So I’ve been reading over at Matt Haughey’s blog about his recent trip to the Bigha bike factory. Bighas are those weird-looking bikes that have you seated more upright than the bent-over models. There’s something about those suckers that appeals to me, although I’m not entirely sure what it is. Maybe it’s the high-tech gadgetry built into every model, maybe it’s the quirkiness of the design, maybe it’s just my desire to get outside and exercise again after a tummy-building winter. Regardless, at $3000 a pop, I’m not going to be affording one anytime soon. I have better things to do with my cash. Things like rent and car repairs and eventual purchasing of the Dreamsbay Compound.
I’ve been thinking a lot about houses lately. I’ve spent the last eighteen months in this great little house in Bethesda, a posh neighborhood on the outskirts of Washington, DC. It belongs to my old friend Nick, who bought it a few years ago when the company he works for relocated to Bethesda. I’m in no way, shape or form knocking the house – but it’s not what I want, in the long run. What I want is something (of course) closer to where I grew up – lots of trees, lots of land, and a barn/workshop where I can spend my days doing what I’m doing now, just not in my room. There’s too much allure of Everything Else when you work out of your home. The dishes in the sink, the laundry, the new boxed set of Stargate SG-1 that your roommate brought home… Too many distractions. I love working from home, but what I need is an office of my own. What I want is a detached studio, much like the way my parents have converted our old barn into a giant workshop and storage area. I’ve been fantasizing about what I’d do with my workshop/barn. An area set up for photography, a big library area (assuming I can get the sucker completely weatherproofed, which was always the trouble Mom and Dad had with theirs), and a huge workshop area for the computers and the bulletin boards and the other equipment. You know, a studio.
The trouble is, even in Ohio this stuff don’t come cheap. Granted, it’s hella cheaper than land out here, but still. I’ve really got to get the whole multimillionaire-novelist-filmmaker project off the ground. Maybe next week. 😉
Storyteller, scholar, consultant. Loving son, husband and father. Kindhearted mischief-maker.
I'm the Director of the Games and Simulation program at Miami University in Ohio, where I am also an Assistant Professor in the College of Creative Arts' Emerging Technology in Business and Design department. I'm also the director of Miami's Worldbuilding and Narrative Design Research Laboratory (WNDRLab). I have a Master's in Comparative Media Studies from MIT and a PhD in Media Arts and Practices from the University of Southern California.
In past lives I've been the lead Narrative Producer for Microsoft Studios and cofounder of its Narrative Design team, working on projects like Hololens, Quantum Break and new IP incubation; in a "future of media" think tank for Microsoft's CXO/CTO and its Chief Software Architect; the Creative Director for the University of Southern California's World Building Media Lab and the Technical Director, Creative Director and a Research Fellow for USC's Annenberg Innovation Lab; a Visiting Assistant Professor at Whittier College and director of its Whittier Other Worlds Laboratory (WOWLab); the Communications Director and a researcher for the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab; a founding member of the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT (now The Futures of Entertainment); a magazine editor; and a award-winning short film producer. more »
The opinions put forward in this blog are mine alone, and do not reflect the opinions of my employers.
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