Moving With the Times

            Well, I think it’s finally happened. My brain has run dry of ideas for what to blog about, and I feel like I’ve been scraping the bottom of the barrel for a month or so. I mean, is that surprising after six years of weekly blogs? So, at this point, I can either start repeating myself (as I’ve tried very hard not to do), or I can cut back on the frequency of my blogs so I can deliver higher quality content. I mean, I could stop blogging altogether, but that just seems like quitting.

            So, I’m deciding to cut back on the frequency of my regular blogs. For now, I’ll shoot for every two weeks, but I may go down to once a month, depending on how it goes. If you want to see more from me, then please go ahead and send me suggestions as to what you want to see me ramble on about!

            The D&D stories will continue as usual, being updated as the games happen. Oh, yes, games plural! It’s only been one so far, but in this coming week a second game will be joining the first, and I’m going to try to keep a log of that one as well – so, if you enjoy such things, you have that to look forward to.

            To those of you who enjoy reading my weekly inane rambling, I do apologise for the decreased activity, however I hope this will mean an increase in the quality of my content. And, hey, as I said before – if you want to hear more from me, tell me what you’d like to hear my thoughts on! I don’t promise I’ll use every idea, but if it sparks my interest, you’re (almost) sure to get something interesting.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

Season's Greetings

            I could write some deep, philosophical blog, or perhaps some nonsensical banter. Perhaps a short review, or some lengthy discussion on D&D or some other game. I could dig up some anecdote from my past, or ramble on about the future, yet none of that seems apt for today.

            Today, regardless of who you are, or what your beliefs, I would like to wish you a happy holiday season. If you’re spending time with friends and family, I hope you get along and have a great time – and if you’re not, I hope it’s because you’re happier that way, or that you at least engage in some activity that makes you happy.

            It’s a time of year full of celebration, but also one where the weather or old memories cause a great deal of depression or sadness. If you are such a person to be afflicted by such things, I’d like to remind you (because it’s easy to forget) that not all times are bad, and this, too, shall pass. I wish you the most cheery time you can manage and hope that the hard times pass sooner rather than later.

            I hope you all have a wonderful midwinter feast and joyous times, be they from games with friends or some quality time with a good book. Be kind to yourself and to others – that goes for the whole year round, too.

            And greetings to you from Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon, Ginger, Nutmeg, Oregano, Parsley, and all the other seasonings.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

When Ghosts Come To Call

            Wooo woo woo wooo woo woo. Woooo wooOOOoooOoo woo woowoo woooo woo. WooOOOooo wooo wooooooo wOoOoooo woOOooo wooo. WoooOOOO woooOoOOooo woo wooo wooowOOwooo woo. Woowooowoo woo wooOOooowoo wooo woo wOO woo. Wooo woo woo?

            WoO woo, wooo woOooOo woo woo, woo wOooo woo wooo woooOOOOOooo wooo woo. Woo wooOOooo woo woo woowoowOOoowoo woo wooo woo. Woo woo wOOO wOOoooOOoo wooo woo. Wooo woo woo, woooOOoo woo wooo woo wooOOOOoooo woo woo.

            Woo woo wOOwoo wooo, woo woooo wooo wOoo wooo woo woo woo. WOoo woooOoo woooOo woo woo wOOooOoo woo woo. Woo! Woo wooo woooOoooOOOwooo wooo woo woowooo wooowoOo woo woo – woo woowoo woo woo.

            Woo woooOooooo, wooo wooowoo woo woo woo. Woo woooo woo woo, woo wOOOoo woo woo wooo. WoooOOOooooOOOoooOOoOo wooo woo. WooO woOOoo wooo woo, wooo woo wOO woOoo woo wOOoowoo woo!

-Guest blog by I.M.A. Ghost

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

Long Day, Short Blog

Sometimes blogs are rather long,

Sometimes they’re short and sweet.

Some of them are quite profound,

While others have no meat.

The topics range from this to that,

Some neat, some strange, some dull,

But if you come here every week,

There’s something from my skull.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

Kenku

            After staying up too late playing a D&D game my wife is running, I’m quite tired and having trouble coming up with something to blog about, so I’m gonna tell you a bit about the character I’m playing in this game. I apparently have a knack for making fairly unique characters, so you may hear about some others in the future.

            I try to build characters suited to the game I’m playing, and the unique situation surrounding this game forced me to be more creative than usual. You see, I originally wasn’t going to be playing in this game due to a scheduling conflict, and so I started off helping Colleen brainstorm and flesh out her ideas for the story. That meant that when the situation changed and I was invited to be a player, I already knew far too much.

            Now, this in and of itself isn’t too much of a problem. I could simply pretend that I had no idea what was going on – but that makes it complicated when it comes to having my character help figure out mysteries and such. If a situation arrived where I knew what was happening, I’d have to carefully navigate around the treacherous waters of guessing what I would figure out without my prior knowledge. It would be better, I thought, to have a character that was generally unable to help with such matter. And so I set to work.

            At first, I considered simply having a stupid character, but instead I landed upon the idea of playing a kenku. A kenku is a race of humanoid crows that were cursed long ago, having their wings removed, the “spark of creativity torn from their souls”, and, most importantly, their ability to speak removed – they can mimic sounds they hear, like a bird, but they have no ability to actually speak. For someone who knew too much about the plot of the game, it was perfect.

            And so I put together my kenku rogue whose name was the sound of a bird’s wings fluttering. He was a strange creature raised in a life of crime, situated perfectly for being dragged into any adventurous situation. And then the fun began.

            Because of the kenku’s ability to mimic sounds he heard, I began listening to the other players very carefully. Any time they said a sentence I felt might be useful in the future, I wrote it down in a way that would indicate the inflection – with a note of who said it. With these carefully selected phrases, I began my rudimentary form of communication.

            At first the other characters were somewhat confused at hearing their own words mimicked back to them, and a little annoyed, but the strange bird-man proved useful in battle (even if he did have a tendency to steal eyeballs) and he kept following them around. Eventually they were able to figure out that he could actually understand them and think for himself, and even that the strange fluttering-wings sound was the name he was calling himself.

            However, lacking the ability to mimic the sound, the more “normal” characters decided to give him a name they could pronounce. Thus he was fully accepted into the group with his new name: Rustle Crow.

Check out my YouTube channel where I tell the stories of my D&D campaigns.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

Bountiful Harvest

            Normally it’s a challenge for me to figure out what I want to blog about, but this week I kinda have the opposite problem. I want to write about garlic, but I don’t know what to say about it.

            Why garlic, you ask? Well, because over the past week or two I was helping to harvest garlic and hang it to dry. You see, a couple years ago, my mother-in-law decided she wanted to try her hand at growing garlic. So she did her research, prepared her fields, obtained a few different varieties of garlic, and planted them. Last year produced her first harvest, and we got to taste-test the fresh garlic (my favourite part).

            Since everything turned out well, she planted more – much more. Thousands! Needless to say, I was rather excited about this. I’ve managed to dull my tastebuds to a point where the garlic flavor has to be very strong for me to notice it, and that should give you an idea about how much I like garlic. Who am I to object to such a large supply of garlic so close to hand? Sure, most of it is intended to be sold, but after all someone has to help with quality control.

            Of course, with so much more planted, help was needed to harvest the garlic fast enough. So, along with most of the family, I chipped in to help picking, bundling, and hanging the garlic to dry. And with testing the garlic, of course.

            A brief tangent (it’ll come back to the point, I promise), this year I’ve started teaching myself to draw – something I loved doing when I was a child, but that I gave up on before my age even had more than one digit. Up until now, my drawing has been... well, just take a look at the pictures in this ancient blogof mine. However, since January 22^nd this year, I’ve been drawing every day and, as a result, slowly improving. Much of that drawing has been following tutorials or copying out of instructional books, but on the day the garlic harvest was completed, I decided to arrange and draw some of the freshly picked garlic. I was so happy with the results that I’m even willing to share the picture with you!

            Hey, look! I figured out what to say about the garlic after all. But I think this must be where I end, because there’s not much else to say about garlic. Except that it’s delicious. And good for you. And it keeps vampires away. So you should eat lots of it, especially if you’re buying it from my mother-in-law.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

End of the World

            I’m not going to write a blog this week because Cthulhu destroyed the world yesterday.

            ... Okay, fine, I’ll write one, but only because the previous sentence needs some explanation (we don’t want another War of the Worlds incident, after all).

Yesterday, Colleen, some friends, and I were playing an excellent board game called Eldritch Horror. Someone who is not a fan of the horror genre (such as me) might think that a game with that title might not be their cup of tea, but they are quite likely wrong. It is one of the best board games I’ve ever played.

            The game is set just after the First World War, and the players are a co-operative team traveling around the world trying to save the world from H.P. Lovecraft type monsters. They travel to cities, collecting items and spells while trying to close portals to other dimensions and fighting the monsters that keep coming in through those portals. All the while more portals keep opening, bad things keep happening across the world, and the doom counter keeps going down. If the doom counter reaches zero, a cataclysmic event happens (which is different each game, depending on the Great Old One who is trying to break through). The only way to prevent the cataclysmic event is to solve three “mysteries” which allow the players to save the world.

            In this instance, we were going up against Cthulhu. And, as you may have guessed, out doom counter reached zero.

            We put up a valiant fight, though! In fact, we were so close to winning, it was a heartbreaking loss. We solved the third and final clue on the exact same turn that our doom counter reached zero, releasing Cthulhu into the world. If the order in which event occurred had differed just a little... but they didn’t.

            Surprisingly, this is actually what I like so much about the game – it is a challenge. At any moment in the game, your team is on the brink of failure. It makes the game exciting, and forces you to be both careful and reckless at the same time. My character actually went insane close to the end (putting that investigator out of the game and making me bring in a new one), but even as I went down I saved two others from the same fate as a last hurrah. It was glorious.

            If you ever get the chance, I highly advise trying out Eldritch Horror. Who knows? You may win. Or Cthulhu could destroy the world, giving you a perfect excuse to not write your weekly blog.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her website.


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.

No Title

            Apparently my brain is mush today, so I’m just going to start typing and see what happens. I haven’t even left writing my blog as late as I usually do. It must have to do with being so social lately – it’s amazing how tired that makes me.

            So, let’s see. How do we do this? Words. We need words. Not just individual words, but strings of words forming some semblance of coherent meaning. Put them onto the page by pushing these little buttons. It’s quite a brilliant system, really. Much better than that staining of paper with ink or graphite thing. Neater, at any rate. And far more efficient than carving or painting rocks.

            It’s kind of symbolic, really. Words, sentences, paragraphs and such. Books are made out of loads of paragraphs, which are a bunch of sentences, each made of many words, which in turn are made out of several letters. Every big thing mage out of smaller things which are made from even smaller things. Just like everything in the universe.

            Galaxies. Solar systems. Planets. Countries. Cities. Communities. Families. People. Atoms. Molecules.

            Everything is put together from smaller things, working together to make a whole. Fascinating.

            There, I seem to have done it. Words on the page. Now I just need a title. Or do I?

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


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.

Oh, Nothing

            Today I can think of nothing to blog about, so I’ve decided to write about nothing. Nothing has become a favorite topic of mine, ever since a friend introduced me to the topic in highschool.

            To put it simply, nothing cannot exist. The word ‘nothing’ refers to the absence of everything, meaning that there is nothing there. However, being able to define that absentness as ‘nothing’ means that it really is something. It is, in fact, nothing.

            By calling ‘nothing’ nothing, we turn the nothingness into a thing. We define it as something defined by the lack of things. Unfortunately, this means that nothing is, in fact, a thing – albeit a rather abstract one. By definition, nothing is not a thing, yet by calling it nothing, it becomes a thing and is therefore no longer nothing.

            Therein lies the paradox of nothingness. It can only be nothing so long as we do not call it nothing, for as soon as we do it becomes something and can no longer be called nothing.

            So, nothing does not exist. But here is where it gets tricky. There is the distinct existence of nothingness that we can no longer define as nothing. Take space, for example. It’s a vacuum; there’s nothing there. No matter, no particles, nothing. However, calling it nothing is fallacious, because by defining it at all we are acknowledging that it exists, making it the opposite of nothing.

            This means that in order to even acknowledge that something is, in fact, nothing, we must pretend that it doesn’t exist. Because, you know, it doesn’t. It would, therefore, be wrong to call it something (even nothing), since giving it a label means that it exists.

            So, every time you encounter something that you suspect might be nothing, the best way to handle it is to give it the silent treatment. Pretend it doesn’t exist. It isn’t rude because it most likely doesn’t.

            Ah, I could talk about nothing all day. Anyone interested in spending a day in my head?

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


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.

Who Are You?

            As I sit here writing my 200^th blog, I can’t help but wonder – who are you? (It helps if you picture me pressing my nose up against my computer monitor, peering into it.) Yes, you, on the other side of this screen, reading these words that I’ve typed.

            Since starting this blog in 2013, it has had almost 10,000 hits. That’s around 50 visits per weekly post – not much, in the grand scheme of things, but pretty awesome considering how little effort I put into finding new readers.

            Now, I know who some of you are. Some are family and I know of a handful of friends who regularly come to read the latest thing that has spilled out of my head. That accounts for five to eight of those visits. There are a handful of others who visit when the link I share on Facebook catches their eye – I’m quite surprised by some of the people who have liked the links; people who I never would have thought would drop by my blog.

            That still accounts for less than half the visits. So, who are you, out there in the ether(net cables)? What is it that draws you to this place where I ramble about who-knows-what?

            Who are you?

            Well, whoever you are, thank you for dropping by. If you didn’t keep coming to read, I wouldn’t keep rambling – then I never would have reached 200 posts. Wouldn’t that be a shame?

Also, happy Halloween!

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


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.

Green Door Life Coaching

            Today I must tell you about my wife, Colleen’s, latest enterprise. After months of training, she is launching Green Door Life Coaching, her very own life coaching practice! Isn’t that awesome?

            What is life coaching, I hear you ask? Well, let me learn you a thing. A life coach is someone you can go to if you’re feeling like your life just isn’t up to snuff. Unhappy with something in your life? Can’t keep on top of your chores around the house? Are you always late? A life coach can help you with all of that and more.

            That’s just the best way I have to describe it – life coaching is actually very hard to explain. That’s why many coaches – Colleen included – offer a free coaching session. That way you can learn exactly what coaching is about, what to expect, how it can help you, and if this particular coach is a match for you.

            Now, this might seem a bit like an advertisement – and in a way, it is. Starting a new business is hard, and the hardest part is getting noticed. This is a shout-out to all you wonderful people who read my blog, asking you to check out Colleen’swebsite and, if you can think of anyone who could benefit from her services, point them in her direction.

            Her training specialised in ADHD and the people she’s aiming to help the most are geek, but she’s far from limited to them. I don’t think there’s anyone she couldn’t help – provided they want said help. Life coaching really is that awesome.

            Oh, and you should check out her blog, too. I’m particularly fond of her series on why youwant people with ADHD on your zombie apocalypse team.

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

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


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.

Three Years of Blogging!

            Three years of weekly blogs! Wow, and to think I even said from the start that I might have to cut down to less frequent posts. I’ve considered it numerous times, but for some reason I just keep puttering on and finding something to blog about. Of Dice and Glen has helped a lot, taking the pressure off one week of the month. Perhaps I should designate another monthly post as something, like book reviews... I’m not sure I can get my hands on enough books for that, though.

            Anyway, it’s been a good three years here in the blogosphere. Sure, I’ve had some off weeks, but who doesn’t? I’ve covered everything from running a small business to philosophy – I even sneak a peek at world events sometimes. Hmmm, no sports though... unless LARPing counts. I’m gonna say it does, since that’s the closest I’m likely to get.

            So, here’s to 2016 and another year of fantastic (well, at least some of the time) blogs! Happy New Year, everyone. I think this’ll be a good one.

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.

Supply and Demand

            Today’s blog starts, as many of them do, with me thinking about things. In this case, supply and demand; how it’s supposed to work compared to how it has come to work.

            First, how it’s supposed to work. It’s all in the name: supply and demand. Supply is how much of something is available and demand is how many people want said something. Say, for example, a farmer in a market has ten apples to sell. If there are only five people who want apples, the farmer lowers the price to make the apples more desirable to purchase. On the other hand, if there are fifteen people who want apples, the farmer raises the price – this way, the people who don’t want the apples very much are dissuaded, the people who still want apples get them, and thee farmer makes more money for his work.

            It is a good system and makes a lot of sense. Sure, the farmer loses out a bit when lowering the price on the apples, but none of the apples go to waste and he’ll probably make a little more money by selling all the apples at a lower price than he would selling a few at a higher one. And while the people who found the higher price on the apples disappointing, it will still have been their choice not to buy one, whereas if the farmer had run out they would be likely to be more upset.

            Since the industrial age, though, this had been skewed. Just about anything can be mass-produced these days, and for a fraction of the cost. Theoretically, that means everything should be cheaper, yet the opposite is true.

            If something looks to be popular, it gets mass-produced. Far more of the item gets manufactured than could possibly be needed, just to make sure more than enough is available wherever it could be wanted. Then all the items are priced to cover the additional cost, along with a healthy profit margin, because if people want something enough, they will pay for it.

            The result is that there are many being sold for several times what they are really worth and there are still a lot left behind as waste.

            So, instead of market prices being controlled by supply and demand, they are now controlled by people seeing how much they can get and generating tons of waste.

            It seems to me that by doing better market research (and with less greed), a lot more could be provided to more people for lower costs, for everything from food to entertainment systems to vehicles.

            We have all the resources and skills to make the whole world run smoothly. Why haven’t we done it?

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.

My Life and Times of D&D

            When I first started playing Dungeons and Dragons, it was with edition 3.5 (okay, that’s not entirely true, technically my friend and I invented our own version before that, but I don’t think that counts). At the time, I didn't really understand the mechanics of the game since I was being taught on the fly, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it. Because of the sporadic nature of our playing, though, I never really took the time to learn that version of the game, as much as I enjoyed it.

            Years and years later, I started playing 4^th edition D&D with my wife and a couple of friends. I was the only experienced player (except for the friend running the game), so to make sure I could best help my allies learn, I read the Player’s Handbook cover-to-cover.

            I now had an understanding of the game far greater than I could imagine. We played and had a lot of fun, but it didn't last very long because the friend running the game got very sick.

            The next time I played, it was with my family. This time, my wife was the only experienced player, as I was the Dungeon Master running the game. At this point, I’d still only read the Player’s Handbook (I didn't want to invest in the other two main source books until I knew we were going to keep playing) and the adventure I was running was modified from a free one online.

            I did end up getting the other books – The Monster Manuel and the Dungeon Master’s Guide – and I also read those cover-to-cover. Now I understood the game extremely well and my imagination danced with the possibilities of what I could do. Ironically, my family have never played again after that, largely due to how busy everyone has become.

            I did, however, start playing much later with my wife and sister-in-law (and occasionally her boyfriend). Through running a game with my new knowledge, I started to master my Dungeon Master skills.

            Then, over the course of last year, 5^th edition D&D was released. Extremely out of character for me, I bought each of the three core books as they came out. When I read these, my jaw dropped. In essence, it was the same game, but these books contained so much more.

            The 4^th edition of the game has received a lot of criticism – so much so that it almost killed the brand. It was extremely rules-based, designed so that every player would be completely balanced with all the others; no one would be powerful than anyone else. The rules also focused almost entirely on the combat side of the game, which isn't good for a role playing game where the goal is group storytelling. Not really knowing any better, I hadn't seen a problem with it.

            But then, 5^th edition. It went way beyond the mechanics of the game. It went in-depth into character development, world building and even plot structure that I would advise any writer (especially of fantasy) to pick up the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide just to learn all they have to teach.

            More than that, simply reading the book made me desperately want to play the game. Normally when playing games I have particular classes I want to play (usually rogues or other stealthy roles), but this game made me want to play everything. It made me sad, because I knew that, as a Dungeon Master, I was unlikely to ever get to play as a character again.

            I did come up with a solution to that, though. My wife and I have started an experimental game where we’re running the game cooperatively and both playing characters. In addition, we’re using Minecraft to make our maps for playing on/in. So far, it’s working out quite well! In fact, we’re writing it all down, so I may end up sharing the interesting story with you in episodes as the adventure unfolds.

            In conclusion, Dungeons and Dragons is fun for friends and family, 5^th edition is amazing, and people learning to write should read those books. This blog was in no way endorsed by Wizards of the Coast. Thanks for reading.

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.

Fickle Crowds

Today I shall impart to you a pet peeve of a scenario I feel appears far too often in stories – be it books, movies or, as was the case with what inspired this post, video games.

            The scenario of which I speak is the one where the hero of our story has a secret that becomes public knowledge and, suddenly, everyone turns against them. Even their closest friends. This happens all the time and I find it to be completely unrealistic.

            Admittedly, it is a good ploy for garnering sympathy for the character and making their situation more desperate, but when it comes down to it, people aren't that fickle. If you were to take a sampling of the people in your life, you would always find at least a few who would stand by you no matter what your secret was. Some people would be driven away, some might think a little less of you, but there is no way everyone would turn against you.

            There are times when this technique does work, but it always involves the character not knowing anyone particularly well – because the better you know someone, the more likely you are to accept their flaws. I suppose if the character was disliked by everyone in the first place it might work, too.

            The specific situation in the game, Arc the Lad (an otherwise fantastic game), has a character who was raised in a small town where everyone knows everyone extremely well. More than that, he was the most popular person in town. Yet, the moment they find out he’s only half human, they turn on him and run him out of town. All I could think was “I know what my blog will be about today”.

            Now, I may be mistaken, but I find that when people know each other well and then a secret comes out, the judgement of the person will be heavily weighted towards their past actions. In the very worst case scenario, the closest friends will find out the truth before making a decision. Mob mentality is strong, but not that strong.

            Perhaps I'm just an idealist who takes laid-back approach to everything. I can’t believe enough people are that fickle. There will always be at least one friend left.

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.

Last Blog of the Year

            And so, another year passes, as they do. They just keep flying by, don’t they? It was a decent year, as years go.

            Business went well for Ringcrafts, although we’re currently pouring time into improving it more – we've realized we’re spending too high a percentage of our income on materials and booking shows, so we’re looking to streamline everything. Unfortunately, this probably means our prices will be going up throughout the year (although we still have a lot of numbers to crunch before we know for sure).

            On the writing front, while I didn't get published this year, I got something nearly as valuable – actual feedback from a number of agents. This means that I'm getting to understand the query process well enough to get my foot in the door. The downside is that I learned my first book straddles the middle grade and young adult target audiences and, as such, is unlikely to be picked up in the publishing industry (which wants everything to fit neatly into a category).

            Since I did the silly thing that writers aren't supposed to do and wrote a full trilogy as my first books, this means I can’t query for any of my first three books until I rewrite the first one so that it’ll appeal to publishers. On the bright side, my fourth book is ready for querying in the new year and I have very high hopes for it. Meanwhile, my fifth book is nearing completion – although I'm cutting it awfully close on the book a year thing.

            I could summarize the rest of the year, but if you’re interested, all you have to do is read the previous blog posts. So, I’ll finish by wishing you all a happy New Year. I hope it brings much joy and chocolate. I mean happiness.

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.

Deathstar the Christmas Tree

            Today I shall share with you the story of our first Christmas tree, since 'tis the season.

            For those of you who've follow this blog, you’ll know that over the spring and summer, Colleen and I were involved in some extensive renovations to convert her parents’ house into two separate units – one for us and one for them. I don’t think I mentioned it before, but we actually did move over the summer as well.

            Anyway, Colleen went out hunting Christmas trees with her family, only looking for one for them since we don’t really have space for one. However, while they were out, they came across what can only be described as a spherical tree and Colleen fell in love with it. So, they grabbed it as well as their own tree.

            As it turned out, this particular tree had been targeted by an insect that specifically eats the tops (and only the tops) of evergreen trees. Since the tree was a write-off anyway, it was given for free (with thanks for saving them the work of getting rid of it themselves).

            The tree was promptly brought home and suspended from the ceiling – yes, that’s right, it’s hanging from the ceiling – with a container for water attached to its stump. Today, we finally got it decorated with our combination of traditional and geeky decorations.

            So, without further ado, I give you the first Christmas tree of our own Colleen and I have had – Deathstar, the spherical Christmas tree. It’s a shame that no future tree is likely to compare.

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.

100th Blog!

            Do you know what this is? It’s my 100^th blog post! Wow, where has the time gone? It feels like it was only yesterday when I started writing this thing.

            When I started blogging, I had no idea how long I’d be able to keep it up. I expected that I’d have to eventually cut down from once a week to once a month. I mean, I don’t have all that much to talk about. I don’t go out much, except to sell chainmaille, and I don’t do much at home other than make chainmaille, watch movies, read, write, and play video games.

            On top of that, I actively avoid the news and other world issues because I can’t do anything to change the world’s problems and knowing about them only depresses me. So, how have I managed to find so many things to talk about?

            I guess that’s part of being an author. There are just so many ideas bouncing around in my head that they find ways of expressing themselves – even if they are only obscure thoughts and concepts being expressed circumspectly in anecdotes.

            With any luck, I’ll continue to be able to catch those elusive, bouncy ideas and continue to share them for another hundred blogs. If not, I’ll just need to make up more milestones to comment upon.

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.

Software Relationships

            This morning Colleen came to me with a brilliant metaphor, so I told her to write it down because it would be perfect for this week’s blog. Besides, it’s been far too long since we heard from her. So, without further ado, I give you my wife.

At the risk of creating another one of those ideas that begins "Life is like a ham sandwich..." it came to me that relationships are like software.

At first, when you download your packet, you're so amazed and excited by all the new features. You enjoy it in all its shiny, brand new aspects and for a little while it's the epitome of perfection.

However, every program has its bugs. Eventually you discover one, then another and before you know it you are wondering if it was worth it downloading and installing the program in the first place.

Then you're faced with a choice: uninstall and try and find another program with fewer problems, or deal with the issues as you can. Because if you're creative and determined, most problems have fixes if you persevere.

Though not everything can be dealt with. You will always have those glitches, those odd little bumps and twists life is prone too. Because nothing is perfect, because humans are not perfect.

Some people download, then uninstall perpetually, ever searching for the perfect program to fit their needs. Always seeking the new or the different, convinced it is the program's responsibility to form to their needs, without effort and without thought on their part.

Others, those lucky few, discover a program early in life, decide it is just good enough to work hard at the remaining glitches, and live happily, understanding that inherent imperfection that humanity – and therefore software – is prone to.

            There you have it – life is like a ham sandwich, relationships are like software programs and, without further ado, I'm taking my wife back, because when I said I was giving her to you what I meant I was lending her to you.

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.

Revisiting

            Well, I've done it again. Surprise, surprise, I've left writing my blog too late and I can’t come up with any ideas for what to say this week. Possibly because I didn't even notice that a whole week had passed. The trouble is, this time I've run out of clever ideas for filling the empty space.

            I mean, I've already blogged about blogging, written blogs that didn't exist and simply saidsomething profound. What else is left?

            Revisiting them, I guess.

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.