Below are the most recent 14 friends' journal entries.

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013
rfrancis	1:00p	how I'd do it So I've been thinking about how I'd do an audio drama again, and let me start with some standard disclaimers: this isn't a reaction to how anyone else does it past or present, or a swipe at anyone, nor did I have anyone in mind when I started thinking about it -- other than Big Finish, who in fact inspired a fair amount of the thinking in a positive way, so good for them. So. Let us assume that I had a concept, and that it was for an indefinitely running audio program. Let us also assume that I do not have an established professional business -- so this at least starts as an amateur model. Here is what I would do, with the goal of producing a generally strong audio show, capitalizing on my strengths and papering over my weaknesses: I would appoint myself as producer and show runner, head writer, whatever you want to call it. The former means that I would provide resources; it doesn't mean that I'd lift a finger otherwise -- this will have plenty of jobs, although let's call them roles, and I might well fill some of them as well, but producer means I provide resources. Head writer means that I write some of the episodes, and that other people write some of the episodes, collaboratively or solo, except to the extent they are all collaborating with me, if you see what I mean. Show runner's a concept fandom's pretty solid on right now, I suppose, except how they appear to sometimes think it means "irreplaceable Messiah" which, well, getting off topic. Every episode would have a different director (or audio engineer, or whatever you choose to call it) than the previous. Due to how hard it is to find people willing to put the time into this that have any business doing so, it'd probably be a few people, rotating, but doesn't matter -- the point is that we want production to overlap to avoid cascade schedule failure, and also we avoid killing the directors (unless we strangle them for being difficult, but... separate topic.) Does this impact consistency? Perhaps, but hello, I'm the producer and I'm involved in the final edits. Side thought: It would be useful if the show was actually episodic enough that I could conceivably have some inventory episodes for when everything falls over. Got that one from the comics industry. Untold tales, whatever. It'd depend on the nature of the show. As I say, I'd farm out some scripts -- the larger plot would be mine (and I'd surely write some of the scripts) but I'd take pitches for "i want to write an episode about this" and then we'd work on the shopping list of what needs to be in it. When I was script proofing for Darker Projects' Doctor Who, I believe this is more or less what they were doing. (I think they only had the one director, though.) And yes, a script editor would be pretty important here. Even folks who have a good notion and write acceptable dialogue and such can get tied up in some of the peculiarities of audio -- you can't just see where someone is now, you need to say names more, etc etc. Actors would make an agreement when cast as to how long they had to get first recordings of lines recorded and turned in. It would not be long. Because we record in isolation, not only from the other actors (which some of the big boys like Big Finish do, by the way) but also from any production staff, it's best to just expect that the first batch of lines won't be the last. There will be retakes. Also, giving people too long to do it basically ensures they'll forget about it and will do it at the last second anyway, with few exceptions. Anyway. Relevantly, main cast would be kept reasonable. Scenes with more than 3 people in them would be rare. The last time I wrote for audio, the average number of characters in a given episode was 8, including the tiniest one-line bit parts. The main cast consisted of 4 people plus a couple of regularly recurring antagonists. So like that. Music would be very minimalist. And scored for the episode. No, I'm serious. The aforementioned director wouldn't have to deal with it. Anyway... that's how I'd do it. One show, lots of people involved (any or all of the above could well have assistants, but that's up to them to work out; we'd of course need to know for credit purposes), pursuing a high quality result with a regular release schedule. If it ever grew from there, it'd be shows with their own show runners and me as producer -- we'd both be involved in final edits with the director, but my part would just be to say "whoa, you can't do that" or "this doesn't sound good enough" or, hopefully most of the time, "sounds great, if the show runner's happy I'm happy." The aforementioned thinking out loud should not be construed as an intent to ever do any of it. The ideas are stolen with both hands from existing houses, TV, comics... pretty much any serial media I've had contact with and learned anything about how they're organized. And personal experience, such as it is, of course. There, now it's out of my head. I may edit this based on later thoughts or discussions, but then again, I may not. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
chrismwage	11:08a	mohawks Originally published at Chris Wage Photography. Please leave any comments there.
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
chrismwage	11:39a	vintage baseball Franklin Farriers vs. Nashville Maroons Bicentennial Mall, Nashville, TN. May 19, 2013. I went out to the bicentennial mall this weekend to catch some vintage (1860s) baseball. I didn’t have a ton of time, but I stayed long enough to grab some photos and learn at least one rule (catching the ball after one bounce is still an out). It was a blast! The next game is June 2 at the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, so head on out there if you want to see it. Originally published at Chris Wage Photography. Please leave any comments there.
Sunday, May 19th, 2013
rfrancis	2:52p	oh why not, I'll post it here, too mamamoira and I have been married 23 years as of today and you should be nice to us. (Yes, I briefly forgot how to link to other users here.) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 18th, 2013
sysd	2:12a	Larry Let me begin with a little rhetorical throat-clearing. I haven't written a long piece in a long time, and this is pretty long. There are many details and ideas that want to crowd up to the front and make themselves heard, and I'm afraid that what follows will be a bit unruly. But it's important to say what needs to be said, even imperfectly, than to remain perfectly quiet. So I ask you to have a little patience and bear with me. Everything about this story is true. Right now, it's a little after midnight and it's raining. Ten years ago, I met a man named Larry in the woods. When I met Larry in the woods, he was living in a hole in the ground, or rather a shallow depression, behind a small chemical plant in a light industrial district. He slept on a small platform made of loading pallets, covered with some blankets for softness and warmth, and topped with a tarp that he pulled over himself like another blanket. When it rained, he covered himself with the tarp and opened an umbrella over his head to stay dry. When I met Larry in the woods, it wasn't some blind coincidence - I was looking for homeless people that day, looking for potential clients for the Housers. A team of volunteers that I led were exploring along a railroad when we came across him. It was likely the only way anyone would have ever found him - Larry stayed away from folks, and had been outside and isolated for so long that public places freaked him out. He'd gotten accustomed to being alone, but he never stopped being lonely. When we talked to him and show him a little kindness, he burst into tears. It was like discovering a castaway on a desert island. Larry burst into tears several times in that initial interview; he was drunk. Larry was an alcoholic, and a schizophrenic, and had been homeless since the 80s, when Reagan shut down the mental hospitals. His campsite was near an imperfectly locked dumpster for a local wine wholesaler, where he could reach an arm in and pull out discarded bottles one by one. There were hundreds of empty wine bottles littering his campsite. Larry knew where all the local dumpsters were, and was able to keep himself fed and clothed - and drunk - off the castoffs of the community. Larry was very good at scavenging, but then again, Larry had had plenty of time to practice. Larry was a sweet guy and in many ways an ideal client. His story - a physically and mentally abusive stepfather, his early mental illness, the kind doctors who were able to keep him from suicide but unable, in their limited time with him, to help him keep his life together - was touching, as was his obvious isolation and loneliness. His location made it difficult for us to build him one of our standard ten foot high huts, so he became the first person to receive one of our four foot high 'Low Rider' shelters, designed for the Larrys of the world - folks who need a shelter, but also need to remain hidden. He was very grateful, and that was gratifying. We like it when our work is appreciated; who doesn't? Officially, all our clients are entitled to shelter regardless of how likable or unlikeable you are; one of our sayings is that "even assholes need a place to sleep." Unofficially, however, if we like you we'll try a harder to help you beyond just a shelter, and everybody liked Larry. A few volunteers took Larry under their wing, supplying him with little extras like phone cards and wind-up flashlights, purchased with their own money. My wife Tracy worked with Larry to get his ID and Social Security card back, starting with requests to the Navy for Larry's discharge papers and rebuilding his identity from there. There were setbacks, of course, and all of this took years. But a few years back, we were able to find a psychiatrist who would go out into the field and meet with Larry, instead of having Larry come to her office, and that was the real beginning of the end. It's taken about three years, but Larry is now in a subsidized apartment, listening to the rain on a roof instead of on a tarp. He's been sober now for nearly a year, and talks of getting a job. We're all terribly proud of Larry. He's our biggest success story, a person whose life has been profoundly bettered by that chance meeting ten years ago. But that's not the point of this story. Larry isn't the only client that the Housers have had. He's not even the only success story; we've had a good number of people eventually leave the huts and reenter society. But it took an extraordinary amount of effort on the part of a few people to get Larry out of the woods, and those folks did it - we did it - because we liked Larry personally. I'm not saying this in an attempt to belittle what these folks have done, they have every reason to be proud. It's just that, given the fact that we're an all volunteer group, every ounce of effort we spend comes from love. We have lives outside of the Housers - families, daytime jobs, friends and hobbies, and the time we spend on helping the homeless is, like the homeless themselves, only marginal to our lives. There's only so much effort we can spend. There's only so much love. And it doesn't cover everyone who needs it. Like Larry. And now I'm not talking about the first Larry, the crazy man living in the woods next to the railroad tracks in a bad part of town. No, in one of those weird coincidences that crop up in everyone's life, this is a second man I know, also named Larry, who is crazy, in the woods, next to the railroad tracks, in a bad section of town. This Larry lives closer to us than the other Larry, the "good" Larry. Talking to the "bad" Larry is terrifying - he'll look through you mumbling about how the President and the Generals want him to be out there, while mosquitos buzz around his bare feet. Larry had had a business in the neighborhood, but lost it after he got addicted to crack and descended into paranoid delusion. We got the psychiatrist out to talk with him briefly, and even she was disturbed by him and did not want to go out to talk with him unescorted. Frankly, I can't blame her. Like Larry I, we built Larry II a Low Rider, and I checked up on him occasionally, but nobody really took him under their wing. And eventually, he disappeared. Like Larry I, Larry II is too damaged and too poor to seek out help on his own. If we had enough resources, we could assign a case worker to work with him and try to keep him on track, find professional help. But of course, we have no resources, and there's little love to be found for Larry. I'm worried about Larry II. I'm worried about the community he lives in; folks there know him, but how safe is it to have him wandering around? How safe is he? It's now 2am and it's still raining. Where is he? (Comment on this)
Friday, May 17th, 2013
r_ness	2:25p	American is changing its carry-on bag policy to favor passengers with underseat bags. From Matt Yglesias at Slate, today: American Airlines is looking to speed boarding times on its airplanes by offering advanced boarding to people who don't want to stick roller bags in the overhead compartment. The basic idea is that folks with just an underseat laptop bag or purse can shuffle in quickly and sit down, and then everyone else will get on and start wrangling bags into the compartments. That way, in theory, you won't have as many people stuck waiting in the aisle while others are fussing with the compartment doors. It makes sense, but it underscores the extent to which airlines are tying themselves in knots with different priorities. ... It seems to me that managers need to step back, take a deep breath, and decide what their overall objective with the boarding scheme is. Do they want it to be as efficient as possible, or do they want to degrade average efficiency in order to optimally serve their high-volume elite customers? The linked AP article notes an interesting loophole: The airline said that it will let passengers check a carry-on bag at the gate at no charge. That means savvy travelers will be able to move up in the boarding order and avoid checked-bag fees — $25 for the first bag, $35 for a second on flights within the U.S. — although they'll have to retrieve their bag at baggage claim after they land. ... Chris Lopinto, president of ExpertFlyer.com, said the key could be American's offer to check bags at the gate for free. It won't appeal to business travelers on a schedule, who don't dare check a bag — ever. "But that loophole would be great for people who don't care about checking a bag or have a lot of people in their party," Lopinto said. "If you're a family of four and American is going to gate-check your bags, that can save you $100 (versus checking the bags) and you can board earlier." Jami Counter of travel website TripAdvisor said American's free gate-checking offer was so attractive that it could reduce the amount American makes from checked-baggage fees. "Why would you ever pay a baggage fee if you can gate-check your bag for free?" he said. "That's a loophole you could drive a truck through. I see that being tightened." Counter said passengers might swamp gate agents with requests to check their bag for free. "Now their two-minute savings just turned into a 15-minute delay," he said. I generally check a bag when I fly, but I also tend to be flying internationally so I don't end up paying a fee. So this is interesting. (9 Comments |Comment on this)
chrismwage	10:28a	lady fury Lady Fury of the Nashville Rollergirls. Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN. May 11, 2013. Originally published at Chris Wage Photography. Please leave any comments there.
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
ljatlanta [ bethanypeters ]	7:26a	Need meticulous home-cleaning ITP? So what's so special about my cleaning? An attention to detail. Behind toilets, windowsills, baseboards, you name it. And I don't charge an extra fee for careful cleaning. Discrete, prompt and meticulous is the name of my game. I am available Monday-Friday, 9AM-6PM, and occasionally on weekends. My rates are very simple, $60 for two hours and $20 every additional hour. I have my own supplies and transportation, but if you require a more "green" method of cleaning, I can accommodate. I also do not mind cleaning around animals, children or otherwise. Tell me what you want and I will try to fulfill the request, though I am great at self-direction and consideration to your needs. I don't mind putting things away, I scrub, not wipe and won't leave you wondering what I cleaned, if anything. I am not like the other maids who clean. You will KNOW your home is cleaned, not just tidied. I am located in Decatur, so I am looking for clients around that area, but am willing to consider anything inside the perimeter. Feel free to PM me or respond here for my contact information. Questions always welcome. References upon request. Thanks for checking me out! (Comment on this)
atlanta [ bethanypeters ]	7:25a	Need meticulous home-cleaning ITP? So what's so special about my cleaning? An attention to detail. Behind toilets, windowsills, baseboards, you name it. And I don't charge an extra fee for careful cleaning. Discrete, prompt and meticulous is the name of my game. I am available Monday-Friday, 9AM-6PM, and occasionally on weekends. My rates are very simple, $60 for two hours and $20 every additional hour. I have my own supplies and transportation, but if you require a more "green" method of cleaning, I can accommodate. I also do not mind cleaning around animals, children or otherwise. Tell me what you want and I will try to fulfill the request, though I am great at self-direction and consideration to your needs. I don't mind putting things away, I scrub, not wipe and won't leave you wondering what I cleaned, if anything. I am not like the other maids who clean. You will KNOW your home is cleaned, not just tidied. I am located in Decatur, so I am looking for clients around that area, but am willing to consider anything inside the perimeter. Feel free to PM me or respond here for my contact information. Questions always welcome. References upon request. Thanks for checking me out! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 14th, 2013
r_ness	12:38a	I took a break from LJ and FB the last couple of weeks. There was a wave of angst coming off my friends feeds, and I realized I needed to stop reading because it was making me sad. So I stopped. I probably missed many important events. I regret that, but I also recovered quickly after I stopped. I don't know how often I'll be reading LJ. I'm taking it easy with it, though I intend to keep posting. I still haven't returned to FB, and don't know when I'll be back. If I've missed something eventful in your life that you want to share with me, please do message or email me directly. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 13th, 2013
chris_warrior	11:11a	in which that settles that... i'm Neutral Good ;) I Am A: Neutral Good Human Druid/Wizard (3rd/3rd Level) Ability Scores: Strength-16 Dexterity-14 Constitution-15 Intelligence-15 Wisdom-18 Charisma-16 Alignment: Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable. Race: Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like. Primary Class: Druids gain power not by ruling nature but by being at one with it. They hate the unnatural, including aberrations or undead, and destroy them where possible. Druids receive divine spells from nature, not the gods, and can gain an array of powers as they gain experience, including the ability to take the shapes of animals. The weapons and armor of a druid are restricted by their traditional oaths, not simply training. A druid's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast. Secondary Class: Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells. Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail) Current Mood: amused (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, May 11th, 2013
chris_warrior	6:13p	in which more birds return. 1coldbeer should be here soon. i thought he'd be here already. the bluebird beat him. :) (the hummingbirds are also back) Current Mood: waiting (Comment on this)
Friday, May 10th, 2013
zorklife [ algeh ]	5:08p	Is there someplace like this elsewhere? This community is pretty dead, and I kind of miss it. Is there something like it somewhere else that I should be aware of? (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
totient	3:37p	birthday bikeride I am turning 43! Help me celebrate this coming Sunday by joining me on a 43 mile bike ride from my house in Davis Square to Concord and Carlisle. Meet at 10:00; if you RSVP we'll wait for you (or stop along the route to meet you). The ride goes past several bike shops and at least three ice cream parlors. We'll be going slowly and making plenty of stops -- this should be a good ride for those who have never gone as far before. It's impossible to completely avoid hills in New England but this ride won't have any monsters on it. (Comments |Comment on this)