Podcast. White Lies

I quite enjoy listening to podcasts that investigate and retell the various angles of a story and how it has evolved both socially and factually. The ever-evolving game of telephone we play as kids can be so harmful as adults in social circles, and so very difficult to unravel when an entire community plays it for over five decades.

A Story of Law & Social Influence

The podcast White Lies by NPR takes two young men from Alabama to the small town of Selma, Alabama to investigate a trial that occurred shortly after, and likely was related to, the Bloody Sunday Massacre after a peaceful march led by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the mid-1960s.

The two podcast hosts search desperately for the trial transcripts for the murder of a white religious leader and northerner who had come to Selma after Bloody Sunday in an attempt to help the turbulent town. Along the way, they interview people alive at the time including trial jurors, discover various media circulated at the time, and unravel stories told down through generations of the stories told socially through the many grapevines. Depth is added to the investigative story by way of current political and historic structures and stories of the town that help paint a picture of how the town may have looked in the 60's.

The White Lies podcast is well written, well executed, and well balanced. I highly recommend it to the podcasts listeners among us.

Podcast. Imagined Life by Wondery

This has by far been my favorite podcast, and it continues to surprise me in the best ways. I truly hope Wondery keeps this podcast coming for many, many episodes.

Get to Know Who You Think You Know

The model of this podcast is that you, the listener, are the main character in a story. After much research, an episode is written to put you in the place of someone you likely know, or at least have heard the name or heard part of the famous story.

You learn all about little known, but very relevant stories of the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of this person. Each episode focuses on the life, struggles, and triumphs of one person. Along the path of the podcasts, clues are given about who "you" are, and there is so much care taken into making sure the clues are not too obvious.

I highly recommend these podcasts for the entertainment, mystery, and education about another's life. Check out the podcast: Imagined Life by Wondery.

Book. Wicked

I recently finished the book Wicked by Gregory Macguire. I'd heard of the play, and because of my lovely spouse's obsession with musicals I had already memorized the entire soundtrack for the play based upon the book.

One of the best parts about this book is that I have never seen the play, and my spouse has never read the book. Almost every time I finished a chapter, we had an in depth discussion about the differences between the book and the play. This was better than a book club for me, and I think this was the perfect book to do this with. I look forward to watching the play now that I've finished the book, but I also quite enjoyed the many discussions we had about the book along the way.

Book vs. Play

Without giving away too many spoilers, I strongly believe that with this book one can watch the play before reading the book without "ruining" the experience by knowing what comes next. While the story lines are incredibly similar, even the main characters change between the book and the play. Characters and their entire entangling story lines are removed from the play. Events that seem so important to the book are missing entirely from the play.

I'm really excited next to see the play. I've heard all about it, but wish to fully experience it for my self soon.

Have you read the book? Seen the play? Let me know what you think!

Bellingham Game Company, LLC

I recently became a part of the Bellingham Game Company, LLC.  It really has been quite an adventure navigating the legal world of registration, tradenames & trademarks, copyrights, and taxes. We even launched a Kickstarter Campaign recently, and the amount I have learned is ridiculous. I'm learning about appropriate utilization of keywords to keep our target audience engaged without accidentally getting people who aren't interested in our company's products. I'm learning about my own bias and inability to see multi-layered statistics clearly. Eventually, I'll get better at it, but for now I'm still doggy-paddling my way though the learning process. It's been great fun and I look forward to learning so much along the way.

Our team so far is amazing. The one common thread we share is a love of artistic hobbies and tabletop games. Together we have hashed out rules, discussed designs, set individual and company goals, and come together to build what is now the Bellingham Game Company, LLC. We hope to utilize our variety of life experiences, vocational skill sets, and market research to develop many entertaining, strategy-encouraging, table top games for a variety of people to enjoy. We also look forward to eventually earning enough capital to both develop the next game, edition, or expansion and to better support our favorite local charities throughout Whatcom County.

Whether you play with friends or family, a tabletop game is a good way to pass the time while chatting and catching up. We hope you like our games and support our company even if that support only means checking in on the facebook page and clicking the "follow" button. This simple action can help us appear to others when they search terms that are relevant to our business.

Watch the Bellingham Game Company Facebook Page for our many games and editions and expansions to come. We have quite a few ideas in various stages of development, and with your help we can get off the ground and running toward a cornucopia of tabletop games for a variety of age groups and lifestyles.

Book. Into the Wild

The book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer is a sort of interesting book. The author has created a sort of well-researched book with just a little fictional flourish to fill in the gaps.

The main problem I have is liking the main character. This kid repeatedly does not grow up, often attempts things full-board, with research and resources, yet still so many decisions seem made with such bravado and youthful ignorance as to rub me the wrong way.

Repeatedly, the young adult appears mature for his age and then appears far less mature for his age. It is as though he repeatedly attempts to assimilate and when he fails he moves on to a new adventure. A couple times, he successfully finds a group that appreciates, even if doesn't understand, him. This group he returns to a few times, yet always goes looking for something better.

I guess my main issue with the story of this young adult is that I feel he is in many situations "old enough to know better." Nothing is good enough to satisfy him intellectually, physically, nor emotionally.

I think the movie did a much better job of making the main character more likable, even if they were less honest to the real story. In this rare case, I recommend the movie over the book.

Podcast. Left, Right, Center by KCRW

I recently discovered a podcast called "Left, Right, Center" by KCRW by NPR on my podcoin app. The topics are mostly political, but also include social topics and other things that tend to divide people along conservative/liberal or democrat/republican lines.

The host is the "center" representative. The left and right are mostly consistent, but are occasionally different people. Sometimes a third guest is thrown in just for fun, or as a specialist on a particular topic.

Keeping Discussions Civil

What I like so far about the random episodes I've listened to is that the arguments are kept mostly civil. The majority of guests on the show seem to know and respect each other to some degree, and while things get heated the topic is resolved or changed before a full blown fight emerges.

I really appreciate the host's ability to review facts of difficult topics, ask the hard follow up questions, but also moderate well and know when the discussion is devolving and needs to be switched to a new topic. There are a few times I've heard one side or the other get pretty heated with their opinions, as is to be expected, but they still manage to keep it civil.

Book. Lisey's Story

I recently read the book Lisey's Story by Stephen King. As far as King's books go, this was a weird one. I know that's strange to say of Stephen King, but this on was truly odd for him. The darkness took a new form in this book, and upon finishing the book I did finally appreciate it.

Almost Put It Down

I'll be honest here: for the first third, almost half, of the book I had trouble sinking in. There was a lot of back story, and a lot of build up. Action was throughout just often enough to keep me reading, but barely. There was a very slow turning point that took my interest, but I don't think I could pin point it. Slowly, the main character pulled me in with her and I read more quickly and longer each time I picked up the book.

Worth the Read

Keep the lights on toward the end. It does hit home just enough to give you goosebumps and make you think twice about looking into the shadows of the corner late at night. If you can push through the first half, this book is truly worth the full read.