Northern Edge

2010-02-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud

for man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day

someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.

They're Rioting in Africa, the Kingston Trio

I'm 41 years old. The earliest years of my childhood were spent on a military base, where every so often they would test the air raid siren. These weren't the fear-filled days of the 50s, but the tense days of the 70s and 80s. That air-raid siren hammered a point home every time it went off, that I, and everyone I knew, lived in the centre of a big, fat, nuclear target. Canada's largest military airbase was certainly on some Soviet list, targeted for destruction. Even moving away for university didn't really help that perception. My next stop wa the capital city of Alberta and home to a great many juicy refinery-type targets. Another bulls-eye.

As a child, and even a teen, I lived under the shadow of nuclear war. Deep inside, I never thought that I would live to 30, let alone 40. Pessimism about the future was a strong undercurrent in much of my youth, and I think a similar cloud hung over many of the people I knew.

In the mid 1980s, the game Twilight:2000 came out, postulating an altogether realistic (at the time) nuclear war scenario. Magazine articles in support of the game even listed targets, including the city where I went to school...

Now, we worry about ecological disasters, global warming, climate change, and a host of other issues. But the warheads are still there. Not aimed at anything in particular, according to their owners, but Russia and the United States have over 8000 nukes between them, or more, depending on which source you read. France, Britain, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel, and, likely eventually, Iran, have nukes too. South Africa used to have nuclear weapons, but actually dismantled them shortly before the end of Apartheid. The threat is still there.

The sword still hangs over our heads, but it seems to be held up with more than a fine silk thread now. Hopefully in the future, that can become a chain, and we can get out from under the mushroom-shaped cloud.

2009 is fading fast...

2009-12-30T13:43:00.000-08:00

2009 has been quite a year for us. After many trial and tribulations, we were finally able to sell our house in Alberta, and purchase a house on Vancouver Island. The kids have settled in, and we are at home.

Of course, like any home, it requires a certain number of modifications to make it more suitable. More and more as time goes on, it seems. Doors, walls, toilets, showers, floors (ah yes, the floors. All of them. Everywhere...). In the spring, it will be gardens and fencing. Fruit trees and rock gardens. I'm looking forward to it. All this sort of work is not really what I would call fun. However, it is definitely satisfying. At the end of the day, you've actually accomplished something, something you can point at and say "I did that."

That's a pretty cool feeling. My job doesn't produce tangibles, things I can hold. It's great that my life can.

But at 2009 draws to a close, I can say that it has been a good year. Were there problems? Of course. My "luck" would hardly allow anything else. The good outweighed the bad, and I think that is good enough.

And so it begins

2009-12-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

Snap-hiss. Raj woke with a start, the fear-sweat stink still sharp in his nostrils, overlaid with the smells of sweat and decay. Panic nearly crushed him before he remembered where he was. The bunk above him was barely a handspan away from his nose, military-style bunks for the castoffs of humanity. Hushed voices in the darkness near him, a protest, a muffled cry. Then a peculiar noise, almost like a pop, and then the folding sound of a body hitting the ceramic floor. Just another night in the Acropolis.

About that challenge...

2009-12-21T11:16:00.001-08:00

Just to be perfectly clear, I'm going to win. Mocking rights will be mine. All mine.

Precioussss.....

Push the envelope

2009-12-21T08:58:00.000-08:00

First post in over a year.

I'm challenging myself to do some new things this upcoming year. First, I'm going to update this thing at least once every two weeks, and find enough interesting things to say to make it worthwhile. If my buddy Steve Fitzpatrick can do it, so can I.

I'm going to work on both my writing and my drawing. Both have languished for a long time, and this is the year that I get going with both again.

On the writing side, I have challenged a couple of my friends to see who can get a short story published first this year. I also have the novel I'm working on, and an outline for another.

On the gaming side, I plan to write, and illustrate, a line of vehicle, ship, and planet books for the game Traveller. These I will self-publish in PDF format, and once I have a critical mass of each, I will see about getting them into print. On the print side, I have a couple of projects I'm starting, but I don't want to give anything away. These are personal projects, in the sense that they are mine, not work-for-hire. I just need to keep up my current momentum.

On the drawing side, in addition to the gaming books, I want to work on a web comic or two. One would be in conjunction with my friend Earl, if he can get off his butt, and the other would be in conjunction with one of my secret projects.

Yeah, I plan on a busy year, but as a wise woman once told me, "The more you do, the more you can do." I intend to push that to the limit this year in my creative pursuits. While, and at the same time, making sure that I am there for my family.

Off I go, and back to work.

Life on the Boompond

2008-09-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

Just over a week ago, my little family was finally reunited. I've been living in Victoria for the past 11 months, while my wife and kids waited at home, trying to sell our house. The house never sold, so we finally had to bite the bullet and move out here anyway. We rented the house out, and found a place out here to rent, Not as nice, or as private, as our house, but it is in the right area.

It's a pleasant upscale neighbourhood, many of whose residents were up in arms about our arrival. It seems that this neighbourhood isn't friendly to renters. I guess they're worried that we'll lower property values, or something. For the first couple of days we got some pretty cold looks from our nieghbours, but before long they had started to warm up to my natural charm %) Or something. Maybe it was Julie.

We're getting settled in. It's a big house, but with a lack of convenient storage. And while nice, it's easy to see why it never sold. (It was up for sale before they rented it to us). Too many little things need to be fixed.

We've come to the conclusion that grey squirrels are evil, or at least seriously messed up. For someone used to the little red squirrels of Alberta, the big greys out on the coast seem just wrong.

The Big Move

2008-08-16T10:08:00.000-07:00

For the past 11 months, I have been living in the city of Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Weatherwise, it's about as far frm Edmonton that you can get and still be in Canada. I love it here, but there's been one huge problem: my family is still living in Edmonton. We've been trying to sell our house, and my wife and kids stayed behind to help make that happen.

Well, it hasn't happened. We recently withdrew our house from the market, and rented it out. We will be renting a house out here, likely until the market shows some signs of recovery.

This means that, in about 2 weeks, my little family is going to be reunited. I've only been getting back to see them about once a month, and it's really starting to wear thin.

I've missed nearly a year, and all I can do now is hope that this move to Vancouver Island is worth it.

2320AD is done.

2008-06-30T16:14:00.000-07:00

And by done, I mean that I am done with it. There have been far too many fits, false-starts, and disappointments with this projects. I bear the publisher no ill-will, but I just can't be part of it anymore.
2320AD is owned by QLI, Inc, and so I have no power to get the manuscript back and get it done properly. For better or for worse, (better, I suppose) I was actually paid. There might be some cause due to non-fulfillment of contract, but it isn't really worth the effort.
I've got a personal project or two, plus some side work, but I think that, unless something fantastic comes along, I'm largely finished with RPG writing.

Vacation

2007-05-22T09:32:00.001-07:00

Well, my wife and I managed to get some time away, so we took the kids on a many-hour road-trip to Canmore, Alberta, which is just outside of Banff National Park. We stayed at a little hotel called Mystic Springs, which comes complete with a heated outdoor pool. The goal of the vacation was simply to relax, but that pool kept calling our names. So, the second day in, we spent upwards of 4 hours in the pool, before supper. I came away with a simply horrific sunburn, but that's the price a Nordic-type pays for being outside in the summer. Sunscreen became the order of the day after that.

Highlights of Canmore include a little restaurant called "The Gourmet Croissant", which quite simply has the best croissants either of us have ever tasted. They make them right there in the restaurant, along with an assortment of other items including quiches, galettes, and crepes. The service was great too, with the lady behind the counter giving our son a piece of fresh-baked bread (which he, being extraordinarily fussy, refused to eat). She had noticed that he wasn't eating anything, and brought him a little dessert. One of the fillings for the croissants and the galettes was a chicken curry, which, while mild, was extremly tasty. We ate at the Gourmet Croisaant twice, and would have gone back for more had we not left for home. We're looking forward to going back next year just to visit that restaurant again.

Another highlight was "Le Chocolaterie", a little chocolate shop in the Elk Run industrial area, located beside a place called "The Ammonite Factory". They have an excellent coffee truffle, along with a host of other high-quality chocolate.

It was a good vacation, and included a shopping trip into Banff, a barbeque at the hotel (they supplied the BBQs, we supplied the meat), and a great deal of staring at mountains.

While we enjoyed the trip, it was good to get home, even if we were greeted by an armada of mosquitoes when we opened the car doors, and even if our garden was still under water from the heavy snow melt, large quantities of rain, and very little sun to dry things out. Hmm...

2320AD is out!

2007-05-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well, after something like 3-4 years, 2320AD is finally out, albeit in PDF format. Sales so far have been good, at least for PDF. I would greatly prefer that it come out in print, but at this time I'll take what I can get. There will be further products in the line, and fairly soon.

The current version of 2320AD is more of an interim version. There will be a final version, incorporating a different layout, and much more art. I'm even doing some of the art, including deckplans.

Should 2320AD ever go to print, it willl be the final version that forms the basis of the book.

2320AD can be purchased from www.rpgnow.com or from www.travellerrpg.com.

Once more, into the 2320AD breach

2007-02-23T11:08:00.000-08:00

Just recently, the publisher of 2320AD phased back into existence again. He is now hard at work preparing an interim version of 2320AD, to be published as a PDF. I've seen the first drafts, and it looks good, about equal in quality to the original D20 Traveller's Handbook. At the same time, someone else is working on the final version, which incorporates a different layout and much more extensive art. This version will also be made available as a PDF, with purchasers of the original to get a free upgrade. This version is the one that would go to print, should the project actually get that far. This is what QuikLink Interactive's (the publisher) has announced for the project, at least on the message forums on it's site. No official, in-the-news sort of announcement yet, though.

Dumb Dads

2006-10-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

Now, I don't watch much TV. I have very little time, and to be honest, there isn't much out there worth watching. However, with three kids, I do try to watch at least some of what they want to watch. For one thing, I want to have an idea of what they are talking about, and for another I want to be able to determine if a show is suitable.
I have decided that I hate sitcoms, especially family-based sitcoms. It seems that fathers in sitcoms have to be boobs, and are not allowed to be competent. In fact, most of them seem to be just shy of drooling on their shirts. Any time a competent man is featured in one of these sorts of shows, he is either a jerk, or gay. Just watch "Malcom in the Middle" "The War at Home" or pretty much any other family-based sitcom (Yes, "Hope and Faith" is an exception, but it kinda proves the rule.)
Of course, given that I've watched about 1.5 episodes of these shows, in 10-20 minutes segments, I could be wrong. But as that's all I can stomach, it'll have to do.
Is it so hard to have both father and mother be capable, and yet funny? Make them have dumb, single friends, or play off the generation gap with the kids.

2320AD, Again

2006-10-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like 2320AD is actually going to see the light of day. The publisher has returned from his lengthy hiatus, and things seem to be moving forward again. Now, I'm still a little skeptical, having not heard from the gentleman in question for the better part of a year, but I am hopeful. We'll just have to wait and see how this pans out.

In prepartion for this, Ted Lindsey and I have been working on 2320AD Lite, a sort of freebie version of the full 2320AD. We hope to have that ready within a few weeks. Along with that, I'll have a short freebie adventure, which complements the material in the Lite book. All will be available first in PDF format.

More information will show up here as I get it.

2320AD

2006-08-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

Three years ago, I received a contract from QuikLink Interactive to write a revision of the old 2300AD RPG. 2320AD was to be based on QLI's Traveller D20 Rules, and update the timeline a bit to add something new to the proceedings. It was largely finished two years ago, then underwent another year of revision/rewriting. During that time, the publisher was experiencing personal trouble, and the deadline kept getting pushed back. Then, for the next year, things just sort of... languished. I was finally paid in September of last year. Then the publisher dropped of the face of the Earth. He briefly resurfaced in May, but then vanished again.
The upshot now is, I've been paid, so I no longer have any rights to the material I wrote, nor the maps I made. However, the book has yet to be published, and it now looks like it never will. Which sucks. The money is all well and good, but seeing it in print is a large part of the reason I did it. It may have been better for me to have not been paid, and thus been able to self-publish the thing myself.
I'm hoping for the best, but things do not look promising. On the one hand, I've been paid, so the only way the publisher can recoup that money is to publish the book. On the other hand, he's dropped off the face ofthe planet. I haven't heard from him since September 2005, when I got paid. On the gripping hand, given the situation, even if he does publish the book, it might not be in a format that I would like (PDF rather then print, little or no illustrations, that sort of thing).
I've tried to approach both the publisher and the holder of the IP for 2300AD to see if we could make arrangements for me to bring it forward, but I have not received any responses.
The best that I may be able to do is produce a vanity copy for myself. Yay.

How do you start this thing?

2006-08-23T12:06:00.000-07:00

Well, since all the cool kids have a blog, I figured that I would start my own. Online journal, if you prefer. The thing is, much of my life is either too boring, or too private, to post in a blog. I could tell goat stories, but people might get the wrong idea.

Hmm. That's all I really have for the moment. Like I said, boring.