Invisible Runner

Go and try Invisible Runner by David Ferriz. An aesthetically gorgeous game with a here-and-gone-again protagonist.

Happy Christmas, XO Pumpkinhead

I think my favourite move is at 1:13, where Pumpkinhead semi-covertly pulls up his leotard. Awesome.

Via Videogum. If you're not reading Videogum, you don't love bunnies or hugs.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Eighteen

Word Count: same as the day before
Sadness: 1

Wednesdays are busy for me. In my other life I've taken on a ghostwriting job and there are long phone meetings to be had as we discuss strategies for making my part of the work all that it needs to be. There are writing classes to go to. There are tai chi students to teach. There are my own tai chi lessons to learn.

It's weird to me how time always manages to contract around your obligations, so there is never enough of it. Because I'm a night owl, going to bed is always a struggle. It always feels more like giving up than taking care of myself.

Last night, I decided to opt for an early bedtime. Nothing got done on day 18.

Now today - the 19th - is grey and ugly, and I'm feeling bummed out. It's one of those typical November days - it seems like the sun never exactly rises, and a long, slow drizzle falls all day long. Upsetting for small dogs who need exercise. And bad for hiking. But maybe good for writing and reading.

NaNoWriMo 2009 Day Eleven

Word Count: same as the day before

Yeah. Sometimes it just doesn't feel right to keep writing. Tuesdays and Wednesdays suck for NaNoNovelling; and it all comes together on the weekend. Sundays have been awesome so far. I am so, so happy that there are five of them this month.

Danse Macabre

Try not to cut yourself on idarem's cheekbones while you watch this.

Something Useful

I recently followed the advice of Dr. Wicked on "Writing and Technology: Finding Your Place" and purchased an AlphaSmart 2000. This is the durable but less flashy older brother of the Neo, for those who aren't familiar with this cool little device. Basically, we're talking about a super lightweight smart keyboard that remembers up to 64 pages of text and retypes it into the file of your choice when you want it to. It runs on three double-A batteries for a billion hours. Dr. Wicked explains it extremely well if you need more convincing.

I am (and shall remain, I boldly declare) a steadfast believer in pen and paper. I write first drafts by hand. As a lefty, I experience an intuitive connection with the page that is quite different from the balanced intellectualism of keyboard work. And I love the grace and ease of certain pens. I work with a Rotring fountain pen and Aurora or Noodler's ink, which is a much more economical option than some of the roller ball pens I worked with as an academic. At two and three dollars a pop, disposable pens end up costing a whole lot more over time. (To compare, a seven or eight dollar bottle of fountain pen ink lasts a year even with heavy daily use.)

But enough about my pen fetish...

The point is, when it comes to getting text off the handwritten page and into a word processor, I find I often get sidetracked (Videogum, I'm looking at you!). So the idea behind the AlphaSmart purchase was that I could separate my writing time from other, superfun, but perhaps less productive activities. I'm thinking a super lightweight portable keyboard is also a better option than my big old superheavy laptop for transcribing research in the library, for taking out to the coffee house, for dropping on the floor accidentally, and for traipsing about the wilds of Northern Ontario. (Our family cottage doesn't have regular hydro service. There's a generator, but we don't run it 24/7 and it's loud and unreliable.)

So the point of all this, is that I ordered an AlphaSmart from some dude on eBay for $9.95 US, and it came today. They tend to go for a little more than that, but not too much more. I purchased a simple cable that you need to upload files from the AlphaSmart to your computer, and I was ready to rock and roll.

The point to this story is that the AlphaSmart was previously loved by a school that used it to help kids work on their writing (or for all I know, their typing). As it turns out, files do not get deleted just because the device doesn't have batteries or a connection to power. When I turned it on, I found that two of the files had, uh, content in them. Reading these made me immediately want to go out and get some schoolage kids of my own.

The first item:

Dear Mrs. Losey

we would like your approval to have an’end of the year water party’the we would like to set up are water balloontoss,quismo,gallonfill,freetime if you let us do this we will be on are best behavor and we will clan it up.

I have no clue what half of this stuff is. Quismo? Sounds diabolical. But at least this child is promising to honour his Scottish roots. Or maybe his supremacist roots.

I also found this short story? essay? about a touching weekend camping trip:

When me and my uncle were at a forest I was throw rocks I hit something and that something was a Camodo Dragon.It chased us intill my uncle found a stick and hit him with it.Then he died,he picked him up and droped him on his head again an again to make sure he was dead.Then raped him up and was heading home.I sat in front cause I didn’t know if he was still alive.

I love that it becomes unclear whether the kamodo or the uncle dies and gets "raped up". Powerful use of ambiguity, that. Seriously, kid, if you're out there and this is your work, I hope you kept writing. I can only imagine what kind of sick stuff you'll cook up after you experience the horrors of dating and life after high school.

NaNoWriMo Day Twenty-One

No words on the 21st. I just finished counting up my words for the 20th, and it's five to eleven and I'm in favour of sleep over word count tonight. I'm on my own tomorrow late afternoon and evening, so I'm hoping for a productive day.

Plus I'm kind of drunk. Darn D.'s boss for giving us an amazing bottle of pinot grigio. Darn the Dog Whisperer for being so entertaining that I just had to watch another episode. Darn the landlord for being so much of a jerk that he inspired yet another discussion about how soon we can get outta here. Darn life for being...life and stuff. Darn the bed for looking so comfortable.

NaNoWriMo Day Eleven

Remembrance Day today. Whatever you call it, it's good to take a moment and remember people who sacrificed themselves for you, especially those who died violently. Veterans, I salute you.

No words today. I was here having my energy tweaked. Highly recommended for what ails ya, whatever that may be.

But I'm gonna be ready to take on a new chapter tomorrow! Go, turtle crew, go!

NaNoWriMo Day Four

Word Count: 7623
International conspiracies based on blooddrinking: 1 big 1
Beheadings: 1 (in flashback, bringing the total to 3)
Burgeoning love affairs that will possibly lead to elopement: 1
Predatory princes: 1

Today was a beautiful day in Hamilton - 18 degrees (celsius, for those who think that sounds cold). I took the dog out for a super long hike this afternoon, leaving this evening for writing. Seriously: could you resist this face?

It was awesome to be out and about with Dizzy for some time in the woods and the warm sun. (It's a tough life, but somehow I'll manage!)

Things are starting to sort themselves out, plot-wise. I've been working with a particularly astounding historical incident as inspiration for this part of the novel, and it's been fun.

Onward and upward!

They are not evil, and Brad Sucks is even more not evil

Good old Magnatune. I don't know how artists feel about them, but as a music consumer, I like them. The philosophy behind the company seems to be that they'll give you free and open webstreamy access to the music they're selling. Once you've had a good listen, perhaps you'll buy. I think this approach to marketing is one of the most exciting things to emerge as a consequence of the relationship between the internet and art. Because if you purchase, you do it because you want to give something (money) in return for something that's been given to you (tasty musical goodness). Which makes you not only cool, but an even better person than you already were, too.

(For a fabulous example of this philosophy in action, not to mention some durned great music, check out Brad Sucks, his amazing thoughts on why sharing is good, and the juicy goodness he has spawned. Be amazed at his openness and awesomeness. Then buy his records! Or buy him a mood-altering substance, whatevs!)

If you sign up for Magnatune's free song of the day, they send you a (almost-daily) link to some free music for you to download and enjoy. Good especially if you have eclectic taste. They also allow/encourage you to embed albums on your own website. If you browse Magnatune and find an album you like, you'll find a link that will lead you to some magical code that you can paste into your site and thus embed the non-discreet player (below) or a discreet player (a simple and tiny gray bar).

If you like this music (played on the original Renaissance instruments), and you have a few bucks to toss around, please support the artists and purchase it!



Vihuela Duets of Valderrabano by Duo Chambure

The Magic Flute

So one procrastination point on Saturday was taking the evening to go see Opera Hamilton's awesome production of The Magic Flute. A previous production of this opera had left me impressed by the Queen of the Night's famous aria ("Hell's vengeance boileth in my heart"), but basically thinking that Magic Flute was a weird and cute crowd-pleaser. Not so with tonight's production. It was a deeply weird and ritualistic production, rich with quasi-Masonic (or possibly seriously Masonic) imagery, techniques from German expressionist theatre, and some incredible casting of children as the three spirits who help out the protagonists with handy interventions as they undergo their trials.

It was also hilarious. As with many productions of this opera, they translated the recitative into English and spoke rather than sang it. But this wasn't dumbed down dialogue - it was often smart and smartass, too. Way to take a risk, Opera Hamilton!

During the show, I had a flashback to a vinyl record that was in my parents' collection. I think it was just an "opera lite" selection of Mozart pieces, but it had a picture of Papageno on the front.

Papageno is one messed up character.

He's a man; he's part bird; and his job is collecting birds for the Queen of the Night. What they do with the birds, I don't know. But there's something of the weird cannibal in Papageno.

As a kid, I just could not figure out the picture on the album cover, which was much freakier than any of the images I could find of Papageno online. But watching the production at Opera Hamilton tonight, I had moments where that frisson of disorientation came back to me.
Image by Kay Konrad.

Thanks for the memories, guys.