Saturday Mornings

Blog Post No. 464

I’ve always felt like there was something special about Saturdays. I mean, Sundays have their place and a weekday when everyone else is at work has its own kind of magic, but Saturdays hold  extra promise. It may have something to do with the hold over from Friday nights (when a person can feel most free depending on their work situation) or it could be tied in with my childhood era of Saturday mornings with cartoons, cereal, and cold hockey arenas. Even though every day job I’ve ever had includes some or most Saturday shifts, when I have a Saturday free, there is little like it.

Cheater

Blog Post No. 448

There’s a new He-Man cartoon coming out and when watching the trailer, I was struck with a thought. Throughout the shows I watched as a child, the villains were magic users and/or manipulators and the heroes were mindless brutes. It’s as if I was being taught that being upfront and honest was the same as being simple minded and that anyone with cunning is probably untrustworthy. It’s a theme that you can still see nowadays with characters like Thor and Loki. Sure, it’s all pop culture with questionable cultural value, but you can’t dismiss the popularity.

Halloween Hangover

Blog No. 154

It’s a strange thing, what time does to us. I’m not afraid of age. I don’t worry about getting older (outside of the efforts I make to get healthy). I quite enjoy the age I am and, while I’m terrified of being elderly, (I don’t think I’ll be in very good shape by then) I wouldn’t go back to my twenties if I could. I would love to be able to tell 20-year-old Ben to get off his ass, but that’s something different. Time soldiers on even when we aren’t paying attention. In the same way, life changes, but being in the middle of it, it often goes unnoticed (at least for me). The one day, you find yourself handing out Halloween candy, watching old episodes of Venture Bros. and wondering what time you’re going to get up for your day off the next morning. 

And Other Things

Blog No. 146

Here we are on another Thursday and I have another Blog post to do. This week was one of those weeks where I totally forgot that the blog existed until Tuesday then I fumbled around for an idea ultimately not coming up with anything good. The sad part is (as it usually the case) I remember coming up with an idea last week, then promptly forgetting it because I was doing something else, or couldn’t be bothered to write it down. Now I’m here, writing this, not really sure where I’m going with it. Who knows what that means (I hope good). We’ll have to hand on for the ride and see where the heck I take us.

Normally, when I sit down to write the weekly blog, I think back over what I’ve done in the past week to come up with the topic (adjusting for proper company and searching specifically for content about writing). Some weeks, looking back is a struggle—that is finding something in the past week to write about is a struggle. Often there are a bunch of usual things that get tedious to write about (therefore likely tedious to read). I generally go writing with Christian, we work on Adventure Worlds, the collection, and our novels. I can often be found at Anchor enjoying the great coffee and atmosphere when I’m not at work. There are very few days where I don’t waste time on too much television and floating around the internet. And oddly, I never seem to read enough. While my days are full, there are plenty of weeks where nothing of consequence happens.

The decline of newspapers = the decline of comics?

Blog No. 137

For someone who spent time in Journalism, I have never been a newspaper reader. There are the local independents I pick up when I see them, but while my parents were avid Windsor Star readers, I never picked up the habit. I ended up doing some work on the radio, but my journalism career ended in less time than it took me to get the diploma. I enjoyed the experience and it contributed directly with me now writing fiction (plus it’s where I met Justin, then Christian through him) but it wasn’t a passion of mine, and if I don’t have any passion, sloth takes over soon enough. While I didn’t read the paper, I did (irregularly) read the comics. For the most part (because I am a huge snob and super judgmental) I wasn’t much of a fan of what I read, but there were a few that stood out and kept me coming back. Calvin and Hobbes is a major one thought I was a fan long before I bothered with the funny pages.

Fresh, Exciting, and New!

Blog No. 118

I have a rather full plate this year, when it comes to writing and the like. Christian and I are hard at work on the second (and a half) drafts of our collection, I have a rather long multipart story going up monthly on Adventure Worlds, I’m picking away at the novel I started last year (and restarted this year), I have edits galore, and since we have more artists working on Finders, I’ve been drumming up new ideas for the pair, plus the next zine is due. What I don’t need is another story idea burning a hole in my imagination, but that’s what I have. Saturday morning, I woke from a vivid dream, ran over to the computer, and feverishly typed an awkward opening paragraph encapsulating the fading memory of the dreamed adventure. Now it’s following me around, pulling me away from my other tasks, spinning around my head like one of those pirate ships at theme parks (but the ones that actually go all the way around.

Finders

Blog No. 117

Out of all the art forms I can think of (and probably all the ones I can’t) visual art is the most outside my ability. I can carry a tune (and even some harmony) and I can cook well enough. My dance moves are rather lame, but I can follow a rhythm (especially for someone who has never practiced). Writing is something I’ve been working towards, but I’ve always had plenty of ideas, and I know how to plot out a story. I can even tell a joke or two, both verbally and in a scene. I am no expert in any of those fields (though I’m really trying with the writing) but I have enough of a grasp on the concepts that if I put in the effort (that the people I know who excel in those areas have) I can get better. When it comes to visual art, drawing, painting, sculpting, photography, film, etc, I could work for a hundred years and still be terrible. 

Comic, Comic, Comic-chameleon

Blog No. 108

 Last weekend was Windsor’s Christmas Comic Con. It was both my first time ever at a con and the first time I was at a table at any event (other than for work I suppose). No, that’s a lie. I did help my brother’s band once at a music festival in St. Catharines, but I was a small part of a larger team then. Last weekend I was helping Christian with his table (but really I think he just wanted me to help him carry things). It was the two of us, his book (which you should buy if you haven’t yet) and some of his personal collection of comics and horror movies. The main goal was to sell as many copies of his book as we could. The comics and movies were bait and fodder to help pay for the cost of the table. They helped, but it turned out they weren’t necessary. With the large number of connoisseurs, and my shilling skills, he made enough with books sales to cover the costs. I didn’t read the fine print though. My cut is a coffee.

Behind the Writing: The Fifth Monday – Part Three

Blog No. 98

Sometime, in the early part of the year, Christian had an interesting idea. It’s not strange for that to happen, most writers are writers because of interesting ideas, but this one wasn’t a story. It was technically a story, but it was also more. Since we, at Adventure Worlds, post our stories on Mondays, and some months end up with five Mondays, Christian thought that we should do something special on those odd months. He decided to start a story, but leave it for another one of us to continue, and so on. He even started the thing off with the event happening on a fifth Monday (which is what I call dedication). The reigns were handed over to Alanna, who took it in a totally different direction, then passed it on to me.

Doing Nothing

Blog No. 97

For anyone who is a fan of Office Space, the idea of doing nothing isn’t a new one. In the movie the main character says that when he was asked by his guidance councilor what he would do if he had a million dollars, the answer was – nothing. That’s a statement I can agree with. If I had more money that I could ever spend, I would probably end up doing nothing but nothing for the rest of my life. I know this because with all the things I have to do (and want to do) I still end up spending most of my days off wasting time and goofing off. It’s not something I’m proud of, or even alone in doing. A lot of people I know suffer from the some problem. Sometimes it’s over prepping for a task, or wanting to catch up on something less important, or even just getting in a quick show before getting started and ending up spending the day watching netflix.