Category: Blogs!

05/06/2024 Weekly Reading (Continued!)

I did say I’d choose a classic to read throughout the week, and I’ve been looking forward to Battlestar Galactica.

However, I forgot just how busy the adult life can be at times.

Sigh.

The best time to read, it turns out, is the bit just before work, when no one can approach me or distract me with questions. Not that they don’t try, though.

Let’s hope for an easy day and a quiet evening for writing. There’s a character that needs building so the player can join in Zino’s Arcs!

Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift

05/05/2024 Sunday Chores and Finance Frustration

Don’t let the title make you worry; we’re still poor but we’re doing all right.

It’s going to be a quiet day of house maintenance, seeing the family for Cinco de Mayo (meaning I’ll be fighting the drive to talk about the awesome history surrounding the day in 1862, while nearby restaurant customers are indulging their want to drink tequila), and preparing for the work week ahead.

But during the later hours of last night, I was looking over my notes and recent writing when I saw a “Daily Word Count” entry that I forgot about: I took a day off from work to rest pulled muscles (yes, they’re still there, and I’m annoyed at how long it takes to recover nowadays) and couldn’t do my usual housework that required lifting. With nothing else for me to really distract me, I took an eight-hour day to write, with headphones on and even the kids respecting my wish to whittle away at the keyboard.

I logged 5,800 words, which is a personal best for me.

My first thought: “I need more paid days off like that.”
My second thought: “Ain’t no way I can afford that.”

In the area of content-creation that I’ve watched grow and develop over the years (with mild envy, I’ll admit), I’ve wondered what I could provide as suitable content to satisfy subscribers. I’m a writer, so that’s the medium I understand. I’m not much for video logs (and I hate how I sound on recordings) and I don’t know enough coding to make computer-related content. If I want to justify taking a day off solely to write, I’d need to be able to compensate that with a full day’s pay.

Which is… somewhere around $250 before taxes.

Glances at subscriber amounts and current tally of subscribers (thank you, by the way!), and sighs in vexation.

I know I have the option to puts ads on this website and I’ve seen that such can generate revenue, but I really do not want that to happen here. If I were actually sponsored by something, then sure I’d write up advertisements for them, but I promised myself that I wouldn’t flood my own little corner of the Internet with random ads. That’s annoying to me, so I know it’d be annoying to you.

I’m going to have to figure out what I can provide to garner enough subscriptions to reach this personal goal, and I will, somehow. For the moment, however, it’s a moment of amusement and frustration. I want another 5,800 word day. Hell, a month of those and I’d have a novel done and edited!

A man can dream.

Stay safe out there, folks. ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

-JB Swift

05/04/2024 May the Fourth Be With You

It would have been hilariously ironic if I didn’t write up a post for today, but I am here!

For all that I am not a holiday person, a few notable days like today are special to me. It’s an easy excuse to celebrate one of the little niches of my nerdy interests, but I also get to use it as a day to make announcements related to the day’s noteworthiness.

Firstly, I’ve mentioned that we now have an artist for Sidewinder Stories. What I haven’t told you is that he has given the Sidewinder Stories two incredible pieces of art: our logo and our banner.

It’s one thing to say that we play a Star Wars themed RPG. It’s also one thing to say that I write fan-fiction. But it’s something else entirely to say that other people are joining in that fan-fiction building and that it has something of permanence to it.

(We are currently debating on the various types of the logo that Alex has given us, but as the GameMaster, I’ve decided that this one will be used when I’m writing a story or building a page on the website. Stay tuned for other writer contributions and/or artwork!)

While I will be adding on a page dedicated to Alex’s work, I did want to start promoting him here, so if you’d like to consider him for commissions, please check out his Instagram at Alex!

I do have a lot of writing to attempt to wade through this evening. I’ll be adding to the Subscriber pages, namely explanations and a little of the history, plus the most recent chapter edits! There’s also homework for me, as I need to learn how to properly set up a wiki format here for the Sidewinder Stories.

…it’s a bit startling how big this has grown, but that’s what happens when people are passionate about their hobbies.

Stay safe out there, folks, and May the Fourth Be With You, Always.

-JB Swift

05/03/2024 Updates, Announcements, and Bad Habits

Guess who fell asleep at their desk while handling back-and-forth’s between four individual players, arranging new projects, reformatting site pages, and agonizing over an outline?

If you groaned audibly with the phrase “Dammit, Swift”, don’t worry. You’re not alone. I’m waiting for the day my kids use that line; they hear me say it often enough.

But it was a very creative evening, for all that it was cut short by circadian rhythms. Players are coming forward with not just session requests but stories of their own, with project requests and questions for their plots.

It wasn’t until after helping one player with establishing a story background that I had a moment of self-realization: this has become a fan-fiction franchise.

… awesome, but daunting.

One big thing that’s occurred will be jump-starting my drive to update and organize the ‘wiki-style’ pages for the campaign: we have an artist! In due time, we’ll be giving these characters their own visuals. I’m going to set up a page dedicated to the artist so they’ll be able to be contacted for commissions and otherwise show their work, so expect that announcement soon.

You damn right I promote the artists I work with.

Along with that, it’s been editing established site pages and attempts to push my stories further along. At which point, exhaustion hits.

Sigh. Welp, we’ll keep trying.

Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift

05/02/2024 Day Off with the Sick Han

Looks like someone caught Dad’s bronchitis and needed a shot.

Nobody was happy about this. She’s asked to have a ‘real’ rest day, where she can lay down on the couch and zone out.

I sympathize, kid. I’m hiding in the next room, running down the list of deskwork that’s cropped up, but I’m at the ready for whatever she needs.

Stay safe out there, folks. Especially those of us weathering the storm that’s raging today.

-JB Swift

05/01/2024 Critters crittering

Going to be a quiet night of trying to hammer away at the outline and ‘test’ the setting of the science fiction story via Stellaris…

…you get inspiration where you can, folks. Establishing an empire in an RTS game and letting it run on ‘observer mode’ in the corner of my screen is one way to let ideas circulate.

In the meantime, these two are here to judge my procrastination excuses!

The cat has her own bed; she just likes crowding.

Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift

04/30/2024 Half Day and Study Day

There was an attempt to attend Kung Fu class!

But after one stretch to see how I was recovering, I was told that it was a “scholarly day”. History and philosophy lessons concerning Seven Star Praying Mantis.

There was also a bit of quiet where I followed the instructions of my Jow Gows (Black Sash Students) and made my “list” of the forms I knew from memory.

Yes, my handwriting is awful.

The ambitious side of me wants to add to this list, but I made a promise to myself that I would take the time to learn, so it’ll be slow-going.

Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift

04/29/2024 Morning Mailman Martial Arts

My Sunday post had to be moved to Drafts, as it was going from a post about Classic Sci-Fi to an essay comparing Fallout’s Minutemen to US Civil Service. I’ll get both versions posted.

For Monday, it’s shenanigans at the office! My start-time was moved 15 minutes, much to the annoyance of supervisors and senior coworkers alike. Nobody likes that I put my family first in my decisions.

So, in typical fashion, I’m now “early” and am using the time to practice!

Seven Star Praying Mantis on the docks. What’s sad is that I blanked completely on this particular form, so I’m having to go over it without my stances until I can remember the movements correctly.

Just to keep telling the people here that I am an odd one. But it’s time to sort letters and brave the storms.

Stay safe out there, people.

-JB Swift

04/28/2024 Weekly Classic Book

Post was moved to Drafts and published on Monday after a bit of indecision. Apologies for the confusion in your emails.

I’ve been getting into the habit of picking out something to read in my quieter moments (they do happen, I swear) for two reasons:

1: It’s good for me to see what styles were popular and how to learn from them.

2: I have all these books collecting dust, and that bothers me to no end.

For this week, I’m going to one of my pile that for some reason, people around me forget was a book before two shows were made for it: Battlestar Galactica.

Pulled this image from the Internet. My copy is rather worn.

I’m not strong in telling stories about AI, robots, and similar tropes, but this will be a fascinating setting to revisit. I haven’t read this book since I was about thirteen or so years old, though I have carried my copy around all these years.

I know that the shows will affect my biases, but I want to step into this story with as open a mind as I can bring. I think to reflect this, I’ll write a short review on Saturday.

Maybe it’ll be a routine that sticks! Let’s see…

Stay safe out there, folks.

-JB Swift