that one time... when i got mugged

One would normally believe that walking around downtown salt lake in broad daylight would be a perfectly hazard free endeavor...

In the fall of 2003, I was working at the gateway movie complex and going to school at UCMT. I have no idea what inspired me to become a massage therapist, but i knew the moment i started school that it wasn't to make money. I loved it. I loved the knowledge of the human body i gained and also being able to help people feel good.

The campus was right next door to where I was living. I had gone out for a walk after I had recently discovered my girlfriend at the time was cheating on me with a fat guy who owned a Mercedes... and instead of turning left which i normally would do, I headed north, where I saw UCMT. I then made a statement, either in my head or out loud not sure which. It was the very same declaration - combined with boredom - that I'm now convinced got me into the Marine Corps and many other life altering decisions in my life. I said, "I can do that."

So I did...

Back to the mugging...

Walking to school from work on fine day in the fall, I passed by two rather large gentlemen. (I use the word gentlemen purely because I don't want to say 'guys') I had my ridiculously large noise-cancelling headphones on and was carrying my backpack with all my books inside.

After crossing the street at South Temple and 200 East, not a block away from school, I was suddenly grabbed by my pack and yanked backward. Again, this is happening in broad daylight. My reaction was immediate and fierce, much to the dismay of the 6'2" 200 lb assailant, whom i had just passed along with his friend, who was now watching from across the street.

There's a type of training that I had gone though where if honed can cause you to be extremely observant and instinctively reactive. They would put us in a simulated urban environment and walk us down the middle of the 'street'. Events would happen ranging from a false explosion to gunfire to a group of men running directly toward you. After issuing as many distractions as they could muster, they would end the excersize and drill you on things like how many lamp posts are there, how many windows are in that building, which ones were open and closed, etc.

I was quite good at this...

After 2 years of never having to think about someone trying to kill me, my instincts returned with a vengence. I immediately slipped my right arm out of my bag strap and pulled as hard as I could on the other. This was the last thing this poor fellow was expecting from this apparantly oblivious and scrawny victim. Unfortunately, because of this man's size and height, his balance had much to be desired. I hadn't counted on this but was too late as he fell toward me. It was then that I noticed he had a knife. It was one of those tiny spiderco knifes that upon looking at it would almost make you laugh, but if someone is intent on cutting you up, it would do just fine.

He was extremely heavy and had his free hand pressing my head into the dirt. All I could do was hold his arm with the knife back while landing a few accurate jabs into his face. I felt a light sting on my thigh as he tried to back up. He had apparantly had enough after I had broken his nose and was getting blood in his eyes from all the hits he was taking. After staggering to his feet, he did something completely hilarious. The man bent down and pulled my SHOES off of my feet!

He then turned and lumbered back across the street to his less-than-loyal friend. I still had my bag, but my left arm and thigh were bleeding rather heavily. I didn't even notice the hit on my arm until I looked. So there I sat, mud and blood covered, my knuckles were raw from the many hits I had delivered to his teeth. I couldn't believe what had just happened, so I immediately tried to piece the events together.

All I could think of was that they must've been trying to get my attention, but because of my headphones, I couldn't hear them. Maybe it upset them... I don't know.

Either way, I was now shoeless and my pants were torn at the thigh where underneath was a pretty deep 5 inch slice. I stood up, picked up my bag and continued on to school. Walking in socks is fun and everything... but I was a bit more than annoyed. Upon my arrival, one of my classmates noticed me in the hall and freaked out. The school called the police and the classmate ran upstairs to notify my girlfriend whom I had recently met in class. I made a useless report to the officer who showed up and then was taken to get stiches.

The whole time afterward I was just in shock. I just couldn't believe I had been randomly attacked on the side of the road where i'm sure plenty of passersby saw the event...

Mostly I just couldn't believe he TOOK MY SHOES!

I loved those shoes...

this blogging thing for me is a bad idea but...

so i'm back in school and i just finished my first semester. basically i've done more math in the last 2 months than i think i've ever done over my entire life. i'm enrolled at devry university getting my bachelor's in game and simulation programming. long term, the idea is to be an artistic director at a gaming software company. ie: EPIC, Bethesda Softworks or Blizzard. until then, i would settle for being a standard pixle jockey, which is what i do now, but i want to create the visual inspirations for games.

even if you're not a fan of video games, you should at least appreciate the amount of time, effort and talent that goes into today's games. technology has brought it to a point where you're basically playing a full length movie multiplied by about 40 hours. also, it's not bad business to be involved in. for example, when the movie Dark Knight opened, it took in $66.4 million in the first day US release. this was record setting of course, but a mere pittance compared to what i'm talking about. opening weekend it raked in a staggering $158.4 million. today's release standards makes that roughly three or four days. not bad. however, when you compare that to say first day release numbers of the ultra popular HALO 3 which in the First Day, brought in over $170 million!? and That was in 2007.

the economics are indeed a huge incentive. however, my inspiration comes from looking at the conceptual art of these amazing titles: God of War. Prince of Persia. Fallout 3. Gears of War. Diablo III. there are more. i have images in my head, concepts both visual and literary that rival the best of the best. i can fill sketchbooks and spit pixles in photoshop like it's nothing. so then why, i'm sure you would ask, am i not doing this already? well, the larger studios like the ones i named don't want to hire someone who can only do one thing. in order to be considered today, you need the skills and knowledge to create the art And know how it would translate into gaming physics. which i can assure you are much more complex than water spinning in a static bucket in a vacuum. there isn't anything i can't create in Photoshop and i can write in HTML and CSS like breathing, and if games were created with such languages, and self taught skills i wouldn't be writing this. therefor i go to school to learn the software and languages i need.

one of the problems i face, is having to move from my current location. i've been to and lived all over the world but Salt Lake is my home. my mountains (yes, they're mine) represent too much of an absence in my life to be away from them for too long. unfortunately, the types of places i'd want to work just aren't here... so... i come to a choice when i start begging studios in Irvine or Montreal or even London whether it would be worth leaving to get my foot in the door. i have time to decide, but i know it will be a difficult one still.

and for any of you who hold onto the stereotypical bollocks that is believing only the overweight, socially inept, parent's basement living "nerds" plays video games... or actually believe that the violence in today's games have more to do with kids behaviour than simple mental weakness... turn off fox news and wake up. my girlfriend plays World of Warcraft with me and she's hands down the sexiest being on the planet. besides, i give it 20 to 50 years before we're all living in a 50% global virtual reality and living on the moon with micro-chips and wifi in our heads. either that or struggling to survive in the post-apocolyptic world so many movies and games suggest we may... ( oh please yes please!) either way, i'd take the kid who grew up playing Fallout and Resident Evil on my team over any so-called natural leader any day. ( alot of that last sentence rhymed... )


moss

out.