October 2022 – Swift's Corner

10/31 Oíche Shamhna shona duit!

Dia duit, mo léitheoirí! Oíche Shamhna shona duit! (Hello, my readers! Happy Halloween!)

I’ve been working on my Irish, so for any Irish readers out there, please forgive the bad grammar.

It’s always an interesting and somewhat bewilderingly emotional time for me when this holiday rolls around. When I was (much) younger, it was a fun day of costumes and wandering around the neighborhood to receive candy from the grownups at their carports and porches. I didn’t think much of it beyond that, though I recall some memories of my Catholic school trying to insert religious significance into the day (the irony was lost on 8-year old me).

My teenage years saw the day as both a burden and an actual day for spirituality, but not the kind the nuns of my past would’ve preferred. My introversion had settled into my personality by that time, so the costuming part was eschewed. Funnily enough, while that is still true, I keep thinking about getting into cosplay, so there’s a level of hypocrisy to contend with. The spirituality aspect came from my time learning about the Druids, and by 16, I was a member of the Order of Ovates, Bards , and Druids based in the British Isles. It wasn’t the spirituality those nuns wanted, but it was something?

(I was given the rank of Bard by that society, and though I’m no longer a member, I’m holding on to that title for the rest of my life, by thunder.)

These days, while I’m Roman Catholic, I still hold a strong respect for the old pagan holidays. Beltane, Imbolc, Samhain…these days have personal significance to me, but they’re also private moments. It’s safe to say I’ve never forgotten the pagan traditions, even if they were in my life for a short amount of time.

As a man in his mid-30’s with kids, this day takes a backseat for me. I keep my spiritual reverence for the day to myself and let the kids enjoy the costumes. Granted, I’m also working about 11 hours today, so the days’ appeal is slightly lost on me.

Stay safe out there, readers! Happy Halloween!

-JB Swift

10/30 Sunday’s Chores, Site Clean-Up, and Preparations

Ah, Sunday. The day when I get to sleep in until 7AM before the children dash in and leap over the bed to deliver flying piledrivers into my sides. And they wonder why I’m always in pain.

But it’s also the day when I sit down here for a couple of hours in the morning and figure out what’s gone wrong with my Posts again. I might as well launch the second site for my Union Local so they stop being automatically set to “Drafts”, but then again, I like being able to go over them and fix the inevitable grammatical errors.

There will also be the Legion of chores that I wasn’t able to finish throughout the week, and the prep work for the week ahead. I’ll be reaching out to my Side-Arc players and scheduling their Sessions for the week ahead, as well as plotting out the year’s Final Session.

Saturday’s Session was spectacular! The Field Group has split into three different teams and having to switch between all three and keep the story going was exhilarating and exhausting. It felt like a genuine Star Wars movie (I was also playing John William’s music very softly in the background). If only I could add sound effects during the session.

There was a moment where the Wilhelm Scream would’ve been perfect. But alas, I don’t have the budget to make my RPG games seem like they came from Lucasfilm.

At the moment, though, I need to get to my housework and furiously edit my writings.

Stay safe out there, readers! Happy Sunday.

-JB Swift

10/29 Saturday’s Game Night!

It’s Saturday! Not only that, but it’s a Game Night!

The players had split into three groups to handle the adventure I’ve written up for them. While the old wisdom says to never split up, having them go in three different directions adds a new challenge to them as well as myself. Can they all move independently of each other and have their decisions affect each other simultaneously? Can I keep up with that and keep the story coherent and entertaining for those players not involved with the current point of view?

I’m excited and terrified at the prospect!

Stay safe out there, readers! Wish the players luck!

-JB Swift

10/28 Friday’s Storms

Being from Louisiana, I’m used to having sporadic storms show up throughout the day. Once we get into Fall, though, I tend to not look forward to the rain.

Han picked this one out from the collection I took today, but there were several that worried me, mostly because I forgot my raincoat in my locker. But I was lucky and dodged the rain, thus reinforcing Han’s belief that I am an American Tall Tale.

It’s going to be an early night for me. We need to be up at 5AM, and getting two kids up and dressed at that time will be a challenge.

Stay safe out there, readers! Take pity on the sleepy kids in the morning!

-JB Swift

10/27 Thursday’s Game Note Prep Night

With the family off to bed and the house quiet, I’ve stepped into my note-prepping time, what I call “DM Writing” on the Session Calendar.

And I’ve become obsessed with getting these maps fully detailed.

Granted, I’ve put a lot of expectations upon myself to give the players as much as possible, but the players do exceedingly well when given this much information. If that’s what they need, then that’s what I will provide.

Stay safe out there, readers! Send large graph paper!

-JB Swift

10/26 Wednesday’s Day Off, House-Spousing, and Old Man Casey!

It’s a day off!

I have so much work to do!

I’m being told by my wife and children to use the day to relax, but how can I do that when I have a floor to sweep and a story to write?!

I must house-spouse!

Also, Old Man Casey!

I think he’s in agreement with the family about resting.

Stay safe out there, readers! There’s a floor that needs sweeping!

-JB Swift

10/25 Tuesday’s Technical Struggles and Han’s Weather Photo

Looks like it’s going to be a short post for today, while I try to figure out what exactly has gone wrong with the tablet today. At least this is a hardware issue, and most likely because I’ve forgotten to keep up with cleaning the thing. The keyboard has been sporadically letting keystrokes show up on the screen, so my written words have been…comical, is my best word for it.

In the meantime, Han wanted this photo posted for today.

The morning ‘sit in traffic’ time has turned out to be the kids’ favorite moment for weather observing, but they’re slightly confused as to why the dawn is coming up later and later. I’ll get around to explaining the planets’ axial tilt and orbit plane, I swear.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

10/24 Monday Shenanigans and Mardek’s Side-Arc!

Pre-note: You might have noticed that I use the word ‘shenanigans’ in my posts often. If so, you’ve probably wondered why that is. It’s no secret or attempt to sound wordy; it’s one of my favorite words, and fun to write. Try it a few times and you’ll see what I mean.

So begins another week at the day job! It’s only Monday, and I’ve managed to annoy every supervisor in the office by simply doing my job properly! In under 2 hours, even. A new record.

Well, one day they’ll accept that I’ll keep doing my job properly instead of just rushing through the day. Until then, I’m considered an annoying twat by management.

In other news, Mardek’s Side-Arc is finally finished! Truth to tell, it had been finished for a day, but the Pages kept having formatting issues when I added this story to the timeline. But it’s fixed now!

https://swiftscorner.wordpress.com/buying-time/

Stay safe out there, reader! Happy reading!

-JB Swift

10/23 Daisy is not amused

I know we’re supposed to let the hamster have time to exercise in her ball, but she’s so good at finding spots to hide that she puts herself at risk of not being found and being dehydrated.

She chittered at me furiously when I found her. Not sure if she’s mad that I found her hiding spot and subsequently hamster-proofed it, or for not finding her sooner.

Stay safe out there, hamsters.

-JB Swift

10/23 Session Fallout and Sunday chores

Of course, the Side-Arc session of last night was a lot of fun to play!

Up until the video chats dropped five times in a row, and my image froze on my players’ screen.

Turns out that the tablet was needing four different updates, which is surprising since I thought I set it up to update automatically. But if you don’t let the thing shut down occasionally (such as when you keep trying to finish a story and have to close the tablet for travel), it never gets updated until it flat-out tells you it needs it.

So, the Side-Arc session didn’t get as far as I had wanted, but we stopped at a good rest point and I can wrap up that adventure in under an hour (or over an hour if I get obsessive and add details), so I’m keeping an eye on my Session Schedule for when that player will be free next.

Today, however, is Sunday, and that is a day of rest (chores)! Time I went off to house-spouse and try to get through my “Three chores and 30 minutes of Writing” routine.

Stay safe out there, readers! Happy Sunday.

-JB Swift