creativity - Ina Disguise

creativity, economics, motivation

Spent £100, gave £50,000

February 8, 2017 2 Comments

Would you spend one hundred pounds in order to give someone else £50,000?

The Gamebia project, as it is now known, has costs and benefits.

The costs are to me, and once I have completed all tasks, the costs are going to be between £0 and £100.
The benefits are to an individual/ family in the Gambia, and will be the equivalent in local money of between 5 months and 4 years of the average Gambian wage. We worked out how much this would be for one modest person in the UK, and this worked out at £50k.

The reason for the disparity is as follows:

The person I am doing this for may decide to sell some of the equipment I am salvaging and keep only the laptop, which will yield about 5 months of local wages at the value of the equipment before I fixed it. It means that the postage was a bit pointless, but if this is what he has to do to survive, this is fair enough. I am not doing this to control anybody.

Assuming that I manage to fix as many machines as possible, the repaired value is 4 years of Gambian average wage, again quite a lot, but how many local people can afford this?

In the event that he decides to use the equipment to get other people used to computers and working, it will mean that he can use sites like fiverr, clickworker, youtube and hubpages to establish a presence online and create some passive income – income derived from work done once, and viewed many times. It also means he can be supported towards the ultimate aim of the project, which is to create a small gaming company producing visual novels, which are not all that cost effective to produce for most people here, but would make a very good income there. This makes the potential value of the project, provided that he puts the time in, which I believe he will, limitless. I reckon it will take a full year of fairly intensive work to get to the point of handing over control of new projects. In the meantime, I will have a team of people who can use work I can provide to train and earn at the same time, which seems to me to be mutually beneficial as I will be able to make a lot more novels in a short space of time. In addition to this I get to learn how to fix a host of new machines I would not otherwise have looked at.

So, all in all I believe this to be a worthwhile way of spending some time. My friend was wondering why on earth I would do it, and I think my friend in the Gambia was wondering if he was a ‘bumster,’ which I believe is a local term for gigolo. Not at all, I just thought limitless was a lot better than 5 months wages.

As a caring person who believes strongly in the value of opportunity, and as someone who gets by on almost nothing as a rule, I think I am spending my time wisely.

So, tell me, would you spend £0-100 on giving someone else £50,000?

creativity, economics, games

New Project – The Gambia

February 3, 2017 51 Comments

I just opened the studio after a three week hiatus whilst I got the computer games off the ground, only to find I had left a heater on. Not good.

Family stress is likely to be intense over the next six months as I try to preserve my mother against all odds due to the most unreliable friend I have ever had. The fact that this ‘gentleman’ was supposed to be a pillar of the community has just made his common-as-muck behaviour far far more expensive.

Being me, I have decided to make this the springboard for yet another project. It is a salvage operation which is designed to help generate some future income for a community in the Gambia. Not strictly a charitable act, since if the games are successful, this will give me an enthusiastic crew of people to work on future pieces of work.

For those who don’t get it – this is how to make the most of the world the way it already is, and make it sustainable for a population across the globe to actually survive. The ‘liberal’ sentiment that has you demanding more refugees to reduce your income apparently does not understand the concept of ‘labour specialism’ or the benefits of economic variety.

Were I to want to move to Africa, so far I would move to Morocco, which is a bit like the Europe of the 1930s in terms of economy. Ironically, I was made more welcome there than I was in London. As a Scot, this is not entirely surprising but it goes to show that struggling people are a whole lot more welcoming to certain people than people who believe that they have earned the right to be mean-spirited, self protective and bad mannered.

As someone who has worked hard all my life, to so far have next to nothing, with what I have left about to be taken to pay for my comparatively secure mother because of the inaction and snobbery of a lazy old man, it would seem strange to most people that I would choose to use my remaining time to benefit a community in a country I will probably never be able to afford to actually visit. My friend found this very strange, until I pointed out to him that it is in my nature to be practical and helpful before I think about my welfare, at which point he remembered that this is indeed the case.

From an economic perspective, it is most interesting already how people can be financially oppressed by something as simple as lacking a postcode or secure mail service. I am having to come up with ingenious ways of getting around a system in which you can send ten mobile phones in secure parcel, only to find that only three are in the parcel by the time they arrive.

As for the costings from this end, there is a subtle bidding war between parcel companies that has expressed itself via facebook and twitter. The cost of sending my parcel is going down by the day, via adverts that look as if they have randomly appeared on my timelines. We have even automated bidding wars.

Anyway the first two games are going well. I have a strong concept for both, and I think Wolfe, in particular, will be delighted at what I have come up with in terms of infogaming. It is a lot of work for one person.

Ina

creativity, games

The Best Adventure Ever FTAO David Wolfe

January 19, 2017 No Comments

I am getting on quite well with the game making side of things, and so I have decided to release Best Adventure Ever as a visual novel.

David is familiar with my graphic rendition of him, so he should not be too alarmed, but I need to make sure he is aware that I am planning to put his name on it, since it is unlikely that he will find an alternative method of reaching gamers.

I have just started work on the graphics, and am working on another piece of work designed to appeal to the more mature visual novel reader, who is not stuck in the anime/hentai groove and wants to try something a bit different.

One of the many fascinating things about Second Life, is how different we are from Americans. We even imagine ourselves differently. Americans tend to want chunky musclemen and tiny women with boobies, Europeans and others have a wealth of alternatives to this in terms of appearance.

Several times I have found myself in a room full of people debating, from all over the world, and we all agree versus the Americans in the room. You have no idea how culturally different they are until you try discussing philosophy or culture.

Anyway, Best Adventure Ever was a very complicated story, and now it will be several complicated stories, so it will take a while, but in the meantime, here is a lovely picture of David having fun on the beach.

creativity, games, politics

The Gambia, and a general progress update

December 10, 2016 No Comments

I see the deposed President of the Gambia, Jammeh has decided on a strategy for clinging to power. As a result, many young Gambians are proposing to take to the streets to protest.

It is interesting that scenarios like this still exist. To any hardcore strategy gamer, the plan is merely entertainment, and seems rather simple and quaint. Jammeh has decided to promote key members of the military, denounce the impartial IEC who supervised the vote, and replace them with a corrupt, self selected version who will give him the result he wants.

As a formerly keen player of Tropico 3, I can tell you that this does not lead to long term stability. It does lead to a more violent form of government which employs increasingly immediate means to quash dissent. I have advised my friend in the Gambia to stay well out of it and read some politics in preparation for deposing the guy, rather than rushing out and getting himself killed.

It is unfortunately unlikely that there will be any international intervention. The Gambia has a small population of two million extremely poor people, and since Jammeh’s announcement that he now considers the Gambia to be Muslim, this makes it less likely that anyone will rush to the aid of the population, which is not a good thing if you happen to be Gambian.

What Gambians should bear in mind, is that nobody remembers a dead protester. They remember the great educationalists, the politicians, the social actors that survived.

Jammeh, unfortunately, looks physically healthy, but his current behavior indicates that his knowledge of history is lacking to the extent that he is using techniques that are as old as the hills. There are safer, and better ways of eradicating corrupt rule than getting killed. Look for free texts online and get them printed off or saved if you can, for reading up on historical ways of removing dictators rather than getting yourself shot.

Another nice snippet for this week, is that my blonde bombshell is considered to be acting out again. He has my so far undying admiration for this. Boris, so far, is turning out to be more interesting, more fun and far better looking than his predecessor. Nice one, Boris. We were admiring your powerful brand earlier this evening.

The artwork is not going too badly either. Jemima Khan is looking good, Iain Duncan Smith is on the way, and Darius Guppy is going as expected. I am not sure how many I will release at once when they are complete. Although it is not a taxing daily workload, the curing times mean that these pieces are very slow and space consuming, so I may yet be some time with the artwork.

The game is also progressing nicely, and I should be past graphics preparation and into writing after the weekend. This is the first of three that I want to release at the same time, preferably alongside Best Adventure Ever and Lucifer Ogilvie, so it will be a few months yet.

As you can see, I had to restart the blog again, as wordpress had some problems updating. I sincerely hope that this doesn’t happen again, but I will have to start backing up more often.

creativity, motivation, politics

Boris the Conservative Muse

November 2, 2016 375 Comments

First of all, sorry about the lack of posts. I was a bit upset at the whole survey debacle. I had hoped that Scotland had grown out of the divisive poor self image crap that has led, on a personal basis to my being unemployable because I work too hard, and on a national basis, to a bunch of sheep playing follow my leader instead of developing their own political ideas. In addition, twitter decided to block the website, and so it was not really possible to do anything with the site until they actually read their emails.

I cannot see this being successful for the future, and so I choose to simply opt out of the argument. I was posting pro independence posts for long enough before I did the survey, and the response was overwhelmingly negative on both sides. In short, Scotland is a bit fail, and this is unlikely to change within my lifetime.

It is an interesting process, developing the ina disguise concept for a different person, who has this time been deliberately selected rather than the usual involuntary process. For Boris I have taken a small crowd of unemployed furniture, and rather than starving or threatening it, which would not have worked at all, I have invested time and money in it. (rather a lot of money, I had to sell my back up computers and shoes, amongst other things, to pay for the materials, some of which had to be imported from India)

I am sure any conservative would be delighted that my artwork has never cost anybody else anything. I spent the early part of my life overworking, avoiding having a social life and buying materials. I now have two rooms full of materials and tools, and because I cannot leave the house due to caring for my mother and her property 24/7, I now have time to do something with them. They will also be delighted to hear that we cannot access any of the services we are entitled to, as our local council is so corrupt that they openly admit to gunning for your house and savings if you try to use anything. Basically the only way around this is to not save anything in the course of your life.

Anyway, the Boris development is going to expand the existing threads to the work, so the Boris Experience, as such, has not really started yet. I do like the new ideas and confidence, however. Time will tell if this is a good development.

I did write about fear of status loss being a factor in people’s votes for independence. I have been chewing this over, since it is something I know rather a lot about. A good part of my family’s behaviour towards me and their mother was about status anxiety. I had a frankly crap, and certainly cheap education in comparison to them, and I am the most qualified person in the family.

It seems to me that status is a very destructive thing, to gain and to fear losing. It leads to irrational and poor behaviour towards others. Class is not the problem, money is not the problem. Status, real or imaginary, is the problem. If we start to say ‘fuck status’ where does that leave us?

Probably a lot happier, and certainly more open to new ideas than the miserable people I have had the misfortune to deal with.

I am in Tatler for the December issue, not in person of course. I am sure they will be delighted to have the Boris experience next year.

creativity, politics

The Boris Experience

October 28, 2016 No Comments

Haven’t bothered to write a post recently, as I have been busy working on the first pieces for the Boris Experience, which should be ready next month or so.

I have also changed tack significantly on the visual novel, and I think I will also work on one for David Wolfe as yet another freebie, since this worked relatively well with free books. As a prelude for the game I want to make featuring David, which is a real winner, I think it is probably a good idea, providing he doesn’t get annoyed about it.

The website is now fine according to Google, but Twitter is still not allowing me to post the website and so I have limited use for it. At least it forced me to look into security options.

I think Boris will appreciate the humour in this first set of items, thereafter I will be catching up with some reading for the book which will inevitably accompany the artwork.

In Tatler this month, with the Misery Mandala, so if you are a Tatler reader, look out for that.

creativity, games, games

Creating visual novels

October 21, 2016 No Comments

Creating visual novels

First look for renpy or buy yourself a builder. There are around five or so free builders online, but having bought one, I can tell you that this is a great option for adding bells and whistles.

Visual novels are particularly popular in Japan, but they are catching on everywhere as the ideas are often quirky and interesting.

From a user perspective, I personally find hitting enter over and over again pretty tedious, but then I cannot understand the fascination with comics and comic based art, so I am not a great example of a fan. I am more interested in it from the perspective of structure and branching storylines.

Do not involve an artist in your early dabblings, either you will waste weeks, or in my case months, for them to even pick your first picture and make it ‘perfect’ or you will waste the same amount of their time on ideas that you do not necessarily want in your finished product. Far better to look for an approximate image online and use it as a stand in until your ideas gain some finesse.

One of the many good things I am learning from doing this, is the nature of scripting and how instructions have to be broken down to create scenes. This is why I am doing it, so I am not quite so lost in the fog of learning to script. I think it is a worthwhile thing to do.

In terms of the money you can make, there are a few kickstarter projects requesting tens of thousands of dollars for creating great artwork, and potential customers seem to be throwing money at it based upon a few visuals. If that is your bag, this is probably the best way to raise yourself some capital before you even finish the project. Hardened visual novelists put out three or four a year to make a living, so at an estimate, each one is bringing in $300 or $400 dollars a month once their marketing gets going. Certainly beats writing, which brings in nothing at all for years and then if you are very fortunate, you might scratch a living for five more before you either hit the big time or fail.

I am going for a different option, which is to see what I can do without assistance, and then punting it on Steam if I create a good enough product. Steam has two layers of prequel creation, Early access, which costs around $100 or so to put your product on there for perusal and purchase, and they have a hidden section for trialling ideas, which if you have a few graphics ready, is a good way of gauging reactions to your efforts.

As far as I can see from my brief bits of research, fans of the genre like great graphics more than a great storyline. They are comic fans, after all, so far, but I have seen extended versions, such as 80 days, which are a bit more fulfilling in terms of story, and heavy on style rather than detail in terms of graphics. I hugely enjoyed 80 days, and so I am leaning towards this stylistic method of putting out a product.

Thereafter, I will return to learning to script whilst doing a couple more. In the meantime I am working hard on the furniture line with a view to getting the photography done and the products sold off to pay for more products. Thankfully I have found a great supplier in India for my chosen weaponry in terms of originality.

I am effectively extending the current themes, Jazz, Beach and Sheep in wolf’s clothing, although I kind of have Boris in mind whilst I am doing it. You will see for yourself how this pans out in terms of a visual feast towards the end of next month, barring accidents.

creativity, economics, politics

Shifting Cultural Boundaries – John Cleese gate

October 3, 2016 1 Comment

Shifting Cultural boundaries – John CleeseGate

It has been a very hard week. I have finally finished this piece:

I think the Misery Mandala went rather well. It is not cheap, but nothing worthwhile is. I refuse to undercharge as I would rather wait than work for no money. Besides which, I have to look on any work that sells as working capital.

I am working on three design concept strands at the moment, so I should bring out a catalogue of sorts towards the spring of next year. It is a lot of work, but I think it is a worthwhile idea to bring out an interior design concept to distribute to people who may be confused by my lack of compromise in terms of interior fashions. I cannot stand lightbulbs in fishbowls, for example, so I am unlikely to be the next Kelly Hoppen.

I was attacked by two Scottish Nationalists last week for my comments on the quick way of building our economy to withstand the demands of remaining in Europe. As someone who has a keen interest in Cultural Economics, I think grumpy old men should stop looking at their wrinkles and assuming that they know better, because a steady ‘diet’ of BBC and mutual backstabbing is unlikely to broaden their minds. Talking of which, I would like to advise that you be very gentle with John Cleese, who rather stuck his foot in it with his complaints about Scottish journalists this week.

John Cleese has lived through a period where the British Empire died, where Scottish people were considered cannon fodder, and then whingers who were to be starved of income for political purposes, and he has benefitted enormously from Britain just the way it was. He cannot be expected to evolve, because he is in the downward spiral phase of his life.

Yet that empire phase was considered charming by many Scots as well as English. Only a week or two ago my mother suddenly chastised me for my lack of conservatism, since she was brought up in a militarist, monarchist, conservative family who struggled to feed themselves and the poor down the hall for decades via extremely hard work. Her father died very young thanks to damage sustained in WW1. Her brother did very well during WW2 and like many of their generation, they remember the war as being a paradoxically happy period in British life, when everyone worked together.

What we are seeing at the moment, is a massive cultural shift, not to the left or to the right, but to a consideration of what is best for the future. Cleese would like to see a return to the past, like many Englishmen and Brexit voters. This is unlikely, but a stronger sense of English nationalism is not something that as Scottish people, we should misunderstand and call racism. They want to have some national pride. So would we.

It is a nonsense to suggest that nobody should express feelings of nationalism when we as Scottish nationalists are doing that when we express our wish for independence. As I was saying this morning, to suggest that curtailing free movement in Europe limits graduates is also a nonsense when Scottish graduates have to move to England to get work experience, frequently stay and run newspapers, (and indeed the whole UK in the case of Scottish politicians) and only after acquiring experience in English supported businesses come back to work at home. English rule made sure that was the case by the simple method of destroying our industrial economy.

The whole point of independence is that we can change that, create a real economy based on the principle that Scottish, not English, culture is superior when in Scotland.

We need to regain our sense of Scottish pride and encourage greatness at home. Taking the piss out of each other, expressing whining outrage at the rantings of a grumpy old man like Cleese, or rising to the bait when media figures choose to be offensive is not helpful.

I was extremely irritated by the two nats that had a go at me for making some very pertinent points last week and I actually considered leaving the SNP as being a tiresome, parochial and small minded party, until I considered that both of the men trying to discourage me were from the old school, tartan trouser and folk music generation that we as a country need to grow out of, in stature and mentality.

So, I implore you, think bigger and educate the boors, rather than simply labelling them and moving on. If you find yourself getting annoyed, take a step back and look at the situation again. You are right, and they are wrong. Be patient. be broad minded and stay sharp. It is going to be a hard two years.

creativity, motivation

Improve your life right now

September 15, 2016 No Comments

Today, I am feeling OK, because I have caught up with most of my boring admin. I have also isolated two tasks which will move the entire Ina Disguise project on a notch, which I am now concentrating on. Tatler rang me yesterday, so it looks as if I will be doing that Tatler thing again before Christmas.

So, in my infinite wisdom, I have decided to make a list of things you can do right now to improve your life.

Think of something nice you can do for someone who actually deserves it. This does not mean just anybody – think of someone who has done things for you, without being asked and without thought of benefit to themselves, be that emotional or actual.
Drink more water. Before every meal, and every time you think about it.
Stop drinking tea and coffee. These drinks are associated with sitting down. You can easily sit down with a glass of water instead, which will not act as a diuretic or cause you to form sitting down habits.
Find items of clothing and objects which you do not use. Donate them to charity or sell them on ebay.
Find a free course from Coursera, Udemy, Alison, Udacity or EDX. Some of these you can complete today. This will make you feel better about yourself, and open your mind to new things.
Carry black pepper wherever you go. This helps you process fat, whatever your eating habits.
Reduce the amount of sugar and white flour in your life. This will stop you drooping after lunch or feeling lazy in the evening. Best to get rid of it altogether unless you poop immediately after every meal.
Stop assuming that people are better than you are. Nobody is. There is no such thing as infallible authority.
Look on Smashwords, free ebooks, Barnes and Noble, or the Apple store for a free book, read and review it. Authors almost never get a review from a stranger, so they will be very grateful.
If you had a reasonably good experience with a business recently, review them on Google.
Have a look at Hubpages and see if there is a topic you would like to write about. You can make money from this, and it is now a better option than Youtube.
Sign a petition.
Resolve to stop playing ‘free games’ on facebook as it is a waste of your life.
Resolve to eat more vegetables. You literally cannot get enough.
Make an appointment or complete some neglected paperwork. You will feel better when it is gone.
Spend fifteen minutes thinking about your goals and deciding what you can do in under half an hour to move towards them.
Consider your relationships. If something is bothering you that you cannot quite put your finger on, think about it carefully. You are better off without people who slow or wear you down.

After all that, you can do whatever you want. Go for a walk, indulge in your hobby, complete your day to day chores.

business, creativity, economics, politics

Cleaning up the trash

September 12, 2016 1 Comment

Released Mandatory Equality as a free book this week, since it was doing nothing for me as a paid test shot. I was not applying myself to marketing, as I had the excuse of the ill houseguest to not bother promoting myself.

I have also put a couple of the wonkier prototypes on Ebay, with a view to promoting the Etsy store and getting my name out. everipedia have made me a verified member and editor, and I have caught up with most of the personal admin most people do not ignore for six months because they are fretting over other people’s well being.

I have come to the conclusion that the Better Person Project, Etsy and the books are currently dead ends. I have four books on the way, two shorties and two long ones, having lost the manuscripts to computer problems yet again I have reframed the scene lists slightly and am cleaning up the house, hence the Ebay store.

Since my birthday I have dropped about 30lb, because I have taken up supermix again. Don’t get me wrong, drinking ten portions of fruit and vegetables a day is not particularly good fun, but it does get you out of pain, sorts out your skin and hair and flushes out a lot of poison. I haven’t started on wangling myself an hour out of the house every day yet, but given that mother seems to have taken up sleeping 22 hours a day, I am hoping this will not be a problem when I am ready to face the world again.

In the meantime, I will be returning to study and getting the mandala and the books out, which should not take terribly long. I also have plans for a visual novel/game, which was considerably held up by my friend, who apparently cannot work with other people at all. He pretends he is going to, and it appears to cause him so much stress that he does not do it. So many projects have not got off the ground because of this that he has turned himself into a timewaster.

The underlying problem with all of this is marketing. I tend to feel that my products are under development, which is all very well, but you cannot be under development forever. I think the Mandala has got me to the point I wanted to be at with the Ormus handbags. It has the old school Persian/Russian theme of Honey I made you an icon, but there is still a great deal of work to do on it,

I haven’t decided on prices for that and the screen yet, but they will be available shortly, as I cannot be bothered having old work hanging around when I need space for new work.

In the meantime the following are up for auction at a very low price, just to rid the shop of things I do not like anymore: