Stuff I’ve Read, Watched, Done #18 – December 30, 2020

A lot has happened since last time and The Importance of Being Earnest, but that’s not surprising since we had a little thing called Christmas during that time. 

Weekly Geeky Question #49: Disappointing Story Payoffs

Well, it’s Weekly Geeky Question time, and we’re up to Week #49–with the end of 2018 approaching more rapidly than any of us are prepared to deal with.   My Friend Rod is back with another question, and this time it’s about one of my favorite things, which is story structure.  What Rod wants to know is,,,

What are some of the most disappointing story payoff’s that I have ever seen?

49th Year Bucket List

So, point of clarification:  I’m 48 years old currently, having just celebrated my birthday yesterday.  I’m not 49, but that this year is actually my 49th year of living.  When I celebrate my 49th birthday, that means I’m completing my 49th year, not starting it.

And I know, it’s not really a “bucket list” if the deadline isn’t the end of your life…when you “kick the bucket”.  Indeed, maybe it’d be better to call this a “49th Year To-Do List”.  But that’s catchy sounding, don’t you think?

So this is a list of things I’m hoping to have achieved by the time that me being able to say “I’m 48 years old” is cold and buried in the ground.  What do I want to have achieved / completed / accomplished by then?  That’s what we’re looking at here.

47 Great Things About this Past Year

Today is my birthday!  And more than that, it’s my 47th birthday.  What does that mean?  Well, it means I’m getting on a bit, I guess.  And it means it’s only three years to 50.  It means I’m closer to 80 than I am to when I was born.  Goodness.

But as regular readers know, 47 is my favorite number.  Even if I don’t think it’s really all that important, I’ve decided to celebrate it a bit, and one of the small ways is to write this post.  Looking at the last year–June 7, 2016 until today–what have been some of the great things?  Some of the things I’ve really enjoyed or appreciated or been grateful for?

I Used That in a Story One Day!

A while ago, I had a minor but amusing incident on a road near my house.  I detailed this event in a previous post, part of my series entitled I’m Gonna Use That in a Story Someday… (seems like I haven’t written one of those in a while).

But just in the interest of being a completist, I wanted to mention here that I eventually did in fact use that idea in a story!

The story is called The Incident at Edmuss Rise, and it’s an interactive murder mystery party game. 

Death Behind the Camera (A Brief Glimpse)

Five years ago, a movie came out that changed the face of popular culture:  Astronomical Picture’s  Trilogy, written, directed, and starring the now infamous Dean Bean.  That an unknown like Bean could receive the freedom to bring his vision to life is something of a Hollywood Cinderella story, and in this case the Fairy Godmother was producer Christina King, who spotted Bean’s potential and managed to raise the money needed to pay for the ground-breaking film.

And so begins an example of one of the forms of storytelling that I really enjoy that I haven’t had a chance to highlight on this sight at all:  interactive mystery games