If we were having coffee… Welcome to Night Vale edition

06/27/2015 13 Comments

Sometimes, coffee is hot. Sometimes, coffee is cold. Sometimes, it’s a gibbering mass from outside our time and space.

Welcome to Night Vale.

*cue opening music by Disparition*

If we were having coffee, I would definitely tell you that I have spent the week listening to a new podcast – Welcome to Night Vale. This one comes to me highly recommended by a number of sources. The problem before hasn’t been interest, more just that I had not integrated podcasts into my life at all.

I was dubious after just listening to the pilot. The community radio style they’re going for, the NPR style they’re going for, is not something I’ve listened to before. The Lovecraftian subject matter, the Arkham-Horror-card style descriptions and strong sense of genre-awareness, is something I could listen to. So by the second episode, well, there was a line that hooked me…

[tweet https://twitter.com/compgeeksdavid/status/613509266066948096]

I’m not the only one. There’s merch with that on it!

This has me thinking about a short story project I’ve been planning. The Mists of Juneau. What I’ve been needing is not a plot or a feel, but a voice. And while I don’t want to rip off Night Vale’s voice, I do think that level of genre awareness could be just the right thing.

And now, I bring you the weather.

I’ve also been processing a lot more digital files at the library this week – including the university’s literary journal. So I think I have a place I’d like to see if I could get The Mists of Juneau published. Which means I also have a deadline. Which with that, it should be everything I need…

Assuming time continues to exist in such a way that I can make that deadline. There’s no guarantee of that. There’s no guarantee of anything.

How about you – ever listen to Welcome to Night Vale? If not, the librarian in me would recommend the Summer Reading Program. But until next time, good night, Night Vale.

Good Night.

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Wordless Wednesday 53 – Field of Boxes

06/24/2015 Leave a comment

A drawing exercise recommended by Kazu Kibuishi.

A drawing exercise recommended by Kazu Kibuishi.

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If we were having coffee… Transitions Week

06/20/2015 9 Comments

WeekendCoffeeShare

What? I’m using the official coffee image?

If we were having coffee, I would tell you it feels like a week of transitions.

In a number of ways and places. Coming from timing, from my actions, from others. All in all, it’s like it’s been long enough with a newborn to start moving into leading a life with a newborn. Infant now, I guess?

Here on DBCII, transitions are coming as we move into year two of the Wordless Wednesdays. Expect to see a bit of a format change – I might include words! Which might defeat the name, shhhhhh…

On Comparative Geeks, the transitions are several. For one, our large collection of blog posts have come to an end – we’re back to being the main writers on the blog come Monday. However, as our post yesterday indicated, we’re at a point of change there as well – Comparative Geeks is moving forward as a blog which regularly has contributors. Quite a few have already gotten in touch with me through all sorts of different methods. I think things are going to get fun over there!

In general with blogging, I think there’s a lot of transitioning going on. My local blogosphere is increasingly collaborating, cross-posting and writing combined posts or doing interviews. We have a community there, and I think that more and more will be happening with that. What started basically as some Feminist Friday posts is becoming so much more!

In my gaming life, we have officially reached the point where I feel like we can say we have started a Warmachine community. We have now someone playing all of the Warmachine factions, and enough different people that there might be at least one Warmachine game happening a week at the local game store. If we keep that up, we’ll all have more fun with the game, and hopefully pull in even more players!

And meanwhile, the Geek Baby is getting more sleep. Which means that we may actually have energy to handle all the rest of this…

How about you? Change in your life, or stay the course? And find more folks for coffee through the links on Part-Time Monster!

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Wordless Wednesday 52

06/17/2015 2 Comments

3-Year WordPress Anniversary!

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If we were having coffee… Train of Thought Edition

06/13/2015 10 Comments

“A thirst for the world’s knowledge.”

If we were having coffee, I’d talk about how I started listening to podcasts this week. There are some times at work where they just work great – I can be working on a task, and listening to that, and really actually get really efficient and in the zone. Of course, I’ve also found tasks where they’re a really bad idea… there’s always still listening to music, right?

Speaking of music, I’d ask if you’ve heard the new Florence & the Machine album… it’s pretty great.

I’d say I’ve been thinking about efficiency, about how to be doing things as quickly or effectively as possible, about finding the time again to do things like blog regularly, to work in new things like sketching. All around the Geek Baby, who is of course the priority. Podcasts are just one of those things, letting me double up my time.

And speaking of sketching, I’d mention that I’m thinking it’s time to step up what I’m doing with my Wordless Wednesdays. When they hit a year, it’s time to mix in some things I’ve drawn. And I’d mention I’m looking at taking some art classes.

I also finished reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, and that really was one of the more important things I’ve ever read. It gave me a lot of perspective over things that I have more felt than really had words for. It also reminds me of my series on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and realistic versus romantic literature… it’s about exploring the art, explaining the art, such that it might actually be considered “art” by the establishment.

Which of course goes back to my history thesis, about William Hogarth. Who makes an appearance in Understanding Comics. So you can be sure I’ll be writing some blog posts about that! I think it’s always been comics for me. And I think that helps me finally understand why I haven’t been able to get going writing – because I think it’s comics I want to write, and not just words. We’ll see where that takes me.

I guess as I finish up my coffee I’d need to apologize for dumping so much… but we missed coffee last week, and there’s oh so much time for things to go through your head when you’re awake half the night… and oh so little time to get your thoughts organized.

How’re you? Have you heard Florence & the Machine’s new album? Read Understanding Comics?

Find more folks having coffee connected over on Part-Time Monster!

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