I have never felt this sick in my life
On the plus side, a laser destroyed a stone deep inside of me so it was kind of like playing asteroids while asleep
I have a shelf full of opioids covered with warnings that I’m too scared to use and now I see why there is an opioid crisis
Another plus side, Canada‘s bill 37, Or as we like to call it rape the land bill, puts the Canadian government in the running for the big bads of Nuna
Back to sleep
Oh wait my son just stogged the toilet back to work
Not like I am one to give advice, as I have made my share of mistakes in life.
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| And my biggest success - sonny boy! |
But I am REALLY happy with where I am now.
A businessman friend asked me how I maintain focus.
I replied that I don't think focus exists. It is like motivation, an excuse made up NOT to do the thing instead of just sitting down and doing it.
So in case anyone is wondering how I achieve anything (mastering French & Japanese, blackbelt in karate, professor in Japan, BRP design winner, now art resident) here is my unasked for advice.
I lived in Japan 22 years, but also traveled around the world. I remember meeting an old school chum who had read my travel articles about Hawaii, Japan, and Mongolia. He said he'd love to travel to all the places I've been to one day.
I felt sad, looking at him. I was mid 30's at the time, still fit from karate, looking 10 years younger. My friend was the same age but had white hair and a beer belly from his job, 2 kids, 2 cars, a nice house, and a not so nice mortgage. We lost touch after that, and I hope he got some traveling done. But I remembered how hard it was climbing the Great Wall, learning SCUBA in the Red Sea, falling off horses in Mongolia, fending off scammers alone in Rome when young, and I can say that he was not in shape for it physically or family wise. Although family is important, you have to do things for yourself when you can, because the time you can't comes for all of us.
The above three Chinese characters are often seen in ateliers or dojos in Japan. They mean LEARN (習 SHU) UNDERSTAND (理 RI) and BREAK (破 HA), and I have seen alternate formations of this message. What it means is, to master an art, you first study it until you understand it thoroughly. Once you have done this, you must break the rules and find your own style.
I have studied and played many games, and used that to make Stormbringer Redux. Now, I am breaking out with NUNA, which is very different from other trad RPG games, and prioritizes community and culture over violence and riches. Giri-Ninjou, my RPG of duty and humanity in Edo Japan, will be even more ground-breaking.
Whatever thing you want to learn or make, be ready to suck at it, but just get it done. When I worked in a (disastrous and scammy) start up, they called it the MVP - Minimum Viable Product. NUNA Quickstart was my MVP.
Basically, companies make a product that works (or seems to) at minimum functionality, then go sell it to investors. Too many people I know doing painting or making games are waiting until they have a PERFECT product.
One, this is an impossibly high standard to set for yourself, and usually leads to burnout and abandonment of a creation. Second, while you are waiting on perfect (or avoiding finishing), 12 other people have put out 'good enough' products and are satisfied with that.
Which brings us to my next point...
Imposter syndrome is a HUGE impediment to any artistic pursuit. This is bad in writing especially, where people write books, put them up on KDP or other sites, then call themselves failures and not real writers because no one bought them or they never got a book deal.
Which is total self-defeating BS. If you write or paint or make an RPG, you are a writer, a painter, or an RPG designer.
The only difference is knowing the business, which is the flip side of any creative endeavour. Shakespeare never made up his stories, but instead copied plotlines from classical and contemporary sources. But he was a great promoter, always getting a noble patron to foot the bill for a production, and keeping his folios in print. That is why so much of his work survived, while others around him have disappeared.
Last, you need to have stamina and a way to relax to succeed at anything. When the Daruma Buddha started teaching in China, his pupils became sick from sitting around meditating or reading too much. Buddha started them on an intense regimen of daily exercise and making healthy temple meals. These practices became the seeds of Shaolin Kungfu.
Just like Daruma, you need balance in your life, to strengthen mind and body for the challenges you set yourself, and the events that you have no control over. I used to do karate, but have switched to calisthenics, aikido, and taichi fan as my body (especially knees) loses some capability. I also learned Japanese hospital cooking to take care of sick inlaws when I lived there, so making healthy and inexpensive meals keeps me in shape to work on my creations and raise my son.
And that's what it is all about isn't it?
I will be starting an artist's residency at a university here in Vancouver next month. Focus is indigenous roleplaying and art.
No more teaching juggling work & family then squeezing in time for games. Producing the full version of NUNA and art for it will be my focus for 6 months. As well as building community and learning the trade.
I am so happy.
Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Exciting things are coming.
In the meanwhile, here is a great video on writing and producing an RPG.
Video is HERE.
I am back from a much needed vacation in the desert of Osoyoos, as well as a stop in Hope, the town where First Blood was filmed. We dodged forest fires, but had a great time hiking the Nk'Mip Culture Center's desert hiking trail. We saw a coyote and lots of birds.
Just what I needed to refresh myself. I have lots of family and work stuff to face eventually, but I also need to keep advancing my game and art projects to keep healthy.
Before diving back into projects, here is the list of things to do for the latter half of the year.
I am in talks with 2 academic publishers about turning my research and teaching into books. I haven't been an academic for 3 years, so this all feels like an older version of myself. But I have finished doing academic 'freebie' articles, and having published a textbook, I know how a book can be revenue for years to come. So I will be chipping away at these, one on debt in Japan, the other on the neoliberal inflitration of US news media.
I also have a book in my head about how I got sonny and myself out of Japan. Less academic but a story worth telling.
The next project is Giri-Ninjou, my RPG of the soul of Japan. It is a step away from D100 and trad games into a more narrative play the focuses on cultural constraints and difficult choices.
After that, I'll be churning out the NUNA Corebook.
I also have an idea for a system free bestiary for Moorcockean fantasy that I call The Melancholic Menagerie.
I might be running some indigenous games, and trying to figure out how to get a regular Stormbringer game started in anticipation for the Free League version started.
Just learned there might be an academic event about indigenous / decolonial gaming. Finger's crossed.
Wish me luck!
OK, Nuna text is finished. Just need to add a half dozen sketches at important points, redesign the covers, and it is off to the printer. I'll also have to get the gameshop launch party planned, as well as online sales set up.
But feels great to have come this far.
My whole life I have been called a Dreamer, but that is how I have made so many of my dreams come true.
I wanted to live in Japan. Spent 22 years there.
I wanted to be a professor. I got tenure in Japan, but quit to care for sonny.
I wanted to be a martial artist. I got blackbelt in karate, then won 2nd place in my city in Japan.
I wanted to learn Japanese. I taught myself to the JLPT level 1, the highest you can get.
I wanted to get my son out of Japan. Now we enjoy life in Vancouver.
I wanted to be a game designer. Now here I am.
In my life, people have mostly been supportive of my dreams. But there are always negative voices, and our inner voice often sides with them against our own dreams.
So I say to you, Dream big!
Don't listen to the naysayers.
Keep at it with incremental action.
And whatever dream you have, you can make it reality.
Nekmek!
Hi all,
I am sick as a dog when I should be working and prepping NUNA.
I decided to go back and reorganize Stormbringer Redux. Added all posts to #30.
Enjoy.
It is not the kids, who are wonderful young people finding their way and much more savvy than I was their age.
It is not the colleagues, who are brilliant and dedicated and who fall into the normal workplace split of 10% who love me, 80% who don't care, and 10% who resent me for being a freewheeling fun teacher.
It is not the office, who are just people doing a job I'd never want to do and who increasingly have to butt heads with teachers as the govt and parents put more pressure on them and we push back aided by our union.
It
Is
Spending
All
Day
Marking
Seeing you on the other side, when the push towards the NUNA QuickStart launch and regular posting begins!
I'm currently in crunch time at the end of the schoolyear.
I'll probably stop posting here a week or two.
I hope to get NUNA quickstart done by month's end.
Do a few weeks of publicity then let it out into the world & RELAX before starting my next project.
So I just went to BEAUTIFUL Victoria BC for a workshop on Indigenous Education for my school.
Not only did I learn lots of useful things for my classes, it made me reflect on how this plays out in NUNA
In NUNA, all of the peoples (Inuit, Viking, and Rigger) all survive by going back to their roots. The Northern Inuit have re-mastered the pre-colombian skills of hunting with handmade weapons (I will NOT say primitive as they are very sophisticated), the Southern Inuit use reliable early 20th century devices, and the Riggers all cling to the different cultures their ancestors brought with them working on the rigs, from Maori Whalers to Portuguese swordsmen.
I learned that Canada in general, and BC in particular, is reconnecting and recognizing the people rooted in this land, and are trying to survive as a pluralistic nation by doing so.
Even the Scientists of NUNA are reconnecting back to the lost roots of humanity. Although the Inuit often say they have always been on the land, the genetic Thule strain of modern Inuit, according to recent research, spread from Far Eastern Russia only a 1000 years ago, and was proceeded by the now extinct Dorset Inuit, and possibly the mythical Tuniit giants before them. So it is true to say that Inuit peoples have lived in the North from time immemorial, without bogging down in genetics. I pay homage to the Tuniit by having them as returning mystic giants in NUNA, hiding in caves where they hang upside down and give aid or prophecy for those brave and foolish enough to seek them out.
As for me, the workshop was a chance for me to learn more about the First People's English course I am teaching, as well as enjoy so long needed R&R with sonny. Now I am back to the fatherhood + work + NUNA grind, but with summer vacation, the end of the tunnel is finally in sight.
Hello,
Currently crushed under the task of marking, especially comments.
If you're a teacher, you know.
Quietly working on games and career.
This song is pulling me through. I hadn't heard it and suddenly realizing Gord Downey was singing the middle part was like suddenly meeting a ghost at a bar.
Enjoy.
Hello friends!
It has been a minute since I posted. I was trapped under the day job and killing off the few final academic writing obligations.
(My book chapter on AI and social discourse is HERE and article on Japan's MeToo movement coming any day)
On top of that had a nasty cold and so have taken some time for myself.
Now, I feel revitalized by the pause and am slowly ramping back up to work on a few things.
1. NUNA is at the playtesters and I am giving them the time they need. Participating in the Swords of the Serpentine playtest years back taught me you need to give it time and have people give good feedback on the game warts and all.
2. Japan Studies Book proposal. Probably the last academic thing I'll do unless a uni hires me, but some heavy hitters in the field are cheering me on and the idea is solid. Also, a rare paid academic work so going to give it a shot.
3. Giri-Ninjo, my rules light Japanese RPG. Yes there will be swordfights and seductions, but the game is based around the internal conflicts of characters' humanity and duties. Hope to get a MVP done and start playtesting with some former students from a Japanese uni where I taught Media Studies who also live here in Raincouver.
4. In talks to run some games at Rain City again, the list includes Coyote & Crow, Coyboy Bebop, and Stormbringer. If you are in Vancouver and want to play with me, this is your chance.
But now it is time to clean my space then take sonny out for a walk on this lovely day.
I am currently enjoying the incredible warm weather and sunshine here in Vancouver. First snowless year in 47 years, with the rest of the country snowed under.
(I wanted to put a movie poster here but Blogger is having issues today)
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| Meh, this is all I could upload. Tilt your head right to see correctly. |
While I recuperate from balancing work and writing the Nuna QuickStart, I am reading The Great Buddha Pass - a huge work of fiction from the prewar period about a wandering, evil samurai. Post Nuna, my next project is Giri-Ninjou, my rules light TRPG about Duty & Humanity among the samurai.
You can read The Great Buddha Pass HERE, and several movies have been made based on the property over the years.
I have been enjoying my deep dive int Coyote & Crow, but NUNA is heating up on my backburner.
Some things I have in mind:
Culture as superpower
Place as the source of that power
Do I really need to do Kickstarter?
Work is starting to settle into a routine so I will be speeding up RPG work.
T
Hello!
Let's see...
In January we got turfed out and were living in Air BNBs. Sonny was melting down and I was freaking out.
In February, I got us an apartment in a nice corner of Vancouver. I also got a job as literature teacher at a top French school. Also got sonny ADHD meds and back to school after a year dropped out.
We dodged a bullet and are enjoying life again.
Just enjoying a paid spring vacation and time with my boy.
Hope to get back to writing and gaming soon.
Thanks for reading and sending positive vibes.
Long time no see!
It has been a busy new year.
The good - I published my novel on Kindle. Paperback & hardcover to follow. If you're into Japanese ghosts, WWII enemies, Shinto exorcists, and all kinds of Tokyo weirdness, give it a read.
The bad - we left Newfoundland and moved to Vancouver on the prompting of a former colleague, but it has been hard getting a job. The teacher credential office won't accept my outer provincial license, so I have had to sic the union on them. I have an interview with an online medical interpretation outfit tomorrow, low pay but any port in a storm and I get to stay home with sonny, whose autism is skyrocketing from the stress. I interviewed at 2 unis but one already denied me. Finger's crossed for the last place
The Ugly - The people who invited us out here to stay and work on a start up kicked us out of the house January 2nd because sonny was sick at night and made noise because his ears hurt. We've been floating around in Air BNBs for 2 weeks now, trying to save money (impossible) while job hunting. At least we have a car.
I have never been this close to homelessness. Especially not with a child.
I've started a Go Fund Me, so if you can help out please do. Link is HERE.
And how has your 2025 gone?
Taking a break here boss!
Not going to waste these gorgeous waning days of summer.
Get out there and enjoy!
