{"id":199,"date":"2011-07-09T03:01:16","date_gmt":"2011-07-09T07:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/07\/09\/im-not-dead\/"},"modified":"2011-07-09T03:01:16","modified_gmt":"2011-07-09T07:01:16","slug":"im-not-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/07\/09\/im-not-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Not Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, memories…<\/p>\n

Apropos of nothing tonight I was browsing some old cartoons and games – or etoys, as I used to call them – of mine. I don’t really do a lot of web browsing, least of all on my own sites or pages of mine on other sites but sometimes, when the mood strikes me, I do a little recon. If for nothing else than to see what kind of praise and abuse the huddled masses of the internet have had to shell out while my back’s been turned.<\/p>\n

I was surprised to find that one<\/a> particular good ol’ “interactive” cartoon had well surpassed two million views on Newgrounds.com<\/a>, a stunning repository for the planets flash-based animation and then some. There were over 140 pages of comments. I, myself, never had the savvy to install comments forms on my own site, Boneland.com<\/a>, so this was quite a discovery. I just spent half an hour busting a gut laughing at people’s reactions to the piece which I authored ten years ago now.<\/p>\n

It’s masked as a parody for the old kids game Operation <\/em>but it’s really a Halloween prank I cooked up for fans of Boneland back in the day. These types of pranks are old news now but back then, it was a good – if not novel – gag. If you want to check it out, click here<\/a>, but please don’t “play” the game if you’ve got a weak heart and\/or bladder.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago.<\/p>\n

What got me laughing about the hundreds of comments I was reading was the simple knowledge that for a very short moment, I’d reached these people. Sure, it’s a one-off cheap shot that either makes the viewer hate “the author” instantly or makes them fall out of their chair laughing (usually at themselves, which is great) but it’s the essential truth behind what I – and everyone afflicted with the same condition as myself – try to do with every word I write; every pixel I maneuver. It’s a reaction. It’s a connection. And it’s been out there doing it’s thing, on its own, for ten years. Chances are it will go on doing it for years to come. It may never die.<\/p>\n

Unless Milton Bradley find out or the game gives someone a massive coronary – then I suppose I’ll get sued – but the point is: Connection.<\/p>\n

I’m fortunate to have had and to continue to have that kind of “success”. It’s easy to forget that sometimes when you’re busy striving for the next reaction; the next connection. It’s good. It’s fuel. It’s life.<\/p>\n

… My next post will feature a new project I’ve been working on. I promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten years, two million connections, one gag. Things could be worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-from-the-studio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tylergibb.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}