[Personal] Going Forward

Well, I'm glad I took these last few days to collect my thoughts. Any time that death touches you, even remotely, it can affect you deeply, and if you don't take the time to adjust your bearings, you can lose yourself. So, my plans for the rest of the year...

By the end of this week, I intend to have finalized my evaluation of the XNA Framework and get my evaluation off to the XNA team.

By the end of September, I intend to release a better version of "Quake III: Arena" for the Xbox 360 Common Controller for Windows. Right now, the right thumbstick is translated into keystrokes when it would be better treated as an analog input. Lord knows it has the resolution...

By the end of September, I intend to have cataloged the game collection that I have here in Dallas and decide which games to archive on a CD spool or sell. Just glancing at my collection and I see a lot of classics, from Bullfrog's "Hi-Octane" to EA's "U.S. Navy Fighters" to Sierra's "Earthsiege 2" to Origin's "Bioforge" to "Terminal Velocity" to "Shivers" to "Powerslave" to "SkyNet" to "Robert E. Lee: Civil War General." Of course, those are just the more recognizable titles in this particular CD sleeve. Some, like "CybeRace" and "SkyBorg"...well, forgettable is a start. I've got over 2,000 games just here in Dallas. I need to compact the collection and reduce it as well. Given how DOS game compatibility in Vista seems to have taken a backseat based on my experiences with Pre-RC1, perhaps I'll start by eliminating any DOS-only games.

By the end of October, I intend to launch a new version of my site, including a seperation of personal and tech topics in this blog.

I'm going to have to start looking for either some contract work on the side, or a part-time job on weekends. Ritual pays me well and treats me well, but one of the side effects of this particlar death is a $400 a month drop in income through the end of the year at least. With the increase in rent this year, higher utility costs, higher minimum payments on my remaining credit cards, and the year-on-year increase in just the normal cost of living, that's a hit that is going to be very hard to offset. This also means that I'm going to have to put my plans to have three more credit cards paid off by the end of the year on hold.