James's Strange Eons

I'm supposed to be giving a talk tomorrow at my school about comic-book characters. I'm a little excited, but in truth I'm concerned about being too much of a geek and not enough of a historian. But hey, hopefully I'll be able to ramble for twenty five minutes or so about comic books and make it work. Here's the pictures I'm going to try and use. Here.

I've created a new masterpiece...or perhaps I just wasted a Sunday farting around with Paint. But, I like it. Check it out.

My wife and I went down to Kendal Square in Cambridge to see Nightwatch: A German movie that I saw a preview for about two years ago, and thought looked neat. Turns out, it was neat. Visally, very cool. Story-wise it kinda felt like an abandoned White Wolf games project: but with a neat blend of dark powers and cop-like drama. Some of the twists and turns are interesting, while others are just kinda implausable. It also really had the feel of an introduction (which it was, it's suppossed to be a trilogy when all is said and done). Characters would have spectacular introduction scenes, and very small parts in the movie. They did some really neat shape-shifting stuff, and some very cool other-worldly dimension walking stuff. On another level, they did some really great things with the sub-titles. During hallucinations, the words would move around, be out of focus, and really became part of the picture rather than an add-on. When the vampires used their powers to "Call...

So, I've known for a long time that I've got this soft spot for strong women. Not just "I'm an independent adult" strong women, but the really strong women who come off as bitches half the time. I love 'em. I tend to have a moderating effect on them, mainly because I think even strength has to be displayed politely. Also, there's a strong difference between loosing your mind in public on someone (drama queen) and not putting up with crap (strong woman). But my "special" list is reserved for those who I've seen, in the privacy of their home, or in some special other forum, loose their shit on someone who totally deserved it. You know the sort of thing: She says something, and you're stuck between covering your mouth and saying, "I can't believe you just said that out loud..." and nodding and saying, "That's totally right." I just added someone to that list tonight. In a long-story-short sort of vein, this...

When asked to write a letter of recommendation for Eli Friend-Grey, an initial problem immediately presented itself; where to start? I have known Eli for sixteen years, and that’s a lot of ground to cover in one brief letter. It makes for a series of difficult decisions. Should I cover how when I met Eli in the Boy Scouts he represented an ideal to me? How I’d wished nothing more than to be just like him? Should I cover how when he was running five minute miles in high-school that I envied him his dedication and discipline? Or should I talk about how he constantly tried to better himself though every available method, be it reading or simply through self-analysis? Should I point out that he is, perhaps, one of the most self-aware people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing? I think I should probably concentrate on those things that make Eli such a spectacular individual. First and foremost, he is creative. Aside from being a talented artist, Eli has repeatedly found cre...

Went camping this last weekend. It was very...nostalgic, I guess. I had a great time, but looking back I think it was about 45% nostalga. I tried telling people at work about it, and why I had a great time, and it turned out that all my best stories were from previous camping trips. I couldn't come up with a single story from THIS camping trip that would be interesting to someone who wasn't there. I think maybe that's what getting old feels like: suddenly what used to happen is more important than what's happing this time. God, that's depressing. I hope my next trip to Mexico's not like that. I'm too young to be old. Right? In other news, the campsite we always use was pretty run down. We (by we I mean Eli) spruced it up pretty good, but it's time to start looking for the campsite part II if we're going to go camping on any sort of regular basis. We've pretty much used up all the really good fire-wood within walking distance of the camp-s...

So I kicked a special ed kid today, right in the disability, which I hate doing. It was like hitting a dislexic kid because he can't read, or worse yet hitting a blind kid because he can't see. I'm exagerating, but it was certainly not a good day for James. A kid, who has been difficult the last several days, hit me today, which is no big deal. But my response was all disproportionate to the crime. He clipped me on the shoulder, and I turned and said, "Did you just hit me?" and he hit me again and I restrained him. Which, I grant you, doesn't sound all that bad. But it was the way I said it. It wasn't incredulous, it was mad. I sounded enraged, completely pissed off....which, in that moment I completely was. And he recoiled. The kid reeled, like I'd slapped him. He fronze as I held him, then when I let him go he ran to the corner and stood there, shaking. Which is not, by the way, normal for this child. He stood there, shaking, then starting saying I w...

You know what the best part about hunting for jobs is? Getting letters of recomendation. People whom I thought didn't even like me are writing me wonderful letters of recomendation. If you work with someone for any length of time, they're sure to develop opinions about you, positive or negative. The nice part about going to them and asking for a reference is that they're flattered, and they dig up all the good things you've ever done, and forget all the bad things. For example, they mention that I'm a hard worker, which is nice, but they neglect to mention that I also coined the nick-name "FUCK YOU FALLON" for one of the teachers. See, little things like that get left in the lurch when writing letters of recomendation. Which, I grant you, makes me look pretty good on paper. It's just too bad my resume isn't more impressive. I figure I've got a half a chance if I'm judged on my recomendations. If judged on my resume, I've got a f...

I just got back from a "family meeting". I can't remember the last time we had an official one. I think it may have been a few Christmasses ago when we first found out my Dad was sick... It was all about my Mom trying to get her financial/home situation pulled together in the wake of my Dad passing. It's been a little over a year, and she's been keeping it together. But now she's got insurance payments coming in, pensions from my Dad, her own work, and three of my brothers living at home. It's kinda messy, she's working a rediculous number of hours a week at a mail-processing plant, and she's not getting other things done that she would like to get done....like the house. Our House has been under construction for as long as I can remember. If you count me being a "completed person", it's been longer in the making than some people. :) Now, Mom is looking ahead to the future of her retirement, and wanting to get all the House thin...

I've been in a sort of limbo since getting back from Mexico. I've been putting in some time on a PDN adventure I run every so often, but it feels like I've been spinning in ciricles. I can't seem to settle down to anything. So, in typical James fashion, it's list time To Do List: -letters of intrest -state application -short story -NERO Weekend Write-up -reference envelopes Wish me luck.

So here I am in day three of Mexico, and I{ve decided to spend some time on my blogg. With beaches, cheap beer, and excellent food in my immediate area, what does that make me? A LOOOOOOSER! But a very happy one. My one complaint right now is the keyboard. It{s kinda weird, and I{ve tenetively decided not to correct any typos because it{s too much work to try and find the right buttons. The @ for example is [alt gr] + Q of all things. It{s a mess. So far my favorite meal has been from a little hole'in´the´wall place around the corner from our hotel. Enchilladas. Very simple, but very good. My beer of choice is still Corona, though Pacifico has made an appearance once or twice. Today we{re thinking about exploring [Gringo Gulch] an area of Centro where the rich movie stars used to live. Really nice achitechture, but quite a walk from our usual haunts. It should be fun. One last note...I fought the sun, and the sun one. I{m officially Very Badly Burned, from day one. I{m getting clos...

Just came from a very interesting Writing Group. Jumpgate has a monthly writer's group that I'm proud to be a member of. This month, a local author and comic book writer was able to make an appearance. Here he is, with Jumpgate's owner, Hector Diaz. It was really a pleasant evening. Mr. Hill was well spoken, genuinely interested in our writing careers, and freely shared his ideas and advice with us. He seems like a great guy. It was genuinely inspiring too. I always get recharged by talking to people who "made it", who were at one point where I am now...working on the novel you're not sure's going to go anywhere and churning out short-stories trying to get one to hit. He made a really great point about short-stories, though. He said that when he was in college, he'd made a comment to a professor that he thought short stories were mostly a dead end. They were only ready by people who were writing short stories in the hopes of getting their sto...

I was going to try and define Ted. But I can’t. There’s no one thing about Ted that can sum him up, no true name which would give you power over him. You can’t distill Ted into a few syllables. Ted is far more than that. Ted is my brother. He was born two years after me, and I remember being pleased that we were born on the same day, the 10th. Yeah, it was two months and two years different, but to me it was the same. I remember being excited that I was getting a little brother. I remember standing next to Mom, putting out my finger for Ted to grab a hold of. I remember playing Mask with Ted in the hospital when Sam was being born. I kept saying to Ted, “Tell me more. Tell me more!” as he made things up and I lived them. I think, looking back, that Ted was the first person to take me to another place. Reading was okay, TV was neat, but playing in the back yard with Ted? It blew them away. The things we saw, the things we did. The villains we dispatched. The games we...

I'm strangely Dissatisfied with my role-playing efforts of the past twenty-four hours. Despite the fact that we role-played for a good thirteen hours, had a full retinue of nine players, including my buddies Branden and Mike, who are usually out of town, and the copious amount of prep-work I'd completed...I still feel kinda lacking. The problem was, and I kinda saw this coming ahead of time, was that we'd just ended the previous adventure with just the six-person core group. It was a big turning-point sort of ending where the PC's had just discovered a secret military base embroiled in any number of dubious, devious, conspiracy-like activities. I spent multiple hours preparing and typing up the documents they'd find, creating a history of conspiracy that reaches back thirty years. Which was all good. I'd initially planned that the next adventure would largely be wrap-up. It would give the PC's a chance to revel in their victory, sift through the papers,...

Tuesdays rock. I take this one kid to the pool from 9:00 until about 12:00. Then, I come back, help out with lunch, monitor recess, then I'm off to the 4-5th graders for Boys' Group. Then I come back to class and help them get ready to go home. Tuesdays rock. James.

The Big Man Says Up Yours.

I've agreed to guest direct a NERO event in the end of September. I'd been half-heartedly thinking about it, but recent events have really gotten me stoked for it. I recently went to a bachelor party for a buddy of mine, and some of his out-of-town friends told me that they were excited by the prospect of me and my brothers guest directing an event. Turns out, from our short stint running games for Aldra in NERO NH, we have a bit of a cult following amongst NERO players. Flattering? You betcha. And there's nothing like flattery to get my creative juices flowing. I have two big dreams in my life. One, to be a published author. Two, to run my own LARP. To that end, I've been writing and developing a world and game system for my own use. It's called, predictibly, Strange Eons. My idea, as it stands at this point, is to use the NERO event as a sort of free advertising for my game and world. NERO gets an interesting weekend, and I get to start a little cult fol...

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So here's my thing. There's this kid I work with...don't know how deep into details I can get without confidentiality stuff getting busted, but we'll call him K. K.'s a tough kid. He's developmentally delayed, was born drug addicted, and has had a straight-up shitty life, right along with getting adopted by a couple that promptly divorced after alleged sexual molestation. This kid has issues. He's a sweet kid, but he was kinda my nemisis for a long time. I'm a Teaching Assistant, but what I really do is Kid Wrestle. When children become assaultive, destructive, or dangerous, I restrain the kid, bring him to a time-out room, and restrain him if the dangerous behavior continues. It's not a part of my job I like, but for a long time I thought it was all my job was going to be about. I thought that because of K. The kid would flip out about anything. His shoes, his work, his desk, anything and he would be flipping over desks, throwing things, and ...

It's funny how disconnected you can feel when you loose the internet for even a few weeks. It's not like I really missed anything, but I missed that feeling of connectivity, like I was plugged in to something, even if it wasn't anything important. Anyway, by using a combination of two different anti-adware programs and some anti-virus software, I'm starting to feel like master of my own cyber-domain again, which is nice. Now it's time to get back to doing things again...writing and the like. Later.