8 Clicks From Nowhere

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kickstarter

Bokeh

Tuesday, March 28, 02017

About two and a half years ago we had just arrived home from our ten day Icelandic adventure. I was sorting through a mountain of photos. I was pondering from a very unspectacular desk in the middle of my office in a concrete-locked city about how to top that vacation to the remotest heart of the world. And I was poking through the internet trying to grasp onto something to keep those memories strong just a little longer. A this same time I was still naively optimistic about Kickstarter… and rummaging through that site I came across a coincidence.

It was a film project that was seeking some crowdfunding: Bokeh, an independent feature film, a science fiction film, filmed entirely in Iceland just months prior to our visit there, and it was trying to get a bit of cash together to get it all edited and distributed.

I contributed my small bit and promptly forgot about it.

Well, I say I forgot, but in reality every couple of months a humble little update from the directors would drop into my email (and presumably the email of my 609 fellow Kickstarter backers, too.) Their estimated timelines, it seemed, fell into the category of “naively optimistic” as well.

“After nearly five months of staring at frame after frame after frame, we’ve finished editing Bokeh.”

or, “We recently held our first test screening of Bokeh in Philadelphia.”

or, “We are showing Bokeh to potential distributors at the end of the month.”

These mini-essay updates trickled to me over the last two and a half years. I didn’t complain that they never really included the downloadable movie that I had been promised as my backer “reward.” Film editing is not my world, but I’ll admit to having a tangential interest in it, so the updates were somehow just as good as getting a movie. For me, at least. In honesty, I paid my very small backing fee and was more than compensated by the meta-story that appeared in my inbox over the next two and a half years: the trial and tribulations of turning an independently filmed and edited movie into a feature release.

In the meantime two and a half years strolled by and Iceland had turned into this distant long-past vacation in the chambers of my memory. So, it was a wonderful, nostalgic reminder of an amazing trip when the download code for the film finally did appear in my email last Friday.

On Saturday, we downloaded and watched Bokeh after Claire went to bed.

It is a science fiction story about a couple who wake up one morning of their Icelandic vacation to discover that everyone but them has disappeared. A clever film. A film that speaks to it’s own kind of naive optimism versus the universe. A film that challenges raging hope against blind faith, pits fierce independence against following strict rules. A film about loneliness and isolation and the effects that can have on the mind and soul.

I enjoyed it, even if it took me a couple days of pondering to get it… if only enough to write this.

That said, I don’t think watching Bokeh changed my understanding of the world in any profound way, even though it was a beautiful and heartfelt attempt to do just that. It wasn’t great but it was ok… good, even and since I’m no film critic so take that for what it was worth.

On the other hand, contributing a few bucks two and a half years ago did change something in me, even if it was just a small tweak to something inside. I did so little yet gained so much more than my small donation. A glimpse into a process, a story about a story, and a reminder of a place that did leave a pretty big mark on my memory after all.

In the end I guess my naive optimism paid off.

Posted in: watching & listening Tagged: bokeh iceland kickstarter movies

Still Pebble. Version Three

Thursday, April 14, 02016

I misplaced my charging cable. For a year. No really. I put the thing in a drawstring bag, stuffed it into the back of a drawer, and forgot where I’d put it… for a year.

Needless to say the Pebble ran out of charge a few days later, I set it on my nightstand, and well… not much changed, except that I didn’t wear my Pebble for a long time.

Last week I was looking for something else entirely, an adapter for my camera or something, digging though the back of a drawer, and suddenly there was my Pebble charging cable in my hand. Just there. I figured it might turn up, but then you can’t plan these things, can you? I charged the watch, connected it to my phone, and patiently waited as a small incremental update came through. Click. Connected.

Same old watch. Meh. That’s fine. And I went about my day with my same old watch on my wrist thinking that I’d give the watch another chance.

IMG_0647But then on Monday, what seemed to be out of the blue, at least for a guy who hadn’t been paying attention for well over a year, there was suddenly another update: New iPhone app and a BIG multi-download firmware update. “Please make sure your watch is charging.” it told me. Ok, fine. I’ll play along. I’d been back to wearing the thing for three days –if that– and suddenly here was yet another big update. What now?

Click. Load. Reboot.

Not the same old watch.

Pebble Version 3.0 had arrived.

I’d bought my Pebble on the original Kickstarter campaign. I’d waited patiently for it to arrive for what seemed like a year. It might have been a year. It probably was something close to a year. You don’t sign up to a Kickstarter campaign expecting overnight delivery of that ineffable product for which you just shelled out a couple hundred dollars.

I’ll be honest. It wasn’t all that I’d hoped and dreamed it would be when it first arrived in the mail. It was pretty good. Notifications from my phone. Buzz. You have a meeting. Buzz. Someone emailed you. Buzz. Incoming phone call. But ninety-percent of the time I have my phone in my pocket anyhow, so… the wrist buzz was just another buzz.

I played around with some of the other features, loaded some little apps that turned out to be pretty useless (unless I wanted to know the weather every five minutes) and wore it because, well, I paid enough and waited long enough and dammit I was going to wear it.

IMG_0650Apple Watch came along and it was the same deal. Three times the price and a nicer screen, sure, but I’d been down that whole smartwatch adventure. I don’t think I’d even considered one at this point, seriously. And in truth the best watch I own is smart enough… and it connects to a satellite and tells me how fast I’m running.

But I digress.

So I had been back to wearing my Pebble for three days when this new update came. Whatever, right? I was getting notifications. I was flipping between groovy watch faces. I was telling time and being all modern in bright orange bevel-faced style.

Then here’s the thing. You know when something that is almost good gets a few tweaks, and those tweaks seem minor and inconsequential, and you say to yourself “that’s not going to change things…” but then it does? Somehow. A tweak just… tweaks the experience. The purpose of it is a bit clearer. The usefulness crosses a line of actually being useful. You know when that happens? That’s kinda how I feel about the firmware update, so far at least.

Firmware 3.0 is mostly just tweaks. I mean, I’m sure it’s a complete and fundamental overhaul, but from my perspective, as a user (and a slightly disillusioned one at that) it’s all just tweaks. After all, you can only change a watch so much, right. Some prettier icons, a few different behaviors for buttons, this thing called a timeline. Tweaks.

IMG_0651But those tweaks, I think, add up to an important philosophical shift: less emphasis on funny watch faces, obsessively checking the weather, and playing pong on your wrist — and more emphasis on being a smart, y’know… watch. Telling me the time. Telling me my schedule. Telling me what’s going on right now. Pinging me with things I care about in a given instant not trying to replace features of my phone or my computer. Just being a watch, but better.

I’m not saying I’m completely sold on the smartwatch revolution… not quite yet. I’m not saying that if my charging cable happens to go missing (again) that I’ll pull out all the stops to find or replace it. I’m not saying go buy a smartwatch. But I have one, and less than a week after it found its way back to my arm I seem to have found another excuse to try and keep it there.

Posted in: technology Tagged: firmware kickstarter notifications pebble smartwatch update

What game have you been playing in September?

Saturday, September 12, 02015

I’ve been teaching everyone to play my new Kickstarter delivery: Exploding Kittens. Sadly, my win ratio is very low.

Posted in: gamer sums & pieces Tagged: card games exploding kittens games kickstarter kittens oatmeal

Exploding Kittens

Tuesday, August 4, 02015

First game of Exploding Kittens after it showed up in my mailbox this afternoon.

“It is a highly-strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian Roulette. Players draw cards until someone draws an exploding kitten, at which point they explode, they are dead, and they are out of the game — unless that player has a defuse card, which can defuse the kitten using things like laser pointers, belly rubs, and catnip sandwiches. All of the other cards in the deck are used to move, mitigate, or avoid the exploding kittens.”

Posted in: gamer Tagged: cards gamer kickstarter new game

Exploding Kittens

Sunday, August 2, 02015

According to Canada Post I should expect a parcel containing Exploding Kittens to arrive at my house no later than Wednesday. If that thought alarms you, Google it.

Posted in: gamer quotes & stati Tagged: card game funded project kickstarter oatmeal

Reloaded: Videos, Scary Zombies & Imaginary Twinkies Edition

Friday, November 16, 02012

A reloaded post is a short-and-sweet collection of the (sometimes-interlinked) randomness from my recent life, universe and everything else in between. They would be more detailed but they tend to be events lacking in either (a) details or (b) depth… or in the time to more fully record them. Enjoy.

What I really wanted to share was an epic awesome video I made. But instead… well… In all seriousness, but not really..

Hostess the Ghostess

I don’t ever recall tasting a Twinkie, and I suppose living here in Canada where the brand will live on for the foreseeable future I still have that chance. But the announcement this morning that the US owner of the Twinkie trademark, Hostess, is closing it’s doors due to financial woes likely has many Twinkie connoisseurs quivering with anti-anticipation at the upcoming shortage of the cream-puff cake. That said, if proper capitalism has anything to say about it, fans won’t be short of apocalypse-resistant foodstuffs for long as I’m sure someone will scoop up the recipe and start pumping out the yellow calorie bombs in no time.

Zombies, Run

Maybe I\’ll have a review later this evening…

And speaking of apocalyptic food-stuffs… now that the weather isn’t so cold as to risk turning my phone into an expensive ice-brick, I’m eagerly looking forward to trying out an odd new app I downloaded (on sale, on Halloween aptly-enough) designed as running motivation software. I believe it originally evolved as a Kickstarter project, but is now widely available. As I understand, it ties into the phone GPS, tracks your running, and simultaneously plays you a little audio narrative about being chased by zombies: get it? Zombies! RUN! Maybe I’ll have a review later this evening when I’ve completed some speed training on the now not-so-icy side walks.

Epic Footage Forthcoming

And speaking of impulse purchases… I finally broke down and pre-ordered one of the new GoPro Hero3 cameras. I should be getting delivery of a Black Edition model (hopefully) pre-Vegas which might make for some fairly epic footage of the half-marathon, but if not it should most definitely be here in time for the holiday season and all the anticipated tobogganing we’re about to do. At the very least I’m sure I’ll find a few uses for it in the coming years.

The Other Videos You’ll Never See

And speaking of epic tobogganing footage… this past weekend we ended up taking Claire and a bunch of the neighbour kids to the local hill for some winter fun. We were out for an hour, and I brought the little Canon elph along for pics and footage. What emerged was actually a fairly respectable collection of video, and I spent an hour or so compiling it into one of my prouder polished products, all set to the appropriately paced soundtrack of U2’s “Vertigo” — resulting in a video that will be great in our personal family collection, but will go unseen (thanks to modern copyright issues) by most everyone else. Well, I guess you could always come to our house.

Posted in: adventures pop-culture running Tagged: apocalypse bankrupt camera copyright food gps half-marathon kickstarter new toys pre-order reloaded running man toboggan toys training twinkies vegas video video camera zombies

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This is a personal website to which I've been posting for over sixteen years. It's neither news nor journalism; It is often trivial fluff, but occasionally perspective and opinion.

At its heart, this blog is little more than my odd collection of words, photos, thoughts, vents, ideas, fiction and assorted mental farts, a collection that happens to live online in the form of a blog.

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