Introvert Surprise Party

            As a reclusive introvert, I’ve never seen the appeal of surprise parties. Colleen, on the other hand, has always wanted one – although, like me, she isn’t really much of a party person. So, I came up with a clever solution. It does require some lucky circumstances for it to play out properly, but here it is: My instructions on how to throw an introverted surprise party.

1.      1. Do not plan a party. Parties are terribly dull things.

2.      2. Wait for the party’s recipient to make social plans with the type of friends they would want invited to a party. It can be just a simple get-together, or perhaps plans for some form of activity (such as playing Dungeons & Dragons).

3.      3. Find a good time, such as the night before the get-together, to sneakily by a cake. Hide it somewhere where it won’t be found before the not-a-party. Leaving it in a car is a good option, if possible – especially if you can conveniently leave something else in the car that will give you a good excuse to go out and get the cake.

4.      4. On the day of the party, wait for the appropriate time to reveal that this is, in fact, a party. To do this, you will require the cake. It may be beneficial to move the cake to an indoors hiding place, as candles don’t necessarily fare that well outside.

5.      5. Sneak to the cake’s hiding place, insert and light candles, then quietly approach the gathering of people from a direction that the attendees will spot you before the party’s recipient does.

6.      6. Wait patiently for the guests to notice you’re holding a flaming cake in plain view.

7.      7. Join in the singing when the guests inevitably start.

8.      8. Surprise!

9.      9. Continue on with the get-together plans as if nothing were different – except now there’s cake. After all, why spoil perfectly good plans by changing them?

And, thus, you have created a perfect, introverted surprise party so thoroughly that no one except you even knew it was a party. Pretty surprising, right?

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.

Introvert Vacation

            It’s been a very long time since my last vacation – three years, I think. Well, I guess now the counter is down to one day, since Colleen and I just got back from a lovely two-week vacation (you didn’t even notice I was gone, did you?) up in Collingwood, Ontario.

            We stayed at a place called Georgian Manor, about a ten minute walk (if you don’t mind crossing a busy road) from Georgian Bay in one direction and the Georgian Trail in the other. It didn’t take long for me to suspect that there was a theme for naming things in the region.

            Now, some people, when they go on vacation, go looking for a place with resorts, theme parks, and loads of things to do. For this vacation, though, Colleen and I were looking for a nice, quiet, relaxing time that would be perfect for a couple of introverts like us. Instead of looking for things to go out and do, we brought along a bunch of books, movies, crafts, and games. It was wonderful – we got to work on a lot of projects that we never seemed to have time for at home.

            We weren’t entirely reclusive, either. Every day we managed to get out for a walk – most of the time the weather was good for it. Sometimes we drove to one of the parks by Georgian Bay, were there were plenty of pokestops so we could play Pokemon Go as we walked (and we met up with some local friends one day), and other days we walked to the Georgian Trail – a complicated procedure, because the trail that led to it was quite waterlogged. Luckily someone had provided stepping stones and planks for the most impassable areas, but even so we had to turn back a couple of times after it had rained.

            The first morning though, after we had awoken early almost early enough to watch the sunrise (some hours early than we were used to waking up – but, oddly, the early rising persisted throughout the vacation), we walked to the park closest to where we were staying. We only walked there once, because we needed to cross a busy road to get there, but that morning we were up early enough that there was almost no traffic.

            It was a pretty little park, and we never even would have found it if it hadn’t been for the pokestop that led us there. It had a fantastic view out over the Georgian Bay, of which we took a few pictures.

            Being who we are, the vacation wasn’t entirely work free, of course. I had brought along a commissioned scalemaille shirt to work on as one of my crafts. This turned out to be quite fortunate, as the person who the shirt was for had family in Collingwood, and leaving it with them would save us six hours of driving to deliver it normally. That put a little pressure on to get it done before we left, resulting in a blister on the palm of my hand (and a nasty pliers-stab on my thumb), but I think it was worth it.

            There’s not much else to tell. A chorus of frogs sang us to sleep each night. Overall, it was quiet, fun, and relaxing – exactly what a vacation should be.

To finish off, here are some pictures of the wildlife that frequently visited us, right outside our back door.

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.

Strange Gatherings

            One of the most fascinating things to me is how quickly complete strangers can bond over common interests. This could partially be because I, as an extremely introverted person, tend to prefer staying home and avoiding as much social interaction as possible. The idea is somewhat alien to me that people actually seek out social situations. That said, I do occasionally emerge from under my rock to mingle with the living.

            Last Thursday was one such occasion. The vast excitement over Pokemon Go had bred whole new social circles. There are now Facebook groups focused on helping each of the three in-game teams co-ordinate their catching and gym battling efforts within their city, as well as sharing their latest victories.

            On my team’s local group (team Mystic), the idea came up to throw a PokeParty at one of the local parks – just to get together, meet each other, have a barbeque and maybe battle the nearby gym. Within a few weeks, the pavilion was rented and the event was organized. They even decided to open the even to the rival teams.

            So, Colleen and I thought, why not? We went down to the park with my sister-in-law to see what it would be like, catch some pokemon, and maybe meet some people if it couldn’t be avoided.

            Now, this was an all-day event, which was nice for making it available for people with many different schedules. The flip side was that the result was that, rather than a whole lot of people, there was a small amount of people there with the members changing throughout the day. As an introvert, I greatly approved of this.

            For most of the two hours we were there, there were seven of us there. We flipped between hanging out as a group while eating hamburgers and wandering between the nearby pokestop and gym. All of us got along astoundingly well – not surprising, since we were all team Mystic.

            Then the gym was claimed by some team Valor players. Through struggling back and forth for control of the gym and watching the nearby people, we were able to identify the three rivals who were, like us, wandering between the pokestop and gym. So, after we claimed the gym a filled it full of magikarp (Pokemon players will understand how hilarious this is), one of the party’s organizers approached the Valor players and invited them to join us for some hamburgers.

            So, the party grew – and, despite the playful trash talk (now mostly aimed at the not-present team Instinct players), we all got along wonderfully. While I wasn’t there for the rest of the event, I think it can be considered quite a success.

            It’s even more interesting, though, when you look at our current society. We’re told from childhood to beware of strangers. We avoid all contact with people we don’t know. It’s like we have this fear that anyone we don’t know is a horrible person, or someone we wouldn’t get along with.

            Yet, all it took was a single point of interest to bring together a group of people who would never have spoken to each other. Not only that, but that point of interest (and food) was enough to ignore that we were on rival teams and competing for control of a gym. There was reason (at least for extremely competitive people) to be antagonistic, but we were all friendly.

            It seems to me that all it takes for people to get along is one thing in common. I wonder how much better a place the world would be if people, when looking at others, looked at the similarities rather than the differences (and maybe shared some food).

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.

A Most Interesting Game

            So, a few years back I was in a restaurant with part of my wife’s extended family. At this point in time we hadn’t been dating very long, so I didn’t really know who anyone was. Across from me sat my wife’s uncle, a man with a bushy, black, grey-streaked beard and a brightly coloured beanie (yellow and red, if I remember correctly).

            Partway through the evening, after losing interest in the conversation of the rest of the table, this man (who I hadn’t spoken to at all, since I’m kinda the shy quiet type) gathered together two salt and two pepper shakers and put them in the center of the table. He then gave me this serious, considering look, and very deliberately moved one of the salt shakers on an angle to rest beside a pepper shaker.

            Not entirely certain what was going on, or what the intended rules for this game were, I decided to play along. After a moment of consideration, I moved a pepper shaker to make the pattern of all the shakers relatively symmetrical.

            My wife’s uncle made an impressed face, nodding, as if this was a very cunning move. Then he moved a salt shaker, and I followed up with a pepper shaker. This went on and on, for probably half an hour or more. We never said a word to each other. We just kept moving shakers, playing by whatever rules were implied by the other player’s actions and aiming for imaginary goals that we weren’t entirely certain of.

            The game came to an end when someone else at the table finally asked us what we were doing. Playing a game, we replied. What were the rules? Oh, we’re just making them up as we go along.

            The magic of the silent game was broken, there seemed no point in going on with it or restarting now that it had been defined. But to this day, this was the most unique – and I’d even say profound – way I’ve ever been introduced to someone. Strange as the experience was, it was incredible – and the memory of it will stay with me forever.

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.

Zombies, Run!

            One of the failings in my lifestyle is that I've always found exercise hard to come by. It wasn't a problem when I was in school because I rode my bike to school every day, year round (up hill both ways, in the snow wearing a t-shirt – no, really, that actually happened once). The problem for me came after I graduated and there was no more purpose for my exercise.

            Purpose is a big thing for me – I have a hard time going anything without it. My friends can attest to how hard it is to get me to “just hang out” and going somewhere just to visit and talk to someone it unfathomable to me (luckily my grandparents are understanding of this). As for exercise, going to the gym is to social for an insecure introvert like me and if I'm walking or biking, I need to be going somewhere and have a good reason for it. As for running, I’d better have something chasing me.

            I had a solution for a while with the Wii Fit. The goals it gave me helped me exercise every morning. Then my work hours went from a couple of evenings a week to four mornings a week and I didn't have time any more. When I quit that job to work with chainmaille and writing, I didn't have enough space where I lived. Now I have enough space, but said room with space is above my sister-in-law’s bedroom and as a person who hates making any sound I can’t bear the thought of stomping over her head every morning.

            Colleen recently found a solution in the form of an app called Zombies, Run! (I bet you were wondering what any of this had to do with the title, weren't you?) This is a phone application that tells the story of a zombie apocalypse – and you’re one of the characters in it. You play the role of a runner for a camp trying to survive all the zombies, with the important role of going out to fetch various supplies or information – which inevitably ends in running from zombies.

            Colleen never thought running was a viable form of exercise for her until she found this app – and its counterpart, which trains you from nothing to a 5k runner. She started on the training program and was surprised at how well she took to it. The clips of the story she was sharing with me caught my interest, so I decided to join her. Now we have a regular running routine and are getting closer to that 5k every day – and we’re amazed at how effective the training program is. Not only that, but we look forward to running so much that we’re disappointed on the days we aren't running.

            So it is that I've discovered that to get me to do anything, I simply need to find a way to turn it into a video game. I now have that “something chasing me” requirement for running filled – even if the zombies are only in my mind (and the app sound effects).

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.

Low Productivity with Results

            The downside of being a self-employed introvert is that I have almost complete control over my schedule. How is that a downside? Sometimes I just can’t be hard enough on myself.

            See, vacations are great and relaxing and all that, but, in other ways, they’re also quite tiring. For people as introverted as me, they’re downright exhausting – I mean, I get tired just thinking about leaving the house.

            So, this week, there isn't much for me to talk about. I got some work done, but not nearly as much as I should have. On the bright side, I finally finished this wonderful chainmaille shirt:

            It has 46 hours of work in it and would have been completed in 5 days if I hadn't needed to wait for more materials. I'm very proud of how it turned out, though – it has a tricky double-layered part over the shoulders and the stag’s head transfers from one layer to the next – a process made doubly difficult by the weave going in opposite directions on each layer.

            Beyond that, my wife and I also took my grandmother out to an appointment and had lunch with her. It was the first time we've seen her in several months and it was great to chat and catch up with her.

            So, even in a week of low productivity, the week wasn't a complete write-off. It’s still strange to think that we’re so introverted that having a vacation tires us out enough that we need time off to recover from it. Hopefully next week will be more productive and I’ll think of something more interesting to talk about.

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.

And so it Begins

            This weekend was spent behind the Ringcrafts table at Tri-Con, an anime, comics and gaming convention. Not only was this show the first one of the year for us, this was the first year for this particular show – and I must say, wow! What a great start. If this show was an indicator of how well we’re going to do at shows this year, my wife and I may find ourselves with more chainmaille to make than we can keep up with.

            For a first year show, Tri-Con drew in an enormous crowd. So much so that it will most likely become an annual event – especially with all the press that showed up! It was wonderful to see a small event getting so much attention. This articledescribes it perfectly (and happens to mention yours truly). I can’t wait to see how this event grows over the years and I look forward to a time when I can say I was there from the beginning.

            As always, the fun of a show is followed by exhaustion, and heralds the time to look towards the next events coming up – the most exciting of which is Toronto ComiCon in March, which we were just accepted as vendors for. This is a show so big that I'm expecting the dealer’s room to be packed shoulder-to-shoulder, which is terrifying from my side of the table. With all the ideas I have and extra stock I’ll need, I expect to be very busy for a while.

            My brain tells me that I should be writing more, but I'm too tired. It’s time to go sleep off the effects that large groups of people have on introverts.

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.

Introversion

            I’ve known since I learned the word that I was an introvert. Quiet, shy, reticent... if anyone who knows me were to try and describe me, one (if not all) of those words would be sure to come up – although customers who have met me while I was on the other side of a counter might argue.
            When I started taking drama in high school, I learned what I consider to be the best definition of introverts and extraverts. On the first day, we were going around the circle and introducing and sharing some information about ourselves. When it was my turn, the best piece of information I could think of was, “I’m an extreme introvert”.

            What I didn’t expect was that no one else in the class would know what an introvert was. So the teacher gave the following definition: At a party, both introverts and extraverts can have a great time – to a point where you can’t always tell them apart. When they leave the party, however, extraverts will be pumped with energy, maybe even ready for another party, while introverts will be completely exhausted and want nothing more than to go home and spend some time alone.

            After hearing that description, it confirmed for me that I was what I had said; an extreme introvert. I get exhausted just thinking of going to a party (consequently, I tend not to go).

            It really is as simple as that. An introvert is someone who needs to have some time alone to “recharge” their energy levels. They also tend to be people who spend a lot of time looking inwards, thinking and dreaming, which is why they come across as quiet and shy. Or antisocial, in extreme cases.

            That’s also why you’ll find that a lot of authors are introverts. When you live inside your head more than out in the world, your mind becomes full of ideas – eventually those ideas can be written down. There is also plenty of time to write them down during “recharging” times. With no one else around, there’s often nothing better to do.

            Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find a cave to hide in; my batteries need recharging.

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.

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.