Monthly Archives: December 2020

The End of 2020

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I have said for a long time that I don’t like the ‘wrap up’ posts or lists or resolutions whenever the calendar flips at the end of the year… and I have posted a similar sentiment for a number of years in a row. I guess this passes as my end of year wrap up that I hate to see everyone else do. Can’t escape it, might as well run with it.

Once again, I missed the date. This past Sunday was the 14th anniversary of my blog. It hasn’t always been hosted here, but it’s been going on all those years. It’s a challenge to think of it in those terms. I’ve been operating the Pretend Blog (and pretending I have followers / readers) for almost as long as I’ve had a daughter. I would like to think that my writing, style and commentary have advanced and gotten better over that time, but I’m not a great judge of that. I tend to believe most of the words I toss into salad are a struggle. Writing is work. Finding, selecting and using the exact right word(s) is a constant challenge to me. There are a lot of days when I really wish I were super prolific, I just can’t seem to figure that out. A few hundred words at a time seem to be my best level of output ~ just need to string some of those together and keep putting stories out into the world.

Also, artwork. I still do that too. I’ve put a couple of pieces out there this past year, including a contest entry or two. It was good to have some projects that pushed me to get better at particular parts of art that I enjoy. The contests pushed me to be willing to show off my art as well. I know that I was somewhere around 8th place in the one competition I entered. Maybe some day I’ll place higher. I’m going to keep doing various artistic projects. It’s part of who I am. Art is a thing I do.

Bob The Skull

Being a fan. Yes, I’m a fan. I have gotten back into watching various forms of science fiction and fantasy. My reading has picked back up too. I had been in a terrible slump for a long time. This year my Goodreads account popped up a little message that told me how many books I’d managed to finish during this calendar year. I was surprised at the number. It’s not 300+ (yes, I know people that read that much) but 39 is respectable. That’s just over three books a month on average. Hopefully I’ll keep finding good stuff to read over the next year and that number will stay up around there.

The totals

I expect that 2021 will bring big changes in the world. I stay away from the political and world news type things on here as much as I can. I tend to agree with the general opinion that 2020 has been a colossal dumpster fire, but that’s an opinion based on the difficulties of others. I have, very thankfully, avoided a lot of the effects that have made 2020 such a difficult year for so many. My day job field was deemed important enough to allow me to keep my job and keep getting paid this year. That wasn’t the case for everyone. My health (and the health of my family) has been shaky, but that’s nothing new. I admit it’s been a while since we’ve been impacted the way we were here at the end of this year, but we’re working on it. Not our first rodeo as the saying goes.

Will I make predictions about what’s going to happen in the coming year? No. If nothing else this year has taught everyone the folly of that. Will I make resolutions? Nope. Still keeping the resolution to never make a resolution again. Totally winning at that one. What I will say is this:

I hope you have a happy and healthy year (and more) to come. The changing of the calendar is a convenient marker for such things, but it shouldn’t be a limit. Start something on the 30th. Keep something rolling until February. Create. Do things. Be awesome, and help others to be awesome too.

Thanks for reading.

Magic Ink

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Ink & Sigil by Kevin Hearne

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I actually finished reading this a couple of weeks ago but haven’t gotten to the review part until just now. I’m glad I picked this book up and read it. Adding stories to the world built by the author in the Iron Druid series could have been really good or really bad.

This story, describing the world of magic as inhabited by those who can use alchemical ink combinations to create magic follows one of the members of this secret society. Al is a gifted worker of inks but struggles to pass on his lore as his apprentices keep dying in odd ways. Al sets out to discover what happened to his most recent apprentice and uncovers an entirely different mystery to solve along the way.

There were some nit-picks that some people might not have trouble with. I really didn’t want or need the primer on Scottish slang. The explanation of it felt like it got in the way. There’s a little bit of a feeling like you’re missing out if you haven’t read the Iron Druid stories. Al even has a section of the story that describes meeting the character from the other series. I suppose it’s difficult to get away from such a dominant character in the world building, but this was just a blip in the story to me. It may have had deeper meaning to those who have read more, but it was lost on me. I really liked the magical ink mixes, the curse(s) and the modern lives of fairies in our world. It was fun.

All in all, I really enjoyed the story. I’m glad I picked it up. I’ll be interested to see if there are more on the way.



View all my reviews

Merry Christmas

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It’s been a long, weird year. While I don’t think vilifying a year will change how things unfold in the coming months, I do understand it.

Take some time, celebrate if it’s your holiday, relax if it’s not. We’re still here and there are lots of wonderful / amazing things coming our way ~ we just have to get there.

Merry Christmas to all.

Mantra

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I am not a professional. I am not a professional. This is just a hobby.

I need to keep reminding myself of these things.

I have been working on a miniatures / craft / terrain project for a while now and it is consuming a significant amount of my time and creative energy. I went big right away. Really big. Doing all kinds of things that are well outside my known abilities and comfort zone. I have to remember that so many of the videos I see on line are, in fact, professional artists or crafters. They’ve got years of experience and they get paid to do what they do. There’s a reason they’ve got a new thing every week. There’s a reason they’ve got thousands and thousands of followers.

I am not them. I am forging ahead with my ONE project and when it is done I will move ahead with the next one. It’s a hobby. I CAN learn to be patient (and actually finish an entire project).

Here’s a sneak preview – the black skeleton of it all:

The black core…

Film Trepidation

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I have written in the past questioning the “we won” thought process of geekdom taking over the world. I am happy that there are so many geeky things in the world now. I love that so many things have cropped up and made their way to the public eye. Seeing so many things creates this feedback loop wherein I start to wonder if I’m really seeing fandom or if what I’m seeing is a naked cashing in on something that has reached the level of ‘fad’ and will soon fade into the background again. I will say now that I work very hard at NOT being that fan. You now, the one that claims if you didn’t suffer enough or if you aren’t a fan of precisely the right thing or you haven’t been into it long enough that you’re not truly a fan. That’s a load of crap. If you took up your geeky hobby or fandom last week you’re still a fan. You don’t have to be a fan of the same things I am, nor do you have to enjoy them the same way I do.

As with anything that pushes to the forefront of popular culture, levels of quality come into question as well. Sure, I saw a full set of Dungeons & Dragons dice the other day at the dollar store. Does that make them good dice? Does that make them bad dice? I didn’t buy them ~ I have no idea what the quality is. What it does mean is that if there’s a kid out there that wants some new gaming dice and he can scrounge up a buck, he can buy some. I’m happy for that. The dice may or may not meet my quality standard, but my standard has evolved over time. I’m really digging for quality now.

I am looking for high quality when it comes to the game I hold dear and how it is represented. A while back I posted wrote a couple of pieces about sword and sorcery films. I listed the top ten, and then added to (or amended) that list when I went hunting for newer material. One film conspicuously absent from my list was the Dungeons & Dragons movie.

Yes, blue lipstick guy.

Insert heavy sigh here.

For anyone that doesn’t know about it, New Line Cinema put out a Dungeons & Dragons film back in December of 2000. I was really excited to see it. I wanted it… I was willing it to be amazing. My Jedi mind trick failed or my will was not strong enough or maybe the time just wasn’t right. I loath that movie. It’s terrible AND didn’t do much more than pile ridicule onto fans at the time. Bear in mind this was a full eight years before the MCU’s first film came out (Iron Man – 2008) and still a year before the first of the LOTR series hit theaters (Fellowship of the Ring – December 2001). This movie did every single thing I feared about putting D&D forward into the public view. Big names were in this film. Jeremy Irons won an Oscar. Seriously. I’m not a fan of Mr. Irons, but they got an Oscar winner in there. I was also not a fan of casting one of the Wayans brothers in the movie. It has nothing to do with diversity – I think there should be more of it. It has everything to do with putting a stand up comic in as comic relief and not writing *any* clever lines to help him. He was hands down the worst character in the film – and yes I’m counting blue lipstick guy. The movie was just not good. Seriously, on a $45M budget it made back less than $16M domestically. That’s a bomb. I think it speaks to the strength of the brand that they were able to get funding for another two films (and YES, the third one did drop direct to DVD). It didn’t help matters that the following year’s release of Fellowship showed what a fantasy movie could look like. LOATHE IT.

What brought all this bile up you might be thinking.

I saw a news story today that says Chris Pine is joining the cast of a new Dungeons & Dragons movie. Yes, that Chris Pine. The one from Wonder Woman and the Star Trek reboot.

I am filled with trepidation. A big name utterly failed to help the last one. There’s a lot of interest in D&D since the Stranger Things series came out… but… it could just go so very, horribly wrong. I find myself right back where I was twenty years ago. I so very, very much want this movie to be amazing. I want it to be “Fellowship” good. I have no faith in Hollyweird. The crusty old people pulling the purse strings will mess this up somehow. I say this based on the film adaptation of Ready Player One specifically, but not exclusively. There was an entire segment of that movie that could have (and should have) revolved around the D&D part that was written into the book. It’s not like D&D is unpopular right now. Rather than use that an entirely new section was written in as a homage to some other director and a film adaptation from 40 years ago (The Shining). My only glimmer of hope is that Joe Manganiello has also been said to be attached as one of the story creators. Joe has been very public about his love of the game and the fact that he continues to play.

A lot of people claim they love, respect, adore, play Dungeons & Dragons but I don’t see it. They’re going to screw this up… again. I don’t want them to, but I fear they will. I so very, very much want this to be amazing. I’ll have to revisit this post after I see the movie. It’s scheduled to release in the US in May of 2022.

I’m almost certain we’ll be back in movie theaters by then.

Reflections On 20 Years

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This article was originally published in the November issue of the Watch The Skies Fanzine.

It’s a mind blowing number when I sit and really think about it. I have taxed my brain and attempted to remember how exactly I heard about the science fiction reading group at the big book store down the road from my house and I don’t recall. One of the clearest early memories I have of the group was getting the opportunity to chat with the author of a book called Red Moon. He had an endlessly fascinating set of stories about Soviet era space medals and theories on that program. That was way back in May of 2001. Red Moon stands out, but I still have physical copies of all the books from that year and I remember reading all of them. I can give details about what was in them and tell you if I enjoyed them. Not too shabby for something that started so long ago, but that’s not all.

20! Almost old enough to drink!

Over the years WTS has grown and changed and had manner of excitement. The books have been our constant. The good, the bad, the ugly we read and discussed our random (or not so random) selection each month, and then dove into whatever other subject struck our fancy from the world of fandom. We’ve had authors, artists, editors, cosplayers and actors stop in to visit with us. Live readings, staged events, book signings and parties. We’ve gone to the movies and watched old movies at members’ houses. Myriad members have come and gone, but many have stuck around and have become long time friends. We have helped at conventions and worked at charity events. We have celebrated and we have mourned. Our group has stuck together.

When trying to decide what to write about and how that sense of togetherness was the stand out piece. The most important thing I have found is my tribe. My people. I go out of my way to be at every meeting I can. I am upset and out of sorts if I can’t actually get to a meeting to see and hear from my friends… my science fiction family. It means a lot to me.

We’ve moved locations. Severing ties with the book store of origin we’ve relocated two (maybe three?) times. We’ve landed at a library now, and that seems fitting. We’re in the middle of a pandemic as I write this. Our group is undeterred and meets virtually now. It lacks some of the more personal aspects of meeting in person, but it sustains us. I suspect that even when we are able to meet in person again we will attempt to keep some form of virtual presence available.

We publish a fanzine. This is one of my favorite aspects of the things we do. It gives us a place to put our news, celebrate the work of friends of the group, talk space science, recommend movies or even get some advice. The fanzine has provided me with valuable lessons on working to a deadline and given me the confidence to put my art forward. Not all of my cover art for the fanzine is display worthy, but I am proud of having produced more than 140 pieces of art for it. That experience gave me a supply of work to display as part of a convention art show and helped me get one of my pieces published. We have an archive that allows us to look back on all of this.

Looking back is not the only thing I want to do here. I also want to look forward. We have a lot of history, but we also have a mountain of potential. Being part of the library book club groups gives us new channels to attract more members. We’re still hunting up amazing works of fiction to read and discuss every month AND still getting out there in the fandom community. I’ve thrown a couple of suggestions out there to extend our reach in the coming year. I’ve got requests out for new voices to join the fanzine. Hopefully we’ll get to return to in person meetings. I really hope we get to return to in person conventions as next summer the World Science Fiction Convention will be in our back yard when it takes place in Washington DC. I look forward to another twenty years of this crazy, awesome family we call a fan group.

Finally, but most importantly, Watch The Skies would not be the same without the true foundation of it all. I want to put a special thank you here for Jeff Young. Jeff is the leader, editor and book seller extraordinaire who is our anchor point. Without Jeff this group does not survive, and I for one am delighted that he hasn’t chucked me yet. Jeff, thank you for all you do. It matters.

Here’s to twenty more!

Crossover

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My writing time has been squeezed a lot lately, but I found myself with a little crossover time today. Part of the construction specifier chapter I am involved with is presentations and learning sessions about what’s coming in the construction industry. This evening we were listening to a talk about the future infrastructure needs based on urban air mobility.

Yes, people are still talking about flying cars. Uber has actually had a full design contest involving a scenario involving take off and landing areas for flying vehicles that “everyday” people would have access to (something like 600 people per hour through the ‘vertiport’).

The presentation was from one of the top three firms in that design competition.

I listened, but I’m not buying. I understand the efficiency and practicality of what they’re saying. I do. I love the concept and I really wish this was something we could make work. My personal experience with vehicles that fly in that manner make me believe this will not work.

First – I’ve seen the way people in the U.S. treat public transport. How many people do you know that actually take the bus? Do the bus routes go where you need them to go? Are you willing to wait on that schedule if you have a list of things to get done today? We need to do more in the public transportation arena, but I just don’t see this working the way they envision. So I don’t see it as “public” transport. Could it work like a taxi? Maybe. Uber has crashed into the taxi market and made some significant changes there. IF a “Sky-Uber” was available, some people would take it. This is fantastic for business movements locally, but my first thought was what about the drunks? That won’t end well… unless you’re into riding the vomit comet.

Second – you’re depending on pilots at first. There’s a plan / thought / idea to have automated pilots, but the automated systems are a long way off. We’ve seen that with the self driving car. The self driving cars have loads of problems based on what actually happens in an urban environment. Now take all those issues and multiply them based on the simple fact that they fly. We’ve always had a ‘hub and spoke’ kind of plan with our transport systems – but does having a person going around this wheel and not to the hub really work? A massive cluster of people is still a massive cluster of people. There’s no way to get around that. People don’t move quickly when they’re staggering out of the stadium after the big game (for example).

Third – you’re talking about taking away the individual vehicle use to a certain degree. This may be the part where I’m old, but part of what makes a trip lasting in your memory is the actual journey. The actual ride. YOU are in control of where you go and when you stop. With UAM (urban air mobility) you also have to share a ride. Yes, there are times when you don’t want to spend part of your vacation time sitting stuck on the highway. I’ve been in that situation. It sucks. The highway was at a dead stop for hours. We snuck off an exit and went to a local mall to spend time outside of the car. We would never have had that little ‘side quest’ if we’d just flown around the issue. Sure, it would have meant we got to where we were headed faster, but that mall is now on our radar when we travel and it never would have been if not for our willingness to go someplace else just to get around.

Lastly – these vehicles do not account for people that don’t fit the ‘accepted average’. I’ve gone into flight places and dealt with people flying helicopters. I was charged almost 30% additional ‘fee’ based on the fact that carrying somebody my size simply uses more fuel (and therefore decreases the flight distance) or as much as being asked to purchase 2 seats. I’m not a fan. Ground transport actually eliminates a number of these factors, or perhaps simply accounts for them. I can use any number of these vehicles to go from place to place. A flying Uber does not fill me with the belief that it will work for me.

Is this something that’s coming in the future?

Probably. There is definitely a movement to get away from individual owned vehicles. There are definitely members of certain demographics that are completely willing to use something like this. We’re going to need to plan for this, but I don’t see it happening as quickly as they claim. They’re looking for 2028 as a start point (complete with FAA test sites). I suspect that the current pandemic and the massive move to conducting most business via an online presence will dent that significantly. I have very little need to actually drive anywhere right now, and depending on where a function is and what virtual options are available, I might still not go in person. Kind of depends on what the event is. It’s going to be a tough sell.

Uber does have some fascinating stuff out there that’s worth paying attention to. I would suggest checking them out and dare I say it? Watch the Skies!