Dancing with Facebook

            Eeep! It’s 9:30 at night on Sunday and I only just remembered I have a blog to write! Okay, so the big question is, what do I write about? Good question. Let’s see, what did I do this week?

            Surprisingly enough, it actually has been a pretty busy week for me. The reason I say this is surprising is because I'm a bit of an introvert (which is something of an understatement) and, as a result, my brain usually shuts down entirely right after a show, making me rather useless for about a week. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as usual this time around; I recovered in two days and, even on those two days, I wasn't as comatose as usual. I'm hoping this means I'm getting used to these things so we’ll be able to go them more frequently in the future.

            Among the many things that I surprised myself by accomplishing this week, the most eventful would be my first Facebook giveaway. In fact, it’s still going on right now! Though, it hasn't gone anywhere near the way I planned.

            You see, the whole point of a Facebook giveaway is publicity – it’s a great way to draw extra attention to your page. So, what I had planned was to have people enter the draw by sharing a picture of the rainbow chainmaille dragon I was giving away. In addition, the more shares the picture got, the more dragons I was going to give away. Seems like a good scheme, right? Except it’s illegal.

            That’s right – every time someone runs some sort of free giveaway on Facebook and asks you to “Like” or “Share” something to enter – or use any other Facebook feature – they are risking having Facebook delete their page. Plus Facebook could sue them. Oh, and on top of that, it turns out that if you want to run any sort of free giveaway on Facebook, you need to use a third party application.

            This whole system achieves two things – one, it protects Facebook from any sort of liability (something I completely understand and have no problem with) and two, it makes it far more difficult for page owners to encourage their followers to share their pictures and posts, which means it’s far more difficult to get any publicity without paying Facebook for it. The whole point in a lot of these smaller pages using Facebook in the first place is to get free publicity – we can’t afford to pay for advertising, otherwise we’d be doing it! It was extremely frustrating.

            So, my plans were completely shot down until about half an hour before my usual posting time when my brain finally discovered a way to circumnavigate the rules. I found a free application to run the draw for me and set up a picture that, for half a week before the draw opened for entries, people could share, with more shares meaning more dragons being given away in the draw. That way I got my free publicity, my followers got to increase the number of dragons in the pot and I didn't break any laws.

            I like it when bad situations work out well in the end. Incidentally, the draw opens today, so if you want to enter, hop over to Facebook and find the Ringcrafts page...

            The funniest thing about all of this is that, with my original plan, I was going to pay Facebook to boost the post promoting the draw. With this new method though? I didn't see the point. It turns out that trying to squeeze the little guy for all he’s got only gets the little guy to find more ways to go without feeding the big guy. I wonder how much money Facebook could make if they helped us little guys get big enough that we could afford to pay them.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Waterproof Ringcrafts

            Today’s blog will likely be short, as I've just gotten home from my second day at the Oxford Renaissance Festival in Woodstock, Ontario, where Colleen and I were selling our chainmaille. We had a fantastic time, but being on my feet for twelve hours straight while wearing chainmaille two days in a row has really worn me out. My legs are threatening to quit, which would make writing on my laptop a bit more difficult.

            This was our first outdoor show, so it was a wonderful and terrifying new experience. It’s very hard to leave core parts of your livelihood outdoors, even when you know security will be on site. For us, our biggest concern was our tent – we bought it for this event and Colleen made a medievalish cover for it.

I’d like to take a moment to elaborate on that; she sewed an entire tent. Out of canvas. Now, think about how big a project that is while I tell you she did it in just three days. The results? We absolutely love it!

            As great as the tent looks, we had no way of knowing how functional it was in regards to, say, rain. The first day of the festival went fantastically with great weather and no problems, but even as we were packing up at night we knew that rain was expected. All we could do was make sure everything we needed to leave in the tent overnight was under the tarp we’d brought and hope that the predicted wind wouldn't tear it free (or blow away out tent, for that matter). Then we closed up our tent and drove away, not knowing what we’d find the next day...

            As a bit of side information, the tent has full walls on all sides that we can put up when we choose, however they are each made of three panels that tie together – this means that each wall has two gaps. These walls, like the roof cover, are made of canvas – not treated to be waterproof. The only waterproof part was the tent’s original cover (hidden under our cover) which we were worried wouldn't function with once our cover was on top.

You can imagine our surprise when we arrived on a rainy morning, after a rainy night, and found the inside of our tent completely dry! Not a blade of grass was wet. The canvas was soaked through, but Colleen’s home made tent had succeeded in keeping out the elements. We were thrilled, even more so when the sun came out in the afternoon and completely dried our tent for us.

            The rest of the event went well, although we had more wind than on the first day and, as a result, we learned important lessons about which of our displays need to be more secure for future outdoor events. All in all this was a wonderful fair (I could watch the live jousting from the back of our tent!) and we had a great time while learning lots and meeting loads of wonderful people (including many friends who dropped by, even some not expecting to see us).

We even managed to pack up and leave right before the thunderstorm hit. Now, that’s what I call a good weekend.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Swept Away by Vortex

            Here’s another book review and it’s about time. I told you I read slowly – this is the only book I’ve read since the last review and I should add that it had nothing to do with the quality of the book. What it means is that I should also spend far more time reading than I currently do.

            Vortex by Lindsey J Parsons entirely swept me away. I could hardly put it down (on the rare occasion I found time to pick it up)! This book follows a pair of characters, switching between their perspectives almost every chapter, as they are dragged along on a wild and mysterious journey. Sam, a university student in our world, is a girl studying law because it was what her father had wanted, but she isn't sure if it’s what she wants. Damian looks like a human except for his horns and wings, which are unique even in his magical world where the castle he lives in is guarded by a dragon. When Damian is somehow dragged into Sam’s world, both their lives are turned upside down.

            Since I've already commented on how much I enjoyed this book, I would like to take a moment to touch on the one thing that bothered me: the prologue. If I were to decide whether or not to read this book based on the prologue, I would have put it down because I found it to be too slow paced and description heavy. Beyond that, it was well written and gave some excellent back-story and foreshadowing while remaining exactly what a prologue should be – an optional chapter that gives extra information, but does not provide anything that is important for reading the story. So, if you’re like me and turned away by slow pacing, don’t let this prologue chase you away (skip it, if you must) because the pace picks up right away from the first chapter – and this book is worth reading.

            The characters Lindsey has created are phenomenal – and I'm not just talking about the main ones. Each side character has unique depth and clearly has a deeper background than we will ever know. More than that, they are believable. It’s rare to come across so many characters in one book whose personalities could have been plucked out of the real world and dropped into print.

            As for the story, it is excellently constructed. Every chapter is packed with information while leaving just enough questions unanswered that you don’t want to stop reading even though it’s midnight. By the end of the book, I was left feeling that all the loose ends had been tied, yet I would still happily pick up the next book to discover what happens next.

            I'm currently writing a book which, like this one, takes place in a mixture of real and fantasy worlds. Because of that, I am able to comment on how much of a challenge it is from a writing perspective – the hardest part is deciding what characters already know or are able to understand when not in their own world. Lindsey did a marvellous job not only in keeping characters from knowing more than they should, but in allowing them to know enough to maintain realism.

            My advice isn't just to read this book, but to spread it around to everyone you know who reads. It deserves to get a lot of notice.

            You can find Vortex here and LindseyJ Parsons’ website here.





 

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

 

Colleen on Smartphones

            The blogging bug has bitten Colleen, so she’s back again! To anyone who knows her, Colleen being on Smartphones is hardly a surprise, but this time she’s talking about them rather than on them.

There's a lot of truth in the notion that advancements in technology are having a negative impact on our collective health. Kids play Call of Duty instead of catch and talk in chat rooms instead of sitting on a swing at the park. Work has changed from stacking bales of hay in a breezy field to folders of paperwork at a desk. I myself suffer from "texter's neck", a condition marked by pain in the neck ligaments due to prolonged strain on the muscles caused by the tilting of the head down, often observing an incoming text on a cell phone.

We see the effects of technology on our bodies every day.

But, if I may, there are many benefits of technology that we may not even be aware of. I'd like to specifically draw your attention to the highly-coveted Smartphone and the many obscure reasons it has become an integral part of my and many other people's lives.

DISCLAIMER: I am not here to debate the relative merits of one model of phone vs another. Nor am I here to promote one more than another. I do own an iPhone and as such have more experience with the applications available for that device rather than an Android or a BlackBerry, but you will not hear me say any one of them is better than another.

Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you all about my To Do application (app). It's a simple enough concept. You enter some text that reminds you of an event or a chore or a task or something you don't want to forget, then when you wish the app to remind you of that item and how often you want it to repeat. There are many, many different apps that accomplish essentially the same task.

Mine runs my life. I would be completely lost without it. It lays out my morning and evening routines, lists my weekly cleaning duties, reminds me of odd tasks I need to accomplish, ensures my medication is taken on time, it even helps me to remember to make cookies once a month. (Hey, not every To Do item needs to be scrubbing a toilet!) When my last phone was stolen late last year I had practically no idea what to do. And while I do realise my incredible dependence on an electronic device (and conversely, the devastating effect the absence of it has), for me, it is a small price to pay for a well-organised and productive life. Obviously this solution isn't for everyone. For me and my mother-in-law, however, it works very well.

When I decided to take up yoga I considered my options for that exercise type. I could take classes, purchase DVDs, watch podcasts or YouTube videos, look for a yoga app. Then I had an idea. I created a photo album on my phone and added several pictures of yoga poses to it, all found on the Internet. (But that is an entirely different blog.)

Now I had photo memory aids and a specific and custom order for my yoga practice. That kind of full customisation is not something I have found in any app or, obviously, in any video or class. It was a perfect fit for me. I could even set whatever music I wanted while on my mat with my iPod app (the Mission Impossible theme is highly motivating for yoga) and time myself with my stopwatch app to see how long I had practiced that day. The irony of my smart phone helping me become healthier is not lost on me.

A large perk of smart phones is the large array of game apps (many of them free). On our first wedding anniversary, Jonathan and I celebrated with dinner out. The restaurant we chose was packed and we had a forty-five minute wait. We passed the time alternating levels on one of our favourite games. We hung over the shoulder of the gamer of the moment, giving advice.

A philosophy I've had for a very long time is "a laugh shared is a laugh doubled". I believe a friend of mine also has that philosophy. Often at parties you'll see him flicking through his smart phone glancing at pictures he's saved from websites, all of them humorous, or at least he thinks so. He will hold his phone out to others to see the Lolcat or cartoon or amusing play on words, giggling away with them. I love swapping new photos with him.

Not everything about new technology is good, but for me at least, my Smartphone has more than paid for itself in on-time credit card bills and instant tips on money-saving ways to clean a home. And of course you can't put a price on the simple peace of mind that comes from knowing I will not forget to book that doctor's appointment six months from now or to be able to leave the stove's because the phone is always with me and Pachelbel's canon means those double-chocolate cookies are ready!

My (Jonathan’s) conclusion is that new technology can be good or bad, it all depends on how you choose to use it. Cookies are more than acceptable.






 

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

References and Originality

            One thing you should always remember about authors is that we are playful people and words are our favourite toys. We love to be sneaky and hide little secrets and references in our books, not to mention leaving a few puns lying around. My favourite  though, are the references. Most of these you won’t even notice unless you’re familiar with what they are about, but when you see them, they give you a good chuckle.

            The master of these references, of course, is Terry Pratchett. I firmly believe that no one can measure up to his satirical fantasy. I don’t think you can read a page without stumbling across some sort of obscure reference – the more I read, the more of them I catch and the more I marvel at his brilliance.

            In the three and a half books I've written, I've snuck in everything from Monty Python and Princess Bride quotes to references from Tolkien, Pratchett, Shakespeare and Dr Who (which I've only been watching for about a week) to internet memes. The more I write, the more ways I discover to sneakily hide references.

            I started thinking about these references (obviously, or else I wouldn't be talking about them) after coming across a reference to the lyrics of a Bon Jovi song in the book I'm currently reading (Vortex). I started to wonder why we hide these little tidbits in our books. I mean, obviously it’s fun, and it makes us feel special when someone likes our books enough to go digging through in search of everything we hid inside, but those couldn't be the only reasons.

            Then I realised that it’s our way of giving credit. In this day and age, there is virtually no originality. Not because we artists aren't as imaginative as we used to be, but simply because there is so much that has come before us. When I first read Eragon (a book written by someone close to my own age) I knew right away, without a doubt, that Christpher Paolini was a fan of Anne McCaffrey and Ursula K Le Guin. Whether it is intentional or not, authors will always have traces of whatever inspired them in their work. So, by sneaking our little references in, we are tipping our hats to those who inspired us and making ourselves feel better about using the turn of phrase that, strictly speaking, we didn't come up with.

            Since I mentioned the lack of originality in the world, I think I should elaborate on what I mean by that, as well as making it clear that it’s not a bad thing. We humans love to measure things and, while many would argue that art can’t be measured, we have managed to analyse books and say with certainty that there are only somewhere between 1 and 36 plotlines that exist in the world (the number depends on the system you are using to define the plots). If you look at the thousands of books, movies, video games and anything else requiring a plot that’s out there (like life), it’s obvious that these get used over and over again. How do we not notice?

            Well, the reason we don’t notice is because we (well, most of us) aren't watching for it. The art of telling a story isn't in creating a plot that no one has considered before; it’s in telling the story in a way that entertains people. It’s nice if this is a new way, and even better if you can keep people guessing, but the true purpose is to entertain. So, it doesn't matter that every story has already been told, because it can always be told in a different way!

            What about those people who analyse everything and complain about the lack of originality? That’s their own problem. If they want to decide that every story where the villain is the protagonist’s father is a Star Wars rip off, anything with a portal to another world is Narnia and anything with any type of institution that teaches magic is Harry Potter, then they are welcome to be disappointed about the lack of originality. They should, however, take a moment to read the history books to see how often events of reality repeat. They should also look to see if anyone else has commented on the lack of originality, lest their complaint is not their original thought.

            To finish off, I shall impersonate the Doctor and say, live long and prosper with the force. Alas, poor Yorik, he got caught playing riddles in the dark and was slain by Sephiroth before he could collect all the Deathly Hallows! Now, where did I leave my holy hand grenade...? Like a boss!

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Nostalgia

            What is it about the past that we find so enthralling? It doesn't matter if it was good or bad; something always draws our minds to the past and somehow, the past was always better than the present.

            Nostalgia is such a fascinating thing, not because it exists, but because it exists in so many people. While I’ll freely admit that there is a lot of merit to the saying “They don’t make things like they used to” (don’t get me started on built-in obsolescence), was the past really better than the present?

            When I think back to when I was a child, I wonder at how easily I was entertained and how much fun I had with simple things. Swimming is a perfect example. My parents have numerous pictures of me swimming and having a grand old time. I remember having a blast pretending to be a dolphin or just paddling around. Now, however, I don’t see a point in swimming. There’s no purpose to it and, because of that, I no longer have fun.

            So, is swimming less fun now than it was when I was a kid? I find that doubtful. Swimming is an activity, it cannot change – but I can.

            What is it, then, that changes us as we grow older that makes us enjoy life less, or at least think we do? Is it growing up? Gaining more responsibility? Having greater knowledge?

            If I had to choose one, I would have to go with knowledge, because growing up is optional and in order to have responsibility you have to accept it. Knowledge is the one thing that is irreversible – once we have it, there’s no going back (well, at least not while you still have a healthy mind).

            Knowledge is important to our way of life and it’s supposed to be a good thing. So why does it seem like the more knowledge we have, the less we can enjoy life? I think it’s because we over-think things. We spend our time worrying about what other people think of us, what we could have done in the past to make the present better, when the next terrorist attack will come and what we can do to get a raise. Then we look back at our childhood selves and think, “Gee... I had it made back then.”

            The funny thing is that life isn't all that different now than it was back then. We just know more, which means we have to sift through a lot more before we can arrive at what we enjoy – or we don’t enjoy things because we don’t understand why we enjoy them.

            Instead of looking back at how great the past was, I think we should take all this knowledge we've accumulated and, rather than allowing it to make us think life is worse, use it to find ways of enjoying life more. We’ll never enjoy life the way we did when we were children – we have too much knowledge for that – but we can enjoy life differently. Not more, not less, but differently.

            Either that or we should accept that ignorance is bliss and go live in the trees like every kid wants to. After all, kids have it made.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Understanding Phobias

            I have often felt that most people don’t understand the term “phobia”. The general meaning is understood – a phobia is a fear. But, if it’s a fear, why not just say “fear” instead of “phobia”?

            The reason is that a phobia is much more than a fear – it is a type of anxiety disorder. Depending on the severity of the phobias, they can be very debilitating. As someone who suffers from a number of them, I would know. That being said, the information I can give you is based off of my own experiences and may or may not reflect those of other people, but in the very least it can give you an idea of what having a phobia is like.

            The very worst part of having a phobia is knowing that it exists, because they are generally irrational fears. With a normal irrational fear, someone can use logic and explain to you how it is irrational and that helps you overcome the fear, but with a phobia, all it can do is make you aware that your response is entirely involuntary. There’s nothing worse than knowing that you can’t control your reaction to something you know you shouldn't be afraid of.

            Perhaps the best way to demonstrate this is with an example. One of my phobias that I discovered when I was a teenager was a fear of heights. But not all heights, no, just a certain type. I could easily jump down from a ten foot balcony or have LARP sword fights with my friends on the angled (and usually slippery) pavilion roofs at the park, but to get up to that roof I had to walk across the narrow sides of two-by-fours which I discovered I could only do if I was holding on to something.

            Now, I know, that seems perfectly logical and is an intelligent safety precaution, which is true, but what struck me was that I actually couldn't move if I wasn't holding on to something. I have an excellent sense of balance and I had every confidence that I could even run across those two-by-fours without falling, but my body refused to move.

            Logic told me I would be safe; I had the confidence and the skill, but I still couldn't do it. This is the difference between a phobia and a fear. Here is a picture of the closest I ever got to defeating that phobia:

            It was taken as part of a series of pictures where I was having LARP dagger fights with my best friend everywhere. Of all the pictures, this was the only one that was posed (including one where we were fighting while standing on either end of a teeter-totter) because I couldn't stay standing up long enough to fight.

            I shouldn't say that logic is entirely useless in regards to phobias. It is wonderful for making them worse. There is one very common mistake that people make when trying to help someone with a phobia, and that is to give them logic. “Why are you afraid of X? Don’t you know that Y, which you have no problem with, has far more bacteria?” To which my response is, “Gee, thanks, now my phobia won’t let me touch X or Y!”

            In fact, being a logical person and having a phobia is probably the worst combination there is. One of my worst phobias is raw meat. Somewhere along the lines, I picked up that raw meat carried all kinds of bad... something. I don’t even know what it is that I'm afraid of, but I know I can’t touch raw meat. Or anything that raw meat touches. Or that that touches. It’s like there’s a force-field.

            Colleen and I went to the local Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago and we bought a couple pounds of bacon. It was nearly a traumatising experience for me and worse for Colleen once I pointed out to her what had happened (she makes every possible effort to not agitate my phobias. Isn't she wonderful?). The lady at the shop handled the bacon with her bare hands, which she then used to wrap the bacon before putting it on the counter. To clarify this in my phobia’s terminology, the bacon contaminated the lady’s hands, which contaminated the paper that was now, by my expectation, supposed to be preventing the bacon from contaminating anything else.

Good job there.

            Moving on, Colleen paid the woman, who took the money and gave change with the same contaminated hands. Taking the contaminated change, Colleen’s hands became contaminated, as did her wallet and everything in it when she put the money inside. Then, on the way home, Colleen brushed her hair out of her eyes with her contaminated hands...

            And that is how phobia logic works! It took every ounce of my self control and mental re-routing to stop my phobia from preventing me from handling money ever again (because I don’t know how much of it has been passed through hands that have handled raw meat). To be fair, that’s a pretty powerful phobia, but it should at least give you an idea what having one is like (if you don’t already have one).

            So, what can you do to help someone with a phobia if logic doesn't work? The best suggestion I have is to leave them to take care of themselves and to respect that their fears are rooted so deeply that it is more than a fear – it is an involuntary, often paralysing, reaction. People who know they have phobias know what precautions to take to prevent them from being too problematic (such as marrying a wonderful person who’s willing to eliminate all those spiders that want to kill them). In my experience, all you can do by trying to make the phobias go away is to make them worse.

            I hope this has helped you to understand phobias a bit better and that, if you have phobias, it hasn't made them worse.

            To that one despicable person out there who just opened their wallet and started rubbing all their money on a raw steak, I hope that whatever it is that my phobia insists I’m afraid of gets you instead of me.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.