T w e n t y S i d e d

Beckoning Chasm has moved into some new wordpress-driven diggs. If you’re the bookmarking sort, then I suppose this would be the point at which you update them.

He also has a few new posts in the Telephone Girl series, which I mentioned before.

The painting is a tough one. Now, aside from using fingerpaints as a child, I’ve never painted in my life, but I can still recognize the process he’s going through. I follow a very predictable cycle when undertaking a project, and I bet a lot of people will find this familiar.

1. Enthusiasm: This is going to be my best project ever!
2. Unease: Hm. This is getting tough.
3. Dismay: This is impossible! It’ll never get it!
4. Defeat: What a waste of time. I must destroy this project and erase all traces of it so that my lack of talent is never exposed to the world.
5. Grim resolution: I’ve come this far. I might as well finish it, even if it sucks.
6. Hope: You know, I’m starting to get it. I might pull this off after all.
7. Elation: I did it!
8. Hubris: That was easy! Next time I’ll do something twice as difficult!

I’m somewhere between steps 5 and 6 on my current project, which is making a character animation engine. (In videogames, this is what makes those 3d characters move and bend their limbs instead of sliding around like statues.) I enjoy it anytime I can see someone make it all the way #8.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.