I have one final, solitary Halo Reach beta code to give away. I see a lot of my friends on Twitter who are trying to get one and can’t and it makes me sad. I wish I had 100 codes, but I don’t.  Like I said, I have one.

I also see a lot of dicks saying things like, “I have a code and after I gain another 100 followers I’ll hand it out”. I’m sorry to take the moral high ground on this one, but fuck you guys. What the hell?

If you need a code AND you’ve been following me on twitter for at least a week then you are eligible to win the code.  I’ll draw the winner tomorrow morning.  All you have to do is tweet: “@Sinnix I love cookies” and you’re in the draw.  If you’ve been following me for a while and you’ve already messaged about getting a code then I’ll include you just in case you don’t see this message. I’d leave this up for longer but the weekend is escaping us!

Update – The contest entry period is over. I’m starting to check who’s got a valid entry.

WINNER: PGT2Turbo wins the code!

I’m happy to announce that 360Prophecy.com now has a forum. It’s something I’ve been meaning to setup for a while now but I just haven’t really had the time.  That all changed a few hours ago, however, when I found a handy little website called Tal.ki!  It’s not a fantastic URL, but their embeddable forum is super easy to use.  No need to create a login, just use your Live ID, or Google, or Twitter, of Facebook or whatever the hell you want.

So come on down and introduce yourself!

Oh, if you don’t see “forum” under “downloads” in the navigation at the top of the page then do yourself a favour and press Ctrl+F5 to refresh the page and ignore your cache.

When people ask me what I do, I usually reply with the smart-ass comment, “I draw pictures for a living.”  In reality, that’s pretty far from the truth.  My day job has me doing a lot of varied things, but rarely have I ever been required to draw anything.  I am still a professional artist, however, so I happen to know a thing or two about art.

Do me a quick favour: Go to your fridge. Look for a menu from a pizza or Chinese food place.  Do you see that menu? An artist made that.

Tell me, is that art?

It was created by an artist, developed through an artistic process, using an artist’s tool set.

I would conclude that it is not art, it’s a fucking menu. I suppose a very well designed menu could be seen as art by other menu designers. Perhaps even a beautifully, wonderfully, magically spectacular menu might transgress beyond the love of menu designers and catch the eye of a few CD cover designers. But I digress.

Here in Ottawa we have a thing called the National Gallery of Art. It’s awesome and everyone should go.  When you go, I want you to look for a piece called, “Voice of Fire”.  It’s hard to miss. It’s 5.4m tall and cost the gallery $1.8 million back in 1989.  Here, have a look…

Voice of Fire (1968, Barnett Newman, Acrylic on canvas)

Don’t worry, your browser is fine. Yes, it is a red stripe on a blue background.  Straight up acrylic on canvas. Nothing fancy.

One. Point. Eight. Million. Dollars. Red. Stripe. Blue. Background.

When it was purchased, as you can imagine, it caused a lot of controversy here in the capital.  People were printing knock-off t-shirts and there was even a book about it a few years later. It kicked off this big discussion about, “what is art?” with experts on both sides of the fence arguing their points with their finest debate skills. The spectacle  was entertaining for a while but ultimately fleeted and all we were left with was The Voice of Fire. Why did the discussion end? Because eventually everyone realized that the argument could never be won.

Art is, has always been, and will continue to be subjective.  Not everyone considers Art to be “Art” and that’s never going to change. It doesn’t matter if your creative work is hanging in the National Gallery or sitting on a shelf in Walmart. Someone, somewhere is going to question it’s place as an artistic medium and the sooner you learn to let go of caring about other people’s opinions of things you love, the better off you’ll be. You don’t need vindication if you’re you’re happy liking the things you like.

And please, the next time you’re reading a menu, take a moment to appreciate details.

(For the record: Yes, I believe some games are art. Yes, I think Voice of Fire is awesome and well worth the money and finally, yes I do enjoy a well designed menu).