RUBBERMAN'S EXODUS IS OUT!!!

At the time of this writing, just the paperback, but hardcover and kindle are being processed by team Bezos at we speak. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0981396054/

This is readable on its own, but nicely caps off the Rubberman Series. It's a biggie, at nearly 300 pages.

I recently was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, (yeah, on top of my 20-years-plus of paraplegia, yaaay!) so my concentration is kind of a mess these days. Thankfully, Exodus was in late editing when the MS hit hard. It's nice to finish off the series the way I wanted, but it does likely mean it's my last novel. I have plans to eventually redesign all my covers, and maybe do new editions of my older stuff with a bit of re-writing. But that's later.

133 years. Time is up.

Lead Engineer Tara and her partner Sasha face the coming end of the facility generator. For generations It has served thousands of people who have been hiding underground from the ravages of the war, and the lingering Enemy above.

Up and down the Grand Elevator, though the entire facility, every resident's life will be shaken when the generator sparks its last amp. The Great Actual, the anarchistic Citizens, and all of the regressed sub-societies in between will have to face the unknowns of the surface.

Old fears will pale against new circumstances beyond their imagination, and new attention brings judgment upon all.

So the initial intent was for Tara and Sasha (sweeties 4 ever!) to be the main focus of the book for most of it, but the events were so big that other parties had to have focus for notable chunks, most notably Messenger, who's the fella in charge of running the Grand Elevator that connects the different sections of the 40-story deep bomb shelter.

Other characters get their moment in the sun, from Lenth of Rubberman's Cage, and Leena of Rubberman's Citizens. This story affects every resident of the facility. Other per-established characters play important roles too, many of which (and some new ones) are named after real-life (and/or FB) friends. I gave them every chance to object to how I was having them behave!

It's launch day, and many things are nuts... but I'll get some nice excerpts posted here soon...

Eeeeheeheee... so many new things brought up that I think will surprise my long-time readers...

Coffee with Golconda review

E.A. Bass treated me to their eclectic sci-fi novella that's a blend "between comedy, drama, psychedelia and mystery."

It has a general feel of a collection of short stories that seem only tenuously connected at first, until the strings begin to draw it all together.

Before I get into the review, let's drop a link to its amazon page here.

Coffee with Golconda will tell you what you want to know when it is good and ready, and you will mind your manners until it does. You will flow between unique locales, imagery and thought-teasing metaphors that bring vastly differing settings vividly to life.

There were many moments when I felt strong Terry Pratchett influences, quirky yet meticulous, though that could just by my perspective- then in the next moment, things might turn surreal, or gently philosophical from the unique perspectives of Golconda and those that encounter him- only to shift to back quirky on a dime, then back again.

The world-building is gradual, doling out dollops of information casually, sometimes paying intense attention to a tiny detail, or referencing the bigger picture almost dismissively, or casually informing you that some of your assumptions were silly. (You should have known better, and Golconda will set you straight. When it's time.)

Once Coffee with Golconda has told you what it has to say, you might want to go back and read it again to see what you could not see before.

. -oO*Oo- .

Update from me about Rubberman's Exodus, quick status update as long as I'm making a rare blog post (I KNOW I should do more here, sue me!) I am past 60% in my second editing read of the 'final' book, after which it goes to my betas, and an editor, then one last editing read from me. The cover is basically decided, but as a fair warning to my longtime readers who have paperbacks of the rest of the Rubberman series... I WILL be launching with covers in the same style to match a full set, but I DO have general plans to address ALL of my covers. I've been vain (doing them all myself) and/or lazy with my covers so far... they're not laughably bad, but they're not great... the day to fix that is coming.

Oh, by the way, Rubberman's Exodus IS bigger than Cage or Citizens, and very very nearly rivals my biggest book to date, Echoes of Erebus. 

.... Erebus' daughter might have something to say about that in the future...

And they held each other. Fresh excerpt from WIP Rubberman's Exodus

Fresh scene, barely edited, so proceed with caution. Tara and Sasha are among hundreds of others in what equates to an internment camp built out of a repurposed fish processing facility. They recently had a very bad time in a bombed-out ruin, which was not helped by Sasha's agoraphobia.

Book progress is at 92k words. The ending is in sight, but it's got a fair chunk to go yet! Oh, and here's the current cover I have. The final will probably look a lot like this.

----------------------
“How ya doin'?” Tara said, putting an arm around Sasha's shoulders for a squeeze.

“Oh. You know. Spectacularly.” She grabbed Tara's hand and gave is a squeeze. “Same as the rest of us. Grateful to our kind hostess, and looking forward to trying to sleep in a room with a couple hundred other people again. With this stink. Oh, and there's that little wet spot outside looking at me.”

“Wet spot?” Tara glanced out towards the direction of the ocean. “Uh, yeah. That's... that's something all right. Hey. We gonna talk about what we saw in those ruins?”

Sasha's gaze shifted into a distant nowhere. “Can... can we not?”

“Okay.”

Sasha wrapped herself into Tara, burying her face into her shoulder, and squeezing at tight as she could. “Tell me that's not the world,” she mumbled into Tara weakly.

“Well... yes, we're told that place is like one in two places like that, and the vast majority of the world isn't... that.”

“No good,” Sasha said, squeezing desperately, even tighter. “Tell me that didn't exist.”

Tara nuzzled into the hair near Sasha's ear. “I don't know what you're talking about, Sash. We're home. We're in our room on our own bed. The generator's doing fine, and we even have the day off. I'm going to keep you in bed all day, and not let go.”

“Never let go,” Sasha whispered.

“Of course not. You're my Sash.” Tara gave an extra bit of squeeze, unsure if it could even be felt against how hard Sasha was squeezing.

“You won't let go because I'm weak?”

“You're my Sash.”

A few moments passed as they held each other, doing their best to ignore their surroundings.

“I hate being weak. I hate that it makes you have to … to deal with me.”

Tara moved back enough to look Sasha in the eye with a stern expression. “You. Are. My. Sash. I know how big it is out there. I know how that's making you feel. I have trouble logically understanding that hugeness out there. You can't help how much it affects you, but you push through. I've never been prouder of how you handled that run to the AirLimb back at home, or how you followed me into those ruins. I've never been so ashamed of myself for bringing you there.”

“Tara, no...”

Tara grabbed Sasha close again, almost forcefully. Hints of sobs struggled to push their way through Tara's voice. “Y-you are my Sash. You're so strong, hon. You're my...”

And they held each other. And others held each other. Some needed comforting, others chose to explore cautiously. Others stared at the sea.

And night eventually came.

And they held each other.

Rubberman's Exodus new sneak peek- Kevin gets memey.

Rubberman's Exodus at 75% first draft completion- here's a snippet written today. Minimal editing on it at this point. This graphic shows a bit of the as-of-yet unreleased map to the facility the Rubberman series is set in.

    At Engineering level, the remaining thirty soldiers moved into the loading bay. A row of empty clothing hooks lined the left wall. Ahead, a barricade of taupe, slightly-damp, steel barrels greeted them, as well as Kevin's face peeking out from a gap near the top.

    “Nice outfits,” Kevin said. “Are you fellas here to tell us when Tara and Sasha are getting back? It's been a lot longer than we were expecting. We were told you might be coming, though.”
The lead soldier answered back, “We're here to ensure that facility operations are secure, in interests of public safety. Please remove the barricade.”

    Kevin looked to the side, to someone unseen behind the barricade, and said quietly. “He's here for safety. Yup. Kinda how I saw it.” Kevin turned back to the soldiers with a smile. “Yeah, no thank you, we've been maintaining this facility for a long time, and things are secure here. I'm guessing it was one of your friends that cut our connection to the Grand Elevator. That's not safe. Also, I don't feel like moving these barrels again, they're heavy cuz they're filled with water. Water from the cooling pool. The one where we keep the depleted uranium, so, you know, handle at your own risk. I'm a professional.”
    Kevin flipped down his Rubberman suit's mask, completing his hazard suit. “So, you can leave, see ya!” Kevin's now-masked face disappeared from the gap, immediately replaced with a box to seal the gap.

    The soldiers didn't need to know that the vast majority of the water it the cooling pool was entirely harmless. The pool was now a bit lower than it technically should be, but the risk was low, especially for what was hoped to be a short duration.
    “Yeah, okay, now what?” Kevin said to a nearby Engineer, suited up as he was, as were the nearest twenty Engineers.

    At that moment, a 'foomp' sound came from the other side of the barricade, and a canister barged through the box in the gap. The canister rested on the middle of the room and started belching out smoke.
    Kevin looked at the smoke canister, and said “Son of a crap-sniffer!” He taped the filter on his mask, and pointed vigorously at the gap in the barricade, and yelled, “Am I a joke to you?!”

Time Travel Ruins Everything.

I just watched a vid that criticized Futurama for retcon-ing the tale of Seymore the dog. It went on to examine retcon in other works, and of it, and remakes, and followups long after the original... suck. And hard the original works that we've grown attached to, and don't need having had messed with.

Here's that vid: https://youtu.be/nxDroU9WAmc

Eh. A lot of good points. Though I had a different take. I don't have time travel in any of my writing. I feel in falls into deus ex machine pretty easily, and once an audience/reader knows Tim travel is in play, the question will often hang in the air if anything they've seen so far will matter, or be wiped away in an instant. If told well, it's not that extreme, and can be done well, but... meh... Tolerance for time travel varies from person to person, but when I heard Avengers: End Game was going to be a 'time heist'.... ugh... I enjoyed the flick well enough, but... but every time I consider watching it again, remembering the great moments, I also remember I have to go through all the time stuff first. And the Hawekeye stuff. And the... ugh. And I end up re-watching Castlevania or something.

So... Time travel ruins everything. Ok, not everything, but a lot. I'm not so concerned with Seymore's retcon, the initial episode hit hard, and it's not like it was retconned next week or anything. It was left to simmer, and if we're of a Time travelly mindset, we can merrily accept that both outcomes are simultaneously true. Time travel makes that mindset very possible.

As opposed to Rey kissing Kylo. We can hate it, we can wish it didn't happen, but in a time-travel free world, the fanfic-est mind needs to accept that it happened in canon.

What happened in canon if Futurama? Yes. It all did, none of it did, because the time travel factor exists. A wild card that is theoretically unceasing. This is also true of say... star trek. They love the time travel, but are less trigger-happy with it.

Star TREK microwaves don't accidentally cause time tra... .. yet.

Futurama's a lot more loosely goosey with time. We can hate it, or accept the freedom it supplies us to accept alternate timelines. Like we accept Rose Tyler getting a photocopy of the Doctor to keep for herself. But then Trek had that Romulan thing that we have to accept, because rules are rules, and timelines are flexibly strict, and we have to ignore accepting adherence to the solid fluidity of the rules of infinite choices we have only many of, but none.

..... time travel ruins everything.

59.78260869565217% Exodus

April 10th, I declared the Rubberman's Exodus to be 30% done. That's first draft, but I edit as I go, so my first drafts tend to bear a striking resemblance to my final draft, minus typos.

Today, I compared wordcount or Exodus compared to the previous book, Rubberman's Citizens, and by that metric, Exodus) is 59.78260869565217% finished. So I'm pretty pleased with this pace. I know I'd had stints where I had been getting multiple pages per day, and I'm not doing THAT right now, but it's been a slow and steady thing.

This isn't the final cover, but the final might be similar.

In other news, I've decided on a name for the next series. I've leaked an experiment for a cover for the first book of it in closed groups, and is purdy. I miiiight do a cover reveal on that when I've polished it up a bit. I'm not too happy with the rubberman series covers. I had a theme, I wanted a cohesive look, but they don't draw you in much.

Anyway, the next series will follow a character or two that my readers already know. It's an idea I've pondered for quite a while, but the concept has crystalized a lot lately. Unlike my other two series, where they take place in the same world with other main characters taking centre stage, this series will decidedly star one central character. In that way, it will be a bit of a step towards serialization.

And yes, it's a she.

Sort of.

-- Also, the house can get pretty loud with multiple students doing some classes on zoom, and my wife working from home often using zoom.

Here, I memed.

Contact in the dark. Rubberman's Exodus WIP fresh section

Fresh section, checking in on a couple of side-characters during the blackout. This isn't edited much, and could likely change by the final book.

---------------

“Contact?” Gabe called into Contact's dark office, “Are you here?”

“Gabe is that you?” Sounds of Contact fumbling to stand accompanied that of a cup falling to the ground, then rolling away. “Get these lights on!”

“I... I'm sure Messenger is working on it, Contact.”

“Have we asked him? Properly?”

“I'm not sure where he is. What... what do you mean by asking him properly?”

Contact scoffed. “In recent years, I've seen people addressing the Messenger with less reverence than is proper for the servant of the Great Actual. This is all a warning! A punishment! We must throw ourselves before Messenger and beg for forgiveness!”

“I'm not sure-”

“I blame that Lenth! A mere Subject, and-”

“Contact, the Messenger seems to favour Lenth well enough, if Lenth were to blame-”

“Whatever! It's not right! He's a problematic sort!”

Gabe sighed. “Contact, the reason I'm here is just to make you aware that several Subjects are out of their Units. It seems that in light of this unexpected blackout, some Managers have decided-”

“They're loose!? Subjects running around loose!?” Staggered footsteps could be heard in Contact's direction, going nowhere very quickly.

“None of them are above Manager level right now, and they're peaceful. It's only a dozen or two. It's not like Citizenry's spilled out.”

Contact let out a horrified gasp, and then a moment of silence.

“Contact? Are you a-”

“Has anyone checked that Citizenry is secure?!”

“From the Grand Elevator shaft, things seem quiet,” Gabe said.

“This is all unacceptable! Find Messenger! Politely! Now!”

Gabe sighed. Again. “All right. Stay safe here, okay, Contact? I'll... make sure I post a Provider near your door to keep problematic sorts away from you.”

“Post two!”

“Sure.”

“Four?”

“Sure.”

“And do we know where those shock-sticks are?”

“Four guards with shock-sticks. I'll see what I can do.”

“Good, good. You're a good man, Gabe.”

“Sure.”

An interview with a Rubberman.

Sillier and shorter than the Lenth interview. A Rubberman is supposed to convey some degree of respect- even fear, to his Subjects.. this video does not portray that. :)

Rubberman's Cage - Lenth's Interview video

Hey folks! With my next book, Rubberman's Cage coming up fast, I made a video while I waited on the editors.. it's an interview of Rubberman Cage's main character, Lenth.

It was written in an FB chat by me as Lenth, and Tabitha Ormiston-Smith asking 'Lenth' questions. One draft, ad-libbed script. She couldn't make it to the video shoot, as she's in Australia, and I'm in Vancouver, so in the video, it's only her words that make an appearance. I get to star as Lenth.. and I'm told I can kind of act!

The vid reveals a lot about the book's concept, and the life Lenth has been leading up until that point, (roughly a third through the book) He lived in a small area with his 'Brothers', supervised by a silent 'Rubberman', and this has been his normal life from birth... and then one of his Brothers became dead! And then disappeared overnight...

 ANYWAY, so check it out. The camera stinks, but I managed to salvage an interesting final production, I think.... gimmie feedback, SVP!

 http://youtu.be/qQC-0yzjs5w

By Actual's Messenger...

Fresh off the keys, first draft chunk of Rubberman's Cage I just wrote.. it's confusing as heck out of context, but I SWEAR, it's not sci-fi!:

----------

Lenth tilted his head. “But isn't Messenger picked from the Providers? So couldn't you, or Gabe, or any Provider eventually become this... Actual?”

Contact smirked, and raised an eyebrow quite high. “Ah. Simple, yes?” He patted his gut. “I would make a poor Messenger, I think, if you're implying I have such a goal. But it isn't that simple. The Messenger becomes almost entirely removed from us. From our world. He travels beyond our realm, out beyond the Citizenry, and beyond places with no names before reaching the halls of Actual. And as removed as Messenger is from us, Actual is removed from him!”

Reaching up, Contact held his hand open, as if ready to receive from the great unseen Actual, by providence of his Messenger.



.

Echoes of Erebus Cahpter 2, Section 1.. reading and... ACTING! And a wig.

And makeup.

In other news, my site, http://www.ozero.ca is now equipped with a videos page, and the site is updated to include my WIP, Rubberman's Cage.

VCON 2011, Day 1, Part 2: VEND!

Let the haphazard capitalism commence! Well, I'm sure most of the vendors that show up have some semblance of professionalism, but let me tip you off, I'm not one of THOSE types.

That said, this was my fourth time at bat, and I'd seen some trends I could expect:

-Every friday is slow as hell.Wrong kind of friday-hell. As I was saying..

Most people don't get off work until two hours before the vendor room closes, and then they just want to do selfish things like drive home and/or eat. At the end of friday, you can spot the newbies, with a look of "OMG, what am I doing here, sales were crap, I'm wasting my time and money, I'm gonna to into the corner and cut myself."

I sagely say to such folks, "Take it easy, this was friday. Think of it as dress rehearsal. Most of the visitors will be floating around the con all weekend, and will be back. They're not in a rush to buy, they're on recon." Wisely wise, do I enwisen my wisdoms. Enwisen. It's a word. I just invented it, I'm allowed, I'm a writer.

-Every saturday is the BIG day. I'm not in it 'for the numbers', I'm in it to get my stories into people's hands primarily, but if the numbers are there, I'll keep an eye on them. And saturday is the bringer of numbers. I've heard other vendors say similar things.

-Every sunday is for the slow deciders, the 'orbiters' who orbit the con taking everything in, finally settling in to pick something up that they've had their eye on since friday. This is also when polite vendors wait to buy from other vendors, as to not deplete stock before visitors have a chance. Sunday always feels slow after saturday, but not nearly as bad as friday.

Penny Arcade has noticed many of these trends as well.
What?? Somehow, friday sales were pretty good! There was talk about the con being bigger this year! Obviously this increase will follow throughout my preconceived pattern, resulting in a bajillion sales on saturday! Right? Right? Oh, I'll have to look forward to that...!

At any rate, the first order of business for me is always to take my 2 given VCON bucks over to Kyle at his bc chains table. Aside from his custom made chain maille stuff, he also always brings candy. Eeeeeheeheee candy! A couple years he brought some that came in little round tins that make great rpg dice containers.

Not this year though... not that I don't have enough from previous years. For that matter, I also had my own little stock of candy. I was ripping off Kyle's tactic a little this year, putting a little box of candy out, for a buck a pop, or my own chomping. My offering was smaller, I didn't want to try to take over the VCON candy industry.. yet. But getting candy from Kyle has become my own custom, every since the year I had my table across from his. Candy.


I think it was friday that Plotbunny showed up. She had emailed me a week or two previously. She's read all 3 of my books, and her favourite was the first. She had bought 2 copies of the paperback for Lifehack over the years, (as well as nabbing a poster or two) and she wanted hardcover now. She wanted hardcover last year, but I hadn't brought hardcover to VCON for a long time. They're pricey, both for me, and the end reader. Aside from hardcover fans, they just don't move that well. Not well enough for me to sit on a stack for potentially years.

But.... Plotbunny's an awesome gal, and obviously a fan of Regan's, so who am I to say no? At that point, I wasn't sure of the time to get an order, and for that matter, getting a single book would make the shipping really.. lame. I order in batches so the shipping per book is negligible. I didn't need a big batch of hardcovers. So... I brought my own personal trio of hardcovers.

Plotbunny came and went, taking my very own hardcover copy of Lifehack with her. The Watching Yute and Echoes of Erebus hardcovers cried. For the rest of the con, I had a post-it nearby saying "Hardcover Lifehack sold out!" ...... cuz I had so many to begin with. It would be obvious to anyone else that there'd been such a HUGE RUSH for them. Or, as most people mistook, poking the softcover that the post it was on, "You don't look sold out!" Look closer, that's a soft cover. "...Oh. Oh, right."

So now, a week later, my trio of hardcovers on my shelf has a gap. A continuity limp. I guess I'll have to restock myself.

All in all, as I said before, business was decent. For a friday? Amazing. And of course I was having a blast, yapping with vendors and visitors alike, basking in the nerdiness. For such a big circle of people, the citizenship of VCON feels very close. Similar interests will do that, I suppose.

As the hour drew near; 7pm, closing of the room for the day, I readied myself for the 'book launch' event. I had a reading to do! First, check that the posters on the wall were secure.. the masking take looped on te backs were doing OKAY, but I was certain I'd find at least one on the floor next morning. I laid down the books that were on stands, and weighted down things that might get caught in the breeze. Oh, and I tucked in the robot.

Next post- The Launch Reading!

VCON 2011, Day 1, Part 1

"Brain?"
"Yes, body?"
"We need to talk, brain."
"OH, HERE we go..."
"Damned right, here we go. Ever heard of eating, or drinking?"
"During this year's VCON? I drank!"
"I MEANT WATER!"
".....oh....."

So, my body's had some issues. Lesson learned. I neglected proper maintenance in years before, but this year it was systematic and deliberate. Hey! I had to optimize my time! 3 days in the realm of nerdiness must be properly utilized!

So here we go-

Mid morning Friday found me riding 'cargo class' in the back of my dad's van. My wife couldn't play taxi, due to motherly duties. A lot of vehicles just can't properly transport a paraplegic and his wheelchair, so certain compromises had to be made in my dad's van. Add my 3 boxes, big tupperware locker and two poster tubes... oh hey! I still had a lot of free space. The Big Black Box seemed appreciative too.


This fella has been with me during 3 or 4 VCONs, and his age is beginning to show. This is only my 4th VCON, so it's a minor tradition of sorts. He only comes out for VCON. He is the home of my spiked shoulder pads.


The ears, facepaint, and belt do not live in the box. Only the shoulder pads and the goggles are VCON regulars. This pic was a halloween costume once. I brought the shoulder pads to VCON, because.. well.. may as well bring something unusual to face the cosplayers.. not that this costume is of anything in particular, but the shoulder pads were a bit of a hit, so the next year, I packed em along. I didn't know if I should wear them.. two years in a row? My doubts were answered the moment I put The Big Black Box on my vendor table. Someone at a neighboring table asked "Ooh, did you bring the spikes?"

From that moment, they became part of my VCON tradition. They need a name. How about "The Pauldrons of Ozero"... cheesy? They're uncomfortable for me, as they grind against the shoulders when I wheel around, so I only wear them for 20 minutes or so at a time. They have some structural issues that are less than user-friendly.

Finally rolling into the Sheraton, we saw an Ecto-1 parking as well. Ghostbusters in da house. Seems they're part of a huge network of GB cosplayers, who do some kind of charity work, much like the 501st. (Star war imperial troops, also appearing at VCON again.) Still looking for those droids?

Anyway, while my dad sought one of those hotel luggage carts for my cargo, I did some recon for the vendor's room, and my table in it.

No sooner had I rolled into the room, than Steve Fahnestalk (who also was the con's official toastmaster) ambushed me.

Last year, Steve and I had tables across the aisle from each other, which led to a vicious rivalry in the 'giving-away-free-bookmarks' arena. Since then, he bought my first book, later giving me his, (I've reviewed it now,) while I tossed my other two at him. This day, he was evening the score, sticking me with his newest. More reviewing all 'round is imminent.

Once my dad and I got my haul to the table, he had to split. He apologized for not helping me set up, but that was fine by me. This was my table for 3 days, and setting it up was a pleasure. Well... except for the 3 posters I wanted to put up on the wall behind me. Thankfully, my neighbor helped me out. The wall was covered in a fabric, which isn't a good friend to tape. I should have just used tacks or something.

Time to plug my neighbor. Dang it if I can remember her name now (sorry! I suck at names!) but she's the writer attached to The Sword of the Stars II. They weren't there for anything much but creating a little buzz about the upcoming game, and to GIVE AWAY copies of the first game, along with all its expansions! I got a copy, but haven't had any time to really get into it though. Short description: Pick a race, take over space. Turn based ship movement, followed by realtime combat.

I was giving away... bookmarks, and big postcard with Regan on em. (This image was also one of the big posters behind me)


But I would be giving free games before VCON was over...

Aside from my books and associated banners and posters, I also set upon The Big Black Box- the robot. Ph34r the robot.

For he is ph34rsome.

Next post- The vendor room opens!

Echoes of Erebus excerpt - talking with Eidechse

I just thought I'd give a taste of Sarah's conversations with another A.I. later in the book. This section hints at a BIT of a spoiler, buuuut..... here we go.

Oh, note again that the ":::" denotes that the speech is being done electronically in Sarah's skull.

***************

“:::As we have the time, Sarah, can we discuss 'comedy'?” Eidechse asked.

Bit by bit, Sarah had left the visual range of the base. Far enough that through all standard issue scopes and binoculars when used by optimal human eyes. As such, she had begun walking. The terrain was now almost devoid of vegetation, and the rocks were becoming smaller, and less frequent. They were entering sand territory.

“:::Sure Eid. Anything in particular puzzling you?”
“:::Slapstick.”
“:::Humour by means of violence. Hey, how old are you, Eid? Are you telling me no one's discussed humour with you before?”
“:::Not at any length.” Eid ignored that issue, and went back to what was interesting him. “Why is violence funny?

“:::Well... usually slapstick is fairly harmless. Maybe it roots in humiliation. Having someone else look foolish in order to show the viewer that their own natural foolishness it not uncommon.” Damn it, Eidechse had her talking like him. She had to watch that. She certainly didn't want to have the diction of a robot. “I read... well, Amanda read somewhere that humour is mostly based in surprise. An unexpected action, or thought, well timed.”

“:::Aardvark.” Eidechse said.
“:::Excuse me?”
“:::Was that funny? Aardvark. It has no bearing on anything currently happening, and was well timed in my opinion. Did that make it funny?”
Sarah walked along. Aardvark. Aardvark. “:::Maybe a little. Kind of. Not so much. Maybe some relevance to the situation is needed. Wit, sarcasm, irony.”

Eidechse thought for a moment. “:::I wish we had some sand.”
“:::Ah. Sarcasm. Not bad. Tone of voice might have helped that a bit. A human-like tone, maybe exaggerated a little.”
Sounding like a cartoon vampire more than anything, Eidechse called out, “:::I wish we had some sand!!”

That did it. Sarah staggered and laughed vocally. “:::Oh, that's not fair!”

“:::I made you laugh,” Eidechse said, “a genuine laugh? Why was it not fair?”

With a leavened mood, Sarah said “:::I don't know, maybe because it's you! You're not known for humour, and your attempt was kind of overdone. A good attempt, but way overdone!”
“:::I do not understand. If it made you laugh, how is it overdone? If I exaggerated less, would it have been funnier?”
“:::Probably not!”
“:::Then why was it overdone?”
“:::Eid, I was expecting a very human-like voice, and when you took my expectation and blew it up past what I what I thought I would hear, it was a surprise! It was what I told you to do, but not at the same time! That was actually great!”

“I do not understand.”


*******************
A chapter or two later:


“:::How you doing in there, Eid?”
“:::I've been watching movies. I have a question.”
“:::Of course you do. Just one, huh? Fire away.”

“:::Why did people think that crossing two 'streams' of protons would instantaneously stop all life and explode every molecule in a body at the speed of light?”

Sarah coughed. “:::What the hell have you been watching? Is it fact or fiction?”
“:::Fiction. I am still working through the comedy collection.”
“:::Well, that answers your question, Eid. No one actually thought that.”

There was a pause. For Eidechse, it was a very long pause. “:::Are people aware that movies are lying to them, on purpose?”
With a smile, Sarah replied with serenity. “:::Yes, they even pay to be lied to.”
“:::I do not understand.”

30,000 Reavers and nuthin' on

Not too long ago, I re-watched 'Serenity'. (For the uninitiated, it's by Joss Wheadon, and caps off the short-lived, under appreciated sci-fi series 'Firefly', and makes 'Return of the Jedi' look like Sesame street.)

(Firefly DVD set. Rent it, borrow it, buy it. Then Serenity.)

During Serenity (Minor spoilers ahead), we hear details about the creation of the 'reavers', the nastiest group in the Firefly universe. With a little viewer-nerd math, we find out that an estimated 30,000 reavers were originally created.

Feeling smug after I did the simple math, I hit google to see if anyone else had figured it out. Well duh. Many had. I ended up lurking in a forum where people were discussing reavers.

One denizen of this forum felt that reavers weren't explained enough, and that she wanted to see more of 'reaver society'. She wanted all the details. She also wanted to know more about how the ships in firefly worked. She essentially said she wanted it done like Star Trek does it.

Firefly's reavers are scarier BECAUSE we don't know the details. The unknown is scary. We know too much about all the 'evil' star trek aliens for them to be scary at all. Romulans, ooooOOooooOOOh. What's scarier- A Klingon with a Bat'lef coming at you, when you have full knowledge of their government system, and honor based culture, or a Reaver. For much of Firefly, all we know about Reavers is that they will "rape you to death, eat your flesh, and sew your skin into their clothes, and if you're lucky, they'll do it in that order." Hi. Scary. No known origin? (Until the Serenity movie) Mysterious.
In Star Trek we're well informed all about all the significant races, and are fed paragraphs of made-up science revolving around the engines and transporters, etc, etc. I, and many firefly fans love firefly because IT'S NOT STAR TREK. It's much more character driven. The tech is there to enable the story, but the tech itself is not the story. Oh, and don't get me started on Star Trek's 'humor'.

I feel the same way with my writing, (The offer is still on the table for Mr. Wheadon to produce my movies) as I touched on a bit in October at the VCON forum "Hard sci-fi".

There's some tech concepts that I'm alright with watching, but don't want to write about. Faster than light travel, (or even space in general) time travel, teleportation, holodecks, aliens, the list goes on... That much qualifies me as a 'hard' sci fi author, I suppose.

Where I get soft is largely that I don't give a crap about going into detail abut the tech that I DO use. By contrast, the panelist on the other end of the table had doctorates in all kinds of things, and likely lets the reader know every detail he can. That's fine for some, but not me. Like I said, the characters are far more interesting than the rate of decay in the batteries in their walkmen. Or the flux variance on the quantum tribble eviscerator.
(And I will never put anything in my books about anything flux, or quantum.)

So sue me.

Boo.

Hi. So yeah, I'm a bit late, but here's the previously promised picture of my Halloween costume. I was keeping it partly under wraps so that most of the people at the Dueckman Halloween party wouldn't have advance notice. Those of you who read this via facebook will have already seen this pic- it's my new profile portrait.

The rabbit ears were added spontaneously for a while at the party, and while technically not part of the costume, it worked, so hey. The hair was done at Moz... and looked better on me than I expected...

I go into there and talk to the lady staffing the counter, and explain what I wanted, and why. She says "Oh, I have just the girl for you!"

"Sorry, I'm married."

My appointment was a week later, in time for a shift at Ghost Ridge, but not so early that I'd be running around like a punk for a week. Not that _I_ minded. The gal that was picked out to do this job seemed quite pleased to be doing it. She probably gets a lot of requests from ladies like "I want it like Jennifer Aniston, kinda." No wait.. that's probably out of style.. who has the hair they all copy now? Whatever.

When the cut was finally done, I turned to leave, and found I had a row of ladies watching it happen. How often do you get an audience for a haircut?

I also did a job on my goatee, though the pic doesn't show it well. The bloody handprint on my face was good ole water based poster paint, (Which somehow disappeared all on its own by the time I got home) assorted junk around my neck, and the welding goggles that reminded me of the sunglasses I had in highschool, for the extreme tint. These goggles were horribly uncomfortable though. They spent more time around my neck, or perched on my head than on my face.

By far, the most difficult part of the outfit was my shoulderpads, and matching kneepads. Yes, that's a tire. A steel belted tire. My tough serrated knife was nearly powerless. My father in law's hacksaw was gruelingly slow, (although he was quite determined!) but Uncle Mark happened to be in the area with a skill saw. That did it. Sparks, stink, flying chunks, lo, the epic struggle.

Later on, when I needed an alteration, I didn't wanna pester those guys again, so I pestered another guy, Peter Gobbee, who brought forth his previously unused angle grinder, (for those of you unfamiliar, if you know a dremmel tool... it's like that, but on steroids. ) He also found the multi-stage solution to getting those spikes through. The steel belting poked out on the cut edges, and filing only wore down the rubber, exposing more metal... so I quit while I was ahead. Between that and the back ends of the spikes, this was not an item of comfort. A thick jacket would be needed.

After that, it was easy to string the chains across the back to hold it on. "You're NOT wearing that on the bus", my wife said as I prepared to wear most of the costume (minus the haircut and makeup) to the sci-fi convention at the start of October, "Some crazy guy will take it and use it to attack the bus driver!"

"Relax," assured Adam Zilliax, "The crazy guy is already WEARING it" Well, I relented, and my spiked shoulderpads found their own ride to the convention and back. However, when I wheeled to the Halloween party, with my spikes, and my triple mohawk, I was casting one badass shadow in front of myself every time I passed under a streetlight. (Remember, I didn't have the bunny ears on at that point!)

And so now, I have my difficult-to-dispose-of steel-belted armor to unload. I entertained wearing it to next years sci-fi convention, but I don't know where I'd store the unwieldy gear. Ghost Ridge might want it...

So now, I have a shaved head and chin, and the epic tale of the tire is done....

and it's almost 3 bloody AM, and I can't sleep due to coughing my lungs out. WHEEEE!!!!

VCON day 2: Hard Sci-Fi, and space vampires.

Hopefully this one will be a bit shorter, as there was only really one event on day 2 that I haven't covered in previous posts. (My next post will be revealing my halloween costume, which I wore about 80% of through VCON, including the event I'm detailing in this post.)

So, roughly a week before VCON, I was informed I was on a panel talking about "Hard Sci-fi". The topic was to be about the usage of science, how 'real' you make it in fiction, how far you can bend the science in to make a story work, and how much you can push realism in science before it turns a novel into a textbook, or a commentary on a game of chess played by 2 copies of Big Blue coated in ritalin.

(That's my phrasing, not the official wording.)

I saw it as my chance to complain about Star Trek. The panelists were all there a tad early, myself last in the door- but still early. Our moderator, Rob Sawyer, (Ahem, Robert J. Sawyer) wrote Flashforward, which was picked up as TV show. He's written for a ton of stuff, won a ton of awards, and written for other TV as well....

So yeah, he was the nobody in the room..... Seriously tho, he was a blast, and became more of a panelist with us others up front, than a ref. BUT, he was running behind, as can happen to the big names at a con.

In the meantime, those of us in the panel decided to toy with the reason we were all there, and discuss how we use and abuse science in our books. It became quickly apparent that among us 'hard sci-fi' authors, I was the softest. That's fine by me overall... softest of the hard. Uhmm... that could be phrased better...

I mentioned how I abuse "EMP" (Electromagnetic pulse) in Lifehack. Commonly in mainstream sci-fi, an EMP is used to screw up electronics, and often, we're told that you can prevent damage from an EMP by shutting off your electronics.

This is BS. Avoiding EMP damage is a fair deal trickier, and does not necessarily require powering down. But I told them all that I went with the BS, because it was needed for the story, but I also explained that there were several sci-fi 'standards' that I won't use.

Here's where I picked on Star Trek a bit. I won't do warp-speed. I'm not even attracted to space travel in general. I won't do transporters, or food replicators, solid holograms, or time travel.

"And I have to apologize in advance to any Stargate:Atlantis fans, but-"

A girl in the front row, I'd guess 14 years old or so, gasped with horror, and switched to red alert. A lady sitting next to her, either her mum or a much older sister, laughed, put her arm around the girl, and said to me, "Oh, you're in trouble now!"

I looked directly at the girl with my most sympathetic face and tone, "I'm truly sorry... but SPACE VAMPIRES??"

The audience at large giggled as the girl hunkered down to bombard me with the grumpiest pout-glare she could summon. From time to time, I found reasons to say things like..."Just because I don't USE things like time travel, doesn't mean I can't enjoy books and shows that use these ideas, there's just not my style. So many of them have been done to death, I don't feel the need to add to that. Still, sometimes on TV, I'll see something just totally ridiculous that just makes me wonder what the writer was thinking... things like...."

And here, I narrow my gaze to the girl, "...like SPACE VAMPIRES!" Oh, I made myself an enemy, didn't I?

Later on, the panelist at the far end of the table, (I forget his name, but he's got his master's degree in...EVERYTHING, with bachelor of arts in ... EVERYTHING ELSE... so he was the hardest of the hard sci-fi authors in the room.

Anyway, he was going on about how ridiculous the space program was to suggest going to Mars, or to even bother going to the moon. I'm not sure what celestial body he was going on about at the time, but he'd entered a slow ranting laundry list of why colonization was a stupid idea.

It was something like "There's all this radiation, the light is totally unsuitable, there's no practical way to get supplies there, there's no oxygen, there's no water,-"

"There's no starbucks," I couldn't help interrupting. I don't think he took it personally, but it got a laugh from the audience, many of whom I feel may have been getting a little tired of his rant. I was actually into what he was saying, and I wouldnt have inturrupted if I didn't think he had made the point he was trying to, but between that and other cheap jokes, I was the comedian of the lineup, for better or worse. Blame the nerves.

I asked several people I ran into the rest of the day who I knew were at the panel, "Hey, did I make a COMPLETE ass of myself in there?" I think it was Rob who replied with a chuckle "COMPLETE ass? If that was your objective, I'm sorry to say you didn't achieve it." Good good.

When I got back to the dealer room, I ran into that girl, the Stargate:Atlantis fan. She presented herself boldly before me, and pointed at me. "There IS such a thing as intergalactic space vampires!"

I would have loved to discuss it further, but I was in a rush. "I dunno! I never met any!"

VCON Day 1, part 2: The Book Launch

The dealer room closed at 7. All the dealers tidied up for a few minutes, and left the room to be locked up for the night.

By the time that was all done, I had a bit less than an hour to waste until the book launch. I don't want to send the wrong idea, it's not as if it was some huge gala event just for Watching Yute. Every year VCON has this event, where Authors of any sci-fi books released in the last year are invited to come and talk about their book.

Last year, I found out 2 weeks before the event that I'd be expected to do a reading. After the little panic attack, I carefully chose a passage from Lifehack, and did some practicing. It was going to go awful, I just knew it. But I was 'ready'.

And then the readings were canceled, due to unfavorable acoustics at the lounge. It turned into a 'meet & greet' casual thing. It was a disappointment and relief.

This year, (new location, BTW) I hadn't gotten an invite to the launch, but was ready. I had joined a couple meetup groups, at which I was asked to do a little reading. I was semi-prepared.

At the first one, I chose a melancholy passage form the perspective of Watching Yute's heroine, Cassidy. This was a mistake. Between my nerves, lack of a female voice, and the fact that it's a section better ready to one's self quietly, it just didn't come off well. The group was supportive though. I wormed my way to having a 2nd reading. I chose a section of one of the antagonists, Jacob Kirison, trying to fight his paranoia when meeting with a mafia contact.

Here, my rattling nerves proved an asset. The reading didn't go perfect, but it went a lot better. Kirison's generally a jittery fellow, and I used most of my fumbles as part of it, and pressed forward.

At the next meetup with a different group, I did Kirison's bit again. It went smoother. I 'acted' a bit. My errors were secondary to the fun.

Now I was at VCON's book launch, with red bull coursing through me, and no idea if there'd be a reading. I bought a horribly overpriced cuba libra from the 'bar cart' that the hotel had running there. It was twice what I expected to pay, and half the alcohol. I chattered with professor Whovianart, and a few others. One person, I feel bad I don't remember her name... she invited me to a convention party afterwards for Canadian sci-fi writers, but I knew my time would be really tight by the time the launch was over. I was expecting a 2 hour transit ride, and I didn't know what time they buses stopped out on the destination end of the trip.

Some time after I had given up on the idea of a reading, someone walked up to the front, where there was this stage-ish long table with a podium, and suggested to the room that the authors should come up and talk/read a bit. Alright, it was on.

I didn't know what kind of order the authors should go in, so in my typical aggressive style, I waited patiently and listened to others.

One lady was a representative of a local publisher. She got up there and thanked a long list of people, listed books, and prattled on. I was a little confused, she didnt fit into the flow that the room had going. We'd been listening to writers get up there and represent their own brain-children. This didn't feel like the venue for what she was doing. Just when I thought she was wrapping up, she introduced a paid actress, who was going to be doing a reading from a book who's author wasn't there.

I have no idea what the reading was, I was a little lost in a cloud of WTF. That sounds aggressive, but... I just didn't get it. When she wrapped up, people around me nudged me to get up there. Alright. Alright, I'd better go to it.

By the time I crossed the room, a graphic novelist was at the podium already. I forgot his name.. I'm horrible. He had the table across from me last year. Nice meek fellow. I don't think he was planning on a reading, and struggled valiantly to read a graphic novel story without the audience seeing the pictures. He did a good job for being on the spot, but next year, maybe he should see about a projector screen or something.

Alright. My turn at the podium and the microphone. Up the steps, and.. oh. Hm. Wheelchair. I sat below, in front of the podium and stage, and promised to read with my big-boy voice. Two words into reading, someone marched up from the back of the room. "Nah, can't hear ya in the back." and a mic was wrenched from the table, into my hand.

Jacob Kirison came to life once more, fuelled by taurine and nerves. Some time before I got to the line "What?! Why not?!", I was really into it, I was acting it the way I heard it in my head when I wrote it. (FYI, what I read was the Kirison sections from the experts I have on my page, here.)

When I went back to my 'seat', someone peeked over my shoulder to get the title of the book, soon returning from the little sales table looking for a signature for the book. Yaaay!

It wasn't long after that that the launch event was thinning out. I had a bus to catch. As it happened, on the last leg of my journey, I'd be on the 2nd last available bus, and I'd be waiting an hour for it... I might have gotten the 3rd last bus, but on the way out of the launch event, I was stopped in the hall.

"Hey, hold up, you're next, okay?"

Who am I to argue with a TV camera crew? They were interviewing some lady I didn't know. I knew the interviewer though, kind of. Before the launch event, I spotted a guy with a really cool wrist.. bracelet.. thing. It was pretty punk, and would have gone well with my costume bits. Yeah, I was still wearing it. Keep in mind, it's a bit hazardous- though I didn't look as freakish as I will by the time Halloween comes around.

So, the interviewer recognized me and tagged me for a spot. A spot on what? I have no idea. It seems like could have just been a student project, but once again, who am I to argue with a camera crew?
"So, introduce yourself!"
"I'm Joseph Picard!" Was I feeding off his energy, the red bull, or the good reading? In any event, he joked,
"I'm Joseph Picard, he says, as we should already know!" Well of course, aren't I famous yet?

He asked about the costume bits I was wearing, and about what I was doing.

"... and I just did a reading from my new book in there...!"
"Wow! How'd that go?"
"Well, it's hard to be objective, but I think I did pretty good..!"
"Oh! Listen to him and the false modesty! You nailed it didn't you? Yeaaah, you nailed it!"

Hehe, I wish I knew who that guy was, I wouldn't mind a copy of that vid.

That wrapped up, I had to get my transit-unfriendly costume bits safely into the dealer's room. I went to the 'HQ desk' of the convention. Three people were behind the tables, the one on the left partly hidden in shadow. I rolled up and got to the point.

"Hey, I need to get into the dealer room.."
One of one on the right piped in. "Dealer room closed at 7."
"Well, Jeff said I could get in to drop stuff off after the launch, and if he wasn't around, to find Danielle, i think her name was, and-" I blithered on a little bit. The partly hidden figure on the left stood, and waved a keycard for the dealer room.
"That's Danielle." the guy on the right said.

Yeah, she was sitting there all along, and between the low lighting and my fatigue, I didn't see it. She looked a little tired too, which was understandable- she runs the friggin con.

With my transit-hostile costume bits stored safely, I began the longest trip home of the weekend, between pushing my chair uphill to burrard station while already tired, and waiting an hour in coquitlam for the 2nd last bus home, I was spent. And glad I didn't succumb to the temptation to go to that party. Next year, get the hotel room.

I ended up getting into bed at 2:30 or so, and had the alarm set for 6 am. I woke up at 5, and couldn't get back to sleep. I was still tired as heck, but also hyper as heck. It was an odd mix that would get me through saturday... with some assistance from taurine.

VCON Day 1, part 1: The dealer room

Friday, I roll in around noon to set up. Adam was due any minute to drop off my stash. I found my way to the dealer room on the 3rd floor, and was pointed in the general direction of my table. I had the room map in my head- Once I realized which way the map in my head should be facing, it was all good.

On the way in, I spotted Kevin from BC chains, (specializing in custom chain-mail armour) who I was across from last year. He said he'd re-read Lifehack quite a few times, and was happy to hear I was launching the next book today.

I chatted a little with a fellow vendor across the aisle, who was setting up a board game display for her shop, Starlit Citadel. (I forgot the names of darn near everyone... I suck. I'm having to look up a lot of names here..) After checking out my position a little, I left the room to meet up with Adam, only to find him coming down the hall with 2 Omnex minions helping to haul stuff in. Once deposited, he and his minion mini-horde receded into the shadows, and were gone.

Across the trench from me, (The vendor-only space between the tables) Autumn D. Gentle was setting up her table, with her vampire books (she also does audio books!) and some other bits and bobs. Autumn is a bit of a contradiction in herself. Too shy to really talk to visitors much and push her books, but confident enough to wear thigh-hugging fishnet stockings with a skirt not much bigger than a tutu. "This is nothing," she said about the outfit on a later day, "You should see what I wear to go clubbing." she was a riot. Her sister and her boyfriend came to help out/hang out a bit at different times over the weekend. His name... Blake? And he had awesome pants. Autumn's boots took the cake though.

To the left of her table was a fellow representing "Mindstorm" games, with their new pen&paper RPG system, "Alpha and Omega". It's set 200 years after the bombs go off, and there's a bit about alient involvement. (Which is a playable race)
They'reBEAUTIFUL friggin books, just jaw dropping. Layout and presentation, and the illustrations.. and primo stuff. Oh yeah, and the game system looked logical and solid too. Unlike D&D manuals, you could open a random page in Alpha&Omega, and have a ****ing CLUE what it was talking about with a little logic, and not by looking up 47 tables in different manuals. If I was still in the RPG phase of my life, I would have been really tempted to grab a set. I think at least one of his customers bought em just for the illustrations.

Across the trench from him, and to my right... was a blank table. On day 2, and ONLY day 2, White Dwarf books occupied it, and did alright. But beyond that was a man selling for "Gaukler Medieval wares". He had 2 tables to display all his stuff (mainly jewelery) and when White Dwarf wasn't there, we both took half of that table, partly just to avoid an unsightly blank...

One more notable dealer within earshot, (To yabber on with in the quiet times) was against the wall to my left, "Professor Whovianart" who seemed to specialize mainly in steampunk oddities. He's got yo-yos (Oh, excuse me, RETURN TOPS), an oscilloscope, and a funky collection of goggles, among other things. And his lego is NOT for sale! (Tip, Professor:, any sentence that stats out "Everything but the lego," is not the kind of thing I want to hear!)

Nearly everyone I mentioned gave me a bit of a hand with my Poster display, which started out on the table... until it changed its mind. It spent the rest of the con standing on the floor.

As the dealer room hours went on, we saw many of the same visitors from last year... well... I did, anyway. Alpha&Omega guy... uh, let's call him Alpha... and Autumn hadn't done VCON before, so I felt like the veteran in my section of the room, with a whole other year's event with of experience. Whoopiedo!

"Is is always this dead?" Autumn asked early on Friday.
"No," mulled the seasoned VCON veteran Ozero, "This is just like before. Friday starts slow. People still at work, grabbing dinner. They'll come. They mostly come out at night. Mostly."

Alright, I might not have phrased it like that... but it was also the series premiere of Stargate: Universe that night... much to my own irritation.

The dealer room closed for the day at 7pm, and my own sales had come around, one of which was to Kevin of BcChains, who added a small tin of candy, that I had bought him out of last year. (They make great RPG dice containers!)

Many familiar visitors 'orbited' around the dealer room, striking up conversation, generally hanging out. Not buying. But that's fine, half the reason I'm here is to hang with my fellow nerds, not to push sales onto 'the orbiters'.

Wow, I've gone on quite a bit... good time to wrap up this entry. Next time: Friday- Book Launch event!

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If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire…

Last day of VCON, I'm heading out, rollin' down to waterfront station. On the way, I pass the big convention centre.

I spot a freaky looking cop car. "Polizei" on the side. I ask a couple girls taking pictures of each other in front of it. "Is that German, or Russian, or?"

"German, I think." By now, I'd spotted several more of these 'German police cars' (The real thing doesn't look as funky as these ones did) along the road, as well as a "LuftPost" van or some such. All around, signage on buildings was covered up with German variants. Set crew moved tables, and a "crew only" catering table sat nearby. I wheelied over cables, around random bits of movie-set junk, trying to play it cool while I tried to look for clues.

Finally, I imposed a little, when I saw a couple actors/extras sitting down to munch an early dinner sandwich. My eye was drawn to the redhead sitting at the end for some reason. "Hey, alright, I'll bite. What is this, can ya leak a little info?"

She smiles, "The A-Team movie!" El Oh El. I had heard rumors about an A-team movie, but I certainly didn't expect to stumble onto the set. "We're in 'Stockholm' next."

Half a block later, I ran into a gal who WANTED to be an extra, as she's a big fan of Liam Neeson (Hannibal). The directions she gave me were totally wrong... Maybe she was bitter for not being able to be an extra, or maybe her sense of direction cost her the gig somehow. Either way, I pity da foo.

It was a strange side-event in my VCON weekend.

I plan to be blogging a lot about the con over my next few entries, but the short version is: It was great. Crazy nerdy fun, sold a heap of both Lifehack and Watching Yute, got great feedback, and have already set myself up for next year. I'm still recovering sleep. Next post: Day 1, part 1.