I work in retail as my day job. More specifically, I work at a game store, and as you might imagine, it gets pretty busy this time of year. Games are common Christmas presents every year, and with the popularity of tabletop gaming it’s no surprise that the store would be packed with shoppers looking…
As a freelancer, it’s important to keep hustling. Work rarely comes to you; you have to seek it out, and the first rule of seeking out work is networking. Make contacts: sit and talk with colleagues at conventions. Talk about anything you want, just be sure to be polite, and try not to dominate the…
Last week I wrote about getting a job at a movie theater when I first moved to Madison, Wisconsin many years ago. The theater was an “Art house,” showing foreign films, documentaries, and basically filling a niche that other theaters had ignored at that time. The theater I worked at — the Majestic — was…
When I first moved to Madison, Wisconsin many years ago, I landed a job working in a movie theater. The theater was an “Art house,” showing foreign films, documentaries, and basically filling a niche that other theaters had ignored. The theater I worked at was technically part of a chain: Landmark Theatres also managed theaters…
For the last two years, I’ve been using Facebook to spread a little bit of joy. Facebook, for it’s MANY faults, does have a few useful features: one that I’ve found particularly handy is the birthday feature. A line-item on the right side of the page tells me that “Person X plus 4 other people…
I’ve been thinking lately about encouragement, and how seldom we as a culture are willing to give encouragement to others. I suspect much of that ties into toxic masculinity: the idea that people without sufficient skills or confidence to succeed deserve to suffer isn’t new, but seems popular these days. I’ve been thinking about this…
With halloween only a week away, I’d like to recommend a few films to help inspire the Halloween Spirit. Not all of them are, strictly speaking, scary, but all of them capture aspects of the holiday, and many can be viewed the year ’round. First up on my list is a double-feature based on a…
As a follow-up to last week’s POST about being invited as the Gaming Guest of Honor for next year’s Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous, I wanted to talk a little bit about what being a guest of a convention means to me. In my line of work, there are a fair number of people for whom…
It’s been over four months since I’ve known about this, but haven’t been able to say anything until the official announcement was made. That announcement happened last night, so I am now free to spill the beans: I will be the Gaming Guest of Honor at Great Falls Gaming Rendezvous, October 4-7, 2018. I’ve never…
I’ve been seeing a lot of my Facebook friends writing about the passing of a beloved pet lately. Words are hard to find at a time like that — good words, anyway — that will offer real comfort in a time of grief. I have a standard thing I write: “Take comfort that you gave…