A problem you face as a well-rounded digital storyteller and media-creator is that such people are "a dime a dozen" these days. You were a pioneer in this form; and you're still one of the best; but I think that, unfortunately, you may not offer anything that there aren't 10,000, maybe even 100,000, other people doing on web pages as well.

Your contributions to the web have been amazing. You know so many of the pioneers on the web, on a first-name basis: you have an incredible "network." More than anything, I think your network is probably the thing that offers the most remunerative possibility. Some kind of consulting might offer the best way to make an income, given what you have done.

I frankly think that your writing is doomed to be your "gift" to the world, and that you may not be able to make a living doing the kind of writing you do. I think Links.net is the closest thing we have to a digital-age Remembrance of Things Past, but it is a digital creation, one you have already given to the world, and I doubt that in our culture you would ever be compensated, in any financially significant way, for this work.

These days there isn't the culture of fame that supported writers in the past, or the book culture that might have supported you in earlier times.

Like many other artists throughout history, you will probably have to make it through life on some other source of income, even though Links.net will very possibly be the best contribution you have made to the world.

I can identify with your situation. I am a "multitasking creative" myself. There seems to be a difference between this persona and most others, who tend to pick a focus, make a career of it and live in a more linear fashion. I think you fall into my group. There is a fascination with new projects and learning new information (or simply the new) that leads others to confusion, simply because they don't work that way. With my interests, I can see many of them working together one day - they could be glued together in a relationship. As you know, your interests have this potential as well. To others it looks as though we are all over the place, and perhaps we are, but I honestly believe that an open and changing mind, is a growing mind. Will it all unite one day so that we are our own media house? I'm not sure for myself, but it is a very possible pot of gold over the rainbow. As each project brings in it's fold, it probably is not as large of a fold if I were focusing on one thing, but I see the worth in these steps. You are lucky that you have such honest friends that divulge real self awareness to you. If it is applicable to you, you will know. If it's not, it may just very well be the way you are "hard wired". For myself, I would sacrifice routine with a weekly and reliable paycheck to 3d animate, make webpages, articles, do interviews,
images, make jewelry and cigarbox purses, distribute a free news service, sew things, attend conferences and sometimes take classes because, it makes me happy. And that's what really matters. And even though people roll their eyes and sigh when I find a new project - deep down I can see in some that they wish they could, but it's not worth the sacrifice to them. What it boils down to is if it is to you. Justin you have done a lot, you have contributed to the rest of us, and educating one self is admirable. Any one of your skills you will succeed at. Since you are a multi tasker, you can still work on your writing while attending classes. The most important mention in your post was your comments regarding the fire being gone, look inside and see if it is, try to figure out why and find out where your true passion lies. Follow your passion or passion(s).

First, completely random thought I had:

What games (and other interactive media) lack is a comprehensive way to write them. I mean, you can represent a feature film at least well enough to get started by writing a document called a screenplay. You can't point to any one human-readable kind of document as doing the same for games. Maybe such a doc would look like something between a screenplay and a musical score, or something XML-ish and structured. Does that kind of question interest you?

(Flip side of this question: if what you want is to fuse your writing with all the genuine fascination you have for games, would working on the above problem just constitute procrastination via tool-building?)

(Aaaand after thesis and antithesis comes this: given that the web is really defined more by hops between different media and different contexts than anything else, have you really started doing anything different? I think you just feel passionless because you're in school.)

you're thirty years old? you probably have at least 50 more years to make whatever meaningful work or contribution to this world. maybe it will be wholly unrelated to your website.
fifty years. a lot can happen, no?

but what constitutes a contribution, anyway? how is scaled involved? raising a beautiful child? building a company from nothing? freeing 100 political prisoners? how do we decide the meaningfulness of the contribution? maybe for artistically-inclined people, it's about creating an artistic 'product' that was exactly what was envisioned/imagined?

Funny that the same weekend you are in turn giving me advice on how to construct an after-school life that does not necessarily revolve around a career. I get the feeling that self-reliance is tougher than it looks, especially when it means having to legitimize one's own life.

I think Chris is jealous. It takes a lot to get into graduate school and stay on the cutting edge with a group of peers who, like you, have a contribution to make. Keep going, you have talent.

Banteron

Let's get real. He is feeling this way because he has done nothing to contribute to humanitynothing. No job yet at 30. No real contgribution to the world at large. He could get a job at barnes and noble, or whatever, and feel satisfied that he's made someone happy a few times a day. He doesn't need the money, of course. He can coast the rest of his life, but I don't think that is what he wants.

Justin I have said it before. Get a real job. Work and intereact with real people contribute something to this world, and maybe you won't feel this way. I wish you the best.

Screw the New Yorker! Who wants to slave away at mastering the sort of basic technical competence at writing some standard way when obviously you have something else valuable going on that no New Yorker clone can grasp?