The hardware issues I’m having at the workplace have me thinking it’s time to revamp the system at home. And this blog shouldn’t go untouched either. This layout’s gotten a bit cluttered and I’d like to replace it with something a bit more polished and professional. I dug around WordPress Theme Base, but I’m uncertain of which one to proceed with.
Black Abstract is a more austere type of Soul Vision but it could lead to similar clutter issues. The Scroll, Papyrus and Blak Magik all feel a bit gimmicky. On the other hand, themes like deCoder seem a bit generic.
If anybody out there has helpful suggestions on where to find better themes, please let me know. Meanwhile I’ll be here, either recovering from a lost morning of productivity or giving the system at home a good scrubbing.
I’m typing this entry from a computer that’s nearly ten years old.
It’s been through several moves, more than its share of crises, and quite a few attempts on my part to “fix” it. The 6 key is practically falling off of it, I’ve had to replace its power supply twice, and I occasionally need to ‘reset’ the power button by lifting the entire panel in which the button rests with a small flathead screwdriver.
And I love it.
I’m not in a position where I can afford multiple copies of Windows, which makes the prospect of reformatting my main PC a bit daunting (I’m still using XP on it), but since the laptop isn’t exactly state of the art and won’t be running things like World of Warcraft or Mass Effect 3 I don’t have to put the latest drivers and most compatible OS on it. Instead for the last couple of years it’s been my Linux box. Specifically, I’ve been running Ubuntu for the most part, lately giving its somewhat stripped-down Xubuntu variant a try.
It can be a bit of a struggle to get certain things working. I’ve been trying since Friday to get Kindle for PC running on this thing through the Windows emulator Wine, but the damn thing keeps looking at me funny and giving me a ‘fixme’ DPI error. Others on the Interwebs have run into this issue as well, but so far a general fix has not been forthcoming. Very frustrating. I may have to take my issue over to the general Ubuntu forums and see if anything shakes out there.
That’s one of the nice things about running the system this way. Windows’ customer service and knowledge base can become a bit tangled. Getting help from the Linux community is usually a bit more of a straightforward process, provided you post a thread in the right place and provide adequate information. More than one issue I’ve had with either the OS itself or trying to get something to run on it has been resolved through helpful back-and-forth across the forums. It hasn’t always been prompt, but it’s always been useful and a worthwhile endeavor.
And did I mention all of this stuff is free? The software, the support, all of it. This laptop might have been replaced in another household long ago, but thanks to free software that runs like a champ on its aged hardware, it’s still working for me. I can take it on the train to write, and if I can get Kindle running on it it’ll be useful for reading new books and stories as well.
It’s a bit of a pain in the ass at times, but it beats the alternative of shelling out for a new-fangled machine.
It’d still be nice to run World of Warcraft on a laptop though.
Most individuals with a modicum of intelligence and self-awareness will tell you the truth, uncomfortable as it might be: Not everything you produce is going to be good. Even if the idea seems immaculate in your imagination, the transition between brain and mouth or fingers can dilute it somewhat. We have to clarify ourselves at times, in order to ensure we’re understood, meaning the way we initally articulated ourselves was imperfect. So too are our ideas: the perspective we have on the world around us, the stories we experience and the events of our lives is unique. We each have our own unique opinions and the Internet makes it possible for us to share, discuss and debate them. It’s this diversity that makes living with other human beings, at times, a wonderful experience.
At other times it’s grueling torture because some people don’t understand their imperfection.
You’ve seen these people. You’ve read their comments on forums, YouTube channels and Twitter feeds. Barely coherent, badly misspelled, over-abbreviated and wholly inaccurate ramblings that, when challenged, incite anger and accusations rather than honest debate. I’m painting with a broad brush here, but the sad fact of the matter is that the amount of hatred spewing from the mouths and fingers of the ignorant far outweighs the pontifications of people who actually have something to say and the means with which to say it to a large audience.
And when someone does gain a large audience, the arrogant and entitled flock to the outlet in question to make their voices heard, piggyback on success, do their damndest to outshine the reason they showed up in the first place.
I’m guilty of this behavior, if I’m honest. I’ve chimed in on the videos of those sharing their reviews, opinions and news readings not just to support their efforts but in an effort to promote myself and my work. I have to. If I hope to have any success in the mass market when it comes to selling fiction, I have to get used to the idea of selling myself through any means necessary. Now, I don’t post on forums or respond to tweets for this purpose alone. I’m not a SEO bot or a web marketer. But I’d be lying if I said I do what I do simply for the enjoyment of it. Even if it is a great deal of fun to talk about ways The Dark Knight Rises could go horribly wrong with twitter peeps (tweeps), it’s getting my name out and there’s nothing wrong with that.
What bothers me is the behavior of people who post their thoughts for the sole purpose of dissention and rabble-rousing. Constructive criticism is one thing, combative, racist or incendiary commentary is quite another. It’s rude, dickish behavior that can border on harassment in certain contexts, behavior for which you can be banned from whatever venue you were using to spew your ignorant bile. And yet, it persists. These people keep right on finding ways to annoy and harrangue, under the presumption that not only is their opinion the only correct one (arrogance), they have every right to voice it any way they wish to whomever will listen (entitlement).
Critical analysis and review is everywhere on the Internet. But you will never catch any such entertainer worth their salt telling you point-blank that they are 100% right in their opinion and everybody else is wrong. Go ahead and take a look. Yahtzee, MovieBob, SFDebris, Confused Matthew, Red Letter Media, TotalBiscuit, the Extra Credits crew – none of them end a discussion with “I’m right, you’re wrong, your mom agreed with me last night” in any serious discussion. Some of them may play this sort of thing for laughs, but even the most satirical and cynical of these folks are also intelligent enough to know that anything upon which they might pontificate involves the exposition of their own subjective views.
Sorry, that was a lot of big words. Put simply: None of these people believes they are a holy authority on anything they talk about. Yes, some of them are professional critics, paid to give their opinion based on the years of experience they have weighing objective and subjective criteria of various media, but each and every one of them are human beings, and human beings are fallible, subjective creatures. Yahtzee and MovieBob might not like shooters, but that doesn’t mean shooters are bad. People like those caricatured by MovieBob’s Anti-Thinker may consider retro games to be stupid, but them saying it does not make it so. These people I’ve mentioned know this.
It’s a shame a lot of the people who chime in on their presentations can’t have the same sort of self-awareness. And when you try to point out the flaws in their arguments, their mental couch forts repel your critiques with such eloquent responses as “NO U” or “COOL STORY BRO.” Just because your point of view makes more intellectual or logical sense doesn’t mean you’re going to win over the mistaken. Ours is a culture that nurtures the arrogant and entitled, and trolls of this stripe thrive in this culture, the pundits and politicians ranting on about rights and freedoms while these dregs emerge from under their bridges to tell you why your opinion sucks and theirs is The Truth. It’s a level of impenetrability to reality that would be impressive if it weren’t so pathetic.
I don’t know what I hope to accomplish by posting this, other than to bring attention to and underscore the causes behind this prevailing sentiment among the seething and apparently idiotic masses of the Internet. Because like any disease, the more we know about the causes, the better chance we have of finding a cure.
I apologize for yesterday’s oddness. I’ve been meaning to adjust the schedule of my blogging. Not on this end, mind you: posts will still publish as near to noon as possible. I figure folks on lunch break might want something interesting to read other than the news.
It’s totally a creation-oriented thing. Rather than scrambling for topics at the last minute, which occasionally leads to things like surly Mexican supercops scowling at you, I need to make it a point to jot post ideas down when I have them and write said posts in advance. Tomorrow, for example, will see the return of Into the Nentir Vale, and while I have the funny quotes from my players, making sure the narrative flows in line with the events of the last two sessions would take up most of my lunch hour.
Still, it falls back to making sure I use the free time I have wisely. This includes time on the train, naturally, as well as walks to and from the station. It can be difficult to predict when an idea for a post might hit me, and if I don’t document them they might slip through my fingers the next time a shinier idea passes me by. I’m a bit like a magpie, in that way, which is something I’ve mentioned before.
Creating new habits to replace bad or broken ones can be one of the biggest obstacles a person has to face. It means change. It represents stepping away from the familiar, the comfortable. The edge can be a scary place, and not everybody likes to hang out there. We need to remind ourselves, however, that with risk comes reward.
I’m dangling myself over the edge already, at least a little. Queries are going out. I know most will be met with rejection. But that’s a fact of the writer’s life. It’s not the rejection itself that matters – it’s how we deal with it.
The holidays can throw everybody for a loop. I’m no different. Travel schedules, inclement weather and other factors unique to this time of year tend to play havoc with routines and timetables. Things have started to normalize a bit and it’s time I took a bit of stock of where I am now and where I’m heading.
Writing
Citizen in the Wilds is out for test reading. I’m eager to get some reaction and feedback, even if it takes the form of “CHANGE EVERYTHING ‘CAUSE IT SUCKS.” I’ve started compiling and expanding some notes I’ve jotted down on the next Acradea book. I’m going to edit The Jovian Gambit for this Saturday’s Free Fiction, and after that? I’m not sure. Possibly a hard-boiled Cthulhu detective story in the style of C.J. Hendersen, or perhaps a sequel to Akuma. I’m also getting back in the habit of writing for my Warcraft characters, both on forums and in the game proper.
IT CAME FROM NETFLIX!
The feedback on the first ICFN video has been generally positive, if somewhat cautious. I’m somewhat trepidatious myself, if I’m honest. I think I’m going to shoot for a new video every month and traditional audio enties in the intervening weeks. The poll will return for those audio entries, and as for the videos, I have a few films in mind. Stay tuned.
Dungeons & Dragons
Everybody in the group’s been a little off their game, no pun intended. We’ll be resuming our normal schedule of Tuesday night games, which means I’ll be returning to posting the adventures (or misadventures) of Andrasian, Krillorien, Lyria and Melanie on Tuesday afternoons. After this current printed advneture (Reavers of Harkenwold from the Dungeon Master Kit) I may move them into homegrown content rather than shoehorning Caern of the Winter King from the Monster Vault into the campaign. Or Wizards might have worked a smooth transition in already. More to come on this.
Magic: the Gathering
The local comic/gaming store has free casual play on Thursday nights, $5 FNM events on Fridays and special events like previews of the upcoming expansion Mirrodin Besieged. Attending paid events is a matter of my entertainment budget, and considering it’s something I enjoy alone and the entertainment budget must cover activies for both my wife and myself, it’s hard for me to justify the expense at this time. And I tend to watch my ICFN audio entries the Thursday night before I post the review. There’s simply not enough time, usually. Again, more to come.
World of Warcraft
Cataclysm has rekindled my interest and enjoyment of this game even more than I’d expected. Between the new areas, the promise of dungeons being challenging again (until the next nerf hits) and the resurgence of interaction with guild mates, this game is the other reason I’ll likely have less time for other activities. However, since I play it with my wife as we have since we’ve met, it’s a much more comfortable expense to work into our slender budget.
This is more dependant on Black Eagle’s band schedule than anything else.
This Blog
I plan to keep updating every day. Sometimes I’ll have a notion in mind for days before I post it, and some days – like today – I’m stumped up until lunchtime. Comes from everything else on this list as well as the day job and the other responsibilities of adulthood, I guess.
