Wednesday 30 September 2015
Clinch
Just a short one tonight. I've been watching the Blue Jays since I was eight years old. I've witnessed nearly twenty seasons of disappointment. Tonight, they clinched their division. There's still the playoffs left to worry about. But that's exactly the point - there's still the playoffs to worry about. I've never been able to write that before. I can't explain how happy I am.
Tuesday 29 September 2015
Late
Okay, so technically it's already Wednesday, but I'm going to count this as Tuesday's post because it's only half an hour late.But because I want to go to sleep, it will be short.
I just want to recommend Song Exploder to everybody. It's a podcast that has been recommended to me several times over the last month and which I finally checked out yesterday. I listen to a lot of podcasts - too many - but when a new one gets its hooks into me, I binge on it hard. Song Exploder, with episodes running only ten to twenty minutes, makes bingeing easy.
The premise is simple: every episode, a musician or group of musicians takes a song of theirs, breaks it into its component parts and explains the thought process behind each one. It's fascinating. I'm not a musician by any means, but I like music and I especially like listening to different parts of songs that I know well to try to hear new things each time I listen. Song Exploder appeals to that part of my brain. Better yet, it works even when I don't know the song or the artist, which is almost every episode, because my musical horizons are horribly limited. In that way, the podcast seems like a great way to hear new stuff.
Over and above the appreciation for music, though, I just really love listening to talented people talk about their creative process. I can't exactly explain why. It just reminds me that any artist is first of all a person and like any person, anything they create is a mixture of careful planning, wild experimentation and blind luck. I find that comforting.
I just want to recommend Song Exploder to everybody. It's a podcast that has been recommended to me several times over the last month and which I finally checked out yesterday. I listen to a lot of podcasts - too many - but when a new one gets its hooks into me, I binge on it hard. Song Exploder, with episodes running only ten to twenty minutes, makes bingeing easy.
The premise is simple: every episode, a musician or group of musicians takes a song of theirs, breaks it into its component parts and explains the thought process behind each one. It's fascinating. I'm not a musician by any means, but I like music and I especially like listening to different parts of songs that I know well to try to hear new things each time I listen. Song Exploder appeals to that part of my brain. Better yet, it works even when I don't know the song or the artist, which is almost every episode, because my musical horizons are horribly limited. In that way, the podcast seems like a great way to hear new stuff.
Over and above the appreciation for music, though, I just really love listening to talented people talk about their creative process. I can't exactly explain why. It just reminds me that any artist is first of all a person and like any person, anything they create is a mixture of careful planning, wild experimentation and blind luck. I find that comforting.
Monday 28 September 2015
Back in the Saddle
Wow, it's been nearly two years since I last updated here. Seems like a good time to start it up again.
As some of you know, I'm taking some time off from school this fall for personal reasons. While this was definitely the right decision, it has left my days rather wide-open and that's scary. I deal with life a lot better when my time is structured than when it's formless. So I'm going to use this blog as an anchor for my days.
Here's the plan: from now until at least the end of December, I'll be posting here every day. Although this started as a purely game-related blog, such a demanding schedule will mean that I'll be writing about whatever thoughts pass through my head. A lot of those thoughts will be about game, just because I am who I am, but I'm certain to write about the other myriad topics that catch my interest.
I'll definitely be writing with an audience in mind – not much point of a blog otherwise – but because this is more of a personal mental health project than a means of self-promotion, I don't much care if people actually do read any of it. Of course, I'll be happy if anyone does and I'm receptive to feedback and critique. Just understand that anything I write here is meant as practice and therapy. I'll try not to sound authoritative and hope that nobody assumes that I mean to be.
Speaking of structure and routine, it's appropriate that my first returning post should be a link to a story I wrote for Elephant Words. Elephant Words is a website that provides an image prompt for writers each week and then shows of the writing the image inspired. Anybody can submit, so when I saw a call for more participants last week, I decided to take a shot. The only stipulation is an 800 word limit. (In my day, a picture was worth 1000 words, but I guess that's inflation for you.) That's just a maximum, but because I write best under strict limitations, I've decided that every piece I write will be exactly 800 words long.
My first submission, titled “A Piece of the Sky,” fits that self-imposed rule. It's a short story, and most of my entries probably will be, but I'd like to try other forms too.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Reading over it again now that it's been posted, I can see a few things I'd change. I probably could have varied the sentence structure more to get a better rhythm and I wish I hadn't repeated words so much – the sixth paragraph is only three sentences, but I use the word “through” in each of them. My vocabulary could be broader. But that's what practice is for.
I'll be posting links to my pieces once they're put up on the Elephant Words website. I also recommend that anybody else interested in the site submit their own writing, or at least check out what others have written. My favourite piece from last week is Isle of Spice by Amanda Bird.
As some of you know, I'm taking some time off from school this fall for personal reasons. While this was definitely the right decision, it has left my days rather wide-open and that's scary. I deal with life a lot better when my time is structured than when it's formless. So I'm going to use this blog as an anchor for my days.
Here's the plan: from now until at least the end of December, I'll be posting here every day. Although this started as a purely game-related blog, such a demanding schedule will mean that I'll be writing about whatever thoughts pass through my head. A lot of those thoughts will be about game, just because I am who I am, but I'm certain to write about the other myriad topics that catch my interest.
I'll definitely be writing with an audience in mind – not much point of a blog otherwise – but because this is more of a personal mental health project than a means of self-promotion, I don't much care if people actually do read any of it. Of course, I'll be happy if anyone does and I'm receptive to feedback and critique. Just understand that anything I write here is meant as practice and therapy. I'll try not to sound authoritative and hope that nobody assumes that I mean to be.
Speaking of structure and routine, it's appropriate that my first returning post should be a link to a story I wrote for Elephant Words. Elephant Words is a website that provides an image prompt for writers each week and then shows of the writing the image inspired. Anybody can submit, so when I saw a call for more participants last week, I decided to take a shot. The only stipulation is an 800 word limit. (In my day, a picture was worth 1000 words, but I guess that's inflation for you.) That's just a maximum, but because I write best under strict limitations, I've decided that every piece I write will be exactly 800 words long.
My first submission, titled “A Piece of the Sky,” fits that self-imposed rule. It's a short story, and most of my entries probably will be, but I'd like to try other forms too.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Reading over it again now that it's been posted, I can see a few things I'd change. I probably could have varied the sentence structure more to get a better rhythm and I wish I hadn't repeated words so much – the sixth paragraph is only three sentences, but I use the word “through” in each of them. My vocabulary could be broader. But that's what practice is for.
I'll be posting links to my pieces once they're put up on the Elephant Words website. I also recommend that anybody else interested in the site submit their own writing, or at least check out what others have written. My favourite piece from last week is Isle of Spice by Amanda Bird.
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