I’m stuck at work.
I read a Penny Arcade post this morning that made me smile.
Humans are always asking us if we ever get tired of doing “Penny Arcade,” which is a reasonable question, but from here inside the mechanism it doesn’t all hook up conceptually. It would be like asking if we get tired of eating “food.” The one thing you may rely upon when it comes to our work is that it will be
1. self-indulgent,
though it may also be gruesome or oblivious, or gruesome and oblivious, depending on the day. “Penny Arcade” doesn’t have a firm definition, it’s a container object that represents our generalized creative output. We make whatever we want to make, which (luckily for us) generally means .jpegs about videogames, but it can also be morality plays about imps and businesscats, samurai with paper tubes, technoir, or any other Goddamned thing. I don’t entirely know how it works, and I don’t entirely know why you stay, but this arrangement appears to work for both of us. And, as I have suggested on many other occasions, you can’t beat the price.
You have to love that. Every day these guys get up at the crack of noon (or whatever time they’ve chosen to brave the new day), do what they love all day long, and then begin anew. I mean, can you imagine? They do what they want, what they would do anyhow, and people love it!1
Now, I consider myself a lucky guy, don’t get me wrong. I have a great family, good friends, everyone is healthy, good job working with people I like, I can pay my bills, and I have some free time to devote to doing whatever random things occur to me. I’m probably the happiest and luckiest guy you’ve ever met.2 :)
However, I think my existence is more like Cicero from Gladiator than like Tycho and Gave from Penny Arcade.3
Sorry for the wistful/melancholy post.
Long day (and going to be a lOnNnNnNg night) at work. :)