I’ll be presenting at Imaginarium again this year.
Imaginarium is a conference writers and storytellers of all genres, including filmmakers, game developers, artists, musicians, poets, cosplayers, and many other creatives. It’s in Louisville, KY from July 14th to 16th, at the Holiday Inn East.
The full schedule is here, but you can find me at:
I once again participated in the 48-Hour Film Project. (My first time was A Fool’s Errand three years ago.)
On Friday night, each team draws a genre out of a hat (actually, each drawing has two genres, and the team picks the one they’d like to do). The final film must be 4 to 7 minutes long (credits at the end of the movie don’t count against the maximum time, unless the film would have been too short without them).
On top of randomly drawing a genre, each team has three required ingredients: a line, a prop, and a character. Even though each team gets its own genre, all teams share those same three ingredients. Our (and every team’s) ingredients were:
This year, I was part of Company Outcast, a local theater/comedy company.
Our team included people that I’ve been friends with, like Rachel Allen (who I introduced to the 48HFP), Marcy Ziegler (leader of Company OutCast), Christie Troxell (who I’d met at my first 48HFP), Martin French (who I knew from the Alley Theater), and Victoria Wagner (who I’d met during OutCast‘s “Best Bits” show). Plus a bunch of new really cool people.
We drew Horror or Mockumentary. A mockumentary probably would have been a lot of fun, but we chose horror.
Tilden Kefauver might know a thing or two.
Since our character Tilden was an author, and I had run a publishing company for several years, my job for the film was to put together some prop books for him to have at his signing.
All I had to go on was that it was a mystery book, with the title “Double Vision.” And I only had about four hours to design and print the cover, and assemble onto actual books.
By that point, I’d already designed at least a hundred book covers, but I’d never mocked up made a fake cover before – they’ve all been real book covers that were printed at a press to encase actual books. The finished product turned out fairly well.
I also ended up helping to block the daylight during a bar scene, by standing in front of the curtain. Since taking up space is one of my many talents, I spent an hour or so denying the sun while the crew filmed several scenes with multiple takes. During one of the shots I ended up in frame, just standing by the door crossing my arms, the company decided to credit me as a “Bouncer.” (Possibly since I already look somewhat horrifying.)
So now I have actual real-world experience as a pretend real bouncer. You’d better watch your step, buddy.
Here’s the film we completed.
(The description says Do Not Share, but now that the screenings, voting, and awards have happened, it’s all good.)
The main gaming area offered two dozen tables, with more available along the balcony; photo by Dieter Zimmerman
Nerd Louisville hosts an annual game-playing convention called Nerdlouvia. I’ve attended all of them, and I volunteered to help organize the event this year (12/7 to 12/9/18).
This was our first three-day event.
Friday night was a VIP party and awards show, and included several fun nerdy acts:
Saturday and Sunday were filled with games, games, and games.
The program book shows all 100+ scheduled games.
I also preached a game-themed sermon on Sunday morning, for the Christians who were attending the event.
Tabitha Johnson of the Nerdesque Burlesque danced as Leeloo (The Fifth Element) and Leela (Futurama); photo by Larry Green
The categories (and winners) are:
There was also a nice shout-out to Volunteers of Distinction: Brandon Aten, Andrew Bates, Matthew French, Squire Greene, Rick Hudson, Hailey Kuhn, yours truly, Reuben Perales, Mike Pfaff, Andy Smith, Eric Toncray, and Steven Wu.
In the Cereal Killers world, Cap’n Crunch, Tony the Tiger. and others face grim and gritty threats
I ran two of my most popular games, Meep on the Borderland and Night of the Living Crunch.
In Meep on the Borderland, the Muppets embark on a fantasy adventure. Kermit stars as Hopalong Kid, leader of the Muppy Men. The rest of the usual (and semi-usual) Muppet crew are there, too.
The Cereal Killers world was created by my friend Joe Linehan. In his original adventure, he sent Cap’n Crunch, Tony the Tiger, and the others through the plot of Watchmen, to give you idea of the level of absurdity and insanity involved. I loved the idea, and between us we’ve put the poor cereal characters through the plot of Aliens, Apocalypse Now (“A Box of Trix Now”), and more.
In Night of the Living Crunch, the crew fights off zombie soggies in the far-off land of Bransylvania, Count Chocula’s homeland. I designed the character sheets to fold around miniature cereal boxes. You can download the character sheets and play your own cereal adventures.
I played a session of The Expanse RPG, based on the book and television series. It was pretty faithful to what I’ve read and watched, and the elegant system mechanics were a good fit.
An extensive library of board games was available for anyone to play
Nerdlouvia also had an auction, a game swap table, video games, anime films, side quests, vendors like Goodman Games (Dungeon Crawl Classics), Card N All Gaming, and Red Bull (who actually offered free cans of Red Bull throughout the event). But most of all, Nerdlouvia was filled with friends, new and old.
And best of all, as a licensed non-profit, all the proceeds are donated to a local charity.
I hope to be involved next year, too.
Supercon came to Louisville just after Thanksgiving 2018 (11/30 to 12/2). This was the show’s first year here, although first started in Florida in 2006.
There were so many great guests. It seems like twice a week leading up to the event, Supercon would announce a new guest that would be enough for a lot of fans to attend even if that were the only guest.
Film and TV guests included William “beam me up” Shatner, Richard “this means something” Dreyfuss, Sean “ooh, that’s a nice hat” Gunn, Michael “Mary Poppins, y’all” Rooker, Lloyd “Toxic Avenger” Kaufman, John Wesley “fastest man alive” Shipp, and Henry “the Fonz” Winkler. There were wrestling stars like Jerry Lawler and Sgt. Slaughter; animators and voice actors like Kevin Conroy, John Glover, and Steve Whitmire.
Some of my favorite comic authors and artists were there, like Neal Adams, Keith Giffen, Mark Bagley, and Fabian Nicieza. I chatted with all of them for a good while. Neal Adams is practically single-handedly responsible for everything good at DC. I’ve been a fan of Giffen’s since I first saw his art in Marvel’s New Universe, and I picked up an autographed Creeper print from him. Nicieza and Bagley created The New Warriors, which I loved for its many-year run. It turned a bunch of Marvel B- and C-listers into a fantastic team with great personalities and plots, much like The Guardians of the Galaxy movie did for its characters.
Alice Cooper was the highlight guest for me. We chatted for 20 minutes or so. Besides being a huge fan of his Love It to Death album (which has “I’m Eighteen“, “Black Juju“, “Sun Arise“, and the standout “Ballad of Dwight Fry“), I’d heard back in the 90s that Vincent Furnier (his real name) was teaching Sunday school at his church.
When I talked with him on Friday, I was wearing my “Mini-Me” outfit, which gave him quite a giggle. He wondered aloud which of my hands he should shake, so he grabbed my real right hand and my prop right hand, and shook them both at once. I told him that I’d actually worn out his album by playing several times a day for a couple of years. He said that was the first “real” Alice Cooper album, without creative interference from the producers.
And we talked a while about our faith, too. I converted from atheism to Christianity in 1992, and I’ve maintained my relationships in the technology, gaming, publishing, theatrical, and other communities, which have all become my mission fields. He loved the idea, and was happy to hear about the work I’ve been doing.
A lot of my friends had booths there for various organizations that we’re a part of. The Ohio River Valley Cosplayers (ORCs) are a lot of fun, and have amazing costumes. A Nerd Like Me were my neighbors. I’ve been a part of Nerd Louisville since it started a few years back, and even write for them once in a while. I attend ConGlomeration every year, and even used to volunteer on the “con comm.” The USS Drakonia beamed aboard, too.
Other friends were there selling this and that, like Lydia Sherrer, Tony Acree, Dieter Zimmerman, Atty Eve, Bloat Games, and Purvis Games. I picked up some fun fake albums from Drew Blank (Pee-Wee Herman: Live at the Alamo, The Deadites: Necronomikaze, and Wyld Stallyns: Most Triumphant).
I was officially there representing the Christian Gamers Guild, at my booth. Besides handing out business cards and such for the CGG, I also had swag for Game Church, the Grave Robbers, and maybe another group, too.
I wrote my Stan Lee memorial sermon for this event.
Mini-Me and the Toxic Avenger bonded
The celebrity panels drew huge crowds. Other panels, workshops, demonstrations, interviews, and other events were also popular. The game rooms downstairs (which included video games, roleplaying, and other hobbies like model-making and painting) had a steady stream of people every time I went down to visit.
I was only on one panel this year, “Faith & Fandom.” With me were Amber Curtis (the moderator, and Supercon staff), Katrina French (an author I knew from Imaginarium), Zachary Hoskins, Bradley Brown, and Vic Mignona (a famous anime voice actor). The panel was well attended and interactive, despite being on Sunday afternoon.
Wow, there were so many fun costumes all over the place. My costume photo album on facebook is filled with great outfits.
For a first year (in Louisville) event, Supercon was a striking success. I’m looking forward to doing it all over again.
Yesterday’s Women in Technology conference, led by Shannon Fehr, featured an amazing lineup of speakers. I’m proud to have been a small part of it.
Some of my favorite people organized and spoke, like Grace Simrall, Sharon Kerrick, Haleh Karimi, Desiree Thayer, and Anna Kepshire. I highly recommend getting in the loop for this one, and attending next year. Maybe even as a sponsor, speaker, or volunteer.
The C2 Event venue was wonderful, and it was a nice treat to see so many vegetarian options for lunch.
I’m a Christian, and sometimes a teacher/preacher.
I prepared a sermon for Louisville Supercon, December 2018, that would also serve as a tribute to the recently departed Stan Lee.
I wasn’t sure exactly where I wanted to go, or what I wanted to cover at first. I didn’t want to focus so much on Stan that he’d overshadow the Lord, but I didn’t want to treat him as an afterthought. At first, I thought about turning Stan’s name into an acronym of character he co-created, and what made them important to me. S (Spider-Man), T (Thor), A (Avengers), N (Nick Fury) nicely covered the superhuman, the supernatural, the super-group, and the super-agent. Each character brings different lessons, power sets, foibles, and emotional aspects.
In the end, I realized that the acronym of Stan Lee’s name could map to what the Bible calls the “fruit of the spirit.”
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, tolerance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
It was tricky to use just quotes from the movies (without delving into the comics, that not everyone would be as familiar with), to use only characters that Stan had a hand in, and to tie each into a fruit.
| FRUIT | SCRIPTURE | PRINCIPLE | WHO | MOVIE | QUOTE |
| Gentleness, Humility | In humility consider others more important than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3) | Sacrifice | Groot | Guardians of the Galaxy | “We are groot.” |
| Patience, Tolerance | A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12) | Teamwork | Nick Fury | The Avengers | “Bring together a group of remarkable people, to fight the battles that we never could.” |
| Self-Control | Take off your old self with its practices and put on the new self. (Colossians 3:9) | Authenticity | Bruce Banner | The Incredible Hulk | “I don’t want to control it; I want to get rid of it.” |
| Goodness | Pure religion in the sight of God means caring for orphans and widows. (James 1:27) | Nobility | Black Panther | Infinity War | “We don’t fight for just one life; We fight for all of them.” |
| Love | Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, boastful, proud, rude, selfish, irritable, or begrudging. It rejoices in truth, not injustice. It never gives up or loses faith; it always hopes and always endures. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7) | Love | Clint Barton, Pietro Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff | Age of Ultron | “Doesn’t matter what you did, or what you were.” …and… “I didn’t see that coming.” |
| Kindness | Encourage one another and build each other up. (1 Thessalonians 5:11) | Encouragement | Peggy Carter, Sharon Carter | Civil War | “Plant yourself like a tree; look them in the eye, and say No, you move.” |
| Joy | I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10) | Enjoyment | Thor Odison | Age of Ultron | “Victory should be honored with revels.” |
In the Biblical sense, gentleness is not weakness, but is strength under control. Some editions translate this fruit as meekness or humility. It is the opposite of self-interest and assertiveness. Gentleness is the attitude of putting the interests of others ahead of our own — that is, sacrifice (the “S” in Stan Lee).
There have been many sacrifices throughout the Marvel comics and movies, but there are some that still get to me no matter how many times I see them. For me, one of those is Groot in the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie, when he utters what is only his second line: “We are groot.” We’d already seen that Groot is incredibly powerful several times, in the end he chooses to use that strength to save his friends instead of himself. Through this act, Groot is even reborn.
Also translated as long-suffering, forbearance, perseverance, and tolerance, patience allows us to put up with situations or people that frustrate us. Being able to work with others is a key element in Teamwork (the “T“).
Nick Fury explains the Avengers Initiative as the idea to “bring together a group of remarkable people… to fight the battles that we never could.” None of us is as strong as all of us. The Apostle Paul compares the church as a body, with each of us playing a specific part. Looking back at the Avengers movie, you could even call Tony the brain, Cap the heart, Hulk the muscle, and Clint the eyes. Maybe Natasha would be the ears (or the tiptoes, for her stealth), and Thor the bones (for his indestructibility)?
When we give our lives to Christ, we become a new creation. In the MCU, no one exemplifies that more than Bruce Banner/The Hulk. Paul saw in himself two natures (“I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do.” — Romans 7:18-19). Being honest with our own flaws exhibits authenticity (the “A” in Stan).
The paradox of self-control is that self cannot control self because it is self. Only by surrendering (or dying to) self to the Lord can we get any control. We can only have what we’ve given away.
While Gentleness connotes a loving disposition for others, Goodness puts it into action. As (possibly) Edmund Burke said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Doing what is right will put us into conflict with those who want to do wrong. Acting on behalf of others, Noblesse Oblige (or Nobility), is the “N” in Stan.
Religion based on rules does little good, and can do much harm. Pure religion that pleases God is caring for orphans and widows. As T’Challa says in Infinity War, we fight for all lives.
Has anything in human history been written, sung, or sought more than love? The love that society wants to push on us is often focused on ourselves. Love makes people happy. Love what gives you pleasure. But scripture tells us that love is much more than that, as well as being the “L” in Lee. “Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, boastful, proud, rude, selfish, irritable, or begrudging. It rejoices in truth, not injustice. It never gives up or loses faith; it always hopes and always endures.” Much like the humility of Gentleness urges us to sacrifice, biblical love urges us to put others before ourselves.
In Age of Ultron, Wanda had mesmerized all of Hawkeye’s teammates, to disastrous effect. But when she’s panicking, he forgives her and offers her a place on the team. “It doesn’t matter what you did, or what you were… if you step out that door, you are an Avenger.” Later, when a child is about to be murdered by Ultron, Hawkeye interposes his own body to save the child. But Pietro surprises him by taking the bullets first.
Gentleness sacrifices, patience forgives, goodness defends, love surrenders, and Kindness assists. It stresses keeping our fellow believer on track, through sharing, teaching, and encouraging (the first “E” in Lee).
We all face struggles. They might be illness, poverty, loneliness, or worse. By encouraging our friends (literally “to put courage inside”), we allow them go farther and reach higher than before. If they can’t make it on their own, we can all help. Sharon Carter’s eulogy of Peggy (originally spoken by Captain America to Spider-Man in the comics) reminded Steve that the right thing is the right thing, despite what others may think.
Happiness comes from the same root word as happen or hapless. It is the result of outside influence; a temporary circumstance. True Joy lives on the inside. The apostle Paul learned to be content in all circumstances (Philippians 4). For myself, I know who I am, who I belong to, and where I’m going. Life has its ups and downs, but we can all choose whether or not to find enjoyment (the final “E” in Lee).
I’ve met people in the Christian community who look like they were weaned on a pickle (to borrow a friend’s phrase). Christ came to grant us abundant and everlasting life. Even Steve Rogers agreed with Thor that revels can show honor.
Stan Lee taught us Sacrifice, Teamwork, Authenticity, Nobility, Love, Encouragement, and Enjoyment.
Excelsior! Amen.
You can get a copy of the bulletin PDF here.
DerbyCon organizers are da bomb!
This past weekend was DerbyCon, Louisville’s infosec (information security) conference — “by hackers, for hackers.” The organizing team is all-volunteer, just bringing the community together for connections, education, and fun. Every year is more amazing than the year before.
This year, there was a brand new Mental Wellness Village, run by Amanda Berlin (@InfoSystir). Part of the time, it was a chill/relax/quiet room, with coloring books, crafts, yoga mats, and massages. And there was also several amazing talks and events there, like dealing with depression or impostor syndrome, and managing time and life. Everything I attended there was amazing. I hope to spend more time there next year.
I also spent about half my time in the Social Engineering Village, which is always a blast. Chris Hadnagy (@HumanHacker) of Social-Engineer.org (who has a brand new book!) hosts challenges and events like a capture the flag, trying to beat an FBI polygraph examiner, escaping handcuffs and crawling past a laser grid, and a panel discussion on ethics.
Patrick is about to escape handcuffs, pick a lock, and crawl through frickin’ lasers
Apart from my two main hangouts (the mental and social villages), I did indeed go to a few presentations, and visited almost all the special events and villages, and competed again in Hack Your Derby.
The Hack Your Derby (@HackYourDerby) contest is an annual competition for creating something really cool and unusual with a hat. Last year, my entry was a derby that was covered in crime scene tape (yes, I keep crime scene tape in my truck; why don’t you?). This year, instead of an expensive professional derby, I used several of the cheap plastic derbies that the judges hand out to those who want them. My idea was to combine twelve hats into a giant die. It took me a few hours to use masking tape to put die-rolling numbers on the inside of the hats, staple them together in an inverted spherical shape, and rig up a chin-strap. But the idea actually worked! I wasn’t convinced it would all come together until I had the whole thing done.
The musical acts this year were Vanilla Ice and Offspring. Holy cow! At my age, though, staying up until 11:30 for an act to even start is beyond me.
My derby was a functioning d12 (12, 4, and 6 are visible)
I also loved attending CrossCon, the Sunday morning Bible study for Christian hackers at DerbyCon (and other cons).
This was our first year in the downtown Marriott instead of the Hyatt Regency. The new space did have more room, and we weren’t all squished together in the halls as we moved from session to session. On the downside, there wasn’t a single central gathering place like there was in the Hyatt. I heard a lot of complaints about rooms being cold, but I’m cold-natured anyway, so I always felt great.
You can see every video of DerbyCon on Iron Geek’s site.
I, for one, welcome our bobblehead overlords
The Hardware Village teaches soldering and other skills
Vanilla Ice and Offspring brought hackers onto the dance floor
I also loved attending CrossCon, the Sunday morning Bible study for Christian hackers at DerbyCon (and other cons).
On June 28, I was a judge at the SkillsUSA national computer programming championship.
The SkillsUSA has been around since 1965, and the national championships have been held in Louisville since 2015. The event spans three days at the 1.3 million square foot (roughly 20 football fields) Kentucky Fair and Expo Center (“the Fairgrounds”).
In 2017, there were 6,200 students competing in over 100 different competitions. Everything from public speaking to diesel engine repair to cooking to first aid to t-shirt design to game programming. It’s a lot of fun (and a lot of walking) to go check out a wide variety of contests.
Several dozen programming students from around the country qualified as their state champions, and came to face off against each other in a times competition.
As judges we based our decisions on several factors:
Programming: As the contest began, everyone got a printout of two assignments. I can’t give specifics, but they were relatively straightforward tasks.
Requirements: Not everything was explicitly spelled out, but could be assumed, or the contestants could (and should) ask us for clarifications.
Functionality: When time was up, we judges ran the programs to make sure the programs did all the things that they were supposed to do. We also made sure that they didn’t do the things that they weren’t supposed to do.
Readability: We also browsed through the software that they wrote, to see how readable it was (for whoever it is that eventually would take over your software, if this was for a job).
Interview: Each contestant was also “interviewed.” We asked the kind of questions that job applicants might get asked during an interview.
In 2017, I judged the public speaking competition, which was also a lot of fun to do. There were many incredible speakers.
With so many events going on, the event always needs volunteers to judge, check in, chaperone, and otherwise take care of the contests, students, equipment, and other aspects.
If you’d like to help out as well, reach out to the SkillsUSA team.
My favorite local theater is closing down after 25 years of entertainment.
The Alley Theater has performed some amazingly fun shows over the years.
Any play about singing and dancing zombies is bound to be a blast. “Evil Dead: The Musical” (at one time, the production had the website LouEvilDead.com, which was amazing) was no exception. The Alley performed this one three times. The first run was in October 2009, with the final night on Halloween (which was a Saturday that year). Most of the audience wore costumes, as you’d expect. I went more casual, wearing my “I spent Halloween 2001 with Bruce Campbell” shirt from his “If Chins Could Kill” book tour.
The play blends the three movies “Evil Dead,” “Evil Dead 2,” and (my favorite) the campy “Army of Darkness.” The violence is comically over the top — in fact, the first few rows of seats are the “splatter zone.” The theater provides ponchos for the brave souls who sit so close, since the fake blood sprays into the crowd during the play.
Here’s a scene from the Alley’s second production, from the theater’s official YouTube channel (which also includes this threat).
And here’s my favorite song from the play, although this link is not from the Alley. The choreography that this scene uses is similar to the way the Alley would normally do it, with Ash and Jake singing and dancing backup.
In August 2017, Bruce Campbell came to Louisville on another book tour. This was also the day of the total solar eclipse. (Coincidence? I think not!) Instead of going into the path of the totality like a lot of my space friends, I stayed in town to see Bruce. I got his autograph on a chainsaw blade (signed both as Bruce and as Ash), which I donated to the Alley.
The Alley brought the big blue goofy comic-book/cartoon/live-action character “The Tick” to life on the stage. First in 2015, and again in 2018.
Both runs were very funny, and included references from every incarnation of the bug of justice. Sterling Pratt wrote the play(s) specifically for The Alley to perform. Scott Davis, creator of The Alley himself, played the Tick in the first run, and Connor Blankenship played him in the second run. Andrew Mertz perfectly played his sidekick/partner Arthur both times. As Keith Waits wrote, “The Tick” is really Arthur’s story.
Fan favorite characters like the Caped Chameleon, the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight, and Barry the Tick joined the fun alongside the blue and white heroes, and their friends Batmanuel and American Maid.
“William Shakespeare’s Star Wars” was a hoot. “What light through yonder sensor breaks?” “Once more into the trench, dear friends.”
“The Real Inspector Hound” combined an interactive murder mystery (we hung out with some of the cast, in character, before the play started) with a play-within-a-play for surreal fun. During the first act, two theater critics sitting just to the side of the main stage discussed the play and their own lives as the actors performed. During the second act, one critic was killed and the other got swept into the play, with characters repeating much of the same dialogue from act one, but with very different meanings. It was amazing. Shavon McGill might still not be back from oiling his gun.
“The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged)” was a three-man performance that encompassed the greatest story ever told, and then some. The theater even invited me to lead off the opening performance with a prayer, but the schedules didn’t work out so I had to miss that. Instead, they had me preach a whole sermon before the final night. I was honored, and remain humble and grateful for the opportunity.
“The Trail to Orgeon” was an improv musical based on a computer game where almost everyone dies of dysentery. We, the audience, got to name the characters, and decide who died and how. I was there for opening night, and since half the audience was improv comedians (and friends of all the performers), we gave them challenging names that were incredibly long or barely pronounceable. Because that’s the kind of friends that we are.
“Hughes-ical: The Musical” took the various John Hughes movies (Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Beuller) and gave it a boombox soundtrack.
“Bat-Hamlet” was part of the SuperHuman:A Festival of Plays (a parody of the well-known and local Humana Festival of Plays). It tells the tale of a boy avenging his murdered father. You probably know the rest.
“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (from which I adapted this post’s title) was a staged reading of the original radio scripts. (It was a radio play before it was a book/tv-series/movie/computer-game/etc.) The adaptation was well received.
“Top Secret” and “Point Break” brought beloved(?) 80’s movies (here and here) to the stage.
“The Princess Bride Experience” was inconceivable.
No one can be told what “The Matrix” is. You had to experience it for yourself.
Putting on great stage shows wasn’t enough for the Alley, so they turned a bus into a mobile stage so they could take it out to schools and festivals.
Despite all that great stuff, the Alley production that I’ll miss the most is the weekly Improv Jam. On Saturday afternoons, we’d gather at the Alley for hours of improv workshopping. It was a wonderful way to get a foot in the improv comedy door.
I’ve made some great friends over the years of jamming with people who knew what they were doing, and with others who, like me, wanted a chance to learn and practice improv skills. Ironically, even though improv is made up on the spot, it does take time and effort to get comfortable with it and competent at it.
I’m grateful to wonderful improv teachers like Shauvon McGill, Ryan Kemp, Scott Davis, Spencer Korcz, and others for all the great jam lessons.
The Alley is dead! Long live The Alley.
(If you’re reading this before July 28 2018, there’s still a chance to catch a show at the Alley before the doors close for good.)
At DerbyCon this year, I spoke about improv comedy. More specifically, how it applies to “social engineering” (talking your way out of trouble, or more maliciously tricking someone into giving up information that should be kept secret).
I didn’t even notice until posting the link here, but it amuses me that the video preview shows the demo slide that I often use, with the magic rabbit and the demolition reference.
“Hackers” get a bad name in popular media, but at its core, a hacker is just someone who wants to know how something works. That could be a program, a gadget, a policy, or anything else. Sometimes that includes taking something apart or breaking it or looking for a loophole.
Several hackers founded the infosec (information security) conference known as DerbyCon in Louisville seven years ago. I’ve attended five or six (I forget), but this is the first time I’ve spoken there. The founders are all a great group of folks, and love giving back to the community and putting everyone at ease.
The conference has four main tracks — Red Team (offense), Blue Team (defense), Purple Team (bit o’ both), and 3-Way (miscellaneous topics) — plus Stable Talks (shorter sessions on a variety of topics). There are also several other areas and events, like a social engineering village, a car hacking village, a capture the flag contest, and more. It’s very popular — in fact the 2500(ish) tickets this year sold out in just 3 minutes! If I hadn’t been speaking there, I wouldn’t have been able to go.
My presentation was a Stable Talk, so I only had 25 minutes to speak. I wanted to leave time for some audience participation and exercises, so I sped through some things faster than I’d like, and there wasn’t as much detail as I’d have liked, but them’s the breaks.
Here are the salient points that I covered:
You can download the slides here.
in remembrance of Kemp
Dave Mattingly 
