Writers Block

She sat on her chair, elbows on her desk, face in her hands, thinking.

A pile of blank papers were atop each other before her, a pen right beside them. A small window behind her window showed a full moon high, as beautiful as always.

But she didn't notice how big and yellow the moon was. Neither did she notice that below her, right outside, there were kids playing hide and seek. All she could think of was what she should write about.

She looked down at the pieces of paper. She closed her eyes slowly, the darkness revealing faint colors in her mind, but when she tried to focus on each of them, they appeared to disappear.

Sigh...

She stood and grabbed a coat hastily, which had been hanging from her bed side, before she ran down the stairs, disappearing outside yelling "I'm going to take a walk!" to no one in particular.

If nothing came up to her in her house, something interesting should happen outside.




Writer's block happens a lot, but if the writer takes a look around for once, I think she'd find an idea.

The Moon

"High above - it's light directed below,
Reflecting the sun's beautiful glow.
A smile on it's face,
Guiding our slow pace.

A thousand years away,
Moving with not a sway,
Taking it's place as light -
So white and bright.

We walk on it's dusty surface,
A smile planted on our face.
Examining the every single thing,
Listening to each one sing.

It will never be undone,
Till the sun."

A try at rhyming poems. :P It's bad, I know. But everyone's gotta try.

Mom, can we go to the groceries?

I was hiding behind the foozball table in the room my twin and I shared, chatting with my homeschool classmates in my iPod Touch - or trying to.

"What are you doing there?" My mom came into the room, only just noticing me.

"Um... Using my iPod?" I said, unsure.

She and my sister then started talking, me adding some stuff now and then, when I finally had the courage to strike a question.

"Mom, can we go to groceries and buy a soap?" I asked her, smiling widely. Usually, my parents said 'Ok,' or 'Another time.', which sometimes means never.

"Again? You're always buying soaps. They don't even work." My mom said, chuckling lightly.

I nodded silently, smiling along with her. My sister agreed, and I was kind of upset. But, hey, it's only a soap.

But I thought I really needed it. My skin was horrible, oily, and full of pimples/acne, and I thought it would fix that... Guess I can't rely on it anymore.

Well, too bad for me. Guess I'll continue using Cetaphil, even if it didn't do wonders. For me, at least...

Interactive Fiction: TADS 3 or Inform 6

Both are relatively similar and powerful, but I've decided that if I really had to choose between the two of them, why not choose both?

So, if I wanted to write a small, tiny game - why not use Inform?

And when it was time to use some graphics or sounds? TADS 3! People have always wondered whether which one would be best, but it's really up to what you guys would put into your game.

And maybe about your understanding with the manuals. Personally, I like Inform's "Inform Beginner Guide" much better than TADS' "Getting Started in TADS 3".

But if I was too lazy -and I had a computer with me- maybe I could use Quest 5's visual IDE. :D

Atop the Fun

From high above (or not so), I could see the heads of people walking about, minding their own business.

On another flower (or so it was shaped in the kiddie, floral feris wheel I was riding that time) sat my ninang (aunt/god-mother), her son/my cousin, and my two little siblings.

With me was my twin sister the and the younger sister of my cousin in the other side. The feris wheel was frozen while we were near the top, but tilted to the right. Down below, I could see the heads of children and adults, families, all happily walking around.

I took a quick picture, afraid to see what awaited me below, and glanced at the photo.

A kid looked up at me as I had taken picture, I presumed, because I looked at a picture with only some kid's eyes looking up at me.

The wheel started spinning really slowly once more, and I waited eagerly for the end. Falling was not really my style.

Preferred Authoring Tool for Interactive Fiction

Right now, I'm currently using my sister, Ysa's, laptop. Today (or tonight), I will ask myself a question about what is my preferred IF authoring toolkit, and why I like it. Read on, if you want to. :)

Ally, what is your favorite toolkit?


Quest 5, which can be found here. It is a system that has a visual interface which requires little or no programming knowledge. And, it has a code editor, too, for those who like to code in an html-like language. Although, I haven't made any games yet with this.

Why do you like to use this toolkit?

It's actually quite easy to use and is claimed to be really powerful, and I have got little problems with it on the way. What I like most is that it's powerful with either the visual interface, and the code view. It allows you to add sounds, pictures, and embed YouTube/Vimeo (if I read correctly) videos.

I also like that you can convert your games to iPhone/Android apps if you ask Alex (the developer of Quest) kindly. He will then host it in the app stores, and people will be able to play your games from there.

You can also upload your games in http://www.textadventures.co.uk/ and it can be played online.

So, yeah, that's it guys. I was supposed to ask Ysa why she likes her favorite toolkit, but... She's not really interested in this type of stuff.

Thanks for reading,

Ally

I Miss My Laptop

WHY?
Because it has been not working for almost a whole week (since last Saturday, and tomorrow is Saturday).

I don't know why, my Compaq Presario CQ40 just wouldn't turn on that horrible day. The caps and nums lock LEDs were flashing and the fan was more quiet than usual.

Everyday since that day I tried turning it on with no luck. I tried the remove-all-power-supply-and-hold-power-button-for-10-seconds trick, but it failed to do me favor.

Finally, I told my parents, but they don't seem to care much. Well, the motherboard/CPU is quite expensive to replace.

But... Yes, I really miss it... Too bad for me, then.

5 Reasons Why I Miss my Laptop

1. I miss Quest 5.
2. I haven't played tetris battle for a week!
3. Facebook?
4. Writing stories.
5. Surfing the net and getting story ideas.

Wow, how I seriously miss it...

Ally