Category Archives: Projects
EnigMarch Day 21
Okay! Puzzle attempt #3! Things that have happened so far:
My first puzzle had a bunch of spelling errors in morse code.
My second puzzle had a character writing a letter to herself, but at least the Pig Pen cipher wasn’t misspelt.
How about the third puzzle? What mistakes shall I make today! I did it pretty quickly. For those who might have figured out what to do but are like me and too lazy to do all the work, here is a handy site (if you don’t want to be spoiled right away, hold off until you figure out what to do).
Dear Katie,
Wow, I must be on your brain. You signed your letter with my name instead of yours! Ha, loser! Kidding. But seriously were you just sitting there thinking “JENNY! She is the key to all happiness!” You know what Mr. Vigenere would say. He’d be all “clr gmvi vf krwfvlp fhg g qeir rqi evrdey cypi!” At least, that’s what adults all sound like to me. You know what I mean though.
No way, you found a new hideout?! I’ve always wanted a forest hideout. Don’t get me wrong, my parents’ crawlspace is convenient AND near the minifridge, but a forest just has that much more atmosphere.
Halloween is coming up. It’s not going to be the same without you, for sure. I gotta admit, I’m pretty excited about my costume. I won’t tell you what it is yet, though, I want it to be a surprise! All I will say is that I have been putting the sewing machine through a gauntlet! What about you? Got anyone to Trick or Treat with? Or watch cheesy scary movies with? The idea of you hanging out on Halloween makes me sad!
Talk soon!
Jenny
Working With Anxiety Part 1: Mistakes
Disclaimer: I am not a professional counselor nor have I studied mental health issues. This blog is based on my own personal experience with anxiety. It is entirely subjective. If you happen to share my experience, that’s great! But please do not take this as objective advice.
Hallo all! Over the last few months I have been kept incredibly busy helping to do the narrative design for an large scale escape room on a train…
A moving train…
An escape room…
On a moving…train…
Needless to say, when the opportunity first came up Errol immediately pushed himself onto the project and I followed suit. We both love the mystery and romance of trains. The idea of being able to design an adventure on one was too good to pass up. Read the rest of this entry
Sidekicks Episode 4
Episode 4 is here! And we finally start to get conversations that are not entirely antagonistic.
We’ve been getting great feedback so far! You guys have been awesome! Continue to share and like if you can :D.
Night at the Speakeasy Post Mortem
Well, after four months of planning, practicing and stressing September 19th came and our speakeasy event finally happened! And it didn’t crash and burn! Quite the opposite! It was a rousing success!
Two weeks later, my brain is somewhat recovered from the insanity of it all. It seemed like a good time to finally get some thoughts down on the evening. My previous blog post dealt with the actual creative process of writing for an interactive medium. This post will deal more with how the actual event turned out. Read the rest of this entry
A foray into Interactive Story and Escape Games
Over the last year and a bit Errol and I have had a new obsession: Escape Games. Twelve year old Manda has become insanely jealous of adult Manda for getting the opportunity to physically experience adventure games (let’s face it, that’s what they are). We simply can’t stop going to them and with Toronto being one of the meccas of the escape world, there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of new ones popping up. We enjoy them so much we even started a blog reviewing them.
Well one event led to another and before we knew it, we suddenly found ourselves helping to plan our own escape event. A live, large scale, one night only escape event called A Night At the Speakeasy happening this Saturday, September 19th at the Gates (66 Gerrard St E.). Look! You can see the website here! Read the rest of this entry
My Neighbour Errol- Comfort
Okay, so this is a bit of a lie. It’s not reaaaaaallly a My Neighbour Errol. But it does involve a conversation with Errol AND it’s about the play I wrote with him so I’m putting it under this category. Because it’s my blog and I can do what I want!
Ahem…anyway, so this week our play opens. It’s called Sidekicks and Secret Identities, a collection of three plays about superheroes performed in one evening. Errol and I ended up doing a theatrical adaptation of our webseries.
Our poster design is AWESOME
Opening weeks…are not my friends…they are in fact the worst thing for a naturally nervous person to have to endure. This experience has been especially odd in that basically my job for the show was done two months ago, and I have no clue how things are looking so far although I do know that I like the cast and that anyone who can handle Errol’s dialogue deserves a medal.
At any rate…we’re opening. I’m extremely proud of this accomplishment, but with my personal pride comes all of the worst case scenarios that could possibly happen in a play, up to and including the audience throwing rotten eggs.
Or eggs with spiders! that would be TERRIFYING!
Errol has now dealt with my nerves for every one of our projects. The worst was perhaps NaNoMusical, where I was certain we would be banned from the internet by angry NaNo fans everywhere. It wasn’t until he told me to log into a chatroom and see the reactions that I was convinced otherwise.
Comforting words and empathy are not really Errol’s thing to begin with. They are even less so when he has a creative partner who has the same panic attack every time a big project is about to launch. And so these are the comforting words he offered this morning upon learning of my anxiety:
Errol: Think about it this way. If you’re right, and the show does fail, I don’t get to be smug about it.
Me: Hooray?
Errol: But if you’re wrong, then I’ll be smug.
Me: …I really don’t know how to feel about this.
Errol: But if it fails, you get to be right! And I’ll be sad I can’t be smug.
Me: So no matter what happens, I’m still going to feel bad and guilty at the end of it.
Errol: (happily) Yup! Have a good day at work!
And then he made this face
But yes…regardless of the “Errol is a smug jerk” story…we have a play this week. If you are in the Toronto area, you should come check it out. You can also check out a blog I wrote for Monkeyman Productions about some of the process here. If you would like to see Errol’s smug face firsthand, I would highly suggest coming out. Wish us luck!
My Neighbour Errol: Kari
I have this friend named Kari.
Seen here in comic form!
I met Kari through Errol. Much like myself, it was a bit of a shock to be the subject of such enthusiasm from a complete stranger. And also much like myself, she was suddenly sucked into the vortex of Errol’s friendship. Read the rest of this entry
CheezWhiz
This week I open a show with Screaming Monkeys, a theatre company that focuses on providing a theatrical outlet to the marginalized communities of Toronto. I’ve been working off and on with them for about six years now, and wouldn’t you know it, this year is their 10th anniversary! To celebrate they’re performing a sort of clips show of favourite scenes and skits they’ve done over the past ten years.
Here is our poster! Wheee!
I am reprising a couple of my past roles. I am nervous. Read the rest of this entry
Simian Showcase Post-Show Report
On Saturday the Bride of Simian Showcase closed. It couldn’t have gone better (well, other than a couple of minor hitches along the way but the sort that come along with every theatre show). I was there for every performance and never once got sick of it. The audiences were fantastic, the plays were solid, and Errol ate a microphone. For serious.
But by now…I’m sure you’re not all that surprised.
I have to say, it was a different and weird and wonderful experience watching my play being performed. I haven’t been writing long, but up until now everything I have written has always been performed by myself in some capacity. This time though, after spending time crafting the characters, hearing them in my head, and imagining the look of the play, I was handing off my script to a group of people to make their own. Read the rest of this entry
Sidekicks: Flex Girl Trailer and Grant Applications
Hallo Bloggosphere! I need your help! First, here is a video! And below that is an explanation of the video!
So as I’ve said in previous blog posts, I’ve been pretty busy lately. One of the reasons for the busy times is that I’ve been working on a new webseries with Errol for WeTangent. Read the rest of this entry
Thoughts from the Test Chamber 