So I guess I'm a bit of a Union Guy

So, those who know me know I'm active in my union. I've been laid off twice, and when bargaining at my next job ground to a halt and we got locked out in 2019 it was an eye opening experience to see the way we mobilized to support each other.

My own advocacy takes many forms, and standing up for workers is one of them. I tend to get myself in trouble for calling out things that I don't agree with, but with a little work and pointed in the right direction I can be a loudmouth for good. So, I started attending regular meetings and became a Union Steward a couple years ago, joined a couple committees, did some work on member involvement, and started putting my name in the hat for different things. This weekend the culmination of that is, holy crap, they flew me to Ottawa for the Unifor Canadian Council.

Let me tell you a little bit about this union structure. Our local is one of many. Our workplace while unique is just one of several in the telecommunications sector, and that sector is one of several that are all part of the Unifor family. We're the biggest private sector union in Canada, and you probably interact with our members daily in one way or another.

At council, we compare notes and strategize and figure approaches to bargaining and building worker power in a way that this big picture thinking facilitates. And when an employer messes with one of us? There's some incredible resources behind the muscle that retaliates.

We get behind social justice initiatives, we get involved in politics and we work to shape policy that raises the floor for workers all across Canada. That's something to be proud of.

Anyway, all this to say it's a real treat to be out here and I'm enjoying every moment of it.

Let's Roll

As school lets out and my vacation winds down it's time to focus on the things I like to do with my free time. Naturally, that's running D&D games! My wife has the energy to both play and DM, and it's time for a detailed seasonal update on where we're at.

Sunday: Wild Beyond the Witchlight is a bust. The kids were gung-ho until the first session and a half, and then every week someone wouldn't want to or not be available. I'll refocus my efforts, but I think this would be a good one to try again if we can set up an in person play space to hold their attention. I want to eventually get a gaming table in the basement, roll real dice and try running games like that.

Monday: Van Richten's Unfinished Business. This tour of Ravenloft domains is currently the group's favorite night. It's slow going and driven by interpersonal drama, with the encounters and overall story arc as a backdrop. I have to delve a lot into old edition books to decide what's happening in each domain. Even with the new Ravenloft book out they give very little to go on to drive a full campaign story. I'm getting the hang of weaving content together - every level we meet a whole new cast of characters in a new setting and it's a lot of fun.

Tuesday: My day off while a fellow DM runs their Dragonlance campaign - I've reinstated game nights for my union siblings and there's talk of using the office for proper board games and TTRPG fun.

Wednesday: My wife is about to spin up her Crooked Moon campaign. I get to play as a main character, a skeletal ranger with San Citlanese roots. She's got Day of the Dead decorations and a coyote sidekick, and it'll be a big swing at trying to play a serious character invested in the story.

Thursday: The Phandalin campaign continues, missing some sessions as players are unavailable, but I get to tag along to run the soundboard and help with prep. It's fun watching my wife do her thing and mess with characters, and we have a great time brainstorming together as a team.

Friday: My paid game, Sword Coast Ramblers, is still my favorite project. Chopping up all the 5e hardcover adventures and throwing their chapters onto an open world map is admittedly an insane undertaking but the players are having a great time uncovering plots and weaving them together.

Saturday: We're about to run our finale for the 4th season of Adventurer's League with its ties to Curse of Strahd, and move on to the 5th season themed around Storm King's Thunder. The players are coming up with characters and I look forward to leveraging some of the new backgrounds and faction details from the Heroes of Faerun book.

So that's where the dice are at! Let's keep rolling and enjoying good times and stories with people we love.

Hot Loudmouth Summer

I'm worked up about a few things.

This comes after spending several months going it alone and holding the household together by my teeth while my wife went through (successful!) treatment for Leukemia. During that time I kind of rediscovered the joy of moving with purpose, connecting with people and just advocating. Not just posting through it, but sitting down with people and really talking things out.

Well, there was some posting through it.

That momentum of getting into rooms where decisions are made and pulling peoples' attention  to where it needs to be, that's a great thing and now that I'm back on the full time work grind I miss it immediately. I wanna crow from the rooftops about every nonprofit and affinity group I bump into. Meanwhile my days get shorter, my calendar fuller and my body more tired.

So. I'm taking June off from work. Damn near all of it. And I want to get out there as much as I can. How successful will that be? We'll see. But here's the plan in general.

Being Involved in Local Politics

I'm attending meetings and being present for events put on by both the provincial and federal NDP parties. This all started with volunteering for my now-MLA during the election and I enjoy getting to know these people as people. I've been learning how the internal stuff works and hopefully the next time there's an election I can be of more help.

Advocating for Mastodon

My email campaigning got the eyes of my new friends at elbowsupdigital.ca, a collection of like minded advocates who want to try and convince governments, organizations and politicians to show up on the Fediverse - particularly Mastodon. This is a big one for me after my own personal journey watching family get sucked into the hate vortex that Facebook and Twitter became. Social Media doesn't need to be awful, and since I joined in 2022 it's been a real breath of fresh air. Get in here, breathe it with me.

Making myself available

I plugged my calendar into a booking tool, so people can see when I'm available and get my ear for pretty much anything. I don't expect to see a whole heck of a lot coming out of it, but it's neat to have. Talk with me!

And of Course, D&D

As life gets back to normal we're filling out our game nights once again with a weekly schedule that'll make most geeks jealous:

• Sunday: Wild Beyond the Witchlight with the kids
• Monday: "Van Richten's Unfinished Business", a domain hopping Ravenloft campaign inspired by lore across all editions
• Tuesday: I'm off while the rest of our table plays in a Dragonlance campaign
• Wednesday: My wife is about to spin up a Crooked Moon campaign that I get to play in!
• Thursday: Assisting the technical background work for my wife's Phandelver and Below game
• Friday: My paid Sword Coast Ramblers game is still going, amalgamating content from all the official 5e adventures
• Saturday: Adventurer's League, about to move onto the Storm King's Thunder season!

Gosh. In another era I've give myself such a wedgie. But in this one? I'm downright proud.

Best Laid Plans

So, our summer of D&D didn't quite turn out as planned. Just as we were ramping up new games on multiple fronts, my wife was diagnosed with Leukemia and we spent the next several months in and out of the hospital between rounds of chemo and recovery. The good news at the end of it all - she's out the other end and has a good chance of being done with it. I'm on hand as a full time caretaker until I go back to work in January, and then we'll be picking up more or less where we left off.

The one game I kept going during this time was our casual Adventurer's League series, which just finished its third season. We're now playing the epic, Reclamation of Phlan, which acts as a capstone to the entire Moonsea arc. I adapted it for our home group and split the three tracks into different weekly sessions, and that should continue on for a few weeks while we're getting ready to return to normal here. I'm pretty proud of how I set this up, and it's been years in the making. Sometime soon I should do a deep dive on the systems and geekery that go into adapting an adventure like this.

It's been a weird, wild time handling things at home and losing out on time for things we love to do. Of the people who came out of the woodwork for support, it ended up being some of our players that helped the most. It's really cool so see, and I'm forever grateful and hope I can continue delivering fun adventures for years to come.