What I've Been Doing

This week's flown by, mostly thanks to various activities involving Game Over. However, yesterday was spent doing our 3rd Agile 101 training session at the same locale as the earlier ones in April and early August. This latest one received ratings of 9.0, 9.3 and 9.0 (all out of 10) for the presentation, hands-on activity and facilitation of it, respectively. Collectively, those are the best results I've ever received for a training session, so that was pretty awesome!

Back on the novel, I've been getting lots of updates on progress from some of the folks now in possession of copies of it. The common theme seems to be that once you get a few chapters in, Game Over is very hard to put down! I know that Julie predicted that would be the case, but I'm still (very pleasantly) surprised to hear it. Two of my nieces reported blowing through multiple chapters last night after their kids went to bed, with one of them staying up to 1:00 a.m. and then thinking about the book while lying in bed afterward! In other words: exactly the sort of reaction I'd love people to have! It's gratifying to know that all of that hard work by myself and my supporting players over the past eight or nine months is finally paying off!

If you haven't already got your copy of Game Over, hopefully it's because you pre-ordered it and just haven't had a chance to get it from me yet. Otherwise... what are you doing?! It's turning into the Must Read book of 2011!!

[Update later than same night: I forgot to mention that one of my nieces sent me an e-mail this morning with the Subject: YOUR BOOK IS FREAKIN' AMAZING!! The e-mail ended with her telling me that she couldn't wait for bedtime tonight so that she could get back at it! That pretty much made my day.]

Today's Early Game Over Feedback

Via e-mail from someone who purchased a copy earlier today:

"2 chapters done. Loving it so far"

That's what I like to hear!

Walking Goal: Week 12 Report - GOAL REACHED!

Yup, with 20 kms over the last 2 days alone, I really pushed myself to the limit this week and brought my total up to:

501.1 kms (100.2% of my goal for the summer!!!)

I'll still keep at it through the end of September, as planned, but now at least the pressure's off. It's all gravy from here on in...

Game Over Teases: The Chapter List

Here's the chapter list for my first novel. And yes, Chapter 2 is really called that!

Chapter 1: Flight Risks
Chapter 2: Shit Happens
Chapter 3: Ghosts
Chapter 4: Secrets and Lies
Chapter 5: The Course of True Love
Chapter 6: Friends and Other Strangers
Chapter 7: Mothers and Sons
Chapter 8: Apocalypse Now and Then
Chapter 9: Into the Abyss
Chapter 10: Strange Bedfellows
Chapter 11: Arrivals and Departures
Chapter 12: Teachable Moments
Chapter 13: Flight Risks Redux
Epilogue: Another Story

Like pretty much everything else about Game Over, I'm extremely pleased with the chapter titles and how much they add to the overall package.

First Early Reaction To Game Over In Printed Form

This came to me via e-mail last night, from a rather discerning individual who's reading Game Over for the first time (i.e. not one of the early reviewers):

"I just finished chapter 1, and I have to say I'm very impressed. Two thumbs up so far!"

That sort of thing does wonders for my confidence! Julie, Vicki and I all worried a lot, early on, that Chapter 1 (entitled Flight Risks) wasn't as strong as the rest of the book, although we did work on it quite a bit in subsequent revisions. Sounds like maybe some of that effort paid off. Yay!

Christmas Comes 4 Months Early

OK, so I didn't exactly follow my own game plan, as I decided on Monday to take a risk and order 50 copies of Game Over without first getting a print draft copy of the current version. I know: kind of crazy, eh? (Especially for someone as famously cautious as me!)

Well, those 50 copies took less than 72 hours to print and ship, and they're now sitting on our kitchen table! As far as Vicki and I can tell, they look great! I'm leaning toward distributing them piecemeal, on an adhoc basis rather than doing a big "Book Launch Event", which means that I'll be notifying the pre-order people by e-mail shortly that their book is now ready. Then I'll figure out how to get them handed out.

Should be fun. I can't wait to see how people respond to this, my first ever novel (and yes, I realize it might not be positively.... gulp!)

Game Over Teases: The Front Cover

How's that for awesome???

The Movie Of Roger Ebert's Life

Ebert has a memoir coming out soon, and the first chapter of it is available online right now. As fans of his movie reviews know, he has a uniquely-engaging voice in his writing and that comes across big time in that first chapter. I think I'll greatly enjoy reading Life Itself: A Memoir when I receive a copy of it for Christmas this year (hint, hint).

Complete And Utter Awesomeness

Yes, this is at least seven different types of awesome: an amazing live action Portal short!

Walking Goal: Week 11 Report

I may now be within a week of my target, although I'll need to post a big number this week to make it. As of right now, I'm at:

453 kms (90.7% of the way to my target of 500 km)

If I don't hit the mark by next Sunday (end of Week 12), I should be able to get there by the following Wednesday, which would be the end of August. So either way, I'll be about a month ahead of schedule... if I don't break a leg or get hit by a car in the meantime!

Very Moving Jack Layton Letter

If only every politician could go out with this much class: Jack Layton's last letter to Canadians.

I find it particularly moving that Mr. Layton thought to include the following:

"To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer."

That he was thinking of others in similar situations, even at the end, says a lot about the type of man Jack Layton was.

Another Game Over Update

So the print draft copies (I ordered one each for Vicki, Julie and I) arrived on Tuesday, and I started reviewing it, looking for things that should be fixed. There were relatively few typos or grammar errors that I could see, but lots of things like the same word unintentionally being used several times in quick succession. I made a list of those, which ran to almost 50 items. I've now corrected all of them, and will give Vicki and Julie another couple days to see if they come up with anything else that needs addressing. Then I'll order one copy of the updated version, in order to check it out before placing the big order. My expectation is that we'll have copies available for all the eager readers out there by around the middle of September. I'm still considering whether or not to do a Book Launch event of some sort, but it looks like I've got a few weeks yet before I have to make that decision.

So that's where we stand on Game Over right now. I'll be providing another tease for it sometime this week, if all goes as planned.

A Corner Has Been Turned On The R3 Beta

With Vicki out of town visiting Tammy, and Julie too busy for any walks at the moment, I've had unfettered access to the Resistance 3 beta over the past 24 hours. I think I probably logged about 5 hours on it yesterday, and went from generally sucking to actually finishing 1st in one Team Deathmatch! I was usually in the top 5 or 6 players at the end of the game (out of 16 total), which is about as high as I can get in most games. It's gone from being a frustrating experience to a fun one, making me even more excited about the official release that's now only 18 days away! I'm maxed out at level 20 (that's the limit in the beta) and am looking forward to finding out just how many more promotions I can get in the full game, as well as what loadout options are still to come. I've also pushed my KTD ratio well above 1.0 for the first time, which longtime followers of this blog know to be my favourite metric for how I'm doing in online game play!

In other words: fun!

Game Over Teases: The First Line

The very first thing I wrote for my then-untitled first novel back in January of this year, once I resumed work on it after a year and a half hiatus and with a completely different take on it in mind (in large part thanks to Julie), was the opening line. I'd discarded everything I'd written before, and started over from scratch. I remember telling Julie the line, just a few short hours after I'd come up with it, and I also recall trying to change it long after the first draft was complete and how she talked me out of it.

I just now compared what made it onto the printed page with what opened the first chapter that I sent Julie on Jan 19/11, and they're identical. Not even a single character changed between then and now, despite some fairly extensive revisions of the book in general over those intervening months.

Here, then, is a very brief taste of Game Over in the form of its opening line:

I’m haunted by a recurring image from a moment in my mother’s childhood that I’m pretty sure never actually happened.

How's that grab you?

Copy Of Game Over Now In Hand

Lulu was even faster than usual this time, as I placed the order on Thursday of last week (in the afternoon!) and had my print draft copy of Game Over in hand by noon today! Wow, that's quick!

We'll be checking it over for a bit and then placing the big order, possibly within a few days (assuming we don't find anything wrong that's drastic enough to require another print draft copy first). It's always a big thrill getting that first copy in the mail, but this was particularly exciting because I'm probably prouder of this book than I've been of any of the previous ones (and that's saying something). This is one great story, I think, and now I get to look at it wrapped up in a sweet little package! Fun!

Walking Goal: Week 10 Report

I don't know what was in her drinking water last week, but for some reason Julie invited me to join her for 5 - count 'em, 5! - walks, which was a very nice development indeed. I didn't actually have to do many solo treks, as a result, and yet still posted almost 40 kms for the week. I'm on the home stretch now for sure:

411 kms (82.2% of the way to the goal of 500 kms)

I expect I'll hit my target by the end of August at this pace, leaving me the entire month of September to pile on the gravy. It's been a lot of walking in hot temperatures but at least the worst of that should be behind me now (I hope).

And Now Some More Thoughts On The Resistance 3 Beta

This weekend, for the first time since I got access to the R3 multiplayer beta, the servers actually worked well! I had no disconnects, no trouble getting into games, and no problems with my stats. This was a very smooth experience in terms of the online infrastructure, so that bodes well for the Sep 6th launch, I guess.

As for the game itself, it's taking me a long time to get any good at it, as is often the case with a new title. Almost every match I've played in has seemed to include a few players on the other side who've really figured it out, and have levelled up enough to have access to the most powerful abilities. I'm now at level 12 and can use the Marksman, which was one of my favourite guns from Resistance 2. I'm still not killing more than I'm dying, but I suppose I'll get there eventually. I find the controls a bit 'sticky', especially when you're trying to keep your sight on an enemy while firing... either I'm doing something wrong, they've intentionally made that difficult, or there's a bug of some sort. It's really frustrating, and I swear it seems like some of the players are already 'glitching', as their avatars are moving too quickly and too erratically for me to be able to hit very well. Or maybe I just suck.

I also have the typical problem of pressing down too hard on the right thumbstick whenever I'm trying to spin and track an enemy. I've currently got that button press mapped to Crouch, which isn't bad most of the time, except when I'm standing behind a low wall trying to shoot snipe someone... inevitably, as I try to hit them, I crouch and can't see over the wall anymore! Of all the issues I have with controllers, this one is by far the most maddening... why we can't either dial down the sensitivity of the downward pressing or disable that button altogether, is beyond me. I swear I'd be at least a 5% better player without having to deal with that annoyance every frigging game!

Anyway, it's nice to be able to actually play it now, but I hope they can make the online experience a little smoother in terms of movement and graphics. As it is, it's a fun game but not an amazing one. And with no 8-person coop mode of the style R2 had, it's hard to imagine that I'll end up spending the same hundreds of hours playing this one.

Game Over Update

After a flurry of activity this week, I've finally put in my initial print draft copy order with Lulu. I should have something in hand to check over within the next week or two, after which I'll be able to place the larger order. Pre-orders are right now sitting at about 2/3 of what I'd hoped for, which means I'll be doing a smaller print run than I'd planned unless a few more come in over the next week or so. I'm trying to decide the best way to get copies into the hands of people who pre-ordered, as 'meeting for lunch' a dozen or more times isn't going to work for a number of reasons (not the least of which is, I usually eat out about once a week at most!). I'm tempted to do a 'launch event' of some sort, either from a restaurant or out of our home, but I'm not sure the numbers really warrant that big a deal. So we'll see.

At any rate, my best guess right now is that Game Over should be available for purchase around the start of September. Then the fun can really start!

Oh, Those Crazy French!

I knew there was another reason why I've hated the Habs all my life...

I've got Game Over pretty much ready to go, except that we can't seem to nail down the handful of French translations I need for two of the later chapters! Wouldn't you know it that the 99.95% of the book that's in English is ready to go, while the 0.05% that's in French is holding everything up.

Argggh!

Last Call For Game Over Pre-Orders

Progress has been so good on Game Over lately that I may actually be able to get copies printed later this month, instead of having to wait until September! Which is good news, but the pre-orders so far have been less than I was hoping for, making me think that maybe some potential readers haven't gotten around to letting me know just yet. If you're one of them, please get in touch with me sooner, rather than later.

Having just completed a final pass on the novel, I can tell you it's going to be quite the interesting read! It's now looking quite polished, I believe. All it needs is more readers!

Walking Goal: Week 9 Report

Progress continues to be made, and Week 9 was particularly successful. Julie helped out with two walks, one at either end of the week, and so I logged just shy of 40 km over the 7 days, bringing my total up to:

374 kms (74.8% of the way toward my 500 km total)

In other words, I'm now 3/4 of the way there, about 1/2 way through my 4 months. Yay!

Oh, And I've Played Resistance 3, By The Way...

If you want a measure of how crazy the last couple weeks have been for me, consider this:

Last Tuesday, I was invited to join the Resistance 3 Beta that was starting up. And yet, this post, almost a week later, is the first time I've thought to even blog about it! I've tried to play about 5 times so far, making it into games twice; the other times I was thwarted by a widespread matchmaking issue that Insomniac Games is currently looking into. In fact, they've now shut down matchmaking entirely and you can only play in private games, which means you need to know someone else in the Beta. There are forums set up to facilitate finding such people, but I've been too busy to devote any time to that.

My total playing time was maybe 20 minutes, so my impressions of the multiplayer component (the only thing in the Beta) are limited. I think the graphics are good but not great; I found the controls a bit clunky but that may just be an adjustment rather than a shortcoming. There seem to be a ton of perks available as you level up, meaning that it's going to be tough not to blow completely early on. I'm bracing myself for that when the game actually comes out in 29 days!

I'll post more once I've had a chance to get some significant playing time in. I'd say what I've seen so far has neither increased nor decreased my anticipation of Resistance 3.

Nearly There On Game Over

Julie sent me her edits on the final chapter of Game Over yesterday, leaving her only the (relatively short) Epilogue to work on now. Assuming I get those from her by tomorrow (which she thinks she can do), then I'll start my final pass on the book right afterward. That means I could be requesting a print draft copy from Lulu in as little as a week or two, which would be even earlier than planned! I've been playing around with the formatting this week, which is something I always leave until the final days of the editing stage, as prior to that it really doesn't matter what the book looks like. With my first three 'masterpieces', that was also when I introduced the comic strips at the start of each chapter. Just to set expectations: there are no comics in Game Over! Sorry if that's a disappointment to anyone out there... but shit happens!

And just one more note on my Editor Extraordinaire. While each of the people who've read early versions of the book have provided outstanding feedback to me in their own unique ways, no one else has managed to both go over it with a fine-toothed comb looking for mistakes and offer helpful suggestions for it quite like Julie. Her work on it over the past several months is going to make me look like a much better writer than I actually am, but let's just keep that to ourselves, shall we?

The Call Has Gone Out

I sent the e-mail last night, asking folks who'd like to get a copy of Game Over from me to please pre-order now. Chances are good that, if you're reading this now, you've already received that e-mail. However, if you didn't, there's still lots of time to let me know that you want one! I'm hoping to get at least 30 pre-orders for this, my first novel, but we're off to a bit of a slow start. That could reflect summer vacations, of course, which is always a risk this time of year. But we'll see how things go next week. And a very big THANK YOU to everyone who's reserved a copy so far... it's much appreciated!

I've come up with what I believe is a better back cover blurb for the book, which I included in the e-mail. For posterity, as well as for the benefit of anyone not receiving that message, here's the latest version:

"A teenager pushed in front of a bus; a dead body in a freezer; a sudden wave of suicides. These are just a few of the inexplicable events Malcolm Greene has to contend with as he struggles to solve a mystery that’s threatening to consume him. The closer he gets to the answer, though, the higher the stakes become and the more Malcolm begins to fear for his own safety… and possibly his sanity, too! Does this self-described flight risk really have what it takes to get to the bottom of this increasingly-dangerous puzzle, or will he decide to get out while the getting’s good?"

That seems a catchier description than what I posted last time.

I've also got a friend working on the front cover for Game Over, and I may show it here prior to the release of the book. Haven't made a firm decision on that front yet. I can say that his early mock ups have elicited a lot of oooh's and ahhh's out of Julie, Vicki and I! So that bodes well for having an eye-catching visual as the face of Game Over.

As of right now, I'm hoping to have copies in hand by the middle of September. Fingers crossed!

AgileMan Rides Again (But Is Pooped Right Now)

I did another Agile 101 Workshop today, with my lovely helper Vicki alongside me once more, at the same local company that we'd been at in April. This was for another group there, and there's already talk about possibly going back toward the end of the month for yet another collection of folks. It's really hard to convey just how tired I am after a full day workshop like that, but suffice to say I've done almost nothing since getting home around 5:00 p.m. My brain's too fried to make changes to Game Over, for example, or to even watch anything on TV. In fact, I'll probably be in bed by 10:00 tonight, which is about 2 hrs earlier than normal.

But it was a good session, and so worth a little mental exhaustion afterwards. The Effectiveness Survey results weren't quite as impressive this time out - 8.3 / 10 for the presentation portion and 8.4 / 10 for the hands-on activity - but still very respectable, all things considered.

Tomorrow, however, I have to get back to work on Game Over. I'm still hoping to start the self-publishing process in a couple of weeks. Julie has kindly provided her edits for all but the final chapter and the epilogue, and once I have those and the final few chapters from one other reviewer, I should be on the home stretch. I'll do one more pass at that point, and then get it ready for printing. So exciting... I can hardly wait for more people to read this thing!

Walking Goal: Week 8 Report

I had a rather impressive 8th week, as I somehow managed to walk almost 50 km despite another wave of high temperatures and debilitating humidity. Vicki generously accompanied me for several walks in the heat, and Julie and Cooper helped out, too. I'm now right around the halfway mark for my 4 month sojourn, and am well ahead of schedule:

335.5 kms (67.1% of the way to my target)

I don't think I could've picked a hotter summer to try this in, but I guess the results to date just mean that I'm really committed to hitting my goal!

Happy Anniversary To Us

I'm a little late posting this, but "today" (August 1st, so technically yesterday now) was the 1-year anniversary of the first time Julie came over to hang out with Vicki and I. As regular readers of this blog probably realize, that was the start of a friendship that's blossomed pretty impressively over the past 12 months.

I can't imagine writing Game Over without Julie's help, for example, nor would I have wanted to miss the two and a half weeks in April during which we had Cooper and Finley staying with us while Julie vacationed in South Africa. And, of course, I probably wouldn't be in the shape I'm in - such as it is! - were it not for all those dozens of walks Julie, Cooper and I have gone on since last Fall.

In other words, we're lucky to have found such a good friend... and we know it!

Good Time To Join The Resistance

If you own a PS3 and have always wondered why Boneman and I rave about Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2, now is the perfect time to find out. Not only is Resistance 3 only 38 days away, but a very affordable Dual Pack, containing both R:FoM and R2, has just been released for $39.99! Highly recommended, as I've played through each of those games twice already, and probably will again at some point in the future.

A Crazy Week

So far, this week has featured a walk during which Julie and I encountered a very strange bit of 'landscaping' that was put in place so quickly that my walking partner only half-jokingly theorized it must have involved time travel or alien technology; two deaths in my family (one of which happened last month but no one thought to tell us about at the time); a request for two Agile workshops to be delivered over the next two weeks; and a whole slew of feedback for Game Over that will have me making edits to it for days and days and days. In other words, I've been busier, and more distracted, than at any point since I stopped working full-time 3 years ago!

At The Fringe

We couldn't take any photos within the shows of Hamilton Fringe itself, but we did remember to snap a couple as we moved between venues. Here's Vicki posing by a poster for Dirk Darrow:


And here I am, outside the Aquarius Theatre, one of the two venues the Fringe Festival took place in:


You can't really get a sense of how hot it was there, but trust me: it was brutal! Still, we had a fantastic time there and were so glad we went!

Walking Goal: Week 7 Report

I was expecting a poor total for this week, what with the heat and Hamilton Fringe to contend with. However, I fortunately remembered to take my pedometer to Steel City so that I could record all of our jaunts back and forth between the two venues. That, along with a little Cooper time at the start of the week and a Julie walk at the end, allowed me to post some reasonably good progress in Week 7:

287.4 kms (57.5% of the way to the total)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for a break from this ridiculously high humidity any time now!

Calling All Frenchies!

I have a favour to ask if you happen to speak French fluently: there are a few pieces of dialogue in Game Over that are in French. Julie (who went to a French school until Grade 8) has been kind enough to translate them from English. However she isn't 100% confident about the results as she hasn't had to speak French in a very long time. So if you happen to be fluent in French and would be willing to double check them, please contact me. Any assistance here would be greatly appreciated!

Captain America: My First Avenger

As regular followers of this blog already know, my first ever comic book featured Captain America. As such, we can draw a straight line from that moment in 1970 right through to me sitting in a theatre in Hamilton yesterday afternoon. I was watching so many scenes from that 40-year-old comic that it was absolutely eerie to think about: my first comic, my first Avenger, my first hobby, all symbolized by Chris Evans on the gigantic screen in front of us.

I'm sure most people won't have quite the visceral reaction to Captain America: The First Avenger that I did, but I imagine most will still enjoy it. This is a solid, satisfying silver screen introduction of yet another Marvel/Disney Comics character. Not only do you get Cap's origin, but significantly you get considerable time with the pre-Cap Steve Rogers. This is important because you get to see just what kind of man he is, despite standing about 5-foot-2 and weighing maybe 90 pounds (done with great effects, I must say!). They captured the essence of Rogers perfectly, and perhaps summed it up best with his one statement: "I hate bullies."

Most of the film takes place during World War II, which of course is where the character originated. Anyone bothered by the anachronistic technology on display during those scenes should remember that this is the Marvel Universe, not the real world. The Fantastic Four, after all, got to the moon in 1961! So it's not surprising that their Second World War featured weaponry somewhat more advanced than what actually existed in our version. I loved the war plotline, and was really glad to see that they dedicated almost the entire movie to it. Steve Rogers was the classic fish out of water when he was brought back in the 60s, and the ending of this movie strongly hinted that we'll see more of that in both The Avengers (next summer) and the inevitable Cap sequel.

I have to admit I loved this movie, perhaps more than I should have. But since Vicki said she thoroughly enjoyed it as well, maybe it's simply a good film, period. I know I'll be picking it up on DVD as soon as it comes out, because I'm already eager to watch it a second time!

Hamilton Fringe Roundup

As promised, here's a bunch of mini-reviews of the dozen shows Vicki and I attended at this week's Hamilton Fringe (still going on through tomorrow). I'm listing them in the order we saw them, but also including two sets of rankings: [Vicki's] and (mine). For rankings, 1 means "most-liked" and 12 means "least-liked" with everything else falling in between those two extremes.

An Inconvenient Truthiness [8] (8) - This was a one-woman monologue by Sharylyn Johnson on the topic of her love for comedy. She grew up obsessed with Jon Stewart even prior to his arrival on The Daily Show, and eventually added his Comedy Central peer Stephen Colbert to the mix. I found her presentation a bit uneven and its conclusion somewhat jarring, given the buildup toward it. Having said that, though, I liked it quite a bit and it obviously would've finished with a higher ranking but for the strong field it was playing among. This show actually represents the end of the "worth recommending" portion of my list and probably should've been included in my previous post on Ham Fringe.

When Harry Met Harry [5] (7) - A very entertaining one-man act starring Allan Girod from Perth, Australia. Girod's pliable face and willingness to behave ridiculously really make this worthwhile, although I found the material a little less compelling. Basically it's a day in the life of a very tightly-wound "Senior Print Specialist" in a company's print department who gets sent to an Interpersonal Development Session with some of his co-workers. Girod plays both the obsessive Harry and the session's gushing and emotive leader (Rodney?), as well as drawing in a few audience members for some good fun.

Writer's Block [7] (6) - I give this one high marks for effort and for the physicality of its actors, moreso than for acutally pulling off its central concept of four characters (A, B, C and D) in a plot-less limbo who have to derive their own purpose for being there. There are definitely some intriguing ideas presented as well as several impressive stunts, but the writer in me was left a little unsatisfied that it didn't go deeper.

Closing the Door [3] (4) - We both really enjoyed this ensemble piece (by Fringe standards!) about a man still devestated, two years later, by a breakup with a woman who really gave him very little reason to love her to begin with. The acting is good and the writing cleverly moves back and forward through time, providing little clues into the nature of the relationship as the play moves along.

Hear Nuclear Lies [12] (12) - The writeup had intrigued me: Albert Einstein returns from the dead in 2011 to warn us of the dangers of nuclear energy. Unfortunately, that description was by far the best part of this train wreck of a Fringe play. The actor in the lead role neither looked like, sounded like, acted like nor seemed to even know much of anything about Albert Einstein. The material he presented was full of errors, including such easily-avoided flaws as spelling J. Robert Oppenheimer's name wrong! "Einstein" screwed up countless lines, which is all the more impressive as he was reading most of them off a PowerPoint presentation! His foil - a woman representing a nuclear power organization - inexplicably changed sides late in the game, I guess because that's what the script called for then. As I mentioned to someone after this painful exercise in frustration was over, this wasn't just the worst play I've ever seen... it was one of the worst presentations I've ever attended, and that's saying something! We should have known something was amiss when we were the only two paying customers at the Thursday show! Sometimes word of mouth really does work, it seems.

Nicholas Wallace: Mind Reader [9] (9) - I'm not the world's biggest fan of magic / mind reading acts, but I had enjoyed the one I attended last month. This time around, I wasn't quite as engaged by Nick, who seemed to be having a bit of trouble himself, at times. Now, this was on the hottest July 21st in Hamilton's history with the air conditioning not working in the theatre, so he can probably be forgiven somewhat. However, I still wasn't impressed, and - based on her ranking - neither was Vicki.

Book Worm [2] (1) - As you can tell by our rankings, this was a highlight of the week. Singer / songwriter Corin Raymond held us spellbound for an hour as he recounted stories of growing up with his father and learning to love books with a passion few of us ever feel toward anything in our lives! Raymond's a fantastic weaver of tales, and the structure of his material was absolutely flawless. He received a well-deserved standing ovation at the end that went on for a couple minutes, and I think we only stopped because all of us wanted to hear what he had to say (the performers typically break character at the end to thank us and recommend other Fringe shows to us).

ShLong Form Improv [10] (11) - This was another poorly-attended performance and it may've suffered for it, as audience participation is obviously a major part of improv. Still, both of us noticed missed opportunities and cheats aplenty by the four performers, and in the end it really didn't live up to what we've come to expect from that particular artform by now.

Interface [6] (5) - I enjoyed this play as much for what thoughts it prompted in my own brain as for what was actually presented on the stage. The story involves a male member of a future dystopian society somehow coming in contact with a nearly-current-day female scientist who's working to perfect the world's first artificial intelligence. The two form a bond even though each is a bodiless voice to the other, although the woman believes the man is actually her suddenly self-aware AI! I was bothered a little by the conclusion's implications - which I don't think the screenwriter had thoroughly thought through - but mostly was just impressed and entertained by Interface.

Roller Derby Saved My Soul [4] (3) - We very nearly didn't go to see this one. It was former co-worker Peter Janes' recommendation - he'd actually been involved in it in some capacity - that made us scramble on the final day to fit it in. And boy, were we glad we did! Nancy Kenny both wrote and performs solo in a whirlwind portrayal of two sisters, one of them a Buffy / comic book fan and the other her younger, more assertive Roller Derbying sister. Kenny is amazing in both roles and was a joy to watch for 50 minutes. I'd make a point to see anything she appears in after this. Thanks to Mr Janes for making sure we didn't skip Roller Derby!

Dirk Darrow: NCISS [11] (10) - I almost feel bad for not liking this more, as it's at least a bold attempt: a combination magic, mind-reading, film noir detective story with audience participation thrown in! There were definitely some good laughs as Darrow stumbled his way toward solving a 1947 murder that he'd been hired to look into, but it just never quite clicked for either of us.

A Different Woman [1] (2) - You've got to love it when you go out to see a dozen performances over three nights and the last one in the bunch ends up being one of the very best! Talk about finishing on a high note! I was a little worried about this show, going in: 90 minutes long (most Fringe performances are 60 mins or less), covering a true life story from Texas in the 1920s. It had huge potential to be boring as hell, and yet it was riveting from almost the opening minute. Veronica Russell adapted the play from Gertrude Beasley's book, My First Thirty Years, in which the early 20th century former teacher lays bare the hair-raising home life she'd had to endure up to that point. Incest, bestiality and parents who hated each other highlighted the woman's upbringing, and Russell channels her in hypnotic fashion. When the lights dimmed for the final time, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, just hoping Ms. Russell would speak to us for a few moments out of character. And sure enough, she did: revealing that she was up here from New Orleans, telling us how impressed she'd been by Hamilton's festival so far, and absolutely gracious in her appraisal of what Miss Beasley had risked in writing her book (for which she would eventually be institutionalized for the remainder of her life). Definitely one of the shows not to miss!

As you can see, we had a great time at Hamilton Fringe. About our only regret was that her schedule didn't allow our buddy Susan to attend along with us, as that would've no doubt elevated it to even greater heights. Maybe next time!

Five Weeks After Opening, Green Lantern Is Gone From Most Theatres

If Vicki and I wanted to go see Green Lantern tonight, a blockbuster production which opened a mere five weekends ago, we'd have to go out of town to do so. I'm not particularly heartbroken by this news, although I had been entertaining the thought of us completing the Big Event Movies of 2011 ticket by doing so. After all, we've already seen Thor, X-Men: First Class, Super 8 and Captain America: The First Avenger (review to follow) over the past couple of months. I don't expect much from Ryan Reynolds and the rest of the GL crew, but I nevertheless toyed with the idea of at least seeing it on the big screen.

Not gonna happen, though. I guess even popcorn-vendors have standards, after all.

Hamilton Fringe Roundup To Come

We're just back from 3 days and nights in Hamilton, attending a dozen Hamilton Fringe shows in record-breaking high temperatures. Yes, we loved this year's Fringe here in town so much that we decided to go on the road and check out another one! And we may even do more of that in the weeks and months to come.

Later in the weekend I'll be posting mini-reviews for each of the performances we attended, but in case anyone reading this is considering going and wants to know which ones we particularly liked:

A Different Woman
Book Worm
Closing the Door
Interface
Roller Derby Saved My Soul
When Harry Met Harry
Writer's Block

That represents more than half of what we saw, and several of the other ones were quite good, as well. In other words: another great Fringe Festival!!

Praise For Game Over Draft

One of my second round reviewers sent me the following in an e-mail that was posted at 1:32 a.m. this morning (suggesting, possibly, that he stayed up that late in order to finish reading and critiquing the book):

"I just finished reading Game Over. Wow! Brilliant! Excellent! I absolutely loved it! Great writing and storytelling. Congrats!"

And this was from someone who was wonderfully critical of the book's contents as he went through them, providing me with lots of feedback that I'm continuing to incorporate. So that, as they say, is quite gratifying and encouraging!!

At The Intersection Of Music And Economics

Paul Krugman's blog, this morning. Great song, great video, terrible message to be relevant again in 2011! Just how crazy are American politicians right now that they can't understand what a terrible response austerity is to the current situation? It really is just like the 1930s, all over again.

Brace Yourself For San Diego Comic Con 2011

The biggest genre media event of the year kicks off tomorrow night, as the 5 days of madness known as San Diego Comic Con gets underway. Two years ago this week, at SDCC 2009, Marvel (now Disney) Comics broke the Internet in half by announcing that they'd attained the rights to Miracleman, and were returning him to his original Marvelman name. Two years later, we've yet to see them do anything with the character besides reprint some lame 1950s/60s material that nobody seemed the least bit interested in.

I wonder what non-starters will get dropped on us this year? Obviously "the New 52" relaunch from DC Comics will be a main topic at SDCC, as will the Captain America: The First Avenger film that debuts in the middle of the con. I have more to say on both of those topics but just haven't been able to work up the energy to blog about them just yet. Soon, hopefully.

Walking Goal: Week 6 Report

I had hoped to reach the midway mark of my 500 km goal this past week, but things weren't looking good going into the weekend. Hot hot hot days had kept my walks short, and I think I needed almost 24 km over the final 3 days, meaning an average of nearly 8 km/day! Gulp!

Fortunately, Vicki volunteered for a couple walks with me, and then Julie squeezed me in for a woods-walk on Sunday morning before handing Cooper off to us while she headed out of town. All of that added up, and somehow I did it:

251.4 km (50.3% of the way to my end-of-Sep goal!)

As Vicki says, that means I'm 2 weeks ahead of schedule, and should be able to take it a little easier in the heat. Well, we'll see how well that works out...

Super 8 Is Super Meh

It's not all that often that I can't enjoy a popular science fiction/action flick, so when I saw that Super 8 was sitting at "80% fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, I expected to like it. And, when Tammy said she'd seen it and thought it was good - she, who's not particularly into Sci Fi - I figured it had to be something special.

Imagine my surprise, then, when Vicki and I went out to see it last Tuesday and neither of us thought much of it. I think she endured it better than I did, but even she said she wouldn't be comfortable recommending it to anyone. I thought the story was horribly contrived, most of the characters were unbelievable and unlikable (a bad combination!), and it evoked all of the worst excesses of the 70s movie extravaganzas without delivering any of their charm. There was no real payoff at the end, and the whole thing was just one dreary trainwreck... including a literal one of those, early in the proceedings! A few scenes made me smile or even chuckle, but mostly I was just bored and/or baffled. How did so many people love this thing?

Oh well, at least both Thor and X-Men: First Class were excellent this summer, and I've got high hopes for Captain America: The First Avenger out later this month. I can't quite bring myself to go see Green Lantern considering how awful its reviews have been, but after sitting through Super 8, maybe I should... GL couldn't be that much worse, could it?

The Right Look For Movie Cap

I've been saying to Vicki, over the past week or so, that the cowl they've come up with for Chris Evans to wear in Captain America: The First Avenger just doesn't work for me. It's admittedly always been a little strange looking, even in the comics, but it really comes across as goofy in live action mode. In the various trailers for the film, there have been three different looks for the character once he's got the rest of his costume on:

1. With cowl on
2. With military helmet on
3. With nothing on his head

I actually think # 2 looks best, but also like # 3.

Today, a new poster arrived, and check out the image:


Good choice! I hope they minimize how much of the movie he spends under that stupid cowl!!

Hell, Yes!

I've loved Ed Brubaker's work on Captain America right from his first issue, back in 2005. He's consistently hit exactly the right note, even when he killed the guy off and replaced him with his former sidekick for a couple of years! As far as I've been concerned, Bru could do no wrong where Cap's concerned.

Well, this month sees the launch of a new Captain America series (the old one continues under the new name of Captain America and Bucky, I believe, and is going to be set in World War II). I just finished reading the first issue, with artwork by Steve McNiven (a taste of which you'll see to the left), and somehow Mr Brubaker and his co-creator have raised the bar even higher! This is a high-octane, beautifully-drawn upgrade of an already impressive product! I loved what I just read so much that I'm going to re-read it again in a few days, which I almost never do anymore. It's a great series for anyone to pick up after seeing the Captain America: The First Avenger movie later this month, which is clearly a wise move by Disney Comics.

This has just shot up to the top of my favourites list!

Speaking Of Trailers

OK, so it's probably going to suck, but I still can't help myself: I'm excited about the prospect of finally seeing the prequel to John Carpenter's The Thing (one of my Top 20 favourite films)! It's due out in October and the first trailer for it can be watched here. There are a suspicious number of "same scenes" between this and its 'sequel', which could either be a sign of an endearing devotion to the original or of a disturbing lack of creativity. Probably the latter, unfortunately.

7 Films From 2011 You May Not Have Heard Of

I found this collection of trailers quite interesting, considering that it features 7 films from this year that I'd not even heard of before now. Not all of them appeal to me - I'd say, about half do - but a couple really seemed quite good. I can't help but think Certified Copy is going to be wonderful, since I'm a sucker for Before Sunset/Before Sunrise types of character pieces, of which this seems to be one. The new Woody Allen flick, thankfully not featuring him in the lead role by the looks of it, also piqued my interest.

Which one(s) turned your crank?

Game Over Inches Ever Closer To Completion

I've been doing lots of tweaks to Game Over lately, thanks to great feedback from Julie (who's now 2/3 of the way through it in Editor Mode) and another generous reviewer. It's extremely gratifying to see it continually improve, whether it be unwieldy sentences getting smoothed out, plot holes being filled in or even just the odd word choice being improved upon. I'm feeling very lucky right now to be receiving so much help in refining this first novel of mine into something I think I'm going to be really proud of.

Vicki managed to pre-sell a copy of the (still not-quite-finished) book yesterday when she showed the current version to someone at the dentist's office! She has it on her Kindle and that made showing it off pretty easy, I guess. Reading the first couple of pages was enough to close the deal, apparently, which is definitely a good sign. I'll be soliciting pre-orders on a wider scale shortly, but it's never too early to let me know you'd like to get your very own copy of Game Over as soon as it comes off the printing press (probably in September or October). I expect the price to be $20, by the way. My plan is to also make it available in Kindle format (via Amazon) at the same time, so you'll have that option open to you, as well, in case it's more appealing.

And I'm still working on the cover blurb for the book, so if you haven't left your comments on that post yet, please consider doing so.

Walking Goal: Week 5 Report

Thanks to a couple of visits by Cooper last week, and in spite of some brutally high temperatures and humidity, I was able to put a good number of kilometres behind me as I started my 2nd month of goal-oriented walking. I'm now up to:

206.3 km (or 41.3% of the way to my goal)

I'd love to make it all the way to 50% by the end of this current week, but we'll see. That would definitely require a pretty impressive 6th week which may just be impractical in the kind of weather we're getting right now.

Pool Doggy

So I've wanted to get Cooper into our pool for a swim since we opened it this May. My one concern about that plan revolved around his claws, which are more than long and sharp enough to do some serious damage to our lovely 1-year-old liner. Several weeks ago, when I was out for a walk, I stopped by the local pet store and asked whether they sold any sort of "doggie boots for swimming", since I assumed the current popularity of both canines and pools meant that someone else had probably already solved this problem. I was shown a package of something called Pawz, which are rubber booties for dogs intended to protect their feet from extreme cold, allergic materials or just general damage while they're healing from a foot injury. The packaging didn't specifically mention swimming as a possible use for them, but I figured what the heck!

Julie was skeptical - to say the least! - when I first mentioned the idea to her last month, but when she was over on Friday I finally showed them to her and she transitioned from dubious to intrigued. Today she and I finally had our chance to put them to the test, and...


Isn't his purple footwear simply stunning?! It's what all the cool puppies are swimming in this year, I hear! Much to my surprise, Cooper didn't seem to mind having to put them on all that much but he was very reluctant to jump in, even when both Julie and I were in there, calling him. He eventually needed a little... convincing... but then:


Once he got over his fear of jumping in, he took to it like a trooper! We had to teach him how to go to the ladder so he could rest, as he just wouldn't put his hind legs down in the shallow end. We had him in there with us for the better part of an hour, and all three of us had a great time! It was the perfect way to spend a hot July afternoon, and thanks to Vicki's quick thinking we even have photographic evidence of it!

I like to think of it as just one more reason Cooper loves coming over for a visit...

"Glory Days" Revealed

If you're any kind of a Springsteen fan, then you know the nostalgia-laden song, "Glory Days," and how (as the title suggests) it recalls an earlier, better time in a former baseball player's life. Turns out that song was, in fact, based on someone the Boss had known as a kid, and you can read all about him here.

Fun With Kindle And Facebook

I've got the 2nd draft of Game Over out in a couple of friends' hands, one of whom preferred to review it on Kindle rather than in Word format on his laptop/home computer. No problem, said I, because Vicki is actually on her second pass of it, both of which she's done via Kindle.

However, this friend's plan for providing me feedback from Kindle through Facebook, after setting up a private FB account so that I would be his only friend on it, has run into many problems. When he tries to upload his comments, he apparently gets error messages indicating that the text is too long; also, even if he copy/pastes them to me in an e-mail, it's hard for me to figure out what context they belong in (I get a page and LOC reference but they're not easily translatable by me to any specific location in the book). It sounded like such a great process when he first described it - I'd be seeing his edits virtually as he typed them! - but it's turned out to be somewhat substandard to the traditional 'Track Changes On' in Word approach that I've used in the past. Oh well. Some weeks are just like that!

[Update the next day: I found a Kindle previewing app that shows the line count and now I can line up the comments much more easily. Yay!]

Walking Goal: Week 4 Report

Julie finally ended our walking drought (which very nearly reached 4 weeks!) by inviting me to join her and Cooper on Sunday night, allowing me to add a few extra kilometres to the end of another good week. My total is now up to:

166.2 km (or 33.2%, or 1/3 of the way to the goal!)

With the temperatures on the rise now, it's getting harder to motivate myself to do the long walks by myself. Therefore I'm very glad I got ahead of the curve early on, as that gives me a little bit of slack to play with. Onward!

"Art Is Never Finished, Only Abandoned"

Leonardo Da Vinci said that, of course... talking about Art!

But I've found that, even with my own dubious, lower-case-a 'art' (4 books, and counting), I can never seem to quite finish the writing process. I continue to see things in The Real-Life Adventures of AgileMan (Lesssons Learned in Going Agile), for example, that I'd change if I were still in there, editing it. And it's awfully tempting to do just that when you're self-published, believe you me!

And now Game Over is following the same path. Everytime I open the current draft, I start tinkering with it. I think my changes are always for the better, but I also worry: will I ever feel like it's finished? Right now I'm waiting on edits from Julie for the final 8 chapters, so know it's still going to change in some significant ways (she's quite ruthless, that woman!). And I need to get it out into some other hands for additional proofreading and feedback, as well. But once that's all happened, I think it's going to be even harder than its non-fiction siblings were, when it comes to finally calling it 'done.' Like Leonardo said, I don't think I'll ever be able to completely finish it, but will have to eventually simply abandon it.

And then the rest of you will get to read it, if you're so inclined.

Interesting Psychological Exercise

I enjoyed a recent Psychology Today article (link below) about a contest that was run, open to anyone who wanted to participate. All you had to do to take part was provide a number between 0 and 100 indicating what you thought 2/3 of the average of the rest of the numbers provided would be. In case that's not clear: contestants were challenged to try to figure out what they thought the average of everyone else's numbers would be, take 2/3 of that average and submit that number as their entry. So if you thought the average of what everyone else would submit was going to be 30, for example, you'd submit 20 (2/3 of 30).

Before you read the article, take a moment and decide what strategy you'd use and which number you'd supply, and then follow the link and see how you might've done. Fascinating stuff! Here's the link.

Second Draft Of Game Over Now Complete!

I've been working on it for several weeks now, but this afternoon I finished the second draft of Game Over. This version incorporates Vicki's feedback on Draft # 1, as well as Julie's edits on the first 5 chapters and my own changes as I've been re-reading and re-thinking it.

Sometime soon I'll be sending this draft out to a few second round reviewers, so if that sounds like fun to you, let me know! As always, though, don't volunteer unless you're sure you'll have time for it over the next month or so. As I well know: it's a lot of work, and people have busy lives these days.

My best guess right now is that Game Over will be published sometime in September or October this year. I can hardly wait for it to get out into more hands so I can start hearing what people really think of it. It's definitely turned out much better than I'd ever expected, but we'll see whether that really counts for anything in the Fall.

Should Evolution Be Taught In Schools, American Beauty Pageant Edition

You've probably seen this already, but just in case you haven't:



That 15-minute clip has, among other things, inspired its imitators:



Yeah, both are equally ridiculous questions to be asking in the 21st century, aren't they?

Just How Nice Should Your Castle Be?

I'm currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying) The Big Short by Michael Lewis. It's all about the financial crisis of 2008, including the events leading up to it. Since I'm also reading Andrew Ross Sorkin's Too Big to Fail, on the very same topic, you might say I'm swimming in that particular topic at the moment!

Anyway, something I just encountered in The Big Short involves the ratio of house prices-to-income, for home-owners. Lewis mentions that, historically, the median for such a ratio in the U.S. was always around 3:1, but in the run-up to the Great Recession, it rose to 4:1 (with some areas of the country hitting as high as 10:1!).

That got me thinking about where Vicki and I had been when we bought each of the two houses we've lived in together (so far). In 1990, our combined income would've been around $80K or $90K, and we purchased a house that cost $124K, meaning that the ratio would've been roughly 1.5:1. In 1998, we moved into our current house, by which time we were grossing approximately $130K between us, and the price tag on this lovely property was $222K. The ratio that time was slightly higher, but still well below the 2:1 level. (And I should mention that, personally, I think it makes more sense to consider mortgage principal-to-income, rather than using the house price. After all, if I buy a $500K house but only have to take on a $100K mortgage to do so, what significance does the much higher value have on anything? It's all about the debt load, not the bling factor! In our situation, the 1998 mortgage was only for $160K, meaning that our principal-to-income ratio actually went down!)

At any rate, I've always been fairly convinced that Vicki and I were atypical in our spending when it came to houses... and this would seem to confirm that theory. Since we consistently maintained a price-to-income ratio well below 2:1, whereas the median value (for the States, but I have to think Canada's similar) has been more like 3:1 or even 4:1, we've clearly been living within our means... and then some! Which probably goes a long way toward explaining why we were able to enter semi-retirement as early as we did.

Counting Down To R3

OK, how about you join in this game with me:

1. Hold up all ten of your finger/thumb thingies.
2. Each time a week passes by, starting now, you get to lower one of those digits.
3. As soon as you run out of fingers and thumbs to turn down, you get to start playing Resistance 3!!!! Sweeeeeet....

Another Traveling Tammy Update

With just a week to go on their South American trip, we got an update today (via e-mail) on Tammy and Ryan's impressions of Rio:

"Rio as a city is amazing! Definitely the most stunning city we´ve seen so far in South America, and possibly my favorite stop on our whole trip. Basically the city is in a little valley right on the ocean - so you have gorgeous beaches framed by mountains in the background. It´s the least "3rd world" city we´ve seen here - pretty modern and nice (and more expensive as a result - prices are similar to those at home, maybe a bit less, definitely way more than everywhere else in SA)."

It sounds like things have all been excellent so far, and we can barely wait to see the pictures in July!

Neil Gaiman Isn't Kidding!

Does The Onion deserve a Pulitzer Prize? Neil Gaiman has an opinion on that he'd like to share...

Walking Goal: Week 3 Report

It was a pretty productive 3rd week, despite another no-show from my previously-reliable walking pals, Julie and Cooper. Vicki and I did a lot of walking from venue to venue for Fringe Fest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and I took my pedometer along to capture all of that. Interestingly, this past week also featured my first missed day since I started toward my goal of 500 km, as I got no walking of any significance in on Tuesday, Jun 21st (the start of summer!). In my defense, I had yoga, a fair bit of tutoring, and the X-Men: First Class movie to fit in there, so it's not that surprising. And only skipping one day through the first three weeks is a good sign, too!

Anyway, here's what I'm at now:

125.2 km (bringing me to 25% of my goal!!)

At this rate, I could achieve my goal in about three months! But I don't want to count those unhatched eggs as chickens just yet.

Fringe Fest Thoughts

This weekend has been all about the Fringe Fest... for Vicki and I and our friend Susan, that is.

Last summer, Susan talked us into taking in a couple of performances at Fringe Fest 2010, a cultural phenomenon the likes of which neither Vicki nor I had ever attended. We saw one play that really impressed us (Monster) and another that was entertaining but nothing all that spectacular (which I sadly don't remember the name of). As such, my reaction to Fringe Fest was: It was OK, and maybe next year we'd try it again.

When we were over at Susan's for dinner a few weekends ago, she and I spent an hour or so poring over the online Fringe Fest 2011 schedule, trying to find shows we thought all three of us would like. This exercise came about after I walked in and was greeted by Susan with the words, "Tonight I have an assignment for you!" which I initially assumed would involve her TV, settop box or something similar. Instead, she informed me that the Fringe brochure was now available and so our task for the evening was to map out at least the first foray to the festival. We decided we'd go on the first Friday night and then read some reviews before returning for the second weekend. Which is just what we did.

We've now completed our Fringe Fest 2011 experience, and it was excellent!! I'm already looking forward to next year, which is really sad as it's a long, long way away! Anyway, I thought I'd record a few words on each show we saw, for posterity. Here they are, in the order we saw them:

Earshot - Justin Quesnelle really impressed us last year in Monster but this year's tour de force one-man show was even better! He plays a slightly-deranged apartment dweller with exceptional hearing who carries on one-sided conversations with the occupants of the units above, below and on either side of him. I had one niggling complaint about a small contrivance in the plot but was otherwise mesmerized by Quesnelle's skill and the sharp writing. Despite being the first one we went to, Earshot ended up being my 2nd favourite of the festival!!

Rocky Horror Show - If you've ever seen the film or another live version of this, you know what to expect... and it was all that! I generally despise musicals but I always make an exception for Rocky and gang. This was a fun, fun two hours!

Men Telling Stories - They're two men, telling stories! It doesn't actually get much easier to explain than this! The two young raconteurs - and yes, they even make a joke using that particular term! - entertain well with tales from their pasts and a strange but lovable chemistry between them.

The One - Billed as a 'multimedia' event, this was a very well-done but somewhat strange one-woman show. Through slide shows, video and live performance, 'Jane Love' (possibly not her real name!) recounts how she met and fell in love with her fiance and man of her dreams... who don't happen to be the same guy! I liked this quite a bit but didn't love it, which is probably fine as it was likely more aimed at my two companions for Fringe Fest.

Chaotica - Wow, what an interesting concept: a woman bursts out of a large box on the stage, only to discover that she's trapped in an enclosed area filled with mystery boxes, instruction cards, and a disembodied voice that won't take 'no' for an answer! This was one of my favourites, as the concept was so intriguing and Christel Bartelse's performance so very hypnotic! About the only thing missing, for me anyway, was something to tie it all together at the end. I would've loved a hint as to what was really going on (or why), or even just some revelation about the various characters she embodied. Even without that, though, I loved every minute!

Bursting Into Flames - Martin Dockery delivers a one-man journey through the Afterlife that I'll remember for a long time to come! He paints vivid images of Life After Death that include a girlfriend who hang glides everywhere, a marijuana joint that stretches across North America, and a man on the edge of insanity. I thoroughly enjoyed this from start to finish and absolutely nothing should be made of the fact that Susan fell asleep during it! It was a late show and some people still have day jobs, after all!

Feats of Mystery - As mind-reading/magic acts go, this was pretty damn enjoyable! I can't help but spend most of my time at such events trying to figure out how each trick is done, and FoM was no exception. By the time I raced out of there to get us tickets for the next show on our list, I'd figured out about 1/3 of them. This morning, lying in bed, Vicki and I tackled most of the rest and think we knocked almost all of them off. But of course, we could be completely wrong on all counts! And really, what does it matter, when the show's as captivating as it was?

jem rolls IS PISSED OFF - My first (of only two) 'misses' for Fringe Fest, I just couldn't get into or behind Jem Rolls and his various performance poetry bits. I could see that he had talent but too much of his monologue was spent describing how hard he'd found it to get pissed off (!) after deciding on the title, and that sort of self-referential schtick never really works for me. Still, it was an experience, and I don't begrudge the hour I spent at it.

oz in a clozet - We checked this one out only after changing our minds about a pair of other shows, and I was especially curious to see it because a friend or acquaintance of Julie's was in it. It turned out to be a very clever, very well-acted 3- (or 4-) person play about a man who was about to propose to his 'true love' only to find himself locked in a utility closet with another woman. Both leads were great, and the "other woman" in particular really came across as a unique, well-defined eccentric. There was also a fair bit of physical stuntwork required, and it all came off without a hitch. The fiancee (in a smaller role) and a janitor (in a very minor role) were fine but it really was up to the two leads to carry the show, and they did!

6 Guitars - I didn't really expect to see anything at Fringe Fest that would absolutely blow me away, but our 2nd last show did just that. Chase Padgett, out of Florida, delivered the most incredible 'solo ensemble' piece I've ever seen live! He 'became' six different guitar players, one each from the diverse worlds of Blues, Jazz, Heavy Metal, Folk, Country and Classical, and interwove their backstories and views on music into an hour I'll never forget! While I loved Fringe Fest 2011, this was the only performance that I would've gone back to see again, had we gone to it earlier in the weekend! Padgett did it all: tight writing, excellent acting, improv with the audience, amazing music, insightful themes, and seamless transitions between all of them! This was far and away my favourite act. Interestingly, this was one that Susan and I had talked about on that original weekend, and which I was more interested in than she was, but it didn't make our final list going into this weekend. Therefore we wouldn't have seen it had it not won the "Impressario" award for its venue and thus earned another performance on the final day (today), which is the one we took in. I hate to think that I came that close to not seeing what turned out to be my absolute top pick!!

'33, A Kabaret - Did I mention I loathe musicals? Well, somehow I still let myself be talked into this one, and unfortunately it fell into the usual category for me: difficult to make it through! However, the actor/singer/dancer at the centre of this one-man-show about a Nazi-terrorized cabaret in the 30s was clearly loaded with talent, and for anyone not opposed to musicals, I'm sure there was lots to love! I'm just not that guy.

Wow, that's a lot of stuff we saw! At $10 a show, though, I think we got more than our money's worth. As I mentioned earlier, I'm already excited at the thought of seeing even more of Fringe Fest 2012, a mere twelve months from now...

Dude, Where's My Feedback?

Four days ago, I requested some feedback on our first attempt at a Game Over back cover blurb. I know you already know this, because chances are you're a regular visitor to this blog. So then my question to you is: why have I only heard from two of you so far? Was it really that bad of a cover blurb that you don't want to say anything at all? Three of us are waiting eagerly to hear what you think, and then to potentially come up with something better based on what you say.

Beautiful Miracleman Artwork

Walking Goal: Week 2 Report

My second week of walking wasn't quite as productive as the first, which isn't surprising considering that I had no visits from Cooper nor any invitations to join Julie for a walk all week! But Vicki generously went out with me a couple of times, and I managed to bring my total up to:

87.6 km (good for 17.5% of my goal)

I'm still on a good pace which should see me hit or exceed my goal of 500 km by Sep 30.

Comic Books In The Mainstream

Loved this article about a House of Representative member in the U.S. government using Green Lantern to make a point about the way the conservatives have driven that country into the ground!

Feedback Desired

Last night, Vicki and I headed over to Julie's for dinner (spaghetti! yum!!) and an evening of brainstorming on Game Over, my hitherto-undescribed first novel. Specifically, I wanted the three of us to come up with a brief-but-compelling "blurb" for the book - something suitable for the back cover that would serve as enticement for a typical reader who might be browsing. We spent a good three or four hours at this, throwing around ideas, looking at other examples, and attempting to hit just the right notes. I'm not sure we've quite got it yet, but I figured it was probably time to seek some feedback from the blogosphere. Therefore, I'm going to share what we have right now and ask you to add a Comment indicating what sort of effect - if any - the current blurb had on you. Did it intrigue you at all? Did it make you more - or less - interested in getting your hands on Game Over once it's published? In general, do you think it's effective as a 'hook', and why (or why not)?

So, without further ado, here's your very first taste of Game Over (keep in mind the wording is likely to change between now and publication):

Malcolm Greene has always considered himself somewhat of a flight risk – the kind of guy who runs at the first sign of trouble. And trouble has definitely found Malcolm and his colleagues at Great White North Games, as the company’s new hit video game, Knight of the Living Dead, seems to be wreaking havoc. Unexplained slowdowns are plaguing systems even after players exit the game, leaving the company’s reputation hanging in the balance. As Malcolm and friends race to uncover the source of the problem in the software, strange occurrences in the real world begin to distract them. The son of Malcolm’s co-worker is pushed in front of a bus, a dead body turns up in a freezer, and a mysterious computer program seems to be influencing reality. Will Malcolm put his exit strategy into effect or will he stick around long enough to unravel the puzzle before it’s Game Over?

A Quarter Century Of Goodness

It's hard to nail down exactly when Vicki and I first met, because it was kind of incidental, at the time. She and I were both working for the bank and ended up on the same development team not long after I started, but we both had a period prior to that during which we were in training together. The two of us, and several other employees, were co-located in a temporary "training area" for a few weeks, as I recall, and it was while situated there that we first made each other's acquaintance. If I had to put money on the actual date, I'd put it around the end of June, but couldn't really get much more precise than that.

However, the day I started work there was June 16, 1986, which is 25 years ago today. Since I know that we met sometime shortly after that, I'm celebrating our "silver anniversary" as of now, just to be on the safe side! What a great quarter century it's been having her in my life (and hopefully vice versa), and who knows? Maybe we'll get another 25 in together before the comet destroys us all!!

Fame Of A Limited Sort!

Last night, while watching the Bruins win the Cup, I did a little analysis of the upcoming DC Comics Relaunch survey that Comic Book Resources published yesterday, and then sent my results along to Rich Johnston, of Bleeding Cool fame. Rich was then kind enough to publish those results! Very bleeding cool!

In the Comments section for that article, people are pointing out that I possibly shouldn't have counted disinterest in a title as a negative (minus value) against it, which has some merit to it. But I tend to think that, in a fan-centric industry like comic books, lack of interest in a big, highly-publicized event is a failure, and thus should count against the overall success of the relaunched series in question.

Boston Bruins: 2011 Stanley Cup Champions!!

Congratulations, Boneman!!! There's nothing in sports sweeter than finally seeing your team win the greatest trophy of all! And now you've experienced it! Enjoy it to the fullest!!!

Tonight's The Night!

It's always particularly exciting when the Stanley Cup Finals go to a Game 7, and that's exactly what's on the docket for this evening: Boston Bruins @ Vancouver Canucks, and one of them will hoist Lord Stanley's trophy before the night is done.

For Boneman, I'm rooting for the B's. But I won't be heartbroken if Canada finally recaptures the silver chalice after an 18 year absence, either. In other words: it's all good! Let's just have a close, exciting game, and may the best team win!

A Brief Tammy Update (2011)

Tammy and boyfriend Ryan have been in South America for more than 3 weeks now, and we've had a few Skype calls with them. I haven't been posting much about it so far for a variety of reasons, but here's a little bit from her latest e-mail to us:

"We are still alive, just got back to Cuzco after our Inca Trail hike. Sorry didn't get to talk to you guys after Puno, we've been internet-less - so sad. Anywho all is well - the trek was extremely grueling (42km total, mostly uphill - irregular, uneven, narrow, steep stone steps nonetheless) but well worth it. Two of the inca sites in particular were so huge of scale that it can't even come across in photos."

Sounds like they're having a great time!

Walking Goal: Week 1 Report

I'm off to a good start with my goal of walking 500 km this summer. Thanks to Cooper being over for three days last week, I managed to get a whole lot of trips in quite easily and as a result am well ahead of my required pace to hit the target. As of end of day yesterday, I was at:

46.2 km (or just over 9% of the way to my goal)

I don't imagine every week will be as productive as this first one was, but it's still nice to get some wind under my sails early!

Four-Legged Visitors Return!

What better way to spend a lazy Sunday than hanging out with Cooper & Finley? Julie was 'dragged' out of town for a soccer tournament all day and asked if we'd like to have her babies over while she was gone. Naturally we did, and so it was April all over again for a day (even the weather cooperated, as it was much cooler than normal for mid June!). Julie stayed for dinner when she got back and the three (five) of us enjoyed a lovely evening together, gabbing about Game Over and life in general.

When EA Battles Activision, Fans Win!

The contest for online gamers' hearts, dollars and time toward the end of this year looks like it's going to be waged within the virtual confines of Battlefield 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The companies that own those two franchises are already busy sniping at each other - with words, not bullets! - and it certainly appears that a major pissing match is brewing between them.

Personally, I hope both games are amazing, as I'd love to have a several month-long stretch over the winter where I have two games that I can't wait to play online each day! I already know my fall will be dominated by Resistance 3 - due out Sep 6th, and almost guaranteed to hold me in thrall for a few months. So if, by the time I'm starting to tire of R3, there are a pair of top-notch First Person Shooters available to take its place, I'll be thrilled. What I've heard and seen of both games has been impressive so far, and they're still almost half a year away. So I can't wait to find out if they live up to the hype!

It definitely looks like the back end of 2011 will be dominated by 3's!

The DC Universe Relaunch At-A-Glance

DC Comics has nicely assembled a gallery of 49 of the 52 first issue covers for the titles that are relaunching in September (missing are three Green Lantern-related series, for some strange reason). They're in alphabetical order, and hovering your mouse over each reveals whatever bits of info the publisher has released so far. Quite a handy little site for comic geeks like me.

My current plan, which certainly may change between now and September, is to buy the first issue of each of the 52 series, although I may possibly omit a few that I'm fairly confident I'll have no interest in (e.g. Voodoo, Grifter, Hawk and Dove). However, any title that doesn't grab me right away probably won't get a subsequent $2.99 out of me in October or beyond. Based on the characters and creative teams involved, I'm inclined to break the 52 titles into the following groups:

No-Brainers / A-List

• Action Comics
• Aquaman
• Batwoman
• Green Lantern
• Justice League
• Superman

Likely Candidates / B-List

• Batgirl
• Batman
• Savage Hawkman
• Legion Lost
• Legion of Super-Heroes
• The Flash
• Wonder Woman
  

Possibles / C-List

• Animal Man
• Birds of Prey
• Resurrection Man
• Stormwatch
• Supergirl
• Swamp Thing

The Rest / D-List

• 33 other titles

So it should be interesting to see how my expectations match up with reality, once the comics start coming out and I get to read the actual product. I'm still considerably ambivalent about this direction, as I think it's an "all-in" gesture by a publisher that wasn't - in my opinion, anyway - in a position where it needed to take such a huge risk. I have a sinking feeling this will be considered a historically significant move on their part for all the wrong reasons, once the dust settles and we can look back on it with the advantage of hindsight and contextual perspective. But I hope DC prove me wrong.

[Update later that same day: Bleeding Cool has somehow gotten their hands on the September soliciations for DC - 3 days ahead of their release - and they certainly provide some interesting reading!]

[Update Jun 15/11: Comic Book Resources did a survey - which I took part in - asking fans to rate the 52 titles, based on what we know so far. The results are now posted!]

Guess Who's Back?

I haven't had a chance yet to download the photos I took today, so you'll just have to take my word that good old Cooper's back for a short visit! Julie was kind enough to let him have a "sleepover" at his April home-away-from-home, starting this morning around 10:30 and lasting until she comes to get him after work tomorrow. Cooper and I did 3 walks today, totalling almost 10 km, the first two of which were in the oppressive heat that's finally left us in the last several hours. He and Lucy have been in the same room a couple of times today but mostly she's been staying upstairs.

It's so nice to have Coops here again, even if it's only for a couple days. I see him once or twice a week nowadays (for our walks with Julie) but that's just not the same as having him asleep at the foot of my couch while Vicki and I watch TV. (But no, I'm still not ready to get my own dog just yet!)

A New Goal

I've decided this week that I need some sort of a fitness-related goal for the summer, along the lines of my "bike 100 times to work" project in 2003. I like having a target to work toward, as motivation (or lack thereof) is usually my biggest problem to overcome where regular exercise is concerned.

So I'm planning to walk 500 km by the end of September, starting this week. Julie and I did a short walk yesterday morning (I'm estimating it to be around 5 km) but I didn't have my new pedometer in time to get an accurate gauge of it. Today the device arrived (having ordered it yesterday from Amazon!) and so I logged 5.4 km between 2 neighbourhood walks this afternoon and this evening. In other words, I'm already about 2% of the way to my goal after just 2 days! Which is good, as I only have a little over 100 days before the end of September, and I'm sure some of them won't be suitable for walking.

Anyway, I'll provide occasional updates here, as time goes by. I'm hoping that I crush my target, like I did that first year of biking (120 rides, or 20% over my goal), but we'll see how it goes. Encouragement from the Peanut Gallery is always appreciated!

1000 Words About This Weekend

The Life Of The Writer

Today, I decided to focus my attention on the opening sentence of my novel, Game Over. I've finished reading 179 Ways to Save a Novel, and it spends several of those 179 ways talking about the first sentence. So I tried to apply what I've learned.

I came up with what I considered to be a good alternative to what was in the first draft, and sent it - via e-mail - to my two muses/editors, Vicki and Julie, both of whom were at work. I should've known what would happen: one liked the new sentence I'd come up with better, while the other preferred the original. Well, that wasn't terribly helpful...

Death To Airplane Recliners!

One of my pet peeves is possibly a great test of a person's altruism. I'd pass the test with flying colours, as I never recline my seat since I know how much it bothers me when the person in front of me does it! My usual response, when their seat hits my already crowded kneecaps, is to bounce my legs frantically as if I'm listening to music. More often than not, they un-recline their seat, at least a little...