Little vs Big Projects

Tonight our kids wanted to have a little picnic outside, so they grabbed some blankets and put them on our front porch and I made pancakes and we all sat out on our front sidewalk and ate pancakes. It was a fun little FHE (which we are having on Sundays instead of Mondays because our it's easier to do that day).

Yesterday my kissy wife Heather and I played Sagrada.

She won.

A level I made for a contest was played and here's the YouTube video of the guy playing it:

Now, I know what you're thinking (okay, I don't, but I know what my inner doubter is thinking, which may or may not be the same thing you're thinking): Andrew, why do you waste your time away on small little things of no importance, that will be swept away and forgotten in less than a year's time? Why not work on something longer lasting, more permanent, more important? Something bigger and better?

My answer to that is: I am. Or, I'm trying. Or, I want to and am occasionally working on it in my spare time. But some things that are smaller are easier to finish. 

I have a bunch of game ideas. These games are games that I consider "big" projects. Lots of pieces, a large board, rules that I need to figure out, and I need to playtest it (against myself most of the time because I have no Perazzo family near) to make it fun, and I need to pieces, and plus if I'm feeling really ambitious I might want to get files up on printplaygames.com and send it to a publisher. 

All that takes a long ling time and I only have the slightest chance of seeing any results. For instance, I don't think my awesome game We Three Kings has ever been played. Which you know, is fine a lot of the time because the joy comes in making it. But smaller projects? Like, I already have a level I made played by a YouTuber and now it's online and he enjoyed it and so did the viewers and the link is above.

My levelpack for Baba is You already has 9 downloads (admittedly, three of those are Ryan, so like, 7 downloads?) and so I feel like the "little" things I do have more possibility of making it out into the world. So that's why I do smaller things which my insecurities may say are "not important."

Other smaller things I've accomplished include writing the short story Synesthesia. I have also written some chapters of my longer books like Paths of Zarahemla and The Fallacy of Time, but finishing a short story is easier to do because it's, uh, shorter. Eric, meanwhile has already written his entire first book of his trilogy.

Anyway, so that's why I do little stuff even if it's not "as important" as the big stuff. To, you know, actually finish something instead of just having a bunch of half-done projects.

An early chapter from "The Fallacy of Time"

Okay, so Andemo is the name of the main character in The Temportation Trilogy. He grew up in Uganda, and is a member of the village where the Temportation Machine is temported in. (In my story, Uganda is a real place but obviously I'm making up events). Here Andemo explains temportation to Casey.

"No! Both of us were nearly killed, a bunch of crazy terrorists just invaded my campus, and a bunch of stuff just appeared and disappeared for no reason! You are going to tell me what's going on, and you're going to tell me now!" Casey looked livid, her chest panting, hair disheveled, and eyes crazy.

Andemo looked at her for a few beats, then finally said, "Fine. Sit." He lifted his hand and a chair appeared out of nowhere, with a soft pop! of air rushing. He moved the chair behind Casey, who blinked a few times before poking and prodding the chair. Once she confirmed that it was, in fact, real, she settled down into it.

"Let's start with this," Casey mentioned to the chair she was on. "Where did this come from? How did you do that?"

Andemo sighed. "To understand that, you have to understand time. Now, for most people, time is constant. It's always moving forward at the same rate of one second per second. Everything that exists is in the time stream, and always has been, and always will be." Andemo made another chair appear out of nowhere and sat down on it. "This, however, is a fallacy."

Casey wasn't sure where this was all headed, but it was really nice that this guy was actually answering her questions. Finally she could get some answers.

Andemo gestured to the chairs. "Where do you think these came from? Or when?"

Casey pursed her lips. "Uh... the future, maybe?"

Andemo grinned at that. "No. Backwards time-travel isn't possible. Something about cause and effect. In the time stream, things can only move forward."

"But these chairs weren't here a moment ago."

"Ah," Andemo said, pointing at Casey. "Right you are. You see, the fallacy is that everything moves forward at the same speed, or rate, or whatever. But according to Epstein, this isn't always the case. Time is relatives."

Casey furrowed her brow. "You mean Einstein?"

"What?"

"Einstein. Albert Einstein. You said Epstein."

"Right, Einstein. Relatives of time and whatnot."

Casey could tell Andemo didn't fully understand what he was saying. Why not? You would think that if someone had this power that they would have spent their life studying it and becoming familiar with it. Unless...

Casey's thoughts were cut off by Andemo explaining further. "So some things can move slower in the time stream, and some faster. What would happen if an object moved faster than everything around it: not at the rate of a second per second, but the rate of a lot more or a lot less per second." He bent down and picked up a small rock off the ground. It was about the size of an apple.

Andemo held up the rock in his hand. "Right now, this rock is just in the time stream, existing. But what I can do is take it out of the time stream. What do you think that will look like?"

"It won't be there anymore," Casey said. "If it's not in the time stream, then it doesn't exist in time, so you couldn't do anything to it. You couldn't interact with it at all, because that would require it being in time."

Andemo nodded his approval. "Exactly. And that's what I can do. I can take objects out of the time stream." The rock disappeared with a poof of air. "That air poof, by the way, is the sound of the air around rushing in to fill the space that the rock had been taking up."

"Right," said Casey, "and that's why there's a rush of air when you bring it back into the time stream, because it's the air vacating the place where the object appears. But where is it? Right now, in time, where is the rock?"

"Right here," Andemo said, pointing to his empty palm. "But remember, in order for something to exist, it needs to be in all four dimensions at once, the one physical and three time."

"You mean three physical and one time."

"Yes. So unless things have all three, sorry, all four, then do they really exist? Like, if an object had height and length but no deepness, would you say that it existed? It would need at least a little bit of deepness for us to think of it as being there. So this rock is here, but I took away its time-ness. Although, I can bring it back into the time stream any time I want to." To demonstrate the rock appeared back in his palm. 

Casey nodded. "And what's this ability called? To be able to take things out of the time stream and then put them back in at will? You've called it something, yes?" She was beginning to out together some pieces, and it seemed to suggest that Andemo hadn't had this power his whole life. Or even a lot of it. If she were to guess, she would say that he'd only known about it for maybe a few weeks. This was her test. If he had a name for it, it meant that he had had enough time to figure out what to call it. If he didn't have a name for it, then it was confirm her suspicion that this power was relatively new.

Unfortunately for her theory, Andemo nodded. "It's called temportation. Temp-, and then -portation."

Casey nodded. "Temp- is the prefix for time, and -port is the suffix for carrying. Carrying something across time. Nice." As soon as she said it, she realized that she probably shouldn't have. She should have asked Andemo what it meant, to see if he even knew. Ah, well. Too late now.

Andemo continued, "When I take something out of the time stream, it's called temporting it out, and when I bring it back into the time stream, it's called temporting it in." He stood up. "These chairs? I temported them out about a week ago." He held his hand out his chair and with a whoosh of air it disappeared. 

"Now," he said, turning to Casey, "I've answered your most pressing mystery. May I suggest that for the moment we take this precious time to get out of here before those that are chasing us find us again?"

"You haven't answered all my questions," Casey retorted back.

"True, but I do hope that I've gained your trust enough to allow me to save your life for right now so that I can answer your other questions at a future date."

Casey stood up, and the chair disappeared behind her. She didn't trust this guy, but did she have a choice? He did seem honest with his answers about his abilities. 

Although he still is hiding something, she thought. He's had these abilities for a far less time than he wants to make it seem. But he was right in the fact that those men were still out there, near, still after them.

"Okay," Casey said at last. "Lead the way."