Apparently I write a new journal yearly now.

It isn't too much of a surprise, I suppose.  After my video game design course, I realized that I was not going to be an artists professionally; even if I increased my skills to the point that they were worth marketing, I don't enjoy drawing when I force myself to it - and I'm not very good at drawing when I force myself to it.  I don't have the art-centric mentality, the ability to stay focused on one picture for hours at a time.  So I decided to get back to writing (which I can do for hours at a time, and which I do still enjoy, even when it's something that wasn't my idea to write, or I'm forcing myself because of a deadline), and consequentially, I've not been spending much time on DeviantArt.

That said, I am spending this summer interning at a startup, where I'm the head and only full member of the design team.  Of course, since the company has about 5.5 people working for it, I have a whole lot of stuff to do that isn't producing graphic content.  This week I've been cramming code, and worked with two other interns to overhaul the website (the changes should be going live on Monday, and it will look much better than it does now).

The company, incidentally, is called 121nexus (121nexus.com), and focuses on creating personal connections on the web, which probably sounds like a bunch of buzz words.  The gist of it is that if people can be convinced to access landing pages on a website using a unique url, and the owner of that website knows something about the person using each unique url, then when that url is used, the person using it gets unique, personalized content.

Which still sounds a little like corporate speak.  Right now, we're running a version of it for political campaigns, but pretty soon, we're going to be using it for a dating application.  See, you get these cards with urls and QR codes on them, and if you see someone who looks interesting, but you're too shy / in too much of a hurry to talk to them, you can give them a card.  It will take them to a landing page with a message board that the card owner and the card distributor can access, so you can strike up a conversation (or not) without having to exchange personal information like phone numbers or e-mail addresses.

As a wallflower who communicates more easily via text, this sounds like a GREAT idea to me.  Maybe other, bolder people will denounce it as cowardly.  I dunno.

I am going to shut up now and get back to my novel.  I'm doing Camp Nanowrimo this month (campnanowrimo.com), so... words, words, words.

~Taidine

PS - Providence is a cool city, and I'm looking forward to visiting Boston one of these weekends, since it's a hop, skip, and a jump (aka a train ride) away!