Meet The Writers' Block Crew #3: @jasonbu

Meet the Blockheads

We’ve gotten off to a rockin’ start, and we loved all the questions you guys had for @bex-dk.

Our next sacrifice at the altar of interviews hails from Toronto, Canada.

On top of his day job, he is a coder and a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. This winter enthusiast is a hockey player who also coaches little league hockey. He loves his coffee, and we love him. You know I’m talking about @jasonbu!

This was your chance to grill him, and grill him good. Let's check out all those burning questions you all fired off.

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When did you first start writing? What made you start?

Funny thing. I didn't actually think about writing really, just sort of fell into it. If I think back, I started writing fantasy when I was a kid. I used to devour fantasy novels and wanted to write a ‘choose your path’ book. That hobby morphed into making a computer game and then into D&D quests for my D&D club, in high school. Yes, I used to play D&D. Don't judge.

I did a lot of writing in college but it was technical articles and manuals. Real page-turners. They would put you to sleep in about 7 minutes but I love any of the technical and science-based topics. About 15 years ago I started writing a fiction/sci-fi novel. I’m still writing that novel. I just hope I finish it someday before my main character dies of old age.

What famous author inspires you the most?

I think the writer that inspired me the most is Neal Stephenson. His novels, as they came out, seemed to be in step with my interests, lock, stock and barrel. It was uncanny. He envisioned the Metaverse(Epic Games) and other technologies that we use every day. His topics and writing are technical. If you are into cryptology or cryptocurrency( assume you are) you have to read Cryptonomicon. It takes you from World War II to the present, combining historical fiction with, at the time sci-fiction, and digital gold currency. Sound familiar? He wrote this book in 1999 (remember ecash or DigiCash?)

What is your superhero power?

Has to be speed. I have so many things that I want to learn, work on and develop. I watch the TV show, The Flash with my kids and think, What the hell could I finish if I could only find more time in the day? I mean, zip here and do this, zap there and do that. Gawd! Might shed a few pounds at the same time.

Who would be your superhero sidekick? Why?

This might be sappy, but my wife. She’s got uncanny superpowers that I have yet to understand. She can just do stuff. She sees and knows all. She often uses her superpowers to keep me on time - actually all us boys(there’s four of us), on time, how? It takes superpowers to run our house and schedule… I might have to capitulate and say that I might actually be her sidekick. I know, I know, cop-out, suck up but what can I say? Believe it or not, I actually have a soft mushy side and it’s not my dough-boy figure.

What genre would you never try writing?

I said I have a soft mushy side, but I never said I would try writing with it. That being said I would never write Romance. I think it would actually make me a bit uncomfortable to have someone read something that I wrote in that genre, I’m thinking along the Harlequin line of stories. Nope, ain’t going to happen.

If you are my dad, why do you live in Canada?

Oh, boo! Who asked this question. It’s bloody obvious. Oh, um sorry.

Following on from that question, where is my allowance?

You'll get it after you complete the following chores:

• Clean your room,
• Walk the dog,
• Empty the dishwasher,
• Shovel the sidewalk,
• Shovel the driveway,
• Get your dirty clothes,
• Open a Steemit account for me to transfer some SBD,
• Oh, and get a job.
  That last one is a bone of contention for the summer months.

When did you start coding?

I remember it quite clearly. When I was 11 my stepbrother received a Vic 20 for Christmas. It had a few cassettes with games. Yes, I said cassettes. We would load the programs into RAM from tape cassettes. We went through them pretty quick. They were the “path” adventure type games. Read a paragraph, select an outcome and decide the path. We finished them in the first couple of days of the holidays. The system came with a programmers reference guide (BASIC - I found a scanned copy online. Geez, check it out http://www.classiccmp.org/cini/pdf/Commodore/VIC-20%20Programmer's%20Reference%20Guide.pdf). I read the guide and started playing around. I would code a couple of “Adventure” modules for my brother and he would QA it for me - okay, he would play it. I dabbled a bit more in high school with a fishing simulator then ended up going through for computer science in college - been coding ever since.

If you had to choose between coffee and ice hockey, which one?

Man, totally not a fair question. Thankfully, I'm a scientist and quantum physics can save my ass here. Haroche and Wineland showed that an atom’s electrons can be in two places at the same time, I just need to condense my form into its base electrons and wham! I’ll either vaporize myself or I’ll be in two places at once. Voilà, Coffee and Hockey - so there. Choose between coffee and hockey. HA! Canadians drink 152 L of coffee per capita each year. Just try to stop me.

You are a bit of the strong, silent type. Say little but step in when needed. So what do you do with yourself while you are lurking all the time?

See my answer about a superpower. I mean I really need it. When I'm home, I sit in my “lab” (that’s what the kids have started to call it), my office that I carved out in my basement. My little sanctuary. I usually have discord up on one of my systems sitting on the Block.

While I’d like to say I’m spending my time at altruistic endeavours I've probably squirrelled off onto some topic, down some rabbit hole. It's worse when I’m critiquing a non-fiction topic that I don't know. I’ll have 50 tabs open researching the topic.

I have a few other things on the go. You might catch me at the arena, in the winter, dance competitions in the spring, on the train during the week. At the moment I’m trying to finish up Data Science course, write some discord bots, also fiddling with some data queries on a few BI projects. I’m not as busy as some but time in the lab is limited to weekends and evenings.

If you hang out long enough, you might just see me Riding through the channel, bareback. :-)

What do you do for fun? Hobbies?

Play hockey. Spare time is at a premium between the dancing practices, my middle son, and my youngest son’s hockey. My dog (Caffery) and I spend weekend mornings in the “lab” while the rest of the family sleeps. I like to pull up my writing and see what I can polish off. I also love to play with code and SQL queries. I know. Put the propeller hat on. Essentially I love to learn.

Are you heavily involved in cryptocurrency, lightly involved, or not at all?

I would have to say I’m moderately involved in cryptocurrency. I’ve been playing in this area since 2013. I tried my hand at mining Bitcoin back in the early days. I probably worked up to half a coin but lost the wallet. I switched to something else in between then and now until my real life job started to look at the blockchain and several use cases. While researching Ethereum, Bitcoin and other chains I stumbled onto Steemit. Haven't looked back and have started to get in deeper.

What draws you to fiction over non-fiction, and what draws you about non-fiction over fiction?

Non-fiction draws me in with my intrinsic need to know. I really like the details and the knowledge transfer that can happen in a non-fiction piece. I can really dig into a historical piece on people and historical happenstance. Conversely, I love fiction and its vastness of topics, genres and letting your imagination engage, reading or writing. Finding an author that mixes the two is gold for me.

Who would you suggest backing in a prize fight between a drunk iguana and a former pirate parrot and why?

Pirate Parrot. No contest. Have you seen the bad-ass Pirate Parrot from Pirates of the Caribbean?

Do you have a favorite book? What is it and why?

Cryptonomicon. It was written by Neal Stephenson. It’s awesome. I read it, the first time, just after leaving Microsoft and heading into my startup. It was the ramp up to the .com days and this book got me pumped. I’ve read it a few more times. It’s like watching a movie - the subtleties that you miss the first time are surprising. I think I’m going to dust it off again. Might be good to go old school again and turn a page. I haven't read a paper-based book for years. Everything is on my iPad now.

You are adrift on an iceberg. You have half a coconut and one oar. How long do you survive?

I would survive until I managed to hit a fishing lane. Here’s what you could do if you found yourself in a similar situation. Remember the threes, they boil down to - 1. Shelter 2. Water then 3. Food.

1. Shelter - Use the coconut and oar to dig or carve out a cave. It will protect you from the sun, wind and elements. Similar to an igloo (and no I don’t live in a freaking igloo. I have built a few.) Depending on the elements you have 3 hours.

2. Water - icebergs are frozen fresh water. Use the coconut shell or oar to dig a little hole to capture or melt water. You have 3 days.

3. Food - Use the coconut to make fibre piles to attract seagoing birds. I know, cruel, but then use the oar to whack the bird. If you can grab some drift wood you might be able to use the fibres to start a fire (smooth piece of ice as a magnifying glass.) Raw bird is not the best. You have 3 weeks.

What’s the most helpful thing you’ve learned by submitting or editing in The Writers’ Block fiction queue?

When I first came onto the Block (we were on the old server), @Rhondak had an initial pass at my first chapter. I was nervous as hell. I learned about two things. Never, never start your piece with the weather, check, that was my opening line. Sigh. The next was learn how to write POV and not head-pop. My writing style tends to put me in many of my characters’ POV. It can be an awesome tool, it can also sink a great piece. Learn how and when to use POV.

Please give us a writing prompt or writing exercise to try.

Write a historical fiction piece that is a side story to a non-fiction event. Your piece needs to have historically accurate details to tie it to the event. It should be between 500-1500 words. Oh, but wait, there’s more. I’ll put up 5 SBD for the best piece, I’ll judge. You have a week from this post. I’ll announce the winner after the payout of this post. I guess this just launched a contest. Tag it to the #thewritersblock and post a link to your entry in a comment on this post.

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@jasonbu, thank you so much for your co-operation. The members of The Writer's Block are much obliged to you.

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