Hello Mythopoeians! 

Today I turn 32 feeling like I'm on the precipice of my future. Not quite there, but with the glimmer of possibility ahead along a razor's edge of perils and folly. May fortune be on my side and persistence carry me through the difficulties to come.

Today I'd like to talk a little bit about the creative career path. Since I was the age of 17 I've dedicated my life to the arts, forging a path that I was warned would hold no guarantees and plenty of risks. Like many young artists, I felt myself the exception to the rule that would defy the statistical impossibility of success that such a career holds and demands. 

For certain I was wrong. After I graduated film school in 2010, I was left largely adrift in the vast and uncaring jungle of New York City, scraping by as a mover of furniture and sweeper of menial tasks. The collapsed job market meant that I was taking gigs for less than minimum wage, oftentimes making $75 a day from alumni who should've known better but could not resist the lure of young foolish labor trying to make their way through a cutthroat and elite commercial environment sustained by corporate commercials and cobblestone connections. 

Eventually I found myself back home where many of the same practices existed in the more glamorous and plastique perfect skyline of Hollywood. There, I worked for bad people who felt at ease worming  their way into the toxic dog eat dog environment of entertainment, exploited again for less than minimum wage and told to do tasks that far exceeded the scopes of my tasks. Asians, it is assumed, are good with computers, which in my case was true. Networking - the computer type, not the person to person type -  has somehow always become my purview at ever career stop I've had along the way. 

During these times I didn't have a clue of what to do or where to go. It was period of exploration with the crushing wave of melancholy punctuated by moments of euphoria delivered through new experiences forged from youthful exuberance and escapism. The Graduate is one of my favorite films of all time. 

I kept going on my creative endeavors largely because of my friendship with Vince, who had chosen to remain in New York to stay out his visa. We corresponded on scripts and ideas, including a reality show called The Warrior Within. 

It was the first time we created anything together. I felt proud of the idea and knew for certain it could succeed if only, just only, someone would give us a chance. 

My fugue state continued through as I shuttled from one job to the next until eventually it was suggested by parents that I should return to my ancestral homeland: Taiwan. There, my eyes were open yet again, this time to my inherited culture long dismissed under a deluge of comic books, games, and cartoons that made up my very American childhood. 

It's been a long and hot summer. 

This weekend is another scorcher. Funny thing, the weather. It's something you can always talk about no matter the circumstances. And so it goes for how we observe and learn ever and ever...

Platforms. Markets. Places where people congregate and advocate. Hubs of places real and imagined. Virtual and living. Lingua franca annalusa.  Call it culture? Build it by being better.  

New platforms, new markets. The opportunity exists everywhere within a cycle. 

What does it mean to visit similar themes all your life? To observe the changes by gazing the navel? 

So long as happiness exists sadness is real. 

Human after all //

Ray 

Happy August Mythopoeians! 

First, we have a major announcement! Websites are important for those, right? In any case, we are launching our next Kickstarter for Skies of Fire #7 tomorrow, August 4th, 2020 @ 8:00 AM PST.

This is our largest issue yet and what we've been building up to for some time. It's a doozie you don't want to miss.


Okay, onwards to other topics! What should we talk about today? How about... culture?
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This is another conversation sparked by the excellent Glendale Story Games Meetup, of which I've been a regular part of since the beginning of the year, but is a topic I've thought about often in the past. 

Why are some schools good at certain activities, like football or Speech and Debate? Why are some companies known for certain characteristics, like Amazon with logistics or Apple and design? How much of these aspects are inherent as a result of talent, and how much is transferred via culture?

The above definition implies a tangible quality to culture - things of permanence that can be viewed, transcribed, consumed, and experienced. Certainly these aspects are a major part of what culture is as a whole; I personally think of art, music, and food (in that order) when I think about the word. But what about the intangible? Can you learn a culture just by consuming? 

Happy July Mythopoeians! 

Before writing these monthly blog posts I usually take a couple of days to figure out the topic. This month's topic coalesces around themes of fate and chance. I was prepared to go with the title "Disclaiming Fate" but that was before I disclaimed fate by pressing shuffle on my music and low and behold... good ole' Bob Dylan with words most prophetic.
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So - what's been going on with us this month? Work, as usual! The ongoing pandemic has slowed us down slightly when it comes to logistical issues - it took Vince over a month to get a package I sent to him to fulfill our latest Kickstarter. Business aside, much of our creative work has been centered around the philosophically inane tabletop games. 

Dice. Ever think about them? Prevalent in almost every culture in some way. A source of entertainment and vice. A tool of chance and excitement. But why? 

Roleplaying games presuppose agency among participants in elaborate games of make-believe. We come up with skins other than our own to enact, imagining for a moment that we are someone or something else, living experiences beyond the mundane of the everyday. It's an intoxicating subject for us personally because it strikes to the core of our being. My favorite activity on the playground was the sandbox. Alas, games of athletics and skill have always eluded me but games of imagination? Fictional symbols and hierarchies? I've always been 'good' at those. 

Within the framework of play in an imaginary space there exists a push and pull dynamic between the shared collaborative world of the participants and the individual shards they inhabit. Though the rules may change, the commonality among these game systems is a resolution mechanic to determine the uncertain.

If you've ever played Dungeons and Dragons, you'll recognize the formula: D20+ Skill Modifier vs. Difficulty Challenge. Simpler, more collaborative story games, like the excellent ​Microscope by Ben Robbins, prescribe players assign a karmic "light" or "dark" tone to scenes, indicating to the participants of the direction therein. 

With either system, the purpose is the same: to disclaim agency in favor of fate. When the dice roll, we know not where they will land. When we say a scene must end "light" or "dark," we scribe down the future as predetermined, even if the details remain unseen. 

Yet, we play these games to find out what happens. There are no indicators of score, or even competition really. You can make your character better, you can do what you want - so why allow for the possibility of failure, or even death? 

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One way I've tried to frame this thought is through the lens of constraints and possibilities. Perhaps that's just a fancy way of saying fate vs. free will, but I'm not sure. 

We all live with the reality of inevitability. We are born into circumstances we cannot control, shaped by environments difficult to escape. Life constrains us in ways subtle and obtuse. Yet, within that framework, we all have the agency to calculate, prepare, fight, and control. The possibilities are endless, even if the loops conform around the edge of inevitability. 

We all die the same. The universe, as far as we know, is not unique.

But what if we were unbounded? What would immortality look like? Devoid of the constraints of fate, would we see patterns all the same? Or would the infinite canvas of possibility paralyze? What is something without circumstance, subject to the whims of only itself? Is that the holy? Does it remain such if the Self defines?

Me, personally, I like rolling them dice every once in a while. It's fun! And you never know what'll happen until you do. 

​Ray ​

​I can see the whole history of the human race,
It's carved right there, on your face -