Administrivia

I am adding a pile of of people with whom I have had varying degrees of contact over the last six months or so. This includes a number of fellow pmrp people (a.k.a. the chicken heart people), so if you are part of that and you didn't know who this "prog" person is, there you go. I have friended people for less, I reckon.

I do this because it pleases me, tra la. You are under no obligation to reciprocate, though you certainly may if you wish.

(no subject)

Spent most of Thursday writing the full business plan's outline. Unlike my last attempt, this one actually looks like a plan, and part of what took so long was on-the-fly research to put some real numbers into it. Googling up this info is a lot easier now than it was last year, since casual gaming has emerged more fully as a market unto its own and a lot more people are writing about it.

Not that anyone really agrees on how large the casual game market is, since the definition of what's inside and what's outside is a little mushy, and there's a significant amount of relevant commerce that is hard to track and, I suspect, often just fudged by the experts. But the different sources all generally agree on its current rate of growth, which is approximately "holy crap", and that's what investors tend to care more about.

For the more descriptive parts of the plan, I bet I can cannibalize much of last year's draft. I'll have to revisit the aspartaimee-edited version.

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Officially bedazzled that we're getting into the last third of May, here. There is no question that we're gaining altitude, but it's not happening so quickly that I'm not continually worried about it. We've got a mountain to clear before summer is over.

I've largely withdrawn from programming in order to spend all my time promoting Volity and Gamut and hunting for funding. Well and good, but this leaves us with only one full-time programmer, while we have enough work for two or three. My attitude towards funding has lately shifted from "it's an abstract prerequisite to striking out into a real office and going commercial" to "it's money that I want to use for hiring people right now."

(no subject)

I find the name "Planned Parenthood Express" kind of hilarious, too, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on. It's like something you'd find in a social-satire dystopian-SF comedy that was written 35 years ago.

They really could have called it something less breezy, anyway.

Origins

Almost definitely going, though not entirely sure how we're getting there yet.

Flying is the obvious answer, except it's ass-expensive and I hate flying (indeed my most recent moments in a plane, landing at Boston after Origins 2004, were my worst in-a-plane moments ever and AFAIC justified all the years of flight-fear before that). Driving is cheap but not a popular option with other elements of the Volity Supreme Executive Committee. (I personally like long drives so long as I'm drowning in portable media, but also recognize that the trip back is usually 15% as fun as the trip to, and when that trip is 13 hours long, hmm yes mumble grumble.)

If we fly I'm seriously getting dnrku first. Maybe while I'm spending my last dollars on the ticket, too. Deaden the pain.

I still haven't collected solid opinions about all of this from every member of V-SEC, but they will all probably gather at 1000 Volity Towers tonight to watch Dr. Who, so I can address them then.

(no subject)

Escape Pod is now airing, with subsequent shows, the nominees for the 2006 short-story Hugo. I think this is great. He's done two stories so far, and as always you can listen to them as you like for nuttin.

So far Steve's aired Tk'tk'tk by David D. Levine, which I liked, and Seventy-Five Years by Michael A. Burstein, which I couldn't get five minutes into because I found that it quickly becomes annoying, and then simply incorrect.

Steve's gotten into the habit of putting a spoken MPAA-style rating bumper at the start of every podcast. I was hoping he'd stop this when he spun off a separate "Escape Pod Classic" podcast that contains only the stories that he's run on the main show that don't contain swearing, sex or anything else to upset parents. I find it grating, and annoying even when I skip past it, because (a) I don't want to be "warned" of any content of the story I'm about to encounter (where I come from, we call those spoilers) and (b) I have philosophical problems with the entire idea anyway. I mean: would Steve put MPAA stickers before every story in a short-story collection, warning of squishy content that each contains? If not, then would you instead restrict minors' access to the fiction section of bookstores and libraries?

I cynically assume that, as a non-parent, I have a reduced voice in this matter. But I am a listener and I should tell him anyway.