If you could write like one fiction author, who would it be?
Submitted by Marilyn.
Oh without a doubt it would be Warren Ellis! So perfect in his character and story development. He's been a comic writer up til now, but I'm anxiously awaiting his book A Twisted Little Vein that's due to come out in June.
An awkward and interesting moment occurred today, something that regrettably could be called a trend throughout my life. A new friend I knew online was teasing me and I responded somewhat inappropriately. Nothing emotional, or truly disturbing, just inappropriate, and afterwards both of us were like; “Well… yeah, glad that’s over.”
It started with harmless teasing, something friends do, but it escalated into me having to ‘prove’ something, something that if proven would likely have ruined my credibility in my friend’s eyes. My pride pushing me to carry through to do this thing even though it was not something I particularly wanted to do.
Afterwards I happened to mention it to my friend Ian. He said, somewhat poetically:
“Pride should not take precedence over class,
and class is but a reflection of principle,
ergo pride should not take precedence over principle.”
Well put I thought. And quite true, especially these days things like when reality TV are so prevalent which work at keeping ratings high through sensationalism. Shows like the surreal life, the first 3 episodes of American Idol, Big Brother or any show of the week watch for the most humiliating personal moments of human weakness and then make it appear as if that were the only thing that happened to the people on the show.
Now we watch these shows, but a lot of us don’t ‘like’ these shows. And certainly we don’t remember those people who were humiliating themselves before the camera. Things many people do like and remember is when an individual or organization rises above the stereotypes or their perceived limitations and shows everyone the strength of the human condition. Things that make people feel genuinely proud to be associated with that strength. Customer Service Gone Shockingly Right is a small example of this and if you haven’t read it yet I hope you do. It shows how an organisation can create something good and benefitial out of a bad situation.
Individuals who can rise above the taunts and petty desires and do something truly formidable have class, and their motivation to do so lies in their principles. So in that spirit I’m trying to take an embarrassing mistake and rise above it to hopefully write something meaningful.
Whether I've actually achieved this or not is for you to decide.
One of the strongest passions in my life is Role-Playing. I've been doing it over 10 years and it's my stress relief, social activity, and inspiration. In my younger days when I worked less, it was not unknown to play in two games and run a second every week. There was (still is, though I attend little these days) a gaming club in my town that I played at, or in someone's basement. It was very stereotypical, a bunch of guys crouched around a table with stacks of snack foods laid out beside them. Not glamorous, but fun nonetheless.
Back in those days it was not unheard of to play a single game from 7pm until 4am the next day… sometimes running short, or sometimes running long. A really good game might keep us up until 9am. Often giving enough time to walk home, shower, grab an hour or two of sleep and then head off for work at noon.
These days I work far too much to be involved in regular games, or regular anything for that matter. My work requires me to disappear from home to live in a camp far from civilization or simply to drive out early in the morning to some fairly remote location, only to return home 10 to 14 hours later. During busy times days off are few and far between, though during quiet times I can have weeks or perhaps a month or two where work is quite sparse. Many people are baffled how I can live this way, but the money is good, and after a while you can get used to it. My work also has other advantages.
I write this from within my shack stationed at the Nabors 60 Drilling Rig. I have time to do this because my job is Emergency Medical Standby. The law of this province requires that industrial sites of this scale a particular distance from a hospital must have a person with the equipment and training to respond to an incident where someone gets injured. I maintain my internet connection via a cellular modem witch costs me a ridiculous amount for a tiny bit of bandwidth. The bandwidth limits make playing any modern online game impossible so about 2 years ago I began participating in the official online RPG chat that my favorite game company White Wolf offers on their website. I participated in this for over a year and a half, before reasons I won't go into here forced me to leave.
Since then I've gathered a role-playing group via Skype that's very dedicated. I run White-Wolf's Exalted, and have been working on a Piracy/Sailing game based in the late 17th century with a lot of help and contributions from a friend. We utilize dice roller web pages, and play just about every day that I work. My players’ dedication never ceases to amaze me. This is a nice way of saying I think they have no life. (Though in all fairness I don't think they're as addicted as WoW players.) But it does flatter me that they find my game so enticing.
These days I look for trends that can help me game online. Programs that generate and keep track of characters better, pictures of characters, programs that help design maps are all things I’m interested in. I even search for games that allow a good custom avatar creation that could simulate the characters I want to build.
These days I'm looking at Second Life. A virtual world where you can build a character to look like anything. I haven't played it but I do pay attention to the buzz and the concept. I'm predicting that it and virtual worlds like it will become more prevalent in the next few years. I see it becoming the new medium for my hobby soon.
Already I see potential in 3D worlds like this, potential to build characters for my favorite pen and paper RPG's. Even to place the same systems engineered for these RPG's in as plug-ins for the virtual world. Already advertising companies are jumping on the virtual world bandwagon flooding Second life with posters and signs. One can only hop that RPG companies will seize the initiative on this as well.
Some days I feel sorry for americans. They have Bush, lousy beer and the RIAA.
It actually makes me sad to see such a desperate move against the county's future voters and consumers. The RIAA's move to put college students "on notice" is a true exercise in futilism. Sure they might actually get some suits off, they might actually win a couple… but what will it do? The downloads won't stop, and the artists still won't get payed for their material. And if by some miracle, god shines down upon the RIAA and stops every illegal download from occuring, people will still share music… because you can't stop them from just passing off a CD to rip, or copying a file to a flash drive to bring over to your friend's house.
Sometimes no matter how righteous a crusade is, it still won't work. It's been seen time and time again throughout history, usually involving the pursecution of a particular religion or race. Hitler did it Stalin did it, and dictators before them did it as well, all persecution does is band that group together tightly and make them dig in for the long siege. This is just another idealistic crusade that won't work. It will spend artists money, and get them little in return.
Ultimately the remedy to the recording industries woes will lie in the very instruments that seem to be their downfall. Computers, internet connections, and portable media devices, the bane of the recording industry could be it's savior with a little innovative marketing.
Consider this: I buy a new CD. I get all the songs I expected, the singles I love and the lyrics in a little booklet. Oh the joy. What I also get is a subscription to the artist's podcast. This podcast would include live singles, concert videos, radio interviews, TV interviews and more. If that's not good enough, perhaps the buyer could even be given access to a more "exclusive" website or blog. All amounting to steady stream of all things to keep my interest up, lasting conveniently until… I dunno… perhaps the new CD gets released?
Would the consumer be able to share these wonderful easter eggs with his friends and fellow internet users? Absolutely, there's no force on this earth that will be able to contain them. However there is no substitute to getting the newest tidbit as soon as it comes out. Especially if by getting it before a certain time means you get a chance to pick up free concert tickets or backstage passes.
If such methods became prevelant, file sharing would be a non-issue. Those who were honest and bought CD's because they can't be bothered to download would still be getting their music fix. Those who simply wanted to download the single that they found catchy would be able to do so without fear of repercussion. While the expanding group of techno-savy people who own portable media players, and get their news and entertainment from the internet will have an incentive to making the purchase. Everyone wins.
Book: Show us the latest book you bought, borrowed or received.
Brian K. Vaughn - Pride of Baghdad
A graphic Novel about a pride of lions that escape from the Zoo during the commencement of Progect: Iraqi Freedom
*Yawn*
Morning in the oilfield. These days I live in a 36 foot long trailer commonly called a shack, planted next to the Nabor's 60 drilling rig. I work medical standby. More on that later, but it's a pretty nice job all things considered.
The thermometer on my wall says it's -15 degrees celsius (that's 5F for you Yankees down south). And due to idiocy and equipment failure the tank heater that sits inside the sewage tank connected behind my shack was not working. Meaning that the shit in there is frozen cock hard stiff.
Luckily for me it's not my job to deal with this sort of crap. It's the guy's who installed the sewage tank in the first place. However I did go above and beyond the call of duty and traced the heater cord to the piece of crap diesel generator. I call it a piece of crap because it's breaker kicks out the power to my shack when I'm running my dryer. Is this connected to my current poop-problems? Likely. I discovered that even though the heater cord was plugged in… it appears the breaker for it is switched off. Think someone could label these switches huh?
So I click switch and wait with baited breath to see if this thing sorts it's self out.
Some days having your shit together just isn't ideal.
Here we go. After 3 long days of consideration I've gone ahead and done this. Started the blog. Let's all raise our glasses to a long and prosperous blogging career!
Heard about this website off of G4's Call For Help. Liked what I saw, and checked it out for real. Now who says TV rots your brain?
Now Tony keep to the plan… start with the basics.
It took me probably an hour and a half of active deliberation to settle on the name schoonerhelm for this blog. Why schoonerhelm? I'll tell you; A schooner is a type of ship, derived from a word that I'm told has Scottish roots… "to Schoon". The long winded definition of schooning is where a boat is exceeding it's hull speed and is hydroplaneing. Basically skipping along the water like a skipping stone. I've never been in a schooning ship but it sounds like such a rush.
The Helm aspect is something I've always been fascinated with. Piloting a ship… any ship, Doesn't matter if that ship runs by wind, coal, diesel, nuclear reactor or antimatter. I don't care. It's being in control of the instrument of your freedom. Jack Sparrow said it best. "That's what a ship is. Freedom." A romantic concept to be sure.
So that's the origins of my title. Someone poetic that isn't me might say something like: "He chose the name as a symbolic way of taking control of a new path to freedom through blogging." But a person who would say that probably belongs on one of those emo blogs that I would never be able to compete with so good riddance to him.
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