Don P. Hooper

What is it about deadlines that pushes you beyond your creative limit? Or, maybe I should ask myself, what is it about deadlines that pushes me to work harder. Something about working under pressure just seems to push me to generate more quality ideas at a faster pace. I guess I’d call it motivation.

I remember my brother and I gave it a tag when we were growing up. Mo’vation we called it. I guess that was 80s slang at the time when everybody put the word “mo” before a word to mean more – like in the movie “Mo’ Money.” Mo’vation was just one step beyond motivation, or More Motivation.

In grade school and high school, mo’vation served me perfectly. Against my parent’s wishes, I waited until the night before a test to study for it. Then, I would pass out on my bed and my dad would wake me up around 5am because I left the light on (that’s when he had to get up to go to work). At that time, I’d jump back into my book for another hour, go back to sleep, and wake up to take the test. Somehow I passed. And, it didn’t just work for tests, it worked for essays too. I thought it was diffusion. Somehow the words from the book had permeated into my brain. Who, was I to ask questions.

The only problem with mo’vation is that it doesn’t really translate into real work after high school. Sure with the right pressure and a hard deadline I can come up with several strong ideas. But, an idea is only as good as its execution. What if the idea and it’s plan of execution are due at the same time. In high school, if your missed a couple of points on your essay or test, you still could pass with an above average mark. And, you were fine with it. But, in the “real world” (which I keep forgetting I live in, like Theo in that episode of the Cosby Show) it may be the greatest idea, but if not delivered correctly it will just backfire. And, what happens next? One your idea gets rejected, when it could have had a much larger chance for success with the right TLC. Two – a year passes by and you say someone stole your idea.

What does that all mean? It means I need to set up pre-deadlines for my deadlines. That way I’ll have time to go back and make sure a great idea doesn’t get delivered as an “ok” idea because I didn’t put the right time into it.

Would you look at the time. 1:36AM EST. Back to work.

Dear fam,

Check out the latest review by RJ Book Reviews on Book 3 from Coomacka Island : “Lenox Lizard and the Kukumacka Duppy.”

Available now on Amazon.com and Coomacka.com

One Love,
Don P.

So, a friend of mine, a blogger by the name of Yogizilla, recently decided to bash Halo 3. Long story short, he played the Beta and wasn’t too thrilled with the game. And, I invite you all to read the article.

Ok, I agree with him on one point. Had Halo been released on the PC as opposed to the console market, it wouldn’t have been as big. That’s a given. I mean, I and many of the “Halo Geeks,” as you (Yogizilla)call us, would have never even heard of the game.

I’m a console gamer. Maybe, if the computer market wasn’t so expensive growing up, more people would have jumped onto computer gaming. I tried, but due to early 1990s’ issues with “Stack Overflow” errors, I gave up my dreams of being a PC gamer. I did play Wolfenstein and a little bit of Doom (among others I don’t remember) on my high school’s Yearbook computer, but that’s about it. Never really caught on.

I actually hated first person shooters. Never got into “Bond” on N64. That single analogue controller just didn’t do it for me. Then I came across Halo on Xbox. For the first time I could control a first person shooter with startling accuracy. People would come by and we’d play halo on a 19” tv split into quadrants. So, it earned a place near and dear to my heart. And, I grew with Halo. It grew with me.

Honestly, I love games like Socom 2. One of the teammates who I always run FPS with, we’ll call him Doc, got me onto Socom 2 for PS2. That was my first venture into online gaming. It made having a PS2 worthwhile. The first night I played, Doc and I ran the online game for 5 hours. I was amazed at how fun it was. It wasn’t just random carnage – there was strategy involved. But, in the back of my mind, all I could think was… “If Socom’s like this…I wonder what Halo 2 will be like?”

I didn’t jump onto Halo 2 right away. A coworker, we’ll call him Bizarro, told me about it. Again, word of mouth as you say won out. Six months after the release of Halo 2, I got on. And, for 2 years straight I played Halo 2, justifying the cost of an Xbox.

I did have the honor of playing Unreal Tournament on the PC – thanks again to Bizarro. Well, that was the first time in what must have been 10 years that I played a computer game. And, hey it was fun. The controls were pretty seamless. Everyone in the office got on. And, Bizarro and I dominated everyone in two-on-two battles. It was glorious fun.

But, you know what happened? After each win, we’d tell our opponents… You got to go home and get on Halo 2, so we can play over the weekend. Word of mouth. Indeed a powerful tool, which can also be a powerful adversary.

Now my speech on Halo 3 will be brief. I like Halo 3. But the map packs are just not quite up to the par of Halo 2. I still play. I can’t turn my back on Halo. Without Halo, I would still be forsaking the world of the FPS. I would never have got on Socom. Never touched Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare. I would be still be shunning a beautiful world, that without Halo, I would never have known to exist.

So thank you Halo. Thank you Bungie. You conquered this gamer’s hatred toward the FPS. You may not be the definitive solution. But, you were indeed an Answer. And, for that I’m grateful.

A friend of mine, Ms. Shamika Lee, was named a 2007 Women Of Worth honoree by L’Oréal Paris for the work she does in the community, mainly with foster children and toddlers.

Please follow the link below to vote for her.
http://www.womenofworth.com/honorees/honoreesSelect.aspx

Also, below is an email exerpt from Shamika about the program she is in
One Love,
Don P

From Shamika:
Hope all is well. I am writing to share a bit of good news. I have been
named a 2007 Women Of Worth honoree by L’Oréal Paris for the work I do in the community, mainly with foster children and toddlers. This award is given as a way to honor women who have exhibited an enormous amount of devotion to their communities through volunteer work. One of the honorees will be chosen to have a charity of their choice receive a $25,000 donation from L’Oreal – this is where you come in. Please visit the link below and consider voting for me. Remember, your vote is really so that foster kids at Graham Windham will have the resources they need so your vote is very important! It takes less than two seconds to vote so I hope you will consider voting.

Additionally, I hope you will consider volunteering with
one of the many initiatives regarding foster care in NYC, including the
Holiday Gift Drive.
Thank you,

-Shamika

Sometime after forsaking the 9-5 corporate world and committing to the life style of the starving artist, I made an important personal discovery. I am a master at making grilled cheese sandwiches.

Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Anybody can cook a grilled cheese. It’s just cheese and bread.” But, you’d be emphatically wrong. Just like Remy learned in Pixar’s Ratatouille, though anyone can cook, not everyone can actually cook. Hey, I remember eating my first grilled cheese at my high school cafeteria, and it was TERRIBLE. How do you ruin cheese and bread?

Keep in mind, I didn’t just become a Master Grilled Cheese Chef. No. It took time, dedication and a lot of burnt sandwiches. Well, about 4. I worked hours upon hours experimenting: trying to find the right combination of grill, temperature, bread, cheese and pan lining. My efforts were not in vain. In a EUREKA moment, I figured it all out and embraced perfection.

Can you perfect the grilled cheese too? I don’t want to get your hopes up. It’s an arduous task to try and undertake. You’d probably be better off trying to solve the Riemann hypothesis. But, for the diligent… any time… any place. I challange you to best me in a Grilled Cheese Cook-off. Be Afraid!

So, it continues. Third night in a row. 4am. Working. And, still NO HALO. Plus, I just heard Bungie got around to fixing the bugs in Halo 3 online too. There were some randomization hiccups in the online functionality, where you’d play the same game-type over and over and over and over again. You get the idea.

I digress.

I guess I would be upset at losing all of this sleep, if I wasn’t working on projects that I found to be truly fun and interesting. There’s so much going on right now that it’s difficult to manage my time. But, hey its exciting. I’m up for the challenge. And, I’ll enjoy the this roller coaster ride.

It’s 4am. For the second night in a row I’m up at 4am working. And, no, I’m not playing Halo, nor was I playing Halo earlier. Though, much like in “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” visions of Halo multiplayer games are dancing in my head.

Or, is that supposed to be sugar-plums. Hey, it’s my head and what I want to dance in it is my business. Anyway, I don’t even know what a sugar-plum is. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s some sort of candied plum concoction, devised by an evil anti-dentist cavity monster out of an abstract Brother’s Grimm fairy-tale. But I’m not guessing, he said defiantly.

Anyway, let me go before 4am turns into 5am and then to 6am. No need for me to watch the sun rise again. Watching the sun rise in New York is just not the same as watching it rise over a picturesque Caribbean horizon. You should try it sometime. Get away. You deserve it.

Ahhh. It feels good to write a blog and see your favorite team pull off a miraculous victory against a team like Green Bay. The Bears pulled off a great second half run on Sunday night.

Got to give it up for my boy Urlacher(54), whose 11th career interception helped push the Bears to an amazing comeback victory. “I saw a guy to my right and I think he turned back and didn’t see me and just threw it right to me and I fell down.”

Brian Griese followed it up with a TD pass to Greg Olsen. Griese is now 1-1 this season since moving into the starting lineup.

This Sunday, it’s the Vikings. Let’s do this!

We’re a quarter through the 07-08 season and the Bears are 1-3. The defense has made a strong attempt to do its thing, but the offense just isn’t quite doing what it needs to do. You know… score. Oh, and turnovers – got to stop those as well. Brian Griese threw three interceptions. One of which put the game in Detroit’s hands early in the fourth quarter. The Lions returned the interception for a 60-plus yards to get the TD.

What’s worse is that through some random sequence of events, I ended up a Bears and Raiders fan. I don’t know how it happened. Maybe, because as a kid, I was always a fan of teams with a great running game and strong defensive lines. The Bears and Raiders filled that position. Reminds me of one of my childhood dreams to one day play for one of the two franchises. Ha, several people thought I would become either a mad scientist or a football player. Go figure.

Anyway, back to “what’s worse.” Last week the Bears lost to the Detroit Lions. Why does that stink? Because the Oakland Raiders also lost their opening game to Detroit. At least the Raiders are 2-2. From what I know of math, I guess that’s one better than 1-3. But, it’s still not great.

Hopefully, as we start October, the Bears can make a move in this Sunday’s game against the Packers.

Check out a sit down with my friend DC Pierson. He’s a member of my improv team Sunny-Side Up and one of the four members of Derrick Comedy. In this video he takes some time to share a story about 16 Dollars: