Yeah, in case anyone's still reading this at all, please accept my humble apologies.

I've pretty much abandoned LiveJournal.

All I have time for is Facebook, and it's doing what I need for the most part. Combine that with my (hopefully) upcoming radio show and the accompanying video blog that I'll be doing through Livestream, and that's about all the social networking I can manage anymore.

My Shaintar muse is kicking my ass, and I am getting a lot of writing done. The day job with OneBookShelf continues to be the dominating force of my days.

And I am building my new life with my new family as we enter 2010.

So, yeah.

I'm not shutting this down, but I really don't expect to be doing much posting here.

Come find me on Facebook, gang.

Cheers!

Originally published at Highmoon's Ponderings. You can comment here or there.

This wasn’t my best year for reading books, I will admit. I had an early surge but after February it all went a bit downhill, and now towards the end of the year I have had to push myself through a couple of books that are really good but that I seem to lack the discipline to finish. I’m looking forward to fixing that in 2010.

I ended up reading a lot more non-fiction than fiction this year, interestingly enough. The fiction I did read this year, however, was fantastic and truly rewarding.

This list includes books, roleplaying games and graphic novels.

Read the rest of this entry »

So first of all, D&D on Tuesday night Caroline, Mara, Trevor, Alex, et al. if interested hit me up on my FB. Part of the "Mina gets her social life back to the 416" Program. Game will be a simple hack & slash module, so if the terms "Next fight" make sense to you, sign on up.

Second, my heart and thoughts go out to the families and friends of the men killed at an industrial accident on Thursday.  This is incredibly uncharacteristic of me, perhaps because a) I never really could have givne a shit, b) things happen.  But I dunno, perhaps the fact that these men and many others like it were the kind of men that I could have shared a cigarette or a coffee with, known by first name, leant me a tool here and there and may have given me a little insight in life, much like the other people that I have worked with over this year.  I guess a sense of brotherhood (I use the term as unisexed as possible) has formed in me. - Hardhat over chest and all that cal.

Third - Work, any work, I fix things pretty good.  Need anything done - hire me!!  Know anyone who needs anything done - whore me!!

Forth - X-mas is owning my ass, and I HAVE NO LIQUOR!!

Fifth - My father (in-law) actually got me a CARTON OF CIGARETTES - HOW FUCKING COOL IS THAT

i haven't seen the new sherlock holmes movie yet, but i probably will, eventually.

i admit i am kind of bitter about it because i never did anything with my own sherlock holmes project (which started as a nanowrimo novel back in 2005). it was about an action-oriented sherlock holmes: more specifically, a kung fu sherlock holmes.

the premise of a physically tough, martial-artist holmes is actually supported by the original texts: in "the adventure of the speckled band," holmes, with his bare hands, straightens out a poker iron that was bent into a curve by a huge man as a threat. in "the adventure of the empty house," holmes explains that he escaped what seemed like death at the hands of moriarty thanks to his "knowledge... of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling."

my version also threw in wong fei-hung as a major supporting character, after i realized that the folk hero (and main character of many kung fu movies, including the once upon a time in china series) was a contemporary of holmes.

of course, my nanowrimo novel was poorly written and completely ludicrous, full of ninjas and mole men at whatnot. however, i always thought it was a good idea at its core and thought maybe someday i could edit or rewrite it, or perhaps repurpose it as a comic book or videogame.

as usual, of course, i did nothing. *sigh* at this point it would only be seen as a ripoff of guy ritchie's holmes.

(P.S. i did self-publish the completely unedited (!) text of my novel on cafepress back then, since designing a book was more interesting to me than actually editing XD)

crossposted from http://bunnyhero.dreamwidth.org/9046.html. comment here or there using openID

Originally published at Highmoon's Ponderings. You can comment here or there.

Read the reports for the Pilot, Episode 01 and Webisode.

Note: I am writing this report about six months after it happened. I did record the last two sessions of play and have listened to them again in order to put this together.

I indeed had to return to Puerto Rico in June, so my friends and I decided to do our best to finish this game in the time I had. When we got together to play, we decided to wrap up the series in two sessions to be played over the two weeks I had available. That meant condensing four episodes into two action-packed extravaganzas. I merged the Screen Presences for episodes 2-3 and 4-5, giving us two final episodes that looked like this: 2/3/2/2 & 3/2/3/3. If you have played PTA you can see how that second merged episode is totally nuts; if you haven’t, the first spread is fine, with one spotlight character (3), but the second has three spotlight characters, meaning each of them is THE main focus of the episode, if that makes any sense. I knew that this would be tricky, to say the least, but we girded our loins and plunged back into the story.

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i've been watching a lot of werewolf movies lately: an american werewolf in london, the howling, dog soldiers and the wolf man (from 1941). i'd always wanted to see them but never got around to it, till now.

i have a few more i plan to watch soon; tomorrow, perhaps.

crossposted from http://bunnyhero.dreamwidth.org/8887.html. comment here or there using openID

Yeah, I don't know why I didn't just blip this ...

Originally published at Highmoon's Ponderings. You can comment here or there.

The non-stop rains of Wed and Thu gave way to a sunny Friday and a super awesome cold front on Saturday that has lingered around and brought nighttime temps in the Beach to high 40s. This morning I was originally going to join the monthly Bike Miami Ride but at 8:30 AM it was just way too early for this household, which went to bed at 3:30 AM after getting home from my father-in-law’s holiday party (oh man, such awesome food). So I rode my bike to synagogue as I always do, then checked out one of the waterfront promenades, this one in the area South of Fifth. From there I rode down to South Pointe Park and got to see the City of Miami right from the entrance to the port area.

My bike felt wobbly, and indeed it turned out I had two broken spokes in my rear wheel, so I dropped it at the Miami Beach Bicycle Center and walked home. Sans bike, we decided that the weather was too nice to not enjoy, so we went out to check out a couple of stores walking. Yes, we went walking in South Beach. It was fantastic.

We went to Sephora, where I got a new cologne (cause I can rarely find the other one I like and use, Azzaro Silver Black) then just went walking around, checking out stores, marveling at the beautiful blue skies, and chuckling at the SoBe trend-tribes. We are so uncool, we are beyond caring and enjoy it that way, so it’s funny to see those that are SO obsessed with appearances and the trends (and there’s loads of those in Miami, let alone SoBe).

We walked up to 13 St to have a pint at the Playwright Irish Pub, something we haven’t done in years. I love that pub; it’s spacious with great decor, they show soccer and other European sports (rugby!) and they actually know how to pull a pint of Guinness. Right when we arrived there I got a call that my bike was ready, so after a pint we walked down to 5th St again to get my bike. We walked back to the apt for a pit stop, then hit Publix for dinner (frozen pizzas we just threw in the oven).We plopped down on the couch to watch episodes of Pushing Daisies then played Rayman’s Raving Rabbid’s TV Party on the Wii.

Yes, it would have been cool to go out biking in this great weather, but walking around was just so good. We got incidental excercise, got to explore our new neighborhood and had a good time just the two of us.

More like this, please.

I do lots of stuff, and yes, I'll build your ikea furniture for you.

Originally published at Highmoon's Ponderings. You can comment here or there.

Today I announced that I am stepping down as the person behind the @BikeMiami Twitter account as of January 1, 2010. You can read the (very diplomatic) letter I posted here.

Honest truth is, I got tired of just being a cheerleader for a team that is not even playing at the moment. I started that Twitter account as a volunteer effort to help the Bike Miami team get the word out about events and to promote regular city cycling in Miami. After that, there were two Bike Miami Days (neither of which I could attend) and a couple of Bike Miami Rides, all of which were properly promoted. But then the period right before the city election hit, and before more pressing matters like City Budget, Bike Miami was set aside. There was a moment of victory when the City of Miami Commission approved both the Miami Bicycle Master Plan and Miami 21, but then Mayor Diaz’s term in office came to an end, and the candidate that would have followed his lead was not chosen. And there Bike Miami ground to a halt and has remained since.

With the Bike Miami Coordinator also loosing her job in City Hall, there was a cease of communication about the future of Bike Miami that has yet to be rectified. I did keep the Twitter account going through this time but without any official backing, it became more and more difficult to truly have a direction and to know what message to broadcast beyond “get on your bikes, Miami.”

To this we can add an amount of aggravation caused by a local bike shop merchant who decided he would have a beef with me and anything I did through the @BikeMiami account, whether it was me retweeting info about cool bike-related products (most of which are not available in Miami, something we can lay at the feet of the retailers), bike-related news from around the nation/world, or pushing for the regular kind of bike riding that we see in Europe (i.e. normal, day-to-day stuff, not Lycra or anything else needing special equipment). He simply refused to understand that I was a volunteer that did not speak officially for Bike Miami, but that in general kept the spirit of the message of Bike Miami in mind when operating that account. When it finally got personal, I knew for sure that this wasn’t worth the hassle.

I have a very clear idea of what I would like to see Bike Miami do, but since Bike Miami is simply a brand name attached to a series of events organized by the City of Miami, there isn’t much I expect that name to do beyond the Days and Rides. After seeing sites like BikePortland.org, Bike-PGH.org, Bike PHL or BikeJax.org, I realized what Miami needs is a truly independent bicycle advocacy central site, something I don’t really see Bike Miami becoming unless it goes independent of Miami City Hall, which I also don’t really see happening. So you know, be the change you want to see and all that…

I hope that the people I left the account to don’t let it die off, because it has grown to be a good vehicle for communication with the regular folks out there as well as a link to the larger network of bike advocacy sites. But that’s now out of my hands. I will continue to be a cheerleader for the idea of Bike Miami, and hope that the new administration of the City of Miami can realize the importance of this brand name and the initiative it launched for the future of Miami.

I have plans already in motion for what I want to do and which I will reveal in due time.

Get on your bike and ride, folks.