Category Archives: Blog

New Year’s Resolutions

It’s a new year and with it comes new expectations and hopes. Having posted the rather lengthy Kinslayer Chronicle, I felt that perhaps it was time for a bit more of my random musings. And what better to fill this blog with than my thoughts on an age old western tradition.

The first thing I was asked by friends after the clock struck twelve on January 1^st (once we actually started talking since we’re all approaching that point in life where we don’t see any value in staying up abnormally late anymore) was what I had resolved to do this year. My response was short and rote. I’m upholding my resolution years ago to not make New Year’s resolutions. It’s a cop-out, I know but bear with me as I explain myself.

Talk to most people and they all have similar goals. Fitness and dieting are high amongst them as is the utter devotion to their goals for a good solid two to three weeks. And then, inevitably, the resolutions fall to the wayside. I had my fair share of “get healthy” promises each year. It wasn’t until university that I began to approach health and fitness a bit more seriously. And I didn’t leave it to little early morning resolution either.

I am focused on self-improvement. Perhaps not the most evident quality I exhibit but one that shouldn’t be a surprising confession. I’m an introvert and for years in school kept wanting to be more popular and liked. But worry about making a fool of myself kept me reclusive and withdrawn. It wasn’t until after numerous self-berating sessions in the shower that I realized there was nothing standing in my way than myself. Course, my solution in the wisdom of youth was to stop caring what others thought of myself and though perhaps not the most accurate attitude to correct it did accomplish the goal I set. I joined Drama Club, got more involved in activities and found myself forming more friendships than I have since. My desire to achieve greater self confidence was won and without having to make a routine promise at the flipping of a calendar.

Thus, in university, my decision to get healthy was a similar random decision. I set a time I would go to the gym, I began borrowing weights from friends and I made a conscious decision every week to meet a minimum exercise goal. I wasn’t successful at first. I made many mistakes. I had several injuries. I did things in the most arduous manner possible. But sheer stubborn will saw me through and I formed the habit I wanted. I also weened myself off sugar.

So, accomplishing the goals of a new year’s resolution were done outside of the social convention. There is just something about the ritual itself that I don’t want to tie to my success. There’s almost an expectation that these resolutions are meant to be broken. I saw it all the time in the gym. The first three weeks of the new year were always the worst. There were all these new faces clogging up the machines and forming lines for the weights. And you just knew, as you tried to grow accustomed to these queues, that these people’s time was numbered. I grew almost resentful of the fact that I had to wait on them – these individuals that had no real desire to be there but just came out because of some silly tradition.

Which, of course, was unfair but I was much younger back in those golden years.

And sometimes these rituals have merit. My first novel was essentially accomplished under the requirements of a new year’s resolution. When I was in Japan, I spent New Years with one of my student’s family. They took me to the nearby shrine to enjoy the festival and encouraged me to purchase a Daruma doll. These little bearded Buddhas are sold without pupils. When you obtain one, you make a wish to accomplish something that year and you draw in one of the eyes. Then you set the little devil on the table so he stares at you unblinking with that one eye. Only once you’ve completed your wish are you able to finish his sight. My wish that year was to write a novel and the guilt that guy instilled kept me motivated on that milestone task.

Course, you’re also suppose to return him to his home shrine and throw him on an enormous pyre at the end of the year but I wasn’t going to fly back to Japan to complete the full exercise. Instead, I keep him on my dresser as a reminder of my success.

So, the long and the short of this is I do make yearly resolutions. This year I’m trying to revamp my schedule in such a way to increase productivity while re-aligning my time to sync up better with friends and family. I have a poor tendency to grow somewhat insular, especially when I’m working, so hopefully this will make me a little less of a troglodyte.

Course, if anyone asks, I’m still holding to my resolution to not make any.

Merry Christmas

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On this day, I wish you all a Merry Christmas (or politically correct Happy Holiday!)

To all those involved in celebrating at this time, I hope you are enjoying a day of friends and family. May your time be filled with good food and excellent companionship – in my case beating my brother at his brand new board game, summoner wars. Other highlights of my day included watching Newsroom and finishing my annual gingerbread house.

This year I created a template to resemble my actual house. The idea was to make it look real-ish. The product was not as clean or well exicuted as I had hoped. The gramcrackers do not look like siding and the dried cranberries are shaped more like red stone than brick. Yes, the large block on the right is supposed to be garage door. However, I have photographed it for memory and will enjoy looking at it for the next week or so.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Nanowrimo Winner

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Nanowrimo – National Novel Writing Month

This is a very short post and a late post all of which is being blamed on Nanowrimo. As my brother has mentioned, November is Novel writing month. And, since work was not particularly busy, it was something I participated in. The goal: 50 000 words in only 30 days. Actually, it is far from unacheivable as goals go. However, it is also very time consuming. These past few days have been dedicated to the final push.

Last night, after hours spent chained to my computer I finally reached my goal of 50 000 words. It is exciting to be done, it is relieving to be done and quite frankly I am bragging that I am done – unlike some other people I could name. On the other hand, I would not say that I wrote an actual novel. I certainly wrote all about one place and group of characters. I wrote the required number of words. But for all the other aspects of character development and plot progression I feel I failed. My novel is a terribly written first draft of something that needs to be returned to the darkest corner of the closest for a long period of time. Until someday I can drag it back out, scrap it and start over – perhaps next november.

Now that I am finished, I hope to do some reading, which should provide me with things to write about. In the meantime, for all of those people still rushing to complete their November Novels – you can do it! It is within reach and it is possible. To everyone else, enjoy these last few days of the month.

The Chronicles of Elantra – Series Review

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Cover of book one in the series.

I have gotten a little behind in my reading of late – an impressive feat as I have been reading continuously as a means of procrastinating other activities. I fear tonight I am not going to reach my word count for the Nanowrimo competition (writing a book in a month). However, I digress. My goal tonight is to comment on a series of books I have been reading: The Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara.

I am always surprised to find how completely absorbed in a long running series I have become. In fact, I actually own every book to date in the series. With nine books have been written about the adventures of Kaylin Neya in the city of Elantra, this is a feat I think is rather impressive. Though, I suppose if I were to peruse my book shelf, it would bear witness to the fact I have read and own several other series (Harry Potter, Green Rider, and others). In the Chronicles of Elantra, I am have been rereading the entire series – all eight previous stories – before I delve into the newest offering of book nine.

So, what are these books? Well, they tell the story of Kaylin Neya, a private in the Hawks (city police – investigative branch). She has been marked by magic and thus inadvertently finds herself the centre of world defining change. Each book is written as an episode while simultaneously following an overall arc. There is a flavour of a TV series in the way the books are written. Not that each story reads like a TV episode – I have read books like that and they are generally poorly written. Now, Sagara is an author and her stories are well crafted and appropriate to the pages. But there is a lightness, or sense of whimsy, that is more reminiscent of TV than epic high fantasy stories (such as Tolkien).

Cover of book 6 – I just finished reading this one.

The world of Elantra is definitely fantasy. It is a nice mix of almost modern fantasy and the fantastical world building. What does that mean? Well, the structure and morals of the society feel modern. Despite the lack of gun powder or nanotechnology or even cars the world feels more modern than medieval. Women are not shunted away and protected by men. They are not confined to marriage and childbearing – at least not at the low level of society the stories centre around. While the mode of rapid transportation his horse and carriage, and stew has been noted on several occasions, the method of dress favours the more modern development of pants for all both men and women. The discussion of paperwork and pay sheets also feels considerably more modern. Whether this is the author’s intent, I could not say. There are elements of the medieval and the reader’s perspective is highly skewed by the unusual main character.

As for the fantasy side, the most obvious element that readers will mark is the inclusion of dragons. Dragons are just one of the races present in Elantra. The dragons not only rule the empire, they are capable of breathing fire and appearing human in form. They are also immortal. The other races include: Humans, Aerians (humans with wings and the ability to use them for flight), Tha’alani (mostly human with antennae and telepathy), Leontines (humanoid lions) and Barrani (pseudo-elves as they are perfect in appearance, arrogant in manner and immortal).

Generally I am not a fan of multiple races – they always seem a bit silly in print. However, Sagara pulls this off with ease. Perhaps it has something to do with the number or races present. Or the author’s ability to give each race a clear, well-defined place in the overall society structure. They do appear integrated. All the races all have their own cultural history and thus personalities. But while physical differences are clearly described, I find the cultural differences more interesting.

The Tha’alani are interesting in their nearly hive mind and ability to read the thoughts and emotions of others with their antennae. I found in interesting the way the Tha’alani have a very open culture without secrets that humans hold so close. They appear to be a very peace loving, easy going society. Yet, even these harmless people have teeth and they have a history of familiar violence. It gives them a complexity and richness that makes them seem alive.

Cover of book 7 – the one I will start as soon I finish my writing for the night.

Each race allows the author to tackle some different societal ideas. The Leontines have multiple wives. Yet, it is the wives that run the home. They have to get along well together if their family structure is going to work. While not much time is spent dwelling on this different relationship design, what is show, is done well.

It is also helpful there is no sense of forbidden love between individuals of different races. I don’t know how this could possibly work anatomically. So, I am grateful that in many ways race is down played. While the Barrani hold contempt for Humans, it is true they turn their noses down on all mortal races. At the same time the dragons are considered their greatest enemy.

Because this is fantasy there is magic present in the world. It is both common and powerful in many ways and sparse and irrelevant in others. I

guess what I am trying to say is that the magic is integrated into the world. It doesn’t feel like some glaring addition thrown on last minute just to turn a story into a fantasy tale. Nor does it seem that the magic is present to extract the lead characters from trouble. This might have more to do with magic causing the trouble.

There is a sense of integration of magic into the world. Door wards are common. The use of mirrors as communication devices I am particularly fond. Memory crystals (audio-visual recording devices) are also an interesting addition. There are a few instances of big magic, like exploding doors. But even the bigger magics, the shape of towers are done in such a way to seem reasonable.

Not to suggest there are not flaws with the stories. Rereading all the books at once reminds me of one of the great challenges faced by authors of series. How do you sum up the previous portion of the story without it appearing like an information dump? While Sagara might try to spread out some of the information I generally find the first couple chapters to be less griping as she tries to explain what has come before. Really, this is a waste of time. Either the reader has been following your work since book one or they were dumb for jumping into the middle at book. Don’t bother trying to catch them up. If the reader wants a better idea of what is happening, then it is their responsibility to go back and read from the beginning. Otherwise, you are just padding your book with information I already know.

Still, if it wasn’t already clear. I really like this series. I am eagerly looking forward to what the new book has to offer – as soon as I finish rereading books 7 & 8!

Halloween Reminiscent

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I bought this white pumpkin. It smelled like mellon as I was cleaning it out. I saved some seeds to plant in my garden for next year.

It seems that every year I go to hand out candy to the wandering trick-or-treaters I am increasingly disappointed in the lack of costume; creative or otherwise. Now, I suppose I should be a little more forgiving for this past year. It was both rainy and windy for the entire night – though at least it wasn’t freezing cold. But of the 20-30 people that came to the door half of them lacked anything recognizable as a costume. Of the half that did have something on, only a few had really dressed the part. Many wore only a store bought top, a pair of ears or something equally minimal. This year the most memorable costume was the Hersey Candy Kiss – the shiny foil wrap was adorable.

It is difficult for me to gauge whether the change in dressing up practices is a result of my faulty memory, the lack of children coming to the door (really ~30 is normal for our house in the last five years), or a reflection of the very lazy attitudes of young people (now I sound like my mother!).

Certainly when I look back on my childhood of trick-or-treating, I feel there was more effort put into the costumes before we left the house to pound on our neighbour’s doors. Not that effort equals skill. I clearly remember trying to dress as a teddy bear, only the ears were not well done and no one could guess what I was. Of course, by that time I was reaching the cusp of the trick-or-treating age.

Which can be an interesting question: when are you too old to trick-or-treat? Well, I think I was about 12 when I stopped. I certainly look on high school aged people as being on the old side. Even more so when they don’t bother with a costume, just bring out an old pillow case and start roaming for candy. At the very least dress up! Dress up in the most amazing costume you can – and at that age I feel the potential to wear something more complex, more complete is better suited to older individuals than younger ones. Dress up amazingly well and then I don’t have a problem with you begging for candy.

I grew this pumpkin myself. It was the only pumpkin that survived the agressive squirrels and weeds. Maybe next year I will be able to grow two!

Though I am still hesitant about the adults – even dressed up. We had one father coming around with two boys holding out a sack for a child still at home. I am kind of torn on this concept. On one hand, it would certainly suck to be the child sick at home and unable to collect a year’s worth of candy in one night. On the other hand, shouldn’t his siblings have to share? After all, neither I nor my brothers ever finished eating our Halloween candy. Certainly not within the first few weeks of November. I would stash mine collection in my room and still have pieces left over a year later.

Does this mean Halloween should be left only for young children? Well, no. Halloween can still be a lot of fun. I still really like carving pumpkins. And this year’s pair of certainly garnered the interest of those visiting our door. I wish I could take credit for the ideas, but both the pumpkin-eating-pumpkin and pumpkin-vomiting-pumpkin I found in magazines. I like decorating for the holiday, though this year I didn’t bother with as many of the nick-nacks I have for putting on display. (As our regular readers know – weddings have been time consuming this past month).

I really love looking at magazines for the latest trends and ideas. In fact I would really like to throw a large party, just so I could plan the theme, decorate accordingly and create a matching menu of food. This is something I love to do – plan! I like the creative side of Halloween.

For me Halloween is more than just an opportunity to collect free candy from other people. I actually prefer the other, home-made treats associated with the event such as popcorn balls, candy apples or toasted pumpkin seeds (which I collect every year from my pumpkin). Well truthfully, I have never made candy apples and I am not certain I have ever eaten – though likely I have just forgotten. But I have made and do like the popcorn balls. Now, I am not advocating for people to hand out home-made treats to trick-or-treaters, because I am not. That is a safety risk I don’t think anyone should take. However, I do like the idea of having a Halloween party – in this case for adults – that would include a variety of delicious offerings.

Gifts! I love my presents.

But as I don’t have any local friends to invite to my Halloween bash I am satisfied with my current tradition. Every year Valve puts out a special set of theme maps for Team Fortress 2 (TF2). There are also Halloween themed hats and costumes for the characters. The style of game play changes and you even get gifts – who does like a present? So between opening the door to poorly dressed trick-or-treaters I am glued to my computer busily capturing points, falling into hell and generally have a great time.

Happy Halloween!

Narcisetto, Adoncino d’Amor

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I begin this post with a grand announcement. My wedding obligations have been fulfilled! So expect regular posting (by me at least) to resume appropriately and frequently soon. In fact, November marks the “Write a Novel in a Month because You are Crazy” which means I’m going to be super busy. However, fear not dear site, for this doesn’t mean that I will neglect you further. In fact, I have a prepared story that will seem me gloriously through the writing challenge and probably in the months to come. Which is to say that I wrote a short story which is more like a novella which is going to take a long time to break down and post section by section upon this site.

But since said story also was a gift for one of these weddings, I felt it appropriate to allow the gifted to enjoy it early before I blasted into the public domain that didn’t require an elaborate ceremony and forever bonding themselves to another in order to obtain.

It’s like a pre-purchase with all the uselessness of said practice.

But as my time has mostly been involved with these weddings, it is all I really have to speak of at the moment. Well, that’s not entirely true. Derek has been spending numerous hours enrolling me in a crash course of a competitive card game called Netrunner. Expect something on that soonish. Which will probably be next week. It’s a neat little game but my words for it will certainly be longer than the time I have today to write.

Yes, I got gifts for being in the wedding party. Yes, they were both pocket watches. Now I get to play favourites… I’ll probably stick with the one that was awarded to me for having an awesome speech.

So, instead, I shall share private information about a ceremony that I really shouldn’t be making public. I suppose I shall change names in order to protect the identities of those involved. Consider everything that follows as a work of fiction and any semblances to people, places and events that transpired purely as coincidence. That’s how you absolve yourself of any legal action right?

The second of the age old tradition rife in patriarchy and out-dated religiosity was… well… more traditional and rife with patriarchy and out-dated religiosity. I will say this about my brother’s wedding – it certainly allowed me to enjoy Jeremy and Heather’s even more. This isn’t to say that my brother’s wedding was bad. It just felt different. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being more an outsider at this event and not just because I wasn’t the best man this time around.

I was still a member of the wedding party but there was a very blatant difference between the two. Jeremy’s wedding party was mostly composed of people that didn’t know each other well. There was Dan, Matt and Sebastian who are all related to Jeremy but Paul and myself helped to make clear that we weren’t a close knit group of age old friends. It forced us to seek commonalities in order to engage each other and with more than one person feeling a little on the outside encouraged all of us to extend a hand to the others. Even the brothers didn’t seem particularly close. I chatted with Paul, Sebastian and Matt and we all got along pretty well. Dan was… well Dan which is about all we could expect.

My brother’s wedding party, however, was the opposite. Here were four guys that have shared interests and history. Their time together was spent discussing the raucous parties they attended or dipping in to the married life that my brother so desperately yearns. To say I had nothing in common with them would be to strike the central cord. Since I was just one person, and the younger brother to boot, I was eminently ignorable. Which they did. My part was to solely stand around for photos. I didn’t share any brief moments with my brother to reassert the bonds of our relationship. I suppose the other issue of our shared history contaminated any sort of jovial interactions. Any young man with an older brother can probably attest that growing up is more on the trial and tribulation spectrum than on the close and endearing side that siblings can share. My brother delighted in tormenting me when he was younger. And those that are tormented aren’t apt to forget.

I would say our current relationship is… not necessarily strained but it isn’t warm either. We recognize each other as kin but we have nothing in common and little desire or motivation to change that.

So there’s that. Then there’s the issue that this wedding had a lot of my family at it. And with my family, the less you see of them the better. When they form up as a group, they’re more like a pack of hyenas than a herd of elephants. Though, actually, elephants might make an excellent comparison as well. My parents are divorced and the relationship between the two sides has been… filled with the standard drama to be expected from family. In their defence, they were on good show. My father was embarrassing but that’s mostly par for the course with him. The rest were cordial and mostly I loathe the questions and interrogations that follow. “When are you going to get a girlfriend… I hear that company X is hiring, why don’t you apply to them?”

Et cetera.

I mostly just ignore it. I won’t lie, spite fuels me and my family is in for a surprise should I make it. For they will inevitably try and pull the “I knew you’d do it all along! Let’s be best friends!” routine.

But the wedding, I felt, mostly lacked personality. Heather and Jeremy’s was infused with their personality from the table centerpieces, music played, vows and what have you. If I had to sum up my brother’s wedding in one word it would be “feathers” and I can tell you, feathers are not the first thing I think of when I imagine my brother. It was all so standard. And boring. My brother seemed bored. The bride seemed at an acceptable level of contentedness. The bridesmaids dresses were atrocious. If you were to watch a standard Hollywood movie that was shoved from the studios in a few months to fill the post Oscar season, this would be the wedding they would show.

However, my brother is married and I know have a sister-in-law. As long as they enjoyed their wedding, that’s all that mattered. And hey, I decided that if somehow I actually beat the odds and do end up getting married I’m going to ask my brother to be in my wedding partly. Mostly so he can know the torture of being the odd man. But hey, at least there is that.

It’s a Nice Day for a White Wedding

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I must begin, as is often the case, with an apology dear readers. I know I have made brief mention before about my hectic schedule for the month of October. I’m smack dab in the middle of two weddings, one being a very close friend of mine and the other my brother’s. For those that have been through the ordeal, I’m sure you can understand how much work goes into them even if they aren’t your own.

I grabbed these photos off Google image search, as I’m wont to do. These are not mine and that was not my tux.

Consequently, this post is going to be brief. I’ve just returned from being a best man which was a mixed blessing. On one hand, it was a very unique experience. I have never been someone’s best man and it was a very humbling perspective to have. It also came with a fair degree of anxiety and pressure – albeit some of it was self imposed. Primarily, I had to give the best man speech which, I was informed, is often considered to be the highlight for a wedding. Ok, maybe it’s considered the highlight of the reception.

Either way, it was an expectation that I not only perform but also perform above and beyond the competition. For days I agonized over the content of my speech then fretted about the very delivery of it. Despite what people may think, writing does not give you a natural advantage in the public speaking department. Hell, acting doesn’t help much there either. Unlike the stage, when you’re giving a speech people aren’t expecting you to be presenting a persona. You are yourself, standing in front of a crowd of veritable strangers attempting to delight and entertain with the full knowledge that you’re expected to be a memorable presentation.

As I said, I had some worries.

Course, this wasn’t even covering the other duties. Though most of those were focused around sitting people I didn’t know either on the appropriate side. I liken weddings to battles. You have your two armies opposing each other and it’s vitally important that you get both to the field of battle in proper formation. Thankfully, I wasn’t in charge of navigating the turgid waters of familial relations. Which aunt sits where and beside who would have been far too much for me to handle.

So please don’t sue me if you own any of these.

And for the rings, that wasn’t particularly onerous. There was a brief moment, after I was forbidden to touch them once they entered my pocket, that I realized they probably didn’t want the rings presented in their boxes. So I quickly fetched them from their containers while the bride walked down the aisle. But everyone was too focused on her to notice that blunder so I felt pretty safe. During the hand-off I didn’t separate them properly but that’s what you get for not having a rehearsal!

Anyway, back to the speech. Aside from an astonishingly terrible Master of Ceremony performance, I felt the speech went well. I was a lot calmer after the father of the bride and mother of the groom presented. I don’t want to say anything terrible, but especially the father’s speech made me a little more comfortable in my own prepared material. He had mentioned to me earlier how he hated speeches and how people ramble on about how they first met the couple and yadda, yadda, yadda. However, as the bride pointed out, it wasn’t his day. It was theirs. And my speech was specifically geared for them.

It was filled with all the personal touch and inside jokes that make me… well, me. And I’m their friend, not friends to their family. So I basically turned to them as I delivered and though they may have been the only ones laughing at least they were enjoying themselves. And that’s all I really hoped for. All I really aimed for, to be honest. And seeing them happy on their special day was all the thanks that I could have asked for.

So yeah, I had been dreading that day but afterwards I felt better. I felt… something akin to happiness. It was a very nice wedding, all things considered. And the couple appeared quite pleased themselves. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters.

This also came up in the Google search. Since I love Arrested Development, you get this still.

Now, I promise to have something more substantial and interesting later. I just want to point out that – even though I too am incredibly busy – I still find the time to post for you, dear site. I won’t abandon you or forget. Even if I am a little late…

Post Tournament Blues

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With the International tournament come and gone, I’ve returned to my blue humdrum routine of every day life. Gone are the exciting days of watching damn decent Dota and replaced with work, work and more work. Which is to say I have nothing to say. So I decided I would keep my entry today short and just let you in on what I’m actually doing.

I have no good image for this post. So here is the Old Guitarist from Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period.

My previous posts have mentioned that during the month of April I wrote a full length novel as both a challenge to myself and part of April’s Write a Novel in a Month. This is not to be confused with Nanowrimo – National Novel Writing Month – which takes place in November. It was, in essence, a practice month to get used to the real challenge come late autumn. Technically, you could write whatever you wanted and they encouraged a lower word limit than the actual Novel Month.

Of course, I am hardly one to follow recommendations for things. I took it upon myself to not only exceed that month’s suggestions but to almost double Nanowrimo’s goals as well. Mostly to see if I could. Also, it meant that I hit my goal of ‘one new novel a year’ pretty early.

Course, following that challenge I was burnt out so I took a small hiatus which lined up with my east coast vacation particularly well. Following that, I began writing a novella which I plan on using later this year. This took the better part of a month and a half and upon completing that I am back to doing my submission for Writers of the Future. Once I finish that up, my goal is to clean up the novella and get it into a publishable form. I’ll then have about a month to edit my novel from April before fated Nanowrimo is upon us.

And I have every intention of participating in that again this year. I have some ideas of what I want to do, I just have to do the preliminary research before hand. The rest of the year will likely be spent editing the April novel. Editing, as I’ve come to realize, takes almost as much if not more time than the actual writing.

But this has brought me to a startling revelation. I think my writing is improving. Not a claim I’d make lightly but going through the first draft of my April novel, I don’t feel as frustrated with it as I did with my first novel. I even have a clear plan of things I want to tweak, fix and rework but the overall cohesiveness is well and beyond what I had on my first run with Thyre.

And speaking with Kait, I’ve come to realize that perhaps this is to be expected. When writing Thyre I had essentially taken the final step of all my years leading up to it. I have pages and pages of half completed ideas and scribes. I have collections of shorts that go nowhere and started stories that just vanish after twenty pages. For years I’ve been scribbling and typing but never completing. Thyre was that last painful push before giving way to my first ever creation. It was long. It was painful. And I suppose I’ll never experience anything like it again.

This brings me to a point I wanted to make. I am, first and foremost, a writer. I enjoy creating and communicating. This isn’t really surprising given my passion but what I am not is a reader. I consume on average one or two books a year. This, I feel, would probably startle a lot. After all, most people I know that get into writing are readers first. They want to try their hand at their own book after reading piles and piles of their favourite authors and genres. And there was a time when I was fairly voracious in my reading too.

However, over the last few years, I don’t really read for pleasure. I read for research and for analysis. While I enjoy the analytical aspect of it, it starts to border the problem that English Literature students face. When given a story to critically examine and deconstruct, the original goal of entertainment gets shuffled aside to make way for thesis arguments and supporting evidence. Stories that, on their own are exciting, become a thing to dread. They become work.

I had worried that my reluctance to read would hinder my own budding skills. So I pressed on with a few books every now and then, leaning towards something with literary significance so that I could tell myself that even if I wasn’t reading a lot at least I was reading well. But, while many authors will tell you that it helps to be well read when writing, I don’t think it’s a prerequisite. Ultimately, writing is no different than any other craft. You examine the great works to see their technique. But you’ll never learn their skill by merely looking at it alone. In the end, Picasso and Michelangelo needed their canvases and masonry. They needed the brush and the chisel in their hand to improve.

And a writer is the same. You can get only so far by reading but at some point you need to start creating on your own. Trial by fire is the real way to learn what works and what doesn’t. It’s through self experimentation, examination and execution that your craft is honed and polished. I can read all the novels I want, but they never prepared me for the difficulties and toil of creating my own. And having come out the other side weary, beaten but triumphant I look upon the next challenge not as the insurmountable mountain that I had originally seen but as a new summit ever close to my grasp.

So, long story short is if you want to get better my advice is to just get writing.

Tournament of Heroes Part 2

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dota 2 international compedium stretch goals

Benaroya Hall in glorious The International 3 colours. A fitting place for a tournament of heroes.

I swear, I totally planned on posting Friday. But, well, this is my Superbowl and things happen.

For those that haven’t paid attention to the Part 2 in the title, this last week Valve held their The International 3 Dota 2 tournament. Sixteen teams from around the world descended upon Seattle’s Benaroya Concert Hall to battle for a piece of the over 2.8 million dollar prize pool. It’s remarkable how people give you that questioning look when you inform them that you’re watching a video game tournament and suddenly their expression changes when they hear the prize pool.

E-sports are becoming a thing and times are exciting for those that are invested in it.

This is going to be another gushing post of positiveness and enthusiasm. Last year’s The International was a fantastic showing and Valve really demonstrated that they are capable of holding a very entertaining even despite their lack of experience. Knowing their work philosophy, I was excited to see how Valve would approach this year’s tournament and what improvements they would implement.

Even anticipating the change, I was still struck by the just how good this year’s event turned out.

I can not understate the grace and charisma that Kaci Aitchinson brought to an event that had historically been notoriously awkward.

One of the big improvements was the inclusion of this girl. Kaci Aitchinson. A local Seattle reporter had been conscripted by Valve to work the trenches of the event interviewing players, commentators and attendees alike. I won’t sugar coat it, there was a lot of trolling and awkwardness. Somehow, through it all, Ms. Aitchinson kept collected and cool and brought a great touch of humanity to the proceedings. She felt sincere and honest, apologetic in her ignorance of the event but constantly eager to learn more. There was some questioning of this stranger in our midst when she first appeared but within hours she was winning people over and learning more than she ever cared about Internet culture and bronies.

More importantly, her segments were a wonderful break that provided a new perspective to the production. She focused on players’ stories, the background working of the event and the reactions and feelings of special guests and the attendees. Last year, the interviews felt like a formality. A shallow stumbling through elements aped from other sports coverage. But Kaci’s bits were almost always entertaining and not just to see whether Iceiceice would discuss his diarrhea.

Kaci’s coverage also gave us unfortunate souls unable to attend a view of the additions to the venue. Valve clearly had a bunch of new ideas for bringing fans and teams together and their implementation was nothing short of genius.

Admiral Bulldog with his eponymous Nature’s Prophet. He’s the hero we deserve.

Tables were set up to allow fans to meet with their favourite players, voice actors and even workshop creators. See, Dota 2 is a free-to-play game which means anyone can download and play without giving a single cent to the developers. In order to make money, Valve has turned into a simulation hat manufacturer. Or distributor would be more accurate.

The Steam Workshop is an initiative that allows anybody to create and upload items to be sold in Dota 2. Fans vote for their favourites and after a quick quality assurance pass, Valve includes it into the main client. From there, every purchase will give the creators a portion of all earnings. You can take a couple of the over one hundred heroes and tweak their appearance to match your favourite player’s or cobble something practically unique.

Getting sports heroes’ signatures is rather popular and Valve, in their ingenuity, came up with a system that would net attendees a way to get their virtual items autographed by their stars. Every time you visited one of the tables, your visiting pass was scanned and your in-game account would receive a digital copy of your hard earned signature. I would kill to have Anuxi sign a set of Crystal Maiden’s Snowdrop set so just give the word Anuxi and someone can be expunged from existence at your beck!

Obviously, fan favourites would be voice actors like Ellen McLain (GladOS) or star players like Puppey. And if digital signatures weren’t enough, Valve returned with their Secret Shop to sell a load of new merchandise for eager fans. One of this year’s new items were little balls that contained a random plushie. Made, no doubt, to replicate the crate system in the game, you could buy a number of balls in the hopes of getting a doll version of your favourite character. And if you ended up with a Meepo, you could just toss it at N0tail.

Stolen from the Penny Arcade Report. Here’s Statsman Bruno from the main desk channeling the spirit of Godz for some insight on the outcome of the upcoming game between Alliance and Na’Vi in the winner’s bracket finals.

The hall itself was amazing. Spectators could see the teams in their booths – soundproof of course as the match’s commentators are just to the side of the main stage. This year they added the two large displays on either side of the main screen to showcase the heroes picked and banned during the first stage. Then, beneath the players were animated portraits of their chosen heroes including whatever cosmetic items they had equipped. These portraits would turn grey upon a player’s death and a counter would keep the audience updated on their respawn time.

Even more impressive was the personalized hard drives each of the players had. As is common for competitors, they had their own hardware from oversized mousepads to custom keyboards with specially made keys. The hard drives are important as they save each player’s personal settings which would be annoying and time consuming if they had to reset them every time a new team took the booth. It was fascinating to watch the Valve employees swap out the hardware for teams, having it down to almost five minutes to get in and out. As a result, time between matches was smooth and short.

My team was Fnatic. New faces to the Dota 2 scene, their tendency to pick neglected heroes as well as the enormous flexibility in their own roles won me over. Sadly, N0tail’s Meepo didn’t make an appearance. But I still believe for The International 4!

Perhaps the most exciting feature for all fans was the inclusion of the Interactive Compendium. For ten dollars, every fan could help contribute to the prize pool which topped off over 2.8 million dollars. In the time between Valve’s recording for the show’s audio, the prize pool had increased 200,000 dollars which made me smile every morning when the introduction announced the pool as “Greater than 2.6 million!” It’s a testament to the passion of the fans but since this is Valve, the Compendium really went on to make the matches even more exciting. You could choose your favourite team to support, create a fantasy team to garner points through each member’s performance during the event, collect trading cards of the participating players and even vote on the participants for a 1v1 tournament and a show match between the most popular players. Being invested in a team, even if it was because their picture was on the side of my digital book, made those matches even more intense. My sister was the only one of us to not have a Compendium and I think she began to regret that as we would cheer and cry over the performance of our own teams.

After an intense week of Dota with more games and plays than I could ever hope to cover, the event wound down to a close. It was exciting and exhilarating and even Kaci was caught up in the enthusiasm especially by the nerve-wracking Grand Finals which wound down to a nail biting game five. Everyone seemed exhausted but overjoyed and one team walked away 1.4 million dollars richer and the Aegis. Over five million spectators were logged in on Valve’s in-game client and the streams on Youtube and Twitch.tv. This doesn’t even include those that watched on the Swedish and Chinese channels that ran the shows or the hundreds of people gathered into pubs and theatres to watch with their fellow fans.

So I think the real hero to snag the Aegis is Dota 2 itself as it demonstrated the power and passion that e-sports are creating.

A Tournament of Heroes Part 1

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Rudely stolen from the Internet. I believe it’s a compilation of official Valve art put together by hydezz. Assuming my failing eyes aren’t complete rubbish, you can find his page at hydezz.deviantart.com

Alright, this is going to be something a little different today. For those not in the know, this week is Valve’s The International 3. It is, perhaps, the biggest tournament in e-sports. At least, it’s the biggest tournament I care about in e-sports. And while the category may carry a silly name, electronic sports may perhaps be the only type of sport I enjoy watching.

As such, I’ve been knocking back almost twelve hours a day of wall to wall action and high stakes combat. This means that my productivity is pretty much shot so I really don’t have anything prepared for the blog. I’m sorry to disappoint but you’ll have to rely on my co-creators for more meatier content this week.

For those with a slight interest, The International is a Dota 2 invitational only tournament. Held in Seattle, the best of the best are brought to Valve’s headquarters and Benaroya Hall to compete for a prize pool that is currently over 2.8 million dollars. See, I told you this is big. Granted, this is the entire pool and first place is only taking a measly 1.4 million. They’re practically paupers.

Now, there are two reasons I find Dota 2 a more engaging activity to watch over something like golf is two fold. For one, golf doesn’t involve a myriad host of critters and individuals stabbing each other in the face with swords, spears, pincers and what-have-you. Second, I actually play the game so watching people perform at the height of skill and competitiveness gives me pointers for improving my own performance in game. It’s fascinating watching the strategies that a cohesive team of five individuals will do to try and take the match against an equally fearsome opponent.

And Valve has done a remarkable job of making this spectating as engaging and enjoyable as possible. You can watch the entire tournament live from their in-game client for free. This allows you to listen to commentators and control the camera however you like. I can set it so I can watch the game from the perspective of my favourite player or ghost over the shoulders of the in-game casters as they make the calls for every play. Furthermore, I was graciously gifted this year’s compendium which is like one of those pamphlets they give out at sporting or theatre events. Only this one had a bunch of goodies packed inside and allowed me to construct a fantasy team of players who accrue me points and to make predictions based on the outcome of the game. This book, however, is not free and is priced at $10. Which might seem a little steep except it’s essentially a ticket for the event and $2.50 from it is contributed directly to the prize pool.

Hence why I initially stated that the pool is currently around 2.8.

The champion rings from last year because Valve really are that awesome. I know it’s nerdy, but I think I’d be so proud if I ever earned one of these.

Being able to invest directly into the tournament helps give a sense of proud ownership to each compendium holder. It’s nice to know that I’m directly supporting these players with my own money and, given the amount of entertainment they’ve provided, it’s a rather affordable price too. There’s even the option to purchase team pennants if you wanted to give money directly to your favourite team and those will cost you around $2.50 though you can give more by upgrading it. These pennants, in turn, increase your chances of obtaining tournament stamped digital items you can wear when you play though the chances of actually getting one are rather minuscule.

This year I’m throwing my support behind team Fnatic. They’re a relatively new team to the Dota 2 scene. Apparently, they were an old Heroes of Newerth (HoN) group who finally made the switch to Dota 2. I have no idea how highly ranked they were, but considering that my favourite caster Draskyl is also a former HoN competitive player, I won’t hold their origins against them. They’re a European team in the full sense of the term. Not a single member is from the same country but despite that they all get along seemingly extraordinary. I kind of like that global community feel. Plus they play some damn good an unconventional Dota. Anyone that picks and wins with Meepo in a tournament is surely to win my heart.

So, if any of this sounds interesting, you can find more at Valve’s official site: http://www.dota2.com/international/home/overview/

While I doubt I’ll make any converts of readers, I will likely post at least once more on this small obsession taking over my life. I consider this my Super Bowl, so I hope you’ll forgive me for minor consumption of my time. I’m trying to ride this wave of the future on a brand new phenomenon… or something.