About Shhhh! Digital Media

This content is produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and written by Brian Joseph Johns. There is no Shhhh! Digital Media in New York that has anything to do with this Shhhh! Digital Media in Canada, not to mention I've never been to New York.

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Monday, August 25, 2025

End of Month August 2025 Updates...


Hi again. Brian Joseph Johns here.


The Weekend


I've been off since last Friday (which I spent ill in bed), and most of the weekend was basically about cleaning up the office and keeping myself amused on a popular strategy game called Civilization 6. There within I managed to get my petute handed to me (twice) by two of the other leading civs, and also ended up in a religious war with one of the other leaders. 

Insofar as the religious war, the leader being very devout, (she) tried converting my entire country to her religion, and moving our shared border in her favour (essentially making my country ever the tinier), so I moved in on her country and attemptemted to convert them all to my custom religion of Secular Waterism. You drink it. You bath in it. Its essential for all life as we know it. Enough said.

Despite the fact that I had the second biggest military, a healthy treasury and a very wealthy infrastructure, during our religious war, another small country came up from behind and won with a diplomatic victory, leaving that other leader and I standing in the ashes of our religious war, confused and distraught.

I think there's an important lesson in there somewhere to the effect that while we're kept busy squabbling amongst one another, there's a third party somewhere else who's taking advantage of the opening and going in for the win.


Winning, Losing, And The Contemplation of Ideas


Victory or loss in most cases socially speaking is a construct of the ego and mostly a social illusion. Its more about how you got there than anything and what you learned about yourself along the way.

Of course, in games, in some cases you're role playing as someone much different than yourself, which gives you a chance to explore avenues you otherwise wouldn't take as in:

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Aristotle

That's something that's actually quoted during the gameplay of Civilization 6 and it is certainly of grand importance in these days, though I think it might be more applicably termed: "It is the mark of an independent mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it". 

How and why is it in this day and age that we're made to feel by certain predatory groups, that if we read an article or hear a statement with which we disagree, that if we don't state that aloud in some way that it must mean that we must accept it?

Learning and growing is about considering many different points of view. Comtemplating them, in some cases having experiences related to them, and then coming to your own conclusions as to whether you discard an idea and related concepts or not.

There are groups of people who attempt to make you feel as if you accept anything for which you do not give a response, keeping in mind that if we're simply responding to avoid being socially forced into one of two groups: those who accept a particular idea and those who don't, that we're basically running on automatic, and in the process giving up a piece of our consciousness. 

The more time we spend with automatic responses, the less time we're being conscious. We want more reasons to be able to think and respond on our own terms, not those of some predatory group to avoid being sorted and socially branded.

Regardless, lets get onto something else.


About Missing BOPWHATO's Most Recent Gathering


From what I understand, a group of my old friends (we called ourselves BOPWHATO), got together recently, although I'm not sure where that gathering was. I wasn't able to make it as I've been very busy with things getting Shhhh! Digital Media up in the air again, though I heard that there were a couple of other no shows as well.

I can guarantee that it's me, perhaps by bringing up the skunk incident in the basement at Shandon Avenue, or something like 89 Steps, or my bicycle ride(s) 200 km to go camping up to the farm at Kinmount back in the day. Remember the two bear story or my being chased by a wild brush wolf on foot? Or how about riding that old beaten up scooter up at Kinmount like it was an enduro bike :-)

Anyway, its still the same old Brian Joseph Johns, though I've travelled a somewhat bumpy path, with many highs (was employed in film, employed as a programmer many times and made a good living for a while, studied Goju-Jujitsu Ryu, Aikido and learned to ride horses like a pro in the mountains). 

There is nothing involved in my life like substance abuse or anything of that nature despite the rumours, and I'm actually quite healthy and fit all considered, at about 175 lbs, 6 feet tall and still with the vast majority of my hair, and a friendly if not mischievous cat to boot. I live in downtown Toronto and you can look me up on brian.joseph.johns@shhhhdigital.com. I haven't been on Facebook much over the last year, so I'm not really keeping up.

Still doing a lot of things as you can see here on Shhhh! Digital Media and have even tipped my hat in your direction a few times between the lines. I've struggled with an organized group that seems to collectively attempt to steal websites or creative and intellectual properties, but I have my back covered legally on that.

I hope that your get together was enjoyable, as in this day and age, we don't get many chances to do that kind of thing.

Until we see each other again...

Oh, and don't let John P. swim in the pool with his boots on anymore. I still can't get the smell out of my mind of his boots cooking in the oven the next day. I'm not Ron Silk.

Brian :-)


Updates


I'm here this morning to tell you that updates will continue throughout most of this week, especially those involving the retcon occurring in both Tales of the Sanctum and The Butterfly Dragon.

I will be continuing and finishing Stanton's two unfinished story lines (Episode 11 and 12 of We Who Stand On Guard) before the characters from that episode storyline enter into the retcon themselves.

So look forward to at least a few releases and posts this week.

Again, thanks for reading and reading and reading and listening to the content on Shhhh! Digital Media, and I'll see you soon in writing :-)

PS: I vote, take acetominophen or ibuprofen for headaches, and celebrate birthdays by the way (I'm not a Jehovah's Witness in other words) and I've never used cocaine or crack cocaine in my life.

If you or someone you know is having problems with substance dependency (such as crack cocaine or "blow"), direct them towards a Harm Reduction site or to a Rehab Centre.

I'm an Atheist that leans toward Buddhism and Taoism (even when I'm on my ancient Samsung Galaxy SM-G386W).

Finally, I'm not a member of any cult that requires you to pay someone for their sponsorship when you're using a skill that you already have and are very familiar with. That's nothing more than extortion.

Finally, my own love interest is Southeast Asian, but she's not Filipino with all due respect to that hard working and industrious community. She's fine with that despite my being European Canadian.

Oh, and I'm not Michael Jacks.

Brian Joseph Johns

This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner.

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