But I was pretty malnourished when I was kid. I was one of the smallest kids in school and got bullied and teased mercilessly. I had a massive height spurt before senior year (RHS ‘94) and gained 100# over the next year.

I’m a small kid in a bully’s body; I never developed the disposition.

As I was considering this, I was struck — literally — by a Buick. Despite the rather dramatic scene, I was able to walk away.

It occurred to me that I’d been through more, physically and mentally, than most people could even imagine — especially in my line of work.

Hence the appelation. The mistake most people make is thinking tough suggests meanness. It’s tough like an old boot. It’s not going to fight you, but you’re not going to win against it either.

I can help clear up some confusion. I wasn’t telling Tap Tap Revenge “congratulations kid, you are the king of graphics.” I was telling Louie that because the hi-res TTR screenshot he made was on the stage with Steve Jobs. It’s a reference to Titanic, the whole king of the world thing. A bit hyperbolic, but life is short and words are fun.

I know I am annoyingly self-amazed sometimes. It’s a bad habit that comes from years of hard living suddenly turned around. At the end of the day, I just want to do good work that people enjoy, and if I can help people doing it, all the better.

Whether I’m a pompous ass, lemurs, war, the economy — all these things are related. The world is a complicated place. I’m trying to figure it all out, just like everyone else.

In the end, Puzzllotto will be a hit or it will flop. United Lemur will change the world, or be a cautionary tale. In the end, there’s little need to speculate.

This is some bullshit.

The guy worked on Delicious Library, moved on to make a Guitar Hero-like iPhone game, and now… what? A puzzle game on the iPhone with part of the proceeds going to charity. That’s revolutionary how, exactly?

The “Fundware” thing… I don’t get it. Maybe there’s just not enough background information yet. Is United Lemur going to be redistributing funds to *other* developers? Or is this just a fancy word for “bootstrapping our own projects”… which, unless I’m on a different planet, is exactly how most businesses get started. You work hard to release a product, then use the proceeds for another product.

I don’t doubt that the guy is a talented engineer. But from everything I’ve seen thus far, there’s a *lot* of jerking off going on, and it seems like no one wants to open their mouth and ask, “What about everything that you’ve done thus far, is actually revolutionary rather than *slightly evolutionary,* in any way? (Did you forget that say, the Product Red campaign was doing this for a while now?)”