My hair’s been tucked up and under a hat all day while I’ve gone about my chores/errands. The moment the clip and tie came off…POOF.
09/12 End-of-day hair poof
Month: September 2022
09/12 Monday’s Day Off and the Mountain of Chores
A Monday morning broke over our little rural home and something was different about it.
Namely, that I wasn’t scrambling to get my postal gear together. It’s a day off. A week off, actually. I’m off from the day job all week until next Monday, as we prepare for a trip out of town and catch up on all the other chores/projects that have been needing attention. The kids were all kinds of confused to see me in civilian clothes while they were readying for school, but even they were glad I was off work for a little while. “You work too much, Dad,” Han said during the drive to school. “You can get some sleep!” Ben said as I helped him out of the car.
I wish I could, son. But just because Dad isn’t in his postal uniform doesn’t mean he is free of responsibility, be it self-imposed or house-spouse necessary. I’ll be writing some today, namely getting Votosh’s article finished with editing and posting, but also Mardek’s Side-Arc before Arc 1, Adventure 2 gets my full attention. As one of my players said during the sit-down discussion on Saturday: “No pressure on getting everything up, but I wanna read it!”
I’m not feeling pressured, don’t worry. That they are anxious to read the story is very encouraging. But before I can, I need to get the house in order. Sunday was spent on the backyard (wonderfully destroyed by overly excited dogs who love digging) and vehicle repairs (I am all kinds of an amateur with automotive mechanics but I can do some work), so it’s down the priority list I go.
At least I’ll have company while I wander around the house and property, as Old Man Casey refuses to leave my side when I’m home.
He’ll find the moving of topsoil entertaining, at least. So long as he doesn’t try digging through the bags.
I’m off to house-spouse and eventually write. Lots to do today and I can’t procrastinate. Stay safe out there, readers.
-JB Swift
09/11
2001. Tuesday. Sophomore year of high school. 8:03AM for us in the Central Standard Timezone. I was 15 years old, in Civics class, getting my desk ready for the class and talking to a classmate. The teacher ran in and turned on the television in the room. At the moment, I thought we were getting a school announcement. I learned at the following moments that the school had set up the TVs in the classroom to receive national news.
I saw the second plane impact the Tower on that screen. In that instant, I was no longer able to be an isolated kid in the South. I was made aware of the wider world beyond my little town, and I knew I was going to have to pay attention to it.
All I could think to do, however, was beg the teacher for their cell phone. I needed to call my father and ask questions. My mother was on a flight that morning, but I did not know where to. I needed to know she was safe. Turns out that she was on a different flight and had already landed, but for that time, I only knew that a plane had crashed into the Towers, and I didn’t know where my mother was.
Now, it’s 2022. I’m 36 years old. I have two children and the oldest is 6. I will be in a checkout line, and I will hear a younger person talking about the historic event as if it is just that: history. An event that catapulted the generation within it into the global setting and set the course of events that would follow for the next two decades.
I can’t scoff at these kids who talk about 9/11 with flippancy. Because to them, it really is history. They weren’t there. They didn’t have the moment of stark clarity that their little worlds were collapsing, and they’d have to accept that they were part of the global scene. When this happened, the Internet was only starting to hit its stride for the younger generations. We didn’t have computers in our pockets or the world at our beck and call. Today’s generation does. They can look up the events I’ve lived through and consider them as history, just like I do with Vietnam. (I’m a Cold War baby, so I consider that something I’ve lived through.)
When this day rolled around in the past, I would take long moments to think about the event. I’d try to consider the ramifications of the day as it applies to my life now.
Today, in 2022, I spent the Sunday working on my vehicles and backyard. The kids I would have scoffed at would’ve had it right. It’s history, now. I might have witnessed it, but I’m also middle-aged. My perspective is one of history, these days.
It’s something to think about. I’ll post a storytelling-related post soon. Stay safe out there, readers.
-JB Swift
09/10 Updates on Skills/Feats!
I did promise myself that I would get these updates done before I dove into my story-writing, so here are the Home-Brew skills and feats I’ve been working on.
09/10 Saturday’s Uber-Nerd Excitement
I will be writing about the events of the day, especially the Arc 2 Aftermath session, but I wanted to take a moment to be an overly-excited nerd.
I’ve been rebuilding my Star Wars Expanded Universe novel collection, very slowly. I had one box in my storage building that had my surviving novels, which contained twenty books out of the eighty or so that I used to own. I lost the majority of my collection through multiple moves across the country and simple theft. But this one box had a true treasure.
I took down my copy of “Vector Prime” by R.A. Salvatore early last evening with the intent to go through the series again. I personally enjoy the series, and I wanted to shore up my knowledge for future writings. But I had a moment of curiosity, so I checked the book to make sure it was one of those I had kept all these years.
Turns out, it was. In fact, it was the copy I bought when I was thirteen-years-old, back in 1999. My copy was a first printing.
It wasn’t something I had thought about, but that I still have a first printing of this novel…well, I had a nerd moment. I immediately reached out to Salvatore and begged for an autograph on the book. “Vector Prime” had been one of my favorite novels, and the New Jedi Order series was incredibly impactful for this little nerd.
Will this autograph ever happen? I don’t know, but best believe I’m going to do everything I can to make it happen.
Stay safe out there, readers
-JB Swift
09/10 Saturday Sunrise and Arc Aftermath
I did manage to get some sleep, but thanks to Old Man Casey thinking he’s still a puppy if he tries hard enough, that sleep was intermittent as I had to push the 80-lb Golden Retriever around. Felt like fighting a sibling for sleeping space.
With everyone else sleeping in for their Saturday, I went through my morning routine and snapped a photo of the sunrise for Hannah.
With the scheduled posts up and my priority list for GameMaster notes finished, I’ll be looking at the list to see what I can work on during the weekend. Come Monday, however, I’ll be whittling away at the stories every day until the Main Arc session.
The Field Group had put in a request for an hour this evening so they can go over the Aftermath. Arc 2 ended on some high notes and they want to be ready for the next Arc.
On that note, I’m off to sling letters and get an answer for today’s question: Can a postman outrun a storm?
Stay safe out there, readers.
-JB Swift
09/09 Late-Night Arc Writing…
Well, I took the evening to work on the plot for the upcoming Arc. I labeled it as “Wartime Diaries”, with a focus on what the Field Group would be handling during one of the most violent periods of Star Wars history: 1-2 ABY.
And… well, I did always pride myself on being a history enthusiast with the World Wars. I took that enthusiasm and put it to my plot-writing.
When I was done, I had to walk away from my tablet and take a moment for myself. Sometimes, the stories I write are visceral and painful, and I’m going to have think on how to pare it back so it can be a playable Arc, but when it comes time to make it a story, I’ll be going all-in on writing war.
I took the small moment I had to consider peace for what it was, and oddly enough, I got a good metaphor out of the starlit sky.
I interpreted it as a simple message: those who want war will always be bright and loud, but those who want peace are quieter and have so much more behind them.
I hope so. Man, but I should sleep. At least I can get through the first half of my biphasic sleep pattern. I’ll check in around 3AM, most likely, and see if I forgot to post anything.
Good night, readers. Stay safe out there.
-JB Swift
09/09 Friday’s Writing Goals and Unexpectedly Good Weather
I was handling the early morning chores, taking the trash out while kids were getting dressed and wolfing down breakfast. Stepping onto the carport in the predawn light, I noticed a strange but familiar sensation.
It actually felt cold outside.
It looks like we’ll have an actual Fall season here in the Southern US, and who knows: it might last a full week! I’m not going to get my hopes up on that, though.
As it’s Friday, the mail is lighter and I’ve rested some after the Side-Arc session, so I’m confident I’ll get more on the writing list taken care of. I also packed the tablet for lunch (and might even take a lunch break) to handle what I can in the afternoon.
Best to check the Session Schedule and see what to expect during the day. This also reminds me to update the damn thing. Takes a while for a new habit to settle in.
With that, I’m off to sling letters. Stay safe out there, readers.
-JB Swift
09/08 Thursday’s Route Visits, Evening Side-Arcs, and Sad Royal News
Had to move today’s post to Drafts for a bit as the events of the day presented themselves.
It was a historic day, readers, and it took a while for me to think about it. But it was also a day of personal joys and challenges in the game-writing world.
I started this post early in the morning with wanting to give praise to my players for their maturity with scheduling, and I will write about that. But the morning had me helping on a mail route that used to be my territory when I started out as a postman, and I came across two areas I wanted to make note of: my lunch tree and the House That Won’t Fall, as I call it.
Nowadays, I stay in my truck for mealtime so I can also write, but 11 (or 12? The memory is fuzzy) years ago, my customers learned that if the mailman is under that tree, they needed to leave him alone so he can eat.
I’ve been passing this house for a decade now, and it’s slowly fallen into this state of decay, but every time I see it, I’m always amazed it’s still standing. One of these days, a hurricane will finally knock it down. I’ll be sad when that day occurs.
Speaking of sad days, I’ve been mulling over the news from the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II died today.
I’ve been ambivalent over this news. As a US American citizen, my national soul is tied to rebelling against the British monarchy. As a man of Irish descent, the memory of Royal British mistreatment of my people is at the forefront. But Queen Elizabeth II was an interesting woman with a great amount of history to her, and her stories were phenomenal to consider. It’s difficult for me to not be impressed and have respect for a woman who became Queen before my father was even born and still reigned when my daughter had just turned 6 years old, though I will be taking another look at her history to see how I feel about it with a different perspective.
The evening ended with my wanting to give praise to my players. The bane of a GameMaster is and will always be scheduling, especially in our adult years. I’m fairly strict with the Main Arc scheduling and the players understand that. If they can’t attend, they need to tell me in advance. I do have leniency for a couple of my players on the East Coast: they have infants and we start late for them, so they deserve sleep.
But we have a secondary set of sessions in the schedule, and there, the players thrive. Since everyone can’t always make the regular sessions, they will set aside time throughout the week for Side-Arc sessions. They can explore a different plot line and develop their characters.
Granted, it’s also putting a new challenge on my shoulders to come up with these plots, but as I view that as my area to really stretch my creativity (IE, I’m slightly insane with wanting to write so much), I see no problem with this. Unfortunately, those sessions are also plagued by exhaustion among us adults, so they don’t last long and often have to be broken into multiple segments, like this evenings’ with Gilga and Beak (expect Beaks’ Bio soon and Gilga’s once I get into Arc 2). We’ve set the follow-up for next week, and I’m looking forward to how they do.
With all of that said, it’s time I sought my bed before the desk becomes my pillow.
Stay safe out there, readers, and good night.
-JB Swift
09/07 Wednesday’s Weather Struggles and Formatting Frustrations
Never pass on an opportunity for alliteration, readers. They’re too much fun to leave alone.
While we sauntered out of the house this morning, Han began searching the sky for signs of today’s weather, asking if there would be rain today. I explained a little to her how different cloud formations indicate what should be in store for us later on, but I have to admit that I’m still learning the fine points, myself. I told her to try using her intuition, and she’d give it a try.
I had hit a snag with my page updates that was both unexpected and more frustrating than I would have believed: I’ve finally figured out how to make my charts look presentable in Word, but transferring them to WordPress takes away all the aesthetics.
That was the struggle of my late-night writing last evening, and I’m going to figure it out, one day. Until then, I should keep my word and post the information when I can.
According to the Session Calendar, I’ve been requested for two sessions this week! I’ll have one of my solo players coming in for a couple hours, and the Field Group (Main Party) wants to have a discussion about where they’ll be going from Arc 2’s finale.
Today will be a short post, I’m afraid, but while I’m here, I’ll link the Prestige Class I had been working on.
https://swiftscorner.wordpress.com/master-physician/
It was a personal annoyance that a medic didn’t have a specialization while the other aspects of the Tech Specialist class did. We’ll play-test the prestige class and see what it needs for editing.
With that, I’m off to sling letters and plan for the upcoming sessions. Stay safe out there, readers.
-JB Swift
Swift's Corner 