Someone’s enjoying the fireplace being used, but I’m going to have to set up a guard rail before he learns what happens when a spark somehow gets through the doors and lands on fur.
01/08/2025 Lazy Puppy
Category: Pets
12/01/2024 A Quiet Post before Peak Season
To say that I’ve been “too busy to write” would be both an understatement and, ultimately, a false analysis…
I’ve been officially elected as Local Branch President of my postal workers’ union! I take office in January 2025, and local management has grown to hate me personally while maintaining their professional aloofness. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But when I get ‘here’, I try to put that hat back on its hook. I have to do that all the time at work, now. Here, I get to be the traditional nerd and writer. With that, I have an update!
“Pawn Predicament” is over 50% finished! I set the goal to be finished next Star Wars Day. The website’s ‘chore list’ is erratic and lengthy, but I’ll be tackling each entry as I can and will continue building the series.
I’ll have to get back to putting up the Christmas decorations, but before I go, an obligatory picture of the new Golden Retriever, Cooper!
He’s a psychotic puppy, but he’s adapting to the Swift life.
Stay safe out there, folks!
-JB Swift
07/05/2024 A Needed Break (With News!)
Needed to take a break from daily posts for a while, namely because life got busy for a while.
First and foremost, school is going to be starting next week, so I’ve had to make a few changes to my schedule and workplace. I’m now typing on a desktop for the first time in nearly twenty years!
Yes, it feels weird, but I’m liking it.
Secondly, you might have noticed that I’ve expanded a bit on the SWRPG page. Took to revamping the wiki-article section after a few self-education sessions on website design. Pretty soon, if they agree, I’ll also have some of my players contributing articles as they expand on their own home-brewed content.
Thirdly, Bakka has returned! Where he’s been, I don’t know, but the full belly makes me suspicious that he’s been adopted in the subdivision behind the property, so I’m happy.
Fourth (!), we got a call from a friend with a unique problem: a male golden retriever nearly two years old needing a home. My family, from the in-laws to my wife and children, to even my parents, said that I needed to take him, that it’d be good for me, and that after the last year and the pummeling it’s taken, my soul would heal a bit.
So, meet Cooper (Buddy), folks!
We’re getting used to each other and taking all the time in the world to help him acclimatize, letting the other dogs around him slowly, and getting him through as much training as possible.
Writing-wise, I had a hiccup of point-of-views for the past week, but after a few false starts I’ve gotten over the hurdle and dived into the Big Friggin’ Middle of the Interstellar Tall Tales rewrite. It’s now nearly 25K words long and will be getting into the real fun of that story. Stampeding asteroids, a chase from ‘the law’, and making a tall tale prove his legend by taking on a challenge that’s supposed to be, by every count of relativistic physics, impossible.
Published or not, this has damn fun to write.
I’ve been swamped with house projects as the family realized that I’m home almost every day, now. So much so that they wonder why it takes forever to get any of the projects done, up until I explain how much work needs to be done to get something to a manageable level and how it was put off by my working 60 hours a week at the Post Office.
Reading-wise, I’ve gone to one of the classics and picked “Ender’s Game” up again. I’ll give a review on it after a while, though it’s a debate if I’ll look at other books in the series. “Speaker for the Dead” was the only other book I had read, so I’ll have to look through the “Used” section for the next novel.
With the day coming to an end, I’ll try to get one more writing sprint done before a player discussion session this evening. Stay safe out there. folks.
-JB Swift
06/07/2024 Light Duty Day, so Here’s Korra
It’s going to be a quiet day today, while my son and I get to have a day just to ourselves.
This has been an exceedingly rare event ever since he was born, so I’ll be offline for the day.
In the meanwhile, here’s Korra being mischevious!
Stay safe out there, folks.
-JB Swift
06/06/2024 Indy Claims the Old Man Title
The corgi is 12 years old now, and with Casey and Joe gone, he has assumed the title of Old Man.
He’s mostly blind and deaf, and he gets confused if you move too quickly around him. I have to herd the herding dog around the house to get him to his bowl or kennel, which now is kept open. Once he finds it, he refuses to leave it and I can’t really blame the guy; that small den must be a comfort.
He’ll be under my desk for most of today, and that’ll be worrisome. He nips at my house slippers if I move unexpectedly.
Stay safe out there, folks. Got a morning of writing before the day is taken over by chores.
-JB Swift
06/03/2024 House-Spousing, Writing Sprints, Book Choices
My family is slightly confused with me being around so much.
Though they’re also happy with the fact that the chores normally taking two or three nights to finish (because of sheer exhaustion) has been done during the morning, with the rest of the day being spent actually being around. For the first time in 15 years.
I bet $5 that they all start begging for me to find odd jobs soon. Han asked me quite bluntly, “Dad, don’t you have any writing to do?” when I dropped off the second set of folded clothes.
I did take her advice and made it through thirty minutes of writing before I was called away to help with the household. With over 700 words, I felt pretty good about myself and my craft. Right up until I realized how much I was putting into the story.
It’s looking like novella-range is going to be hit quite easily, and I’m wondering if I will be able to sell it, or if I’ll need to figure out how to either pare it down immensely or add to it until it’s at the minimum word count for novel-length.
I mean… I’d try it.
While trying to figure out what to do with that, I’m looking through my collection of sci-fi books to read over. I’ve one I’ve read before (but it’s been a minute) and one that I can’t remember buying.
I’ve read “Ender’s Game” before, but that was… 20 years ago? Maybe more? It’s a bit of a blur to recall. “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arhur C. Clarke looks like it’s supposed to be in my collection, but I really don’t remember buying it, or it being loaned/gifted to me. I’m not sure which one to look over and give a review, so if you’ve made it this far, leave a comment on which one you’d like me to talk about!
I might attempt another writing sprint this evening, but the part I’m getting to will be action-intensive, so I’ll want to make sure I handle it correctly. Most likely it’ll be an evening of resume building (yay…) and Fallout.
Meanwhile, the Carport Kitten named Baka is trying to destroy my shoes.
Stay safe out there, folks!
-JB Swift
05/30/2024 Job Searching, Writing, and Carport Cats
After 15 years of a career, I’ve discovered that job searching today is both uplifting and challenging.
I’m happy to see so many companies stating they’re for inclusivity and celebrating individual differences, but so few are open to a middle-aged man with no college degree. It’s made for a vexing morning.
But I did manage to carve out more writing time, with 1,300 words in a one-hour sprint! Progress is progressing.
The evening is looking to be busy with chores and much-needed family time, so here’s a photo of the carport cat:
Stay safe out there, folks.
-JB Swift
05/22/2024 Carport Kitten
We’ve been adopted by an idiot.
When you live out in rural areas, you have to expect critters to show up on your property. I wasn’t expecting a stray kitten to walk up and decide ‘this carport will do’, but I came home to find two bowls set out and a starved moron climbing the screen of my door.
Sigh. Maybe he’ll survive long enough to help keep other critters away.
After a couple of days, he’s put on weight and took to staying under the carport, so we made a makeshift den for him.
Meet Baka, everyone. Yes, the name is appropriate. I watched him attempt to pounce a bird and the bird pecked the hell out of him before he ran back to his box.
Stay safe out there, folks.
-JB Swift
05/17/2024 Got His Bed Back
Indiana got his dog bed back!
Penelope was mad that there was a kitten living in the carport and showed her displeasure by peeing on the bed. I’m reinvesting in those old “Don’t Pee Here” sprays.
But it just wouldn’t be the Swift Ranch if the animals weren’t a little weird.
…yup, that tracks.
Stay safe out there, folks. Gotta put a cold compress on my side, so it’ll be a quiet night.
-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!
Stay safe out there, folks.
-JB Swift
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