About this blog and me

I finally decided to start a blog!

It took me a while, I am not one who takes decisions quickly. But I have the feeling this will last for a while.

I will blog on my work using storytelling in education; and then on my passions (mostly related to this): movies, games, travels, and the amazing people that I happen to meet so often.

The common denominator will be always – well, more or less – “The Hero’s Journey” – to know more what this means, you will have to read my ever-changing post on it, for example.

I always loved stories. I am so glad I could grow up with my grandma and my dad telling me fairy tales and classics. I remember especially my dad’s versions of Moby Dick and the Odyssey, that he used to tell me when I was a kid. I learned to use my imagination, to dream, I became familiar with awe.

And it was my dad, again, who instilled in me my ever lasting love for cinema. Some of the first movies I remember watching in a cinema are Star Wars (of course), and E.T. – of which I also had the compulsory sticker album – and that used to scare me silly. As a kid I used to have a recurrent nightmare, for years! The not-so-cute-and-harmless alien used to enter my bedroom from the window, and go to the kitchen. With a childhood like that, all the rest came as a natural consequence.

Then, as a teenager, I became a nerd without knowing what a nerd was – before the word was famous and cool.

I was one of the nerdy nerds. I grew up in a tough neighbourhood, in the outskirts of Napoli, Italy, in the 1980s. Full cold-war era.

The streets were dangerous (I mean, the dangerous kind of danger that kills people violently) and to play outside was not really an option for a kid with a normal survival instinct such as myself. So I developed most of my interests indoors. And it was the perfect time for it: my brother and me were early adopters of the videogame revolution. I am so happy I can remember what it meant to have one’s place invaded, suddenly, with all the wonders of the electronic entertainment. We started from the glory of Atari and Commodore Vic-20 (yeah, right, did you have to google it?) and moved all the way to Amiga, DOS, Playstation – when there was no need for a number after the name. It was just the Playstation!

From that, the natural evolution was the discovery of role-playing games. The type you used to play with paper, pencils, dice and a bunch of friends. Dungeons & Dragons, The Call of Cthulhu, Cyberpunk 2020, GURPS, Stormbringer, Star Wars… just a few of the glorious titles that used to fire up and unleash our imagination. We were finally able to design our own stories by ourselves!

With no particular hurry to “grow up”, I spent countless time exploring the boundaries of my own – and my friends’ – imagination. Cinema, Videogames, Role Playing Games, they all came together and defined my passion for stories. That make us grow, learn, feel alive.

I then moved on to studying Business – to find out that I didn’t want to work in a company – and working as a journalist, for 6 years. Those were also interesting times, late 90ies and early 2000s. I loved more and more finding a good story, and telling it. It was the thing that I wanted to do. It came to me, naturally.

Fast forward another 10 years or so, and it’s only a natural consequence that all this would come together into my work as a freelance trainer and the life I have chosen as a reluctant adult.

Now I travel (too much), I meet people, we live adventures together and explore the great magic of learning. Which is the biggest wonder we, as humans, are capable of. Like in this recent picture.

And so I will talk about all this, in my blog: games, movies, stories, learning, and everything connected to it. 

The story behind the title is described shortly in my “Opening Credits” first post.

Feel free to follow my work, comment and provide feedback (proof read and spelling mistakes, all welcome).

Facebook page: To Say Nothing of the Cat

And you can follow me on twitter: @carminerodi or @ToSayNothingOf

And also, you can suggest a particular topic, movie, or subject you would like to see discussed. I am always happy to deliver.

Thank you. Started on June 9th, 2015. I come in peace.