• Decompression.

    Well, it’s Tuesday now. I had an interesting weekend at GottaCon. On Sunday night, I got news that my grandmother had injured herself on the stairs, she’d slipped fallen a few stairs. She didn’t break anything, but has a few bruises and is obviously stiff. She’s currently walking with a walker, and will be staying with my uncle for a bit.

    We headed back after we heard the news, rather than sticking around for the extra day. During a rush to catch the last ferry, we managed to leave behind a big IKEA bag full of board games, which have since been recovered and are on their way to being returned.

    Work has been a bit hectic. The unanswered email pile got a bit large while I was away. And the other guy who was on nights with me tonight, had a bit of an emergency, and hasn’t come in.

    Not much longer, and I’ll head home.

    I’ll heat up the leftover pizza, crawl into bed, and then come back in tomorrow.

    Then Thursday, I’m going for AYEC Lunch, before work.

    Unclear about my plans for the weekend, though I’d like to try to get people together for Shadowrun planning on Saturday. Most likely it’ll end up getting botched again, but it’s worth trying.

    And in two weeks, I’m heading back to Victoria for Domlander. I’ll be doing some coverage on it for EV.

  • live fire enviroment.

    Testing in the laboratory is a good start. Once its solid there, then you test it under field conditions. Then you get someone else to test it; if it can survive that, then you’re ready to deploy it.

    Remember the key to success is being able to recognize when you’re completely unprepared and having the fortitude to go for it anyways.

    Having a wide ranging skill set and the right tools is far less stressful though.

  • Medication

    I started wondering tonight if the maturity and social awkwardness of the last few years is the result of growth or the result of the cipralex that I’ve been taking as a mood stabilizer.

    Prior to taking the cipralex, I was having issues with stress and a bit of anxiety. At least I think that it was the reasoning at the time. As usual, I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact motivations of something that happened  a while back.

    I know I had experienced a few panic attacks, when I’d come up the stairs at night and didn’t hear anything.  Those still happen from time to time.

    I know I also had a few periods where I’d get angry for no rational reason. That definitely helped tip the scales towards taking the pills.

  • Games for Gottacon.

    Those that are coming:

    The Maybe List:

    The Nope list:

    Pile is too big!

    Down to the vitals:

    Cthulhu Wars
    Roll for the Galaxy
    Dead of Winter

    Alchemists?
    Evolution

    Among the Stars

    Doomtown – May need to pack smaller.
    Netrunner – Has it’s own bag.

     

  • Sunny morning.

    On my way to work on a nice sunny day. I’ve got an hour til I start, and about 15 minutes worth of travel time on my current route. So, that’s 45 minutes to wander and enjoy the sunshine.
    Tomorrow I’ve got a work lunch, which will be nice. Friday I’ve got the day off since I booked time off to help Reive with the Noir setup down at the Astoria. Instead I’ll be working the Sunday.

    Saturday, I’d intended to attend the Netrunner pub tournament, but if I’m helping with Noir until at least 4am, I don’t think I’ll be able to run the nets at 11am. Just not enough sleep to pull that off.

    Then 4 days of work straight, before sailing off to gottacon. Thursday I’ll have free to be social before we head out Friday morning.

  • Obviously, I need to write more.

    Today I decided to invest another $100 into my 2009 White Unibody Macbook. I’ve already replaced the main hard drive with an SSD to keep it functional and stripped out the CD room drive for a space to throw in a bigger storage drive.

    While my chromebook is my preferred machine for writing on while I’m mobile, the mac, when plugged in, is still a better machine to work on, especially since I can actually load a bunch of applications and have them all function properly. On the chromebook, I’m having to root it, load a xfce shell, and then install the apps inside that. It’s just a bit more work than I want to do most of the time.

    At some point, I need to get around to resyncing my ubikeys & lastpass implementations. It’s currently only working on my cellphone and my desktop, and it would be handy to have it available on all my other machines. But that’s my own fault since the password string I used for it is rather long and complicated, as it is a master password after all.

    At some point, I need to see about modifying some SIP phones for wifi usage. Those will come in handy.

    In the meantime, I’ve set up a SIP account that will be able to reach me as a local Vancouver call, where ever I might be at the time. I’m not sure how useful this number is to people, but it now exists.

    Perhaps I’ll change the voicemail and set it up as a call-in number for comments. Or perhaps I’ll get a 1-877 number for that. I can currently get those at a nicely reduced rate.

    I should get back to my writing, especially the Drunken Wormhole story. I think I should remove the working title and replace it with something a little more subtle, though I’m not sure what would work. Perhaps something related to grapes into wine, with a biblical grapes of wrath reference. Sowing the Grapes of Suffering perhaps.

    I started writing up some of our shadowrun stories, over on reddit, they went over fairly well. Though without the players around, it’s a little harder to write those up at this point. Although, we do have the audio logs for most of those sessions somewhere. It might be worth going through those to pull out some key events.

    I’ve been meaning to write up a few more board game reviews also. I played Cthulhu Wars the other day, and Roll for the Galaxy last night, both those could use a review. I’m not sure how well received those are, as I don’t really get much feedback for them.

    I don’t really feel like writing when I’m home these days. At least not at my desk. And I haven’t really had much inclination to write when I’ve been out, as I’ve been on the macbook and it’s been in that limbo state. With the new power supply, maybe I can be more confident in it.

  • Predatory Behaviors discussion

    Recently on Jezebel, there was an article about a Male Feminist being accused of rape. I brought the topic up with Reive, as something Erotic Vancouver should address. The biggest problem is, currently EV is a bit lacking in active female writers.

    We recently added 2ndNature, though I think she’s still getting stuff sorted out. We were also adding Moon Dancer, though I’m unclear when she’s going to have the time to write, as she tends to have a busy life.

    So, I approached a couple of other females from the kink community, for their opinions. We’ve got a few of them interested in a round table discussion on the topic. I think we’ll get a good discussion out of it. Mostly I’ll just be facilitating and taking notes, since I think our readers would prefer that we avoid mansplaining this issue.

    The topic that I want to look is just predatory behavior in the community in general.

    For me, the biggest flag about some male feminists, is the camouflage aspect of it. The article refers to it as Macktivism, a portmanteau of Macking and Activism, and it is described as a dating strategy. I see it as a predator trying to find ways to hide by disguising themselves something harmless. For various reasons, that really bothers me.

  • Thoughts on a rainy day

    I’ve noticed that it’s been nearly a week since my last post. Well, I posted something in the meantime, but I posted it elsewhere, so that doesn’t count. It’s felt like a busy week, even though not much has happened.

    Mostly I’m killing time until the end of the mouth. Gottacon, over in Victoria. Gaming and socializing. And of course the Portal 2 musical.

    And then the following month, Domlander. The current plan is that I’ll get set up with a table where I can write about it live during the show. I’m looking forward to that.

    Speaking of writing, I bought a digital copy of Volume 1 of Transmetropolitan. The scene with Spider on the rooftop, that was what I was reminded of, when I was liveblogging at Taboo. Not quite the same impact obvious. Much more similar to his rally against the churches in Volume 2. But, the point was, I had a laptop and my words were going out live. If only I was a glasshole, I’d have his ability to snap pictures on command. Still, the ability to take pictures was rarely vital. His key characteristic was the writing. That and his dedication to the truth.

    I’ve been trying to get my friends to read at least Volume 1. Especially my friends over at EroticVancouver; Reive, Mikey, that’d be you.

  • Underground

    Sitting in an underground parkade, outside something that can best be described as a rave. Reminds me of a similar parties ages ago. I’m trying to have some deep thoughts, but the surface tension seems pretty solid. Just skipping stones across the surface at this point.

  • Hatchets

    The other night, while reflecting on the past, I was reminded of my role as the hatchet man lurking in the shadows of the community. That’s a thought that requires some explanation. I don’t know that I can pinpoint when it started or how, but I do have an understanding of why it came about.

    It is open to interpretation whether my compulsion to make decisions that are unprofitable but morally satisfying is a result of moral fibre or self hatred combined with an inferiority complex.

    It’s also possible that I’m just addicted to the self satisfaction of taking the moral high ground, or at least playing at being a hero.

    The fact that I’ve developed the assumption of that the fact that I’m an outcast and unwanted; and yet still around, means I’m basically untouchable. Nothing anyone can say about me can force me further from the people who know me. They’ve accepted my flaws and my baggage, for their own reasons. I don’t see that changing without activity on my part. Unless I change what I am, the bargain remains, and so I remain.

    That frees me up to be honest, to say the words that others might decide to swallow. I can be bluntly honest, since it can’t damage my reputation.

    And these elements key off each other, and other elements of my personality. I observe things that I could probably ignore, and I find it hard to keep myself from getting involved. From trying to make things better, because a part of me remembers the way things were for me, and how making things better would have meant so much, of when it did mean something to me.

    In any case, I get told things or I see things, and the pieces get put together. I build a little diorama and flesh it out. The players all get dressed up in the appropriate hats.

    And then I have a obligation, so I go try to do the right thing, look the fool, feel like the hero, and maybe accomplish something in the process.  Though usually all that does is to create enough doubt that the conscience of the person actually resolves the damn issue.

    Resolution is resolution, and results is results, so people tell you more stories and you try again. The process is cyclical and ephemeral, but it works well enough that people who want to believe in it will keep believing in it. That’s the way all faiths function.

    Then again, sometimes I actually accomplish things through sheer blunt force; bashing my skull into the wall until I come out the other side.