It’s Okay to Move On

It is unfortunate that we live in an era where so much of our identity is tied up in the media we consume and the personalities that dominate that media. I remember attending a Firefly discussion at a local convention a few years after the show was cancelled, and being amazed by the universal agreement that the show was killed before its time and would have been amazing if it was allowed to continue. To this day, I think the best thing that happened to Firefly was that it was cancelled before it ended up as a disappointment.

It was then that I realized that I was never really a fan in the way others were. I don’t really care about a series, a show, a book, or a person. I just like the science fiction and fantasy genres. These were the genres I grew up with. They are a part of me and, yes, they are a part of my identity. That said, as a fan of the genre, I know that not everything in the genre is for me. I also know that I can move on from something I was enjoying when it no longer interests me. Media properties change, target different audiences, what remains magical is the opportunity within the genre.

I watched the first two episodes of the new season of Doctor Who. I thought Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson were amazing, but it is obvious that Davies is aiming for a different audience. It does not appear that I am in that audience. He made it clear that he wants the show to return to a more kid friendly/family oriented style. That is great. We need more shows like that. I am not a kid, though, and I am not interested that programming. I could rant and rave, but why? There are multiple decades of the show to rewatch and enjoy. That is more than enough for me. A lot of people loved the new show, and I am so glad for that. I want it to succeed. I want to see more opportunities for science fiction and fantasy content. It is quite okay if something isn’t written for me.

That said, it is also okay to not watch something. It is okay to walk away and find content that does appeal to you. Find something new. These are huge and complex genres. Every time I walk away from one property, I find a dozen more to occupy my time.

Happy hunting!

Critical Role Introduces Beacon

Critical Role has made the next move in its ongoing evolution from a group of “nerdy-ass voice actors” playing a weekly D&D game for fun to a fully-fledged independent gaming studio and production house with the launch of a new membership platform Beacon.

The new site, billed as “the new home for all things Critical Role,” includes access to live event presales, a merch discount, and a full catalog of video-on-demand (VOD) uploads including current episodes in full on the day of release with the podcast also immediately available. It also includes access to the Critical Role Discord server that offers fans a direct line to the creators. Membership costs $6 for a monthly subscription and $60 ($5 a month) for a year. Which, for some fans, means they will probably break even with the merch discount.

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A New Age

Despite all evidence to the contrary, a large segment of the population still views wealth and power as a sign of wisdom and insight. This mistake, born from a form of magical thinking that sees wealth and privilege as divine signs of authority instead of a mix of blind luck and deliberate exploitation, has consequences. We see the impacts on our world and in our lives every day, and yet the crowds still come to beg a boon from the fattened fools who see themselves only reflected in the adoration. They devour the excess while the rest of us reap the costs. They are an aristocracy of nitwits, the Elmer Gantrys of the digital age. The cults of personality that surround those with wealth and power are just that, cults. Like all cults, Bible Belt to Silicon Valley to Wall Street, they rely on a continued generation of magical thinking to survive. Mythmaking as praxis built on parables distributed in video memes and AI gibberish.

Welcome to the new age, which, unsurprisingly, looks a lot like the previous age. New faces with all the same vices.

Moving Mastodon Hosts

When I decided to setup a Mastodon server, I was expecting a small group of people to join with me. Unfortunately, that didn’t really happen. Now, it’s just me. I like having my own corner of the fediverse, but it gets a bit quiet.

At this point, I’d rather help pay for a community server than pay for a 1-person instance, so I am thinking of winding this one down and moving to more active pastures.

It’s kind of fun. I get look for a new instance that suits me which, in a social media context, is a bit of a new experience.

I will update my links once I make the move!

Content, Creation, Community, and Fear

In looking to to rekindle my passion for online work, I keep thinking about the practical nature of creative work in a modern context. At the moment, I have a nearly null readership. It is not completely null, but it is vanishingly small. This is not a surprise. I have been wholly inconsistent in posting, and the focus of the site has fluctuated wildly as I have struggled to make sense of where I want to go next.

The question I must ask, then, is, “By what metric am I measuring this site? What does success mean to me?”

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