Clearing the Cobwebs

We're reaching fall, a time for change, and we realized how much junk we have. It's time to clear out some of the dead leaves... but we started with pages:

After ripping through all our book shelves we piled up the books to donate to the BPL. We brought them down to the library yesterday.

Slacker Summer

We've been a bit busy for the last 2 months. With JJMIV up at NY Stage & Film again and me producing the upcoming web series Skip Trace there's been little time for blogging & what-not.

To make up for it, here are some silly pictures from this weekend. We each got new cameras; Nikon COOLPIX, mine plum and JJMIV's black. While I was off taking pictures of parties JJMIV was helping Hanners build a computer and snapping pics of her new toy... I'll leave it to him to share them if he sees fit.

One of our close friends here in NYC is moving away - so in her honor, here's two silly pics of B:

We're gana miss her.

What's Past and What's Future?

An unfortunately reality of our move to NYC is that every time I sit down to blog my first inclination is to apologize for the long absences between posts. I'll do what I can to resist the urge.

I'm heading up to SmAlbany on the God Ole Amtrak this morning, and this is relevant for two reasons:

First, a dear, sweet member of our family passed away this week. A man who was a shining example one of my core beliefs in life: that family is not about biology but the people who love and care for you. My step-father Jak's dad Duke died on Tuesday; a month ago he was complaining of a sore throat which turned out to be advanced esophageal cancer. He was diagnosed March 25th, about 2.5 weeks ago. Just a strong reminder to love those around you while you can and let those who try to love you do so.

Duke will be sorely missed.

The second reason my travel state is relevant: Amtrak doesn't have wifi available... I'm using my phone as a router!

If you are of sufficiently questionable intelligence to follow me on Twitter than you know JJMIV & I got Droid phones about two weeks ago. Using the PDANet Free app I have USB tethered my phone to my laptop so I can use that connection as a router. It's going well, the connections only slightly slower than my home; though I will say the phone in my lap is running a bit hot.

There's been a lot of chatter lately about how awesome it is to live in the future. That all the cool gidgets from futuristic sci-fi are now in our hot-little-hands. Yes, JJMIV's got the Tricorder App and has been taking base scans of our apartment and comparing the magnetic fields to when he's riding the subway. I've been using it for more practical nerd-applications: such as using Hoccer to throw inappropriate pictures across the dinner table to my best friend (who, strangely, got a Droid the same day...).

But I have found annoying down sides to all this access; and they're nothing new to those who've had smartphones forever: I'm more impatient, annoyed when I don't get an instant response, and find myself unintentionally IMing before I've even gotten up to go pee in the morning. Those are all things I expected, and that I also believe will diminish as the 'newness' of my toy wears off.

What I didn't expect was how much relief I would feel when removed from that high level of connection. I had anticipated it so much that it never occurred to me that the hour I spend on the subway would be a respite from the green blinking light that tells me I have a notification. That the 5 days we spent off the grid on our vacation would force me to meditate and connect with and think about myself.

As awful and selfish as that sounds, we're becoming disconnected from self-connection. I think our level of connection via technology is making us completely reactive; and we're coming to expect that from those around us. To text, and reply, and IM, and confirm, and send, and send, and send. And so, slipping underground on the N train home in the evening, I feel the cord temporarily cut. Though I am surrounded by noise and annoyance, at least I'm living in a moment around me instead of reacting to a virtual moment.

This has been a week of reaction; to illness, to IMs, to texts and loss. To crying and drinking and trying to sooth a weary family as much as can be done. Ironically; having the connection via my phone has allowed me the opportunity to write this. To connect with myself for a moment, and through my writing with you. Maybe this 'Living in the Future' thing isn't so bad after all.

~DMcC

Purple is Dar's Fav Color

I'm clumsy.

I'm clumsy like a baby figuring out how to walk... except my bones aren't made of rubber. So when I was shooting a short film on Friday where my 'good cop' character chases a bad guy over a roof and I caught my ankle on a big bump, it didn't just fix itself.

And that's right, you guessed it: I kept shooting. For another 2 hours. And then refused to take a cab home because I'm more-than-kind-of a jerk!

We're still not 100% sure what's wrong; all we know is there are no fractures (thank you Mr. X Ray). It's likely a bad sprain or a few small ligament tares. I thought these pics were both disgusting and interesting - so be sure to enjoy both of those key features.

These first 2 are about three hours after the injury after having walked on it much longer than I should've. Friday afternoon, approx 4pm:




I went to the ER Saturday morning when I woke up and couldn't walk, hence the X-ray. This is Saturday night approx. 8pm. Swelling is way down, but that lovely purple is blossoming nicely.

The ER docs were kind enough to give me a sexy splint & some crutches, which are helping quite a bit. This is Sunday around 4. The bruising's getting pretty nasty, even after 2 days of doing nothing but laying around. Ugh.

News, News, News, and Sunshine

It's been quite awhile, and for that we're both sorry. But we have good reason, I promise.

March has been a month of exciting news, and I've been a bit of a tease about everything. Not because I wanted to toy with your collective emotions; but because I didn't want to announce something awesome and then have it turn out to be made of suck. I'm glad to say that has not been the case.

And now, Good News. In the order it occurred:

* I was offered (and accepted) the lead in a feature length film! I'll be playing a spicy/strong cop in an upcoming slasher flick produced by Yellow Ape Productions. We're keeping a pretty tight lid on most of the details, for good reason, but I'll share as I'm able to.

* I was offered, accepted, and began working with CUNY's School of Professional Studies in concert with the NYC Office of Emergency Management as the Content Manager for customization and development work on Sahana Disaster Management software. To say I'm excited would be a massive understatement. I just wrapped up my first week with them and the project is engaging, the people are awesome, and the work is enough of a challenge that I wont be bored. (And you know how I feel about being bored...)

Those are the big things. The response to Venture has been incredibly positive; so fans of the book will be happy to know I started working on book 2, mostly because my brain wouldn't let me write anything else creative. We're planning to take a much longer creative process this time around; partly because the book will be longer and partly because we had to rush so much last time.

We're getting a bite of spring this week in NYC and I'm going to be out on a rooftop filming all afternoon and enjoying it. I hope you are too.

-D McC

Thrown From The Nest

Venture has been launched from the safe harbor of my laptop out into the world; and along with it I have released the notion of control. There's no pulling it back now, even if I wanted to... and I don't.

I've been doing my best to let it percolate - to allow time to pass before diving into the next volume; both for the sake of my sanity and that of Jenne & Jennifer. It's been difficult. My mind wants to continue running down the paths of folly it's now being restricted from; longing for the dappled sunlight of imagination. I've tried satiating it with writing short stories. No dice.

One tactic I've been playing with is How to Host a Dungeon, a sweet game John got a few weeks ago. I'll admit, I was skeptical at first; after all, how fun could drawing the history of a dungeon be? Well, what a fool I am! After watching John play with our pal Ben a few weeks ago I made him play it with me on Saturday - and I've played twice more since. I might have the rules memorized by Friday...

Here are some sweet dungeon maps that came out of game...

Primordial Age - I rolled a scorched earth landscape and added some extra features to start with. The game was designed to be played on a standard piece of paper, but I took the liberty of enlarging it a big.

Age of Civilization - Playing two civs made it a lot more dynamic. The Dwarves and a demonic spawn moved in. The red areas show demonic worm tunnels that punched through a number of other caverns, including the dwarven, until they hit a 'FATE' cavern where the gods took vengeance on them. Finally, the dwarves dug too deep.
At the beginning of the Age of Monsters a meteor struck and molded the landscape a bit. A number of monsters moved in and dug around massing wealth. Long story short: some human miners got really powerful and took just about everyone else out.Good times.

I'm An Author

For a long time it was a secret wish: something I didn't tell others about because it felt like an unachievable dream. I seemed silly and unrealistic (which I realize is ironic coming from an actor and musician); I didn't think I was creative enough or smart enough and that I didn't have the chops to write a book. That no one would want to read it or it wouldn't make sense and I'd be setting myself up for a catastrophic failure.

Last April, after a recharging trip to sunny LA, I was feeling an excess of creative energy but a lack of time for collaboration, so a new friend from that trip and I started an experiment. We both loved the creative writing courses we took in college, but had spent little time writing post graduation. We devised a writing exchange based on our favorite writing exercise: to trade prompts about once a week and write a short story, poem, and once even a song, based on the prompt.

Out of these exchanges came some great stories and some realizations: I'm a better writer than I thought, I have a lot to write about, and I really love doing it. If it weren't for his help, I'd never have considered taking this on. (I doubt he'll read this or that he realizes I feel this way. On the off chance he does see it: Thanks)

And what is 'this'? Why, the release of my first novel, of course.

{In kitschy announcer voice}
Ladies and Gentleman, I'm pleased to announce the release of my first novel: Venture. Available for purchase tomorrow morning!

Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign I was able to pre-sell 40 copies with some great extras for the backers and feel the wonderful support of my family and friends while I was developing the book. I started writing on Oct 14, 2009 - here we are 4 months, 8 days, and 176 pages later. I feel really good about it and the responses I've gotten from the pre-orders have been really positive.

I've also been feeling the creative energy feed itself. From the development of the first book I've begun the planning stages for two more books in a series, at least two other series beyond this one, and I've started writing a series of short stories that I hope to release as podcasts later this year. These will all take place in the same world setting, Aeowal, and all be released under a Creative Commons license to encourage fan fiction, art, expansion, and collaboration (like ya do).

I hope you'll jump on the proverbial bandwagon tomorrow and visit my Lulu Store. I'm shooting for it to be available by 9am EST.

Dungeony Goodness

In case you haven't seen the awesomeness that is the Year of the Dungeon, you should. Go there DnD peeps; you will not regret it.

6 Months, Checking In

Just a quick note before running out the door today: it's been 6 months since we moved to NYC as of today. We're doing great, I love it here, and John's doing wonderful at his job.

Oh - and 6 months since I quit smoking (yup... that's right... I was a smoker). 3rd best decision of my life.

Off to catch a train...

BOOKS!

As we near the completion of the Kickstarter campaign to help fund the publishing of my first novel I'm getting really excited. I am not a patient person in any way, and it's been very hard not to get everything out before it's really ready to go.

One wonderful thing: the copies from Lulu arrived yesterday. I've been enjoying them, as is in evidence below. They're numbered and signed and patiently awaiting packaging and the goodies to be included with them for the backers.

I've missed you Internets

We have been visibly absent from the internets these last few weeks, living somewhere in the 'real world' (thankfully not this one).

Playing D&D a few times a week, auditioning, J beginning semester #2 as his alter-ego "Professor McCullough", and that minuscule undertaking that is the novel. Venture is almost ready for release - the proof copies are winding their way to Brooklyn as I type this, and after I reward the backers from the Kickstarter campaign I will launch my Lulu.com storefront!

There's also a dirty rumor that I'll be filming something for TV tomorrow... but I don't want to jinx it. Keep an eye on Twitter (if you're into that sort of thing) while I'm in the studio.

So, internet, we'll try to keep up if you do. For now, this is to keep you entertained:

Laundry Haiku

Here's a little haiku I wrote tonight after a mishap with the dryer:

I am a moron
Put new jeans in the dryer
First sin of laundry

Hope everyone's enjoying a good Saturday night. And that their clothes fit.

Sliding into 2010

I've been meaning to blog for awhile - it's been weeks since the last post and it's a habit that must be inforced or it will shrivel and die - but good excuses kept coming up. Christmas travel, New Years, nothing good to say, and then I didn't want to jump over John's last post. Then, this morning, Wil Wheaton wrote a great nostalgia post and it got me fired up to get back into the blog.

When I say the last month has been hectic I don't mean your annual Dec. 25th until the New Year Blitz. I mean all out social warfare - pegging one holiday party against the next for who will recieve our energy and time. Scheduling in naps to ensure that we can meet our militaristic-like celebration obligations.

I wont bore you with the itinerary - but I can tell you that we ended up in Hartford for the New Year to celebrate the nuptials of Ben and Jen Steinhurts; long time friends and a long time couple. I probably spent over 100 hours crafting Jen's wedding dress in 2009 and so was so happy and beautiful. I believe the final count was Dar: 5, Jen 7 (times we cried that day).



We ended 2009 with a champagne toast and entered 2010 watching fireworks peak over the industrial park on the eastern side of I-91; John holding me up I was so exhausted. We decided to stay an extra night in Hartford to get some more sleep and have the happy couple to ourselves.

But the fun doesn't stop just because it's January. On the 5th I celebrated the successful funding of my Kickstarter campaign and announced the name of my novel: Venture Book 1 in the Orla Series.

Yup. It's a series. Because I enjoy the feeling of overwhelming myself with the need to produce.

John's headed back to school to plan his 2nd semester as Professor McCullough (duh duh duh!).

I think later this week we'll take a look back at 2009 and gaze forward into the fog of the future... 2010! (I realize that everyone else did this last week... but we had some unexpected events that prevented it.)

We just saw blind.ness tonight (har har) and while I wouldn't say it was good, it was definitely well done. I heard of the show through a friend, and became interested mainly because the show claimed to integrate 'multi-media' elements with the performance. That's something we hope to do at CityTech, so I thought I'd check it out and see what other people in the field were doing with all of this new-fangled technology these days.

The show made use of effects ranging from a bank of video screens to processing and manipulating the voices of the actors to simple "object tied to string" tricks, and they were all well-executed. None of the effects seemed particularly interactive, though. Even though they were well-done, technologically the show was not much different from any other show using a modern sound system or video playback.

The theater itself was another matter entirely. I am a technical director by training, so when I go to see a play I notice things about the venue and the technology. When I walked into the theater, alarm bells started going off in my head.

First, the seating bank was assembled from modular components and the seats didn't all match - a dead giveaway that the structure warranted further inspection. The whole thing looked thrown together at the last minute. The stairs were too steep, wobbly, and narrow. The whole bank of seats would wiggle if a single person adjusted their position in their chair. Where we sat, there was a gap between the platforms and the wall with no railing. Scrap materials were dumped unceremoniously under the seats, and the seating bank was blocking the only visible fire extinguisher in the room. The room had only one accessible fire exit. The other fire exit was blocked by the scenery, but the exit sign was still visible. In the event of an emergency, a patron attempting to find their way out would certainly trip and fall trying to get to follow that exit sign. The one railing on the seating bank was unpainted and looked like a strong breeze would topple it.

Disgraceful.

There is room for reasonable people to disagree about the artistic merits of the piece, but such blatant disregard for the comfort, safety and general well-being of the audience should not be tolerated. The audience areas should be the FIRST priority of the producing organization, not the last.