Originally published at How to Crush Without Being Crushed. You can comment here or there.

Here’s a quick little something from Reckless Tortuga that does a nice job of illustrating something we all do once in a while: let our imaginations totally run away with us.

The best part, really, is the reality check right at the end. That’s the part we all have to remember to do on our own–otherwise we drift further and further from where we need to be if we want to grow fully into ourselves.

I promise I’ll be back on track here shortly, been trying to put together something special for the coming Valentine’s Day week.

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

This video pretty much nails what's become the standard formula for the modern video news story. Note the cadance in the dialog as well... and the difficulty in making out everything the "man on the street" interviewees are saying.

Two things it's missing: Subtitles for what people are saying, even if we can understand them perfectly and the banter back at the newsdesk after the story that compeltely undercuts any seriousness that may have been present in the story itself.

How does your local newscast stack up? Do they use this formula, too?

If it were just me out and about, I'd have no problem at all making it out to the play in Greenbelt tonight (assuming it is still going on... everything else seems to be canceled).

But, after just going from the Glenmont metro station to the Giant down the street from my apartment and back to the apartment, I can safely say that there a lot of people out driving who shouldn't be.

Some drive too fast. Some drive too slow. Most of them slam on their breaks. None of that is good in weather like this. Almost had a half dozen different little fender benders due to other people doing stupid things.

So, not going to make the run out to Greenbelt tonight. Or run any of the other errands I was hoping to run today.

(Which, really, equals a whole lot of lost money on the zipcar... really wasn't expecting the snow and weather to do this they way it is.)

But, I did get to stock up on heavy things (like cans of stuff, which I was running out of) and some snacks for tomorrows role playing game (which I really hope people will make it to, otherwise I've got a lot of stuff to eat that I'd rather not).

Hope everyone else out there is staying warm, safe and dry.

So I'm planning on hitting the closing night show of the Dangerous Liaisons production that's going on at the Greenbelt Arts Center this Saturday.

Show starts at 8 p.m. and features a handful of people that I know and love seeing on stage.

Anyone else interested?

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

Busy middle of the week here. Two great groups for anyone with an interest in web or new media stuff.

On Wednesday night, we've got this month's DC Media Makers

http://www.meetup.com/dc-media-makers/calendar/12206252

It's tech savvy entrepreneur and Shiny Heart Ventures Co-founder Jen Consalvo. Jen loves making cool apps and supporting the social tech DC community. She often speaks about entrepreneurship around the region and country.

And.

She's an awesome photographer pro.

With her great creative eye, please join Jen this January to learn some of her favorite photography techniques.

On Thursday night, we've got Refresh DC:

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/5277638

Color is such a fundamental part of the visual design process that articulating the development of a color palette can be overlooked. As a visual designer, David will talk about being mindful of the use of color. As someone who is colorblind, he will discuss how his condition has lead him to approach color theory in a unique way, resulting in applying the new HSLa color value. The talk will be part color theory, part accessibility, part technical demonstration.

David will be introducing himself as the new helmsman of the Refresh DC ship. He works as a web designer for nclud, where he explores the frontiers of front-end web development.

Hope to see some of you out there!

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

In celebration of their birthdays, Nguyet and Sarah decided to have a joint, 80's prom themed shindig.

This is amusing because they're barely old enough to really remember most of the 80s first hand. Thankfully there are numerous films to catch you up on the best and worst of the decade.

I, of course, didn't manage to pull together anything near what I had hoped for. Couldn't even find the right pair of sunglasses when I finally had time to run around to do some shopping on the Friday before the shindig. Ended up just going with a sport coat, solid white t-shirt, and jeans. (And a Rubik's Cube and first generation Game Boy.)

The music was mostly decade-specific, but with some modern favorites (of the birthday girls, not particularly mine) and a lot of fun. From my "I do remember the 80s in full" point of view, there were bunches of "standard" songs that were missing from the play list, but there's only so much you can squeeze into seven or so hours of party.

Maybe I'll put together my own 4 or 6 hour "Kier Remembers the 80s" playlist. I think I can half fill it right off the top of my head and I'm sure browsing the Billboard Number One hits of the 80s would jog more out of my aging brain.

The night, though it got off to a rough start (left my wallet and belt at home), the night was fantastic and a tremendous amount of fun.

I'll have to remember to pick up some decade appropriate wigs and costume bits if/when I see them (or next Halloween). That way I'll be ready for the next time this comes up.

Originally published at Toob Talk. You can comment here or there.

A few years ago, my friend Kelley was involved in the production of a sci-fi series called Trenches that really piqued my interest. It was an online series with some pretty hefty backing (Disney/ABC) about a bunch of space marines shooting it out on an alien planet when things go from bad to worse.

Unfortunately, the arm of Disney/ABC that was going to release it got chopped off and boxed away during some restructuring.

For the past year or so, there’s been some doubt about whether we’d ever get to see Trenches.

That day is now just a few weeks away.

For a web series, it carries a pretty hefty budget. a reported $250,000. But that price tag shows in the trailer. From what can be seen in that and the behind the scenes bits posted on the show’s main website, this looks at least as good as SyFy Channel Original Movie. It definitely looks to have better effects and acting than most of those.

On February 16, the first episode will go live on Sony’s Crackle.com.

According to the LA Times:

Business affairs executives at Sony Pictures Television, which runs Crackle, became aware that Disney was looking to sell distribution rights to “Trenches,” and the company decided it could find a slot for it on Crackle, which mixes original series with television shows and movies from Sony’s library.

After debuting on Crackle.com, “Trenches” will later be shown on the sites of Sony distribution partners, including YouTube and MySpace.

I know I’m looking forward to finally seeing it. Even better, according to the Times article, after it makes the rounds online, it stands a chance of being expanded into a property that may see DVD and cable release, too.

This is just the first of a handful of projects friends of mine have been working on over the last year or two that will see public release this year. Keep an eye here for more details on everything from Browncoats: Redemption to Ghosts Don’t Exist.

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

As is too often the case, I'm getting off to a late start in the new year.

The good news is, this time around, it's because I've been busy and distracted with mostly good stuff.

But now, just over two weeks into not only the new year but a whole new decade, it's time to look back a little and forward a lot. Especially in all things Durosian.

For those of you just joining us, "Durosia" is this whole virtual "empire" of mine. I've been building it on and off for the better part of 15 years. First as little bits of free webspace here and there in college, then as it's own piece of Internet real estate. Durosia.com is the capital, all of my other blogs, social networking pages, and side projects are semi-autonomous provinces, some more lively than others.

As of right now, these are:

• Active Blogs
  • Durosia.com
  • How to Crush Without Being Crushed
  • Toob Talk
  • The Searcher Journal
  • american-arcane.livejournal.com
• Active Social Networking Contact Points
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • LinkedIn
  • Multiply
  • Flickr
  • Twitter
  • Delicious Bookmarks
  • YouTube
• Inactive areas
  • Dragon-Pen.com
  • Various other quickly fading social networking sites

<!--break-->

In Review

The past year hasn't seen a lot of movement or growth in any of these. There have been many distractions, and many more excuses, for things not being updated regularly (or at all). Without a doubt, 2009 was not the year of growth I had planned for the Durosian family of sites.

But, all was not in vain. Many of the "distractions" brought me into contact with people who produce fantastic bits of content on their own. There have also been some interesting projects that were begun during the past year (none of which will be fully finished until sometime this year).

One of the biggest things is Browncoats: Redemption, a fan film for charity set in the same universe as Joss Whedon's Firefly television series and Serenity feature film. The film shot over the summer and will be released at DragonCon 2010. It's really something to look forward to.

Another project that started last year and just recently saw the light of day was my Blogging 101 Workshop. Through the DC Bloggers, I had the opportunity to put on the first version of the workshop on January 9. It wasn't quite all I wanted it to be, but was good enough to get some people interested and on the right track. Later this year, I hope to have a revised version to present to the public.

Pretty much everything else stagnated over the past year. The blogs saw sporadic updates, moderate traffic growth, and some decent comments (some even from people I didn't know then). Perhaps worst of all, there are a couple of outstanding freelance-flavored projects that are well behind where I wanted them to be. (Those will be tied up and delivered before this month is out.)

Looking Ahead

This coming year is going to be the growth year that last year was supposed to be.

Already, with the Blogging 101 Workshop in progress, I'm ahead of where I was last year at this time. Expect more growth in the area of blogging and social media as the year goes on.

The major focus this year is going to be on How to Crush Without Being Crushed. Of all the properties, I think it stands the chance for the best wide-spread interest and greatest growth. Durosia.com is the secondary focus (because, after all, the capital should look pretty good, should it not?).

As part of that, there's a planned redesign of both of those sites. That should be done by the end of March at the latest.

While that redesign is going on, there is still a solid goal of a sustained 300 visitor per week level at WithoutBeingCrushed.com (currently bouncing between about 40 and 150 visitors per week for the past year). With some well-placed marketing and more regular content updates, that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

There's also going to be a little bit of a push for gaining a few webhosting clients. I've got webspace to sell, I just need to nail down my pricing and services offered.

Overall, it would be nice if between the blogs and the hosting clients, my webspace paid for itself and maybe kicked me back an extra few bucks a month.

So, that's things here in a nutshell. Here's looking forward to some serious growth in the coming quarter.

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

It's been a busy start to the new year and I'm a little behind on where I wanted to be with the pre-work for this Saturday's kickoff of my first Blogging 101 workshop.

I have high hopes for the quality of the content and I'm currently sitting elbow deep in a slew of interesting statistics, techniques, lists, tips, and other assorted useful bits of information. Getting it all tied together into something coherent is a wonderfully frustrating exercise.

Granted, it also doesn't help that I keep popping off on research tangents and being interrupted by other things--welcome things like visiting friends and slightly less welcome things like bringing work home. But, the work is related to the non-work stuff, like this Blogging 101 workshop, so it all balances out, I suppose.

The various circles of friends I'm in have provided some great ideas about what they'd like to learn about in a Blogging 101 workshop. There are the very expected ones like "How to get traffic", "What platform to use", and "How to make it pay." There have also been some very insightful ones--like "How to deal with trolls" and dealing with privacy and safety.

If there's something you'd like to suggest, comment! If it doesn't make it into this workshop, it'll most certainly be fodder for a Blogging 201 workshop later.

This first one is made possible by the wonderful people from the DC Bloggers Meetup. RSVP for the event here.

Originally published at How to Crush Without Being Crushed. You can comment here or there.

This little video, a 2009 Cannes Lions winner, says a whole lot about communication. How much we need it. How difficult it can be. How wonderful making the right connection is.

And it does it all without the main characters saying anything.

It really does take the idea of text messages–something those of us online deal with daily–to a whole new level.

What’s the strangest way you’ve ever connected with someone else?

Originally published at Toob Talk. You can comment here or there.

First, go and watch this trailer for the new Karate Kid movie staring Jacki Chan and Wil Smith’s talented son Jaden.

If this weren’t being billed as The Karate Kid, I don’t think it would be that bad.

My problem is that, once again, we’ve taken everything except the most very basic story idea (kid learns martial arts from an older dude who really knows what he’s talking about so kid can not get beat all to hell in school) and some names and thrown it out the window. That leaves us with a very generic plot which can be gussied up in any way possible. There are a dozen (or more) movies with similar enough plots that this film (if you change out Miyagi’s name) could be a remake of.

They’ve obviously gone with The Karate Kid to capitalize on the name recognition and probably the strong emotional connection many of us from Generation X have with the story.

But the story–the details that made it really important and easy to relate to for those of us who saw it in the 80s–are pretty much all gone.

First, our protagonist is 11 years old. That leaves me wondering who the target market for this film is. In the original, Daniel was in high school–eager to get his first car and get a date. Here, from the trailer, it looks like we’re dealing with a situation firmly rooted in just plain old bullying. Why do you want to learn that stuff? So I don’t get beat up. Why don’t you want to get beat up? Because it sucks. It doesn’t get any more basic than that, but being that basic removes more than a little of the drama from it all.

I’m betting it’s going to be more a mother-son dynamic than the original. Heck, it has to be. The kid’s freakin’ 11, not much romantic involvement that you get into there.

We know Jackie Chan knows his stuff, but I’m curious if the bulk of this film is going to be some sort of “love letter” to the wonders of China. Chan’s been talking up the Chinese party line a bit more of late, so it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m going to be very interested to see what kind of backstory gets used for his updated sensei.

And we’ll attempt to completely ignore that this is set in China and karate is Japanese in origin. Of course, we’ll happily continue to ignore that what your young hero is being taught is kung fu (which is Chinese), just like in the original.

Will I see it? Maybe. But it’s not high on my list. The original may just hold too high a place in my personal list of movies that made a difference for me. Mostly, though, I don’t think the writing will be able to make the film as strong as it could be.

Maybe future trailers will prove me wrong and change my mind. (I really hope they do, actually.)

How do you feel about this film, based on that trailer?

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

For those of us who've been around for two decades or more, it should come as no real surprise that the past ten years are seen as the worst decade in 50 years.

According to a recently released set of poll results from the Pew Research Center, a full half of the people surveys say their perception of the oughts was negative (in comparison, only 12 percent saw the 80s as negative).

Yeah, it's been kind of a crappy decade by a lot of standards. But it's also had some pretty amazing things happen.

Our technology and ability to share ideas with one another has continued to expand at a ridiculously fast rate. If at the end of 1999 you had described a service like Twitter to someone, they probably would have laughed at you. If you had shown them an iPhone or Droid (seriously, check out the latest augmented reality stuff), they'd surely tell you it was a prop from some sci-fi film.

And the ways in which people can get together to do good? Mind blowing. Just this month I watched Alyssa Milano raise over $75,000 for a charity in the space of two weeks. Almost all small donations from myriad fans who follow her on Twitter or other webby ways.

In the coming decade, there's nothing to stop any of us from reaching out and making a difference. The barriers for that have dropped to almost nothing. Worst case scenario? You go to a library or a friend's place and use a computer there to throw together a quick website using Google Sites and get the word out through any number of social networking tools.

There is no excuse for not working toward the change you want to see.

Go out and do it. Don't just hope the next decade will be better. Make it that way.

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

From the "What the heck were they thinkig department?"

Apparently, designer Franziska Dierschke has designed a point-and-shoot camera that makes it actually look like you're going to shoot.

Being in an area where a cop pulled out a gun during a snowball fight and where there's a history of people with badges and titles having problems with photographers taking pictures anyway, a camera like this is a tragedey waiting to happen.

Seriously, as a designer, there's some small need for practicality. Especially for something that's, in theory, meant to be mass produced and played with in the open. Every day there are instances when cops (both well-meaning and thuggish) draw down on someone who they think is brandishing a dangerous weapon. We get to hear about all that times they open fire and later discover that's not the case.

I guess the only bright side to being shot while swinging out a camera like the AimAt is that your next of kin will have a nice picture of what you saw last.

(Via Alltop - More on DC Photographers Rights)

Originally published at The Searcher Journal. You can comment here or there.

The Winter Solstice once again finds me looking back on the past months during the wee hours of the night.

It just so happens that this late December, the world around me has been encased in a certain amount of snow and ice. Enough to disrupt pretty much everything in the region. I’ve actually never seen it quite this bad down here.

And I’ve never had it quite so accurately reflect my own past year.

The snow makes things in the urban arena bright. Sources of light are plentiful, but the darkness often swallows them up. The snow catches and reflects the bulk of that once lost light, illuminating even the darkest night with a somewhat eerie glow.

It makes everything seem navigable.

But it’s not.

That same snow that reflects so much light and lets you see where you’re going also works against you. It pulls your legs out from under you as you step on a spot of ice. It slows you down and chills your bones as you trudge through it.

Give it half a chance and it will kill you.

Over this past year, I’ve had a few things I’ve relied on–systems that have worked quite well–turn on me and work against me. But as a side effect, they’ve also provided quite a bit of illumination, cutting through some blind spots and making seen some long hidden dark corners.

This past year, and the one before it, have been a time of complacency and stagnation for me. I’ve been frozen in place, able to see clearly, but unable to move in any given direction without losing my footing.

Now, as I pass through the darkest part of the Solstice–awake and aware of where I have been–I know full well that the coming sun will bring with it a true light and useful warmth. That light and warmth will eventually grow and, in time, will thaw the entrapping ice and snow.

Over the next handful of months, there will be many changes. Plans that have been simmering in an igloo-like incubator (safe from the frostbite, but still held in reserve) will spring forth and make their own way in the world. New ideas will push their way out of the tundra and take root with the strength to serve as handholds, steadying all who pass by on the treacherous ice.

Most importantly, though, I choose to do this. Even before the thaw, I’ll be picking my way along a path I’ve looked at for a long time.

The going will be slow at first, but there will be movement.

The sun will rise. The ice will glitter, then melt. And the path will once again be clear.

Originally published at How to Crush Without Being Crushed. You can comment here or there.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s how easily I can fall back into old patterns.

And my old patterns when it comes to romantic feelings are far from beneficial to me or anyone else who may be involved.

I can very quickly fall into an obsessive, self-destructive crush mode. On the flip side, I can fall for someone because I think I can “save” them–the perfect example of White Knight Syndrome. There are also any number of other things that I’m at least vaguely attracted to that are sure-fire paths to badly skewed cost/benefit ratio.

In order to avoid those known problem areas, I’ve got a set of questions and tests that I’ve conditioned the logical side of my mind to automatically start running through as soon as a crush lasts for more than a day or two. Here are five of the big ones.

1. Am I Really Falling For Her?

Often, this is the only question I need to ask and answer to determine a real relationship would be a bad idea. There are many things that can look like falling for someone. You can be in love with the idea of a relationship–any relationship–and the object of your crush is just a convenient target. You can see them as a “project”–something to be fixed (a la The White Knight issues). Or, in my case, you can fall for the idea of the story that the attempt at the relationship would lead to–probably not the best reason to get involved with someone.

2. Why Am I Falling For Her?

If you manage to get past the first question, this one serves as a double-check and a deeper exploration of your own feelings. Again, the answer here could point back to a White Knight issue (“Because she has so much potential that I can help bring out!”). It can also lead to a very sensible list of positive qualities that match well with your own sensibilities. A close look at this list can also hint at the depth of the potential relationship–if everything focuses on the physical (pretty, snappy dresser, good job, etc.), there’s a hefty chance it’ll be a superficial fling.

3. What Do We Have In Common?

Another chance for a nice list. Relationships between people with nothing in common (despite what oh-so-many pop-culture fairy tales tell us) rarely work out well in the long run. At best, both people happily go their separate ways with broadened horizons. More often, there are grudges, heavy misunderstandings, and big fights. One big thing to look for is a common communication style. If one of you communicates best face to face and the other does best via e-mail or text message, it’s going to be a rough road.

4. Is A Relationship Even Vaguely Appropriate?

Is she a co-worker? Is he a business partner? Your boss? Your employee? A recent ex of a good friend? There are any number of situations that could make a relationship seem inappropriate. Even if it isn’t a make-or-break question, it’s important to realize going into a relationship how it’s going to look to those outside. External social dynamics can cause a lot of problems inside a relationship.

5. How Much Am I Willing To Compromise?

This is the biggest of the big deal questions. It can override all that come before or after it. It can also, in retrospect, point right back to the first question. Almost any obstacle can be overcome, almost any hardship beaten, but all that comes at a cost. Often, that cost is in our own comfort, integrity, safety, and/or security. If she refuses to live north of the Mason-Dixon line, are you OK with having to travel long distances to visit your family in Chicago? If he can’t stand the west coast, are you willing to give up on that dream of living in LA? Relationships are always about compromise, you should be very familiar with where your limits of giving are.

Granted, these are all questions asked by the logical side of the brain. There’s only so much that side can do if the emotional half is determined to jump from crush to relationship, no matter what.

At least if things go poorly, you’ll have the small consolation of being able to look back, shake your head, and say “I should have known.”

And if things go well… all the better: You’ve either beaten your own odds or proved you accurately know yourself.

Originally published at Toob Talk. You can comment here or there.

To say I didn’t hold out a whole lot of hope for the reboot of the Friday the 13th franchise would only be a slight understatement.

I was relatively happy with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, so seeing the same team involved kept my expectations from being totally negative. There was some small spark of hope that it would cut to what I think is the core of the character and story, that it would get at least some of the terror right, that it would fix what I saw as some of the problems with the original.

Well, I’ve just finally gotten around to seeing the new Friday the 13th and it managed to disappoint me more than I thought possible.

What it has is a pretty cast and a pretty good production value.

What it doesn’t have is pretty much everything else.

If you’ve been living under a rock since the early 80s, you may not be familiar with the basic plot of a Friday the 13th movie. Let me run it down for you: Kids go into the woods to party, most of them end up dead, killed by a dude named Jason in a hockey mask who is, eventually, subdued and apparently killed by the end of the film. That pretty much covers the bulk of the other 11 films that have carried the Friday the 13th name.

And, really, it sums this one up, too.

The big difference is that the most recent incarnation of the film lacks pretty much everything that makes the franchise unique.

Jason is one of the iconic killers of the golden age of slasher films. Along with Freddy, Michael Meyers, and Leatherface (who, in my opinion, really doesn’t fit, but is typically put in the grouping… I’d be more prone to add Norman Bates) he’s part of a deeply ingrained pop culture of dark morality tales and nightmares. Like the rest of the familiar names in that list, he exists to kill. What has always set Jason apart was that he was a more blunt killer–not witty like Freddy, not single-minded like Meyers, not full of rage (or hunger?) like Leatherface. He killed in direct ways, approaching slowly, always up close.

This move got rid of all of that.

The film is populated with an overly-large cast of paper-thin stereotypes of social detritus: douchebags, pot heads, sex-hungry vixens, and horny dudes. So eager are the filmmakers to top the kill count of all the previous iterations, they give us nearly three groups of mostly white trash that get taken out. (The first is mostly implied in the poorly done prelude that more or less runs through the plot of the very first Friday the 13th in less than ten minutes.)

There are only three characters that even come close to being decent human beings. Bad news is, they’re not fleshed out much more than the cannon fodder… and one of them doesn’t make it (kind of spoiling any message one could attempt to read into the film).

The worst thing, though, is the complete and utter lack of anything to differentiate Jason from any other random serial killer. Sure, there’s the hockey mask and the oft used machete, but those don’t mean anything if anyone could be behind them.

In this movie, Jason runs. There’s none of the ominous slow stalking that upped the tension of many of the previous films. He also kills from a distance using a bow and arrow. Perhaps worst of all, he makes use of numerous tunnels and traps that betray a much higher-functioning personality behind the mask than was ever present in Jason.

He was, after all, a slightly mentally challenged 8-year-old at heart.

And then there’s the kills. While there was plenty of blood and gore in the deaths in this movie, there was no real creativity–and especially not any creativity that would be in line with Jason (if he were a unique character in the film). More than a few of the killings are convoluted and none are anywhere near as forthrightly brutal as what’s been shown in older Friday films.

(As a side note: While I was bouncing around looking for some art to put with this post, I came across a nice review of the film from James Melzer. He touches nicely on the lack of uniqueness of the Jason character as portrayed in this film as well as a few other important things. Check it out.)

The bottom line is, this film would have been just as good–or bad, in my opinion–without having the Friday the 13th brand on it. Of course, without that, no one would have gone to see it and I most certainly wouldn’t be talking about it at all now. So, good business decision, I guess.

Especially since they’re all ready to roll on a sequel. (Which I most certainly won’t be seeing in the theaters.)

I recommend you stay away from this iteration of the classic slasher flick. You’d be much better served going back and watching the originals.

Busy as all getout these last few weeks.

Still have a totally skewed sleep schedule, which doesn't make things any easier. Hope to have that straight after the upcoming vacation.

Tuesday, I head north for about a week. Going to see some people I haven't seen in a while (I've enlisted my old friend Amy to buffer me from relatives at the family get-together. Double bonus, as I didn't manage to catch up with her much the last couple of times I made the trip North.)

Before then, though, there is Saturday. I have a handful of things I cold do on Saturday. I want to do all of them. Alas, there is but one of me and that one still does not have a working teleportation device. Maybe Spellbound, maybe Electroshock, maybe Turkeymas... all so incredibly tempting.

And maybe the weather will wipe any of those plans right off the list.

As long as things are OK enough on Sunday for my gaming group to show up for the last session of the season... I've got a good ending planned! :)

Right... back to work for me. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

Are you a Browncoat? Are you interested in who a movie comes together? Can you imagine a project built on a passion to really make a difference? If any of those questions bring a positive answer, then you should make it a point to show up at Wednesday's DC Media Makers meeting.

Michael Dougherty (writer & director) and Steve Fisher (co-producer) have created Browncoats: Redemption, a feature-length fan film based in Joss Whedon's Firefly universe, and all profits will benefit charities. They'll be coming back for their second visit to DCMM. (Their first was what brought me to the group and I can't thank them enough for that.)

The magic will be happening at the NPR offices (635 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC) at 6:30 p.m. Show up early and get a good seat, it looks like it'll be a crowded meeting.

Originally published at Durosia.com. You can comment here or there.

Senator Al Franken took Senator John Thule to task for misrepresenting the facts of the latest health care bill.

While this is being tossed all around by the blatantly liberal media outlets, I can't help but wonder how they'd all feel if (and when?) someone like Franken takes someone in the Democratic party to task about the same sort of things.

Now, granted, the chances of that happening seem to be pretty slim. Not because the Democrats are always open and honest about things or because they always know what they're talking about, but because they seem summarily predisposed to not speaking the hell up about things in general.

At least not until they're screaming at Republicans.

Slowly, this is changing. With someone like Franken at the forefront of actual sensible political action--in this case telling it like it is--I can't help but think it's well past time we got all the current clowns out of the big white buildings and brought in more comedians.

I hope more of Congress gets fired up about the dishonesty and game playing that's become standard practice here in our nation's capital--and in most state and far too many local governments as well (I'm looking at my home state of NY and home county of Sullivan and being very sad right now). I hope the junior Senators and Representatives shout down their incorrect colleagues--no matter what side of the divide they're on. And shout them down with actual facts, not hyperbolic panic-inducing fear-mongering or ridiculously trite emotional appeals.

I hope all that, but I'm not holding my breath.

Honest outspoken voices are few and far between in the halls of government these days. Heck, it's been true since Frank Capra put it the fight between Truth and the institution up on the big screen in 1939 in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

And it always seems to end the same way. Every time it gets played out.

We're the only ones who can change that.

Contact your representatives. Demand they read the bills they vote on. Demand they tell the truth and don't resort to crass manipulation and fantasies in place of facts. And if they refuse--if they continue to conduct business as usual--demand they step down until they're willing and able to serve the ideals of this nation as they were meant to be served.

We've all let this go on too long.

Originally published at The Searcher Journal. You can comment here or there.

When Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas hit the screens, it very quickly became one of my all-time favorite holiday films.

Mostly because it had my favorite holiday (Halloween, in case you can’t tell) blended in with the much more popular one.

Mostly, but not entirely. The movie (if you haven’t seen it) deals with Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween Town (where it’s always Halloween, of course), discovering Christmas. Misunderstandings and some poor decisions happen, and, ultimately, things work out pretty well for all involved.

The main thrust of the story, like so many other Christmas-themed films, is the discovery of what “Christmas” really means.

The main thrust of the story is one of self-discovery, like so many other Christmas-themed films. The secondary theme is the discovery of what “Christmas” really means.*

For those who are some flavor of Christian, the easy answer is obvious: It celebrates the birth of Christ the Savior. For those who are devout in their Christian faith, there probably isn’t any other answer needed outside of that one.

Thing is, Christmas has become much more than that.

We probably have Macy’s and Coca Cola to blame.

See, commercial interests have done more to advance the idea of Christmas more than any official church body ever has. By pumping advertising dollars into images of Santa Clause, snowmen, and polar bears, they’ve spread the secular mythology of the holiday around the world many times over.

I was raised Catholic, so early on I was very familiar with the religious angle of things. Starting from that point, it’s kind of difficult to reconcile all the rest of the holiday hoopla. In many ways, the sacred and secular versions of Christmas are at odds with one another. That dissonance, while not spoken about much growing up, still irks me a little.

But what I’ve discovered (or decided, which may be more accurate), is that at the core of both versions of the holiday is the spirit of love, giving, and hope.

At it’s core, Christmas is about how we can all be better than we normally are–and how we should strive to be better all year long, not just on that one day.

That answer comes to us from any number of places, perhaps the most famous being the Yes, Virgina, There is a Santa Clause editorial. Propagated more by (another one of my all time favorites) Miracle on 34th Street.

These days, I tend to focus more on the deeper secular meaning of the holiday. It’s more palatable in many ways in the multi-cultural world we live in.

I can see why many on both sides of the sacred/secular divide still find it offensive that Christmas is pushed so much, but I hope that, someday, we can all be a little more accepting of the secular bits of it.

With things being as nasty as they are out there in the world, I think we can all use a little of Rudolph’s inner strength and Santa’s jolliness and Frosty’s good cheer to make things a little better for everyone.

[* Edited to clear up the film themes. Further proof I shouldn't write when I should be sleeping.]