March is Ask James Anything Month at Slurpees and Murder

That's right, you read correctly -- it's audience participation time! Something a little more straightforward and a lot more frequent than that other time, and hopefully no less enthralling.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know that I've had an unmitigatedly disastrous back half of February, and I spent a weekend taking it not particularly well, so my apologies to all of you that had to put up with Mopey McMoperson for an uncharacteristically mopey two or three days.

In celebration, then, of it not being February any more -- because, man, screw February -- let's do a little something special for the month of March.

I've had the idea to do this in the back of my mind for a while now, partially because it seems reasonable that audience members would have unanswered questions over the seven (egads) calendar years of the site, but more particularly because -- in those rare and peculiar moments when people recognize me from the internet, or half recognize me, which always ends up being really confusing for everyone involved -- I get statements from time to time along the lines of "I know this sounds weird, but I feel like I know you from reading you. Not well, but, like, kind of." So all this month and all month long, in the interest of getting to know me better -- go ahead and Ask Me Anything!

(I know that the phrase is more commonly associated with Reddit nowadays, but I'm thinking of it more in the Tumblr sense. Not that I've ever really spent any particular amount of time on either site, but y'know. Humour me here.)

I'm pretty sure that this should work out well for everyone involved; I get an excuse to work on shorter bursts of content and less aloof delivery, the questioning party in each instance gets resolution of an old plot thread or payoff on a concept I'd left half-covered somewhere along the way, and everyone else viewing the page gets to drop by without my demanding that they read two- to four-thousand words every single gosh-dang post.

So fire away! I'm throwing open the gates, so Help a Brother Out; from the complicated ("If you had the ability to transfer one file or responsibility from one level of government to another, what would it be, and why?") to the simple ("wats ur favorite soda-pop"), leave your top-of-mind questions in the comments section below and I'll do my best to tackle each and every one. Though I may, in honesty, see fit to give greater priority to ones with actual names attached. Y'know how it is.

But enough talk! Ask James Anything!

Help a Brother Out!: Longform Web Layout-slash-Design Recommendations (Plus, Here is a Four-Foot-Tall Brian Mulroney Butler Wooden Standee)

First things first: now through the end of the week, Winnipeg Art Gallery memberships are 58% off for individuals and 50% off for families on Groupon. Culture at a discount!

(Having just typed that string of words, "Culture at a Discount" seems like it'd be the headline of a national feature on our arts scene. Y'know those weird bi- or tri-annual Globe & Mail articles about how suddenly and surprisingly legitimate Winnipeg is? Well, one of those.)

Hopefully you will find that above link to be useful, and also hopefully -- the two are not connected, mind, please don't feel obligated -- you may be able to aid me with a recent concern of mine. Yes, it's time once again for a little segment that I like to call: Help a Brother Out!

Follow Friday Comes Early

A bit of administrative business, if I may.

"Follow Friday" -- commonly #followfriday or #ff -- is that hashtagged Twitter concept that never quite works correctly because people cram their remaining 130-odd characters full of seemingly random names with no explanatory notes, and then you just walk away from Twitter entirely for the day because the majority of your feed is underlined blue gibberish. But the idea is a sound one, the intention being to twig readers and passersby to new, noteworthy, and/or high-quality sources of content.

You will note in the sidebar to your right (which is also my right, in the medium of text, but never mind that) that a most handy blog list does its best to keep tabs on local blogger activity and indicate when new content arrives. But a few of those entries are starting to look a little long in the tooth, over there, and I'm sure that in the meantime a lot of neat new blogs have risen up and established themselves as points of interest.

The more astute of you will already have noted that Follow Friday is intended for, well, Fridays. But I am nothing if not a rebellious sort! A... rebellious sort who coincidentally already has his posts of the day planned out for tomorrow and for Friday, but who needs something to talk about in the meantime. Look, you take your rebellions where you can get them, I mean you can't just--

ANYWAY

tl;dr My blogroll is rapidly aging and forever incomplete, and I can handle that first issue myself, but the second issue is one that works better as a team project. So! Gandering as we are at said blog list, what noteworthy upstarts am I missing? Which consistently excellent Manitoban bloggers have you readers recently taken to following, and who deserves more credit than they've been getting? Drop me some recommendations! Help a Brother Out!

Help a Brother Out!: I Clicked a Square and the Smiley Face Guy Turned His Eyes into Xes Like He's Dead, Does That Mean I Win, Did I Beat the Game

You are about to be privy to one of my many shameful and potentially compromising secrets, one of the psychological scars and mental torments that eats away at my very soul each and every day to irreparably wound my interpersonal relations with all around me. I share this with you in the utmost confidence, on the internet, and I hope dearly that somebody can help to ease the continual disgrace and dismay that such a failing incurs on my person each day I walk this earth.

Ladies and gentlemen:

Help a Brother Out!

You know Minesweeper, that abstract minefield-simulator video game that has come standard with every Windows release since 1992?



How in the fuck do you play this game?

Deer Want Us All Dead (plus: Help A Brother Out!)

It's a beautiful day outside! The arrival of June has finally meant that Manitobans are able to enjoy some prolonged sunshine, with clear days and beautiful warm weather expected throughout the weekend. This means that many of us, freespirited wanderlusters that we are, will take off into the wildernesses in all directions to enjoy some peace and quiet out amongst nature -- aaaaaaaand nature will immediately attempt to murder as many of us as it can.

Before I get too far into today's top story, though, I'd like to reintroduce a segment I call:

Help a Brother Out!

Thrill as We Careen Wildly Between Segments (Plus: Help a Brother Out!)

"Tomorrow or the next day", right, my eye. Curse my eternal but unfounded optimism.

It's been a while since I've done a good ol'-fashioned content aggregation megapost, so let's kick this oldschool and start recapping what manners of chicanery I've been up to as late. No time like the present, after all! Especially since It's... It's Manitoba... hee hee... It's Manitoba Tihaaaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha oh man, I'm sorry, I can't do this yet. Every time I start to deliberate on how a group of highly paid and creative-minded specialists decided that this was the best option for a tourism slogan, the whole thing cracks me up like Bobby Heenan thinking of Jim Duggan and I have to start over.

Firstly!

Congratulations, KC and Kim



I'm an uncle again! Well, half-uncle again, but it's still very exciting. Lookit him! He's adorable.

My relatives far and wide are commonly known for very tall stock, so the arrival of a son into either side of the family always brings, not only celebration to all, but also a great deal of commiseration for the mother. Because, eight-and-a-half pounds? Twenty inches? My goodness.

So many congratulations to the happy couple, and fair warning: once Solomon grows up a bit, it will be my uncle-ly (uncle-ish?) duty to rib the kid a little about his birth announcement card. By no means do I claim to be an expert on birthing procedures, so I have no idea when this policy decision came in, but back when I was born I know I sure as hell didn't face the indignity of my introductory font being Comic Sans MS. Ha! You poor kid!

Ahh, family. Good times. And speaking of good times (Bam! Segue):