No Brother Of Mine: The First Few Pages

As we get close to the finish line on my 2nd novel I figure it's about time I let everyone see how it all begins. Keep in mind that, since the editing process is still underway, the precise wording of the early pages may change between now and publication time. But the following should still give you a very good idea of how NBoM kicks off (no pun intended):

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When the doorbell rings around dinnertime on Monday, I’m in the middle of emptying the kitchen garbage. I used to be really bad about dealing with it before it got completely disgusting. After Sarah complained about the smell for the umpteenth time, though, I finally got better at noticing it. She may be gone, but at least some of the domestic training still remains.

The tied-off handles of the plastic bag are still looped over the index finger of my right hand as I make my way from the kitchen to the front door. I open it to discover a man and woman, both well dressed, standing on my front porch. The male is tall, like me, has short brown hair and is clean-shaven. His companion is about 5-foot-6 and blonde, but has her hair tightly bound up on the top of her head. Both are wearing dark blue suit pants and white collared shirts. He has a plain blue tie, while she’s wearing a beige jacket, currently buttoned up, which complements her serious expression.

My first thought is that they must be Jehovah’s Witnesses, and so I begin running through a mental list of possible escape clauses that might cut this interruption short. ‘My dinner’s on the stove and I think it’s starting to burn,’ maybe. Or ‘Actually, I’m an atheist who becomes extremely violent around religious types.’

But then I spot the badges. His is hanging off his hip, while hers is flopped over the bottom right pocket of her jacket.

“Mr. James?” the woman asks, while her male companion takes a quick look behind him, toward the brown four-door sedan parked on the street in front of my house.

I nod slightly, one hand on the open door and the other still clutching the tied-up kitchen bag.

“Mr. Mitchell Robert James?” she asks again, consulting a little black notebook in her hand.

“Yeah, that’s me,” I respond. “What can I do for you?”

“Do you mind if we come in for a few minutes?” the male officer asks, as he starts to enter without even waiting for me to answer.

I shake my head mutely, stepping out of the way. I lightly toss the garbage bag back toward the kitchen, hoping that it doesn’t spill out anything gross in the process.

We head for the living room, with me leading the way. I do a quick scan of the area, hoping it looks presentable. It’s not bad, and I’m sure cops see a lot worse than my slightly messy home in their travels.

The TV’s still on one of the sports channels, now showing highlights from last night’s games. The second round of the NHL playoffs are underway, meaning that Canadian interest in the sport is approaching a fever pitch now. I grab the remote from the couch as we enter the room and mute the analysis coming out of the mouths of the ‘expert panel’ before directing my two guests to please take a seat.

I ask if either of them would like a coffee or soft drink.

The man accepts the offer, saying, “Any sort of pop, please,” while the woman politely declines.

I head off to the kitchen to grab a Coke out of the fridge, nudging the thrown garbage bag further out of sight with my foot as I pass it. I’m trying not to think about the fact that I have a couple of cops in my living room. It’s almost never good news when that happens, after all.

I quickly return with the can and hand it to the plainclothes officer. He opens it after thanking me. His companion has unbuttoned her jacket while I was gone, I notice.

Once we’re all seated, the woman says, “Mr. James, I’m Detective Constable Wozniak and this is Detective Constable Harrison. We’re with the New Markham Police, and we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

I say, “Um, well, I’ve never actually been to New Markham, so whatever it is you think I did, it wasn’t me.” I give a little laugh at the end, to show that it’s a joke.

Neither of them laughs, but Detective Wozniak at least rewards my silly remark with a faint smile.

Detective Harrison sets his drink down, looks me in the eye and asks, “Mr. James, when did you last speak to your brother?”

“Ray?” I reply, confused.

“Yes,” Detective Wozniak says, nodding. “Raymond Edward James is your brother, correct?”

“Yeah, he is,” I say, looking down. I’m suddenly overcome with a bad feeling about where this conversation is going. “But we haven’t spoken in years.”

“How many years?” Harrison asks.

“Almost 20, I guess.”

“I see,” Harrison responds, as his partner writes something in her book. “Then are you aware that he’s been reported missing?”

“Missing?” I repeat, stunned. Had my little brother somehow…? Shaking my head, I say, “No. I… Who reported him missing?”

“His wife.”

“Ex-wife,” Detective Wozniak corrects her partner, without looking up from her scribbling.

“Thank you. His ex-wife. You did know that he was married, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t,” I admit, feebly, my head swimming. “Or that he’d been divorced. Or even that he was in New Markham, for that matter.”

“I see,” Detective Harrison states, again. “Then the two of you really haven’t kept in touch?”

“Not at all,” I answer, my voice cracking ever so slightly. I can’t seem to get my bearings in this conversation at all. “But you say he’s gone missing?”

“Back in February,” Wozniak confirms, tapping her book.

“I’m… I… I really don’t know what to say,” I stammer. “Do you have any idea…?”

“Actually,” Harrison says, “I’m sorry to have to tell you but we have an unidentified body that matches the general description of your brother.”

“Oh,” I reply softly, awash in a wave of regret and guilt. Then I close my eyes and gently rub my forehead. “Is it him?”

“That’s actually why we’re here, Mr. James,” Detective Wozniak tells me, with a hint of compassion in her voice. “We’d like you to come to New Markham and help us determine that.”

“Me? But I haven’t seen him since he was in his teens. I doubt I could… I really don’t know that I could even pick him out of a line-up now. Wouldn’t his wife – sorry, ex-wife! – be a more logical person for that… responsibility?”

“Mrs. James is refusing to cooperate in that regard,” Harrison informs me. He’s speaking slowly and watching my reactions carefully. “Apparently there was some bad blood between them when the marriage ended. Of course you wouldn’t know that because, like you say, you haven’t spoken to him in 20 years. His ex-wife has refused to get involved in that way. She did mention you as an alternative, though.”

“She did? How could she? I don’t even know her.”

Harrison shrugs, and says, “She seemed to know all about you. She knew enough to send us here to Stafford, and even produced your current address not long after we talked to her.”

“That’s… very strange,” I reply, slowly. “But there must be someone else who can… Jesus, like I said, I don’t know that I’d even be able to recognize Ray, after all these years. His body, I mean.”

“We’d like you to at least try,” Wozniak says, hopefully. She smiles slightly and continues, “Frankly, we’re running out of options. We haven’t been able to locate his dental records, and you seem to be the closest family he has.”

I take a deep breath in, and then let it out. “I suppose I am. I mean, our parents are dead, and we don’t have any other relatives here in Canada. Ray was never big on going to the dentist when we were kids, so I guess it’s not all that surprising…”

“We’d be very appreciative if you were able to come to New Markham with us right now,” Detective Harrison informs me as my voice trails off. “And we’d be happy to bring you back home again afterward.”

I think for a moment, trying to wrap my head around what these two strangers are telling me about my own brother. My thoughts are all jumbled up, though, and I can feel my heart racing. What I desperately want right now is to be left alone, so that I can have a chance to think. I’m also worried about tonight’s appointment, which I really don’t want to mess around with.

Finally I say, “Well, that sounds like a lot of running back and forth for you two. And anyway, I’ve got some things I really need to take care of here tonight. Would it be OK if I got myself there first thing tomorrow morning?”

The two cops look at each other, but I can’t read anything in the expressions that pass between them.

“I understand,” Harrison says. “It would make for a very late night for all of us. I’ll give you my card. It includes the address of the station, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding us. New Markham’s not all that big, after all. If you can be at the station by 9:00 a.m., then Detective Wozniak and I can take you to the morgue and get this unpleasantness out of the way.”

I nod, and my two visitors stand up in unison. Each shakes my hand solemnly before leaving. I stand in the front doorway as they walk back to their unmarked police car.

The pair of them sit in the parked vehicle for what seems like several minutes. They’re talking and periodically glancing towards the house. Finally, Detective Wozniak starts the engine and pulls the car away from the curb. I wave from my perch and I think maybe I get a nod in return from Detective Harrison. Then they’re gone.

And Ray is… what? Missing, possibly even dead? How could something like this happen? He’d only be in his late 30s now. He should be all grown up and settled down. Why would someone like that go missing? What was he running away from? It just doesn’t make any sense at all. What a way for him to come back into my life after all these years!

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My Mother Would've Been 86 Today

It seems kind of crazy to me that I can't even imagine my mother as an old woman, but considering that she died in her 50s almost 30 years ago, I guess it's not all that strange.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to Doreen in some parallel universe where she's still alive and kicking, I say!

Nice Recap Of The Gaiman Vs McFarlane History

It's a long read, but this lovely recap of all the nonsense that Todd McFarlane has put Neil Gaiman through over the past 10 years provides some fine entertainment for those of us interested in comics. It always amazes me, when this topic comes up again, as it does every couple years or so, just how many losses McFarlane can suffer and yet still seemingly believe he's coming out on top! He's like the kid we all knew who had no friends but somehow went through life believing he was popular. (Fortunately, I know it wasn't me because I never thought I was popular!)

This Trailer Gives Me Goosebumps

Great Early Obama Pictures

I'm sure some Conservatives will make all kinds of snide, conspiratorial comments about these photos of Barack Obama as a young man, but I think they're a great look at the President in his youth. Very humanizing, in fact.

Holey Optochips, Batman!

Wow! My one-time employer, IBM, is still innovating in the 21st century, and not just with Watson, the Jeopardy-playing artificial intelligence prototype.

"IBM has developed an optical chip — thats a microchip that uses light instead of wires to transmit data — capable of transmitting data at the nearly unfathomable speed of 1 terabit per second. That’s fast enough to allow someone to download 500 HD movies in one second, or the entire contents of the Library of Congress in an hour."

No Brother of Mine Back Cover Blurb

Here's the current (work-in-progress) version of the back cover blurb for No Brother of Mine, providing you with your first glimpse into its storyline:

When Mitchell James answers his doorbell on a quiet Monday evening, he's not expecting to find two detectives standing on his porch. And he's certainly not expecting the pair to begin asking him questions about his brother, Ray, who he hasn't seen or spoken to in 20 years. But when the detectives go on to tell him that they believe Ray's dead body may be lying in the morgue, Mitch's comfortable little world is rocked.

As the shock of that news forces Mitch to re-examine memories from a painful childhood, he begins a journey to discover the truth about what has actually happened to Ray since their falling out so long ago.

Will the secret the two brothers share come to light now, after being buried for all those years? What part did it play in setting up the events of the present? And after working so hard to keep that secret from ever coming out, will Mitch have no choice but to watch its discovery destroy his own future?

How's that grab ya?

My Birthday Treat To Myself

I just finished my 3rd or 4th reading of The Kraken Wakes, by John Wyndham. (I provided a brief synopsis of it three and a half years ago, after a previous journey through its pages.)

I started this latest go at it on Saturday, as a small birthday treat. It was all I could do to stretch it out over 4 days, as I would've happily blown through all 240 pages on the first day, if I hadn't forced myself to savour it slowly. It's such a great story, and one I never get tired of re-living.

Incidentally, I noticed this time around that Wyndham's style of writing is something that must have subconsciously influenced my own. He's as sparse at describing people and settings as I tend to be, and often writes in the first person. However, he doesn't use flashbacks much, so I guess I'm not following him all that closely. Still, it's interesting to learn where some of my inclinations come from.

Starting My 50th Year

Yesterday's birthday party with Vicki and Julie was a delight, making for a terrific start to my 50th year (which will end next March 10, when I hit my 50th birthday, of course). Julie, Cooper and I went for a walk while Vicki and Finley (and Lucy, in hiding) stayed home to guard the house. Then we ordered pizza and wings and showed Julie some photos from way back in the early 90s. The highlight of that was watching her try to pick Tammy out of her Junior Kindergarten class photo, which only took four tries. She was convinced by the end of it that we'd actually switched kids that year, taking home the wrong class member!

After dinner, I got my presents from Vicki, which included some t-shirts, a great old Thor comic from the 60s, and a surprising hit: a package of Bottlecaps, a candy treat that both Julie and I have very fond childhood memories of! Julie ended up handing those presents out to me, after making me guess what each one was from the worst possible clues (she's really bad at that).

Then it was time for her birthday presents to Vicki and I, which included a headphone splitter shaped like a heart, travel guides to Disney World and Australia, and - incredibly - a Fringe Fest pass for this year! (I didn't think you could even buy those yet!) She opted to make all of the gifts 'joint' to both of us this year, in retaliation for the fact that I had the theme of 'sharing' for all of her Christmas gifts last year. Payback's a bitch, and Julie was dishing out payback! But it was a great haul, and it was topped off with a frozen 'pizza cake' that she'd brought with her.

We all retired to the living room for a Nova episode about last year's tsunami that hit Japan, which was extremely hard to watch but also made us appreciate just how badly parts of that island were hit. After that, Vicki headed to bed and Julie and I sat up talking until shortly after 2:00 (which we thought was shortly after 3:00 since the PVR clock had already sprung forward). And then another birthday was done, and it was time for bed.

Next year: I turn 50!!

My 2nd Novel Revealed... Somewhat

Several months ago, as regular readers of this blog are well aware, I started work on my 2nd novel. A little over a month ago, I finished the first draft of it. In between those two events, a lot of writing took place (no shit, Sherlock!).

As with Game Over before it, the initial draft of this book benefitted hugely from having our friend (and Cooper-owner) Julie in our lives, as she and I talked about it at length on our walks, on her visits here and on our visits to her house. She made several key suggestions along the way, and vetoed some ideas that I now can hardly believe I ever once argued for, and thus once again left her indeliable mark on a book of mine. Julie even found the time a couple weeks ago to edit the first 4 chapters for me, which I wasn't expecting but was extremely grateful for.

Vicki, as always, has supported me throughout the project with encouragement and feedback every time I needed it, and is already well into her second reading of the book, editing as she goes... just as was the case with Game Over, of course.

A big difference this time around, however, was the involvement of my brother, Rich. He not only let me read the whole thing to him, over several sittings, but was also invaluable in providing me with bits of his experience that the story desperately needed. He even came up with several important plot points, after I'd struggled for days trying to get there on my own. It was a wonderful experience working with him like that, and I got the distinct impression that he quite enjoyed it, too. It's a much better book for his contributions, and I don't mean maybe.

The latest draft is now out with several new sets of eyes, including Tammy's, who's doing an incredible job of editing it (and pushing me hard to become a better writer, at the same time, the little bugger!).

But while we wait for her and a couple other people to finish that chore, we do have a beautiful cover image to show. This comes to us from my former co-worker and hobby photographer Carl Pettypiece, who some readers of this blog will certainly remember. The idea for the image was mine, but everything after that stemmed from Carl's mind: the staging, the perspective, the design sense, the lighting and the dozens of high quality photos he took on his fancy camera in the quest to produce the following cover:


So now you have a picture, and you have a title: No Brother of Mine. What do either of them mean? What's with those shoes? And is it just a coincidence that the project my own brother helped out with contains the word "brother" in its title?

Sometime in the next week or so, I'll post the current version of the back cover blurb for No Brother of Mine. With that, you'll at least get some sense of what this book is about. Until then, please let the speculating begin!

P.S. Just as all the cool kids referred to Game Over as GO, my 2nd novel has already been coined NBoM, or "N-bomb." It's like the F-bomb, only better!

What Ails Europe? Stupidity!

I think this Paul Krugman article really does a great job pointing out the true cause of the European economic crisis: a single currency, the euro, which "effectively reinvented the defects of the gold standard — defects that played a major role in causing and perpetuating the Great Depression." It seems inconceivable that anyone in the 21st century would actually be calling for a return to the gold standard, and yet some Americans politicians continue to do so. Here's hoping that President Obama's not nearly that stupid, and that he can get re-elected in November to provide a buffer against it over the next 4 years, at least.

The article also calls out conservatives for their unflinching commitment to blaming the Euro-crisis on the generous social safety nets in place within most of the countries there, despite the data completely invalidating that claim. "Never let the facts get in the way of you making your point," I guess.

This is such a crazy time to be alive, where lessons learned 80 years ago can be so completely ignored. Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, and we're all along for the ride, it seems.

21 Years And Still Going Strong

Last night, Vicki and I had our wedding anniversary dinner a day early, and for the first time that I can remember, we shared the occasion with another couple. My brother Rich and my sister-in-law Meena took us out to the Keg and treated us to a great night out!

I had planned ahead, scheming with the two other Holmeses to surprise Vicki with news of a trip to Las Vegas for the four of us later this year, and I sweetened the deal by presenting her with an envelope stuffed with 21 $10 bills (US currency) for Vicki to spend there in whatever way she'd like. I've heard that you can gamble at a few select locations in that town, so she may choose to use the cash for that. Or possibly she'll want to go shopping, another activity which Rich and Meena assure us can sometimes be found there. Although no firm dates have been decided on yet, it's likely that this trip will happen in November or December, and probably be for 6 days or so.

This morning, Vicki presented me with several gifts, including the following little item:


That's right, kids: that's Batman # 29, from 1945! Vicki probably thought about holding onto it for our 29th anniversary, but that's still a long way off. So I'm glad she didn't make me wait!

With both of our birthdays just around the corner, R & M also gave us Cineplex gift certificates, which I have a feeling are going to come in awfully handy right around May 4th (The Avengers), June 8th (Prometheus) and July 20th (The Dark Knight Rises). It's almost like they planned it that way...

Back To School Again Tomorrow

Yes, it's time once again for my semi-annual Agile lecture for one of the local university's Computer Science courses. I think this is maybe my 8th or 9th time doing it, so you'd think I'd be good at it by now. Yeah, you'd think so...

Coming Attractions

If you'd like to see the cover of my upcoming novel, title and all, this blog would be a good place to look, on Saturday, March 10th.

For All The Austerity Nuts Out There

People screaming for governments like the U.S. and ours to cut spending right now really need to understand what happens when you do that in an economic environment like we have at the moment. Not just state what they think should happen - unemployment will magically drop, general confidence will miraculously grow, the private sector will heroically fill in the gaps created by the cuts, etc - but actually understand what does happen. And they could do that by, you know, looking at the large-scale experiment that's being run in Europe these days, for example. The results of which are striking, to say the least.

I could be wrong, but I think President Obama, at least, is beginning to comprehend this. He could do a lot worse than listen to economists like Paul Krugman, linked to above, when it comes to matters like this. If nothing else, he definitely has to turn a deaf ear to the lunatics in the American Republican Party who seem Hell bent on sending the world economy straight into the toilet.

Readers Gotta Read

The current draft of my 2nd novel is now in 3 new pairs of hands, doubling the number of people (besides me) who have access to it. I'm hoping that these new readers will provide some fresh perspectives on the story and the writing, and that I can use whatever they tell me to make the book even better.

My current plan is to publish next month, though I don't yet have a good sense of how late in April that might be. I've already been lucky enough to receive a few pre-order requests, and I'll send a mass e-mail out later this month looking for more. Anecdotally, it seems as though virtually everyone who read Game Over and took the time to tell me what they thought of it actually enjoyed it, so I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll get a fair number of repeat buyers from that fact. The new story is quite different from Game Over, of course, even belonging to a different genre, but anyone who enjoyed the style of GO will almost certainly have a similar reaction to the 2nd novel.

I expect I'll be slowly revealing details about the new project over the next several weeks. Stay tuned, if you're interested.

75 Different Flavours Of Awesome

No, I am most definitely not kidding! Check. It. Out!!!

(And the best part is, I'm married to a woman who can watch that trailer and then say, "Yeah, that could be pretty good!" I'm so lucky!)

[And if you're into The Avengers even half as much as I am, you'll also want to take a look at this detailed analysis of the trailer, scene by scene!]

TED Talk From The Future

This faux-TED talk by Peter Weyland, coming to us from the year 2023, is pretty awesome! It's all part of the build-up to Ridley Scott's maybe-Alien-prequel, Prometheus, due on in June. I can't imagine the movie is actually going to live up to my sky-high expectations, but on the other hand: it is Ridley Scott directing it! Alien, Blade Runner and Black Hawk Down are all first class films that I've watched over and over, so maybe Prometheus will be, too.

Just 65 Days To Go Now

"It's a really good book."

That was the entirety of Julie's e-mail message to me, late last night, apparently after she finished reading the early draft of my 2nd novel.

[Update the next day: I've now had a long walk with her, and I'm happy to report that she's extremely enthusiastic about the book. She told me this morning that those words - "It's a really good book." - were what she said to herself, out loud, immediately after finishing the book Friday evening. That's why she e-mailed them to me right afterwards. Which was pretty sweet of her, I thought.]

Great... Yet Another Way For Drivers To Be Distracted!

That's honestly the thought that kept going through my head as I read this article speculating that Google will be releasing "Heads Up Display glasses" by the end of 2012. Gamers know all about HUDs, as most first person shooters have the concept built into them. The difference, of course, is that most of us aren't driving (or generally out in public settings) when we're gaming. Even just the idea that we'll soon have idiots driving around, reading the latest news about Lady Gaga or doing stock transactions while behind the wheel, makes me shudder. I know we can't stop the future from arriving in due course, but this stuff is getting kind of crazy now!

Best Agile 101 Session Yet?

Yesterday, Vicki and I took part in our 7th Agile 101 workshop in the last 10 months. It certainly seemed to be going well while we were in it, but I always reserve judgment until I've seen the survey results from the attendees. I hand out a 1-page feedback form at the end of each session, asking those present to rate the 2 components of the workshop - presentation and hands-on activity - and then provide a rating for the course's overall effectiveness. The results this time around, all on a scale of 1 to 10, were:

Presentation - 8.4
Hands-on activity - 8.9
Overall effectiveness - 9.2

The 9.2 overall score matches the best we've ever received, which is certainly quite gratifying after a long day of being on my feet (as well as on my toes, when it comes to answering questions). I was saying to Vicki this morning how I remember taking courses through work, over the years, and how rare it was that people would come out of them with much in the way of enthusiasm. We'd often say things like "Well, that was a waste of a day, but at least I wasn't sitting at my desk" or "Parts of it were good but the presenter's style was sooo boring!" At the risk of sounding full of myself, I really can't ever recall a single work-related course where I believe the attendees would've given it anywhere close to a 9.2 out of 10. So I guess we must be doing something right!

Also, for those interested in this topic, I recommend this excellent article on "the Tao of Agile" which I think beautifully describes what's really required in order to succeed as an Agile organization.

The Dream Of Every Comic Book Collector

Stories like this one pop up every few years, and always make me wonder, "Why don't I know anyone like that?" My guess is that the $2,000,000 estimate on the value of the small stack of treasures will end up being low.

25 Pieces Of Advice For 'Aspiring' Writers

Lots of good stuff here.

How To Write A Novel

I'm happy to report that, according to this explanation by writer/director Nic Alderton at least, I did everything right in creating both of my novels so far! (Fun fact: both books have weighed in somewhere between 80,000 and 95,000 words.)

Our House As Studio Setting

I recently asked Carl, a former co-worker of mine who has a well-known interest in photography, if he'd help me out with the cover for my 2nd novel. I was initially just hoping for some advice on how best to frame and capture the sort of image I had in mind for it, but he ended up volunteering to come over to the house, expensive camera equipment in hand, and do the work himself. Wow! That was so much more than I could've hoped for. And today was the day when he came and did just that!

There are lots of reasons to love the digital age of photography that we're in, but never more than a situation like this, where neither of us was completely sure what we were looking for. The zero cost investment of taking photos now allowed Carl to snap literally dozens of shots, from different angles, with different lighting, all safe in the knowledge that he could later both examine and manipulate the various images until he had exactly what we needed.

The shoot was today, but the post-production work will continue for a couple weeks, I imagine. I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

I've had great luck with people helping me with my book covers up to now, and that good fortune looks to be continuing. Very exciting!

DNA Robot Kills Cancer Cells

This recent breakthrough is absolutely amazing! It's hard to even imagine how far this sort of technology may go in the next 10 to 20 years.

Another Very Julie Birthday

Although we didn't go quite as all out for her birthday this time as we did last year, we still had a nice little party for Julie on Sunday night. There were no trivia questions or balloons to be found, but fortunately she had lots of presents to open, as well as one each for Cooper and Finley (so they wouldn't feel left out of the fun).

Here's the birthday girl and Vicki showing off two of the gifts from me, a pair of books that fit perfectly within my theme of "Animals" for her this year:


And now Vicki's behind the camera for this shot in which two of her presents for Cooper's mom, some tea and popcorn, are held up in our best The Price is Right pose:


We ended up watching Memento for our evening's entertainment, as we'd gotten into a discussion about short term memory loss, though I can't for the life of me remember how...

After that, Julie and I sat up talking until after 4:00 a.m., as we usually do, and then her birthday was over for another year.

Writing Rules

Here's a lovely little collection of writing rules by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, George Orwell and others.

As anyone who's read any of my books would likely agree, I tend to break many of these rules on a regular basis. Oh well, I guess that just means I've still got lots to learn and am not quite ready for the grave yet.

William Safire's list is funny for the way he breaks each rule as he states it, but my favourite rule is probably Neil Gaiman's # 5:

"Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong."

That's a good one that I've often found to be true. (Editor Julie gets Honourable Exclusion from that comment, though, as her suggested fixes are almost always right on the money.)

How To Date (Or Be Married To) A Writer

For Vicki, this Valentine's Day. She does most of the items on that list, already, explaining once again why I'm so lucky.

Vicki's Verdict Is In

Vicki finished reading the new novel just after dinnertime last night, and then we spent an hour or so talking about it. This morning, she gave me her more formal notes on it (that she'd put on small Post-Its as she went) and I made some changes as a result. Then I spent the last hour going through the book, looking specifically at one of character's dialogue, trying to make it as consistent as possible while also differentiating it from the other main characters' voices.

Anyway, Vicki seemed to thoroughly enjoy the book, and had lots of good things to say about it. Who knows, maybe she'll even read this post and decide to leave a comment or two on it, telling us all what she thought...

2nd Draft Complete

I spent the last week and a half doing a couple additional passes on the new novel, as well as sharing the 2nd half of it with (brother) Richard, who seemed to quite like it. The purpose of Draft # 2 was to tighten things up a bit more, add some descriptions in places that needed them, and try to differentiate the characters' voices as much as I could. On that last point, I fear there's still too much of what Tammy commented on within Game Over: "most of the characters sound too much like you" or words to that effect. She was right about that in my first novel, and I haven't quite gotten away from that yet with this one. But I'm trying.

Vicki's reading her way through the book now, although she started over again at Chapter 1 to refresh her memory on the parts she'd read earlier. So I'm still waiting to see what she thinks of anything past about Chapter 6.

Julie, who's read through Chapter 7, now has the complete 2nd draft, and hopefully will give me some feedback soon. She's due over here Sunday night for her birthday party, so we'll see how far she's gotten by then (no presents for her if she's not very far along, I say!!)

I'm not sure what I'm going to do this time around for editors, as I'm not having much luck finding anyone with the necessary skills and time available now. Who knows... maybe this will be my first book that I'll publish unedited, and then I'll have good reason never to try that stupid move again!

This One Doesn't Look Too Bad, Either

I've been super hyped for months now over the arrivals of The Avengers (May 4th), Prometheus (Jun 8th), and The Dark Knight Rises (Jul 20th), but there's also a little flick called The Amazing Spider-Man debuting somewhere around Jul 6th. Here's our first really good look at it:



Is this going to be the greatest year ever for blockbuster movies? It just might!

In Less Than 3 Months...

... we get to see this (and no, I don't mean the commercial):



"We have a Hulk." Love that line!!!

The Real Meaning Of Randomness: Clumping

On Thursday of this week, I had four completely unrelated e-mail inquiries come to me about Agile topics (three pertained to potential work engagements in the future, while the other was looking for suggestions for Agile books).

To put things in perspective, I would not typically get that many e-mails on different Agile topics over the course of an entire month! And yet, here they all were, arriving on the same day.

As I said to Vicki, that's what's so interesting about random events: they often clump, making them seem anything but random. But true randomness does do that, of course, as anyone who's ever seen "the birthday poll" done across a large number of people knows. (Get a large group of people to each write down their birthday, month-and-day, and then tabulate the results. At least a few dates will get three, four or even more hits, whereas other dates won't get any hits at all. It's never an even distribution, as one might expect.)

Anyway, I don't know what was in the drinking water on Thursday, but it was definitely something Agile-related!

2nd Novel Update

After burning some late hours getting that first draft done at the start of the week, I took the last two days mostly off. I needed a little time away from it so that my subconscious could work away at figuring out what I'd forgotten or gotten wrong, and that's still going on. Plus, I just needed a break from it after such an intense period of writing.

Tomorrow, I'll be working with my brother Richard to review some of the later chapters, which will be his first look at them. As I mentioned in the previous post, no one but me has read beyond the midpoint. I'll finally get some feedback on it and then I'll have a better idea how it all holds together. Next week, I'll probably pass it on to Julie and Vicki, after incorporating whatever changes Richard and I come up with. It's a little nervewracking not knowing if it works as is or not, but that's just an occupational hazard with the way I've written it (in big bursts, rather than a steady, regular pace like I had at the start).

While I didn't bother making up a plot chart for this book like I did for Game Over, I did resort to a few notes on the last 3 chapters before I started writing them last weekend. I had most of the plot developments in my head before I did that, but needed to map out which chapter each belonged in and make sure it all flowed with the right pace and rhythm. It was about 1/10th the amount of work of Game Over's big, sprawling plot chart... but it served its purpose!

And that's my update, such as it is.

First Draft Complete!

A few minutes before midnight last night, I wrote the final sentence of my second novel. It's still very rough, at this point, and I'll be spending the next few days doing a front-to-back pass on it, to see what parts of it don't agree with what other parts of it. The story is all there, though, which is a big relief. I wasn't sure it would all come together until I actually got the words down. Now I'm quite happy! Of course no one, not even Julie, has read the 2nd half of it yet, as I produced the last 7 chapters over the past week or so and wasn't sharing them with anyone (just too busy writing). So it could all be crap, unfortunately. But that's what editors and revisions are for!

[Update later that day: For the record, that was 74 days, from start to finish, for the first draft. Much, much faster than Game Over, which was nearly five months. There's still lots of work to do, but man, that was fast!]

R.I.P. Resistance From Insomniac Games

Not shocking news, or even really news at all, but sad, nevertheless. Insomniac Games, creators of Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 2 and Resistance 3, will not be producing any new additions to that particular franchise.

Boneman and I, among many other fans, will be wearing virtual black armbands for the foreseeable future...

The Perils Of Rotating Agile Leadership

For those readers who shared the "going Agile" experience with me back in 2006 through 2008, this blog post by Mike Cohn on why you shouldn't rotate the ScrumMaster role should bring back some memories. For me, a few of them are good memories, but most are either humourous or downright painful. Our early habit of rotating the "Feature Lead" role within some of our Agile teams resulted in pretty much all of the bad outcomes that Mike mentions, and more.

Oh, if only I'd known then what I know now! :-o

Almost Here

Just over 3 months to go now...

State Of The Union

If only we lived in a universe where simply making sense, as President Obama did tonight in his State of the Union address, was enough to effect change.

I think it's going to take an alien invasion, real or faked, to end the insanity that's gripped America ever since Bush "won" the 2000 election.

Why The American Middle Class Is Disappearing

There are actually a lot of reasons why the middle class, especially in the U.S., is currently being squeezed out of existence. Some of them stem from a concerted effort by corporations and their lobbyists to put all of the money into the wealthiest citizens' hands (through changes to the tax structure and attempts to drive working class wages down by, for example, breaking unions). But this New York Times article provides a glimpse into another reason: the migration of most of the manufacturing industry to Asia and parts of Europe.

Reading that piece, I kept coming back to the thought that we've become so obsessed with getting what we want for as little money as possible that we're well on our way to destroying the middle class through our own spending patterns. Anyone who lives in Canada, enjoying all of the safety, infrastructure and social equality that we're lucky enough to have around us, but who then shops in the States because "everything's so much cheaper there," as one example, is missing the point. If enough of us do that, Canada will simply become the U.S. eventually: we'll have high poverty rates, no middle class, lots of crime, little or no safety nets for the disadvantaged, and an abundance of cheap goods in our stores. Is that what we want? By the same token, as those of us in North America snap up products that are built by cheap foreign labour who live in dormitories and work for hundreds of dollars per week, we'll eventually transform this continent's socio-economic landscape to be just like what exists overseas. It's really inevitable, I think, as we're always going to do whatever selfish action appears to benefit us the most in the short term. But it's still very disheartening to think that we'll piss away so much for so little.

Nice Recap Of Disney's 'Progress' With Marvelman

For the select few out there interested in comic stuff, I recommend this recent blog post which does a nice job bringing together all of the 'news' out of Disney Comics regarding their progress to date on using the Marvelman set of characters (the rights to which they acquired, they say, in July of 2009).

It's amazing just how little progress has been made in 2.5 years, especially when you consider that the handful of reprints they've done of the quite-dreadful 50's/60's Marvelman material went over like lead balloons, both commercially and critically. Anyone who cares about the character is waiting impatiently for the Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman stories from the 80s and early 90s to be reprinted; most are hoping Gaiman will get a chance to finish his take on the character that was halted in 1994 when the American publisher, Eclipse Comics, went bankrupt; and some want Disney to then integrate the superhero into the Marvel Universe. I'm not optimistic about the quality or appeal of that last possibility, but the first two are quite thrilling. It's really too bad that Disney has done nothing but disappoint so far.

And if anyone wants to know more about the multi-decade, incredibly tangled publishing history of Miracleman/Marvelman, you can always check out my MM primer that I wrote up shortly after the 2009 announcement out of San Diego.

Insomnia Sucks!

I woke up shortly after 4:00, thoroughly disgusted that I was wide awake at such an ungodly hour. After almost an hour of trying to get back to sleep, I finally gave up and came out here to the living room to see what was going on in the rest of the world. Answer: not much!

I really wish I had that superpower that most people seem to have: to be able to sleep whenever I want to!

Oh well, maybe I'll do some writing. Chapter 7 of the 2nd novel is complete, so I guess it's time to start Chapter 8. I can hardly wait to find out what happens in it...

Busy Couple Of Days

Today, Vicki and I are visiting various family members of mine, all of whom live out of town, so that should keep us hopping from about noon until nearly bed time.

Then tomorrow is my second Agile 101 workshop for the local Project Management chapter, with Vicki alongside to help out, as usual. I've updated the presentation slightly since the previous session, removing a bit of material and adding in some more visuals, based on feedback we received after the last one. It should be interesting to see how those changes go over.

I'm working on Chapter 7 of the 2nd novel now, and am about halfway through it. This one's been the most fun to write of all of the chapters so far, and that's saying something. I look forward to seeing what kind of reaction it gets, all those many months from now when the book's finally been published and people have actually found the time to read it. That's probably the most frustrating part of this process: getting excited about something in this book or in Game Over but then having to wait so long before anyone beyond my little group of collaborators can provide any feedback. Oh well, that's just the nature of the beast, I suppose.

A Tale Of Two Football Contests

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games...

Last night's two NFL Divisonal Playoff matches couldn't have been much more different. In the first one, New Orleans and San Fran went at it, tooth and nail, with 3 touchdowns in the final 2:11 of the game! The 49ers got 2 of those 3 TDs, the second of which came with 9 seconds left, to lift them to an unbelievable 36-32 victory! This was one of the most exciting finishes to a playoff game I've ever been lucky enough to watch.

Then, in the nightcap... we got a real snoozer. Phenom Tim Tebow, who less than a week earlier had played the game of his life in shocking the Pittsburgh Steelers, didn't have a whole lot left in the tank, apparently. New England ran roughshod over Tebow's Broncos, to a final score of 45-10. It was over early, to boot, as the Patriots were up 35-7 at halftime, I believe, and then put it into cruise control from there. The 4th quarter did have one highlight, though, as Patriots QB Tom Brady punted the ball off of a 3rd and 10 snap, prompting a little excitement when the Broncos took exception to it!

We had company over for the second game, however, which dulled the pain somewhat. Unfortunately, Julie was rooting for Tebow and didn't have a whole lot of fun watching him get smoked. Of course, considering that she's the chiropractor who told me I was forbidden from lying on the couch for two weeks (because of recurring back pain I'd been suffering from), her disappointment seems like karmic payback, if you ask me, given where she spent the evening:


And shortly after this photo was taken, she was completely horizontal on that damn couch! Some people just have no compassion for others at all....

A Followup Post On The 2nd Novel

I posted the following on Facebook this morning, but figure I should add it here, too:

A bit more on the book-writing progress, since a few lovely family members have asked...

I haven't done a plot chart for the 2nd novel yet (as I did for "Game Over") because I don't think I'll need it. Therefore it's a little tough to predict exactly how many chapters this one's going to be. I'd guess it'll be somewhere in the area of 12 to 15, just based on how much is left to cover. I have the first 5 chapters "in the can" right now, and I know what happens in the last 2 or 3 (even though I haven't written them yet). So that's 7 or 8. That represents the first and third acts of the book. There's a whole bunch of stuff that has to happen in the middle act, which I have the least amount of detail for in my brain right now. I know some of it, but not nearly all of it. I'm guessing it'll be somewhere around 5 chapters' worth of material by the time I get it done.

Even though I started writing this book about a month and a half ago, it really wasn't until the last several days that it's all come together for me. I now know the whole story, minus some of the lower-level details. More importantly, I know how it ends. Before I knew that, it was harder to write because I never knew if I was pushing things in the right direction or not. I could even potentially paint myself into a corner without realizing it, which is kind of very bad. That sort of thing leads to massive rewriting or even just throwing away large portions of what you've already written. Very bad.

I could probably finish the first draft of this book in the next week, if I had to. OK, I probably shouldn't have said that, knowing that Amanda is listening!! What I mean is, if I had nothing else to do and wanted it done ASAP, I've now got everything I need to put it all down "on paper" (electronically, that is) and could do the physical writing part in about a week. Of course, I DO have other things and do, and I don't want to blow through it quite that quickly, as I really enjoy the writing process. I suspect I'll be done the first draft sometime in March, although it could conceivably be earlier, based on how well things are going currently. Then it's a couple months of getting feedback on it, making changes, and dealing with the tons of deails (cover design, for example) that have to happen before I can publish. Best case, maybe it's ready for general consumption in late May, or June.

As for details about the book, I'm not ready to let those cats out of the bag just yet. Even the title gives too much away at this point. I will say that, once the title and blurb for the book are revealed, several people around here are likely going to have a pretty strong reaction. That should be fun!

That Update On The 2nd Novel You've All Been Waiting For

Well, Facebook friends of mine have been getting regular updates on it all along, but for the rest of you...

I've just finished the 4th chapter, with one more to go before the first part, or "act," of the story is complete. I've blocked it into three parts in my mind, and am quite excited about being nearly done the first of them. By the time Chapter 5 wraps up, all of the main characters will have been introduced, the central questions within the story will have all been presented, and the reader will hopefully be completely engaged and intrigued. That's the plan, anyway.

Julie's read through Chapter 3 so far, and has seemed to enjoy each new chapter more than the last. She emailed me the following after reading the 3rd installment:

"Love it, love it, love it!!!! Well done. Great writing. Can't wait for Chapter 4!!"

She's not usually one to gush, so either she was drunk when she typed that, or it's really growing on her.

My brother, Richard, has seen or heard all 4 chapters so far, and also seems quite enamored with it. But he's a pushover, so we can't read too much into that. :-)

Anyway, progress is continuing. I'm personally very happy with the results to date, much moreso than I was at this point in the creation of Game Over. Make of that what you will.

Doctors Don't Die Like The Rest Of Us

Thanks to Neil Gaiman on Twitter, I saw this fascinating article about the difference between how doctors face end-of-life situations and how most other people do. It may surprise you. It's definitely worth a read.

Tebow Mania Lives!

I would've bet money that the 8-8 Denver Broncos weren't going to beat the 12-4 Pittsburgh Steelers in tonight's final Wildcard playoff game... but I would've lost my cash, if I had. Despite blowing a 14-point lead in the second half, the Broncos pulled it out in overtime. The first play, following the kickoff, was a long pass for the winning touchdown, ensuring that Denver quarterback Tim Tebow's fame will grow, at least a little more.

All I really care about is that the hated Steelers are now out, meaning that - as Vicki said just moments ago - "now we can watch the rest of the football playoffs!" Yes, dear... yes we can!

Less Than 4 Months To Go

May 4th cannot get here fast enough!


I really hope they keep Cap cowl-free, as he is in this great shot, for most of this movie! Joss Whedon's probably smart enough to realize that the good Captain's regular movie headgear just doesn't cut it in the live action world (even though it looks great in a comic book, and OK in an animated series).

This Thing Is Awesome

It's no big secret around here that I love John Carpenter's The Thing, so how could I not enjoy this:

Winter Arrives!

From yesterday's trek through the woods with Julie and Cooper:



It was actually a beautiful walk, and just the sort of thing that makes me appreciate winter more than I have since the days when I was kid tabogganing in it.

Twenty Twelve Or Two Thousand And Twelve?

I've watched this debate over the past decade or so with mostly just mild amusement and disinterest: should we be pronouncing our years as starting with "twenty" or with "two thousand"? Since we clearly started with "year two thousand", and then followed that up with "two thousand and one" (a space odyssey), it seemed from the get-go that it should really be "two thousand". Sure, that's an extra syllable, or really two extra syllables once you start adding the "and" in, but c'mon: it just sounds so cool and futuristic!

However, this year that we're now in may change everything. There's quite an appeal, to me anyway, in saying "twenty twelve." Why? Because of the repetition of the "tw" sound! And if "twenty twelve" sounds great, just imagine what "twenty twenty" will do for us!

Anyway, I reserve the right to regress back to "two thousand and thirteen" next year, but for the just-born yearling we're in, I'm definitely going to try to refer to it as "twenty twelve!" Let's just see how that goes.

The Christmas Goodies, 2011 Edition

I thought it might be fun to try to get our entire 'haul' into one photo this year, but it proved a bit of a challenge:


Technically, I think it's all there, but some of the smaller items are probably not visible as they're being obscured by other ones. Still, you can certainly get a good sense of just how much stuff we received!

Here's my best attempt at a rundown of this year's presents:

Vicki - a Natalie Maclean book, cheese grater, sewing box, 2 video games (Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, and Ico), gift certificates to a craft store and a cooking class, candy treats, Game Over t-shirt, special edition of Game Over, necklace & bracelet, puzzle calendar, chocolates, chocolate candle (but don't eat it, the girls tell me!), gardening hand lotion, a book set in Australia (I wonder why?), Lush hand cream, Cooper & Finley coffee mug, The Help (on DVD), leather traveling case filled with Fruits & Passion lotions & potions, gift certificate to a tea store

Matt - 3 superhero movies on Blu-Ray (Captain America: The First Avengers, Thor, X-Men: First Class) from someone who knows the way to my heart, Silver Age Thor comic book (ditto!), Superman watch (double ditto!), socks, candy treats, Peter Gabriel concert DVD (New Blood), several super-comfy t-shirts, How to Fix Everything for Dummies book, Spider-Man body wash, basement joke gifts (mop, latex gloves, stopper), The Story of Math (TV series on DVD), a sleep journal (to help me sleep better), Cooper coffee mug and Cooper photo calendar (from someone who knows my soft spot!), Life Ascending by Nick Lane (book), Moneyball by Michael Lewis (book), Spider-Man hot/cold pack specially ordered by my chiropractor who apparently thinks I'll use it more often just because it has a superhero on it (as if I'm that gullible!... although, on second thought, I mean, just look at it: it has Spider-Man on it!!!!!), Best Buy gift certificate for anything that I didn't already get!

both of us - chips & popcorn (for a Movie Night), Angela's Ashes and Thunderhead (both books), family photo calendar, movie DVDs (Half Nelson, Blue Valentine, Winter's Bone, Vampire Dairies Season One, The King's Speech, Human Planet), Beyond Good and Evil (video game)

Now, with that big a list, it's almost a given that I've missed something. But if so, it was entirely unintentional. We loved every single item we received! Thanks so much to all the friends and family members who made Christmas 2011 so utterly enjoyable, including Tammy who managed to 'gift us' from 16,400 kms away!!

Finally, a couple personal observations. You might notice that the photo is somewhat dominated by a t-shirt (one of a pair) that I had custom made for my brother, Richard, and I. It shows the two of us posing for a studio shot from a long, long time ago (I'm guessing I'm about 4 in which case he would be 13) along with the slogan "TOGETHER AGAIN". This was beyond a doubt one of my favourite gifts to give this year. I was glad to have thought of it, but more importantly I was happy that our lives have re-intertwined such that it was even a possibility.

I was also delighted to find out that the Game Over t-shirts I had made up, which several loved ones received from me, were something that Julie had planned to do, as well. She simply thought of it too late to pull it off in time, and so was going to get one for me for my birthday, instead. Knowing that someone else came up with the same idea validated my own wacky notion. And it was awfully sweet of Julie to have that brainstorm, too.

Family Christmas 2011

Despite taking my camera along, I actually snapped very few pictures at yesterday's big family Christmas at my brother's house. Somehow I was just too distracted by the dozen kids around me who were all hopped up on sugar and Christmas anticipation! Fortunately, others were much more diligent about their photography chore than I was, so I imagine a wealth of photos will shortly show up on Facebook. In the meantime, at least I have one showing great-nephew Hunter playing Santa, with approximately 1/3 of the attendees visible. Richard is on the right, seated, with his back to me. The table on the left has a half dozen 'stacks' of presents, one for each of his grandchildren between the ages of 10 and 17. These older kids were tasked a couple of months ago with writing a short essay on what animal they would be if they could be any animal, and then their gifts were all selected to fit that theme. You might be able to spot the giraffe (Natasha) and monkey (Hunter) at the top of two of the piles; also present were eagle (Connor), otter (Hillary), platypus (Ty) and snake (Emma). My sister-in-law, Meena, did an incredible job coming up with about a dozen gifts each to fit her lucky older grandchildren's essays, while the younger ones received a similar number of unthemed gifts (being handed out by Hunter in the shot above).

Here's another part of the room around the same time, including lovely Vicki taking it all in. In the foreground of this one is 5-year-old Bruce, who spent most of the evening punching me, kicking me, jumping on me, and trying to convince me that he wasn't about to throw up on me due to over-excitement (as his mother, Peggy, kept assuring me he would). I might've also been punching, kicking, wrestling and otherwise bullying him, but there's no proof of that at all! Bruce is actually a total blast to play with, and every time we get together I end up spending way too much time with him... but I'm still waiting to make him vomit! He did tell me last night that if he came over to my house, he would definitely puke in my face. So I've still got that to look forward to!

Vicki and I had a great time, despite the overwhelming nature of the day (keeping in mind that Christmas has historically been Vicki, Tammy and I... and maybe a cat or two!). Richard and Meena really know how to throw a Christmas party, and we can hardly wait for next year's! (They'll both be cringing if they read that last bit!)

Bringing Back Memories, Big Time!

John Buscema pencils for an Avengers pinup. Wow. Just... wow...

Why Grammar, Punctuation And Spelling Are Important

Shining

Can't wait to see this feel good movie of the year!



(so good I've posted it twice!)

Another Great Christmas Party

Last night Vicki, Julie and I did our Christmas 2011 party, along with four-legged friends Cooper, Finley and (in theory, anyway) Lucy. The evening started off shortly after 6:00 when our visitors arrived, after which Julie, Cooper and I headed out for an hour long walk through our neighbourhood in an absolutely gorgeous snowfall. We both commented on just what a lovely scene we were being treated to, and how much better it was than what Christmas day itself had gotten. Then it was back to our house to towel Cooper off and sit down for a spaghetti dinner that Vicki had prepared for us.
Following dinner and our traditional chocolate cookie and whip cream dessert, it was time to open some presents! As you can see for yourself, both of my female companions were primed and ready for the gift exchange, and probably didn't even appreciate having to pause long enough to allow me to snap this shot!

Cooper had two presents, one from each of Vicki and I, and both had been carefully prepared in SuperCooper's favourite wrapping material: newsprint! He loves ripping that stuff to bits, and he proceeded to do that while the rest of us looked on in amusement. He got a new squeaky toy - which Julie, for some strange reason, decided to leave at our place so that it would be here for him when he comes for visits! - and a hard rubber chew toy which he spent much of the rest of the evening pulling pieces off of.

Finley, who has always loved Lucy's toy that features a fake mouse inside a circular frame that can be whirled around by a curious paw, got a similar setup from us. Cooper of course tried to play with it before Finley could even get close to it, but eventually that got sorted out and the animals were both happy and distracted. So much so, in fact, that neither of them was biting when Vicki tried to get their attention!

Then it was the humans' turn, and we had about 20 gifts between us to get through. I'd put little clues to each of Julie's gifts on cards taped to the bags, and that prompted all of us to take a little bit of time with each parcel trying to guess what it was before opening it. Julie didn't come close to figuring out this item from Vicki: a 'cinnamon tin' that you can store foods in if you want them to taste like cinnamon (or something like that... they tried to explain it but I wasn't really getting it). Once she saw what it was and sniffed it, though, she seemed to love it!

I got a big smile out of my favourite chiropractor when she saw that I'd bought her a Key Finder, just the sort of thing that's perfect for the woman who occasionally (often) misplaces (loses) her keys. She was quite impressed by the device, and we even tested it out moments later by having me hide her keys somewhere in the house... and she found them in seconds flat! This electronic gadget should completely revolutionize her life, I'd say!

Many more thoughtful and impressive gifts came out of all those sundry packages before we were done, but I should probably do another blog post later in the week summarizing all that Vicki and I were lucky enough to receive this year. Tammy did her usual great job providing us with interesting movies to watch, for example, so I really must get that list together here before the New Year. My favourite one that I gave was to Vicki and Julie both, and it was special copies of Game Over that I'd created and printed which contain the original three chapters that I wrote back in the summer of 2009. Both women were quite fascinated by the thing once they realized what their new editions actually were - Vicki's first comment was, "But we already received this book, honey!" - and looked eager to read the fifty or so pages that neither of them had ever seen before. That gift was every bit the hit that I'd hoped for!

Eventually the festivities settled down into our more-typical mode of conversation (after we'd picked up the mess made by Cooper as he shredded anything resembling paper). Vicki lasted until around 1:00 a.m., at which point she left the rest of us to carry on while she headed off to bed. Around 4:45 she returned, though, to tell us that the wind was howling outside and she thought that Julie should just stay the night rather than driving home in the blizzard that had developed while we talked. Julie and I went outside and quickly determined that it wasn't all that bad (considering Julie only lives a few kms away), and so our three guests took that opportunity to pack up and hit the snowy road.

This was the second annual Christmas party for the three of us as friends, and it was every bit as much fun as last year's. Julie puts just as much time, energy and careful consideration into her gifts for us as we do for hers, and that fact really makes the whole experience unforgettable. Here's to good friends!

For The Developers Out There

Thanks to longtime buddy Nhan for bringing this to my attention.

Kiss The Cooks!

Or cookie bakers, in this case, in their new matching Christmas aprons courtesy of Suzy:


Aren't they just cute as a couple of buttons?! The two of them baked up several dozen cookies after our Christmas lunch and gift exchange today, while I played Spider Solitaire and watched a little basketball on TV. And yes, Susan really does wear scarves around the house... It's a fashion thing, I'm told.

Just When You Thought There Were No Sacred Cows Left To Slaughter

We get this, from the upcoming Watchmen 2 prequel project out of DC Comics, apparently:



[By way of Bleeding Cool, obviously.]

A Couple Of Very Detailed Looks At The Prometheus Trailer

To say that Alien fans the world over are excited about the Prometheus trailer that arrived last week would be like saying that a dog that's been housebound for a week is excited about going for a walk! To see what I mean, check out this and this, each of which takes the trailer and breaks it down into its constituent parts. When you're talking about a mythology as rich and well-studied as the Alien series of films, books, comics and video games, it's hard to put into words just how much some of us are looking forward to Ridley Scott's second kick at this particular can. Less than five and a half months to go now!

The Basement Dilemma

This blog post is mostly so that I have a record of my thoughts on this subject for posterity. Having said that, comments from people who know more about the topic than me are very welcome... and since that includes just about everybody on the planet, you should feel free to comment!

Yesterday we had both the basement/drainage people here and a technologist from the city (think City Engineer but not quite the same). The drainage company scoped out the drain line that backed up on Nov 29th and flooded our basement (for the first time in, we're guessing, 25 years or more). They had a long rigid hose with a camera and light at the end of it, and fed it down through the cleanout that's located a few feet from the drain that overflowed. We got to watch this, and what we saw was a fairly clean, unbroken pipe that ran about 75 feet and ended in a sewer at the street. There was one very small tree root visible at one point over that length, but it was obviously not affecting anything. We had expected to see a break of some sort, as a result of the destruction that the city did to our front yard over the summer, but there was really nothing to see.

At that point, Vicki called the city. She told them that the scope had revealed nothing that could explain the problem, and asked if that meant that the city sewers simply couldn't handle the volume on Nov 29th. And if so, were they going to do anything about it before it reoccurred? She also told him that the people who had done the investigation were now about to install a backflow preventer and sump pump. He explained that there was a municipal grant program in effect that would reimburse home owners for part of the cost of both those additions (75%, up to a dollar maximum that really meant it was more like 50% given the actual costs). This is available because it's cheaper for the city to do that than to spend the millions on re-engineering the sewers.

However, the catch with the sump pump installation is that, in order to get the grant money for it, you have to ensure that your weeping tiles are disconnected from the city sewers. In other words, the city is only willing to pay if you take your runoff ground water out of the common system and deal with it yourself (by spraying it onto your yard, as output from the sump pump). The person telling us this, when he learned that the work was being done right now, said that he'd be out within the hour as he wanted to talk to the contractors and also speak to us in person.

Sure enough, he showed up about an hour later, and was very helpful. He brought the application forms for the grants, as well as some other pamphlets related to it and copies of the diagrams that had been filed away when our house was built! These latter items showed where the drains in the house were, were everything attached to the weeping tiles, and so on. He explained to the workers that they'd have to disconnect the weeping tiles from the sewer line, which they weren't planning to do, and that they needed permits for the work they were about to do, which they didn't have. He also reminded them that an inspection would have to be done on the job when they were finished, meaning that an inspector had to be lined up. They then ran the scope through the line again, so that he could see it. By this point they'd jackhammered a huge hole in our basement floor over the cleanout, and had begun digging a hole in our backyard just outside the room that was going to house the sump pump. When he pointed out that they needed permits which they didn't have, all work stopped. Nothing has resumed since.

So now we're trying to figure out what we really need. The more I've learned about the sump pump addition, the less I've liked it. For one thing: our problem was caused by the drain backing up, which a backflow preventer (installed into the pipe where the cleanout is) should take care of. We've never had water get into the basement through the foundation, meaning that the weeping tiles have always done their job and drained the groundwater, during wet periods, into the pipe that runs to the sewer. By installing the sump pump and disconnecting that line, we run the risk that our new pump won't function as well as the tiles did. It can't possibly function any better, as the water was always taken away from the house that way. So we could spend thousands only to have worse results than we've had for the past 13 years. And then there's the fact that the tiles only rely on gravity to work, whereas a sump pump runs on electricity, has moving parts that can wear out, requires a working float (or equivalent) to detect when to come on, could blow fuses on us, etc., etc., etc. Therefore I'm thinking we don't want the sump pump, but of course if I'm wrong, we risk future water damage in the basement.

As for the backflow preventer, the catch there seems to be that, when it's 'engaged' (meaning the valve has closed to prevent water from coming into the house from the sewer) we may not be able to flush our toilets, have showers or run water in general in the house. That's bad enough, but we also have no way of knowing that it's engaged unless we go down into the basement, lift the device's cover up, and look to see what position the valve is in. What are the chances that we'd think to do that every time it rained? And how many times do you check during a period when it rains for several days? What happens if you don't check, and you fill the pipes with potentially dirty water that can't leave the house through that pipe? I suppose one way to look at it is that, without the backflow preventer, water would be running into the basement anyway, so we're no worse off. Also, since that's only happened once in 13 years, maybe the chances of it happening again in the future are very slim. But what if something changed making it more likely? Then what? I'm completely out of my element when it comes to house-related issues like this, and so everything about this worries me. I barely got any sleep last night, thanks to yesterday's events.

So that's where it stands now. I hope to talk to my brother Richard about this soon, as he's about a million times more knowledgeable about such things than I am. Not that that's hard to do, unfortunately.

Sweet Prometheus Trailer

Watch it here.

There are way too many cool things to talk about there, but for starters, how about:

• just how amazing everything in that trailer looks?
• the title forming the same way Alien's did, over 30 years ago?
• the briefly-glimpsed giant statue head
• the grainy video toward the end, again suggestive of earlier Alien films
• the scale of several of the shots
  
• "You don't understand" / "It was so wrong" / "I'm so sorry" / "Please!"
• Charlize Theron!
• the throbbing sound effect, suggesting an alarm sounding as well as your heart pounding!

This is just about a perfect trailer, if you ask me. It's provocative without giving anything away, and it makes me want to see the movie... like, now! This is the way studios used to promote their flicks before somebody decided that it would be a good idea to tell the entire story over the course of the trailer.

Cannot wait!!

Hilarious Video

Thanks to a friend on Twitter, we have the following video.

Note: watch until the very end... it's worth it!

At The Intersection Of Washington And DC

I love these satirical looks at the current political situation in the U.S., using classic DC Comics characters and logos. Here's an example:

Just 359 Days To Go

You know, the wait for the theatrical release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey wouldn't be so darned long if it weren't for that stupid leap day in February!! :-)

Anyway, here's the first trailer for it, due out on Tammy's 26th birthday. I especially like the... precious... way it ends.

[Update later that day: From Bleeding Cool once again, here's a nice dissection of some of the images from the trailer.]

The Age Of Not Knowing What The Hell You're Talking About

Despite having more information at our fingertips (literally!) than ever before, we truly seem to be in the midst of a new Age of Unenlightenment. Check out this short-but-sweet blog post by Paul Krugman in which he calls out a Washington Post journalist for claiming that government debt is currently at a historically-unheard-of height. It's almost comical how uninformed some of the loudest voices are these days.

I always used to say, in situations like this, "Don't suspect a conspiracy when simple incompetence will explain it all away." But I'm starting to think that some of this ignorance may actually be anything but. It's beginning to seem pretty willful, at the very least.

Ho. Lee. Shit!

Just watch it. And then join me in acknowledging that it's going to be a very long seven month wait for this one!

8 Months Later: I Finish Portal 2!

I started playing Portal 2 a mere 8 months ago (almost to the day) and really, truly loved it... but I didn't finish either the Single Player or Co-op campaigns before the Autumn onslaught of new games began (Resistance 3 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, predominantly). I certainly could've finished at least the Single Player portion of P2 before then, except that Vicki enjoyed watching me play it so much that I could never get any game time in when she wasn't available. (Also, he admitted sheepishly, I often needed her help getting through some of the tougher test chambers!) The Co-op campaign is a different problem, as I need a second player for that and Vicki's rarely in the mood to play it (preferring to backseat drive -- I mean, assist me from her place on the couch slightly behind me).

Anyway, tonight I/we finished Chell's adventure against GladOS and Wheatley, bringing another thrilling Portal experience to a close. I still have some Co-op left to do, including some free downloadable content that I've had installed for months. I suspect Portal 2 will end up winning some Game of the Year awards over the next few weeks, and if so: it's well deserved! This game rocks! We got many dozens of hours of entertainment from it.

Some New Year's Resolutions To Consider For 2012

I know, I know: we haven't even gotten through Christmas 2011 yet, so why am I thinking about New Year's resolutions for 2012 already? Well, I just am. So get over it. It's never too early, after all!

Here are a few fairly-general ideas worth thinking about if you're the type who does the whole resolution thing around year-end:

Be more considerate of others - This sounds like a "motherhood and apple pie" type resolution, but I wish more people would actually spend some time on this one. For example: this morning, Vicki is crafting a very polite letter to circulate through our neighbourhood shortly about the person who honks his/her horn several times as they leave the house every weekday morning. This is around 8:00 a.m., when retired folks like us are likely to still be sleeping. Her letter kindly asks that whoever is doing it please just wave instead, since that's not likely to bother anyone. It boggles my mind that anyone would be that rude in the first place, but we have daily proof to the contrary. This is, I suppose, just a more extreme example of one of my biggest pet peeves: people who lock their vehicle by repeatedly pressing the lock button on their keyfob until the horn blares. Apparently they're too stupid to realize one press will work, or too lazy to care. Whatever the case, they basically don't give a shit who they bother, and that's behaviour that's definitely worth changing by way of a New Year's resolution.

Waste less water - About 15 or 20 years ago, I stopped running the tap while I was brushing my teeth. I'd turn on the water whenever I put the toothbrush under it or to wash stuff down the drain, but the rest of the time I'd just be brushing away and there'd be no need for water to be running. I'm so used to that mindset of water conservation now that it floors me whenever I see someone wasting the stuff. In a public restroom, for example, it's not uncommon even today to see some idiot running the faucet while he combs his hair or admires himself in the mirror. Vicki and I recently watched Blue Gold: World Water Wars on Netflix, one of several documentaries out there on the frightening topic of our depleting fresh water supply. Granted, one person conserving a few litres a day isn't going to save the world, but it's like anything: we can all lead by example. And if you need a little bit of mental help on this one, try imagining that water cost as much as gasoline, because someday soon it may (in some parts of the world, it already does).

Be sure to pay your way through life - In this age of online piracy, self-absorption and instant gratification, it's easier than ever to fall into a pattern of believing that "it's all about me," or more specifically, "it's all about me getting what I want." That's all well and good, but there are a whole lot of other people out there, too. So if you're the type of person who justifies downloading content because you think corporations are evil and you're "sticking it to the man," then find a way to send some cash directly to the sorts of artists whose work you're enjoying. It's never been easier to find ways to do so than it is right now, between Kickstarter-type projects, local/indie concerts and shows, self-published authors (hello!!), and "pay what you can" homegrown offerings. Anyone who uses the rationalization that "hardly any of my money goes to the artists anyway" to explain away their pirating lifestyle is a complete hypocrite if they're not funding the creators directly nowadays. I know of several people who are shining examples of what I'm advocating; I suspect I also know lots of people who aren't. If you're in that second camp, maybe 2012 is your chance to make a change for the better?

Those are just a handful of simple changes we all could stand to make. Or, I guess, we could all just resolve to go on a diet, eat more vegetables, or get to the gym more often... but those hardly ever seem to stick!

Happy 25th To Tammy!

It's a bit of a screwy 25th birthday for her, seeing as she just this month relocated to Australia and so we're all still adjusting to that fact. She doesn't even have internet access at home yet, as far as I can tell, which prevented us from having a Skype call with her on this historic occasion. And the 16-hour time difference between here and there doesn't exactly help, either!

But none of that really matters. What's important is that our 'little girl' is now a quarter of a century old, and boy, has time ever flown for that to be true! Hopefully she had a great day (it's already well into the day after her birthday where she is) and I'm sure the fact that it was her first birthday in a strange land will guarantee that she'll always remember it.

Happy 25th birthday, Tamara Holly Driscoll!!

Yes, Please!

Getting more and more excited about this film, the more I read about it. Love the tagline: "The search for our beginning could lead to our end." The Prometheus of legend stole fire from Zeus and gave it to us humans, and look at how well that worked out, after all!

Less than 6 months to go now!!

Christmas Shopping Almost Done

I knocked three more gifts off my list today, and a fourth one shipped from its online destination. I think I now have just 2 more to deal with, plus we have to figure out how to give Tammy something for her 25th birthday (tomorrow, also known as "now" in Australia where she is) and for Christmas. In other words, the end is finally in sight!!