Oh my gosh! Zut alors! Goly gee willikers! Whad de fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuug?

Did someone tear a hole in the sky? Did an ill star cross twixt Earth and Moon and rain disaster on barbarian and Mok alike? Did a fowl wind blow up from the depths of Hell and cast the world into garbage smelling darkness?

What could possibly have cause the Mighty Emm Jay Bee to miss writing a post yesterday and thus leave a blog-shaped hole in all out hearts?

Two things : Vcon, and illness.

As I write this post (in a Gmail window no less, because the terminals here at the hotel have the temerity to block my blog because it is supposedly “adult”, the shit-sucking cuntfaced pigeon-humpers!), I am attending Vcon, the Vancouver area’s sole science fiction convention, and hence, the only one cheap enough for me to attend.

Yesterday was the beginning of said con, and my intention had been to write a quick but heartfelt “seeya Monday!” type post to explain my absence this weeking, but alas, my Irritable Bowel Syndrome chose yesterday morning and afternoon to drag me entrails-forward through three hours of gut-wrenching hell, and by the time I regained enough intestinal integrity to get anything done, it was time to get cleaned up and pack for Vcon.

So alas, no post for yesterday. IBS stole my time away. Luckily, this hotel provides free Internet enabled terminals for all room guests, and so I am perfectly free to steal an hour here and there to write something today and tomorrow. So Friday should be the only day I actually miss, although these posts will not actually appear on the blog until I get home Monday and then back-post them.

So don’t adjust your reality receptors, podlings, you did not somehow “miss” the posts on Saturday and Sunday, even though they have now mysteriously appeared in the archive of this blog. Using my powers of Internet time travel, I will be sending these posts back in time by back-posting them to the archive on Monday. Relax. Breath slowly. Massage your thorax. And gurgitate.

So far, I have been having a grand old time here at the local geekfest. These are my people, after all, the flock that matches my pelt, and it is a pleasure and a joy to frolic amongst them. I have been to only one panel, but that is the way of the Friday of a convention. Fridays are largely for arriving, checking in, settling in, registering, greeting, and sampling the early room parties.

And the one panel was on a subject which thrills and excites me greatly, gamification (terrible word, but we’re stuck with it), which is the use of the mechanics and methods of video game design to make software that accomplished more than just entertaining people. Video games have the potential to educate people, let human imagination tackle the sorts of tricky scientific problems that computers can’t handle, and even motivate people to live healthier lives and engage in social change, if we can but dip our dippers into the vast stream of human potential current focused enjoyably but otherwise fruitlessly on video games.

When I thyink of the man-years of sweat equity, mental ingenuity, and sheer persistance that I have personally invested in videos games over my 38 years, and imagine that even a tiny percentage of that could be redirected into something which adds value to the world instead of merely passing the time, the prospect makes me shiver with excitement.

Dungeon Fighter Online alone could probably take a bite out of cancer by now, I reckon.

And further intellectual nourishment awaits, including a live interview with Author Guest of Honor Larry Freaking Niven, and a panel on food in science fiction. Nourishing indeed!

Well, this terminal is threatening to kick me off, so I better go.

Seeya later, my darling readers!