The word of the week is eponymous.
Oct 2 – Tom Petty
Ever since I first saw the video for Running
Down a Dream in 1989, I was hooked on Tom Petty: here was imagination and
talent rolled into a singer whose music was more ballad than brash, and spoke
to you, instead of trying to overpower you.
Tom Petty is one of the few artists whose albums
I've collected over the years, instead of just a song here and there, because
almost every song speaks to me in some way on many levels. No matter where I've
been in my life, there's been a Tom Petty song to match me step by step, and
I've loved the synchronicity of it.
And if he did have to leave us, he did it in
style, having just concluded his 40th Anniversary Tour on September 23rd...
which fits perfectly with his understated style.
Rest well, Gentleman Tom: we'll see you on the
flipside.
Oct 3 – Gunz
The tragedy this week in Las Vegas
stunned the world, but is it enough?
Time and again, the USA suffers at
the hands of those who insist firearms preserve their freedom, but at the cost
of tens of thousands of lives a year. How did the US go from millions owning
hunting rifles to tens of millions owning handguns and assault weapons? This
video below shows how the NRA decided to buy itself another century of life by
cashing in on the trade of death by firearm:
Oct 4 – It Frees You
This is how writing can free you from
your past.
This is something that my favourite
writer, J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame, wrote about where he came
from and how he got to where he is now. It's a truly powerful read, and
informative as to his depth as a writer:
Oct 5 – OGRE!
Aha! I didn't know that this game
existed, and today's the release day!
Ogre, a game of futuristic scifi ground combat, first came on the
scene in 1977 and centers around a giant cybernetic nuclear-armed tank called
an OGRE:
Created by Steve Jackson Games( who
also did Car Wars! ), Ogre always intrigued me but I was never able
to get anyone interested in playing it with me back in the day, sadly. I tried
out the Ogre PC game released in 1986 and it was so damned hard that I stopped, so I
left it at that. However, I've had this on my wall since I first spotted it in
1988:
Now that an updated version of Ogre
is out for modern PC's, I'll keep an eye on it to see if I can snag it in a
Steam Sale in 2018; since it's only a curiosity for me, I don't want to blow
$30 at full price, especially as it was a bonus unlock from a HUGE 2012
Kickstarter and they could have released it for $10 while still making a tidy
profit:
All in all, I'm looking forward to
trying it out sometime in 2018!
Oct 6 – Task Sorting and BBC
What to do with a 4-day weekend?
Lots, as it turns out.
I took a few hours today to get a few
tech things working around my place again, including both my little Acer
'backup box' for data redundancy as well as my 'Blue Frankenstein' media
server. While both are now back in service, I'm going to be replacing the
Acer's OS with a new one( like FreeNAS )once I figure out how to get all
my terabytes of old data OFF the machine safely. Right now it's looking like
I'll have to copy them manually, which isn't really the best solution timewise.
As well, I dived into getting some
things written up for my novels, solidifying some notes into better documents
and generally making good use of my time.
In the evening, my sister and I
caught up on a few episodes of Hidden Houses, a show that explores some
of the grand centuries-old homes of Wales in the UK. Both of us have been
pretty busy lately, so it was nice to make time to hang out while enjoying a
show we both liked, having grown up watching many similar BBC and PBS shows on
TV when we were kids.
Plus, y'know, castles are cool!
Oct 7 – La Revolution!
Today was all about waiting for a
party...
It was a friend of mine's birthday,
and as she's a creative sort, she decided to have a dinner party with this as
the theme at the incomparable Venus Sophia this evening:
The year is 1793, and a fête is happening at the Rue du ---. You have been invited for cards, accomplishments, social dance, and a dinner with the crême of society. However, at this party are a number of revolutionaries mixed in with the nobility. The revolutionaries are trying to tear down the old world with Mam'zelle la Guillotine, executing any nobles (or noble sympathizers) that stand in the way of their dream of a freer and more equal France. There is hope despite the Reign of Terror, as the daring Scarlet Pimpernel and his enigmatic League have been smuggling the condemned out of France and undermining the Revolutionaries' bloodlust.
 |
| Our props and prep were thorough!!! |
My lady and I had a great time, and I
was the center of the show, if I do say so myself! By sheer chance, I picked
the role-packet of a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, whose
mission was to save as many Innocents as possible - so I got to play an
undercover hero! My lady, as I discovered at the end of the game, played the
role of a Corrupt Noble, who had to escape France somehow...
 |
| It was like we were in another time and place for hours... delightful! |
To my delight, I was able to slip
into my role perfectly, using the cover of being a native French wine merchant.
This allowed me to shape the conversations using wine as a metaphor for
freedom, and kept those who were seeking to catch members of the League
off-balance due to my affability and repeated affirmations that "all I was
interested in was wine, so I'll sell to anyone!" and it worked! I did have
one bad moment where someone stepped forward to Arrest me( no idea what tipped
him off; perhaps he spotted me assembling Rescue Map parts? )but as it happened I
didn't have my Passport on me, which I told him... and it worked! I made it
through to the end of the game without suspicion, and through my efforts in
leading the other members of the League, all but two players were saved from
Execution by the Revolutionaries, with the final score 29-16 in favour of the
League - success!
It was a grand evening, and while I
was tired after only 2 hours of gentle verbal sparring, it was exhilarating to
know that I'd played a central role in the game.
Oct 8 – The Doctor!
While out today with my lady, I found
this gem at Borden Books:
When I was a kid, I loved the Mr. Men
and Little Miss books by Roger Hargreaves, full of fun and colourful characters
whom children could easily relate to. They lived in a world that was colourful
and fun, a depiction of adults with all of the positives and few of the
negatives that has stuck with me to this day.
Seeing the book above, I became
curious, and discovered that there's a new series of Mr. Men and Little Miss
books coming out right now, in the fall of 2017. They look hilarious:
Finding things like this feeds the child in me, and importantly does so without relying totally on nostalgia: it's important to keep moving into the future, but you're allowed to do so if you bring those things from the past that make you stronger... or happier.
Good words to live by.
This week was one of the most normal
I've had this year: get up, go to work, come home and do what I need to,
without any real health distractions. It was wonderful, and I look forward to
repeating it indefinitely until I no longer have to work, but can just write
and live my life as I see fit, for the future...
