Kitten*Con 2013

Many people assume that I am the one who drives us going to Dragon*Con each year. In truth, it is a mutual decision. Though in all honesty, I've generally deferred to Karen's preference since 2007. The past two years, getting up there was complicated by Karen responding to storms the days before. Once, her boss almost had to fly her there from the field direct.

This year, she wanted a break from the stress of making the annual pilgrimage. We had a room, though not in any of our preferred hotels. Had we been able to score a room in Hilton or the Hyatt, in all likelihood we would have gone. Alas, that was not to be. Even when I offered a week before to fly us up first class after Karen was having doubts about her decision, she demurred.

So as a joke to cheer her up, on Facebook I posted a set of panels based on the Dragon*Con tracks that our cats might like:

"Since we will be home with the cats this Labor Day for the first time in their lives, Nyala and Mara have asked us to organize Kitten*Con 2013 (though they refuse to stand in line or wear their badges). Here are the panels they'd like to see:

Alternate History: The Day Humans Self-Domesticated
Anime: Hello, Kitty
Apocalypse Rising: Surviving a Vet Visit
Armory: Tooth and Claw, the Only Weapons You'll Ever Need
Art: Live Model
Costuming: Furries!
Digital Gaming: Apps for the iPaw
EFF: Hacking 101: Doors and How to Open Them
Filking: Midnight yowls
Gaming: The Best Die to Steal from the Table
MMEOWRPGS: The Midnight Heat
Paranormal: The Ghosts Your Humans Can't See
Performance: Bell Circle (10 pm - whenever)
Science: Catnip Live: Homegrown or Store-Bought (a paws-on demo)
Sci-fi Lit:: Man-Kzin Wars, a Primer.
Sci-Fi Media: The Red Bird or the Blue Bird, Which Way to Reality
Silk Road: Ripples in the Water Bowl
Space: Are We There Yet? An Explorer's Guide to Napping
Writing: Screen Rubbing and Keyboard Walking for Beginners
X-Track: Schrödinger's Cat"

Karen ran with the idea and created badges. And the inaugural Kitten*Con was born. 

Over five days we watched seven movies and played five games. We hadn't seen any of the movies though they were all in our Netflix queue for one reason or another. Two of the games we owned but had never played. Two more we'd only played once. The last we'd maybe played twice. Friday morning, we setup a card table in the library so we could close off a game midway through if we needed to without the cats disturbing it. We brushed up on rules each morning then ran through each game 2-3 times to see how they played out.

We kicked over the iPod to a grouping called Darkwave with all the bands we'd discovered at Dragon*Con over the years: The Cruxshadows, Ego Likeness, I:Scintilla, Ayria, Abney Park, Butterfly Messiah, Celldweller, Faith and the Muse, Narrator, Spider Lilies, and Distorted Reality (all worth checking out on YouTube or MySpace if you get the chance).

The cats attended a catnip panel (with free samples) and the bell circle (which they ring every night to go out onto the porch). Nyala ran through the hacking session on doors though thankfully, she still doesn't quite have the hang of it. Mostly, they spent their time in the napping demo or advising us on game tactics.  

Here's how the days broke down.

On Thursday evening, without lines or issues, the four of us received our badges (Mara, Nyala, Karen and myself). An auspicious beginning. While we watched our first movie, the cats napped in preparation for a busy weekend. That didn't seem particularly out of the ordinary but Nyala tells me you can never have too much sleep.

Thursday night: Hunger Games (movie, science fiction): I'm not sure anyone would be able to make much sense out of it if they hadn't read the book. Not that I was a fan of the last third of the book anyway.

Friday: Space Alert (board game, science fiction): To paraphrase the board game panel at Dragon*Con (about a different game), "When you lose this game, and you will lose this game..."  Both Karen and I had read the rules but were still having trouble digesting them. Then we remembered the advice we'd heard at the board game panel and headed for YouTube to look for a tutorial. Once there, we ran across a multi-part tutorial and demo on a channel called Two Guys and Some Cardboard. Watching those made it so we could dive right in. A decent game with a lot of multi-player potential. Playing this with 5 players would be utter chaos.

Friday night: Melancholia (movie, science fiction). The more it settled with me, the more I liked it. Not to everyone's taste but very artistically done. You can find my full recommendation here.

Saturday: Race for the Galaxy (card game, science fiction). A decent game, though I'm not sure about using cards for both money and counters as well as play. I see there's an expansion that allows up to 9 players. That just hurts my brain.

Saturday evening: We headed out to the Dealer's Room (aka Emerald City comic shop) and then met a couple friends (who also sometimes haunt Dragon*Con) for some General Tso's chicken, a food court staple for us up in Atlanta. And yes, we wore our badges while we were out. Mara and Nyala said they wouldn't let us back into the house without them. 

Saturday night: Metropia (movie, animated science fiction). Ok, that one was bizarre. Not sure I liked the animation. But there was a Hello Kitty bomb. So there's that.

Sunday: Eclipse (board game, science fiction). We picked this one up based on the recommendation of a friend after Dragon*Con last year. I really like this game. You can find my previous recommendation for it here.

Sunday night: The Road (movie, post-apocalypse). A future so bleak, they ought to wear shades. Based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. I suspect the book was slightly better though the movie wasn't bad.

Monday: Illuminati (card game, paranoid): It's not paranoia if there really is a conspiracy out to get you. We spent the morning mounting the User Friendly custom cards for Tech Support and SCO on cardstock then played with the Y2K and Bavarian Fire Drill expansions. As we knew, this one has serious multi-player potential. The two-player games lacks all the deviousness of negotiations, backstabbing and alliances.

Monday Night: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (movie, Swedish). It's amazing how many words we could pick out. Another movie based on a well known book. This one was the best done of the three. Definitely worthwhile.

Tuesday: SolarQuest (board game, science fiction). Think Monopoly in space. With fuel. And lasers. Not too bad once you get past the odd phrasing of the rules.

Tuesday night (1): The Secret of Kells (movie, animated fantasy). Purely enchanting. You can find my full recommendation here.

Tuesday night (2): Ondine (movie, fantasy-esque). A nice way to close out the inaugural Kitten*Con. Even if there wasn't a cat in it, there was a Selkie. Sort of.

We broke down the game table and returned the library to its previous scheduled function (with Mara still sleeping a chair). As we got ready for bed, I couldn't find either cat. When I went looking, I discovered them both in the library/game room, ensconced in the chairs where they perched to watch us play. They don't usually sleep back there and rarely at the same time. I don't think they were quite ready for Kitten*Con to end, either.

Nyala particularly enjoyed having us home. She still sometimes wakes up scared during the day and cries until I comfort her. Each year she looks hurt when we leave and a combination of excited and annoyed when we get home. Hers was a hard, orphaned kittenhood I think.

As with any con, a melancholy settled in the last night knowing that it was over and real life began again in the morning. One of the more relaxing staycations we've had in recent years. For that alone it was a success.

(You might be able to see Karen's photos here)

Dragon*Con 2012: Notebook

This year, I am trying something a little different. Every year when I get home, I page through my notebook looking for ideas that resonated (as well as books I want to buy and websites I want to look up). This year, I thought I would share. They may seem choppy, but they are meant to stimulate conversation rather than just provide information all on their own. If you find something intriguing, give a shout and we can discuss it. It's likely I have more notes.

If nothing else, it will give you an idea why I keep going back to this convention and attending panels, or at least the types of information I enjoy. I smattered some links throughout.

So, here are the highlights of the notes in the order and context that I took them.

Storytelling:

Plays focus on dialogue and location.

TV and film focus on external action.

Novels focus on internal dialogue and thought.

Computer games focus on character and their position in the game.

Creating characters in art:

You always follow the eyes of a character as you scan a picture. Instinctively, you want to know what they are looking at. Western eyes scan from left to right, like we read.

Part of the process of creating a character:

1. Get visual references (research in writing)

2. Understand the character's environment (character sketches in writing)

3. Tight work in the details draw the eye. Shadows let the eye rest. The mind fills in what's missing (descriptions in writing)

Moon base fundamentals:

If viewed by an external culture, the Earth-Moon system would likely be classified as a binary planet because our moon is so large, proportionally larger than any other moon in our solar system.

For an example of extreme solar radiation, look up the Carrington Event of 1859 on Wikipedia (and apply to modern electronic technology).

Space propulsion 101:

For use of ion thrusters, look up the Dawn Mission on Wiki.

For nuclear thermal rockets, look up NERVA on Wiki.

For nuclear pulse engine, look up Project Orion on Wiki (would reach a Centauri in 140 years).

For Low Earth Orbit, look up space tethers on Wiki (electrodynamic).

For higher orbits, look up space tethers on Wiki (momentum exchange).

Philosophy in science fiction:

Most people think of Batman as the archetype of The Law and The Night, and Superman as Morality and Light. But if you examine Batman through the works of Kant and Superman through the works of Hobbes (Leviathan), they exchange those two roles.  

The Buddhist Warrior takes on the Karma of killing in order to create a Utopian society, knowing full well when it is brought about, s/he won't be able to live in it and will live as an outsider (I bounced this off a panelist in a later panel on Dynamic Character Identity to apply to Scott Westerfled's Uglies trilogy).

Storytelling in Film:

The story in any film gets told three times. First in the script, then as in the shoot and finally in the editing. 

Film is a director's media.

TV is a writer's media.

The story arc in a short film includes an abbreviated three act structure.

Act 1, inciting incident.

Act 2, problem solving.

Act 3, outcome, success or failure.

Running a business with your SO:

Each relationship has three parts: who you each are; who you are together; who you are apart.

Dynamic character identities:

We recognize people through two sets of features:

1. accidental features (physical, like hair color). If they change, we don't see the person as different.

2. essential features (psychological). If they change, we see a different person (like a soldier coming home from war).

In literature, we identify characters even though their accidental features change (the actors who play Hamlet). In comic books, we identify characters even though their essential features change (Batman always looks the same but acts completely differently through the decades of the series).

Book cover design:

Lines, eyes and hands move the viewers eyes around the drawing.

Every project has three phases:

1. Excitement (this will be the best).

2. Problems (this will be the worst).

3. Acceptance (this came out ok, time for the next).

Believable lighting make any painting look real (same works for small details in writing).

Space books:

Solar Sails, G. Vulpetti, G. L. Matloff & Les Johnson

Living Off the Land in Space, G. L. Matloff, Les Johnson & C. Bangs (own)

Back to the Moon, Travis Taylor & Les Johnson

Art/Comics theory books:

Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud (ordered)

Creative Illustration, Andrew Loomis (OOP)

Color and Light, James Gurney (ordered)

Imaginative Realism, James Gurney (ordered)

Frazetta artwork

Fiction:

Going Interstellar (short stories and essays), Les Johnson & Jack McDevitt (eds). (ordered)

Rat King, China Mieville (will Kindle)

The City in the City, China Mieville

Embassytown, China Mieville

Uglies trilogy (Uglies, Pretties, Specials), Scott Westerfeld (read some of his before)

Games:

Eclipse (sci-fi, 2-6 players) (ordered)

Tabletop (board game recommendations by Wil Wheaton, YouTube channel)

CDs:

As the Dark Against My Halo, Cruxshadows (bought)

East, Ego Likeness (bought, signed)

Treacherous Thing, Ego Likeness (bought, signed)

Havestar, I:Scintilla (bought)

Marrow 1, I:Scintilla (bought)

Light Speed, Fader Vixen (bought)

Applied Structure in a Void, Die Sektor (bought)

The Final Electro Solution, Die Sektor (bought)

Jewelry/Chainmail:

Dave Cain Jewelry (necklace and earrings on commission) 

© 2012 Edward P. Morgan III

Beltane 2012

Beltane 2012 - a reading (on YouTube)

Beltane. May 1st. May Day.

When you say May Day, most American minds spring to the distress call. Some believe it evolved from the Haymarket Massacre in 1886 Chicago several days after what has become known as International Worker’s Day. Others believe that holiday arose in Communist Russia, though the Soviets only marked it, they did not create it.

In truth, the distress call (“mayday”) derives from the French “(venez) m'aider” (“come help me”) and came into use around 1927 as French desperately clung to its lifeline as the lingua franca of international commerce.

Neither is related to the older, Celtic holiday. May Day marks the end of barren winter in the northern climes of Europe. Mid-spring to some, the first day of summer to the Celts. A cross-quarter day of celebration not distress.

Normally, I would write about the green-root rather than the red-root or pan-pan meaning. Today is not a normal day. My mother is in the hospital, my father is dying, and their surrounding situations seem intent on putting the “fun” back into “dysfunctional.”

Currently, my life feels like a three-ringed circus with me cast as the clown trying to distract a runaway tiger so no one gets mauled. Or a flashback to December, 1942 (there I was in Chicago enjoying a nice game of racquetball at the university when suddenly...). Who knew that two six-month tours in the integration lab dealing with the narcissistically Cerberean egos of hardware engineers was really an Israeli-style commando simulation training me for my future?

So, for me, today is about escape. I don’t distract myself in any of the traditional Celtic ways. I don’t drink. I don’t dance. I don’t don antlers and chase maidens through the gorse and bracken by moonlight. When I have time, I read stories. More often, I sneak in a game.

Some people tell me games are a waste of time. I would ask what purpose is served by drinking? By dancing? By drama, or any other pastime? On the best of days, they make us feel good about our lives. On the worst, they anesthetize our pain.

My favorite games serve as simulations. They present problems with discrete though sometimes complex solutions rather than ones that remain intractable. Most games have preset starting points with definitive goals and objectives. They grant players a stronger measure of control than ordinary life. When we get stuck or find ourselves trapped in a dead end, we can backtrack step-by-step to where we went wrong, restart and try again. Sometimes we succeed. But runs of luck can never be discounted.

Games form one layer to the bedrock of my existence. My father had me playing chess before I turned ten. My mother taught me Spite and Malice. My grandmother cribbage. I discovered a passion for war-games and role-playing on my own. We never had a family game night. In fact, we never had much of a family night at all. Perhaps that plays a part in our ongoing angst.

In times of stress, games act as my reward. I seek them out at every opportunity. Game stores form the constellations that guide my travels, from Maryland to New England, Scotland to Seattle, the I-4 corridor to the dealers rooms at Dragon*Con, even as their individual stars wink out one by one. I can trace the stratigraphy of Sci-Fi City (nee Enterprise 1701) back through four locations. The Fantasy Factory through only three.

On our weary way home from one of several round trips to the right coast of Florida in March, we detoured through Orlando so I could pick up a war-game based on the Crusades that I had hesitated over in January. Reading new rules is a kind of meditation for me. Game tokens have become my talismans. I have more dice stashed in boxes and bags throughout the house than any sane man should. Perhaps that says something but each sight of them brings me just a tiny bit of joy.

In whatever brings you joy this Beltane, I hope your day comes up natural rather than snake eyes or midnight. As I wish you luck in yours, I hope Fortuna grants the same in mine. Regardless, the die is cast, the strategy laid out and opening moves will soon begin.


© 2012 Edward P. Morgan III