Author: BrianR

Reminder by Phone

In what seems like a never ending quest to remind myself of important things to do I’ve set up yet another scheme. This one uses telephony service If By Phone. I subscribe to their Complete service for Carrboro Coworking. It gives the business a great call tree and voice mail with a call routing service. I use this to get calls sent from my business number to my cell phone. Its more advanced than Google Voice in many ways and isn’t free. This reminder call is another advantage of paying for it.

I set up a recurring reminder to call me every day at 10:30AM to play a recording. I recorded, with my phone, a list of important long range to-dos. This reminder isn’t for daily to-dos but big picture stuff that will take months to get done. The If By Phone service even called me and recorded my message to be used with this service. I need this type of to-do because I have so many ideas that they often subvert each other. One day I’m down on idea A and another day I’m down on idea B. This has lead to a confusing and depressing feeling of mental limbo. I get stuff done but feel like I’m not going anywhere. So my answer is to learn focus by repetition.

The reminder can call any phone number you want. It’ll even ask you for confirmation you understood the message. You can type in your confirmation question. Mine is, “Do you dig it?”. I just say ‘Yes’ into the phone and the smart service understands then hangs up.

I’m trying this out because I don’t really like the sound of ringing phones. Its something I have a hard time ignoring. So I figured I would bug myself with it to force attention to important things. After a test call today I gave a name to the number in my cell phone address book. That way when I see the call coming in I’ll be ready to refocus my energies.

Researching the Murray RPG Collection at Duke University

Advanced Dungeon & Dragons Players Handbook, by Gary Gygax, Copyright TSR Games

Introduction

This morning I began looking at a bunch of paper based role playing games. I suppose you could call what I’m doing feral research. Investigating a topic or group of topics with some intensity without belonging to academia. Thank you Stan Goff for introducing me to the phrase ‘Feral Scholar’ and for being a intellectual role model. Thank you Duke University for having the vision and resources to house this important work of the Twentieth Century.

The RPG are part of the Edwin and Terry Murray Collection of Pop Culture at Duke University. I learned about the Murray collection from a friend a few months ago. She mentioned that there were a ton of RPG in the collection just sitting in boxes. Seems they’re not known and little is being done much with them. The comic book part of the Murray Collection has been cataloged and there is a list online.

I eventually got in contact via email with someone at the Rare Book, Manuscripts, and Special Collections Library. He sent me a spreadsheet of a preliminary list of the RPG collection. It had over three hundred entries! Later I met with him and a grad student in person. They informed me that they’re working on the cataloging and that it should be done soon. I discovered that the collection had more than RPG boxes but other books, modules, and figurines. They brought out some amazing examples of 1970’s Dungeon & Dragons box sets.

This experience was really surprising to me. When I saw the art on the boxes and small staple bound manuals I felt a tingling sensation all over my body. It was a feeling similar to being in the presence of great art that I had admired for years only in magazines. Or possibly meeting a hero in person for the first time. Lost memories of my teenage years came flooding back. I knew I had seen some of this art and logos before. It was a very powerful experience for me that I don’t quite understand yet.

Many of the D&D books I’ve owned were lost at some point. I got bored with them and put them on my book shelf in my room at my parents house. Years latter when I went back to gather comic books and other memorabilia the D&D books were gone. I suspect my religious mother trashed them upon finding the graven image on the AD&D Players Handbook. 🙂

Before I requested to look at more of this collection I decided to focus on the visual art of the games. I’m not a Dungeon or Game Master. It’s been decades since I actually played a role playing game. (That is going to change…) But I do have some experience with the arts.

Next post in this series is about the RPG I found in Box #9.

Note: This work is pretend scholarly research and inspired by morbid curiosity. I intend to respect the intellectual property of all companies and persons. If you object to your images being on this page please contact me and I’ll take them down asap.

Update The book cover above was, according to Wikipedia, illustrated by David A. Trampier.

Tweet about your art

In my last post, From Art to Business and back again, I shared my story and some ideas. One of the ideas you must understand is how to market your art. Twitter is one way to do it.

I know… If you’re an artist the word “market” or “marketing” sounds so bad. In some ways it feels like it cheapens your art. You work hard on it. You pour a lot of emotion into it. Why would you want to brag about it? How could you possibly shill it like a vacuum cleaner salesman? Trust me. It doesn’t have to be like that.
Continue reading “Tweet about your art” →

Handmade small batch products rock!

A few weeks ago I saw a awesome video about Raleigh Denim. They’re a small company in Raleigh, NC who makes high quality jeans. Even though I haven’t tried on their product, yet, I’m sold. Maybe it was the story telling craft of the short documentary. But it’s also my love of products that are handmade and done in small batches.

Of course there are many other factors that sell you on something. But as a social entrepreneur I’m enthralled with a return to quality. Globalization and greed has destroyed the viable economics of making small batch products. North Carolina is one of the hardest hit States in the US in this regard. Our furniture and fiber arts are now a fraction of the state economy it once was. The effect is a loss of thousands of jobs. A serious problem for many many people.

My mother’s father Lester was a huge influence on me. Not just because of his kindness but because of his craftsmanship. He worked most of his adult life making furniture. While he was a manufacturer he had pride in craft.

Granddad helped me learn to love making things. It didn’t hurt he gave me all kinds of tools and showed me how to use them. I expect its because of him I love things like Raleigh Denim. Its fascinating how people, long after their death, can have profound effects on their children. I wonder what lasting effects I will have on my son?

Raleigh Denim isn’t the only example. Here’s a video about Oxxford Clothes, who claim to be, the last hand crafted suit tailor in the United States.

As I work to create new businesses with awesome products and services I will remember these companies. May all the things I sell be as special.