Welcome to the Wooly Side

Thank you kindly for visiting my blog. My name is Sean, and I'm a professional loafer and procrastinator.

I started this blog in 2014 primarily with the intention of compiling everything I'd written (that I felt was at least worth a skim) into one place. Then I started writing some new stuff, and the whole project turned into this massive nuisance. After over a hundred entries, I thought it might benefit anyone who stumbles into this site to have a bit of organization. As such, this blog provides links to other blogs in my self-proclaimed portfolio, with a brief description warning you of what you're getting into.

What is the wooly side? Boy, you'd think I'd know. I've heard of people being wild and wooly, and the wild side of life is of very little interest to me. But for some time now I've imagined that there must be a wooly side to balance it out, made up of reasonably unobtrusive inhabitants that may not be magical enough to fall into the realm of fantasy, but are also a bit too odd to feel comfortable swimming in the mainstream. To date, I haven't actually taken a stroll alongside a mammoth like the image on the site suggests (that's not even me, by the way), but I've always suspected I would quite get along with a magnificent creature like that.

So anyway, thank you again for stopping by, and please help yourself to any/all of the offerings available.


Short Stories

Not to suggest that writing short stories is easy per se, but I find that (minus a few exceptions) it requires the least amount of planning. Polish certainly, but when the muse hits you just right you can really reap the benefit of an inspired beginning, middle, and end. Here are the short stories that I feel at least work on some level.

The Unseen Kingdom
This is a faerie tale I wrote for my two act stage show End of the World in 2005. Like so many of my short stories, it's meant to be read out loud. The story is clearly a retelling of the opening to Sleeping Beauty, with an emphasis on why laughter is so important.

The Opening Line
A short story about writer's block, probably autobiographical. It's me versus my inner critic and reader, with special nagging by the muse herself. And not to spoil the ending, but the opening line never reaches its predicate.

A Thousand Words
A flash fiction piece that is literally a thousand words. An upper-classed snob has delusions of immortality when her overworked servant Marguerite delivers her portrait. I was trying to tap into an Edgar Allen Poe/Robert Browning mindset. In the end I think I wandered into dark humor territory. No regrets though.

A Current Event
This was just a silly story for which I found the seeds in an old notebook and thought I might try dusting it off to see what became of it. I'll admit it's more of a B-side tale, but I think it has a bit of a charm to it.

A Glass of Wine
I'd had this one in my head for a while, and Short Story Week 2015 was the perfect way to force me into writing it out. After the previous entry which only had one spoken sentence, I wanted to tell a story entirely in dialogue. Royalty, political subtext, and murder, all under 700 words.

Thinking Inside the Box
This was part of one of my early nanowrimo years. I got scolded by a featureless fiction character in my head. I love what came from the encounter, even if there's nothing else I can do with apart from posting it to a blog.

The CORE of PSD
I got to tap into my dark humor a little with this one. I was in graduate school for library studies, and I'd been having to read an endless procession of dull articles that convinced me even the writers couldn't have cared less about the subjects. So I decided to make up my own little anecdote in cataloging history, and then pull my hair out writing an academic article about it.

The Protagonist
My first flash fiction piece! Suppose you turn out to be a completely irrelevant character in somebody else's story? I guess you might be entering the real world or something.

MTV's House of Horror
This one's a bit of an oddity. Celebrating Halloween I created a mental walk-through haunted house based on the golden decade of MTV music videos. Essentially, I'm describing what you see as you stroll down the corridors. The full list of references appears at the end; 79 in total.

Hallmark Presents -A Very Depressing Thanksgiving
Keeping with the holiday theme, I bump into the mascot of Thanksgiving itself. The turkey is having an esteem crisis because the surrounding holidays are way cooler. It's hard to tell, but I think I made things a little better.

The Nothing Special Christmas Special
If this were made into an actual Christmas special, I'd expect this to be the final act. Suzy Snowflake has been unsuccessful getting an official Christmas special off the ground and has returned to the North Pole right at the end of the season. But maybe there's a little Christmas magic left in an unexpected place.

Playing a Glissando
Certainly not one of my favorite titles, but I kind of enjoyed the story of a divorcee dealing with an overbearing ex. This sequence was originally devised as part of The Carousel, but I never could transplant it into Caris's life anywhere. As such it became it's own thing centered around a one-shot character.

Stakes and Ratings
I'd been watching some of Bob Newhart's standup, and I imagine some part of me tried to emulate his unemulatable style. As we were approaching Halloween, I naturally started thinking about things like vampires. One idea, what do vampires dream about? Another, what if vampire hunters had a Rachel Ray type television show? These two ideas congealed into this result.

The Journey to the Journey
Another title I'm really not fond of, and I couldn't even remember what this was about before calling it up. I tried writing in a different style, forgoing plot in favor of a general concept. This is based on a father I once saw at an airport interacting with his son. The encounter just stayed with me.

The Elevator
Man, I had a series of undescriptive titles for Short Story Week 2016. This was a suspense piece I wrote for Flash Fiction Night back in 2011. I've never figured out why I name some characters and not others, but here is a week in the tedious life of Leon, who's working a temp job as an elevator attendant. There is a clear breaking point.

Sacrificing the Lamb
Another 'verbing the noun' title, but at least this one gives some indicator of what's going on. Part fable with a dash of frame story, sometimes things change simply because they do.

The Maul of America
This may or may not become a tradition with me, but I wanted to do another spook house attraction for Halloween. I took Universal's original horror icons and stuck them in a shopping mall setting. Mainly just describing the tourist's experience walking through the attraction.

Three Christmas Short Stories
This was a single blog I did to churn out three very short Christmas themed stories. For "The True Meaning of Christmas" I tapped into my inner sarcastic child and played with a few of the basic tropes. "Angel on Campus" was based directly off of an encounter that happened to my mom while she was still in college (with my own embellishments, since I wasn't there). And "Hurry Down the Chimney" is part of The Carousel (see below). My demon character is in a rarely utilized 'up' mood and she's trying her hand at decorating the condo for Christmas, despite having no former knowledge of what goes where and why.

Kingdom Hearts: The Game That Never Will Be
Kind of in the same vein as my spook house blogs, this is a descriptive account of a Kingdom Hearts spin-off game I would make if I happened to fall into the director's seat of a videogame company. A new villain, new creatures, and a few more Disney properties to check off the list.

The Dragon I Met
This was a story told through six journal entries and a mediocre acrostic poem. A dabble in literary fiction (a genre I hate), this was filler for a breakout room event that our library hosted. I'm writing as an arrogant scholar from London on a walking tour through Scotland in the 1800's. His journey intertwines with tales of a majestic creature of the deep. For Nessie.

Love: Nothing
This is a fun little piece of fan fiction set in the Mario-verse. Princess Peach gets bullied on her own tennis court by a 'Wa-Princess'. It's not always a plumber who comes to the rescue.

It Just Is
Man, I have no idea why this one was so popular! Possibly because it's short. Middle of Short Story Week and my mind went completely blank. So I dug through some old nanowrimo stuff and found this bit of surrealism (probably the same voice from Thinking Inside the Box, see above). I can't and shan't explain it. As per title, it just is.

There's No Pleasing Some People
This could have been a comedy sketch, but I went the short story route instead. Anyone who works in customer service fantasizes about getting away with crap like this.

The Checkered Game of Death
My 2017 haunted house attraction blog, centered around the theme of board games. This time I created a back story for the haunts to offset the over descriptiveness of the walk through.


The Carousel

The centerpiece of my fiction is a little garden I call The Carousel, based around two primary protagonists Caris and Zelphina. Caris is the kind of character you'd expect to find in a cozy mystery, but it seems her story got misshelved in the sci-fi/fantasy section where she fell in love with the demon princess Zelphina. Here's a little introduction.

Not in a Lodge (partial): A short ghost story I hope to finish very soon.

Caris's Welcoming: If I ever manage to get a draft of my first novel up and running, this is going to be the prologue.

Love and Possession: Another partial piece that may or may not ever see completion. Caris's best friend is about to marry a preacher with a teenaged daughter named Becky. But things go sour when Becky becomes possessed by a supernatural force.

Punchline Sold Separately: This was just a silly conversation between the girls, where no-nonsense Zel is having difficulty grasping the rubrics of a knock knock joke.

After the Fall: A snippet from the first novel detailing Caris and Zel's first kiss. Again, based on the current status of the draft I may have to rework it entirely. *sigh* Oh well.

PhantomCon's Panel: Something fun I wrote for myself, as if my fictional characters attended a fictional fan convention to answer questions from a fictional audience. I discovered that Zel really isn't too fond of me. Part two is here.

In Theaters Friday (mid-2078): A nanowrimo exercise. If my story were to be turned into a movie, what would the preview look like? Well not this since so much has changed, but it looks pretty cool anyway.

Splash Fiction: This short piece focuses only on Zel, demonstrating her social awkwardness at a pool party, and the slapstick she tends to attract.

Caris Runs On: The final day of Short Story Week 2015. Caris tells a 648 word story composed of a single sentence.

The Haunted Hayride (100th Post Party): My one hundredth blog. I decided to do another meta-piece by taking some of my characters on a hayride tour of my childhood nightmares. Zel and I come to an understanding.

A Room Without a View: This was part of a creative writing course I took last autumn. I was hoping to use the assignments to create a full story, but that didn't happen. Caris is a scare actor in a fake haunted house that actually turns out to be haunted.

Calm Tides: This was from the same class right around the time I'd given up on the way it was structured. More Zel-centric, she and Anomaly come to an 'understanding'.

The Call of Mardi Gras: I practically went three weeks in a row starting new stories. I haven't come back to this one yet, but it's still on my to do list.

150th Blog: Writing What You Know: I get to hang out with Caris for a little bit; kind of doing a fan fiction of my own fiction. Surreal, huh?

Missed Direction: For Short Story Week 2016 I'd wanted to write a Zel-centric story, but I discovered she's a really hard protagonist to crack. But then I opened up the month of Halloween and I think I found an access point. Zel fills in as a fortune teller. But she's not exactly overflowing with people skills. It's why I love her.

A House Call: This will ideally be a segment of the first chapter of the first book. Slow going, but never abandoned.

Paradise Restructured: A segment from one of my Camp Nanowrimos, strangely not involving either Caris or Zel. This is kind of an experiment to see if I need to reconsider just a first person narrative in order to convey information to the reader. Signs are looking good.

200th Blog: The Wooly Side's Open Mic Night (and a Cow Named Rover): Wow, it's really been 200 blogs! I just kind of turned all of my characters loose for the evening to see what would happen. It turned into kind of a fun combination of poetry, prose, lyrics, and script. Of course Zel had to take center stage. She's a lot more of a spotlight hound than she wants to admit.

Her Weight in Goldilocks: This, I'm pleased to say, is a Carousel short story that actually works as a standalone. You don't really have to know Caris and Zel personally to follow conflicting feelings about babysitting. My Short Story Week 2017 kickoff piece.

Buried Treasure: And this was Short Story Week 2017's finale. Caris is narrating her mini-golfing day out with Zel on International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which she naturally turns into an allegory. I never would have guessed it, but I seem to have a knack for writing romance (in small bursts, mind you).

Next Game: I was writing more Carousel stuff for Camp Nanowrimo. Zel seems lost when she's not in combat, even if it's more psychological than physical. I don't know if Zel is even capable of playing a purely friendly game of pool, but that's hardly an option here.

A Scoop of Mashed Potatoes On Top of a Manhole Cover: I kicked off Short Story Week of 2018 with a bit of an internal argument about what does and doesn't constitute art. I'll admit it's not my best story, but I quite liked framing it amidst a conversation between Caris and myself.

The Bridge and the Troll: This one was better. I always feel at home when I revisit classic folk/fairy tales, and this one gave me an outlet for some character snark to snark combat.

The Semantics of Murder: Sometimes I just have to try a gimmick in a short story. To say what it is would spoil the fun, but suffice to say things are not what they're meant to appear as.

For the Dental Plan: This could just as easily have been a comedy sketch, but I kept it in story format because it's a little easier to keep the plot going that way. It starts with an employee being called into a meeting with the boss, and it slowly derails from there.

I Hope You Like Her: I'd been reading up on the synopses of various Twilight Zone episodes. Not all of them were horrifying, but the pattern had the focus on some sort of odd situation with a reveal at the end. It's kind of a nice writing exercise. This is my result.



Multi-Chapter Stories

I have a group of longer pieces that are encompassing multiple chapters. One is my five chapter Scooby Doo fan-fiction called Scooby-Doo's Unsolved Mystery, with a link to the first chapter.

I'm also writing an EPIC Disney themed fan-fiction called Chasing the Rabbit, again with a link to the first chapter here. It's obviously a work in progress, but I'll be updating the Table of Contents page (see below) as I go.

I also have an ongoing over-the-top humorous piece called The Wax Buzzard Files (obviously a cheap version of a Maltese Falcon). This is what I work on when I have writer's block. Prologue link here. Best of luck.

The Table of Contents to these stories is here.


Poems

Do you like poetry? I'll rephrase that. Do you tolerate poetry? Good. here's a list of things I've posted that rhyme:

Demi Caper -a parody of Because I Could Not Stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
The Kamyl -a parody of The Tyger by William Blake
The King and Me -a satirical summary of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "comedy"
The Final Word/EOW Parade -from my stage show End of the World. Parodies (notice a trend?) of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and the chorus of Sharing a Dream Come True
Ostrich -also from End of the World, a hoedown styled tale of courage and feathers
End of the World -take a guess. This was our closing song for the show. Call me some time and I'll sing it for you personally
Family Game Night -a song parody of Uncle Cracker's Follow Me, about the hair pulling blandness of playing a full game of Monopoly
Faeriesong/Cruel Tragedy -in my opinion, my best lyrical work. My recurring character Vanessa gets a little help managing her depression from an ethereal admirer
Poetry Slam -a half dozen poems from my younger days. Includes Opening Night, When it's Over, Neurosis, Song of the Spyre, Debbie Kicked Me, and Star of Love
The Siren -day seven of my self-commanded short story week; melancholic lyrics to a Loreena McKennitt type song that currently only resides in my head
My Own Private Grinch -This idea started out very differently. I intended to write a story about an eating disorder using the Grinch as my metaphor. Then I thought I might try opening the story in the typical Dr. Seuss verse. Then I thought I might close it that way as well. Then things got out of control
Giving Me Grief on Logo -after a brief-ish dissertation on what I've learned about parody writing, I demonstrate the lessons by reworking Ricky Martin's classic Livin La Vida Loca into a hate letter addressed to my time in Disney's parades department
An Adolescent Valentine's Day -A full dozen poems from my high school/college years dusted off and commented on. Includes Lee of the Rock, Iambic Tetrameter No. 239 in C Flat, "St. Virginia", "The question's allusion", The First Snowfall, "The snow and the wind and the mist", Eye-Contact, At the End of the Rope, An Overdose of What?, "No deeper cave", One More Chance, and "Every time I think I fall in love"
Return to Nevermore -This is a Janet Jackson parody that I've had kicking around in my head for decades and finally decided to take seriously. I turn "Black Cat" into "Black Bird" (yeah I know, real creative) and cram as many Edgar Allen Poe references into it as I can while still having it make the least bit of sense.
Poetry Slam Revisited: Ten Degrees of Frost -I took another round of going through the old college notebooks. A friend of mine once assured me that no writing is wasted writing. I have yet to receive feedback from her on this one. Includes Slipping Through Woods on a Snowbound Evening, A Question to Lewis Carroll, Innocence, When It's Over (Redux), Kitten, Blind Fury, Visions Fade, "Oh My God I've Been Shot", Footprints, and Connection.
Camino Real -Take Tennessee Williams's most amorphous plot line and cram it into Peter Gabriel's "Steam". On second thought, don't. I've got it covered.


Sketches

I also write short scripts. Here are a few entries that fall under this category.

Grand Exit -A four minute skit involving anthropologists and a mummy.
Casting Feud -My first (debatably) paid gig. This was an unproduced PSA for Disney cast members to receive an info dump about the goings on of the Casting Department. I hear they both loved it, and didn't want to do it.
The Laugh Liberation Front -Can you write a sketch about people who think they're funny, but aren't, and it still be funny? Well, I believe I can.
Every Wolf Has His Day -Part of Short Story Week 2015, this wound up becoming a script instead. I really want to try this with puppets some time.
The Heavenly Court (excerpt) -Another of my many, many unfinished projects. What if Nature filed a lawsuit against God for copyright infringement? That's a question I never quite get around to asking, much less answer, in this opening stage show scene.


Reviews

I also tend to criticize the work of people more successful than me because it makes me feel better. Here is everything that falls under this umbrella.

The Next Food Network Star (2014): Back when my blog was young and directionless, I thought it might be a fun experiment to review season whatever of The Food Network's attempts to salvage its dignity after sabotaging several contestants the year before. Check out my mission statement, followed by reactions to week one, week two, week three, week four, week five, and week six before I finally just gave up and stopped caring anymore. It's a fun ride.

I'm a big Weird Al fan. In a time where the impending release of his presumably final album is in the scope, I do a full retrospective on his music. First, I don't shut up about what I'm planning to write about. Then I delve into his self-titled debut album, In 3-D, and Dare to be Stupid. After that I hit up Polka Party, Even Worse and the UHF soundtrack. Subsequently I take on Off the Deep End, Alapalooza, and Bad Hair Day. Postliminary is the summation of Running with Scissors and Poodle Hat. Ensuing abaft thereupon subsists recapitulations of Straight Outta Lynwood and Alpocalypse. And then I wrap it all up with a review of Mandatory Fun and have to go find something else to do.

You want Muppets? I got Muppets. I do a ranking of the various Muppet films in two parts, one and two to be precise. I also review the ABC series that deserves way more credit than it gets.

I threw in the towel on The Simpsons a long time ago, but I still poke my head in for the Halloween specials. I did a review of Treehouse of Horror XXV, and the following year I did a more encompassing retrospective of the whole series.

Disney films are inescapable. This is an ongoing series where I take a hard look at the films of the past and (eventually) the present. The classes include Princess 101 (Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty), Disney's Animated Dark Age (One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, and Oliver & Company)  Princess 201 (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin), Music Appreciation (Fantasia/Fantasia 2000), the Extended Family (the Pixar films), the Disney boys (Pinocchio, Peter Pan, and The Jungle Book), the Winnie the Pooh films (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, Pooh's Heffalump Movie, and Winnie the Pooh), and the underrated classic (A Goofy Movie).

I haven't seen the National Lampoon's Vacation remake, and I don't plan to. But it doesn't mean I can't review it based on the trailer and personal bias, right?

Maybe not a straight up review of the Paranormal Activity franchise, but a reaction nonetheless.

Another reflective piece, this time on video game company Rare, with special attention to the Nintendo years. You know. The period that matters.

Scooby Dooby Doo! Contrary to popular belief, not every story in this franchise is the same. Some are way cooler than others. You want my top picks? Too bad! You're getting them!

We're in the insanely golden years of superhero films. And what more appropriate way is there for a nerd like me to celebrate than by griping and backbiting over unimportant details. I take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase One and Phase Two, the X-Men trilogy of trilogies, and the Batmen versus the Supermen.

It's hard to take The Rocky Horror Picture Show seriously, but damn it, I'm going to try. Set aside about half an hour to read my review/summary/explication of this cult classic.

Welcome to My Nightmare by Alice Cooper is an awesome album. When I found out he'd done a sequel to it in 2011 I had to review them both together. For Halloween no less. I'm so clever.

Speaking (quite a bit) of horror, I have a love/hate relationship with the Saw franchise, and I'm not afraid to curse about it. Bring the kids.

Who doesn't love James Bond theme songs? No, seriously. I'm looking for somebody to beat up. Well, except not all of them are equally good. Hell, a couple of them aren't even worthy of their opening credits sequences. Yes, I have some pretty well defined opinions on that matter, thanks for asking.

I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Big surprise, huh? I also wrote a review of it. Because I was so sure nobody else would think to do that.

My 2015 movie wrap-up. I just touch on a few highlights, about a paragraph a film. I expect this will become an annual thing. Oh, by the way, I saw Star Wars.

I grew up on Heart's music, and having just procured tickets to see the Wilson sisters live in concert I wanted to spotlight some of my favorite songs from the band. And so I did. And the sun rose a little sunnier the next morning.

Roxette's Joyride is a tribute to one of my favorite musical groups. I have it listed as an editorial, but I was wrong to do so. It will never happen again.

Wow, the Ghostbusters reboot certainly stirred up some heated words amongst the internet dwellers. Was that all for naught, or should the franchise have left well enough alone? Well I have answers.

I was looking forward to the remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. But then I watched it. And then I was looking forward to reviewing it.

I was actually in a short film called The Ogre. If you want to know what I thought about the result, then look no further! Seriously don't. The link to it was a few sentences back.

There is an official listing of the Top 10 Animated Shorts (50 actually, but I DO have a life, you know). I run through the lineup to see how well I think they hold up, in two blogs: 10-6 and 5-1.

And here's my 2016 movie wrap-up. Don't you love it when things turn into traditions?

For Halloween 2017 I took Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell Trilogy and did kind of a review/analysis hybrid, pretending I was putting on all three albums as a massive opera. The results were...long.

The Ghosts of Christmas Specials was part blog but mostly review of three of my favorite Christmas specials; namely the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, The Bells of Fraggle Rock, and ALF's Christmas Special.

And...my third annual buffet of film reviews with the 2017 movie wrap-up.

Review of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert. This blog is exactly what it sounds like it is.


Editorials

When I run short of creativity, I occasionally write blogs that are closer to the spirit of actual blogs (you know, taking a topic and rambling incessantly about it). Here they are listed by title.

Is Rock and Roll dead?
The Curse of the Halloween Soundtrack
Eddie Murphy's Law: An Immobile Object Can Never Keep Up
Why Does it Matter if Han Shot First?
Seven Miscast Characters (and One to Grow On)
Five Signs You've Become an A***ole at Disney World
Happy Birthday Pac-Man!
This Week's Shiny Object: Caitlyn Jenner
Giving Katherine Heigl a Left-Handed Compliment
Who is Monty Python?
Shows in Need of a Reboot: Ranma 1/2's Character Changes
This Week's Shiny Object (with Guest Blogger Sarah DeArmond): Quiverfull and the Duggars
Doctor Who and Steven Moffat
It's Your Sequel, Lucy van Pelt!
The Twelve Obscure Carols of Christmas
Seven Little Pitfalls of Caroling
Alice Eve, the Young Turks, and an Offensive Joke
When is Criticism Constructive?
The Obstacle of Shallow Faith
I'd Like to Thank the Academy, But I'm Not Going To
Video Games as Art -Thanks for Everything, jayisgames.com
Sarasaland's Superstar (Why Daisy Needs Her Own Game)
A Tribute to Mystique for a Change of Face
Cowbania's Fantasy Summer Olympic League
Batman Minus Batman
Chromatic Dragon Con -The Other People's Convention
How Christmas Stole the Grinch (A Comparative Look at Christmas Films)
Merry Christmas! Let's Go Caroling!
The Liberal Christian
A Video Game Case of Sequelitis
Six Children's Songs Way Cooler Than They Should Have Been
Because I'm Alternative Batman
Why Does Sailor Moon Resonate?
So You're Locked in a Room
Shows in Need of a Reboot: Snarfquest
How the Odyssey2 Created Magic
Why Maleficent is Disney's Alpha Female
Super Punch-Line!! (Arcade Edition)
Wonder Woman: Arriving Precisely When She Means To
5 Tips for People Who Want to Give Chris Chibnall Tips About Showrunning Doctor Who
Eight Video Game Characters Who Deserve a Comeback
My Top Ten Favorite Death Scenes in Films
13 Frightening Entrances: The Best Horror Theme Songs
9 Trick or Treating Tips: I'm a Fluffy Bunny
Doctor Who: What Would You Do if You Were Steven Moffat?
How to Fail at Humor -A Survival Primer
Why the Rock-afire Explosion is the Greatest Cover Band Ever
A Dozen Break-up Songs -The Bittersweet Candygram (with Guest Blogger Sarah DeArmond)
Cowbania's Fantasy Winter Olympic League
Updates: The Uncooperative Muses and the Librarian Medley
The League of Super Bystanders
Should Elsa Have a Girlfriend?
Unmasking the Bogeyman
Point, Click, Die: The Museum of Haunted Adventure Games (90's Edition)
2019 Movie Previews
Should Radio Stations Pull 'Baby It's Cold Outside' Out of Rotation?
Finding a Host for the Oscars (My Nominees)
Ten Lessons from Ten Years of Marriage (with Guest Blogger Sarah DeArmond)
How I'd Change Endgame if I had the Infinity Gauntlet
The Flightless Bird Pride Parade
An Open Letter: Where is the Evidence of God?
The Halloween Monster Auditions


About Me

Perhaps you're interested in a little bit about me. Aside from the basics, like all the usual toes and vital organs, I have quite a bit of fun giving sarcastic answers to personal questions (particularly in survey format). You can read the ones I filled out in March 2007, April 2008, May 2008, Summer 2008 (obviously a slow year for me), Thanksgiving 2008, September 2009, one long awaited follow-up in May 2015, a November 2016 revival and a March 2018 reunion.
My laptop broke on me and I went a few months without posting anything. Then I got a Chromebook. Wow, I could have just said that instead of the multiple paragraphs in the blog.
I made kind of a big deal about October 2015, doing a massive Halloween celebration. Decorating the Lawn was my show opener, and I gave some personal history about growing up in a Halloween-loving household.
I always try to avoid putting forth opinions about things that actually matter, but the June 2016 shooting in Orlando really hit me hard. This was probably my most personal blog where I took a moment to process what I was feeling about the horrible event and some of the issues attached to it.
My Own Disney Home (Part One: Under the Mouse's Ears) I worked at Disney for six years, and I thought people might enjoy reading what I thought about the company.
My Own Disney Home (Part Two: Through the Donkey's Eyes) Oh yeah, did I mention for five and a half of those years I was a character performer? I may have picked up a couple of anecdotes.
13 Hitchhiking Ghosts Funny thing, I also have a particular phobia of animatronics. Here's a fun look back at some of my more nightmarish memories.
The 3rd Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Festival: and the Long Walk Back to Reality Our library holds a free mini-convention every year. Being on the development team is one of the most creatively draining (in the best way) experiences I've had. Here is a look back on how I achieved complete mental exhaustion.
Home is Where the Dogs Are -A Thanksgiving Gathering This is a personal tribute to my family of hounds, terriers, and unidentified. Our souls will always intertwine.


Miscellaneous

And finally, here are the posted blogs that don't really fit easily into any other category. Most of these are image heavy.

This is a Test -My first blog! I was way too proud of myself.
Zork Elements -If you've ever played the Zork games, then you're familiar with their 'list parodies' of the months of the year, major holidays, etc. I decided to do that with the periodic table. It took way longer than you'd think.
The Ampersand -This was a class project in Library School. I had to create a mini-graphic novel using toondoo.com. I even drew one character myself. I's as exciting as it sounds.
Thinking Without Portals (part one, two, and three) -One of my contributions to the Hoover Library's adult game night program. GLaDOS is back, and claims to need your help defeating a dangerous virus. Surely there can't be an ulterior motive.
Super Mario P.I. -Another game night entry. A Nintendo relic has been stolen and Toad has rounded up the usual suspects. Can Mario discover the culprit? There is a secret level that nobody seems to have bothered looking for yet. You'll have to contact me directly to get to it.
The Twelfth Toll -My biggest puzzle-based story; this one themed around the survival/horror genre of video games. Visit part one, two, three, and four if you think you've got what it takes.
The Zodiac's Labyrinth was part of my Halloween 2016 blog series. I hadn't done any puzzle design in a while and I wanted another shot at it. This serves as kind of a maze from Aries to Pisces.
The Video Game Christmas Parade -One final game night exhibition. This one was fairly well received. Of course we were bribing the attendees with prizes, but you only get so far on integrity.


S1: The Tomb of Horrors (Live Version) -Did you know you can use PowerPoint to create a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure? As of this writing I've done three for our Sci-fi/Fantasy Festivals, one of which was based on the classic D&D dungeon crawl to end dungeon crawls, the Tomb of Horrors. Here's a taste of what the end result was like, in parts one and two.