Dispatches

Great article from Cory Doctorow on the conversations he’s had with his six year old daughter about mass surveillance. What’s particularly revealing is which concepts she intuitively grasps from her own experience with technology, and how that aligns with research done on the online habits of children.

Man is the animal that tells stories about himself to himself. — Salman Rushdie, Lecture at the University of Iowa (March 2004) It’s been years since I sat in that lecture hall, but Rushdie’s description of humans as storytelling creatures still gets me with it’s perfect simplicity.

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. — Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality

Earlier this year, I wrote about my resolutions for 2014, and in that post I promised a monthly follow-up where I would report on my progress towards each of my defined goals.

Nik Custodio has put together a wonderfully easy to read primer on Bitcoin titled “ Explain Bitcoin Like I’m Five”. I think there are valid concerns out there about Bitcoin (more of that another time), but it doesn’t stop it from being a remarkable technological achievement, and this article does a good job of explaining it in layman’s terms.

The antidote I’ve found for this is to write for only two people. First, write for yourself, both your present self whose thinking will be clarified by distilling an idea through writing and editing, and your future self who will be able to look back on these words and be reminded of the context in which they were written.

Every night, homeless people construct their nightly shelters outside the Quaker meeting house. Quakers will not make you leave. And have a high level of empathy. A few weeks ago I was walking home and there was a woman, a homeless woman, setting up a space.

New Year’s Eve has always been an uncomfortable holiday for me. While for many, it’s used as a time of renewal and looking forward with hope to the future, I’ve always spent the time reflecting on what did and did not get accomplished the previous year.

You are not a brand. You are a human being. Writing is your craft. Story is your art. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: who wants to read a story by a brand?

Author Sam Sykes has concocted a drinking game certain to destroy anyone foolish enough to play it. It’s quite clever, but I am certain that there is no way that this does not end with someone throwing up.

Always I have seen around me all the games and parades of life and have always envied the players and the marchers. I watch the cards they play and feel in my belly the hollowness as the big drums go by, and I smile and shrug and say, Who needs games?

I’ve recently written about Monte Cook’s game Numerera, and by all accounts, the game appears to be enjoying some success, or at least significant buzz. Many creators would be content with that and simply double-down on that product.

Welcome to the Ninth World As I’ve been running my D&D campaign, I’ve become interested in the alternative role-playing systems that came about after my initial foray into gaming. It all started because I was looking for inspiration for fun rule tweaks I could incorporate into my games that would foster more role-play and streamline combat.

Anubis covered in catnip

If I’m anything at all, I’m not really a science-fiction writer — I’m a writer of fairy tales and modern myths about technology. — Ray Bradbury

If you listen first, and write later, then whatever you write will have had time to filter through your brain, and you’ll be in what you say. This is what makes you exist.

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. — C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I recently wrote about my return to Dungeons and Dragons, and promised another post where I would share what tools our group is using to facilitate our long-distance games. It’s really critical to make sure that game groups are well organized, or many campaigns will fizzle out due to the amount of work involved.

The woman was simply leaving us alone with our future, the future she wouldn’t be a part of. She didn’t know how to do it or what it was, but she was trying to give it to us.

I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons again for the first time in over ten years. It’s been a lot of fun, and challenging as well. When I started playing again, I elected to start by being the DM for my group, which is quite a bit of work, but very rewarding.