This isn't the first time I've done an alphabet meme, but I think it's the first time I've done this particular one. Many thanks to Keith R.A. kradical DeCandido, from whom I took this. (He, in turn, took it from a friend of his on Facebook, and she probably got it from another friend, etc. I guess that's how memes work, huh?)

Twenty-Six Things About Me:

A. Age: 47
Curious fact: While looking up the spelling of Keith's last name, I discovered that he is exactly one month older than I am.

B. Biggest fear: Varies, but usually heights.
I am, in fact, so scared of heights that I can't watch certain scenes in movies or play certain levels of video games without curling up into a little ball and hyperventilating a little.

C. Current time: 10:31a.m. PDT (UTC – 07:00)

D. Drink you last had: Water.
I know. I'm boring.

E. Every day starts with: Appeasing the elder goddess of the house.
Or, in more mundane terms, feeding the cat.

F. Favorite song: Wildly variable, but right now I'm digging on "Come With Me Now" by Kongos.

G. Ghosts; are they real?: Only in our memories.
Of course, this is not to say that they aren't just as dangerous as real ones would be. . . .

H. Hometown: I'm actually not sure how to answer this. I was born in Paoli, IN; I lived the first four years of my life in Indianapolis, IN; I pretty much grew up in Los Angeles; but San Diego has been my home for over 25 years.

I. In love with: My sweetie, of course. :)

J. Jealous of: Way too many people for way too many things. It's one of the reasons I started doing meditation and trying to follow more Buddhist practice in my day-to-day life. I'll never be a perfect Buddhist, or even a very good one, but keeping some of its ideas in my mind has really helped me to not be as much of a reactionary asshole as I once was.

K. Killed anyone?: No.
Never have, never will, never will support or condone anyone else doing so. Period.

L. Last time you cried: While watching the Pixar short "Lava"

M. Middle name: Brooks
My performing name, Eben Brooks, is just my first and middle names. I drop the legal last name because I already have one unusual name; I don't need people fumbling over two.

N. Number of siblings: One brother.

O. One wish: To learn to be less attached to stuff.

P. Person you last called: neo_tanuki, last night, about gaming.

Q. Question you are always asked: "How are you today?"
It's how my sweetie greets me every morning when we IM.

R. Reason to smile: Many of the things on this list, including D, F, I, N, and P.

S. Song last sang: "25 or 6 to 4" while grocery shopping last night.

T. Time you woke up: Too damn late.
I.e., 8:45a.m. PDT

U. Underwear color: That's a bit bloody personal, ennit?
Okay, fine. White.

V. Vacation destination: I don't do vacations, I do conventions.
I seriously haven't had a real vacation since I went to London in 2004 (with neo_tanuki, as it happens).

W. Worst habit: Video games.
Once I start, I can't put them down. It's a known problem that I really don't have any serious interest in solving. ;-)

X. X-rays you've had: Yeesh, where do I start? Left foot, repeatedly. Teeth, at dentist's office, every couple of years. Torso, several times. Head, a few times. Hands, a few times each. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot more.

Y. Your favorite food: Come on, this is a cop-out. This should be F. A proper Y question would be "Yankees or Red Sox?" or something like that.
That being said, I don't really have a favorite food. I like to diversify.

Z. Zodiac sign: Western, Taurus. Eastern, Rooster.
This is why I refer to Cock & Bull Ginger Beer as "My ginger beer".

If I seemed distracted or distant this past weekend at the convention, please don't take it personally. I had what amounted to four performances in three days, which took their toll on me physically and emotionally. Not that I am in any way sorry I did it, but the experience was stressful in its way, so I didn't have a whole lot of leftover brain power to keep my OOH! SHINY! in check. I want to especially apologize to chorale, whswhs, and rhinogirl, all of whom I saw and none of whom I spent any significant time with. I hope that you understand where my head was at and that any slights where in no way intended. Thanks.

Wow. I'm doing SIX SHOWS this month! Three at WesterCon, one at Gam3rCon, and two at BAMF!

Here are all the deets:

July 3rd, 2015 - 2:30 PM
WesterCon show with Allison Lonsdale!
Town and Country Resort 500 Hotel Circle North San Diego, CA 92108
http://westercon68.org/ - Price: $85 (4-day pass) or $40 (1-day)

Allison Lonsdale and I will will be sharing a set at this year's combined WesterCon68/ConJecture 13/ConChord 27 (in Pacific 1), and we will break out a whole slew of our geekiest stuff, ranging in topic from vampires to cyberpunk to Firefly.

July 4th, 2015, 8:30pm (approx) AND July 5th, 2015 - 2:30 PM
In My Humble Opinion performs "Won't You Scatter My Ashes" at WesterCon/ConJecture/ConChord 2015!
Town and Country Resort 500 Hotel Circle North San Diego, CA 92108
http://westercon68.org/ - Price: $80 (3-day pass), or $40 (1 day)

My band, In My Humble Opinion, is doing a performance of "Won't You Scatter My Ashes" at the WesterCon Masquerade half-time (approximately 8:30pm) on Saturday, July 4th--and a SECOND performance at 2:30pm on Sunday, July 5th!

When we performed "Won't You Scatter My Ashes" at ConJecture 2013 and ConDor 2014, we received rave reviews. We're excited to be performing it again--and we're even MORE excited to announce that CD'S OF THE SET WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SALE! So if you're coming to WesterCon already, be sure to come see the show! And if you hadn't decided yet, this is a good reason to go.

July 9th, 2015 - 6:00 PM
The Gam3rCon Rooftop Concert!
10th Avenue Theater 930 Tenth Avenue San Diego, CA 92101
http://www.gam3rcon.com/

The Gam3rCon show is always a whole lot of fun, 'cause it's on a FRIGGIN' ROOF! I mean, come on, how awesome is that? I'll be playing for an hour starting at 6pm on Thursday, July 9th, which is the first day of Comic-Con. So when you're fed up with waiting in long lines and sweating away your precious water in the dealer's room, come over to the Tenth Street Theater and see a show!

July 10th, 2015 - July 12th, 2015 - 10:00 AM
The Big Awesome Music Festival (BAMF!)
Ruocco Park 585 Harbor Ln San Diego, CA 92101 USA
http://www.theBAMFest.com/ - Price: $15-$50 (for basic ticket)

I will be performing at the Big Awesome Music Festival (BAMF), which is running concurrently with San Diego Comic-Con on July 10th, 11th, and 12th. Tickets can be pre-ordered from their IndieGoGo fundraiser page, here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bamf/#/story

My sets will be 8:30pm on Friday, July 10th, and at 4:45 on Sunday, July 12th.

Ticket prices are discounted for SDCC badge-holders. However, any amount of support (from $5 up) will get you a download of the official BAMF theme song, composed by ME! You can listen to a short version of the song by going to the fundraiser page and watching the video at the top.

The talent lineup is pretty amazing! Me (obviously), The Doubleclicks, Paul & Storm, Mike Phirman, Kirby Krackle, and Molly Lewis. Plus, there will be quiddich matches organized by U.S. Quiddich and an interactive performance by The League of S.T.E.A.M.

If you only ever make it to San Diego for Comic Con, this is your chance to see me perform live! And even if you're a local, this is gonna be an AWESOME show! (Hey, it's right there in the title, after all...)

It's official! I will be performing at the Big Awesome Music Festival (BAMF), which is running concurrently with San Diego Comic-Con on July 10th, 11th, and 12th. Tickets can be pre-ordered from their IndieGoGo fundraiser page, here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bamf/#/story

Ticket prices are discounted for SDCC badge-holders. However, any amount of support (from $5 up) will get you a download of the official BAMF theme song, composed by ME! You can listen to a short version of the song in this video:



The talent lineup is pretty amazing! Me (obviously), The Doubleclicks, Paul & Storm, Mike Phirman, Kirby Krackle, Molly Lewis, and more! Plus, there will be quiddich matches organized by U.S. Quiddich and an interactive performance by The League of S.T.E.A.M.

If you only ever make it to San Diego for Comic Con, this is your chance to see me perform live! And even if you're a local, this is gonna be an AWESOME show! (Hey, it's right there in the title, after all...)

In response to seanan_mcguire posting her annually-updated guide to surviving the big CC, I thought I'd publish my own.

Here it is:

STAY HOME!

Thank you, and I hope you found this guide useful. :)

Sunday afternoon at ConDor, my band, In My Humble Opinion, performed our story-set "Won't You Scatter My Ashes" for a crowd of about twenty people.

We rocked the house!

Seriously, I think it was one of the best shows I've ever participated in. Everything came together perfectly. The sound was dialed in exactly right (by awesome sound man Greg Gross), the audience was engaged and enthusiastic, and the band was in the zone. Everyone had a wonderful time, and the experience has renewed my excitement about this whole musical endeavor called I.M.H.O. We made nearly $100 in sales, and nearly the same amount was donated to Superpiggie to fund the album.

Yes, indeed, I.M.H.O. is going to record this story-set as an album! We hope we'll have something by the time we perform our next show, which at this point looks like ConJecture/ConChord in October. Also, the whole show was recorded on video, so there will be new videos up on YouTube in the near future! :D

This show is very much what I needed to get me feeling good about performing again. I had almost given up hope. I know that some of that was neurochemical in nature, but today I am happy. Here's to feeling happy tomorrow, too, and for many days after.

Once again, I seem to have been neglecting posting new videos here. So here are all the videos I've posted to my YouTube channel since June:

( under the cutCollapse )

Video Newsletter Idea

I was thinking the other day that, while I send a monthly e-mail newsletter to the 600 or so people who are signed up on my mailing list, I don't do anything like it for the 2,200+ people who subscribe to my YouTube channel. I used to do a video blog—which I tried to make weekly, but it never quite got there—but ever since the surgery to put my broken foot back together in 2009, I haven't done one. So I thought of the idea of doing a video version of the monthly newsletter for the YouTube channel.

It would probably take a similar format as the old video blogs, but also include relevant information about upcoming shows and other such events. And I'd try to jazz it up a bit, too. Make it more exciting. Not quite sure how, but I'll work on it. Does this sound like something that you think would be effective? Appropriate? Fun?

Delay on the "Deadly Ever After" Video

I promised several people that I'd have the "Deadly Ever After"* video up by this past weekend, but time kinda got away from me. However, I will try to put it up this evening. I still need to edit up some titles. My sweetie came up with a really cool idea for the opening titles, but I might have to save it for a later version just because of how long it would take.

And I still haven't heard back from Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) as to whether she's listened to the recording I gave her, and what she thinks of it. However, as she is usually ridiculously busy**, it's probably not a bad assumption that she either a) hasn't had time to listen to it yet, or b) hasn't had time or spare brainmeats to write to me. Which, frankly, I'm totally fine with. The woman is the second most productive writer I know personally (the first being Keith R.A. kradical DeCandido), and I would feel bad if I got in the way of that productivity.

Going to LosCon 40

For the fifth year running, I am attending LosCon. As usual, Allison caprine Lonsdale and I will be doing a show together—it's at 2:35 in the Meridian room. However, two things will be happening for the first time this year:

The first is that my band, In My Humble Opinion (I.M.H.O.), will be presenting our story-set Won't You Scatter My Ashes at 5:30 on Saturday evening (also in Meridian). This is the same set that we performed at Conjecture/ConChord in October, and we're very excited to be able to perform it again. In fact, we're so excited that we're in the process of recording it! It unfortunately won't be done in time to sell at the con, but it it definitely happening! We are quite happy about this.

The second is that I will be a panel participant for the first time at a LosCon. The panels I'm on are: "Budget Costuming" (Friday 4pm Dallas), "How to Write Good Dialogue" (Friday 5:30pm Chicago), and "History Is a Goldmine" (Sunday 2:30 Marquis 3).

General Update

I am feeling better today than I was for most of last week. Thank you to everyone who offered kind words and support. Radical honesty is, I think, still the best way for me to deal with some of my issues, especially since I have a strong tendency towards fear-based self-deception. By not trying to hide anything, from myself or others, I free myself to feel what I feel and deal with what I need to deal with. It's not easy, but it's becoming easier. And I feel much better for it.

-------

*"Deadly Ever After" being the title I finally chose for the song based on Seanan McGuire's Kindle serial Indexing—which, by the way, is SERIOUSLY AWESOME! If you have a Kindle, go buy it! If you don't have a Kindle, the paperback edition is available for pre-order and will ship in January.

**Seriously! In just a little over six years, she has published sixteen novels (twelve as Seanan McGuire and four as Mira Grant) and 44 pieces of short fiction. And then there are the seven professionally published essays (not including her LJ blog, which is amazing all by itself), the eight professionally published poems, and the five CDs! If I had half her talent and a quarter her energy, I'd be touring the country by now!

Hello, everyone. I know I've been kinda sporadic about posting things on LJ (and even FB) lately. I blame three things: work stress, health issues, and (since Friday) Batman: Arkham Origins (which is, so far, super-awesome).

However, I wanted to post today about a few of crowdfunding ventures that I am supporting on both IndieGoGo and Kickstarter.

Krypton Radio

The first is Krypton Radio Leaps Into THE EVENT HORIZON on IndieGoGo. Krypton Radio is an internet radio station by science fiction fans for science fiction fans. In their own words:

Fandom is singing. And it's not just the music from a thousand favorite TV shows, games and movies. It's not just the music the fans write themselves about the things they love, though that's amazing. It's a celebration of thoughts and ideas, of daydreams and daydreams brought to life. There is more creative energy in science fiction fandom than in any other social group on this entire planet. So it's only fitting that Fandom should have a radio station.

The Event Horizon is a talk show/interivew show on Krypton Radio that brings "science fiction and fantasy writers, filmmakers, fan guests and creative people from all over the science fiction and comics creative spectrum" into their mobile studio to talk about their creations, the science fiction they love (and hate), and the science fiction genre in general. Again, in their own words: "The show strives to bring back the connection between the fans and the creators of the genre that's been missing, and to help new creators rise."

They are trying to raise $24,000 for a production budget to take The Event Horizon on the road to the places where fans and creators congregate: science fiction conventions! So far, they've been working via Skype in order to produce shows without having to leave Los Angeles, but their best shows have been when they are able to conduct live, in-person interviews at conventions . . . and that costs about $800 per person per event!

They have one more week to go, and they're less than 10% of the way towards their goal! Please, if you can, help them.

Rebel Speaker

The second campaign I'm supporting is The Rebel Speaker, also on IndieGoGo. The Rebel Speaker is a waterproof Bluetooth speaker and speakerphone with a suction cup back so that it can be attached to the back of a phone (if the surface is slick enough), a tile shower wall, a car windshield, or any other surface that a rubber suction cup will stick to. Since I recently lost my Bluetooth speaker/speakerphone to wear and tear (cheap-ass piece o' shite...), I've pledged at the $18 level to acquire a Rebel Speaker (probably in red). This campaign ends on November 15th, and perks will be shipped during the week of November 18th.

City of Titans

This is the one that I'm the most excited about: The Phoenix Project — City of Titans. When the campaign was first announced, I nearly cried, and here's why: City of Titans is a superhero-themed MMO being developed as the spiritual successor to the ill-fated City of Heroes . . . by former CoH players! Almost the entire development team are people who played and loved City of Heroes during its eight-and-a-half year run as the premier superhero MMO, and, what's more, they're all volunteers! Yes, every single member of this team is volunteering their time and energy and creativity to make this game a reality. The campaign is almost over (it ends on November 4th), but there are still some amazing stretch goals that they can meet if people continue to pledge. And the perks are pretty darn cool, ranging from forum titles to in-game items to an all-but-travel-expenses-paid trip to the official launch party! (And some of the add-ons are pretty awesome, too!)

The tentative launch is mid-2015, but that could change, since game development is a chaotic and unpredictable venture. But I'm willing to wait for this one. If you still need convincing, read the Updates. Yes, there are 35 of them so far, but with every one, I get more and more excited, and I am more and more sure that these people are doing it right.

ConJecture/ConChord just released the programming schedule for the upcoming con (October 18th through 20th), and here is my schedule for it:

[EDIT: I'm no longer on the Turning Fandom Into Fame panel, as it's opposite the Kazoo Awards. Also, I'm now moderating the Concept Albums with SF Themes panel.]

Friday
5:00pm in Brittany: Ebert Was Wrong: Video Games Can Be Art with Belle, Neal Hallford, Donna Keeley, and Morgan Lair
10:00pm in Windsor Rose: Kazoo Nominee Song Circle (if I'm nominated, and probably even if I'm not)

Saturday
11:00am in Brittany: Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma! with Ursus Aureus, Lee Gold, Kay Shapero, Nick Smith, and TOM SMITH!
1:00pm in Chanticleer: Totally Tasteless & Tacky Revue hosted by Tim Griffin
3:00pm in Eaton: Don't Forget Your Towel: The Enduring Legacy of the Hitch-Hiker's Guide with Thomas Benson, Amy Berner, Neal Hallford, and Gary Westfahl
7:00pm in Brittany: Concept Albums with SF Themes (moderating) with Clark Chimp, Sue Dawe, and David J. Peterson
10:00pm in Chanticleer: Concert: In My Humble Opinion with Don Parrish-Bell, Randy Parrish-Bell, Wolf Klauschie, and Aedwyrd.

Sunday
11:00am in Clarendon: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to R'lyeh (moderating) with Esther Friesner, Morgan Lair, Allison Lonsdale, Mark Miner, and Eric Rand
12:00pm in Chanticleer: The Kazoo Awards
2:30 in Chanticleer: Concert: Allison Lonsdale and Eben Brooks

I hope to see some of you there!