Shhhh! Digital Media

Shhhh! Digital Media We Who Stand On Guard

Front Toward Enemy: A We Who Stand On Guard Tale [Updated November 7, 2026 14:15 EST]

The retirement nightmare we all face is to eventually be caught by our older self.

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Shhhh! Digital Will Return…

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Shhhh! Digital Media content will remain offline until further notice, pending a sufficient adjustment in attitude by those harassing me…

Shhhh! Digital Media Era of the Spellbound Tales of the Sanctum Wytches Without A Sanctum

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Three women contend with their new found abilities as they learn of their destiny as Wytches. A Wytch of the…

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Tales of the Sanctum: Lyra of the Weave video and animated desktop

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Lyra of the Weave video and animated desktop

Shhhh! Digital Media Butterfly Dragon We Who Stand On Guard

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Keeping the peace in the light of day. Shadow warriors all the way.

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Sunday November 8, 2026

Good morning! The photo on the left there is me at 47 years of age. It was taken 11 years ago (in 2015) back when Shhhh! Digital Media was still a wee little baby.

The wee hours of Sunday morning and I'm up and getting ready for the day. My remarks about how I'm despicable to more than half of the world's women was mostly a joke, and not an attempt to lure in any sympathy. I was actually aiming at the humour in the fact that when the worst case is being despised by more than half, the half full glass then represents a solemnly better side of things in terms of women who find you to be a jerk. It was actually a Barris-ism, and not any attempt to lure someone like Tom Cruise for instance, to lend me his personality so I could experience some admiration from members of the opposite sex. It was entirely meant for the humour of it, and represents one of my favourite things about writing Barris Windsor's character. Regardless, thanks for the pity, but it was far from a plea as such.

It certainly fueled a lot of introspection and the examination of the modern phenomenon that is making certain instances of live performance very difficult for some artists. Especially those tiny women. I'm speaking about women in their mid-twenties to mid-fifties or thereabouts who, courageously get up there on stage for a live show, despite there being a considerably larger population of toxic concert goers (about 20%?) who take out their angst on those women, while they're performing their live show, and in so many ways that its difficult to fathom how these women persevere and finish the show without exploding. In modern times, that pressure has been growing very rapidly, and is likely driving the force of higher ticket prices as many artists certainly will only endure such perils only if its worth the compensation for modern stressors.

What I find to be most remarkable about it though is that 60-70% of their fans in the audience are women who similarly in their lives struggle against the very same thing, but on a very different avenue in life. They're experiencing such struggles in the school halls, their classrooms, their part-time jobs, or their career jobs in the office so when they show up to a concert and see a little 140-150 lbs. woman up there courageously facing off against such perils and overcoming them, that's a very important symbol for those fans. A synergy they gain by seeing the smallest of frame women up on a huge stage, overcoming the potential toxicity of those few fans who are, as they compete with the performer for the recognition of being responsible for her show. When she overcomes that peril, it completely validates all those women in the audience who are there to see their hero, and confirms for them that they too can overcome.

We live in an age where everything that comes from us, has become a currency that is viable for someone else to lay claim, even shortly after it emerged from the individual creative source in the universe that is our individual uniqueness. It then might become a thought, plans of some kind, and eventually words or expression and finally action in some way. But through that entire process, we're living in an age where there are more and more people blurring the boundary between people, and in an invasive manner. No matter how hard you work on something, it can very quickly be taken from you by the kind of predators emerging in this new dynamic, where people everyday are wearing effort that is not their own as a form of bling they've taken from someone else.

In the previous example about the women (and men) who brave these difficult performances with a live show and often very active on stage, as the pressure builds, I think about concerts in Japan, and how different the audience/performer dynamics are there. I remember going to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra many times as a child, and during their performances, when there was a silence, you could literally hear everything in that silence, including the squeaking of the violinist chairs, or the squeaking of the piano bench. The stuff that reminded you that is was happening right in front of you, and the only reason you could hear it is because audiences were so different. Like the audiences in Japan, where the entire auditorium is silent as they listen to the performance. These are people who are truly there to experience the art to its fullest, and that is entirely demonstrated by the trust they place upon the performers on stage.

Both situations are inspiring, but for very different reasons. When I see the difference though, and I hear about how Japan is cracking down on toxic public displays by foreigners exploiting their propensity for peace and tolerance to create controversial content that challenges that peace in order to gain viral views on social media and YouTube, and when I look at how modern audiences have changed so much here, and so little there, I can't help but admire the performers who brave modern stages here in the west, and Japan's defense of their values for peace and public harmony against those who up until recently were toxically challenging it. In both cases, its those true fans who need the inspiration of people with the courage to face such perils in order to progress us all, and remind us that the show must go on, and that sometimes you have to put your foot down.

I struggle to survive and keep Shhhh! Digital Media going, and everything I write costs me something. So when there are people who take it from me and wear it as if it came from them, I can really feel it. We live in day and age where even our individual identity has become a currency that can be taken from us socially as a mean joke, or from us physically as part of a technological and records based theft of our identity. I often wonder how one can have a conscience and do something like that. I ascertain that most likely they don't, and a lack of capacity to comprehend the pain of others by relating it to the pain they've experienced in life. It hurts when you pour so many hours of work into something, and someone else comes along and begins wearing it as if it came from them, especially when you know they've never worked a hard day's work in their life.

I hope you're having a good weekend. I'm going to get to work, so see you in the latest update

Voyager

Did you know that on November 18, 2026, Voyager 1 will be exactly 24 light hours from Earth? That is, exactly one day for light to reach it. I just recalculated it (by hand and correctly this time) and confirmed it with AI. What a great question for aspiring science and astronomy students. Find out more at Where Is Voyager 1 and even add the event to your Google Calendar there!

Reminder: There's one week left for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. There's still time to support the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

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Front Toward Enemy: A We Who Stand On Guard Tale [Updated November 7, 2026 14:15 EST]

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