My OryCon 39 Schedule

This coming weekend I'll be at OryCon, a science fiction/fantasy convention held annually in Portland since 1979. This year it's at the Red Lion Hotel on Jantzen Beach. When not at the bar, here's where you can find me (moderator for each session in bold):

Friday, November 17th

2:00pm-3:00pm
Getting Your First Professional Sale
Thrawn - 252
An author can struggle for months or years before achieving their first success, but even after writing their opus, they can be tripped up by a process which is both entirely new to them and yet critical to their success. This panel describes what an author may experience as they revel in their first success.
Clayton Callahan, Tina Connolly, Curtis C. Chen, Sheila Finch, Annie Bellet

4:00pm-5:00pm
Comics Created Our Modern Mythologies
Wenatchee - 166 Parlor
How comics conquered our art, stories and media.
Lee Moyer, Curtis C. Chen, Benjamin Hsu, Eva L. Elasigue

6:30pm-7:00pm
Endeavour Awards
East Ballroom
The Endeavour Award honors the best SF/F book written by a Pacific Northwest writer. This year's finalists are Arabella of Mars by David D. Levine, Dreams of Distant Shores by Patricia McKillip, Eocene Station by Dave Duncan, Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, and Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis Chen.
Page Fuller, Jim Fiscus, Curtis C. Chen, Sheila Simonson, David Levine, Sara Mueller,
Patrick Swenson, Brenda Cooper

Saturday, November 18th

10:00am-11:00am
SFWA Regional Business Meeting
Thrawn - 252
The Secretary will give a briefing on the latest in SFWA and the business, as well as answer questions.
Curtis C. Chen, Jim Fiscus

12:00pm-1:00pm
Publishing Ethics
216 Presidential
What should the relationship between publishers and writers look like? Between writers and readers? Both require respect. What does that look like?
Patrick Swenson, Curtis C. Chen, Susan R. Matthews, Ann Gimpel, Doug Odell

3:00pm-4:00pm
Star Trek: Discovery
Lovejoy
Whoo hoo! Another Star Trek series! It's been far too long. What do you think?
John C. Bunnell, Rob Wynne, Marshall Ryan Maresca, Jennifer Willis, Curtis C. Chen

8:00pm-9:00pm
Sci Fi Ask Me Another! (Quiz Show)
216 Presidential
Curtis Chen and Jeff Soesbe present a variety of games involving science fiction and fantasy trivia, puzzles, and wordplay. Audience participation is required, and rewarded! Can you make it to the final Elimination Game? Come have fun while competing for prizes!
Jeff Soesbe, Curtis C. Chen

Sunday, November 19th

1:00pm-2:00pm
Trades versus Weeklies Economics
Wenatchee - 166 Parlor
Comic collections or issues? Why have one when we already have the other?
Robert B McMonigal, Eva L. Elasigue, Jeff Soesbe, Curtis C. Chen

Check out the full OryCon 39 schedule on SCHED.



And if you can't make it to the con, I'll also be at Powell's "Sci-Fi Authorfest" in Beaverton on Sunday afternoon from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. Come meet 20 different speculative fiction authors, buy our books, and get them signed!

Here endeth the schedule.

Crazy Squirrel

There are lots of squirrels running around our apartment complex. Sometimes we throw peanuts out onto our back patio for them to eat. We try not to do it while they're watching, because we don't want them to get the idea that we're feeding them directly.

But lately there's this one squirrel who's been running around right outside our front door. We see him several times a week as we're leaving to go out, and he always runs up and stares at us like "whaddya got for me?"

He does run away when we get closer, but he still watches us like a little creeper.



Today, when I left the house, I found this on top of our car.



Crazy squirrel.

My OryCon 38 Schedule

Next weekend (Nov.18-20) I'll be reading, paneling, and drinking at Oregon's premier, fan run, annual science fiction/fantasy convention held in Portland. Please stop by the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront if you're around. We can raise a glass to freedom, if nothing else...

Thursday night 11/17 (pre-con)

Karaoke with friends. Contact me for details, if we be friends.

Find me to get KANGAROO swag!

Friday 11/18

4pm - Reading from Kangaroo Too - Hawthorne (2)
You won't believe where the superpowered secret agent is going next, in the forthcoming sequel to Waypoint Kangaroo! #clickbait

5pm - Panelist: "Social Media and the Modern Writer" - Meadowlark (3)
with Lizzy Shannon, Stephanie Weippert, Elton Elliott, Katie Lane
Websites, Facebook fan pages, email lists, contests, twitter, tumblr, Pinterest, ads, blogs and that annoying thing called a "platform": what works, what doesn't, and why you need to care (spoiler: you do).

Saturday 11/19

11am - Moderator: "First Page Idol" - Douglas Fir (3)
with Annie Bellet, Doug Odell, David Levine
Submit the first page of your novel to our talented author panelists, and listen to them read aloud that first page(keeping the writer's identity anonymous) and give thoughtful reactions. ADD(14 Nov 2016): E-mail your first page submission (please omit the author name) to: ww@orycon.org

2pm - Panelist: "How to Blurb Your Novel" - Meadowlark (3)
with Dale Ivan Smith, Tori Centanni, Lizzy Shannon
We all need them, we all hate them. Summing up our books may be harder than writing them in the first place! Learn techniques to write compelling book descriptions (aka "blurbs"), and hook readers.

3pm - Co-Host: "Sci Fi Ask Me Another! (Quiz Show)" - Columbia (L)
with Jeff Soesbe
Curtis Chen and Jeff Soesbe present a variety of games involving science fiction and fantasy trivia, puzzles, and wordplay. Audience participation is required, and rewarded! Can you make it to the final Elimination Game? Come have fun while competing for prizes!

7pm - Moderator: "The Star Trek Universe: My, How You've Grown!" - Columbia (L)
with Alma Alexander, Jennifer Willis, Phyllis Irene Radford
A wide ranging panel, with the changes (or consistencies) found in TOS, TNG, DS9, and all movies being fair game. Gene Roddenberry tried to create a future without racism or hatred, and a Federation that prioritized peace and non-interference. Yet disagreement, jealousy, envy, war, and a monetary system for keeping score of one's successes are all excellent literary plot devices. With the benefit now of 20/20 hindsight, did the writers succeed? Is the Star Trek future one you'd want to live in?

Sunday 11/20

11am - Panelist: "Feedback Workshop" - Douglas Fir (3)
with Susan Matthews, David Weber, Richard A. Lovett, David Levine
Bring your questions, manuscripts, critiques, etc. A hands-on workshop on how to apply the feedback you get from readers, editors, writer's workshops, critique groups, etc.

1pm - Autograph Session - Autograph Area (LL1)
with Blythe Ayne, Joyce Reynolds-Ward, Deborah Ross, David Dvorkin
Get your books (or whatever) signed by your favorite authors!

2pm - Panelist: "Hold on to Your Reader" - Douglas Fir (3)
with Caroline M. Yoachim, Maura van der Linden, Shawna Reppert
The wrong word choices can throw your reader right out of the story. Learn how to maintain suspension of disbelief.

4pm (offsite) - Powell's Sci-Fi Authorfest 10 (Cedar Hills Crossing)
"A starfleet of science fiction and fantasy authors descends for one galactic booksigning event. Meet Brent Weeks, Timothy Zahn, Daniel H. Wilson, Annie Bellet, Tina Connolly, David Levine, Curtis Chen, Lili Saintcrow, Dave Barra, Wendy Wagner, Jennifer Brozek, Mike Moscoe/Shepherd, J. A. Pitts, Devon Monk, Steve Perry, Patrick Swenson, Rhiannon Held, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Kevin James Breaux, and Deborah Ross."

For complete details, visit: orycon38.sched.org

---

ALSO: I will not be running the ORCs (Open Read & Critique sessions) this time around, but I've passed the torch to three new facilitators! If you're a writer looking for some fast feedback, see if any of these sessions will fit into your OryCon weekend:

1. Friday 1pm with Jeremiah Reinmiller
2. Friday 2pm with Stephanie Weippert
3. Saturday 1pm with Stephanie Weippert
4. Saturday 2pm with Mark Niemann-Ross
5. Saturday 3pm with Jeremiah Reinmiller
6. Sunday 1pm with Mark Niemann-Ross

Look for ORC rules and sign-up sheets outside the Willamette room (lobby level).

1,356,976,800 Seconds Old (Approximately)

I turned 43 years old this past Saturday. We celebrated without much fanfare, and that was by choice: I guess I'm now on the even-numbered-birthdays-blowout plan, after the big Trek puzzle hunt for my 40th and the karaoke extravagana for my 42nd.

But despite being low-key, we did manage to pack in quite a few things:

One week before my actual birthday, I livetweeted my binge-rewatch of the first season of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, the best damn show on television. See my Storify for #CXB43.

The night before my birthday, I gathered some friends for drinks and dinner at the Multnomah Whiskey Library, followed by dessert at Petunia's Pies & Pastries.

On my actual birthday, D and I had breakfast (featuring waffles!) at Gigi's Cafe. Then I met some friends to do "Kidnapped!" at Portland Escape Rooms, which we did escape, taking just six minutes longer than the current record time. We rounded out the evening with Bridget Quigg's one-woman comedy show Techlandia at Funhouse Lounge, and filled the intervening hours with stops at two different McMenamins.

On Sunday, we dragged our friend Darla to the Portland Art Museum, where among other things, we saw this camel. Then we stopped at Lapellah for happy hour.

Finally, on Monday, we met another friend for dim sum and chatted about escape rooms and general puzzling.

Is that an accurate snapshot of my life right now? More or less. It doesn't encompass any work activities (writing, freelancing, etc.), but otherwise these are pretty much the things we love doing: hanging out with friends, watching shows, eating and drinking, and playing games. Not necessarily in that order.

My Preliminary Westercon 69 Schedule

Two blog posts in one week? Madness! (But it is technically a different month, so.)

I've received my draft schedule from the Westercon 69 programming department, and it's pretty light (as I requested):

Curtis Chen Reading
Madison
Fri Jul 1 3:00pm - 3:30pm
Curtis Chen reads from a selected work.
Curtis Chen

Choosing a Writing Workshop
Roosevelt
Fri Jul 1 4:00pm - 5:00pm
From one-day workshops and moderated critiques to residential programs and even MFAs — what are the possibilities? How do you figure out what you need, and when? Panelists with experience as students, instructors, and program administrators review the pros and cons and answer questions.
Curtis Chen, David D. Levine, Karen Anderson (moderator), Manny Frishberg

Saturday 10am Kaffeeklatsch
Multnomah
Sat Jul 2 10:00am - 11:00am
Small group discussions with authors, artists, and other interesting personalities (referred to as "hosts") Sessions are limited to the host and a small group of attendees.
Anthony Pryor, Carol Berg, Curtis Chen, David D. Levine, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Sonia Lyris, Tod McCoy

Autographs
Autographs
Sun Jul 3 10:00am - 11:00am
Get your goodies signed!
Anthony Pryor, Curtis Chen, Emily Jiang

Of course, I'll be around all weekend. I'm always around.

Any updates to the above will be published in the official online schedule. If you're into Facebooking, feel free to add yourself to my rogue event listing for possible additional updates. And, of course, follow me on Twitter for my most up-to-the-minute blathering.

My OryCon 37 Schedule

Hey science fiction and fantasy lovers in or near Portland, Oregon! It's that time of year again: time for OryCon!

This Friday through Sunday, hundreds (if not thousands) of fans will gather at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront for a variety of fannish activities and events. Come find out who wins the Endeavour Award this year, check out the Costume Contest, or catch a reading by your favorite author. There's plenty to see and do!

Here's where you can find me this weekend (when I'm not at the bar):

Friday, November 20

1:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session A)
Same as it ever was: bring the first ~3 pages of your work to read aloud and get instant feedback from fellow writers. Sign-up sheets will be available outside the Salmon room (3rd floor) by Friday morning. See detailed ORC Rules and FAQs.

ETA (19 Nov 2015): to get to Salmon, take the hotel elevator to the 3rd floor. You'll see the fitness center in front of you when you come out of the elevator. Turn left, then turn left again immediately at the next corner (don't go outside), and Salmon will be the first room on your right. Look for the ORC sign-up sheets on a chair just outside the doors!

2:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session B)
Let's do the time warp again. See note above on how to find Salmon room!

5:00pm
DC vs Marvel
Someone thought it was a good idea to put me on this panel, which will be moderated by my pal Claude Lalumière. They may regret their choices. I REGRET NOTHING.

8:00pm
Sci-Fi Ask Me Another! (Quiz Show)
Contestants wanted! My fellow VP alum Jeff Soesbe and I need audience volunteers to compete in our grand experiment, a live game show modeled after the NPR program but themed for genre fans. All are welcome! (We'll sneak you in even if you don't have a con badge. Don't tell Registration.) It'll be great! You'll love it! DID I MENTION WE ARE GIVING AWAY BOOKS AND OTHER FABULOUS PRIZES?

Saturday, November 21

11:00am
Extra, Extra!
I'm moderating this panel with two other local actors. Come hear about Leverage, Grimm, and how you too can sign up to maybe get directed by this guy.

1:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session C)
This again? See note above on how to find Salmon room!

2:00pm
ORC Open Read and Critiques (Session D)
THE NEXT GENERATION. See note above on how to find Salmon room!

5:00pm
Intro to Computer Science Jargon for Authors and Editors
And then there's Maude.

Sunday, November 22

Nothing scheduled, but I'll be wandering around the con until I head over to Powell's Authorfest and then wrap up the weekend with some Sunday night karaoke. If you're reading this, you're invited!

Follow @curtiscchen on Twitter for further updates.

I Turn 42 Next Week

And you're invited to come celebrate with DeeAnn and me, if you're in the Portland area! We've planned a variety of "CKL=42" events for you to choose from...

Wednesday(9/30), 6-10pm: "West Side Karaoke"
Voicebox NW, 2112 NW Hoyt
Please RSVP on Facebook* if you plan to join us; we're getting a private suite and need to know how many people we're packing in. Singing is not required! I will be happy to croon at a captive audience all night long. :) We'll provide some food and non-alcoholic drinks; you buy your own booze and additional munchies if you like.

Thursday(10/1), 8pm: "Rifftrax Live: Miami Connection"
Regal Cinemas Lloyd Center (outside the mall), 1510 NE Multnomah St
My actual birthday! Buy your own ticket and meet us at the theatre. Get there early (7:30pm) for the pre-show!

Friday(10/2), 11am: "Tea and Company"
Wong's King Seafood Restaurant, 8733 SE Division St, Suite 101
Meet us for a dim sum lunch! We eat family style, so we'll just split the bill evenly among everyone who shows up. Please RSVP on Facebook* so we know how many people are coming (they don't take reservations, so there will be a wait).

Saturday(10/3), ~2pm: "Game Day Afternoon"
Kennedy School, 5736 NE 33rd Ave
We plan to hang out for a few hours in the Courtyard Restaurant and play various games (and eat and drink). Stop by whenever and join the fun!

Sunday(10/4), ~11am: "Breakfast on Mars"
Time/Place TBD
Meet us for breakfast and a movie (The Martian) in the wilds of Vancouver—you buy your own food/ticket. Cinetopia won't publish their showtimes until next week, so if you're interested, RSVP on Facebook* to get updates!

* If you're not on Facebook, just send me an e-mail to let us know which event(s) you're coming to!

And please don't feel obligated to join us for any of these activities, if they don't appeal to you. The two of us know how to have a great time all on our own. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN ;)



(And yes, I know "please RSVP" is technically a redundant phrase. Colloquial usage
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

I volunteered at Open Source Bridge today

And sat in on these great talks:

• "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Pelican: A Comparison of Static Site Generators" with Lucy Wyman
• "Hosting Events that the Whole Community Loves" with Meg Hartley
• "Teaching and managing for technologists" with Lennon Day-Reynolds
• "Universal Web Design: How to create an awesome experience for *every* user" with David Newton

...which actually represent a pretty good cross-section of my personal interests.

In related news, there's nothing like talking to a seventeen-year-old high school student who's coding his own distributed database system to make a prehistoric Perl hacker feel old. HASHTAG BASED ON A TRUE STORY.

That is all.

I Have Some Busy Weekends Coming Up

For the record, I'm not doing this as a #humblebrag or anything douchey like that. I'm writing this down as yet another reminder of all the crap I need to do BECAUSE I'M OLD AND I FORGET THINGS OKAY.

This weekend is GameStorm 17 in downtown Vancouver, where DeeAnn and I are re-running a modified version of the "Number Five Is Alive" puzzle hunt from JoCo Cruise 5. We'll hopefully also have time to play some games ourselves, and go to the Doubleclicks concert! Some of Thursday night's events will be in the hotel garage, which should be interesting.

Next weekend, after we do our taxes dammit, I'm going up to Seattle to help staff the Clarion West table at Emerald City Comic Con. I may or may not also have time and energy to wander around the con stalking Gail Simone, but mostly I want to go help out an organization I love (ObDisclaimer: I am a CW alumnus) and hang out with some awesome writers.

The first weekend in April is our friend Maria's birthday, and our other friend Natalie is organizing a chocolate field trip through Portland. You're either super excited and looking forward to this or deeply sad that you can't join us.

The second weekend in April includes my pal Fonda Lee's book launch party for her debut novel Zeroboxer! And probably a few hours prepping the next Puzzled Pint event, which may or may not include scrambling to lock down locations in all cities and/or last-minute revisions to puzzle materials. Did I mention we're an all-volunteer, non-commercial event?

And with any luck, one month from now on April 18th, we'll actually have some free time to relax and watch the third season premiere of Orphan Black.

The Portland Food Pyramid

A cautionary tale: this is what happens when you spend too much time on social media.

On Thursday, I tweeted about my lunch at Burgerville. Technically, I guess it was a sub-sub-tweet, since I didn't mention the name of the restaurant or even the specific food items (pepper bacon cheeseburger, waffle cut fries, chocolate milkshake). Anyway. My fellow Portlandians Wink and Brian added their own remarks, and then Larry cascaded it into a very cheesy conversation.

Meanwhile, on Facebook—where my tweets get auto-cross-posted—others continued the ad hoc comedy workshopping. And because I have nothing better to do on a Friday night than answer Puzzled Pint e-mails and watch Downton Abbey, I decided to turn my hasty sketch into something more suitable for Thomas to post in his kitchen.

Here's the original:

@sparCKL/566073118629048320/photo

And now (drum roll, please) the new hotness:

snout.org/pfp

The pictured foodstuffs are (top to bottom, left to right):

• Hot Sauce: Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce
• Beer: Puzzled Pint (logo by Victor Asteinza; not actually food, but definitely a Portland institution!)
• Whiskey: Eastside Distilling Burnside Bourbon
• Butter: Tillamook Butter
• Caffeine: Stumptown Coffee Cold Brew "Stubby"
• Chocolate: Moonstruck Milk Chocolate Mayan Bar
• Fat: raw bacon (stock photo by Floortje)
• Salt: J&D's Bacon Salt (actually a Seattle company, but I'll allow it because BACON SALT)
• Starch: Kenny and Zuke's Pastrami Cheese Fries (photo by Robyn Lee for Serious Eats)
• Sugar: Voodoo Doughnut Maple Bacon Bar

I'm not sure when in the process the diagram became Portland-specific, but it just felt right. Also note that everything is covered in cheese because come on why wouldn't you do that.

If this infographic amuses you, <zoidberg>HOORAY!</zoidberg> And Happy Valentine's Day? Feel free to share the permalink: http://snout.org/pfp

So that happened.

This concludes tonight's episode of How's Curtis Wasting His Goddamn Time Now? Come back next week for more frivolity. Or just follow me on Twitter if you simply cannot wait that long.

<3 CKL

SnoutCast #210: Laura E. Hall and Mink Ette

This month, we talk to Laura E. Hall and Mink Ette, two of the six creators behind Spark of Resistance, Portland's first live, interactive room escape game! (No spoilers herein. You can see some mildly revealing photos of the room in the recent Oregonian write-up.)

[ Download mp3 ]

Show length: 53:50
File size: 49.2MB

Stuff and things:

• 60 Minutes to Escape: Spark of Resistance
• Cuppa Quest at IndieCade
• "Mutant Giant Spider Dog"

Follow @lauraehall and @mink_ette on Twitter for more!

What Else?

• Exit Games UK
• Escape Room Directory
• ClueKeeper
• Puzzle Hunt Calendar

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "A Talk with George" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link / Stitcher link ]

   

I May Have Gotten a Bit Drunk along the Way

DeeAnn and I went on an epic quest last weekend to collect McMenamins Passport stamps. She was our designated driver, and I did my best to chronicle our journey on Twitter and Instagram:

StampsQuest 2014
https://twitter.com/sparCKL/timelines/504524715923230720

In all, we visited 25 different McMenamins locations, and I collected 39 stamps, including bonuses and experiences. (I've had my passport since early this year, but DeeAnn only got hers this weekend, so I'm ahead of her by approximately 16 stamps.) I am now 54.3% of the way to Cosmic Tripster status!

A word on our methodology: We always stopped and had at least two drinks (one for each of us) at each location. It wasn't humanly possible to eat at every single place, especially when we were doing seven or eight stops in less than twelve hours, but we wanted to actually spend some time in each new place.

As the late Joe Cotter's epigram on the back of the passport says: "If you ever get to it, and don't do it, you may never get to it to do it again!"

We did observe other people doing drop-ins, where they just asked for a passport stamp and left immediately. Several of the servers we spoke to said that behavior is not uncommon, and the staff don't really care one way or the other. But many years of running The Game and Puzzled Pint have made us sensitive to the quid pro quo of asking locations to host players.

Anyway. Most of the remaining McMenaminses are around Portland, but we'll have to do another road trip out west to catch the two bars which weren't open when we visited last weekend, plus a separate jaunt down to Bend. We also plan to hit some Washington state locations when we drive up to Seattle for our friends' housewarming party next month. THERE WILL BE TWEETING.

Meanwhile, for other questing perspectives with much more detailed travelogues, check out Portlander Gretchin Lair's "McMenamin's[sic] Passport Project" blog, which she began this month; and Seattleite Todd Springer's "My McMenamins Passport Odyssey," which he started in January (the latest update was in mid-April).

I Less Than Three Portland

(Today's "The I in MEAT" blog post is brought to you by the perfect texture, The Doubleclicks, and the Twitter.)

Back in 2007, DeeAnn and I went all in on what we called "the writer move." In particular, we decided to stretch our savings by moving out of the San Francisco Bay Area to a more affordable city--meaning we had most of North America to choose from.

Some places we ruled out right away, for various reasons. Seattle was also too expensive (and still is). Canada would require proof of rabies vaccination for our cats, which in itself wasn't a problem, but we didn't want to risk losing them to international quarantine or for some other obscure medical reason. And flying the cats anywhere also seemed like asking for trouble. But that still left forty-eight of the United States to choose from.

To narrow down the wide field of candidates, we created a big spreadsheet and researched data which were important to our lifestyle. Some of those properties included:

• Winter comfort (January windchill and annual snowfall)
• Summer comfort (July heat index and average rainfall)
• Cost of living estimate, averaged from five different sources
• Distance to nearest airport
• Distance to nearest VA hospital
• Number of Trader Joe's stores within 15 miles
• Number of Thai restaurants within 5 miles
• Percentage of population identifying as religious
• Percentage of population identifying as Democratic

Here's a link to the full spreadsheet, if you're curious about the details. Note that we gathered this data seven years ago, and much of it will be out of date now:


http://goo.gl/p3tl1O

We took trips to visit our top two out-of-state candidate cities, shown in black text on that spreadsheet: Cary, North Carolina (in the Research Triangle) and Portland, Oregon. (Our fallback was Sacramento, California, which area we were already familiar with from all our Hogwarts Game scouting in 2006.) Cary had a fantastic farmer's market, but the neighborhoods weren't remotely walkable. And Portland... well, we live here now.

It took us a little while to adjust, but now we couldn't be happier with our home. (And no, I am not saying that ironically.) The move also inspired me to ask for 37 Postcards back in 2010, and that was pretty amazing, too.

If you're thinking about relocating, and you have some latitude in your selection criteria, Internet research is an excellent place to start. We started with information from Sperling's Best Places, then supplemented and corroborated that with data from various other online sources which we judged reliable and relevant. Your mileage may vary.

As Seen on Facebook

Presented without comment:

Ladies and gentlemen, the Pacific Northwest.

SnoutCast #201: Ana Roeszler

Kicking off our year of interviews with women who make puzzle games is Ana Roeszler, one of the co-founders of Puzzled Pint and a core GC member for WarTron PDX!

Show length: 26:39
File size: 25.6MB   [Download mp3]

What Else?

• Game Control Summit 2014: get ideas on how to run your own puzzle game!
• Learn about more events from Puzzle Hunt Calendar

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "Tom Cruise Crazy" by Jonathan Coulton

[ Subscribe to SnoutCast / iTunes link ]

  

I Miss My Friends

Last year, two of my friends took their own lives.

I was completely blindsided both times. Of course, no one should ever expect anybody they know to kill themselves, but I had not even an inkling that either of these people was so afflicted that they would even consider suicide. I know it's not my fault, and I know depression is complicated. It's been long enough that I've stopped wondering if I might have done something to help these two people specifically, and am now asking what I can do to help others with similar troubles.

I suppose that's progress.



Igal Koshevoy died on April 9, 2013. I hadn't seen him for a while, probably not since the last Portland tech community event. I missed BarCamp Portland 7 because of a trip to Seattle. At the end of that weekend, the Query Shark thing happened; two days later, I threw my "100 Rejections" party; and less than a week after that, as I was leaving for Paradise Lost III, I saw the terrible news on Twitter.

On one hand, it was a lot to deal with all at once; but it was also good, to have some distractions, and to be physically away from the immediate grief of his loss. We weren't especially close, but every time I saw Igal, he had a smile on his face and he was excited about something. Maybe that was a side effect of where I usually saw him--tech conferences, community events, party-type environments--but he always looked like he was happy to be there. I didn't know about his struggles with depression, and even if I had, I couldn't have helped. It's an illness, and sometimes we just can't cure an illness.

That's what I keep telling myself.



Matthew Schuler died on May 13, 2013. I knew him better than I knew Igal; he had joined Puzzled Pint Game Control in late 2012, and I saw him almost every week at our meetings. He brought a new energy and perspective to our monthly events, much of which came from his love of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). I got to know him better, a little bit at a time; DeeAnn and I played our first games of Starship Artemis at his house, and we celebrated his 40th birthday at Teardrop, where he explained about "serious cocktails."

I know more about Matthew's death than I know about Igal's. I sat in his house for most of that Monday, after receiving an e-mail with the awful news. People came and went all day, and none of us could believe it; at least once, someone joked that they were still hoping it might be a hoax, possibly the rabbit hole for the most tasteless ARG ever. But it wasn't. It was real, and the unyielding truth of it felt like an ever-increasing, oppressive gravity.

The day after Matthew died was our next Puzzled Pint event. We didn't cancel it; we presented the last puzzle he would ever make, all the men on Game Control wore neckties in his honor, and we observed a moment of silence. We sat with other people who had known him and talked about how it didn't make sense, how he had been making so many future plans with all of us.

What I really don't get is this:



That's Matthew, posting a comment about Igal right after his memorial service.

Yeah.

I was able to attend both Igal's and Matthew's memorial services, and both times was struck by the many similarities in our lives. Igal immigrated to the United States as a child, like me, and was two years younger than I am (born in the same year as my sister); Matthew was five months and eight days older than I am, and part Chinese (I'm a purebred).

On one day, I looked at a display of artifacts from Igal's childhood--many of which could have come out of my own closet. On another day, I listened to Matthew's family and friends talk about his love of games and music.

And on both days, I cried, because my friends are gone forever and I miss them.

TONIGHT: I Sing the Ignite Portland Electric

Portland! 7:00PM! Hollywood Theatre!

I'm one of the speakers at tonight's Ignite Portland 12, "a fun, fast-paced, evening of presentations where speakers gather to share their knowledge and passion."

Here's a sneak preview of my first slide:

And yes, it will be something completely different from my previous talks on puzzle hunts and cat feeding robots. Tune in to the livestream at igniteportland.org to watch me blather about words and music!

In Which I am a Professional Actor IN THE FUTURE

Shown above: the expurgated version of my paycheck from one day of background work on the upcoming Christmas episode of Grimm. Minimum wage, but not bad considering I sat around killing zombies for a few hours and then literally walked up and down a hallway half a dozen times.

After I received the check, I deposited it to my bank using their mobile app--snap two photos, confirm amount, and done. It kind of blows my mind that an advanced technology I imagined back in high school is actually commonplace now.

My OryCon 35 Schedule

ETA(2013-11-04): better link destinations for co-panelists, sign-up info for ORCs, Twitter stuff.

If you're anywhere near Portland, Oregon (the science fiction capital of America!) during the second weekend of November, stop by OryCon 35 and have some fun--not necessarily involving steampunk cosplay, though I'm sure there will be plenty of that.

As seen on Portlandia. Sort of. Not really.

As usual, my major activity is running the Open Read and Critique (ORC) sessions: two on Friday, two on Saturday. The second Friday session is at 8PM, to better accommodate volunteers and panelists who are too busy earlier in the day. Sign up each morning (or the night before) to get some quick feedback on your writing!

Here's where you'll find me at the con:

Friday, November 8th

2:00pm-3:00pm
ORCs: Open Read and Critiques (Session A)
Madison
Friday afternoon Open Read and Critiques (ORCs) allow writers of all skill
levels to read the first 750 words of their work to a round table group of
the same. Sign-up sheets will be outside Madison no later than Friday morning!

8:00pm-9:00pm
ORCs: Open Read and Critiques (Session B)
Madison
Friday evening Open Read and Critiques (ORCs) allow writers of all skill
levels to read the first 750 words of their work to a round table group of
the same. Sign-up sheets will be outside Madison no later than Friday morning!

Saturday, November 9th

11:00am-12:00pm
Social media, time suck or revolution
Idaho
Social media played a major roll in the Arab Spring, oppressive
governments have turned off the internet. What is next?
(panel with Rob Wynne and Jason Andrew)

1:00pm-2:00pm
ORCs: Open Read and Critiques (Session C)
Madison
Saturday afternoon Open Read and Critiques (ORCs) allow writers of all
skill levels to read the first 750 words of their work to a round table
group of the same. Sign-up sheets will be outside Madison no later than Saturday morning!

2:00pm-3:00pm
ORCs: Open Read and Critiques (Session D)
Madison
Saturday afternoon Open Read and Critiques (ORCs) allow writers of all
skill levels to read the first 750 words of their work to a round table
group of the same. Sign-up sheets will be outside Madison no later than Saturday morning!

Complete convention schedule online at: orycon35.sched.org

I'll be tweeting from the con "officially" as @curtiscchen and just-for-fun as @sparCKL. Double your pleasure by following both accounts!

SnoutCast #190: This Was 40

Okay, it's forty-eight--minutes long, that is, if you want to be pedantic. But come on, my wife and some of my best friends made a birthday puzzle hunt just for me. I think I'm allowed to gush for a while.

THANK YOU again to everyone who helped with "The Double Secret Project!" I love you all forever. (Scroll down for the inevitable slideshow.)

[ Download mp3 - 45 MB ]

00:59 - "deceptive"
03:20 - the lying began way back in June
08:16 - a close call in July!
10:29 - The Game began at Genies
15:19 - the first Clue: at which point Curtis knows for sure Matt is involved
19:09 - the second Clue, more revelations, and solving alone is hard
20:59 - the third Clue: Brian, Jeff, and Donna's "chubby tricorder"
25:33 - changing cars, getting kidnapped, and learning about child safety locks
29:19 - the fourth Clue: Q presents some paper dolls
31:50 - the fifth Clue: music to transport by
33:38 - the final Clue: Starship Artemis on stage!
44:27 - (don't worry, we'll talk about The Famine Game soon)
45:10 - upcoming: Ghost Patrol Reconstructed (Halloween night)
48:15 - The End

And here's the slideshow (photos by Britta and Chris, certain terrible music choices by Richard):


http://youtu.be/m3Mv0riLu6o

Tell us we're wrong on the Internet! E-mail podcast@snout.org or post a comment at www.snout.org/podcast.

Music: instrumentals from "Code Monkey" and "I Feel Fantastic" by Jonathan Coulton; "The Nerdy Birthday Song" by The Doubleclicks

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