Month: September 2018

The Neil is coming!

Posted on by Greg

I’m excited. I managed to get tickets to a speaking event with my all time favourite author. The one, the only, the infinitely estimable Neil Gaiman. It’s my birthday present to myself. I can’t wait!

I’m way more excited for this than knowing  that both David Tennant and Matt Smith will be at the comic con this weekend. I’m a huge Doctor Who fan but even that pales in comparison to The Neil.

I’ve never drank deeply from the kool-aid offered by the cult of celebrity. I understand that they’re just people and while I respect their work and it’s contribution to my imagination, I just feels off to me to idolize them.

All that being said, I am definitely doing just that with Neil and I  have with other authors. I remember meeting Guy Gavriel Kay just after he released Ysobel and was practically dumbstruck trying to articulate the profound effect his works had on me. I dont really have an explanation. I guess I’ll always be a bigger book nerd than tv nerd.

I’m okay with this.

A Problem Unwritten

Posted on by Greg

Well, I just looked at my stats and as of this post, I’m sitting with more posts in the past three months than I have written in the past 9 years prior to that.

I’m somewhat proud of myself for this. I may not be posting daily, or even weekly, but I am posting and actually making time to write a post and to formulate ones in my head. In fact I know I had a post I wanted to write instead of this one, but I’ll be damned if I can remember what it was.

I am aware that not many people are reading this any more (an average daily visitor count of 2-3 tops) but this doesn’t overly bother me. I didn’t do this originally for other people’s entertainment. I did it as an outlet for my own creativity and as a personal catharsis. If you care to come along for the ride, you’re more than welcome. If not, it’s no big deal either.

I’ve noticed that a lot of my more recent posts (this one included) tend to be somewhat more introspective than those I posted in the past.  I don’t really have a solid answer as to why that is. Maybe it’s fatherhood. Maybe it’s the state of the world these days. Maybe it’s age. It’s certainly not wisdom (that’s a dump stat).

I can’t say why, but I’m not going to stop. The muse says write, and I write. If the words tumble out of my brain and turn introspective, I’m not going to say otherwise. I’m just the vessel. Along for the ride. Let’s see where we go.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Posted on by Greg

In case the picture of a metal D20 in the top left corner didn’t clue you in, I’m a bit of a geek. Specifically, I’m a roleplayer and like all roleplayers I desire a place to roll my dice in style.

To that end, I’ve wanted a gaming table to set up in my place for some time (since I was like, 12). Last year, there was an amazing kickstarter called the Table of Ultimate Gaming that suited the bill just right. I backed without hesitation and it would have been glorious… except it was a bit more expensive than I would have liked and after some serious self-reflection and adult conversations with myself, I backed out and missed out. Part of me regrets that decision still.

However, the dream has not died. One day, I will have both the gaming room and the table to go in it. Because the nice folks over at Table of Ultimate gaming are mind readers and fellow geeks and they want to help me out, they decided to run a contest and another kickstarter for a new table style they’ve created. I figured I would enter and see if I could get lucky. If you’re a gamer yourself, I highly suggest you follow this link and enter for yourself.

“Dovie’andi se tovya sagain.”

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once and awhile, you may miss it.

Posted on by Greg

Ferris Bueller… You’re my hero.

He’s not wrong.

My two girls started the new school year this week. Grade 7 for the eldest, grade 4 for the youngest. Like all parents who look at their kids at this moment as they head off to school or board the bus, I too got a dose of “Holy shit, my children have grown so much!”.

Time is a subtle bastard. He sneaks up on you when you least expect it and bumps you just hard enough to jostle your comfy rose coloured glasses off and as you look around in a daze, you catch a glimpse of reality in the harsh light of day and see your children, not as you always see them: as your little girls, but as the young women they are quickly becoming.

It can throw you for a pretty big loop because you’re not expecting it. One moment, you’re holding this tiny infant in your arms, bursting with love and the next they’re giving you the universal teenage brush-off to signify how uncool you are: “Whatever, dad.”

Thankfully the eldest hasn’t fully crossed to the dark side yet and five minutes later she’s back to “I love you daddy. Can we play Little Big Planet together?” One of these days though, I’ll blink and even that will be just a memory. Ahh, Time, you bastard. I hate you just a little bit in times like this, but at the same time, without that subtle jostling, I wouldn’t see the beauty right in front of me and cherish the moments I do have.

…

No. You shut up! I’m not crying. You’re crying….

Errr. Anyways. I’m just going to sit in the corner here clinging vainly to the false hope that they’ll always be my little girls. At least until the next time Time comes along and knocks me spinning…