Bill Bodden's Blog, page 6
February 17, 2020
Losing a Convention
Yesterday, a convention I attend every year, Geneva Steam, announced that this year's event would be their last. I was stunned by the news. It's a small event, it attracts mostly locals, and it seemed to have a lot going for it, but in the end, the three main people running it all found that life was pulling them in other directions: they just didn't have the time to devote to it any longer.
It should be no secret that running a convention is a lot of hard work even for a small event. Besides just staying organized, it's a huge...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/02/17/losi...
It should be no secret that running a convention is a lot of hard work even for a small event. Besides just staying organized, it's a huge...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/02/17/losi...
February 10, 2020
Restaurant Ambiance
I was with some friends in a restaurant recently, and I began thinking about all the factors that make for a good restaurant. It's not always as simple as just serving good food; there's more to it than that, and I had a few tiny revelations about thew subject while nomming on my pork bun, our shared sushi and sashimi, and my pan-fried dumplings.
Of course, delicious, fairly priced food is the cornerstone upon which all other aspects depend. In that, there is no shortage of good restaurants in the world. However, it's not enough to serve good food, as competition in the food service industry is fierce, and staying in business means doing...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/02/10/rest...
Of course, delicious, fairly priced food is the cornerstone upon which all other aspects depend. In that, there is no shortage of good restaurants in the world. However, it's not enough to serve good food, as competition in the food service industry is fierce, and staying in business means doing...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/02/10/rest...
February 3, 2020
My Brag Shelf
Sometimes, when I'm feeling down, I take a look at what other authors have dubbed the Brag Shelf -- a shelf full of books I've contributed to. It gives me a lift, not only from the sense of accomplishment, but also from the wide variety of material I've worked on over the years.
The vast majority of my published work has been in the gaming field. I wrote about this last week (see 'Game of Life: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/27/game-of-life/) so I won't delve much further into the gaming aspect, except to say that there's a bunch more that isn't represented here: mostly, this is because...
To read more of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/02/03/my-b...
The vast majority of my published work has been in the gaming field. I wrote about this last week (see 'Game of Life: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/27/game-of-life/) so I won't delve much further into the gaming aspect, except to say that there's a bunch more that isn't represented here: mostly, this is because...
To read more of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/02/03/my-b...
January 27, 2020
Game of Life
My writing career has been intertwined with games since day one. Games have been part of my life for years - even as a child, games were popular in my home. My parents regularly bought games for us kids for Christmas, and we sat around the kitchen table playing Chutes and Ladders and Hi-Ho Cherry-O until I was old enough to handle more complex games like Battleship, Monopoly, variations of rummy and other card games, Yahtzee, Stratego, and many, many more.
I discovered Dungeons and Dragons during a school break when pre-teen me was spending a week with one of my brothers in the Big City. A college roommate of his had picked D&D up on a whim and was looking for people to help him try it out. We spent what seemed like hours creating characters, then he ran them through the adventure module included in the box (for those of you die-hard D&D fans, it was adventure B1: In Search of the Unknown.) Long story short, both our characters...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/27/game...
I discovered Dungeons and Dragons during a school break when pre-teen me was spending a week with one of my brothers in the Big City. A college roommate of his had picked D&D up on a whim and was looking for people to help him try it out. We spent what seemed like hours creating characters, then he ran them through the adventure module included in the box (for those of you die-hard D&D fans, it was adventure B1: In Search of the Unknown.) Long story short, both our characters...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/27/game...
January 20, 2020
Shifting the TV/Film Paradigm
Original television programming was one the sole purview of the big three - later big four -- networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and later, Fox. They were the only ones with the budget and the facilities to produce episodic programs for consumer viewing. That strangle hold has all but disappeared now, challenged beginning in the 1980s by cable networks HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax, and more recently completely obliterated by content providers such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and smaller networks like AMC and Starz.
We've been watching a few of these series. I find it an interesting quirk of mine that I am reluctant to jump in on something that has become overwhelmingly popular, Stranger Things being an excellent example. It took me ...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/20/shif...
We've been watching a few of these series. I find it an interesting quirk of mine that I am reluctant to jump in on something that has become overwhelmingly popular, Stranger Things being an excellent example. It took me ...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/20/shif...
January 13, 2020
Getting Hungry
I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. It wasn't diverse in any way at that time, but I had one advantage: my parents were open-minded about more things than most, and so I learned to try new things by their example.
The most obvious model of this behavior involved food. My folks both grew up in white-bread America, so for them, exotic food meant Chinese or Italian. Note that most Chinese food from restaurants at that time was highly Americanized, and had far more in common with Chun King than Peking. Still, it was new to us, with unfamiliar textures, ingredients, and flavors, and that was intriguing.
I remember a couple of visits to Milwaukee before I was 12. There used to be a...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/13/gett...
The most obvious model of this behavior involved food. My folks both grew up in white-bread America, so for them, exotic food meant Chinese or Italian. Note that most Chinese food from restaurants at that time was highly Americanized, and had far more in common with Chun King than Peking. Still, it was new to us, with unfamiliar textures, ingredients, and flavors, and that was intriguing.
I remember a couple of visits to Milwaukee before I was 12. There used to be a...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2020/01/13/gett...
January 6, 2020
Exciting Start to the Year!
The exciting news I have to share is that Pugmire: Tales of Good Dogs is finally available. I have a story in this anthology, "Hidden Within,", and it's been three years since I wrote it. The road to this point has been a long and frustrating one, but I'm delighted the book is finally out. The book can be ordered either as an e-book, or in paperback (print on demand). Here's the link to buy your copy: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/294913/Tales-of-Good-Dogs?term=Tales+of+Good+Dogs
Pugmire is an interesting setting: It's a world populated by dogs, cats, lizards, badgers and all manner of creatures, many of whom are descendants of animals that were uplifted - genetically modified to be better servants for humans - at a time when humans had reached the pinnacle of their technological advancement. Then something happened, and the humans went away. At the point in time in which the action of Pugmire takes place, it's been so long now that no one remembers what happened to the humans or why they disappeared. The animals moved on with their lives as best they could. The setting is highly reminiscent of one of my favorite novels: A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
http://billbodden.com/2020/01/06/exci...
December 30, 2019
Punching Down
There's a lot of punching down going on in the world right now, and it doesn't make me happy. Perhaps the most obvious source is the upper levels of the United States Government, but it doesn't stop there - not by a long shot.
So what exactly IS punching down, you may ask? The definition of "Punch Down" from the Urban Dictionary, is: To make a joke at the expense of the less powerful or more oppressed group.
One comedian who's been guilty of this frequently - and unapologetically so - is Ricky Gervais. I've enjoyed his comedy shows, but his proclivity in recent years for punching down is annoying at best. He's far from the only one, but perhaps the best-known of the punch down comedians is Andrew Dice Clay. He took aim at those who were already downtrodden, reaching for...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2019/12/30/punc...
So what exactly IS punching down, you may ask? The definition of "Punch Down" from the Urban Dictionary, is: To make a joke at the expense of the less powerful or more oppressed group.
One comedian who's been guilty of this frequently - and unapologetically so - is Ricky Gervais. I've enjoyed his comedy shows, but his proclivity in recent years for punching down is annoying at best. He's far from the only one, but perhaps the best-known of the punch down comedians is Andrew Dice Clay. He took aim at those who were already downtrodden, reaching for...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2019/12/30/punc...
December 23, 2019
Fallen Heroes
Having heroes is dangerous.
We adopt heroes into our lives because they have qualities we admire. The downside is that, being human, they most likely have qualities we don't admire - perhaps even abhor. Not all flaws are horrible, but some are.
Recent news highlights a perfect example in J. K. Rowling. Having made millions from her Harry Potter franchise, she declares that she's happy to pay taxes because she remembers too well what it was like to depend on the UK's social safety net programs to keep...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2019/12/23/fall...
We adopt heroes into our lives because they have qualities we admire. The downside is that, being human, they most likely have qualities we don't admire - perhaps even abhor. Not all flaws are horrible, but some are.
Recent news highlights a perfect example in J. K. Rowling. Having made millions from her Harry Potter franchise, she declares that she's happy to pay taxes because she remembers too well what it was like to depend on the UK's social safety net programs to keep...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2019/12/23/fall...
December 16, 2019
NOT Seeing Starz
Having already decided that I wasn't going to continue to watch American Gods on the Starz network, I was mostly unconcerned with any developments to the show. With apologies to Neil Gaiman, I thought the novel was quite good, but the show itself was lacking a great many things. (See my previous post on the subject, http://billbodden.com/2019/04/29/american-gods-wandering-in-the-desert-for-30-years/)
I was therefore stunned to learn that, earlier this month, the new showrunner had not asked Orlando Jones back to reprise his role as the African god, Mr. Nancy. Jones was one of the best things about this show, and now he's gone too. Close on the heels of this came the announcement from Mousa Kraish, (he played the Jinn) that he was also not asked back. In Jones' case, he was given to understand that "Angry gets shit done!" (from a speech his character gives to a shipload of African slaves before they revolt) is...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2019/12/16/not-...
I was therefore stunned to learn that, earlier this month, the new showrunner had not asked Orlando Jones back to reprise his role as the African god, Mr. Nancy. Jones was one of the best things about this show, and now he's gone too. Close on the heels of this came the announcement from Mousa Kraish, (he played the Jinn) that he was also not asked back. In Jones' case, he was given to understand that "Angry gets shit done!" (from a speech his character gives to a shipload of African slaves before they revolt) is...
To read the rest of this post, please visit: http://billbodden.com/2019/12/16/not-...
