Walking Along My Path

Day Four: Behind but Trying!

2009-11-06T08:05:33Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

Yeah, didn't get anything new cranked out today. Was more than a little preoccupied with other things... like queezing enough space into the budget for a spiffy new Droid phone. That should show up on Monday. I'll be able to write during my commute again! And read.

This is good.

The next spread for the coming chapter has been drawn. Behold!

King of Shields
Ace of Swords
Two of Cups
The Sun
Five of Shields
Four of Swords
Six of Cups
Death
Six of Spears (inverted)
Eight of Swords

Again, I'm not sure right off the top what characters are involved in this chapter, but I'm suspecting (once I further inspect the cards) that we may finally see Solomon Mercado (our Knight of Shields) or Kristy Roth (our Queen of Swords) make an appearance... there certainly is the space for them here.

Always a Surprise

2009-11-05T08:23:20Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

That was kind of unexpected.

Looks like we have another two characters that just showed up, neither of which I was expecting.

Oliver Coffee is a former employee of Diversified Research Engineering, the company that just merged with British Implementations.

Adolfo Demetrius is a gregarious stranger that came knocking on his door with a strange story and promise of destiny.

We also now know there's some sort of movement afoot based around a sacred text of some sort. Could this be what the Seven of Cups keeps hinting at in the story spreads? It just may be.

I've also decided that I really need to make some changes to a section of Chapter 2... the whole justification for why BI starts a new division is a bit too doom and gloomy to be sellable, even in the reality of this story. They're more likely attempting to record and preserve endangered cultures than to be trying to save the world by total information management or something... going to have to figure out how best to do that.

Anyway, that's another 1900 words or so. Not quite caught up, but closer.

Can't wait to see what happens next.

Also, note the change in the URL of the site: it's now fiction.durosia.com. I figured that opens up a few more possibilities than just NaNoWriMo.

Day Three: And now I'm officially behind

2009-11-04T07:26:38Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

It's amazing the difference a day makes.

Went out after work with some coworkers, had a great time. Got home a little before midnight and sat down to spread the cards and write a bit... and promptly crashed out on the couch.

I may be able to crank out 3K words on Wednesday, but I'm thinking the catchup may have to wait for the weekend.

Either way, here's the spread for the next chapter:

Two of Shields (inverted)
The Tower
Ace of Swords (inverted)
King of Swords
Eight of Cups
The Horned One (inverted)
The Moon (inverted)
Seven of Cups
Knight of Spears (inverted)
The Hierophant (inverted)

Well... it looks like someone is having a particularly rough time in this chapter. Figuring out who is one of the real challenges of doing "readings" this way.

In a typical reading, it's very clear who the subject of the reading is. Using the spread the way I am for this work of fiction, I have to kind of work backwards to figure out which character the cards are talking about. At least at this early point, where I'm still introducing the characters.

Definitely a challenge.

But fun. And a good mental and creative workout.

Now if I just didn't have to sleep or go to work, I could really make this happen tonight. ;)

Still on track

2009-11-03T08:16:44Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

Well, there's another 1700+ words down.

Next trick is to get around to doing that before it gets near 3 a.m. (Of course, it doesn't help that I totally crashed out when I sat down to start writing at 10 p.m., after being barely awake enough to make dinner when I got home... )

This time around, we've got one new character (who was mentioned in passing in the original setup), a new company mentioned and the "I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it" insertion of an MMORPG... it just seemed like the kind of thing Trent would be working on.

Noreen (who's name was generated in the standard method) fits a bit with both the queen's that showed up in the spread for this chapter. We'll be getting to know her better as time goes on, I think. The company she works for, Firedrake Consulting, was inspired by the last card in the layout.

Everything else... well... we'll see how that all plays out.

I was "accused" of being organized in all this by a friend. The truth is, I'm totally flying by the seat of my pants. Aside from the simple arithmetic used to divide everything up into 30 parts (one per day) and those parts into sensible chunks, I'm just going by what the cards lay out.

This is, by far, the least structured and planned NaNoWriMo I've done yet.

And I think I already topped my word count of the last two years...

Day Two

2009-11-03T00:24:59Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

Looking at my schedule, I already see problems with getting one of these "chapters" done per day. I foresee weekend where I'm going to have to crank out three or four in order to make up for losing evenings to meetings, time with friends or, y'know, sleep.

Looking back on Day One's copy, I can't say I'm exceptionally happy with it. But, since it's all the way over there in another post, I can resist the urge to go and re-write when I go to work on tonight's installment. I may have finally found a way to not constantly re-edit things as I write or add to them...

Now, on to the next spread:

The Lovers
Queen of Spears
Queen of Cups
Five of Swords (inverted)
Wheel of Fortune
The Emperor (inverted)
Two of Swords
Two of Spears
The Fool
The Star

Another big bunch of Major Arcana cards... kind of appropriate for the beginning of a story, I guess--numerous external forces conspiring to make the lives of the characters more interesting than "normal" people and such.

Onward toward more typing...

The first bit is always the hardest... until the next bit

2009-11-02T08:40:09Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

I just finished banging out over 1700 words for the first chapter of my NaNoWriMo story. I want to write more. There are so many more nuances hinted at by the spread it's based on that I'd need at least another thousand to do it justice. But they'd also have to be shoe horned into the scene something fierce. Go read it, if you have some time, and let me know what you think.

For the names of the companies (British Implimentations and Diversified Research Engineering), I once again turned to Seventh Sanctum's generators. I'll be using them a lot.

There was also some interesting research on badgers and how they live that I didn't have a chance to work into the main story yet, but will certainly come into play. (That was, of course, inspired by the particularities of the Tarot deck I'm using and the fact that the Page of Shields has a badger on it.)

The latin motto of BI, "Knowledge, Compassion and Determination", was generated using The Latin Motto Generator. And the word count was made by a quick copy and paste into The Word Count Tool (I figure as long as I'm doing this online, I may as well do everything online, right?)

Now, I need to sleep, since I can't just take the whole month off to write, I've still got to go to work and pay the bills.

And so it begins...

2009-11-01T09:21:12Z

Originally published at A Tarot Experiment. You can comment here or there.

Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2009!

Jumping right in to the experiment using Tarot as the main guide to, well, everything in the story.

We start out with the main characters, drawn from just the court cards of the Minor Arcana:

Queen of Swords
King of Spears (Wands)
Knight of Shields (Pentacles)
Page of Cups

Well, that's an interesting spread. One from each of the suits.

Because it fits my normal literary tastes, I'm going to use our Knight as the main character. Turning to the wonderful name generator over at Seventh Sanctum, we find that he is called Solomon Mercado. I think I can work with that.

I'm going to go and do the same for everyone else. I'm also going to do a single card draw for each from the rest of the deck that will come into play in a second. Note that I've also decided to set the story in a more contemporary time than the Arthurian cards project, so there's going to be some translation and twisting going on.

Solomon Mercado (Knight of Shields) - Ten of Cups
Titus Trent Nelson (Page of Cups) - Five of Cups (inverted)
Mitchel Len Bender (King of Spears) - Seven of Spears
Kristy Roth (Queen of Swords) - Seven of Cups (inverted)

That's a lot of cups showing up. Probably means there's going to be a lot of drama going on here... which is appropriate, seeing as how it's a novel and all. Probably some mystical stuff, too.

Now taking those cards into account. These are where our four characters start from--a certain point in their lives, if you will.

Solomon has just reached a wonderful plateau in his life. His career is going well: he just got a promotion and is lauded by his superiors and loved by those who work with and below him. He's about to ask his girlfriend to marry him and probably as an offer in on a house. He is living the dream. (I'm sure that will all be ruined by whatever problems prompt him to go on his quest.)

Titus, a new hire at Solomon's company (maybe?), just got back in touch with an old girlfriend from college. They've been talking for a bit online. He's kind of excited about this as he sees her as "the one who got away."

Mitchel is the head of the company. He's just lead a successful merger with what had been one of their lead competitors. Needless to say, there are still grumblings about how it's "Just not right" that the merger has happened, but Mitch has been able to make things go pretty smoothly, all things considered. There are rumors, though, that there's something else he's looking for... something that may or may not actually exist.

Kristy was a vice president before her company was takeno over by Mitchel's, now she's "just" the head of a division. She's been taking the apparent demotion is stride, though, as she knows why Mitch fought so hard for the merger. She knows what he's looking for and is determined to convince him that she's more than capable of helping him find it.

OK... no actual villains yet. I'm sure they'll come up eventually.

But, we've got a starting point, some names and faces and what seems to be a vaguely coherent plot shaping up.

Not bad for some randomly drawn cards, eh?

Now the actual overall arch, from a simple five card spread (after shuffling everything back together, of course):

Eight of Shields (inverted)
King of Cups
Nine of Shields (inverted)
Two of Cups
Page of Cups

These will be the five sections of the story (which will have 30 chapters, so each section will have 6 chapters to it).

In the beginning, we learn of what this mysterious "quest object" may be. There is an underlying feeling of unease in some areas of the company, but rumors of something big on the horizon. Somewhere out there (probably a subsidiary or remaining rival) produces something that fuels the conspiracy theories. Has some bit of code, trade secret of design been leaked from the main offices or is something else going on?

Part Two looks like it will introduce someone new--someone who holds a key piece of information about what Mitch and Kristy are searching for.

Part Three: Everything goes to hell. Infighting ensues, betrayal and false promises are exposed, people turn their backs on one another. Shallow interests trump wisdom. (Seriously, this is the interpretation of the card, more or less straight... eerie, isn't it?)

Part Four: A time of reunion and strengthening bonds. Some romance, but, ultimately, a tragedey.

Part Five: Looks like Titus will be coming into his own in the home stretch. Interesting... can't wait to see how we get there.

And now, we'll hit the first actual chapter layout, using the Celtic Cross and Staff spread (note that the info at the link there is a little different from the method I use when I do readings for people, but for the purpose of the fiction experiment, it should serve pretty darn well.) We reshuffle the deck and get:

Page of Shields
Seven of Cups
Eight of Swords (inverted)
Queen of Cups (inverted)
The Magician
Two of Cups (inverted)
Three of Cups (inverted)
Knight of Spears
Three of Shields
The Fool (inverted)

At a quick first glance, it looks like we've got a pretty solid thread for a first chapter here. A few more potential characters, definitely some foreshadowing opportunities, and, smack dab in the middle (card 2), an indication of who the prime mover of the situation is--the card tied to Kristy and Mitch... that "mythical" something else they're looking for.

Now I just need to eke out some time to turn that spread into a narrative.

Halloween: Win!

2009-11-01T07:48:43Z

After going to bed way later than expected between Friday and Saturday, I got up a bit later than planned and didn't get to the ZipCar until around 2:30 in the afternoon.

Then I decided to fight the traffic up and down Rockville Pike. Why? Because I realized very late Thursday (like, technically, Friday, long after I should have been asleep) that all the makeup I thought I had... I'd thrown out a couple of years ago because it was either dried up or gooey in bad ways. That, of course, would make putting together the planned costume for this year problematic.

And so, I finally got around to hitting the places I'd normally hit, just about three weeks later than I should have. Most places were picked clean. (Though I did find a nice leather motorcycle jacket at Ranger Surplus in Rockville that I may have to go back and get... I need one that actually fits right.) But, over the course of a few hours, I did manage to get everything I thought I'd need.

"Everything I thought I'd need" turned out to be too much, as usual. Good news is, if I ever got some of the projects I have in mind off the ground, some of it will definitely come in handy.

Due to traffic and weather, I got home a bit later than I expected... and apparently (yet again) missed the large group of trick-or-treaters at my apartment. I'll be eating candy for a few weeks. Aw, shucks. :)

I forgot how long it took some liquid latex to dry enough so I could put makeup on it. That slowed down the costume putting together. I ended up rushing on the last bits of application... finally got out of the apartment just after 8:30-ish (about half an hour after I wanted to be at the party).

As always, Jeff's party was fun. He puts out a good spread and lots of fun people show up. My costume went over well, there will be pictures sometime soon. I got sucked in and totally lost track of time... so I didn't make it to Spellbound as I had planned.

But what I did do was have good conversations with interesting people who I really do want to spend more time with.

Overall, Halloween was full of win.

Got home earlier than planned... removed the makeup and then wondered what I should do with my "extra" time. Then I remembered that after Halloween comes NaNoWriMo. So, off I go to start the story... Feel Free to follow it here. :)

And the verdict is...

2009-10-31T09:47:00Z

...quite the successful little night of metaphysical meanderings.

This will have to happen again, with a little more planning. For something that was just kind of let to happen, though, I think it went pretty well. We all learned something or other, had some good times and tasty treats, and I did two Tarot readings.

I've also now been up for over 22 hours on less than 4 hours of sleep (and some odd minutes of not-quite-a-nap zoned out-ness during the day at work).

My ZipCar reservation starts at noon... and I realized today that I still lack a couple of important (and hopefully easily procurable) things for my costume.

Should probably sleep now...

Halloween Approaches!

2009-10-30T17:49:42Z

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

PA250054-processed, originally uploaded by KierDuros.

Churches can look really creepy with the right lighting and background. :)

That's the National Cathedral, shot at about 5 a.m. with my little point and shoot camera... with a little help from Photoshop to bring things up to about the level I was seeing them.

I like it.

Having a small get together at my place tonight (Friday), not exactly Halloween-related, but definitely seasonal in spookyness. Anyone who's interested should let me know. No official invites have gone out as it's kind of last minute and ad hoc. No agenda other than it being metaphysical flavored. All are welcome.

Saturday night is going to be a howling good time. Planning on bouncing to two different parties--one is the annual shindig my buddy Jeff throws, the other is the Halloween party at the club I normally go to. We'll see if I actually make it to both... I'm notoriously bad at party hopping.

Rolling right along...

2009-10-30T03:39:48Z

Got just about all the books back on the shelves (though sooo far from the order I originally put them up... I swear, once upon a time there was a more organized arrangement!) and boxes put away.

I'm more or less on track for the metaphysical get together on Friday (which you are, of course, invited to).

Work has, thankfully, been a little less insane lately. We'll see how long that lasts.

Now that the apartment is back in some form of shape, I should be able to get my non-work schedule back on track... and get some of the lingering freelance/personal projects tied up. Just as importantly (if not more so, because it's been one of the main stumbling points), I'll be able to get my head back in the right place to regain some seriously lost forward momentum.

I am distinctly behind on my holiday posting of things.

So, in honor of the new icon I stumbled across today, here's what my first exposure to Tim Burton was. Needless to say, I was hooked from the start. :)

And Furthermore...

2009-10-29T05:09:04Z

Looking back to this post about NaNoWriMo 2009 and my plans to have a Tarot-fueled story, I decided to get a little more creative and make it into a full-on project.

So now there's a website (nothing fancy, just an sub-site at my Durosia.com Drupal site and a theme downloaded from the bunches available for free).

If all goes as planned, there'll be two types of writing going on there: the actual story and the documentation of the readings that feed into the story. Feel free to play along at home, writing your own interpretations of the spreads. Heck, if people really want to do it, I'll set you up with an account on the site and all the interpretations can live together.

Also, still planning on having that get together on Friday, mentioned here.

Tonight: DC Media Makers talk about Web Video and Stuff

2009-10-28T19:21:54Z

If you work on the web and are looking to meet more people with similar interests, you should come out to the DC Media Makers meeting tonight. Full info here.

To quote the promo stuff:

This month's "conversation starter" at DC Media Makers has so many fantastic projects in the works, I can't wait for him to spend some time with us in a few weeks.

He's Aram Zucker-Scharff.

As technology manager, Aram is galvanizing digital projects online at George Mason University's Office of Student Media.

6:30 p.m.
National Public Radio offices
635 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20001

Shaking up the Spirits

2009-10-28T03:07:20Z

So it appears that the drywall work has been done as promised. By Friday, I should have the place back in some semblance of order. Which means I'm on track to actually pull off a hastily planned, short notice get together on Friday after work.

This get together will be metaphysically flavored. It's been a long time since I've done one of those in my own space. Too long. Previous ones have been very good. And way back in college, I used to do stuff like them all the time (some for specific reasons, others just to see who else was interested in certain topics).

I have no real agenda for this. What goes on will be mostly spontaneous and depend heavily on who and how many show up. Possibilities include a seasonal ritual type thing, discussion of various aspects of spirituality, sharing of personal stories and practices, conjuring things that go bump in the night, and any other number of potentially freaky/enlightening things.

All who are interested in "strange and unusual" things are welcome to show up. As long as you're willing to play nice, I'm willing to have you participate.

If you want food and drink, bring it (and bring enough to share)... I can't lay out a spread like I'd like, so it's going to have to be communal. Food-wise, lighter fare, perhaps with a seasonal twist, would be best. Chocolate is always welcome. Since I don't drink alcohol, any left over libations go home with whoever wants them.

I'm usually home from work by 7 p.m., so things could start as early as 7:30-ish. Target more for 8 p.m., but don't show up too late if you want to be in on everything. I'd link to a map of where my apartment (3213 Whispering Pines Drive, Apt 11, Silver Spring, MD 20906) is, but apparently it no longer exists in Google maps. That's a bit strange and kind of puts me in a very Twilight Zone state of mind.

Apparently I'm living in a place not of this world. A space between spaces. A time between times.

Screwy.

Anyway, hope to see some of you Friday.

And now, for more of the same old, same old

2009-10-27T03:59:58Z

After shaking things up a little by hitting most of a showing of Kubrik's Lolita with rachel_gothic (at a diner, of all places), I have just returned home.

Why "most of a showing?" Because it's Kubrik, which means the movie runs forever. It started at 8 p.m. We left after 10:30 p.m., with the end just barely in sight. This is why I don't do things during the week. Having to catch the train home is always a tricky thing. And, since the buses stop running before the trains do (at least the buses that go past my apartment), there was a cab ride involved.

Really, though, quite worth it for an interesting film with good company.

But now, it's back to the all-too-common task of rearranging things here in casa de Kier. There will be drywall work done tomorrow, I'm told, but only if I have stuff moved out of the path of destruction/reconstruction.

Luckily, I'm used to having to quickly move half of what I own from one place in my apartment to another. Doing it while there's not water running down everywhere is slightly more pleasant.

If this does only take the two days they've said, I think I am going to have a little metaphysical get-together on Friday.

More on that by Wednesday.

Now, on to moving boxes.

Lazy Sunday...

2009-10-26T03:20:51Z

A bit too lazy, perhaps. But that's hard to avoid after a great night out like Saturday was.

After a day spent cleaning, I made the run out to Spellbound for the normal Saturday night shenanigans (plus the extra added bonuses of it being the kick-off to the club's third year and the birthdays of two good friends). There were plenty of people out and about that I don't often see (which is always nice) and they were looking fantastic and having fun (which is even better to see). Heck, there were even people there that I'd only met once or twice before... who actually remembered me (and I remembered them, too, once the context of the previous meeting was put into place).

rachel_gothic made sure I got my dance floor exercise by enlisting my arms and balance to help her bounce and twirl about. I think we're both lucky I have a high self-preservation instinct... and an even higher desire to not see my friends hit the ground. Once again I was reminded just how much of a dance I am not and how much of my body awareness I've lost over the decade or so since I last took any martial arts classes. It was a whole lot of fun, though, and I'm surprisingly not sore from it.

The night continued on from there. A bunch of us stayed to totally close down the club, then it was off a few blocks down the street for crepes. Mmmmm... tasty, tasty crepes. I wish I could do that every Saturday, but logistical issues and Sunday commitments many other weeks make it impractical, at best. But, really, not much better than chowing down with friends after an active night at the club.

From the crepe place, everyone kind of went their separate ways. Having not seen one particular segment of the crew in a while, I hopped in a cab with them to head back to dallendoug and nofcna's place to see if much else would go on. Not much did, but Higgins told another couple of stories and shared some neat videos. Well worth the extra half hour or so.

From there, as everyone else went to sleep, I headed out the door to take advantage of the early opening time for the Metro. Sunday was the Marine Corps Marathon. After a good walk to the metro station from Doug and Nu's place, I passed a whole lot of runners, just getting up for the morning. It was like college, when I'd pass all the ROTC guys on their way out and I was on my way in. :)

I got home a little before 7 a.m., still before sunrise, but didn't get to sleep until a little after 9 a.m. Around 11:30 or so, there were a few aborted attempts to get up and get back on a semi-regular schedule. I finally rolled out of bed around 2:30 p.m. or so.

The day was, again, spent cleaning and reorganizing things--both internal and external. It is progressing well and there will likely be some sort of metaphysical flavored get together at my place on Friday. (More about that in its own post.)

Of course, there was a lot more I wanted to get done today. Some of it may yet be done before I go to sleep (uploading bunches of pictures right now), but some will have to be squeezed in to the next few days, just to keep things vaguely on schedule.

The Travler Moves On

2009-10-24T22:28:38Z

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

On Thursday, I came home to an empty couch and a lot more floor space than I've had in a while. My buddy Josh, who's been staying with me for more than a year now, finally had enough going in his favor to continue his long-paused trip.

When he first rolled into town, the weather was awful and it took him a week or so to dry out. Such is the challenge of a cross-country motorcycle trip. Aiming to not leave under similar circumstances, his exit was postponed about a week from what he had planned. In that time, another mechanical issue or two came up with the bike and he found some good deals on a few other things he had been look for.

He left me with a new wireless router and a set of movies I'd been putting off buying for years.

Josh has done this stint of couch-surfing infinitely better than I did back in 2003.

I stayed with one group of friends for about nine months and another for three or four, plus a bunch of time back up at my parents' place in New York. During that time, I made no money until I finally got around to going through a temp agency. It's one of the reasons I'm in the sticky financial situation I'm in now.

I also didn't have a distinct destination in mind when I left my job with the newspaper. Well, at least not anything after DragonCon that year. It was only because my car broke down (the first time) in the DC area that I decided to stay here. That and I knew a good bunch of people (many of whom I don't see all that often these days)... but mostly because I figured "If the car likes it, it's good enough for me."

Josh is heading, eventually, to Seattle. Laura, his lovely and talented girlfriend, has been there a little longer than he was here. He has a lot of motivation to finish his trip.

I'm still in the middle of mine.

And in that time I've been "in the middle" I've set down some pretty decent roots in the DC area. I know a fantastic bunch of people (and meet more all the time). I've finally gotten into the vague area of "career" that I probably should have been shooting for since I graduated college in 1998. All in all, I'm pretty darn happy.

Most of the time.

Over the past year, I've been made aware, through numerous venues and experiences, of just how quirky I am when it comes to a lot of things. Living alone, it's easy to lose site of that. With someone else around all the time, sharing the same space and meeting the same people, the contrasts begin to stand out.

These quirks aren't all bad things, but some of them (now that I can see them clearly) annoy me a bit. Which, of course, means it's time to work on fixing them.

This time of year is good for that. It's the end of one hunk of a cycle and the beginning of another.

In my apartment, I'm taking advantage of the newly re-opened space and sorting through a bunch of boxes that have been hastily moved and filled and re-filled at various times over the past few years.

In my head, I'm doing the same thing, on a much deeper level.

When it's all done, everything will be better--on the outside and on the inside.

For now, though, the couch is mine. At least until the next friend in need of a place to crash shows up.

Final Countdown to Halloween

2009-10-24T02:05:29Z

Got a piece of my Halloween costume in the mail today. I must say I'm impressed with how nice it looks in person. Very happy that I found the one place online that still had it.

The other piece I ordered should show up Monday.

There are other pieces I'd like to have, but buying them would be ill-advised for numerous reasons. (I honestly could easily spend many hundreds of dollars on Halloween any given year.) So I'll make due with what I have.

This weekend I'll be cleaning up around the apartment a bit... now that its back down to just my stuff, I have no way left to justify not rearranging, sorting, and purging some stuff. I think I'll finally get rid of all the old computer innards I've been saving for the past 15 or so years.

If all the cleaning goes well, I may do more than toy with the idea of having a small, metaphysically-flavored get together here a week from now (30 October, Friday). It's been a couple of years since I've done something like that. Way too long.

Closer in, time-wise, Saturday I'll be out at Spellbound for the big celebration there. Bunches of people coming out, you should, too.

Sunday is the last day of the MD Ren Faire. The infamous Day of Wrong. I plan on being there... once I figure out the logistics of the ride out and back.

And then Monday is back into the grind and the final countdown to Halloween. That's when things always get more interesting.

The Strangers: A More Classic Terror

2009-10-23T03:16:40Z

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

Liv Tyler attempts to escape from one of the interlopers in The Strangers.

It being the Halloween, I’ve been in the mood for horror films.

Over the last few years, there has been no shortage of supposedly scary movies. Problem is, most of the ones I’ve seen haven’t been all that scary.

Disgusting? Yes. Full of loud noises and quick movement? You bet. Violent? Uh-huh. But scary? Really scary? Nope. Not really.

“Really scary” takes some subtlety and time that’s lacking in most modern horror. Instead, writers and directors go for the quick “gotcha!” or the over-the-top blood & gore effects to try to scare the audience. When I first saw the ads for The Strangers, I was a little worried that it was just another torture porn film along the lines of Hostel.

Well, I finally got around to watching it and I’m happy to say that it’s a lot better than I was expecting. The buildup to the scares is a slow burn that gets every edgy nerve going one by one until the anticipation of the inevitable jump is barely alleviated when something actually happens. The characters–both protagonists and antagonists–are mostly a mystery to us, we’re left to fill in backstory all on our own. (Something else too many films don’t do any more–leave a little work for the minds of the audience to do when it comes to characters.)

Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) arrive at a secluded home, James’ parent’s house, that they’ve requisitioned for what was supposed to be a romantic weekend. It’s clear right off the top that things didn’t quite go as planned earlier in the evening–both are upset and distant from one another. The mood is heavy and sad as they go about settling in as best they can, brushing away the spread rose petals and sullenly drinking the champagne straight from the bottle.

That’s when the first knock comes at the door. A young–perhaps teenage, perhaps 20something–girl asks for someone who is definitely neither of them. We never see her face, for some reason the lights on the front porch aren’t working, even though they clearly were before.

And from there, the sadness turns to tension which turns to fear which culminates in a scene of true horror.

And it does it all with a minimal effects budget, next to no gore, mostly implied violence, and a whole lot of atmosphere.

Writer/Director Bryan Bertino did a fantastic job. Granted, the story is about as simple as you can get, but it’s been done much worse before. The run time of the film is short, which is good–any longer and it would have been too much of a strain or filled with gimmicks and cheap thrills. Bertino keeps things tight and tense, something much more seasoned directors seem to have more trouble doing as time goes on.

If you’re prone to an overactive imagination, I recommend you don’t watch this one while home alone, you’ll be jumping at every little noise. And for those who are looking for some sort of gore-fest… well, you probably won’t like this movie at all. Same goes for those who like everything handed to them on a gilded platter. You’re going to have to work your brain just a little to put all the pieces together. But when you do, you’ll get a good solid shiver and a lasting sense of unease that usually only comes from more classic horror films.

Halloween on the way...

2009-10-22T02:58:08Z

So there's a little over a week before we hit Halloween.

The last few years I've been running a bit behind where I prefer to be when it comes to costumes. There's always these grand plans that never quite come out how I envision them. This year, I don't even have a solid concept... I've just gone a bit classic and even that was based on what was available at the one (by my standards) poorly stocked Halloween store I finally made it to last weekend.

I'm not all that excited about it, but will make the best of it.

*sigh*

Not excited at all like I usually am around this time of year. Too many other things on my mind, I guess. Too much going on in the world.

Halloween is the turning point of the year for me, the time when it all flips over and resets.

If I ever get my brain back in proper gear, there'll be more on that over at The Searcher Journal... but, suffice to say, I feel in need of some sort of reset.

Oh, right... that's where it goes...

2009-10-21T03:34:58Z

Ah, yes, now I remember where all that time goes.

It goes into that odd limbo of haze and lost focus that's been kicking in lately.

Two parts bad sleeping schedule and one part fighting off random bits of illness that inevitably try to take hold around this time of year.

Maybe a little bit of still fighting off whatever it is that I brought back down from NY that lead me to stay home a couple of days the other week.

I keep just kind of zoning out--too tired to focus enough to do anything, not quite tired enough to actually sleep... or at times when it would be a slightly bad idea to sleep... usually because it would get in the way of actually sleeping later...

Yes, it's those those little crashes that disrupt the flow of everything else. And have been doing so for a couple of weeks now.

I sit down with the full intent of doing stuff, and then the mind wanders off--sometimes leading the body, sometimes following it--into some near oblivion where it can think it's doing something but actually isn't. A fact that becomes painfully clear an hour or so later when it stumbles back in to that full consciousness and expects to see things completed.

This is especially problematic when trying to catch up on my TV shows... or at work. Probably ore so in the latter case, being that's something important.

So, I'm trying to reset the sleep schedule (again), make sure I get plenty of actual rest, and continue to try to fight off the ill-timed naps and whatnot.

The answer to where all my time's been going? Nowhere. Nowhere at all. And we just can't have that. Too much I want and need to do.

Anyway...

I am, however, a little closer to having a Halloween costume. Due to the lack of impressive stock at the local places I've been to, I'm having to order some stuff online. Just to keep life interesting, one of the things I was looking at on multiple sites over the last few days suddenly went out of stock on all of them. Thanks to a couple of nice search engines and listing services, though, I think I tracked down a reputable looking place that said they were still in stock. An order was placed, now we'll see if their site inventory was accurate. (If it's not, we'll see how their cancellation policy is... because, really, if they're not going to be here in time for me to use them this year, I really don't want to spend the money.)

The power kept going out at the office this morning. This caused some frustration as I was attempting to put together a bunch of stuff for a training/site inventory/migration prep session I had this afternoon at a client's office. All in all, things went well. Tomorrow's an online training session with another client. I'll be spending the morning trying to get use to DimDim, which I've never actually used before. Should be fun and exciting.

Especially if my brain decides to check out on me... *sigh*

Now, onward to a couple of other things that I want done. *looks at clock* Er... wanted done... crap...

Time just slips away

2009-10-20T03:22:13Z

I'm not always sure where it goes.

I mean, it looked like I should have more of it. But I haven't gotten anything more done.

So where did it all go.

I'm not watching as much TV (the DVR is getting most of it... I think... and Hulu or other online venues will fill in the gaps).

I'm obviously not sleeping more. (Though I am impressed at how well I made it through today on less than four hours of sleep...)

I'm not out and about a whole lot more.

And, yet, I still don't get more done.

I seriously have to stop doing... nothing... or something... or... whatever.

Ah, well, at least I'm mostly relaxed and vaguely productive when I am doing stuff. That's gotta count for something. :)

Two out of four...

2009-10-19T02:59:58Z

On Saturday, I got around to two out of four things I would have liked to do.

One of those things was only a partial success, at best.

There were two parties thrown by very dear friends of mine, neither of which I could make it to due to my choice to run errands (because the only thing more difficult to motivate myself to do than run errands is run errands on a Sunday after a really good night out when the weather is nasty... and some things just needed to get done). Those errands, chief among to get the whole Halloween costume thing in order, took me over four hours. If I had my own vehicle, they would have taken at least half that time, more would have been done, and I would have made it everywhere I wanted.

Too bad I can't use that to justify attempting to afford a vehicle of my own just yet.

This sort of thing is going to come up a lot more as time goes on and I try to cut back on other expenses (like ZipCar usage). This is me paying for fun had in the past... as expected.

Doesn't mean I like it, though.

Anyway... I did make it out to yet another wonderful evening at Spellbound where I had the pleasure of re-meeting a couple of people who I had crossed paths with in the past, catching the appearance of someone who doesn't come out all that much, and meeting a handful of new people. All that on top of the normal catching up with the usual suspects who I only see when I'm out and about (and, really, I'd like to do something about that... eventually).

Providence smiled upon me and, after an uneventful and kind of boring metro ride home, found me heading for a cab with someone else who was going to the same place, so, yay!, half-price cab.

Sunday has been spent mostly just zoning out, cleaning up a little, and trying desperately to pull together the final bits of a costume or two (what I did manage to pick up while I was grumpily trudging through the cold rain yesterday qualifies as a fall-back costume, as far as I'm concerned, but since I don't have a primary one yet, I'm just going to have to make due).

Monday night is the DC Drupal Meetup. That's 7 p.m. at Stetson's on U Street.

The rest of the week should be just as busy, work-wise as last... not sure how that shapes up against anything else going on just yet.

The next challenge, of course, is getting to sleep at some sort of reasonable hour... problematic seeing as how I didn't bother getting out of bed until around 2-ish this afternoon... I really gotta stop that...

Always good to meet new people

2009-10-17T05:51:29Z

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

After what somehow turned into a moderately stressful day at work, I trudged across town in the cold, misty, rain to pop in to the apartment warming party my co-worker was throwing.

Even leaving work later than I planned and getting stuck behind people who were walking way to slow for my tastes (especially for what the weather was doing), I ended up being the first person there. But only for a few minutes... others were close behind.

Before long, the modest (and well decorated--she is a graphic designer and stuff) apartment was full. Mostly of people I didn't know.

Thankfully, as is often the case, my friends have good people in their lives, so it was an absolute joy to meet everyone.

And since they were all new, I could easily fall back on a number of things that people I've known for a while have heard me talk about way too much. ;)

Woodstock (which I never did get around to writing about here back in August). Horror films (which I need to write more about over at ToobTalk). We even somehow segued into race relations, gentrification and economics.

It was almost like being back in college again. Except for the whole not going until sunrise part... the party dispersed a little before 11 p.m.

After weighing my options and factoring in how tired I've been lately, I decided to just head home... where I was more than happy to walk in and find Tank Girl on cable.

Yay Tank Girl and Jet Girl! (Even back in '95 it was clear I was into the "unique" ones...) :)

Let's Talk Organizations

2009-10-16T03:32:23Z

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

For a moment, let's think about organizations.

We've all been part of one (or a few) over the years. I know my name has shown up on the roster of at least a dozen clubs and things going all the way back to when I wasn't quite in the double-digit ages.

Every one works a little differently, gets its "kick" and forward momentum in different ways. Some are driven firmly by membership, others by leadership and some by outside forces. Those different prime movers make for very different dynamics within the group.

Sometimes, those dynamics change. The normal membership may suddenly experience some major shift, removing your "regulars" from circulation for a time. More often, the leadership shifts and either brings in or drives away members. Sometimes external factors just wreak havoc on every plan made or imagined.

And so there is an ebb and flow to every group. When things ebb, momentum can be lost and things can seem quite dismal--especially to those that care about the organization's mission. Often this is the leadership, but not always. It beings to seem pointless to do anything more. What was once more fun than work, becomes more work with less reward.

When the flow really gets going, things can get exciting. They can also quickly flip to the "more work than fun" arena for those in charge. There's not much more disconcerting than having a small group with few problems suddenly become a large group where cliques and infighting pop up like weeds in a well-manicured lawn.

Every situation has its own challenges and every organization that lasts longer than a year faces the same types over time.

The tools to make anything work--or work better--are out there. Thanks to the Web, those tools and success/failure stories are easier than ever to find.

So, I ask you, oh loyal friends and readers: Tell me a story of the best organization you've ever been part of. What made it work so well? Why did you leave it (if you've left it)? How could it be better? And, finally, what drew you to it in the first place?

Once I have my answers, I'll let loose with some of my own stories... though I think many of you have heard the before.