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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Sunday, 05 February 2012 |
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What exactly have we been up to at Dire Destiny lately? Good Question. Mikolaj continues to prosecute his quest to be recognized as the hardest working architect in all of Europe, and I continue to faff about writing things and building improbable spaceships made of LEGO. But that's surely not all? Of course not. Twho things which might be of interest: First of all, I have been playing an awful lot of Pathfinder . It may seem odd to bring that up following hot on the heels fo WOTC announcing the approach of D&D 5E, or D&D Next, or whatever they're calling it, but there you are. I never really did gel with 4th edition, and Paizo seem to know what I like. The point is that I've been rather busy running a massive Pathfinder campaign, and the good news for anyone who cares is that I've somehow managed to podcast the entire thing . But that's not all. A while back, I got turned on to this fantastic site called Obsidian Portal . Anyone running or participating in any kind of RPG needs to check this out. It's basically a simplified wiki that's geared towards keeping track of all of those weird details that accure over the course of an RPG campaign. While that may not seem exactly revolutionary in this day and age, it's something of an eye-opener to a guy who came of age in the days when campaign notes were made on countless 3x5 index cards. At any rate, the game that I'm podcasting has it's own page at Obsidian Portal , and it contains all kinds of amusing bits of story, some of which you may even find entertaining. I've also got a new 3.5 OGL book coming out soon, but I'll save that revelation for later in the news cycle. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 05 February 2012 )
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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Tuesday, 09 November 2010 |
What happened?
I'll begin with the apologies - sorry to have skipped out on October. I am back in the states after nearly a month traveling overseas on business. I had expected to be able to get a good deal of writing done while stuck in hotel rooms halfway around the world from my usual haunts, but alas it was not to be. This turned out to be one of those trips where it seemed like the only time not spent sleeping was spent working. There were a couple of much needed nights out for unwinding wedged in there, but lots of 12-15 hour workdays in between. Not an ideal situation for creativity to thrive in.
The holidays are always a difficult time for us, mostly because Mikolaj and I are so busy at this time of year. We've got our familiies to attend to and the load from our real jobs always increases about this time through the end of the year. Hopefully by December we'll have regained our footing and we'll be able to move ahead with greater speed once more. |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 November 2010 )
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Written by Robert Kendzie
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Friday, 15 October 2010 |
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Not a lot of Americans read Marcel Proust . I have not read Proust, but maybe I should. A lot of people who haven't read his work still are familiar (at least in passing) with his idea of involuntary memory: that some commonplace experience can bring back to us, in an immediate way, some feeling or perception of the past. The famous illustration that Proust provides is a vivid cascade of memory triggered by the eating of a particular kind of cookie called a Petite Madeleine .
I've had these kinds of experiences often, as I think most people have. I've read that the strongest memories can be triggered by smells. On particularly damp, green mornings in late spring or early fall the smell that the trees give off puts me right back into my thirteen year old self: off at summer camp somewhere in northern Maine, walking back to my cabin after getting up in the early morning silence before dawn to take a stroll at the edge of the lake. However my personal favorite memory trigger is music. Hearing an old song in an unexpected moment can change my entire day's outlook and put my mind back into an old groove (for better or worse).
Today I am halfway around the world from my home. Earlier I was sitting in a restaurant, jet-lagged out of my mind desperately hungry and feeling disconnected from the world. Lo and behold a favorite song of mine from years past began playing on the establishment's stereo:
A stone's Throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight...
I'm a big fan of Sting - have been ever since I was in junior high school listening to the Police. I think that The Soul Cages is one of his most underrated albums, and contains some of his best lyrics. This song in particular brought back a whole torrent of images and feelings from a particular time in my life - a time of uncertainty and difficulty, but also a time of great hope for the future. Once again, I personally (and a lot of people in America, for that matter) are facing uncertainty and difficulty. It's been harder for me to find hope these days than it was in my youth, when time was more of a friend than an enemy to me. Today, however, I was permitted the luxury of hope's memory, and it helped. I doubt this is going to get me to finally read Marcel Proust. Maybe I can find a summary somewhere . |
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 16 October 2010 )
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