Obligatory Bellringer Post

Whoops! It’s been a while since any sort of update, and for that, I would apologize.

I would apologize, but I have never made claims to consistency or promise of performance here, so there’s nothing really to apologize for.

But I’m Canadian, and there’s a regulation requiring me to uphold Canadian values like hockey, poutine and apologizing.

Sorry!

I’ll be returning soon with the Dog Days of Podcasting series, 30 days of daily podcasts in which something will happen here each day.

I will hopefully get back to production on episodes of CAFFEEN! as well, for the wordless music show with story words, but I’ve found it hard to fit that into my schedule as of late. (Very late, really..)

So, if it matters to you, I will return here. I’ve not found any portals to other dimensions and gotten lost in them (despite my looking…), nor have you stumbled into a parallel universe yourself (well, that I cannot guarantee, really..), but have, in fact, been busy.

This year’s Dog Days series is under-prepared for, so I have no idea about any theme or organization or anything at all. Suggestions are welcome.

Balticon or Bust!

I find it fascinating just how much a gathering of people in real-time, in real-space, still excites.

After all, my tribe is all wired. We span the globe, but we connect in real-time or in async-time as a matter of natural practice. We’ve all adopted the Internet as the last lobe of our brains, started the process of embedding our consciousness externally in blogs, tweets, status updates, emails, photo streams, podcasts, text message and more. We spread ourselves out over the network like a fisherman’s net, reign it back in and pluck out the jewels that our sea of friends and acquaintances has given us. Unlike the aquatic origin of this simile, however, we can reap the rewards of this harvest without diminishing others, as the bounty is multiplied effortlessly (and usually smells much less fishy, too).

If I’d my druthers, I’d spend all year meeting with people who interest me, many of which I’m hoping that I’ll either already call “friends”, or to whom afterward I’ll add that title. I have a dream to travel in an ancient-but-roadworthy RV, going from town to town investigating the odd and talking philosophy with everyone I meet, digesting the massive input on a bi-daily basis into a deluge of online by-products, duplicating my own consciousness into something worthy of calling an online presence.

I like that dream. I’ll work toward that, as soon as I figure out how to finish the other things that concern me first…

In the mean time, I’m hitting the road in my annual trip somewhereContinue reading

Facing one’s limited Faces

Becoming someone else is hard.

I don’t mean changing who you actually are, but rather, the process of putting on a role, such as what an actor or a gamer does.

I’m not really an actor — I’ve done some audio drama and one stage play in high school — but I am a gamer. I love to game, but have a very hard time truly inhabiting a character. To do that requires, I think, a certain sense of empathy and imagination, which I have when I’m writing, but when it comes to gaming I’m often just a bit too tired to focus and summon that skill.

I should clarify for the newbs: when I say “gaming”, I’m not referring to video games, I’m referring to old-school, table-top, pen-and-paper, dice-and-character-sheets, game-master-and-players kind of gaming. I’ve been doing that since about 1991, playing in dozens of games — perhaps hundreds by now? I’ve probably run a dozen or two games, with varying success, and I’ve written game skeletons, fictions and even a few very bad game systems.

When I say “gaming”, I mean gaming.

And it’s hard to do.

At least for me.. Continue reading

Decembeard 6, 2011: Burger-Shaped Emptiness

To the 'stache, I'm adding a soul patch, goatee and sideburns (not yet visible).

What is it about the late-night craving that is so intense?

I’ve already had my supper. I ate lunch. I had a bagel for breakfast. Sure, the meals weren’t grand and huge, but they were tasty. Ok, maybe I didn’t entirely feel satisfied after each meal, but that’s normal, right? You’re not supposed to feel full, right?

But later that night, I’m feeling peckish. That is to say, stark raving hungry. I could eat a horse (provided you could cook it), or at least a small flock of birds. Someone mentions running out for a late-night burger, and suddenly: I’m ravenous.

So, I try to satiate the beast. I have a bun. A bagel is unfrozen. Maybe a cookie.

Nothing works. Continue reading

Movember Update: I Have Unlocked “Rocked A Vest” Achievement

It’s official: vests rock!

I now look upon a collared shirt with no vest or no tie as somewhat lacking.  It’s like it lacks structure and form.

A collared shirt alone is a void. Like space without stars. Or an empty ice cream bucket.

Much like a face without a beard.

Or maybe just my face without a beard. Although now I’ve had chance to grow a moustache. With only half of the month completed, I can know call myself “moustachio’d”.

That is, if anyone can. (It largely depends on the word-status of “moustachio’d”..)

It’s been an interesting month to challenge myself. Growing a moustache. Regularly blogging about it. Learning acoustic guitar. Wearing a vest every Tuesday. And yesterday: hemming pants. Continue reading