Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Eve. Lots of single people are spending it alone. Some by choice and others (like me when I was single) through no choice of their own. I remember one new year's where I was stood up, so I rang it in by being in an Internet chat room with people who I "knew" from there, drinking...something that I don't recall. I do recall that it was pretty good though.

It's also the only time I've ever gotten sick from drinking. Coincidence? You be the judge.

They were nice people, though, so that was a good thing.

Hell, even some married people are spending it alone. And that's truly sad.

Wow, how uplifting this post has been so far! Let's rectify that.

Many of you around the world have already hit midnight, but there's still a few hours to go here in North America. I want to wish you the happiest new year's possible, no matter how you choose to celebrate it. We do a quiet night at home, and that's all we need.

New Year's is a time of renewal. It's a time where we really think about the future. When you really look at it closely, it's just turning the page on the calendar and having to write a different year on your cheques (do people still write cheques?).

But in actuality it's much more than that. It's an acknowledgement of the passage of time, of the inevitable creep of the future. It's a milestone in a sense. Sure, day by day the calendar turns, but a new year resets everything. You're going to get another Monday next week. But another August 31? Or any of the other dates that you've lived through this year? When the new year hits is the only time that you'll experience that date again.

This sense of a restart is why I think new year's resolutions are so prevalent.

Day-to-day life isn't going to change much. There will be new activities of course, and a major change can happen at any time. But it's at the beginning of this much-bigger time unit called a "year" that we think more long-term. We start making plans for the coming year, how we're going to improve ourselves, or live a better life or whatever.

I don't do resolutions because too many of them have fallen by the wayside. I think when you finally make the decision to do something about something in your life, it doesn't matter whether it's the beginning of the new year or the middle of Summer. You just do it. Making it a "New Year's Resolution" just puts that much more pressure on yourself to actually get it done. Which makes the feeling of failure when you don't follow through on it that much worse.

Just make renewal part of your every day life. Changes will come no matter what the date is. You don't need that calendar to turn over. Renew yourself now. Is it December 27th? Don't wait until New Year's. Start now!

Still, it's silly to ignore the milestone of a new year happening. As that number slowly builds year after year, that feel of time marching on regardless of what we do, we do feel the pressure of that a little bit.

So for that reason, I want to wish all of my readers all the best in the upcoming year. Make it a year to remember. Make something of yourself, some small improvement on something that has been bothering you, or whatever you want to do. Live it, enjoy what you're doing. Embrace life and it will embrace you back.

Uh-oh! Missed a few days, so here's some random stuff

Not my family, but aren't they a lovely bunch of people anyway?
Hey, kid! Don't eat when you're picture's being taken!

Surprisingly, the blog didn't fall apart! Yes, after almost two months of getting a post per day up on the blog, I haven't done that the past couple of weeks.

For one thing, I didn't want to pressure myself while I was in Iowa. If something occurred to me to write about, I would. But otherwise, I didn't want to be sitting there in the morning saying "come on! Get something down so you can go continue your day!"

That's one of the benefits, I think, of my three regularly-scheduled posts per week. The blog didn't disappear while I was gone. I also scheduled the Christmas posts in advance so I didn't have to worry about them.

The ability to schedule posts has been a godsend for me, as I already have Star Trek and book review posts scheduled through mid-January. I hope you've been enjoying them.

I did have a good trip to Iowa. The travel itself was uneventful both ways, except for having a pack of 20 children (8-10 years of age) on the bus ride home from Seattle. That got a bit loud. Thankfully, they got off the bus at the first Canadian stop right on the other side of the border. It was a packed bus, so I did have somebody sit next to me for most of the trip. That's a first for me in my 10+ years of doing this.

It was great seeing everybody at home. Had a lovely (and wonderfully-long) get-together with some really good friends. It's always good to see them. It was nice to spend time with the family as well, and Christmas was really great.

Just as an aside, speaking of my friends above, it's amazing what power the Internet has. Back when I was doing my Livejournal blog, one night I got nostalgic and did a post naming some names of high school friends that I was wondering what had happened to them. One of those people responded, and I've been seeing her and her husband (who was also named in that post, as they were together when I knew them in high school) every time I'm back home since.

Maybe she can remind me of how she found that post. :)

Anyway, it doesn't always work (Jerry Miller and Melissa Stewart, where are you???), but if you're interested in looking up old friends, just post their name on your blog! They might find you.

Or, I guess you could do Facebook too (which wasn't around, or at least nearly so popular, back when this happened).

Anyway, a couple of other things. I'm really enjoying my Kindle Fire e-reader from Amazon. Nice to have something back-lit so I can read in the dark. It's a bit heavier than the basic Kindle that I had been using, but it's worth it. Have read two books on it, and now I'm a subscriber to the excellent e-magazine of fantasy and science fiction, Lightspeed! Didn't want to mess with it on my old Kindle because I wasn't sure if there would be images and all of that (which the Fire handles brilliantly).

I highly recommend it.

The wife loves her Nook, so you might want to give that a try too. If you're not dead-set against e-readers, of course (as I know some of you are!)

It's nice to be back. I'm going to try and keep up my post-per-day pace again now that I'm back and raring to go. But it's nice to know that if I don't, this blog won't be starved for content.

It's made things a lot easier.

An Aging Benchmark

Who can resist having a picture of the good Doctor?

Yes, we are all getting older. With each passing day, we are inevitably one day older. Nothing can change that, and while some people try to stay looking as young as they can for as long as they can, there are some things that you just can't fight.

One of those things is your eyesight, and how it often fades over time.

I've had to face one of those milestones just in the last couple of weeks. Yes, I have broken down and purchased reading glasses.

Over the last few months, I've noticed that reading has become a bit more difficult and that I've had to hold the book further away from me than I used to. It finally became time to get my eyes checked again.

The verdict was as expected.

So now I have two pairs of reading glasses: one that I leave at work and one for home and if I need to go out anywhere that will require me to read. When I finally brought them home earlier this week, it was amazing to sit there and read my iPad, and later my book, and see how crystal clear everything was. You realize that things are a little off, but you don't realize how much until they are finally brought into focus.

Ooooooo, a life lesson too!

But I digress.

I've mastered this pose, minus the rugged good looks and all that

I have already mastered that "look over the top of the glasses to see things far away" look, because a lot of times when I'm reading on the couch, the TV's on too. They are still taking some getting used to, though. It's weird feeling these things on my face after nine years of being without them (I had laser surgery back in 2003 after having had glasses most of my life).

So yes, it is that time in my life, where the eyesight is kind of going. I say "kind of" because my distance vision is still 20/20. Hopefully that will never go away. It will just be reading that I need these for.

As of right now, I can still get by reading without them, so I probably won't really take them with me anywhere. That way, I won't lose them. My insurance covered them, but they're expensive! I don't want to be replacing them. But they will be nice to have around the home and around the office, there when I need them but otherwise put off to the side.

I acknowledge the aging process. I acknowledge that I actually have some grey hairs sticking out here and there.

Don't have to like it. Just have to accept it. And that I've done.

It helps that I look super-handsome in them, though.

A Rainy, Bloggy Sunday Night

(Thanks to 2010Vancouver)

It's another one of those nights where I'm in a bit of a pensive mood. I've got headphones on, listening to some Sonny Rollins on Grooveshark. The light's on, but it's totally quiet otherwise. After two weeks of sunny, incredible weather, it's raining like hell out there and has been all day. They say we're supposed to get rain all week, which really sucks since this is graduation week and we're holding a reception for those MET graduates who come to the ceremony on Thursday.

I have created a number of playlists on Grooveshark to help with my writing. There's a Mars Lasar one, Mike Oldfield, Jazz, Celtic, and a Delerium one. Grooveshark really is an amazing service for streaming music where you can form your own playlists and just let them go. Or you can find new stuff.

Which I don't do very often, going more for what I like than what I don't know.

The headphones I have on are keeping all of the noise out of my ears, but I was listening to the rain outside earlier. In fact, we were out in it for a brief bit when we left the movie theater (my movie post will be going up tomorrow morning). I love sunny days, but there's something to be said for rainy, overcast ones too. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just weird that way. As long as I'm not out in it, though, rain just doesn't depress me like it does some people. I see a strange beauty in rain that rivals (in a much different way, of course) that of the sun.

One of the things I've done tonight, which I do often, is look at my blog stats. I know some bloggers don't worry about their stats, how many hits their blogs have received. I wouldn't say I *worry* about it either. I am just interested in seeing who's coming to my blog and from where. When I get a hit from somewhere local here in the Lower Mainland, I wonder if it's one of my students who has found my blog somehow.

And I love to see how they get to my blog. When there's a Facebook referral, I always wonder which of my friends it is (unless a friend has shared the post on their page, which means it could be one of their friends). There's no way I can tell, of course. It's just intriguing.

Which brings me to one thing that's slightly annoying, but not enough to make me fret too much.

It's really strange that the majority of my hits are from image searches. Long-time readers of this blog know that I like to put a picture on almost every post, just to give it a bit of variety and so that a picture will show up on Facebook (or wherever else the post is shared). There are four or five of my posts that draw an inordinate amount of image searches, and these searches make up almost the majority of my blog traffic.

It's actually kind of sad in a way.

If I were in the blogging business for fame and fortune, I'd be really upset. However, I'm not (if I were, would it look and sound like this?), so it's not a big issue.

But part of me would like more people to come for the content and not the images.

Oh well. These are the things that are going through my mind as I sit here on a rainy Sunday night. The wife's in the bedroom watching a show and I have my jazz going. I have no work tomorrow because of the Victoria Day holiday.

All is right in the world.

I should be able to find an image for that, shouldn't I?

The Hug Effect

(Thanks to Hall of the Black Dragon)

There is something magical about a hug. It's very hard to explain what that magical effect is, I guess much like most emotional things.

Sure, scientists have probably explained it in scientific terms that take all of the beauty and romance out of it. So I'm not going to go look for that.

Instead, I just want to talk about it from a feeling point of view.

When you're feeling a bit low, it's a wonder how just somebody coming over and giving you a hug will all of a sudden totally lift your spirits out of that funk that you're in. Or, if it doesn't do that, it may at least make you feel more able to deal with the emotional stress that you're feeling right at that moment. It's that physical aspect of touch, there's just something about it. It adds a layer of intimacy, I think, that shows that somebody really cares about you and your well-being.

Of course, nothing is better than a hug (and other things, obviously) between two people who truly love one another and want to spend the rest of their lives together. Romantic love can produce some wonderful hugs where the entire body is pressed together full-length, with both bodies almost melting into each other. Yes, those are definitely special.

But what about outside of a romantic relationship? Those hugs can be pretty damned special too, in their own way. While there is no full-body melding, there is definitely contact. Whether it's one of those "safe" hugs where you touch each other as little as possible, or even a closer hug where your bodies are pressed together (just not as intimately as a romantic hug), both can satisfy a need that we as humans have. That need for some kind of physical representation that somebody cares. I think it's something the world needs more of.

There are always gender issues that crop up, of course. Men generally don't hug other men unless extreme circumstances seem to warrant it. A tremendously sad occasion like attending a funeral, or a very happy one like scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal. Just a general pick-me-up, though? A conversation between two guys about something that's bothering one of them? There will most likely be no hug there. But women do it all the time.

And for mixed-gender friendships, there's always that fine dance of finding the comfort zone for both parties. Is he going to see this as more than just a friendly hug? Is she going to think I want to move this further than just friendship? Or maybe you're just not a believer in hugging somebody of the opposite gender who isn't married to you or in a relationship with you.

All of those considerations have to be dealt with. But after they are, the resulting hugs can be glorious. Not only because of the resulting feeling they can give you, but because it shows an utter trust in you that they are sharing. Giving somebody a hug, or allowing them to hug you, opens up a vulnerability in you because you're letting that person even more into your emotional presence. Sure, you may have talked a lot, and maybe even about some very personal things. But now you're allowing them into your private space. The space you keep for people you really care about. Yes, you're pretty sure the other person feels the same way or you wouldn't be doing it.

But it's still a vulnerability.

Of course, some people don't even bother with those considerations and totally surprise you, hugging you out of the blue. Like meeting somebody's mother for the first time and she proceeds to give you a hug when you take your leave. Wonderful surprises indeed.

Or perhaps you've become friends with somebody online, and so you've already moved past all of that. I know a few women online where, if and when we ever meet, I'm in for the hug of my life, I'm sure.

It's not just hugs, either, though they are the culmination of all of this, that Holy Grail that you finally reach where the person's comfort level is to the point of being able to hug you.

Sometimes it's just a touch. Some people are naturally touchy people, and you can usually tell that. They'll touch your arm or shoulder when they're talking to you. While I'm not saying it doesn't mean anything, it isn't quite in the same league. I'm sure even these people will not touch some people if they get a bad vibe off of them or something.

But not that many people are, in this age where we take a stranglehold on our personal space and try not to let anybody into it except a select few. Many of us don't like being touched, and that also translates into not liking to touch other people. Or maybe that's a bit too extreme and you just don't habitually do it. You don't fear it or anything, but it's just not something you do.

There are friends of mine who I remember the first time they actually touched me. It may have just been a light slap on the arm or a touch on the shoulder or whatever. And it may have just been in the flow of a conversation, perhaps even in a group conversation.

But it still struck me in a marvelous way. What it said to me is that this person is actually comfortable enough with me to touch me. That this person does care about me. It's an intimacy (not a romantic intimacy, but an intimacy nonetheless) that they have finally decided to share with you. And if it comes in the middle of a conversation or in some other off-hand manner, it demonstrates that this comfortableness is honestly being felt and not just calculated (like some people will touch you on the arm or shoulder if they are trying to convince you to do something, to name one example). They touched you without even thinking about it.

And it feels good.

It's even better when you are good enough friends that they just realize when you might need a hug. No questions asked, no request needed.

Those are the friendships to cherish.

Love Analytics

(Thanks to Cherry-Bam)

Is it possible to quantify love?

Not really, as love is an emotion, a feeling that we give to other people and share it in return.

However, there are some things that we can look at in our lives and see just how much love we have coming back toward us. And I don't just mean romantic love, but just love in general.

This thought was sparked by a comment thread on Facebook today, and I thought about it a lot on my way home from work. I won't name the person involved, though they will, of course, recognize it and can out themselves if they want. (I know it's not grammatically correct, but I'm going to say "they" throughout this post just to keep the person anonymous).

Anyway, this person does the usual Facebook thing and posts status updates on either how they're doing or what they're up to, or just a general thought or two that passed through their head. This particular one was about being sick. I left a "get well soon" type comment and when I returned to it after a few more replies, I said that their comment threads are so long all the time, which must mean that they're really loved. They responded with yes, this particular thread was making them feel very loved and that they have some beautiful people in their life.

And it got me to thinking, putting together some other things that have come up recently. Sometimes these things come up completely out of the blue. You're going on your normal way, acting like you always act, being friends with someone, interacting with them, and then WHAM! Out of the blue they really tell you how much they value your friendship and your ability to listen or what have you.

These things start to add up and you realize just how loved and valued you really are. And to somebody who has self-doubts about who they are and what they bring to the world, that can be the biggest pick-me-up ever.

It almost becomes a catalog in your mind, where you can go back and page through when somebody said that you were important to them, or showed you that you're important to them by doing something for you. You think back when your chips are down a bit and realize that yes, you do have value to people. You are worthy. Other people do care about you.

Of course, this feeling should always be around in a marriage or romantic relationship, where these thoughts and feelings are shared and demonstrated often. If that doesn't happen, then it's not a very healthy relationship.

But getting it from friends, especially when you're not expecting it, can really give you a boost for your day. It can be something as simple as "I'm really glad you're doing this, because now it's become fun for me again," or "thank you for that. I've gained a new perspective that I didn't have before because of something you said."

I'm not saying that if you don't get this often, your friendships are not good (though I would suggest that, if you haven't made a friend feel good about something recently, you might want to think about it). Again, you can't quantify friendship and love, and you certainly can't say "Only two friends have told me they love me this month, while she has six friends who have said the same thing. She must be a better person than I am."

I would never say that, because it's not true.

I'm just speaking to the power that love can bring. It has the ability to boost you up out of a bad mental funk, to make you feel better when you feel down about something, to feel better about a friendship where you're not sure about the status of it. You feel much friendly love and affection for that person. Do they share it? And then, in the course of some conversation or other, they say or show that yes, they do share it.

I guess the ultimate answer is that there is no way to analyze and quantify how loved you are.

But you know it when you feel it.

A Great Way to Meet People!

Sometimes it feels like we're living in an increasingly closed society where the only friends we have we've never met. Or we only communicate with them online because somebody's moved away. I may be jaded, though, as that seems to be the type of person I am right now. That being said, I think it is becoming more of an issue as time goes on, with people shutting themselves away.

Do you have trouble meeting people, like I do? I recently discovered a great new site that many of you have probably already heard of called Meetup. (Many thanks to an author and incredibly nice woman I met at V-Con last year and who I talk to on Twitter a bit, Sandra Wickham, for pointing me to this site). No, it's not a site for clandestine rendezvous or anything like that. Basically, it's a site where groups of people can find others with similar interests and get together socially. It can be for activities, or just discussing common things.

(Thanks to Egreog's Place)

Sandra pointed me to the site because there is a Dr. Who group on there she thought I might like (my Twitter handle is whovian223, so she figured I was a Who fan). However, given the writing class I just finished, I decided to look and see if I could find a writers group too. As I mentioned the other day, I did find a group called the Vancouver Independent Writers Group, and I've had a blast at the last two meetups.

Funnily enough, both of them have been at coffee houses (though one served beer, thankfully). I'm looking forward to many more great conversations with my fellow writers. It looks like we typically meet every two weeks. One time for something purely social (the karaoke nights apparently haven't been that successful) and the next for just a sit-down discussion where we're also welcome to read some of our work if we want to.

The best thing about Meetup is that it's worldwide, but it always takes into account where you are, though you can find meetups elsewhere by just typing in a new location when you're searching. When I type in something, it will only show local things unless I tell it otherwise. If you live in the heart of Texas, you will find things local for you. It's genius!

How does Meetup work?

Just go to the site and type in something that you're interested in. Are you into knitting? I just typed "Knitting" into the search engine and found a bunch of different groups in Vancouver. Joss Whedon fan? I know there's at least one group in Vancouver, and I think there are more.

Find a group that looks interesting and join it (after creating your Meetup account, of course)! Some groups may have to approve members first, but others are open. They may request a bio so that they can be sure that your interests meet the groups (the Vancouver writers group asked things like "what do you write?" and "favourite author?")

The group organizer (members can suggest meetups) can organize a meetup and post it to the group. Maybe you want to organize a meet up at the local pub to have some beers and talk about your dating life (if you're in a dating group). Set it up! Members will RSVP officially on the site, so you'll know how many people are planning to attend. Of course, you may get people who don't RSVP but just show up, or something might come up and somebody who did respond may not come. The good thing is that you have an idea of who you're going to be seeing when you show up.

I haven't attended a meetup with the Dr. Who group, though I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there. I'm really enjoying the writing group, though.

You can even just see what's trending locally to see if there might be something that you didn't even realize you might be interested in.

As an example (though it's not an example I'm interested in, obviously), currently trending in Vancouver is the Vancouver Women's Newcomers Social Club, a group for women new to Vancouver to meet some people here. I can see how this would be a valuable group for a woman who's new to the city and doesn't have many (or even any) friends here.

It's a great site if you like to socialize but you're having trouble finding people to do it with!

Who is that Stranger?

This may be where I appear in a puff of smoke, hacking and coughing because some of it got up into my lungs and all that. But appear I shall!

Some of you must really have been wondering what had happened to me. If I have any followers who don't also follow me on Twitter or Facebook (or even on Game Informer, where I have still been posting some blogs that you should read if you want a laugh), you probably were wondering if some giant chasm opened up in the Earth and swallowed me whole.

(Thanks to Laughing Squid)

Actually, that did happen, except that I managed to avoid it by using my super powers.

But I digress.

I've written quite a bit over the last six months before my final post on January 22 (has it been that long?) about getting into writing funks, wondering whether I had the determination and will to keep going on this blog. The desire to write blog posts and come up with interesting topics was just eluding me. It was starting to feel forced, and more and more it became a place to post my book reviews and latest podcasts and that's it. Pretty boring if you're not interested in either of those. I would come back raring to go for a brief period of time, and then the desire would leave again.

Finally, after going through the motions in January, I just stopped. Is it ironic that this came shortly after my "I'm feeling newly invigorated!" post that I did on January 2? I think it is.

Anyway, things have continued on in the life of Dave, even if I haven't been sharing it here.

The short story writing class that I mentioned in my New Year's post actually did happen. Eight weeks and we wrote a lot! I really enjoyed it. Had some great classmates (though I'm a bit disappointed that nobody seemed to connect outside of class, or at least not with me). We had a great time sharing our writing with each other, giving us some wonderful critiques and I produced a couple of short stories that I may do something with some day. The class was taught by Alison Acheson, and she was a wonderful instructor. She gave us very good feedback, writing tips, as well as the inspiration to keep writing.

I really do want to keep the wheel rolling, and while I haven't written as much as I would have liked since the course ended, the inspiration is still there. I wanted to join a writer's group and keep going. I'm not sure I'm ready for a critiquing group yet, or at least one that meets every couple of weeks. Maybe after the NHL play-offs are over and I have more evenings free. I did, however, join a writers group called The Vancouver Independent Writer Group that I found on Meetup.com. I've been to two of their gatherings now, where we go to a coffee shop (at least the two I've been to, though I know at least one of the previous ones was sushi) and just talk. Mostly about writing, but just anything really. I'd talk more about it, but why rob myself of a blog topic possibility?

The same goes for Meetup.com, a great site that I will blog about later.

We have also had five podcast episodes posted since I stopped writing here. You can find the link to all of them here. And if you bookmark that page, you can always find them.

So yes, I am alive. I am active. I've just been in a funk, the worst one I've had in a while. I haven't even been reading blogs (other than political/news blogs), so I'm way behind on my friends' blogs like Healing Morning. I will read the backlog that I've missed, Dawnie! I promise.

I've decided to use this week I'm taking off (only needing three vacation days to get Wednesday-Tuesday off because of the Easter holiday...WIN!) to start up this blog again. I may add a new template to really make it new, but not sure if I'm in the mood for *that* much work. I am back, though, at least for the time being. I don't want to unduly stress myself by making promises I might not be able to keep, so I'm not going to say this is permanent. I hope it is. I truly want it to be.

Finally, before I close out, I wanted to send a shout-out and thank you to Raquel, an old friend. She's going through a tough time right now, and I reached out to her because of that. In the process of doing that and our conversing about it, she mentioned how much she enjoyed my blog. It's hearing things like that, completely out of the blue and from unexpected sources (as opposed to expected sources, which are also wonderful to hear and well-appreciated, but don't have quite the same impact), that give me inspiration. While I've been mulling over whether to revive the blog or not, it was her saying that which put me over the edge and made me decide to do it this weekend.

So thank you, Raquel.

For now, Dave's mind is buttoned back up, and ready to spill over with bloggy goodness.

A Brand New Year

The year 2012 is upon us, and as always it's a time of reflection.

I thought about posting some drunken revelry on New Year's Eve, something that would make you all laugh, but there were two problems with that. First, I wasn't drinking. Second, I wasn't reveling. I was having a wonderful evening with my wife, just enjoying her company as well as playing some video games and a Midnight kiss, of course. However, I wouldn't call it "reveling," as that implies a party, with lots of people around, confetti, champagne, and all that good stuff.

So no drunken revelry post from me. However, here it is January 2 and I'm sitting at the computer having just finished a book review and looking at the computer screen, and thinking. ("Uh oh, that's not a good sign" - The Peanut Gallery) Thinking about this blog, about blogging in general, about writing, and just thinking about what the new year is going to bring me. More importantly, thinking about what I'm going to bring to it.

I'm not a believer in New Year's resolutions (I share my friend Dawn's views on those), but I do believe that the turning of the year is a good time to reflect back on the year that's past and forward to the year that's coming (ok, that's not technically "reflecting," but never mind). The year 2011 was a really bad and stressful one for me, but it also had some good things as well. Work has been going very well, and the success of our podcast (maybe not in the number of listens, but in the buzz around the Faculty as well as the fact that it's something I've stuck with for a year now) has been very heartening for me. It's something that's beyond my comfort zone, and the fact that I am putting myself out there, not just my writing but my voice as well, is something that I'm very proud of. Now we just need to expand our listener base.

I've made some progress on my personal growth journey as well.

For example, I went to V-Con, the Vancouver science fiction convention. The last time I went, four years ago, I pretty much just went to panels and hid in a shell. I was absorbing stuff, watching stuff, but not participating. This year, it became the first step in bringing me out of my shell. I didn't go to as many panels, but instead I interacted with people there. I hung out in the gaming room and socialized with some of the gamers there. I actually stopped people who were in interesting costumes and asked to take their picture. That seems weird, but it's something that I would never have done before, despite the fact that I know one of the reasons people wear costumes to conventions is because they want to be photographed. I sat in the Hospitality Suite and talked to people. Yes, I went to the convention to have fun, so it wasn't just a "social experiment" for me. But I was determined that part of that fun would be actual interaction, and I think I accomplished that. Next year will be even better, I think.

This year, I plan to do more of that. I am enrolled in a short story course that starts in February. Again, there are two good things about that. First, it will get me writing again. The second thing is, again, social interaction. I look forward to interacting with my classmates, both with writing and other stuff as well. Will any of us come out of there as friends? Who knows. But I look forward to doing it, and maybe I'll have something written to share with some of you folks afterward.

I also plan on going to the Northern Voice social media conference again in May. Last year, I didn't socialize much, as my re-found determination to do so came afterward. This year, I'm going to take a bigger part in it. I'm not going to leave the Friday night party early like I did last year. I'm going to talk to people at the conference itself. I'm really looking forward to it. Even better, since it's professional development (I do social media work for my office), I don't have to pay for it! But even if I did, I would be going. I had a lot of fun last year, so hopefully it will be even better this year.

None of these are "New Year's Resolutions," though, because I decided I was going to do this a few months ago. But as I sit here on the cusp of the new year, thinking about the year to come and the plans I have for continuing this personal journey, I greet it with great anticipation.

Merry Christmas to all of you

I don't know if I'm going to be doing another blog before Christmas Day, so I figured I'd do this one now.

I am very thankful for my wife and family who love me. I'm thankful to have a group of such wonderful friends, whether I've ever met you or not. I forget that sometimes, and still do miss having any immediate friends in Vancouver (I'm slowly working on that). But I have to realize that there are still plenty of people out there who love me.

I had a lovely evening with two very good friends last night, and it's always a highlight of my Christmas trip home. But some of you I've never even met, but I still feel close to you.

This time of year always makes me nostalgic, like I'm sure it does everyone. Remembering Christmases past and future (or imagining the future ones, anyway). It's in this spirit that I want to wish you all a truly merry Christmas and all the best in the new year as well.

I shared this song on Facebook yesterday, but I want to share it with all of you too. It's my favourite Manneheim Steamroller Christmas song, their rendition of "Silent Night." It's truly beautiful, and I remember the first Christmas that I spent far away from home, after I had moved to Seattle. The song moved me to tears. It still gets me too.




To all of you, either family, friends, regular readers of the blog who don't otherwise know me, or if you just stumble by, I hope you a great holiday.

The Trap of Self-Recrimination

Many people in this world do not have a great self-image, suffer from self-doubt, and all of that good stuff. While I don't believe in the "self-esteem movement" that basically indoctrinates kids to not worry about striving to be their best (but that's a whole other argument), I do believe that it's valuable to have a good opinion of yourself.

I've suffered from this for a long while, and it's been hard sometimes to bring myself out of these self-induced funks (which may be one of the things behind the writing ones I referenced on Saturday), but I am slowly getting better. It's hard work sometimes building that self-confidence that what you do is valuable, or that people actually like you for what you are.

It's these types of feelings that have led to recent posts in the last few months, such as "Companionable Silence," "The Limits of Sympathy," and "Reading Minds." Those posts stemmed from an outward expression of these self-doubts, wondering what your friends are "really" thinking rather than just taking them at face value.

It's a vicious cycle that can very possibly make you miserable. It's also a tough habit to break, no matter how much you've talked about it before.

Let me give you a recent example.

There was an instance in the past couple of weeks that I want to share. It involves something that I sometimes have felt  internally that I haven't helped enough with, though the person involved keeps assuring me that I'm doing fine. Recently, due to other circumstances, I started doing a bit more. The person involved said later "I think it's awesome that you're helping with [fill in the blank]. I really appreciate it and it's made doing it a lot more fun." (not an exact quote, and I'm not saying what it was so as to not reveal who I'm talking about. This person will recognize it if they read it, however).

This person has always been open and direct with me. If there's a problem, it's stated. Yet my very first thought when hearing that was "that's a veiled slam at me not helping on this earlier, isn't it?" Thankfully, because of our history together, I very quickly dismissed that and took that to be the compliment and gratitude that it was. But it says something that my first thought went in that direction.

The other reason that I know this wasn't a veiled shot at me is because this person doesn't allow me to get down on myself, often asking why I said something when I do ("oh, that was my fault." "Why would you say that? It just happened."). So there's no reason that this person would have some kind of hidden meaning behind the words. They know what effect that would have on me.

I like to believe I'm getting better about these things, though I do have my stumbles. While I sometimes don't feel I'm doing as good of a job as I would like, I am doing things that I would not have done a few years ago (like putting myself out there on podcasts, for example). As those posts I shared above indicate, I don't always succeed, but the fact that I'm recognizing the issue is, I think, a good thing.

Then again, the trick is to avoid getting into the self-recrimination trap about self-recriminations. That would be a loop that's almost impossible to get out of it. Getting down on myself because I get down on myself so often?

Yet, funnily enough, that does happen on occasion too. It's like somebody saying "Stop apologizing!" and you say "sorry about that." Yeah, I'm apologizing for apologizing too much. That's helpful.

I think it's always a good thing to examine yourself and see if there are areas of improvement that you can implement. You just have to be constructive about it and actually work on improving that area, or accepting the fact that you are who you are, and that part will never change.

Either way, self-examination: good. Self-recrimination: bad.

(I didn't plan on this being a promotional link-fest, but I feel those posts illustrate things perfectly).

Catching Up

Looking back at the last couple of weeks.

Lately I've become a weekend blogger, and I'm not sure I'm happy with that. The week just seems so filled with other stuff going on, with no topics jumping to mind and not wanting to really sit down and think of anything to begin with. There were three hockey games this week (all on the road, so only on TV) and when that wasn't on, I was playing games or just reading. Stress-filled days at work that will hopefully end after next week have resulted in me not wanting to think too much when I haven't had to.

The weekend is my writing time, though, and I like to get at least something written each day. Whether it's a blog post here, a blog post over at Game Informer, or a book review, I want to produce something. In fact, I've been trying to make sure I get two or three things done. For example, I'm behind on book reviews, though I am caught up with books that I've just finished (or books that I want/have to review, anyway). I wrote a review today of a book that has been sitting here for much too long, and I have three other books that are the same way. I finished them when I was in my writing funk a few months ago and never got to the reviews. I feel bad, though, because they were books from Curled Up that I promised to review. I have vowed that I will get these reviews done, even if it takes one review a weekend.

Better late than never.

I'm also in my periodic "Klout" panic. Ok, that's a bit of hyperbole, because I'm not panicked about it. But again, as I said in the post I just linked to, it's an indication that I'm not doing what I enjoy doing, which is interacting with all of you people out there. (Incidentally, those of you who follow me on Twitter may have noticed that I changed my username to "whovian223" to match my Gmail address. Don't look for me as "histerin" any more if you are looking me up).

So I'm trying to do that this weekend as well. Lots of "Occupy Wall Street" tweets to make or re-tweet! Not to mention "Occupy Vancouver," which is going on today (What, only one day? Are you lazy or something?)

I'm also reading a lot, which is a really nice outlet. I have so many books from Curled Up that I want to get through some of them and get them reviewed. For that reason, I'm reading the "easy" ones first, the paperback novels that are quick reads. I'm saving the History books for last, because they usually slow me down drastically. I have one book that's sitting on my desk at work staring at me and intimidating me: Richard Miles' Carthage Must be Destroyed, a 544 page monstrosity that will probably take me a month, at the rate I've been reading.

Speaking of books and reviewing, I completely forgot to blog and mention that The Gatekeeper's Post did an interview with me about my Amazon reviews! It's not very long, but you'll get a bit of an insight into my book attitudes. I enjoyed doing it.

I am going to try and post here more often, though I don't know if I would expect that to change this coming week. For those of you who are following me, my apologies for that. You will be rewarded soon.

(Note: Dawn, since I know you'll eventually be reading this, I thought I would tell you that everybody on social media actually has a Klout score of some kind, even if they never join up. It's just that you can't do anything with it or about it without signing up. You've dipped below me a couple of times, but are just above me most of the time)

V-Con 36 Recap

A number of alien beings and fantastical creatures invaded the Lower Mainland last weekend. I walked among them. This is my story.

The sign that awaited us at the door (click all photos to enlarge)

V-Con is Vancouver's annual Science Fiction and Fantasy (henceforth called SF) convention, having been run since 1971 (yes, 40 years, but it was called something else its first four years). I've been to it once, but I didn't have a smartphone at the time, one that I could access the Net with and take pictures. I also wasn't the same kind of person as I am now.

This year's author guest of honour was Larry Niven. I greatly respect his work, though Hard Science Fiction is not my forte, so I'm not as big on his work as others were.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or are Facebook friends already know some of this, but I thought I'd give you a run-down of how my weekend was.

To put it briefly, it was fantastic.

In addition to being a wonderful weekend because I was surrounded by fellow SF geeks like me, it was also the first step in my personal development plan. I was determined that, in addition to just enjoying the atmosphere, I would also interact with people. Chat with them. Share common experiences. Things that I've always been a bit fearful of.

That happened in spades, and don't worry. I won't go on about that.

The first thing you'll notice at any SF convention, and probably any media-related convention anywhere (Star Trek, Gaming, etc), is the costumes. There were some great ones at this convention, very creative people with a lot of time and effort put into making their costumes as authentic as possible.

Hell, we even had the Ghostbusters in town!

Who you gonna call?

You can tell they were the real ones, too.

We're ready to believe you.

The doors opened at Noon on Friday, but the Opening Ceremonies weren't until 5:00 pm and there was nothing scheduled until then. I didn't realize that until Thursday, and had already asked for the entire day off. I headed to Richmond (it was being held at the Sheraton Hotel in Richmond, a great-looking venue where the staff is very helpful) and got there in time for the Noon check-in. I then had an entire afternoon to kill, so I headed to the Game Room. Some of the players had already started, and they're very welcoming of spectators.

I also went to the vendor room, which had already opened. Another mainstay of any convention is that there are a lot of vendors there, selling their wares. I stumbled upon a guy who was selling a bunch of steampunk-inspired crafts, as well as laser-etched woodwork.

Due to trademark, these can't be called "Yo-Yos," but that's what they are

The vendor was a guy named Professor Whovianart (a guy after my own heart, being a Dr. Who fan and all), and it was the first of many interesting costumes that I saw there.

Nice hair!!!

Then, the inevitable happened. It's impossible to keep evil down for good. Yes, the bad guys showed up.

Where are those Death Star plans?

It was amazing how many Star Wars characters there were there, and I don't know if they were all part of the 501st Legion (a Star Wars costuming group with a rather large membership. Check out the web site for some really cool photos), though I think they all were. The armor is quite elaborate, and the Jedi robes of some of the other ones look very cool too.

One way I occupied my time on Friday afternoon was being interviewed! There were signs posted all over the place about a documentary shooting footage at the convention, and by attending the convention, you were giving permission to be filmed as the camera went around the hotel. They were also doing interviews, and we could contact them if we wanted to be. After a bit of deliberation, and thinking about how I was trying to break out of my shell, I emailed Mary Higgins, who was doing the documentary. I found Mary and her husband Paul in the vendor room, and we had a long chat about web video series and whether I watched them or not (that's what the documentary is about). We then ended up doing the interview right then in there.

I did feel sorry for their cameraman, though.

I don't envy you at all, Sir.

That looked like a heavy rig he was carrying, but he held up throughout the three days!

The documentary will be out next year, on the web. Mary said she would tell me when it was up, and maybe I'll post a link here (after I determine whether I want you to see it or not).

Another cool thing about conventions are the panels of authors and experts on a variety of topics. Not all of them are writers, but many of them are, and they share their writing insights and advice with eager fans. When I came to V-Con four years ago, I went to a large number of panels, because I thought that's what you did at conventions: attend panels. Plus, I wasn't really that sociable of a person back then. This year, I didn't go to as many, but there were still a lot of really cool ones.

One of the ones I went to on Friday night was called "First Page Idol," where people would bring the first page of their work and the panel would read it and give suggestions on it. Sadly, since the schedule was posted so late (I didn't choose my panels until Friday morning), only one person had a page ready. Thus, it became "First Line" Idol, after a discussion among the panelists on what editors are looking for at the beginning of works submitted to them. We then had to come up with a first line and be brave enough to say it out loud and get a reaction from the panel.

The First Page Idol panel, (l-r: Marcie Tentchoff, Phoebe Kitanidis, Brian Hades, Ian Alexander Martin, Stephanie Johanson)

Since I was challenging myself to speak up at this convention, I came up with one that I thought might be pretty good. "Sometimes being a god made for a long day, especially on Thursdays." This garnered a "I'd keep reading!" response from Marcie, which made my night. Now I have to come up with a story to use that line. Challenge!

The excellent box art to this 1988 game

Saturday had a couple more panels, including a very valuable one on critique groups and whether they are helpful. I also spent a lot of time in the Gaming Room, including finishing up a game of Merchant of Venus for somebody who had to go to a panel. And I won! This took me past a panel I had planned to attend, but I was having fun, and I was also getting to know a couple of really cool guys, long-time gamers who welcomed me as a new player and were very talkative. I had met them the night before, chatting with them for about 30 minutes before it was time to head home. It was nice to have made a bit of a connection.

These guys were quite interesting, and I was talking more to one of them on Sunday, and I'm now going to be invited to their next gaming session. That's going to be really cool, I think, and it's opened some other doors for me as well. There are Gaming groups all over Vancouver that I might try out, a lot of them having been represented at V-Con.

The main event of Saturday, though, was the Masquerade, a contest where a bunch of the people who had made costumes entered to win prizes. I couldn't take any pictures there, because my iPhone wouldn't do them justice from that distance. However, I did get a couple of pictures of contestants before the show.

I had met her on Friday and while I knew she looked familiar, didn't realize who she was until after I took this picture.

And then there was this lovely couple.

They spent most of Saturday in the Gaming Room, until the Masquerade

After the Masquerade, there was a Dance/Party where I had a great time. While I didn't dance at all, I did chat with a few people (including a very long chat with one of the authors, something I would never have done four years ago), as well as admiring the courage of those who were dancing.

Actually, it got a bit surreal.

I'm just burning, doing the Death Star dance

It was a great time, though. The music was awesome (how can you not love a song called "Eat Your Brains" by Jonathan Caulton?)


(A must-listen song, you will laugh)

There were some great panels on Sunday, though I was very disappointed at the cancellation of the Podcasting panel. That's the one I was greatly looking forward to. Still, there were panels on creating your own world for your fiction, the immortal "Are Video Games Art?" question, and creating good fight scenes for your story.

However, the highlight of the day was the Turkey Readings. Basically, the four panelists take a passage from some of the worst SF books of yesteryear. They request volunteers to come up and act out the scene as it's being read. When the pain gets too much, audience members can bid to stop the reading. However, you can also bid higher to have it continue. The bidding escalates until finally people relent and let the reading come to a merciful conclusion. All money goes to charity.

Red Sonja and some kind of manifestation

We all about died laughing, as many of the passages were horribly bad. Not just the writing, though. The people who got up there and acted had a lot of guts, and were wonderfully silly about the whole thing.

I can't end this recap without talking about the Hospitality Suite. It's all run by convention volunteers, and there were two rooms: a room with pop and snacks, and a room with alcohol. You couldn't leave the room with your food and drink, but why would you want to? Some of my best conversations of the weekend came sitting in the alcohol room, chatting with other convention attendees. I got to know a couple of them, and had a great time talking with them. I would often go up there when there was nothing else really going on, and there was always somebody up there. It's run by donations, so while you don't *have* to pay anything, it's good if you do. I did my fair share.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures up there. I should have. Friday night, there were a lot of incredibly drunk people up there, but not in a bad way. The laughter was infectious, and there was no belligerence. It was just people having a lot of fun.

That's what this convention was about. Fun. Meeting new people. Exploring your shared love of all things SF. That's the common bond we all had. Young and old, There were kids there, and there were people in their 70s (not counting Niven himself, who was writing back in the 60s and still is going strong today). People from all walks of life.

All sharing a singular passion, and sharing it with each other.

Ok, maybe not sharing it with the Marshmallow Man)

Many thanks to the committee members and all the volunteers who made it such a great time.

If you want to explore what it was this year, to give you an idea, here's this year's web site. We'd love to have you come to Vancouver for next year's convention and see the sights as well as have a lot of fun.

And look me up! Because I'm definitely going back.

Is there a doctor in the house? - A PhD journey sparks thought

I want to heartily congratulate Natasha Boskic, a co-worker of mine, for successfully defending her PhD dissertation last night. She did a fabulous job, and I had the honour to be there. Six of us from the office went over to offer our support and be in the audience (it's open to the public, though typically it's just people the person knows). She did a fabulous job, and we're all very proud just to be associated with such success.

(Incidentally, I interviewed Natasha for the last episode of the podcast about her dissertation, which involved ethical and literacy issues in alternate reality gaming. She was a great interview and it was a very interesting topic).

She started out by saying that doing a PhD is a personal journey, and those words stuck with me throughout the rest of her presentation. I don't have a PhD (hell, I don't even have a Master's degree), so I don't have any frame of reference. But I can only imagine what kind of journey that entails. Four years of your life (I don't know what the average is, but I'm sure that's close) dedicated to researching a question, an area that you feel passionate about. I'm sure you discover a lot about yourself in that journey.

It made me stop and think about my life, though. I did apply to the Master's program in History here at UBC back in 2000. I didn't get in, mainly due to grades I think. It turned out to be a good thing, in a way, because I discovered after the fact that our staff tuition waiver doesn't cover graduate school. Yes, if it was something I was passionate about, we would have made it work. But while I wanted to do it, that passion wasn't really there to justify the cost. Who knows? That passion not being there might have made it so I would have been unsuccessful anyway.

We've had four doctorates come out of our office (3 PhDs and a Doctor of Education degree), and as we were walking over to the defense yesterday, we were talking about that. My boss asked me when I was going to get my PhD. I joked that I didn't even have my Master's.

That started the line of thought that continued when Natasha started speaking. I don't have any real desire to go down that academic path. While I do have a passion for learning, the passion for learning in an academic setting isn't really there, even ten years later.

It did, however, make me think about the huge variety of personal journeys that we all take. We all go down separate paths. While our friends and family can love and support us down those paths, they can't really join us on them. Sometimes we are joined by others who are moving the same way along those same paths, and perhaps friendships can form out of those. The journey is ultimately a personal one, though.

None of them are "better" than another. It just depends on what you need at that time. The gaining of knowledge, whether it's research knowledge or just knowledge about yourself, is always a valuable endeavour, whether it's through a formal process like a PhD or just improving yourself in everyday living.

All of this reinforced some things that I've been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, about the need to be more social. In retrospect, a few of my posts during that time period have ultimately stemmed from this, I think. I see a bit of stagnation setting in that I need to do something about.

I'm going to V-Con, a science fiction convention here in Vancouver (if you're going to be there, look me up!). I plan on not being a wallflower at this convention, or at least not as much of one as I was last time I went. Small steps!

I'm also taking a short fiction class next Spring. I don't know if anything will result from that writing-wise, but I'm also taking it for the social aspect, to talk to classmates and all of that. I do hope to get at least one short story out of it too, of course.

Finally, my boss has had individual meetings with everybody in the office, and one of the things we talked about was professional development, as well as personal development that may only be related to work tangentially. After that meeting, some ideas have been sitting in the back of my mind. After seeing Natasha yesterday, and the final result of her personal journey, these thoughts have crystallized a bit more. Maybe a public speaking course of some kind (that's one of the ideas that my wife suggested too, but it went in with all the other ideas, percolating in my mind without actually coalescing into anything immediately).

I don't know exactly what I'll decide to do, other than what's already in motion. Thankfully, the issue with my friend that sparked some of the recent posts (you can probably guess which ones they are) has been resolved. It did initiate a lot of these thoughts and realizations, though. So maybe it's for the best that it happened. It taught me a lot about myself, and the parts of my life that have been missing, even if I hadn't actually noticed that they weren't there.

My personal journey most likely does not fall along the academic path like Natasha's did (though I do hold out that option for the future).

But I think it's time that I finally start it, whichever path it leads down.

A Companionable Silence

We've all heard of the concept of "companionable silence," when two people are sitting together, not talking, just enjoying the atmosphere around them. It's a concept that I'm not comfortable with, however. I don't know why that is. I've rarely been able to just sit there and feel that companionship with a person without the sounds of our voices.

(Thanks to Travel Adventure)

Some people love silence. They love just sitting with somebody and enjoying the act of being with them. No words are needed. It's not that they *won't* talk; it's just that there's no requirement for it. They are perfectly comfortable with the other person, no matter what is said or not said.

I wish I could be that way.

I understand the concept intellectually, of course. It's not like somebody's saying something in a foreign language if they mention it to me. I get it.

I just don't feel it.

It's a bit different with the wife, of course. We spend a lot of time together, and of course it's not filled with constant talking, though I do sometimes feel there is more than may be necessary on my part. We do enjoy our quiet time, though I usually have some noise going on, whether it's the TV or my games or whatever. I've never been a big fan of silence even when I'm by myself.

I'm more talking about time with friends, when you're having lunch or going for a walk or whatever. Something of limited duration, when you will be going back to work or to your own lives in a relatively short period of time. In those times, I find prolonged silence intensely uncomfortable. It almost feels oppressive sometimes.

Again, I KNOW that none of this is true. But it just feels like if there's silence, that's because there's nothing left to say. That the other person doesn't want to talk to you for whatever reason. Never mind the fact that, if they didn't want to be with you, they wouldn't have agreed in the first place to lunch or a walk or whatever.

When I'm sitting with somebody at lunch, and there's a silent lull, part of me (that insecure, neurotic part, I guess) is just waiting for them to say "well, I have to get back to work" or whatever, as a cover for them just wanting to get out of there. Like, "if you're not going to talk, then I've got better things to do with my time than sit here."

The thing is, I probably would enjoy just having their company. Ok, 30 whole minutes without a word spoken would be bad, but you get the idea. But often I just enjoy being with them, and I do like the feeling of companionship.

It's just that niggling fear underneath it all that they don't feel the same way that bothers me. Even though they've never given me any reason to think they feel differently.

I think there's an underlying reason for all of this, a comfortableness with the self that just isn't always there. We've all heard the phrase "comfortable in your own skin." I think that's a big part of it.

So if you consider me a friend and have noticed this, or we're online friends and we ever meet for the first time, I hope this explains a few things. I do try to make sure that what I say is at least interesting or relevant or something like that. I try not to be totally stupid about it. ("gee, it's really raining hard out there!") If you do notice it and it gets irritating, I'd prefer being told about it rather than you internally saying "this is the last time I'll meet up with him!"

Silence can be a good thing, especially when the alternative is inane chatter created just to fill that void of emptiness.

I just wish I could enjoy it like others seem to.

Boneless Update

It's been two months since we brought our new cat home, and she's settling in quite nicely. She's filling out very well too, considering her experiences before we adopted her.

She's eating well, she's giving us just as much love and affection as we're giving her, and I think she's getting used to us. She's still a bit jumpy when a sudden sound outside happens, but she's even calming down as far as that's concerned.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a brief post with a couple of pictures taken a few days ago. Show you how much she's grown in just this little while.

I caught her napping at the top of her cat post. (click both images to see them larger)

And after that, she decided to pose for me.

Enjoy!

9/11 - Ten Years Later

Today is the 10th anniversary of one of the most horrific attacks on America in the country's history. It's this generation's "Pearl Harbor" moment not because it instigated a war (they were at war with us long before 9/11; we just never acted like it) but because it will forever be known as a day where people are asked "where were you when the planes hit the towers?"

I posted my remembrances on Epinions on the 1st anniversary of the attacks, and re-posted them here in 2009, so I won't go over that territory again. The feelings in that post were almost raw, even a year removed. I still have vivid memories of that day: the sorrow of everybody in the office, the hugs that I received, the kindness of my Director's friend who kind of knew me (but not *that* well) rushing in to hug me when it became obvious I was about to lose it.

Those are the good memories we have of the attacks: the bringing together of a country in mourning, and even a world (with some notable exceptions, of course). The unity of purpose that came about, even if it was just for a little while before it all fell apart again.

The aftershocks from that day are still being felt all over the world, but it sometimes seems that people are in denial about what really happened. I'm not speaking of the whole Truther movement, though. I'm talking about those who would like to tuck it away as a national tragedy, a day to remember, but not for the right reasons. They still show images of the buildings, of course.

(Click all photos to enlarge)

But they don't show the human cost, pictures that actually pound home that people died in this attack.

It's like there is this collective denial because they don't like where thinking about it leads.

Before I go on, I have to say that I've been avoiding all of the remembrance shows on television this last week, because I think they're almost laying it on too thick sometimes, getting more and more maudlin all the time. Thus, it is possible that they are showing some of these pictures in them. If so, it's taken them 10 years, so my point still stands, and I would guess that after the 10th anniversary is over, they'll go back in the vault.

One thing that should always be remembered about this day, however, is the courage of so many people involved. The heroic passengers of Flight 93 who prevented an even worse result at the cost of their own lives. Nobody knows where that flight was headed if the passengers hadn't taken it back. The White House? The Capitol?

Also, there are personal heroic stories, of civilians who put their own lives on the line to help others even as they were trying to get away from the carnage.

And, of course, we must acknowledge the heroics of the first responders, those fire fighters, police officers, and other official personnel, who were running toward the Twin Towers even as others were running away. Many would say they were just doing their jobs.

(Many thanks to the New York Injured Workers Alliance)

Many of them died that day, part of the almost 3000 people who lost their lives. It's their heroism that should also be marked on this day. It's almost offensive that they aren't being included in the 10th anniversary commemorations.

That 9/11 attacks brought home to a nation, and to the world, that we've been at war for a long time, even if we haven't acknowledged it. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya, the attack on the USS Cole. Osama Bin Laden himself declared war on the US in 1996.

Yet nobody seemed to notice. It took the destruction of two skyscrapers in New York to bring that fact home to many Americans. And too many of them seem to have gone back to sleep.

While one should not paint too broad of a brush, tarring innocent people with suspicion and prejudice, one should also not deny the ideology behind the attacks. Too many people seem to gravitate to one extreme or the other. "All Moslems are terrorists" is a shameful viewpoint, but so is "No Moslems are terrorists." While I don't think anybody has said the latter, the determination to bend over backwards to avoid calling something terrorism (like the Fort Hood shooting by Major Nidal Hassan in 2009) is getting perilously close to that mindset.

There should be no rush to judgement when an attack happens. But there should also not be an avoidance of the evidence just to avoid hurting sensitive feelings.

The attacks of 9/11 opened many eyes to what's been going on.

Unfortunately, too many eyes have closed back up.

(Thanks to Technorati)

Never forget.