The last couple of weeks have been surreal for me. I’ve been in a funk creatively, wrestling with the demands of “normal” life and trying to balance them with my hard-core creative ambitions, which include, among many projects, finally wrapping up with my long-overdue FETIDUS episodes. It’s been so strange that quite often when I get going on a major creative personal project, working on a big writing project or piece of music, some event happens that alters/delays/postpones/derails/(choose your favorite term) the effort, and I often have to pick up the pieces or dangling threads of my creative dreams, take a deep (deep, deep) breath, and buckle down for another go at it.

Feels like I’ve been “buckling down for another go at it” for the last 15 years.

The only thing that keeps me from literally banging my head against the wall in utter frustration (well, actually, I’ve done that), and succumb to the sublime temptation of resignation, is… well… actually, I don’t really know. I have some theories, but as I’ve written and edited this post, I realize that my theories about this very profound issue sound like half-assed psycho-babble with a dollop of whipped cream on top. So I’ll spare you the painful regurgitation of my pitiful self-analysis.

Instead, I’ll tell a story.

A few weeks ago, I was gearing up yet again for a major creative push into the deepest realms of my imagination, after months of sincere, but sputtering, attempts due to various other interruptions… and then… I got the call. Yes, that kind of call. The kind of call you drop everything for and haul your creative ass back into reality, grab the keys and head out the door.

My poor wife had been injured during a performance, and I needed to come and pick her up prontisimo. Thoughts ran unchecked through my mind… no, don’t let it be one of her legs… she’s a dancer. It’s too important to her, it’s her life. No!

But the call didn’t seem that serious at the time, even though it was, indeed, her leg. On my way to pick her up, I received another phone call, more urgent this time, that her colleagues thought it *might* be much more serious — like a torn Achilles. My heart raced, I couldn’t fathom something so terrible would happen to her… on top of all the other medical issues we’ve experienced together in recent years. A torn Achilles could be career-ending for a dancer, and to be quite frank, I was filled with dread.

Instead of meeting her at the theater as originally planned, they told me to head to the nearest hospital. At that moment, life again took on that surreal quality of a sepia-colored drama, starring the handsome hunk-du-jour (me, but not really, I’m far from it), and the beautiful pop-star-turned-actress-playing-a-beautiful-grad-student-dancer (my wife), and our amazing son, played by himself.

As we went through the very familiar motions of the hospital ER in-take, the nurses’ and doctors’ faces all in a cinematic blur, we confirmed that the Achilles was fortunately NOT torn (whew!), but rather her calf muscle (I don’t remember the name of the specific muscle). We sighed one of those long sighs of relief, knowing that she’d be able to recover and dance again — albeit after at least a few months of healing and physical therapy. It was a “close one” this time, nothing more.

On the drive home, with my wife’s leg all neatly bandaged up with a splint, brand new crutches rattling in the back, I had a “moment.” A Groundhog Day moment.

Those who have seen the hilarious 1993 comedy Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, will know exactly what I’m talking about.

I’d been there before. That exact time, space and even road. It was even raining the same type of rain. Everything seemed like I had been there before, only shuffled around in a twisted tapestry of my memory. Which “drive home” was it this time? The dreadful car accident? The surgery? The torn calf muscle?

That drive home felt like I was Bill Murray in Groundhog Day finally figuring out what was going on.

I found myself muttering under my breath, “This is so strange.” It wasn’t a bitter or ungrateful moment. In fact, I was deeply relieved that my wife’s dreams of dancing weren’t destroyed, because I know how much that means to her — and us. That moment was simply a realization that I was at that “loop point” of my life. Again. The same spot, only Tivo’d to March, 2010.

When we got home, the power was out.

Ahhh. Now I get it, Universe. Spring, rain, trees, power lines, zap. Deep meaning there, right? I almost called a hotel, but resisted the temptation to cave in that easily. Two hours later we had our power back.

So the next week had its ups and downs. We spent a lot of time with each other, and in the non-managing-her-leg-situation time, she helped me organize my efforts for some of my creative projects (she’s a natural organizer, a trait I admire in her). At first we thought her recovery would go quickly. She was hobbling around on crutches, but then the pain got to be too much. Just as I wrapped up my latest devious plans for world domination (version 42.5), her leg pain became intolerable, and she needed to see a doctor right away. Turns out it was indeed a more serious muscle tear than we thought. Another urgent doctor’s visit later, we confirmed the seriousness, but still not like the career-killer a torn Achilles could have been. So we were still grateful, but simultaneously amazed by how disabled she was for the short-term. She was stuck in bed, unable to walk or drive, and barely able to crawl (which she did, to the bathroom, no stopping Mother Nature).

We were both stranded, in a way, in a bizarre limbo land, an alternate reality that was still reality. It takes its subtle toll, emotionally and physically. Adjustments had to be made. “Normal” elements of life had to proceed, whatever that meant. Days blended into each other, just like they had so many times before.

I’ve adapted to these situations now, I’m a veteran. Part of me tunes out by necessity, another part takes a back seat and watches how each hour will progress, like an endless mini-series that’s “kinda good” but “kinda sucks.” Another part is actively engaged in trying to be a good human being, a good husband, a good Dad. Another part restlessly computes and then re-computes my creative plans when we get through all of this. Again.

Little snippets illustrate how this time has been:

One day, our little boy was recruited to help with piles and piles of the laundry that had gotten out of control. He was a good trooper that day, for sure. One batch, I thought he’d fall right into the washing machine. Hilarious, but not really.

Naturally, my wife’s laptop decided to die (a few months out of warranty, dammit!), and she needed her IT department (me) to rescue all her data. Now stranded in bed, she then needed a more powerful computer which I set up in our room so she could edit video for one of her classes. I wore many hats, none of which said, “Writer” or “Musician” that week. Not to mention the backlog of client work I would have to deal with when we got through this.

Now add that up, and it clearly has an immediate affect on an on-the-go little family with lots of things on their collective minds, and lots of projects on their to-do lists. “Normal” life ground to a halt. “Important” things were no longer important. Work stopped. Creative work? Fuhgeddaboudit. I’d been there before. At times I marveled. Wasn’t it just recently that we were in the hospital with a serious life-threatening complication from a medial procedure? Weeks blurred in my mind, and then weeks just catching up with “normal” work. And before that, a serious car accident with health issues we’re still dealing with? And before that… the list goes on.

I think we’re up to 8-9 hospitals now, in not nearly as many years. I should start a blog about hospital ER services! (BTW, I can heartily recommend the ER at Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland. They treated us pretty damn well. Nice interior design upstairs in the Express Care area. Good muffins in the lobby. Housekeeping was a little shabby, but overall, a solid A-minus.)

On Monday, my little boy had a presentation to give in class about his favorite dinosaur, the truly awesome Spinosaurus. I had no idea how awesome. We had a diorama, poster and hand-outs to produce, you get the picture. The original plan was that my wife would do most of the project over the weekend so I could try to catch up on work, etc. This time, she couldn’t, due to the miserable leg situation and other things going on. So, I had the joy of building the diorama with him (which really was incredibly fun), but I was amazed when 6-7pm rolled around Sunday evening and we just started to rehearse his presentation. By the time we took care of dinner, prepped my boy for bed, etc., the next time I looked at the clock it was around 9pm and I was exhausted.

I don’t even remember Monday. I think it was Monday night when my little boy complained of sickness, and sure enough he was sick. Tuesday he missed school, was in bed with a fever along side my leg-challenged wife. Wednesday is a blur, and just now I returned from the doctor’s office with a prescription for an antibiotic because my son’s cold turned into a lovely infection.

So right now, my wife — the dancer — is finally back hobbling around on crutches (fortunately, getting a bit better), but now my little boy is in my bed sicker than sick. (He bumps me out of my side of bed when he’s sick, because he is at that age that he needs his Mommy for comfort. I try to sleep within earshot so I can help out in the middle of the night — my wife can’t exactly get up and retrieve things easily, remember the leg? — so I tried pumping up my air mattress the other night. No go. The pump gave out. And it’s a NEW air mattress! Damn quality control!)

All I can say is thank heaven for frozen pizza, good humidifiers, Netflix, Tivo and PS3.

So what’s next? At this moment, I have no idea. Except I will take a deep, deep breath, catch up with work, get back to my plans of conquering the universe, and hope that I don’t see the inside of a doctor’s office or ER for at least a decade. No, how about I just shoot for one year.

Through all this, I have tried to contemplate the oh-so-profound “deeper meaning” of it all. I compared this ongoing mini-drama — this now-predictable cycle of never-ending events — with Groundhog Day.

What the hell am I supposed to learn from this? What is the magical thing I do to break the Groundhog Day cycle? What nagging flaw in my personal, ever-flawed human essence do I need to overcome to wake up that fine morning and realize that I’ve conquered Groundhog Day and mastered the uber-lesson “The Universe” is trying to teach me?

Hogwash.

Apart from the fact that I continuously re-confirm that I am a LOUSY cook, and will probably ALWAYS be a lousy cook (I can burn a frozen pizza with the best of them), perhaps there’s not much more I need to learn from these experiences. Except ONE thing. Maybe this is the LAST thing I need to learn from this ever-looping cycle…

And this last lesson may indeed have a more profound cosmic, metaphysical or spiritual meaning. At least for me. Now before I say what I think this lesson is, I want to clear up one thing: I don’t want this all to seem like I’m complaining. This little recent series of events, while certainly not yet over, is really a tiny blip in our own lives, and it definitely doesn’t register on the Richter Scale of Life or in the grand scheme of things. Except perhaps on a personal level, where lessons learned are lives changed.

Yes, this “moment” I’m experiencing is just a small bookmark, maybe even a tiny footnote or a passing curiosity in one sense. I was even very fortunate to have had some much-appreciated family support to help out, and a huge thank you is merited. So that smoothed out many “sub-moments,” for sure. Having said all that, I also don’t mean to over-minimize this experience. The fact that we’re just a few tiny humans spinning on a small planet circling an average star in a lonely little part of one of billions of galaxies doesn’t diminish the personal value I can extract from this experience. The fact that I’m just writing this in between checking in on my little boy, who fortunately for both of us, just fell asleep, also doesn’t mean the very writing of it is meaningless. On the contrary…. oh, hold that thought…

Maybe my son’s fever will break soon. That will be good. I’ll go check on him again.

I’m back. See what I mean?

Now that I’ve got that cleared up, I return to the lesson of the week for myself.

Maybe what I needed to learn this cycle is that sometimes there is no further lesson that I need to learn. That I need to just get on with it. The profound thing for me to learn this time around is to see this just for what it is. This is just…

Normal life.

But man, how I wish it meant even “more” than that. So how about this? I’ll share a self-gratifying corollary for the hell of it, with the hope, for the sake of hoping, that it’s actually true:

It takes just as much or more to live a good, meaningful and loving life as it does to write truly great books or compose lasting, magnificent pieces of music.

There, I said it.

My heroic bit-wrangling and IT-shamanism for my wife’s computer is my sonnet this week.

My son’s cool Spinosaurus diorama is my sonata.

This week I am Husband. This week I am Dad.

Warm Regards to all who happen across this post,
James Durham

Well, P.G. Holyfield had his “Damn you, Holyfield!” and now I guess I have my “F**k you, Durham!” And yes, I take that as a compliment… twisted though it is… This is how it all happened. A FETIDUS listener by the name of Shane wrote me a decidedly terse note on the FETIDUS website, and I wrote him back. Here’s the exchange for your enjoyment. [ Language warning for my readers sensitive to the F word! ]

As posted by Shane:

“I love Fetidus. But you know what I am really fucking sick of.  You expect an invest from us. But you’re not invested in us. You take so god damned fucking long to release new episodes and we’re invested in the story.

So fuck you. I am cutting my feed from Itunes and will sign up again maybe in a year. When I am positive that all of the episodes have been released and I don’t have to wait so long.

This is really not fair to your fans.”

My response:

Hey Shane,

Wow, man, I almost don’t know what to say! First, I’ll take your post as a profoundly twisted compliment, so thank you, sir! I guess P.G. Holyfield had people tell him, “Damn you, Holyfield!” and now I guess my version of it is “Fuck you, Durham!” — although perhaps for different reasons. But I’ll take it as a good thing anyway. And I’ll just add this:

1) I deeply appreciate all my listeners. I try to say that as often as I can, and I hope that’s coming across. Getting to know some of them has been one of the highlights of producing FETIDUS. When someone transitions from being a listener to a full-fledged “fan,” I can’t say how awesome that is, and how much I appreciate it! It’s humbling and amazing. You guys completely blow me away!

2) You’re right, it does take a long time to release new episodes. As far as I know, I’m the only podcast novelist who is also writing all his own music for the episodes, and you know I have multiple voice actors as well, etc… this is basically a totally custom audio drama including all the music, and I don’t exactly have a staff, other than the split personalities in my poor, demented, contortionist mind. Plus I want to make sure each episode has a certain minimal level of quality. In fact, if I did it to the perfectionist level I wanted to, the episodes would take far longer to release!

So, yes, that all takes time, more time than I would like it to. But alas, this is how I’m doing it. Since FETIDUS is free, and I also have to make a living, have other creative projects going on, and more importantly I have a family I love spending time with… it’s the reality of the situation. As you know, I don’t charge for FETIDUS, don’t have any sponsors and thus far have refused any sponsors or ads, and I haven’t asked for donations (and I don’t plan to). So when you factor in the time it takes me to produce it, FETIDUS is costing me a huge amount of money. And I wish I could work on it full-time. I believe the way I’m doing it will eventually be worth it, and more importantly, I’m enjoying the hell out of it, and hope my listeners are too, even at the expense of torturing them with long waits in between episodes.

Now, in between episodes, it’s not that I forget about FETIDUS, or just ignore it or the listeners. I’m constantly trying to work on it, but I have other obligations in life, as I’m sure you do. For one, I have to make the money to make the time to work on it, so unless you want to write me a really big fat check to cover all my expenses, this is the only way I can do it.

Other podcasters struggle with the same issues, as I’m sure you know. They have different ways of dealing with it, all of which are completely understandable. For example, they may choose whether or not to include some of the production elements I’ve chosen to include. Some take sponsors. Some have a volunteer or a paid assistant helping them, or even a team or partners to work with. Some have real budgets. Some have big (or not-so-big) publishing deals and this is part of their critical marketing effort for their book launch (and I have supported more than one podcaster in that situation). Some are passionately trying to get that magical “big book deal.” Some are experimenting by charging for content. Some strip down the production to the bare minimum (quite effectively, I might add). Some secretly have a slave clone of themselves working night and day, etc., etc… In fact, I know of some podcasters who think I’m insane that I write my own music for FETIDUS and I’ll frankly, happily concur. But since I love doing it this way, I’ll continue investing the time.

3) Finally, how can I say this except, thank you for listening! I totally understand if you want to hold off until the whole project is done. I get where you’re coming from, and I’m honestly thrilled to hear you’re so pissed off at me that you’d let me know. I guess I must have done something right, otherwise it wouldn’t have been worth your time to contact me. And I sincerely wish you didn’t have to wait so long as well. In the end, I hope it will be worth the wait, and you come back to experience the full story. I just wish you didn’t cut the feed before episode 8, because things are about to get even more juicy.

Best Regards,
James Durham

P.S.: And by the way, cool artwork on your site! (I clicked there from the link you provided on your name.) Nice work, man!

> Click here to read the original exchange on FETIDUS.ORG

And now, for Episode 7 of FETIDUS: The Damned Heir! Please check out this thrilling episode! I didn’t have enough time before heading up to Balticon to announce it here on my personal website. I was literally scrambling at the very last minute before jumping in the car and cruising up to Baltimore (well, technically, Hunt Valley)! My wife and son were so patient with me as I wrapped up the finishing touches for Episode 7, but I think the extra effort was worth it.

Episode 7 is special in a couple of ways — first, because Matt Selznick finally makes his appearance as one of the characters, and he does a fantastic job. Second, because I actually sing in this episode. Yes, my singing voice! There’s a song near the end of the episode where I experimented and recorded my own voice, which is a FETIDUS first. I hope you enjoy it! I continue to experiment with the type of content and production I throw into FETIDUS, which is one of the reasons I love working on the project so much.

Finally, another bit of news: I finally released a 60-second verison of promo 1 of FETIDUS, which you can download here.

Check back soon, or subscribe for free via RSS or via email, since I’ve got some exciting developments cooking in both podcasting and film scoring!

Yes! Episode 6 of FETIDUS: The Damned Heir is now posted over on the FETIDUS website! I’m very excited about this episode, especially because so many of the cast had parts in this one. Almost everyone is there… Prebble Ramswell, Jose de la Mar, Patrick Nugent, Liliana Ayende, Bob Holmcrans, Sara Barrack and Valerie Durham — so it was really fun to edit, and quite the learning experience as well. The whole cast did a great job! Thank you, guys! You can read about the cast on the FETIDUS cast page. They are a wonderful group of people to work with, and I can’t wait to bring you more of their performances. I’m having the best time working on FETIDUS, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I invite you to give it a try. After all, FETIDUS is about making the world a better place, isn’t it? Well, you’ll see…

I love Linux. It is a fantastic operating system/platform with ridiculous power and flexibility, and I wish I could use it for all my computer needs. I’ve attempted to do just about everything with it, and try as I might, there are some areas where it just doesn’t fill what I need with my creative work. Don’t get me wrong, it’s more than capable in many areas, and I use it exclusively for production servers for my clients. But for creative work (such as for music production), I have yet to find a way to integrate Linux into my workflow. That doesn’t stop me from trying every once in a while.

True to my inner geek, I will admit that I periodically enjoy sitting down and relaxing with new Linux distributions and open source apps and seeing what they can do. Yes, I’m not embarrassed to confess that fiddling with Linux is one of my many strange, entertaining past-times.

If this post doesn’t interest you, dear reader, please skip it, but do come back some other day when I post something else that might fascinate you. For now, I will briefly engage my inner Linux geek and share my brief impressions of the current state of Linux on the desktop with Ubuntu Linux 9.04 Beta, while watching a sci-fi-horror-zombie-martial arts movie.

First, while I’m an advocate of open source software, that doesn’t make me a detractor of traditional commercial software or other operating systems not normally associated with the open source movement. I’ve paid my dues in the Windows and OSX universes (not to mention *nix, and earlier Mac OS, AmigaOS, OS/2, BeOS, DOS and others), but Linux holds a special place in my heart. I don’t completely know why. I just like it. I’ll have to explore why I like Linux so much in another post.

One of my areas of creative work includes producing music and audio. Unfortunately, Linux and open source software in general have yet to deliver what I need for music production on the Linux platform. Yes, there are some outstanding music and audio applications (and I’ve tried just about all of them), but out of necessity I have to continue to use commercial pro audio apps, like Sonar, Cubase, ProTools, Live, Reaper, etc. and my library of plugins and sounds.

I’ll discuss my platform of music production choice in another post, but for now I’ll just say that if I could do what I need to do with music in Linux, I would consider completely switching most of my computers exclusively over to Linux. But alas, for my personal music production needs, Linux is still out… which means that I must continue to straddle the OS worlds. But what about other computing needs?

What about writing, browsing, listening to music, burning, daily in-and-out things? Can Linux on the desktop handle all that? Well, the short answer to that is YES, of course! It’s been great at that for quite a while, if a bit quirky around the edges sometimes. What about the desktop experience? Is it easy to use? Short answer: YES, of course! Provided you invest a few minutes to learn your way around. Any user-friendly variant of Linux includes outstanding desktop interfaces from KDE and/or GNOME, and a vast array of awesome apps and tools, from office productivity programs to simple games. And it all works beautifully (for the most part), it’s FREE (in the open source way) and it’s fun!

Why hasn’t Linux taken over the world by now? Well, that’s a great question I’ll reserve for another post, and there are some very real, obvious and not-so-obvious reasons why it hasn’t and won’t completely take over the world any time soon. But is it a really usable platform for desktop users, today, in 2009? Oh yes, it can be, and the latest incarnations of Linux are better than ever. Compelling, really. Amazing, often!

So what about this famous Ubuntu Linux distribution? Is it that good? Damn right, it’s that good! I decided to take the Ubuntu Linux 9.04 beta out for a spin, and I can sum up my experience with it so far simply like this: IT ROCKS!

I was simply blown away by how smooth the whole experience was, compared to some other Linux distros I’ve tested and used in the past. Especially for a beta.

I decided to try out the Ubuntu 9.04 beta on my new little computing friend, my MSI Wind netbook. Like many people recently, I bought a tiny, cheap netbook that I take around with me when I don’t want to lug around a “normal” laptop or worry about breaking/losing something really valuable. A netbook plus Ubuntu 9.04 seemed like a match made in laptop heaven.

First, to begin my relaxing Linux installation evening, I decided to watch a movie. I discovered to my delight that my Tivo had recorded another mindless sci-fi channel special called “I Am Omega” that was just perfect for the task of installing Linux… not too riveting to prohibit me from multitasking, and not too idiotic to force me to channel surf. The film piqued my interest. After all, it had zombies, and was loosely (er-hem, very loosely) inspired by the excellent sci-fi classic novel I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson, from what I can tell. Yes, I Am Omega also appears to be a blatant attempt to profit off of Will Smith’s version of I Am Legend, while also hearkening back to the Charleton Heston classic Omega Man.

I Am Omega. Get it? Good. Oh, they got me without trying so hard. I Am Legend + Omega Man = I Am Omega. How could I not at least press play and see to what mysterious new heights these brilliant, original filmmakers would take such a venerable story?

On top of that, I was intrigued by the familiarity of the actor playing the main character of I Am Omega. He was driving me crazy, but then I realized — the Chairman from Iron Chef America! Yes, Mark Dacascos himself. So now I was hooked.

Mix classic sci-fi influence with an indie-film spirit, derivative script, impressive and yet sometimes glaringly out-of-place martial arts moves, then throw in a connection to one of my favorite Food Network shows, and I had the perfect background film for installing Linux and tweaking it to my heart’s content! With the subtly-refined acting skills of Mark Dacascos on display in the background, I was ready to begin.

I just had to get Ubuntu onto my netbook, and so I downloaded the ISO image from Ubuntu’s website (www.ubuntu.com).

But since I have no optical drive on my netbook (an MSI Wind variant, remember?),  I had to install the ISO onto a USB key. I was too lazy to do it the hard, normal way, so what about the quick and easy way? From Windows no less? Well, I found an awesome little utility called UNetbootin that was so insanely easy to use, I have to mention the original author’s name and send him a big thanks out of pure respect! Thank you, Geza Kovacs! Great work!

After installing the beta Ubuntu ISO onto an old USB key via UNetbootin, I rebooted off of the USB key right into a Live version of Ubuntu. Beautiful! How easy was that? Zero effort so far.

I threw caution to the Wind (pun intended), and I just installed it right to the hard drive. I allowed Ubuntu (a beta, no less) to handle the messy work and repartition my hard drive and install itself, right then and there. I decided I wanted to see how it managed the repartition and saving of my Windows XP boot partition, plus installation of a boot-loader. Now, folks, don’t try this without taking precautions! I had a backup and I urge you to do the same. While it went well for me, your mileage may vary (obligatory exculpatory comment).

Then, I rebooted the netbook off the hard drive and to my utter shock and awe, the simple interface of Grub bootloader came up and gave me the option to boot into Ubuntu Lunix or back into Windows, without a hitch. Nice! Very smooth, no hiccups so far!

I chose Ubuntu for boot, and in under 30 seconds I was running Linux off the hard drive… smooth as can be. Now for the tricky part… wireless. I was fully expecting I’d have to do some work to get the wireless adapter working, but oh no, not with this version of Ubuntu! Wireless worked without a hitch, right out of the box! Again, your mileage may vary.

Maybe I lucked out with the wireless adapter I had, but man, was that easy, and surprising. Prior versions of Ubuntu didn’t have compatible drivers ready for this model of netbook, from what I understand, so I was more than pleased with the results.

I spent 15 minutes customizing the desktop, and adding several packages for basic functionality, such as Flash 10, MP3 playback, Skype, etc., all without breaking a sweat.

Just as things couldn’t get more bleak for Mark Dacascos in I Am Omega, things couldn’t get better for me. I was up and running, surfing, testing YouTube, WordPress, OpenOffice, some games, audio playback, and so on. Wow! This beta of Ubuntu really is amazing. It actually works on this cheap little netbook. And it works well!

In fact, I was outright humbled by the collective skill of all the passionate experts and open source developers that made Ubuntu the perfect one-stop OS experience. As I sat there, waiting for the dramatic and disappointing ending to I Am Omega, I was stunned at how my little Ubuntu installation and testing session turned out to be as great as the movie was un-great.

Not to be disrespectful to the filmmakers, since I know how hard it is to make a movie… and I’m scoring an indie film this year that will undoubtedly be criticized by folks like me, but well, I Am Omega wasn’t exactly fine cinema, let’s put it that way. In other words, Ubuntu rocked, and I Am Omega un-rocked… but I’m still a Mark Dacascos fan!

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the “official” release of Ubuntu 9.04 but as far as I’m concerned this beta version is ready for what I need on this netbook.

In one ridiculously easy installation, I have a fully-featured Linux installation that does everything I need a netbook to do. I’m not done testing it, but for any basic cloud-computing need, it is beyond totally usable. In fact, maybe it’s ideal.

So far, it appears to boot faster than Windows, is inherently more secure, and in one quick install, I have a powerhouse little machine. Plus, it looks good. As always, I appreciate the attention to detail the Ubuntu and GNOME folks invest into their work.

Well, that’s it for now, my geekish friends who have made it all the way to the end of this post. I’ll install the final version of Ubuntu 9.04 when it comes out, and I’ll probably go so far as to kick Windows altogether off this netbook, with a few well-placed kung-fu moves inspired by Mark Dacascos himself. Hi-yah!

Now, before you do anything else, I dare you to say the title of this post five times fast … waiting … waiting … waiting … Okay, great! Now we’ve got some reader interaction, and this is already heating up! By way of introduction, I am a total Twitter neophyte and a complete social media newbie. However, with my keen powers of insight I have been able to pull five seemingly random tips about Twitter for new Twitterers out of my magical tip generator and now I will share them with you in all their glory!

Twitter Tip #1 – Make your own way, blaze your own path, be your own guru, and explore!

Every single week I see another brilliant new application of Twitter, another new development, approach, or clever idea! Twitter is still evolving at a break-neck pace and who the heck can possibly consider themselves a Twitter guru or expert at this point? I’ll concede that I’ve seen a few who do genuinely seem to know a lot, but I contend Twitter is so remarkably complex and far-reaching in its potential, that we all have a lot to learn… and a lot of room to experiment in.

What we’re witnessing with Twitter, I believe, is the beginning of a mighty change in the fabric of human relationships, where new social paradigms are evolving at an insane pace! We’re in the middle of a revolution! So that means, I believe you can make your own way, blaze your own path, and be your own guru! And by all means, explore! Learn Twitter, embrace Twitter, investigate the nooks and crannies while it is still a young and wild frontier! Have fun with it, enjoy it! I’ve been blown away by what I’ve found so far.

I believe that the social and anthropological ramifications of Twitter are deep enough for dozens of doctoral dissertations and “how-to” books! I know a great guy writing one right now, and I can’t wait to read it. And while you should obviously listen to the people you want to listen to, I humbly suggest that you reserve judgment for yourself and try your own ideas too! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Twitter Tip #2 – Equip yourself with the best tools for taking advantage of Twitter!

One of the first things I noticed was how overwhelming it could be to have a stream of tweets slamming me in the neural cortex in 140 character bursts like a fire hydrant gone amuck. In no time at all, I wished for a superior Twitter interface and some tools to manage and explore the Twitter universe.

Well, apparently the Twitter developers thought the same thing and they made an extensive API (Application Programming Interface) available to third-party developers so that clever little programming elves could create new, amazing Twitter programs to help you enjoy Twitter even more.

I won’t bore you with my current list of cool Twitter apps that I use, since whatever I say will be out-dated soon anyway. Just know that there is a Twitter application for almost anything, and if it doesn’t exist right now, it probably will soon. In fact, maybe you should develop it!

There are multiple apps for your iPhones and BlackBerries (or is that BlackBerrys?), special websites with funky statistics and tools, and stand-alone Twitter apps that cut through tweets like butter. I will only mention TweetDeck for now, but the best thing to do is ask people in Twitter itself what the coolest and best tools are. This is a constantly evolving landscape, but you’ll soon get a handle on it, and your tweeting experience will vastly improve.

Twitter Tip #3 – Following is fun, and plus, it’s a great way to gain your own followers!

When I joined Twitter eons ago, yes, those many, many, many days ago, I didn’t initially get the whole “follow” thing. What the heck was that all about? See what a neophyte I am? I’m not ashamed of being a total newbie at this. It just makes me want to learn! And so I began to learn without any preconceptions by simply following interesting people. And I discovered that following is fun!

There are so many fascinating people out there! And as time progressed, I noted that some of them followed me back. I read what they wrote, and interacted with my new-found fellow Twitterers.

Now let me be clear here. I’m not suggesting you follow just to get followers. (Although, that appears to work to a degree for many people who are interested primarily in numbers.) I’m suggesting you follow people that interest you, for whatever reason, and then let human nature take its course. Interact, and you will be followed back by many.

So how do you find people that are interesting to you in the first place? Ahhhhhh… that’s why I have another tip for you!

Twitter Tip #4 – How to find great initial people to follow, then expand your network by following the people they follow and those that follow them!

Make sense? I thought so. So how do you find those initial interesting people? Well, three ways for starters:

First, start by clicking “Find People” at the top of the page. Pretty obvious. Look up favorite writers, artists, musicians, friends, celebrities, real-world experts, etc., who are already on Twitter, and follow them. Inside the Find People menu you’ll also see “Find on other networks,” “Invite by email,” and “Suggested users.” Use those tools!

Second, use the “search” box on the Twitter page… and search for anything that interests you. If you like zombies, search for zombies! And there you will find the pulse of Twitter as it pertains to zombies… and the people who are talking about zombies at that very minute. Check them out, and follow people who are interesting to you!

Third, pay attention to the other websites you normally visit out there on the Internet! Many people that you normally get content from are already on Twitter… but you may not easily find them via the two methods above… so as you visit their sites, check out if they have a Twitter account, and if not, encourage them to get one! I’ve already invited or found a quality group of friends, colleagues and businesses this way, and it’s great to connect with them on Twitter!

Then, once you start to find that initial core of people, tap into their networks! One of the beauties of Twitter is that you can see who anyone is following, and who follows them… once you find someone that interests you, look through the profiles of some of both their followees and followers, read what they have to say, and you may find yourself amazed at the cool and fantastic people out there in the Twitterverse. Click “follow” on anyone that interests you!

Twitter Tip #5 – Tweet unto others as you would have them tweet unto you!

Well, there’s always room for the Golden Rule. Basic kindergarten behavior that seems obvious, but apparently some Twitter users somehow forget this basic social concept. I’m all for inventing The Great New Way to Use Twitter, and would love to see where brilliant new Twitter minds take us, but for most people, basic common-sense respect and even a little kindness go a long way. Please remember the “social” in social media! Those are human beings on the other side of those 140 characters. (Well, most of the time. )

On top of that, I’d humbly suggest never taking anything personal in the Twitterverse… I’ve already seen numerous little bouts of misunderstandings break out and much-needed apologies issued over things that were never intended to hurt someone. Actually, they were kind of hilarious to watch unfold, but sometimes let’s face it, we take things personally that don’t need to be.

Well, that’s it for now! My humble “Top Five Twitter Tips for New Twitterers from a Top-flight Twitter Neophyte” is now coming to a close — I have more, but the title wouldn’t have been nearly as fun to say out loud, so I’ll save my other ideas for my next Twitter-related post. Above all, I hope you enjoy Twitter and I hope to tweet you around! Oh… almost forgot… if interested, you can follow my tweets at:  twitter.com/jamesdurham

Alright, I will admit, I’m slipping into heavy geek mode here with this post, but I just had to write something about my favorite science fiction and fantasy convention… <drum roll please>… Balticon! But why is that? Why do I love thee, Balticon?

Here’s why: The people.

That’s the most exciting thing about Balticon, “The Maryland Regional Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention” held every Memorial Day weekend in the Baltimore area (www.balticon.org).

Yes, it’s because of the people that I enjoy it so much.

Unique, stimulating, intelligent, opinionated, educated, strange in good ways, creative, and unashamed of their areas of interest, the Balticon attendees seem to come from every walk of life and a vast array of personal and professional backgrounds. To be honest, I think it would be a great seed group of humans if some alien civilization wanted to abduct one hotel in its entirety and start a new human experimental colony. Okay, that might be disgusting… back to my point.

The people I have met there are creators, artists, fans, writers, gamers, scientists, journalists, musicians, avid readers, teachers, professors, techno geeks, programmers, publishers, artisans, dreamers, thinkers, social bunnies, anti-social hermits, entrepreneurs, IT experts, engineers, anime experts, social media gurus, obscure dance technique evangelists, fantasy nuts, hard SF veterans, Browncoats, trans-humanists, uber-bright kids, movie fanatics, indie filmmakers, podcasters, critics, history authorities, linguists, researchers, whole con families, people with wildly different concepts of personal hygiene, experts in arcana, open lovers of the bizarre and fascinating and more, more, more!

But that’s not all. What makes Balticon especially good for me is the unique mix of people — the size and ratio of attendees and “official guests” of different backgrounds and expertise. Goldilocks would say, “This con is just right!”

That’s the best part of Balticon for me now… meeting amazing people. And at Balticon, all the best features of large cons and small cons seem to co-exist in a unique, almost paradoxical combination.

From long conversations with admired (or even not-so-admired) writers on a lunch break, to running into favorite gurus in the hallway, to meeting a like-minded fan who you just know could one day be a life-long friend, to putting a face to someone you’ve always wondered about, to meeting a scientist with fascinating theories you never considered, to meeting a genius kid that knows more about gaming than you thought possible, to sitting next to a world-class author by accident at a local restaurant, to discovering new and unusual things to explore, Balticon is my favorite convention!

Let me put it this way. I believe Balticon has reached a magical critical mass of size and quality. Just so, that you can maintain anonymity and just “browse” if you want to, but also intimate and personal enough so that you can dive in and get to know a lot of people who really know what they are talking about. Also, any personality type is welcome, and you are not forced into one con social behavior pattern over another. There is enough diversity there to support several “sub-clans,” so to speak, with their own unique pools of people and activities, and yet they seem to be open enough to anyone new. And because of all that, they have reached a very well balanced program that covers a wide range of topics from some seriously top-flight presenters and a great group of fans and peers to interact with, should you choose to do so.

One specific example is how I had the great opportunity to meet Matthew Wayne Selznick (www.mattselznick.com) a couple of years ago. Matt is a pioneer in the podcasting community, and he was incredibly gracious to spend quite a bit of time discussing his perspective of new media with me. It was partly because of him that I was inspired to start my own podcast, and I’m very grateful for his willingness to connect with me that fateful day a couple of years ago. I believe that Balticon helped facilitate our meeting with just the right combination of factors that made it possible for us to talk in such detail. Had Balticon been any smaller, or had a lesser podcasting track, for example, Matt might not have come. Had Balticon been any larger, neither Matt nor I might have found the time or circumstance to cross paths and interact. Thank you, Matt, and thank you, Balticon!

And Matt is just one of many examples of fantastic people I’ve met because of the unique properties of Balticon. I’ve started new friendships and expanded my creative horizon, in part because of what Balticon offers.

And thus, In my years of convention attendance I’ve seen enough now to know that not all cons are created equally. Balticon has its own unique signature and for me, I look forward to it more and more each time. I hope to see some of you there this year, and get to know a few more amazing human (and not-so-human) beings!

Sincerely a Balticon fan,
James Durham

In response to a post over at Suvudu about DRM (Digital Rights Management), I couldn’t help but post some of my thoughts about this controversial topic here on my own site. The initial thread that inspired this post is located here, although this has been an ongoing discussion in the music and publishing universe for a long time, and has been a subject of much consternation in my own creative work.

I’ve wrestled with the pros and cons of DRM for my own content and just a few years ago I will admit I was a strong proponent of DRM. But now, as I’ve begun to look at how the world is changing right under our literal and virtual noses, I have completely changed my point of view. This is what I will post on the Suvudu site as my contribution to this compelling topic:

As a musician, aspiring writer and technophile, I see little value in DRM. I believe society is in the midst of a huge paradigm shift, particularly for artists and how they relate to their audience, and DRM simply gets in the way. Is that what the artist really wants? Obstacles to his content?

For me, DRM is the annoying cockroach on the proverbial banquet of universal content and it does nothing but keep the lawyers — er, exterminators — primed to the brim with self-indulgent enthusiasm and lustful finger twitching.

DRM has its place, however… and that is to provide false comfort to those artists who wish to remain in their citadels of old-world thinking, when it comes to the brave new world of digital media.

Having said all that, I’m all for copyright control. It’s just that I believe DRM is approaching the issues from the wrong direction. If an artist wants to protect their work and get his due compensation, I take no issue with that, of course. But in the end, trying to put digital content in a vault is like trying to store precious wine in a sieve. It just ain’t gonna happen.

What I believe will matter the most for artists in the 21st century is the human relationship between the artist and the audience. That personal connection is what will propel their audience to purchase the novels, music, films and so forth. That relationship generates trust, loyalty and even pricks the conscience of those audience members who have partaken of pirated fruit.

And that relationship takes work… a kind of work on the part of the content creators (and their teams if they have the budget) that is sometimes more difficult than the creation of the art in the first place. And I think it also requires a higher standard of merit for the work itself, raising the bar to a new level for the highest level of success. That’s where I come to the opinion — yes, this is just opinion so please disregard all this if you disagree — that a paradigm shift is upon us.

This generation, frankly, looks at content differently than prior generations. Content is not an object to them. It is to be easily and freely passed between devices, and yes, even between friends. When content loses its physical properties, something has to take the place of that which is lost. And that is where the relationship comes in.

In this short space I can’t go into more of my theories on this topic, but suffice it to say that DRM simply prevents the natural movement of content to the audience for which it is intended. And the audience of the 21st century will almost certainly take the path of least resistance. If it takes more effort to access or use an artist’s content, many won’t bother with it at all.

For those that choose to stoically defend DRM, please, have at it. But please don’t wonder why the content you are trying to protect is distributed without your control anyway and all that effort (read: time and money) you put into vaulting it up and chasing after pirates could have been spent building good will, trust and loyalty with your audience, one paying customer at a time.

Originally posted back on March 20th, I would be remiss in my newly minted duties to this personal website if I didn’t announce that Episode 5 of FETIDUS: The Damned Heir is now LIVE over at www.fetidus.org.

But now that I have announced it here, the hungry appetite of this website is now satisfied, albeit temporarily. In fact, if you subscribe to this blog, you will get all sorts of interesting updates… not just about FETIDUS, but about all of my other creative mayhem, commentary and cognitive diversions. And there are some things I’m positively certain you will be absolutely thrilled to know about.