So this blog has been going on for a while now and I’ve tried to keep from writing too much about the day to day minutae around here. Nobody wants to read the reality show transcript of my life, which holds very little interest to anyone, including me.
This does have the effect of limiting the amount of posts that are written as I try to write when something odd or unusual occurs. Having a full time job also cuts into the creative time that was previously spent writing. “I’m bored, what should I do? Write a blog post!”
My “filler” pages help boost my ego. The ever-evolving “So You Wanna Join A Band” gets a lot of hits. My guitar…..ahem…..collection manages to get some surf too. Having conciously set up this as a destination for those items rather than focus on my writing helps lessen the self-imposed writing pressure. As a not-for-profit venture it succeeds fairly well.
* My website dfwburlesque.com is about to celebrate a one-year anniversary. I wouldn’t have noticed, but I had to renew the hosting. I’ve been told I should throw a party, but seeing as how my time has lessened in actually going to the shows I can let it pass uneventfully. Possibly a “Happy Birthday” Facebook status update will be in order?
* I definitely have things that I could write about that occur at work. Unfortunately, I haven’t come up with a good way to filter it so that should I be googled (successfully) that they couldn’t misconstrue whatever I’m writing about.
* The music room is an absolute wreck right now. I’m okay with it, for the most part. The reason it’s a wreck is that it’s full of other “works in progress” for the rest of the house. The main bathroom is nearly done (crossing fingers that I can get it done this weekend). However I really need to get it back in shape so that I have somewhere to hide and practice guitar without bothering anyone. My intention is to get my daughter bass lessons – and hopefully take some lessons from this same teacher as well. We stopped by a shop and my playing was so rusty even I was embarrased. I’ve got one major song to get written and a few others rattling around. Recording music is not the time to be practicing however, it just makes recording take ten times longer.
* I’m in the market for an entertainment center. Already found some modern/retro stuff that I really like, but as always, what I really like and what really makes sense for the room are two different things.
* One of my oldest friends (old as in how long I’ve known him, not that he’s elderly) wrote and self published his own Role Playing Game with his wife called Mana Punk. Color me suitably impressed. I purchased it and downloaded, but honestly haven’t had the time to read it. Reading is a luxury that is mostly confined to my…err…..bathroom. While I approve of gaming as a social activity, I just don’t have the energy for it right now. My daughter has expressed an interest in LARPing, so I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.
My first exposure to RPG’s was back in Mrs Kreig’s class in fifth or sixth grade. Chris Durbin and a few other people were sitting at the table in the corner and doing something. Now I assume they were making characters. I joined them but really I was just drawing rooms on graph paper and throwing implausible things that didn’t fit because I didn’t know the system. Me: Here’s a pit of spikes. Them: That’s not where that goes. I think this is the same table that debated whether or not checkerboard Vans were introduced to popular culture via Sean “Spicoli” Penn in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or via Eddie Van Halen. Ahh youth.
Right before I moved to New Zealand, I played the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Roleplaying game with the aforementioned eldest friend. Eldest? Nevermind. It had a lot less to do with TMNT than it did the idea of talking animals and post-apocolyptic imagery. In New Zealand, I somehow roped my next door neighbor into playing and we did that off and on my entire time there. I would spend hours poring over a character creation. Looking at the below image, it’s no wonder that I’m drawn (ha!) to a bold outline cartoon style ala Vince Ray or Coop now. Thank you Eastman and Laird!
After returning to the US, I began playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons with some of the people that I worked with at The Company Onstage. Hank McNally was our illustrious DM and we had quite a contentious group (including my above friend’s brother). I think more time was spent with player drama than anything else, but it was a lot of fun and a great time killer. It was somewhere around this time that I started loving Autoduel/Car Wars and Shadowrun and especially Paranoia. God what a fun game. Paranoia was the only game I know of where you were given clones, and the “winner” was the person who managed to outlast the other player’s seven clones. Many MANY entertaining and interesting ways to die. (Was I the ONLY person who later bought the Shadowrun game for the Sega Genesis? What a great game.)
* I still regret not buying the game Alternate Reality for the Macintosh when we were visiting Seattle. My dad said, “We’ll find it at discount somewhere” but we never did.
Ending this post with a whimper rather than a bang (or even a strong finish)
