🏴☠️ A Bear in the Summer
The captain is so concerned I will forget to add the header that she titled this draft "don't forget the header." I told her I will absolutely forget the header.
As I start this let me say we’ve been a bit distracted this week. Someone near and dear to the crew has been doing a bit of publishing in the form of a tiny bear and though it’s not my spawn, I’m already fond and protective of the adorable little mass of embryonic coated skin and hair. And yes, like a proper bear cub it has a decent amount of hair already as a newborn. As I am typing this I got the first picture and it is ridiculously adorable. In the meantime I was told I could do whatever I want with the newsletter. So I decided to upgrade my way…
Shortly after the passing of David Lynch I saw a video posted by someone who was a very low level employee on one of his films. He related a story, the gist of which, was that they discovered in recording that the location had a background hum. It was subtle but detectable and no one wanted to tell the director so it fell on this lowly employee. So, stressing it was very minor, he relayed this. According to this report Lynch replied to the effect of that it is fine because they can always add more later.
The people on the video laughed. The comments were filled with people laughing at Lynch’s quirkiness.
I think about that video often because they didn’t get it. Lynch was quirky by all accounts but also quite bright. I have no doubt he knew about the background sound and had factored it into his film making. He understood that sound is easier to add to than remove in mixing and was prepared to increase it if not enough. Yes, he was quirky and didn’t communicate this well. He might have enjoyed being quirky. But he wasn’t foolish.
And film makers aren’t quite like writers. When writers improvise their work, editing becomes a slog. When filmmakers improvise it can cost studios millions. Indeed, the script itself is the most flexible thing in a production where you need catering, electrical power, network, cabling, safety permits, access to sites, costuming and so much more. My main safety concern is carpal tunnel syndrome.
All of this is on my mind in part because I’m about to go back and wipe out a bunch of my own work. When I started Rat Catchers I thought it would be fun to provide a gaming context for the story and I thought Pathfinder 2nd Edition would be a good basis for it. This has not been without its issues. Pathfinder 2e has its strengths but is at its core a tactical RPG and I enjoy tactics in game but am a story first person. While I imagined largely being able to use Paizo’s content as is, I found myself creating more and more custom as I went on. Hand waving everything is fine if it was just for me but I wanted to provide transparency and that requires consistency.
I had considered using Fate Core all the while or Fate Accelerated but this past weekend I discovered Fate Condensed. Yes, I picked it up years ago and forgot about it. I am a bear and we get to things when we get to them. Upon reading it I realized I could use it to describe characters in my Dayfall universe very well with some lifting like creating supernatural templates related to aspects. Then I realized it would also be a better fit for Rat Catchers.
Fuck. Time for the slog.
All this is to say that while some laughed at David Lynch I found myself admiring his foresight and meticulous planning. And I \wish I had planned that well. But I will still get there in the end and I’m sure Lynch had his own things he missed.
Too many people don’t cook. My youngest has had a friend over for a lot of sleepovers recently who is shocked by our cooking. Apparently they were raised on a stream of take out. Now, I love the occasional take out but everyone can and should cook. One day I made a fresh loaf of bread and you would have thought I had invented porn by their reaction to it.
Now, I share a lot of my positive cooking experiences here but I thought today I’d share a learning experience, which is to say something that did not work. I had to make dinner on a Saturday and hadn’t planned it. I had carrots, potatoes, onions, chickens and lentils on hand. There is a great Turkish soup I could make with that but I knew with the heat the household didn’t want a stew. How about turning it into a twice baked potato filling?
It has been scorching and the air conditioning is struggling to keep up. It is fine in the house as a whole but over the stove it was brutal. The result is I rushed myself and didn’t properly taste as I went. By the time I was done I had forgotten to chop onions and used minced and forgot the carrots entirely. The result was dry and edible but not tasty. Pictures were not taken.
Nonetheless, I stored the contents away and the next morning looked at it with a critical eye. I put some honey in to compliment the strong savory flavors as honey is used as a sweetener in some middle eastern soups like the one I was using from memory. I added those carrots finally. I also scrambled some eggs and added some water. It was good but after a small bowl I went back and added some pepper for a tiny bit of heat too. Now it was delicious.
I may do another iteration trying some milk instead of added water. Sure, I had a bad meal but in the future I will have a good one and I will get the credit for having developed the idea, making the dish somewhat special to me.
For my recommendations, I am going to be self serving but also try to help others out by recommending the Smashwords summer sale.
That’s all for this week, just a quick update on what is happening and where you can find out content. Rat Catchers has been sabbatical this week but starts their third story arc next week. We’ve also been whipping up some ghostly tales for Halloween. Oh, what the heck, here’s a snippet:
Mikaela stood at the property line watching the wrecking ball smash her neighbor’s house. Joe stood among the chaos as drywall exploded through him.
“That door was vintage you philistines! I’ll curse you with a pox!”
Poor Joe, she thought. A finger touched her, the first one that had in decades. Spinning around she saw a woman with a blonde wavy hair a few inches of the shoulder, it looked like a bob growing out. Black slacks, a sensible blouse and woolen pea coat were completed with a purse that hung across her body.
“Hello, Death. Last time I saw you were rocking all black and an ankh.”
Death shrugged. “It was too 90s.”
Until next time, ka kite ano,
Leto Armitage