Culture and Technology

            I’m a person who thrives on technology. Not that I know how any of it works – and some of it, I can hardly ever get it to do what I want – but I can’t imagine a life without all the technology I have at my disposal. Yet, at the same time, I wonder what impact it will have on the natural progression of our society.

            For the last two hundred years, technology has advanced at an astounding rate. Along with it has grown our ability to preserve and display our own history and culture. At the same time as preserving, we’re reinforcing our own cultural identity.

            Through movies and internet, the various concepts, values and beliefs important to our culture are expressed over and over. We watch these and pass them on to our children; our history and ideals are passed on as they never were able to be before. We preserve so much, and yet, I wonder if we aren’t causing cultural progression to grow stagnant.

            On social media, on several occasions I’ve come across a video showing the standards for human beauty as they have changed over the years. But, when was the last time these standards truly changed? With all the movies and videos out there reinforcing our current standards, how many generations will it take before we move on?

            A character in one of the Assassin’s Creed video games once commented on a preserved city that “history is the study of change” and that when change stops, death occurs. It’s the same with culture – it is meant to be forever changing and growing.

            So, I wonder, is how much we strive to preserve things good or bad? Will our current technologies preserve our generation in a way that will make simple work for future archaeologists, or will it become the gospel by which future generations live?

            I guess only time will tell.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Augmented Reality and the Future

            In the past couple of weeks, the internet (and, indeed, the world) has exploded about the new augmented reality game, Pokemon Go. There are two major opinions – the people who love the game and those who think it’s stupid. To me, though, the important thing to look at is what this game means for the future.

            Last year, I shared the story of the Zombies, Run! app and how it got Colleen and myself out exercising regularly when otherwise we could hardly dream of it. Pokemon Go has done the same thing across the whole world – people who would normally be inside all summer playing video games are now outside, exercising, exploring and socializing. People with mental health issues, such as depression and PTSD, are reporting improvements.

So, what do those two games have in common? They make exercise fun, rather than a chore.

            Now, the term “Augmented Reality” is something I’ve become quite familiar with over the past year. Why? Because one day, while out running from zombies, I said to Colleen, “Wouldn’t it be cool if someone developed a technology that would let us actually see the zombies that are chasing us in the story?” I then went on to hypothesize that you could take a virtual reality headset, mount cameras to feed in the scenery and then add in the digital characters.

            I figured I couldn’t be the only one to come up with this idea, so I did some research. What I found was astonishing – in particular, a company called Magic Leap that is working on a piece of technology far beyond what I had been imagining. My brain was flooded with ideas for the possible uses of this technology – yes, games were at the forefront, but there are so many practical purposes as well. It functions as an immersive mobile computer, an art platform, a communications device. With it, people have the potential to holo-comute to work.

            To me, though, the best application of augmented reality is the ability to combine work and play. Imagine being able to go into work and have the work you do become part of a game. You could have high scores that you try to beat each days, achievements and awards for completing a certain amount of work at a certain speed. Goals and praise that can break up an otherwise dull and tedious work shift. From an employer’s standpoint, it could be used to improve worker output and even work quality through turning work into a game.

            Pokemon Go is just the tip of the iceberg. We’re entering a future where science fiction is becoming a reality, and it has great potential for improving life in innumerable ways. All it takes are some deceptive photons and a little imagination to make the world a better place.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Songs of Khrull

            Unfortunately, Colleen and I have fallen behind on Of Dice and Glen, so this month’s episode will have to wait for another day. However, on a related note, we’ve been having a great time playing D&D with a group at our local board game cafe. Out Dungeon Master has been keeping a blog record of our adventure, so if you’re interested (and starved for our D&D adventures), you can click here to check it out.

            One thing I’ve been having a lot of fun with while playing this adventure is writing songs. My character is a minstrel when he’s not moonlighting as an assassin. In order to subtly gather information about an assassination target, he claimed to be writing a song about them. So, to hold to the character, I actually wrote a song.

            And, since I’d written one, why stop there? Once we completed the first adventure, I whipped together a second one to summarise everything our characters had done. So, here they are!

Livinia the Mage (Sung to a tune adapted from “Ragnar the Red” from Skyrim)

Oh, Livinia the mage was the worst kind of scum,

With her half-orsine offspring, all four of them dumb.

They raided and looted the roads of Chiswell,

Til the King's Guard arrived to bid them farewell.

But Livinia the mage and her sons ran away,

To the south and the bridge leading to Gannaway.

Now, along come our heroes, with some other plan,

Mhurrun, Luna and Lumi, Cididel and Phann.

Evil Livinia, she plans out an ambush at night,

With an old man as hostage, she thinks they won't fight.

Our heroes did charge in and slay all her brood,

They set Livinia running and our heroes pursued.

By the time that they caught her, Livinia was deaaaad...!

With a mysterious arrow shot right through her head.

The Heroes of Tolvir (Sung to a tune adapted from “The Hero of Canton” from Firefly)

Now, Tolvir was a village in trouble,

It lately been plagued by a skulk.

It raided and pillaged the houses,

Everyone stayed inside to sulk.

Then along came some heroes, quite mighty,

They were hired by old Papa Kurst.

They set out to solve all their problems,

Preparing to deal with the worst.

(CHORUS)

The monsters are slain,

The skulks are no more,

The heroes of Tolvir,

It's one for the lore!

Luna's a barbarian tiefling,

She delighted in finding a spoon.

She hacked up some lions in battle,

The map she found proved quite the boon.

CHORUS

[Deleted verse]

[Cididel was really a coward,

Some illusions made him full of fear.

When assassins attacked in the night,

Cididel charged right for the rear.]

When assassins attacked in the night,

It was Lumi who levelled the field.

The elf, with cunning and stealth attacks,

Gave the villains not a chance to yield.

CHORUS

Cididel charged right into battle,

At a ramshackle villa, I'm told.

Blasting monsters with all his magic,

The tiefling proved himself quite bold.

CHORUS

In battle with hideous ghouls,

The elf Phann cut them down with his steel.

Whenever a friend became injured,

He was right by their side for to heal.

CHORUS

When attacked by a whole tribe of xvarts,

Half-orc Mhurren was eager to fight.

He slew goblinoids by the score,

With his maul fling left and right.

CHORUS

At long last they came to the skulk,

Its mind broken and wretched to see.

They took away its glove and slayed it,

Its death was an act of mercy.

(CHORUS)

The monsters are slain,

The skulks are no more,

The heroes of Tolvir,

It's one for the lore!

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.

Truth or Satire?

            A few years ago, I found myself reading an article about a recent study. The article talked about how this study, funded by a major oil corporation, had found that an increase in solar power would kill the sun faster, literally sucking the energy out of it to make our electricity.

            At the time, I was unaware that this was a satirical journalism website. Nothing clearly labelled it as such. However, as I simply couldn’t believe what the ridiculous article claimed, I started doing research to find out the validity. Before I discovered t was a satire site, I found myself going through the comments, seeing if people were believing what the article claimed.

            Most didn’t. Likely, many were aware that the whole article was a joke. However, there were some who fervently believed that this was true – solar energy was sucking energy out of the sun and would cause it to burn out faster.

            Since then, I have seen numerous satirical articles shared on social media by people who think they are real. Because they share some of the views being mocked by the satirical tone, they readily believe the articles without taking the time to check the information.

            It is so indicative of society. We see something official looking, so we automatically believe it. Researching takes too much time and effort. So, if we want or fear it to be true, we’ll believe it.

            On the rare occasion that someone wants to look into the validity of what they’re reading, it’s nearly impossible to get a confirmation unless you can get to the source. With the internet, information is right at our fingertips – but so is misinformation.

            Sarcastic and satirical people often make the mistake of thinking others understand their sense of humour. Unfortunately, there are a whole lot of literal people in the world, who take everything at face value. It’s no wonder there are so many people with no understanding of each other.

            Adding to the trouble is the requirement for news to be entertainment. I saw an episode of Gilmore Girls the other day where the main character, aspiring to be a journalist, had her writing criticised for not having her opinions in it. It’s the sad truth about our news these days – it’s all about the opinions of the people presenting it.

            What we really need is a news service called something like “Just the Facts” which presents nothing but the facts of a situation. Then people are given the freedom to decide what they think for themselves.

            But, that wouldn’t be entertaining enough, would it? And it sounds like a lot of work. Why would we want to make up our own minds about things when it’s so much simpler to agree with someone else? There’s no need to think when you can blindly follow.

Click here to find the charity anthology containing a couple of my short stories.

Also, make sure you check out my wife's blog and her life coaching website.


If there's any subject you'd like to see me ramble on about, feel free to leave a comment asking me to do so.