Normally, I’d be annoyed at a high chance of rain while at my day-job. But given that the last few months have been filled with almost daily heat advisories, I was perfectly fine with walking in the rain for a few miles. It’s when there’s also lightning that I get nervous.
Managed to get this photo just before the rain started falling.
-JB Swift
After clocking out and heading to my car in the evening, I mused about two things:
First, that it was two nights in a row that I was going to be home after my children went through their bedtime routine, so they haven’t really seen me for two days.
Second, that the evening sky was gorgeous but as I was surrounded by buildings and highways, I couldn’t snap a good photo for the site.
The second is mildly irritating, but the first hurts.
I’m not an old-school father. I want my children to know me as present in their lives, not just as their dad who works a lot. I’ll do my best to be done with work at a good time and get home to spend a little time with them before their routines kick in, but this doesn’t always happen. It never sits well with me when this happens, but hopefully the mail will be kind tomorrow and let me have at least a couple hours to see how their days were and help Sarah with their evenings.
With that, it’s an evening of mustering the energy to finish out the writing goals for the day. While I do pack my tablet to work so I can write during my breaks, I know the best times to make the attempt (on a workday) are in the evenings.
How well with this go? Eh…there will be an attempt!
It’s also been a couple months since I’ve shown my face here, so here’s a look at the tired postman.
All things considered, that’s probably for the greater good. Damn but I need to brush out my hair. I’m tempted to try waking up early and braiding it down.
So, we’ll try two writing sprints to see if I can finish out the sections I’ve been needing to get done. If I’m lucky, I might go for three before I being the “Big Sleep, Little Sleep” routine.
Sleep well, readers.
-JB Swift
It’s 5 minutes to midnight where I’m standing, and I’m just now remembering that I was trying to keep up with daily posts!
I’ve made it a week only to forget in the chaos that is my Sunday!
So, expect an update to this fairly soon, but for those stepping in to be disappointed by a short post, I present Korra!
She’s about one step away from slamming her front paws into me at this moment.
Updates soon, readers!
-JB Swift
Life wouldn’t be interesting if it didn’t occasionally put a dash of irony into my awareness. After writing about how the day job was starting to throw off my perception of time and schedules, I went to bed last night after a Side-Arc session convinced that I would be rested and ready to sling letters at 7:30AM.
So of course, I was woken up this morning by my 6yr who kept saying “Dad, you’re going to be late for work!”
It was 7:10AM, and it’s a 22-minute drive to my office.
So…you know: panic.
I made it to work with 10 seconds left on the clock before I’d be considered ‘late’, so no discipline will be coming my way. I don’t want to think about how fast I had to drive to get to the office in that time, but I got there. I was lucky to have grabbed my satchel on my way out; I’ll be out here without supplies or tools. Didn’t even grab a hair tie.
That’s survivable, but also very annoying. At least my water jug was in the satchel, but I did have to give an explanation as to why I also had the training device for the whip-chain Kung Fu forms. (Note: it is highly illegal to have a weapon on your person in a Federal building unless you’re authorized, even if it’s an esoteric melee weapon)
I won the argument by saying it was just a training tool, not designed to cause harm, and really, it looks silly if you don’t know what it’s for, so I was forgiven for my weirdness. So now, I’m out here, taking parcels and letters out to the community. It’s a pretty day for it, at least.
Tonight will be the session for Arc 2, Adventure 4! The finale of the Arc, and I’m predicting it’ll take at least a month to finish, given our scheduling and the amount of detail I’ve put into the challenges for the players. After that, I’m expecting everyone will want some downtime to explore their characters’ Side-Arcs and have some development, while I whittle away at the story-writing and page-posting. That “taking time off to write” idea is looking very tempting now.
There might be a new section on the front menu fairly soon, as well. I keep going back and forth on the “Postal Living” idea, but now that it’s been requested, I’m duty-bound to give it some attention. We’ll see where that goes.
Happy Saturday, readers. Stay safe out there.
-JB Swift
My daughter and I have been attending a Kung Fu school (kwoon, according to Sifu, but I’m not confident in my pidgin spelling, so if you know the correct term, be sure to comment) for several months now. I have to admit that I had two reasons for suggesting Han begin training:
Firstly, because she needed something physically engaging that would help her learn self-control where her strength is concerned. For a kid barely out of toddlerhood, she’s frighteningly strong.
Secondly, I’ve also been wanting to go back into training, and I’ve wanted something the kids and I could do together. My son has gone with us a few times and wants to train with us, but the boy will have to wait a couple more years.
As we attend class, Han has realized that weapons-training is part of her education. Granted, I’ve put a hold on that until she’s got some more height on her and got the basics of the staff down first, but she sees the cern-do in my equipment bag.
“Dad!” she said while I was talking to Sifu. “You could fit your lightsaber in your Kung Fu bag!”
At first, I was mildly embarrassed at that. I may be comfortable with my nerdiness, but you never know how someone else is going to react when they realize just how nerdy you are.
“Is the lightsaber rated for sparring and combat?” Sifu asked. Well, yeah actually. What good is a lightsaber if you’re not going to have a sparring match with lights and sound effects with other specky nerds?
“Start packing it with you and we’ll see if we can figure out a form for it.”
Oh. Well then. Nerds know their own, I suppose. It took some searching, since I hid the thing and not have to worry about Han whacking her little brother with it, but the lightsaber is now in the Kung Fu equipment bag.
I’m going to be amused if I’m asked to use this for a broadsword form and I’m told to widen my swings because “the blade is all edge so you can’t keep it too close.”
With that, I’m off to see to my son’s appointments. If I’m lucky, I’ll have some downtime if he takes a nap and can get that chapter worked on. Stay safe, readers.
-JB Swift
Technically, I suppose, it’s not all that early when I step outside at dawn for my coffee and pipe (tobacco, folks, don’t forget I’m a Fed and can’t do that), when I consider that my kids are already up. They were playing games in the living room, waiting for me to toddle down the hallway, struggling with the buttons on my shirt, before asking for breakfast.
They fight bedtime so much but they sleep like logs for several hours. If they only knew how much they’ll want that sleep when they’re my age.
So, the kids are munching on breakfast and I’m out here, ingesting the coffee and waiting for the stimulant to hit my system when I snapped this moment in the morning fog.
Living out in the woods makes for a crappy internet connection, but damn if it isn’t pretty.
Yesterday’s day off had some payoff! Tried the writing sprint for 30 minutes and walked away with over 800 words in Adventure Two! I’m aiming to hit my personal goal of getting that chapter posted by this Saturday. Normally I struggle through the evening and get maybe half that much before I konk out at my desk, but I was rested and able.
Plus, the evenings all week have been filled with Side-Arc sessions! Players have been wanting to pursue their character development stories and see what else I’ve had in store for them! So, it’s been panicked plotting and rushed voice-acting practice every day before I start the video call.
Hello, my name is Jacob and I’m addicted to RPG running.
I have Side-Arc sessions for the next two days before the Main Arc session on Saturday, and I’m coordinating with the players’ decisions and mapping out where their stories will be going down the timeline. I’ll be making the attempt today and tomorrow to get that chapter finished, but I have to remember that the further I write, the bigger those chapters are going to be.
(This is reminding myself to also get those character pages finished for the party, so they’re not confused)
Just as I finished the session and started heading for bed, I found these two old men on the rug behind me. They don’t seem impressed with my plot-writing, but they’re good company.
It’s time to sling letters and walk my 12 miles. Stay safe, readers.
-JB Swift
Either a few stars aligned to grant cosmic power over the schedule, or the Postmaster had taken my statement of needing mental health days seriously (if the latter, I’m grateful but genuinely surprised), but I wasn’t scheduled to go in on my non-sched (not-scheduled for those outside the post office) this week!
I would say that today would be filled with writing and editing, but I had to prove my words to children this morning: “You can play as soon as you get your chores done”. These kids pay attention to my actions, so they’d notice if I was doing the things I wanted to do instead of my own chore list.
Being an adult isn’t fun.
Those chores are done, though, so I can take a little time and get some writing done before the next crisis. I might take a page from Kevin Hearne’s book and set a writing sprint time, since those seem to work for him and other writers.
Meanwhile, taking advantage of a moved rug for the floor-cleaning chore, Old Man Casey has taken up a post in the office to listen to me plunk away at this keyboard.
Time to write, folks!
-JB Swift
Well, there was an hour of quiet in the house while I made ready to head to town and sling letters all day. I had hoped to get up early enough to get another page written down, but that was just wishful thinking.
But there’s progress! I’ve added 500 words to both the Sidewinder Story adventure and the novella project, so it’s growing, it slowly. I’ve been tempted to put in a time-off request to make a sort of writer’s retreat, but I know what first instincts would be. If I’m off from my day-job, I’m wanting to get a house project done, or whittle away at the ever-present chore list.
I’ll be adding a new page on the GM Notes section concerning character creation, as well. I’ve had players asking questions about my home-rules on the creation process, and if I get any more new players (another 2 have expressed interest!) I’d want them to be comfortable coming here for references.
With that, break time is about over and the mail is waiting. The morning is promising rain, which for a walking route is a mixed blessing when you deliver in Louisiana.
This is the only way he’ll eat his food. In the burn pit (cleaned out, since it’s summer) so he knows his food is safe, halfway sitting in the pit, munching away at the meal.
It’s not a prerequisite that my pets be weird. I think they pick it up by association.
Old Casey had lost a LOT of weight in the past year. Between him wanting to stay outside most of the time and having a stupidly high metabolism, he kept looking like an escapee from a gulag, even when I doubled his feedings.
But we had a vet appointment and a talk about his habits. I followed her instructions and tripled his feedings, as well as making him a mandatory indoor dog. I think since he’s turned 11, he’s realized that staying inside is the best bet. Now, he’s chunky! So we’re scaling back the feedings and letting him get his play time outside instead of just in the living room.
Swift's Corner 