It’s Time to Change the World: Part 1

Hello everyone and welcome to 2010. This year, a lot is going to change. I can feel it. Before I continue with my other retrospects on 2009 as the day goes on, let me spend some time to review some things from the blog.

Total Number of Posts: 45 [approximately one every two or so weeks]
Most Visited Post: Game Maker (8?) Has a New Feature

Number of Articles: 10

Part two of my retrospect will cover some of the most important news throughout the last year. Part three, coming later this week, will feature my personal look back on 2009.

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The Logo Is More Than Just An Icon

Earlier today, Sandy Duncan, CEO of YoYo Games, had the supposed privilege to unveil the all new Game Maker logo. Unfortunately, in the hearts and minds of many, he made the wrong choice. The logo, which was actually revealed two weeks ago Game Maker Blog, only garnered eight percent of the vote in a poll conducted on the set of potential new logos for the program. While there were only 500-odd voters in the poll, the fact that this particular design only received a total of 45 votes (and came in last place) is not insignificant. And, as the leadership of YoYo Games is starting to see in the aftermath of this announcement, many are not happy.

For a program such as Game Maker, its image and reputation is really the most important tool used to sell such a program. Yes, it’s easy to use. Yes, it’s inexpensive and, for a lightweight version, free. But the thing is, Game Maker has grown from a niche tool to a program that is used, by some counts, in schools and university programs and by hundreds of thousands of indie programmers across the world. Some would argue that the old icon was, well, old. Others argue that a change was needed, but not something this big. Frankly, I think YoYo misses the point of an icon or logo. The logo is more than just the icon one sees when they launch the application; it’s the face of the program to the public.

Soon, across the YoYo Games website, the fabled, still respected red ball will be replaced with a smiley face inside of a gear, with a facial expression similar to a person on crack cocaine. If that is how YoYo wishes to represent their program, then fine.

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Updates Galore; An Apology for the Record Books

I really can’t even begin to explain how sorry I am for not updating the blog in over a month. While I promised to have a good, informative post every week or two, my plan for such a schedule failed miserably. That being said, I’m back, and ready to update everyone on what has been quite a fun, intense, awkward, and all around decent month and a half.

In the time since my last update, seasons have changed, operating systems have been updated, new musical albums have been released, school and cross country has started, and I haven’t been sick. Yes, quite a course of events if I must say to myself. In any case, the most important event (well, combination of events, I would say) has been school starting. For the first time in eleven years, I was not worried about school starting. I guess when it’s your last year in high school, ‘starting new’ isn’t really exactly what it seems, especially for me. I was going back into school with all my old friends, some of my old teachers in new classes, a course load to scare away most incompetent bastards, and a cross country and Frisbee team that is getting ready to win the league championships.

School as whole was never hard. Over the past two years I’ve realized that I have to work hard, but I can still have fun and joke around. This year takes that mantra of thought to a whole new level. For two periods every day I have AP Physics (I bypassed standard Physics), which is filled mostly with my friends, a cool teacher, and an overall fun time. While the class won’t be easy, I’d rather work slightly more and get college credit than sit around in a standard high school class. Third period every day is a study hall, which consists of my second breakfast of the day (a bagel with butter and some orange juice), and, when homework doesn’t need to be done, some intense games of Uno. Fourth period, though, is the worst part of my day. In order to take AP Physics, I would not be able to take the college English class I was originally signed up to take. As such, I was thrown into Short Stories and Creative Writing with all of the ‘unwashed masses’. Basically, this is where people go when they don’t want any sort of college prep or credit. In short: it’s a bunch of stupid people and me. Coming from an honors level course last year, with essays and term papers filled with enhanced vocabulary and thoughts, this is like dying a slow death. It’s so bad I had to explain, and spell, the word ‘hypocrite’ during a group discussion the other day. If I didn’t need the class to graduate, I’d have dropped it in a heartbeat. Fifth period every day is another study hall, and since most of my homework is usually finished in third period study hall, this is where the championship-level Uno games are held. On a side note, I play Uno a lot. By the time 11:30am rolls around, I’m in my favorite class of the day: AP Government. Since I’m leaning towards a History or Political Science major in college, I enjoy the majority of subjects and discussions we have in class. Plus, we have a cool teacher. For example, we bribed him with baked goods (brownies, cookies, etc.) to delay the due dates for assignments. Pretty cool, no? Seventh period is lunch, which is a load of fun. I can’t count the number of times I’ve laughed till I cried in the past few weeks alone. Eighth period is college algebra, which, although not fun, isn’t that hard. The teacher picks on me for not doing a little question on the homework or what not, but seeing as though he was good friends with my late uncle, I can see why he is pushing me to try harder. Finally, ninth period is (college level) French, which is the same teacher I had two years ago. In all honesty, the class is incredibly easy. We are reading French murder mysteries, and the teacher reads the passage in French, and then translates it to English for us. That’s basically the class. All in all, it’s a great school schedule. Most of the classes I’m taking will help me in terms of college (I should be leaving high school with 19 college credits, which is over a semesters worth of classes), and it really isn’t all that difficult so far.

Since I do not exactly have the time to discuss some new technology news and rumors I’ve been hearing, I will call this an end for now. And don’t worry, my next update will not take a month to get out the door!

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New Posts Coming Soon

So I must apologize for not having made an effort to update the blog in the past few weeks. That being said I will be sure to publish a few new posts within the next week or two, so please be patient! Thanks a bunch.

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