he started sleeping in his bed… then after a solid week of doing so he’ll get a new game.
I’ll report back in a week and we’ll see how it went. By the way, while searching for the PS2 logo I came across this image. Holy fuck.
Video unrelated…
Been working hard on the server lately, trying to get everything configured the way it needs to be. Setting up security, installing applications and managing game server content… all the normal shit you would expect.
Oh, then I disabled Remote Desktop connections.
Update: After giving my host detailed steps on how to fix it, its finally fixed… woooo!
Okay so I’ve been doing a lot of work on the server, its almost ready to start properly hosting game servers. On that note I’m going to officially introduce The Arcadium website (for those of you who haven’t found it).
What is The Arcadium? Its not just a Garry’s Mod server anymore… its the adopted branding of all our projects (“our” meaning Chad and I). We ditched the name Bakburner and prior to that we ditched the name Modulus. WHRY? Good question with a simple answer: none of them felt right. Plus we’re weird, and what does it really matter to you?
Anyways… we’re still putting stuff together but here’s the link: http://www.the-arcadium.com. The Bakburner website will also redirect there now as well.
My new dedicated server is online and live!
Just gotta set it all up and get the game servers running…. woot!
Remember The Arcadium? Most of you probably do.
I remember back when it was a Garry’s Mod server that became a favorite to many people, around the same time PGM was around. And then everyone requested more and more game servers, and I complied. And then the community got bigger, and problems arose, and more bullshit happened and kept happening. So I tried to bandage the community by reinventing it into a bigger community that encompassed all sorts of games… well you know the story.
The saddest part is that The Arcadium got lost in all the commotion… until now. Yes The Arcadium is coming back. When? Soon.
After nearly two years with my current server host I decided to switch to a new host. This time its going to be a provider on the east coast. WHRY?!? …you ask. Well, mainly because the provider is a really good one (from what I’ve been reading) and they only have data centers over there. Most of the people that play seem to be east coast as well. I did a few traceroutes and ping tests and I get a pretty good ping to there location anyways, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal for me and the other west coasters.
So once the new server is ready I’ll get The Arcadium server up again and let everyone know!
…is coming back and posting again. I took a long vacation from the blog and other activities, but I’m inclined to get back to my roots and do what I love doing.
When Chad and I decided to work on our game engine, we made a big mistake. We thought, “lets drop all our other projects so nothing gets in our way!”. Bad move. Dropping all our other projects just made the game engine a chore and we lost touch with what we enjoyed most… having fun 
I’m cooking up some cool stuff… more on that soon to come.
