Month: April 2022

Early morning routine of linguistics studies

I’m not entirely sure if it’s ironic or just hypocrisy, but I’ve always loved linguistics while dreading any language class during my school years.

Granted, it’s been nearly 20 years since I was a student, but I do remember those attempts at learning French and Spanish in high school. They were definitely “attempts”, because I failed those classes with abysmally poor grades.

But I still wanted to learn, and I had a writing nerds’ motivation to learn: I had finished reading Lord of The Rings in my sophomore year and obsessed over the language sections in the back of those books.

Since those stories have been put in my head, I’ve wanted to try learning a language or putting some semblance of a language into one of my stories. To my teenaged mind, that looked cool and I wanted to do it, too.

(Safe to say that I didn’t have much experience with the other trials of teenaged life back then. While everyone else was starting to go to parties, I was the nerd who wrote D&D campaigns in class. Shocking, I know.)

Since those days, I made multiple attempts at linguistic studies, only to fail repeatedly. At some point I gave up the pursuit and told myself that I simply did not have the aptitude for learning other languages. In some areas of the US, people would doubt that I spoke American English, since my Louisiana accent would come out and throw them off. This was proven true to me when I was staying in California. Fun times that, explaining dialect and regional accents to folks who thought I couldn’t read because I sounded (to them) like a redneck. That was an isolated incident and otherwise my stay in California was very pleasant, in case any of my readers are from that way. Just to clear the air.

Nowadays, I’ve become a dedicated student of Duolingo, which apparently is way more my speed. It may seem like shilling for an app, but I am honestly very happy with their program for learning languages.

I’m doing the thing! Progress!

Once a day, right before the shift starts, I go through the lessons and try my best. I know it’s slow going, but I’ve learned more in the past few months than I ever did in a formal setting. That might just be an indicator that I was a bad student, I’ll admit. My later attempts at college are strong backers of that theory.

With that, morning break is over and I’m off to the mail route. Happy reading, folks.

-JB Swift

Exhaustion-Driven Writing

It’s been a busy day, folks.

I am utterly exhausted, but for a wonder that exhaustion is both physical and mental. I’m used to being physically exhausted; there’s no escaping that with my career. But I’ve also been writing and plotting all day, and that will tire me out as well.

I wrote a 7-page short and sent it for my players so they’d have context for the next few sessions. I’ve begun writing chapters for the Sidewinder and the Dresden Holmes story. I wanted to get one of my Postal Living essays written, but I’m stupidly tired and randomly falling asleep in my chair while I type.

I know, I know. I’m going to bed. Goodnight, all.

Bread loaf doesn’t like morning rains

Dramatic dogs are dramatic. I can understand not wanting to go outside when we’re going through one of our springtime or summer storms. But this was a light drizzle, and he went to go pout when I told him to go outside for a few minutes.

You’d think I’d get the drama from Korra. She’s at least half-Husky, so I’d expect her to give me grief. Nope, it’s the Corgi.

Cat on the route! (From yesterday)

I’m never sure if the cats on my route are someone’s pets or just strays that have a section of territory. Not many have collars (I think I’ve only seen one collared cat) and my customers rarely interact with them.

But everyone leaves food out for them, so they have claims on the neighborhood. This one in particular is friendly enough, and she lets me pet her when she’s in a good mood. Otherwise, she just sits there while I sort letters.

No idea what her real name is, but I call her Socks when she shows up.

Side-Arc Plotting, Chapter Updates, and Future Essays

It’s very high praise when the players of your RPG campaign show investment in their characters. When they continuously ask questions about motivations, personal goals, or help with background details, you feel like they are enjoying the story as much as you do writing it for them.

But I consider it a personal compliment to the game-writing when players look at the schedule and request side-arc sessions and background-development games. The players are being engaging and thoughtful with their choices, which is an awesome moment to witness.

I suppose it should be noted that I’ve never liked power-gamers or players whose only goal was to mess with the campaign details. I don’t mind chaos if it isn’t done with malicious intent. If I’m going to take the time to write up plots, I’d like to see my investment rewarded.

With that, I’ll probably be writing up a side-arc or two this evening. There are a few details I’ve wanted the players to explore, and if it’s done correctly, they’ll have a great payoff in later levels.

I’ve also noticed that when I don’t post about the various projects or shamelessly brag about my family (Ben’s showing an interest in mechanics and I’m woefully unprepared), I’m writing about the postal life. This is because of two things: I get a lot of the same questions by different people, and I do believe in writing about what you know.

I’ve been in this career long enough to be comfortable with the questions and figured I should expand on them somewhere. This seems like a good spot, so expect a “Postal Living” section to slowly grow. It should prove to be a fun project to whittle away at when I have an idea for it.

Lastly, I’ve uploaded Chapter 6 of the Sidewinder Story! It’ll be a while before I can get the next chapter up, but hopefully I’ll have it finished and uploaded sooner than my misgivings say. When I’ve finished Adventure 1 (working on the title), I’ll probably condense the pages to make navigation easier. Or I’ll mess up layout again. You know, one or the other. For anyone not sure where to go:

Sidewinder Adv 1 Chp 6

Sidenote: I’ve been getting a lot of traffic on this site recently, and I wanted say hello, welcome to everyone and apologize for the mess. Eventually, I’ll figure this thing out. Surely.

With that, I wish all of you a pleasant evening and a good night.

-JB Swift

Dog on the route!

Death from the ankles down! At least, he tries to be. This is Jordan and he is a Mini French Bulldog. He’s about the size of a Jordan, too. He was so excited for pets that he tried to gnaw on my fingers.

Either that or he’s so full of hatred for the mailman that he was trying to kill me and forgot he’s a tiny French bulldog. Either way, he’s adorable.

Dog on the route!

Possibly my favorite mail-route dog. Drake is getting up there in years, but I can rely on him to be at his gate, barking loudly to announce his presence and demands for pets.

He’s also my go-to for training new postmen on how to interact with large, loud dogs. He’s intimidating enough to new folks that they’ll be surprised, but friendly enough to let them approach the house and practice the “levels of conflict” without risk of escalating threat.

Sidenote: I’ll eventually write up a “Postal Living” essay on how we deal with aggressive dogs or other animals. But for now, enjoy the photo.

(Also, always make sure you have the animal owners’ permission before you take the photo. My customers have known me for years and years, so they usually do say yes, but never assume you have their permission. Ask first.)

-JB Swift

The temptation of early morning writing prompts

There was a period of nearly ten years when I wasn’t making any serious effort at writing. I had thought, at the time, that since I had not made it on to the bookshelves before I was 25, I should focus on establishing my career in the post office. It’s a good job, it pays well, and I needed something more secure than contract labor or pizza delivery.

Of course, I did write D&D plots for campaigns. Those are, to me, relatively simple and straightforward. You listen to what the incoming party wants to try and tailor a story to their goals. If it’s a dungeon-crawl, you barely have any real work at story-writing at all; just go to the applicable encounter chart and throw in monsters.

There were, however, personal challenges I set up for myself. I knew I’d get moody and depressed if I wasn’t trying to make a story somewhere, so I went online for a list of one-line or setting-based writing prompts. Anything from “The Wizard Has the Wrong Book” to “High-Tech Peaceful Dystopia”. Nothing in those prompts were publishing-worthy and I knew it, but it gave me moments to practice and keep my skills (such as they are) in good form.

These days, I’m trying to get a couple stories written that could, if I handle it right, make it through the publishing hurdles. Couple that with this medication to help me focus, and I’m finally able to dedicate my effort and time (an hour, here or there) to genuine writing.

But the prompts never stop showing up, and they’re still too much fun to leave alone.

On my way in to work this morning, I overheard a nerdy conversation. I try to not be rude in those moments, but I heard a line that got my attention: “I want two guys sword-fighting on the wings of a biplane.”

Yes, I have several projects to work on already, but you just don’t let a line like that go to waste.

I’ll probably work up a small scenario with that prompt in mind. Already, I want the biplane in flight, the protagonist to be completely exasperated with their situation while the antagonist an upright and arrogant gentleman (it might be because of the WWI-ish feel, but I gave him a German accent in my mind), and the fight to have “Shippin’ Up To Boston” playing in the background. Because why not?

But that won’t be for a long while. I do have other works in progress, and I refuse to let myself be so distracted that they go the way of my earlier writings. I will, however, come back to this post to help me remember the prompt at a later date.

And with that, it’s time for the mail to run. Hoping you have an easy day, readers.

-JB Swift