What habits might develop in thirty days without supervision?

I read or heard from some authoritative source that I do not recall that if you do something consistently for 30 days you can either make or break a habit.  Thirty days seems suspiciously convenient, but I have tried this with a few personal habits recently, and it seems to be holding.

My wife is six days into what will be about 30 days out at sea. What kind of feral nerd habits might I develop without direct supervision? We shall see.

One  I’m working on now is draw everyday. I’ve yet to decide when or if I’m going to post my results.

Somehow, before she got on board, my wife managed to slip a lovely, heart-felt valentine in the mail that arrived today.

On my end, I drew a picture of a lizard and sent a photo of it by Facebook Messenger.

The first few months of the year is when I traditionally  re-think all my blogging strategies. This year my notion is more but shorter posts distributed evenly across my now sprawling blog empire. More about that in Word Count below.

This doesn’t mean I won’t write and post the longer posts when they occur to me. But I’m not going to dig for them – or beat myself up for not digging for them. Short is the new done.

Meanwhile, announcements:

Oliver! has a thing this Sunday:

Now I have it written down where to go.

We will be playing Go Action Fun Time at Jesse James Games and Comics next Friday [16 Feb] at 6pm.  We’ll find a chair for you if you want to play along.

WORD COUNT:

UnObtanium Bazaar has a new website (same URL). It’s a wordpress blog (the devil you know) because we are going to be more about creative content and less about internet commerce. The Bazaar is and always will be primarily a physical pop-up operation.  [1000k] [Counting the first blog post]

And I added a blog post this week [500 k]

I hiked the Holbert Trail and compiled media and notes for likely two posts in Are We Lost Yet? [1000k]

Then I wrote the post for the Bajada Trail which I hiked as part of the South Mountain Infrastructure Loop. [500k]

 Wrote a 2000k word chapter on the 2^nd 64 novel.

Revised an Episode of Go Action Fun Time for Friday night. [500k].

Just finished writer’s group. [500k] where we have the kind of writer’s who use the Hilbert Transformation as a plot device (don’t fret – there’s no actual math in the manuscript – so far.).

Plus this post – which weighs in at just over 500.

That’s 6500 words vs a 5000 word goal.

Whiskey.

Radiation does not make my poop glow and other conditional disappointments

Tomorrow will be the last of 45 scheduled radiation treatments for my prostrate cancer. Before we get to those lessons, I have an announcement:

You Might want to stand back:

I have finished the first draft of the Go Action Fun Time Setting Bible.

It is available as a PDF for anyone who wants to read it.

Go Action Fun Time is a table-top RPG I wrote.

I have taken all the package deals from the Cast Directory and moved them to the Bible, or I will at the end of editing. Right now they are just copied. When the Setting Bible goes online, there will be a revised Directory without the package deals.

I have listened to a lot of hyperventilation about AI, and you all need to calm down. The day to truly worry about his is coming (I have written about this elsewhere) but the write-bots and art-bots are not going to be your shiny new overlords.

They could, though suck away what little precious compensation is left from art and writing. Against that future I propose two regulations:

1] AI content and art must always be identified as AI created and

2] AI content cannot be copy-righted. It is automatically public domain.

These rules would not solve the AI threat to the persistent fantasy of making arts and letters a day-job, but the will greatly reduce the crisis.

Speaking of mitigating crisis:

This was staged.

There were not a lot of surprises with the radiation treatment.

At one point I told my doctor:

“I thought I needed to take another Imodium last night, but I fell asleep.”

And he replied, “That is the most stereotypical response to radiation I’ve ever heard.”

So I did experience the exhaustion and diarrhea that everyone predicted. I am infamously hyper-active and have an iron stomach so this took a week longer than average, but I definitely have them now.

I did not develop any mutant powers, nor does my poop glow.

The TV series Yellowstone is totally cowboy Game of Thrones punctuated by shameless horse porn. Like GOT the writing is so good you forget that these are unlikeable people killing each other over self-created problems.

Ron DeSantis is doomed. No one who wants Trump is going to vote for the wanna-be Trump when they can vote for the actual Trump. Aerosmith, even at their advanced age, is still a better act live than any of their tribute bands.

LINKS PEOPLE SEND ME:

https://instapundit.substack.com/p/is-this-the-real-life-or-just-a-fantasy

https://psyche.asu.edu/

https://psyche.asu.edu/get-involved/psyche-inspired/psyche-inspired-showcase-2023-virtual-goody-bag/

WORD COUNT:

I actually finished a chapter of the sequel to Empress M. = 1500 words

Thursday night writers group = 500

Editing the Setting Bible = 1000 original words but 2000 credit for editing.

This blog makes 5500.

Whiskey.

And geese are douchebags. Behold:

https://www.tumblr.com/indirispeaks/146787072801/the-great-flamingo-uprising

Notes while waiting for a call that might not happen

I’m up a little later than I want to be hoping my wife will “call” (via FB messenger). I can’t call her.

My dear wife jumped out of a van at Sky Harbor to rush to make her flight. She left her phone in that van. We could not get it back to her before she had to get on a plane, fly to New Jersey, check into a hotel without a credit card (which she keeps with her phone, and then, as far as I know, board a cruise ship for a pair of back-to-back cruises around the Caribbean.

There are computers onboard. If she can get to one, she can Facebook Messenger me – if I’m awake.

Meanwhile, her phone, which does not work reliably as a phone at seas anyway,  is dutifully charging in our living room.

So that’s why she hasn’t returned your call.

Now, she was a functional adult 25 years ago when we all got along without cell phones. But the infrastructure that made that practical has long since evaporated. Not just the disappearing pay phones (or land lines of any sort) but the increasing dependence upon websites and QR codes that used to be printed hand-outs.

I used to have an index card in my wallet covered with phone numbers, and a day planner in my fanny pack wherein I recorded all my appointments. I’ve replaced all that with a several hundred dollar plastic brick. And so have you.

Are we more efficient?

The pause before you answer that is telling.

The past, present and future past of the Suns

A few other thoughts that are not quite whole posts:

• My Beloved Suns would have been second round casualties with or without the Durant trade. But now they have no draft picks for like the next four years. That’s a lot to give up for a guy who isn’t much younger than Chris Paul.
• Both the regular news guys at KTAR and every sports talk show on the radio were flummoxed that Tempe voted down the Coyotes arena. What none of them seem to remember is that they were terrible tenants in Glendale, so much so that Glendale decided they’d rather have the place empty than put up with the Coyotes for one more season.
  • Yes – there is a perfectly fine hockey arena in the valley, already built. Tempe gazed upon it and decided – not in our landfill.
• Comparing the debt ceiling to … Wait. If I have to explain to you why that situation is stupid and wrong, I am going to be unable to take you seriously as an adult. So do us both a favor and pretend you understand.

Cheryl comes back June 9^th. We’ll probably have an economy that still staggers forward, or it will be collapsing due to a completely self-created crisis. Either way, she’ll have a lot of phone calls to return.

While we all wait:

My child has a website: https://fearlessfractalpadegimas.wordpress.com/

And two links people e-mailed me that I now share with you:

Your Brain Is Shaped Like Nobody Else’s

How to Add More Categories for Your Book in KDP

Now we know.

[She still hasn’t called…]

Some Brief Bits of Good News

Because it’s that season. And we want to balance the last post.

Finally barely profitable!

I haven’t got the check yet, but if I am reading the quarterly royalty statement that I get maybe once a year from Menasha Ridge Press, my book, 5 Star Hikes in Flagstaff and Sedona has earned out its advance!

I am due thirty something dollars.

We’ll see.

What else? We still seem to be a functioning representative democracy.

Britney Griner is no longer being held in Russia for no good reason. That’s good news regardless of politics. You can grouse about who is still in prison in Russia (or anywhere else) because those situations remain dumb and sad, but it is now one less person dumb and sad.

I am approaching done with the Go Action Fun Time Cast Directory. I have posted some preview material both on Fantastical History [Fairies and Goblins] and a preview of the Sample Cast at Curious Continuity – starting here.

There is evidence of a little bit of traction with this project.

We’ll see about that too.

Now we know.

Briefly examining unpleasant things

Human society has a surplus of whining, and I do not want to add to that, but some unpleasant things need to be spoken aloud for the record.

If you have 300+ yards of offense, five sacks, and still lose by more than a touchdown, as the Cardinals did Sunday, you have to start looking at the coach. And the quarterback. And the GM.

Kliff Kingsbury running in the shadows. Not foreshadowing at all…

Since all three of those people, GM Steve Kiem, Head-coach Kliff Kingsbury and quarterback Kyler Murray got lengthy contract extensions this summer, the team’s performance has nosedived in most measurable categories.

Ah, but for the Bidwell family, who have long owned a football franchise that has not won a championship since 1947, this is depressingly consistent.

Katie Hobbs explaining why she settled for a field goal.

Katie Hobbs refusing to debate has become the defining issue in her campaign, and that’s not going to win it. You can’t play not to lose. That’s how you get 300 yards of offense and no offensive touchdowns.

Not worried.

The Phoenix Suns did not extend forward Cam Johnson’s rookie contract, thus guaranteeing they will pay more for him at the end of next year. Yes – they will, because barring a career ending injury, he will get at least one whopping offer that the Suns will have to match. And that is why Johnson is not likely to pout over this.

Has Suns season started yet?

There’s nothing going on in House of the Dragon that we didn’t see in Game of Thrones.

Speaking of blood in all the wrong places, I’m higher mileage and past my warranty, and every trip to the doctor feels like driving an old car into the muffler shop: you’re come away with a list of things that must be fixed, a list of things that should be fixed, and a list of things that can be ignored, until they get on one of the other two lists.

At the top of my list was a colon biopsy, which I have had, and it was not as much fun as it sounds.

This is NOT the colonoscopy that I also have to look forward to. It is a different but equally expensive procedure.

 Yes, it is an outpatient procedure that I drove home from and was able to get to work the next day, but we are a week past the procedure at this writing and functions are just now returning to normal.

You want details? No- you do not.

Rule 6, corollary 1: This can’t be stressed strongly enough: No one wants to hear about your last bowel movement.

WORD COUNT:

In the past 7 days:

I have edited 10 Sample Cast treatments for Go Action Fun Time. These were already written. I am counting them at 250 words each. = 2500

I started a chapter of the next 64 novel. I didn’t finish, but I am 1000 words in = 1000

Writer’s group = 500 words.

That’s 4000 words, short of my 5k goal. I have some artwork I could throw in, or I could just accept that I did not feel well and that cost me a thousand words, or I could blame it on TV, namely sports and  House of the Dragon, which for all my whining, I am almost caught with.

UPDATE: Between drafting this and posting it, I have finished both the chapter and the remaining cast treatments.

Just in time for Suns season.

Whiskey.

Now we know.

GAFT Cast members – and the reason I didn’t make word count last week either.

A grab bag of uncomfortable truths

I have some small observations to share, but first a reminder that I am still the Gaming Coordinator for Leprecon 47, and if you want to run a game – now only late Sunday afternoon – I am the guy to contact.

Also Las Vegas Pirate Fest has changed both date and venue:

At press-time their website had not been updated to these new coordinates

I will be there as part of UnObtanium. This means it will not be overlapping the London Bridge Ren Faire, which we will also be at. There was a plan involving time travel – but now we don’t have to…

Uncomfortable Truths in no particular order:

The team that gets the fewest DUI’s the week prior almost always wins the Superbowl.

I am not going to rehabilitate the derelict hot tub in my yard for less than the cost of a new one.

Relatedly – I am not a long-term resident at this address. (I am technically still house-sitting).

So I bought a portable hot tub with my year-end bonus.

This one.

I am walking proof that you can carry COVID without running fever.

Operation Warp Speed may be the Trump administration’s greatest achievement, and might have gotten him re-elected if he hadn’t buried it with administrative neglect of the rest of the pandemic, and compounded that with political malfeasance.

BUT-BUT-BUT

If a Democratic President had done this the Republicans would be comparing it to socialism.

The drive back and forth to Las Vegas does not improve with repetition.

The cohort that won’t wear a mask because they won’t live in fear is the same cohort that are afraid to go into a library without a gun because homeless people.

I remember now why I try to avoid serving on non-profit committees -particularly for local cons. I’d be more specific, but this is still a going concern, and I do have some sense of organizational loyalty.

You can’t convince anyone into anything long term. They have to get there themselves. Even if you martial  all of your powers of logic and charm, the decision will always be temporary. Sales-folk get away with this, because they only need the spell to last until you pay.

For anything longer term, all you can do is make your case, and hope they are ready to take that path.

This is the first thing of any length I have written in seven days.

But I’m caught up on a lot of other things.

And I have a hot tub coming.

Now we know.

The Rise of the Creatives is still a climb

My girlfriend read and embraced Richard Florida’s 2002 pop-sociology book Rise of the Creative Class, postulating that creative talent would be in demand in an information-driven economy. I haven’t read the book, but from 2020, the premise seems obvious enough.

I often quote Hunter S Thompson who came to the sme view sideways:

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

There’s news on that front, but first let’s get tomorrow out of the way.

If I am in town, I prefer to vote in person, on election day. Mostly that is to give down-ballot candidates and issues the full window to make their case. Also, I am a difficult voter to challenge, being registered, white, male, and relatively well versed in law. I don’t expect trouble (I am also a master at finding the dull hour to vote) but I might be hoping for it more than I should.

So you know, it is expressly illegal in Arizona to be on school property with a fire-arm. So if you are seeking a safer place to vote – half the polling places are in schools.

If it bothers you that I feel compelled to write that sentence – it should.

I’ve made my endorsement over on Brazen Wonk.

I have on the table the contract from New Link Publishing for Taliesin’s Last Apprentice, the sequel to Beanstalk and Beyond (which they also published). So settle your wagers accordingly.

This will be a thing.

Also a thing:

Last weekend we set up the event pavillion for the upcoming Mojave Renn Faire (see last entry).

The finished – enough result

Relatedly, last week, I learned that creating your own custom font and then turning that into stencils is more time consuming than you think. (Like three whole evenings) (What does that mean in word count?)

Three nights of my life…

So you’ll excuse me if I plead exhaustion and cut this short without a pithy ending. I’m tired, and I still have to get up tomorow, go to work, and defend democracy.

Now we know.

Why I am not walking the dog.

Arizona is under curfew tonight, so I couldn’t walk the dog even if I wanted to. 

What dog? Regular readers may ask. Hang on. 

Let me just say that this curfew is inexplicably state wide. So sitting here in Phoenix, I can argue whether it’s helpful, but I could at least follow the logic of it. If I were sitting in Gila Bend or Ajo or Snowflake, I would – I would probably find another reason not to walk the dog. It’s somewhat inconceivable that they are enforcing it in those places. 

Ducey’s order has so many exemptions the only thing it actually prohibits is protesting, and therefore would not stand long in court.  For example:

[Exempted:] Individuals traveling directly to and from work; attending religious services; commercial trucking and delivery services; obtaining food; caring for a family member, friend, or animal; patronizing or operating private businesses; seeking medical care or fleeing dangerous circumstances; and travel for any of the above services.

So not only could I plausibly walk this dog (though it would be a stretch), I could absolutely go to the topless bar down the street, which is now open despite the state having met basically none of the actual criteria the CDC set out for opening.

Last month, while we were under a more defensible curfew,  was the year anniversary of acquiring my 2015 Subaru Forester. I bought it at 48k miles. It just ran past 85k. That’s 30k miles in a year and probably not sustainable. 

A year and 30,000 miles later my opinion hasn’t moved much: with the exception of the turning radius and the sound system, it is an upgrade in very way from my poor old Kia Soul. I’ve had some off-road adventures with it,but most of my miles are on the highway, where it is, actually, above average. 

I consistently get in the mid 20’s for gas mileage. Her preferred cruising speed seems to be 80 mph. I’ve become pretty adept at shoving things into it.

Even so, I had a moment of mild crazy and bought a second vehicle.

• It is troublesome sharing a vehicle with Rey (for both of us) and
• I really do need a back-up vehicle as Ruby is staggering into older-vehicle country and
• I need to tow a trailer from time to time, and that is not in the Subaru’s wheelhouse so

I bought a 2001 Dodge Dakota for $4600 cash.

The yet unnamed truck – priced as if dealer’s fee and tax did not exist.

And – I got what I paid for. 

The brakes are wonky – and likely about to fail. One of the headlights is out. The cruise control is long gone. And it overheats. I’ll know more once I get it to the mechanic. 

But its a truck with a tow hitch. And the first vehicle I’ve bought with cash since the 1980’s. 

“Get down, Pipa! Now!”

Rey’s persistence at the pound yielded a 3 year old boxer named Pipa, who scares the crap out of my poor cats, and moves shoes and other objects around the house at random. When Rey is home there is a steady background of the phrase “Not for Pipa!”

I am convinced that the dog means no harm to the cats, but my cats are emphatically unconvinced. How do you train courage into adult cats? I do not know. So they hide outside except for a few hours in the early morning when the dog is firmly ensconced in Rey’s bed.

The kitten is not afraid. This is why I have some faith in Pipa. 

Fireball is helping…

A small fluffy kitten Rey dubbed Fireball has wandered into the house and made herself at home, and plays with the dog.

My cats are also scared of the kitten. I dunno. 

 

WORD COUNT:

In the past seven days I:

• Edited 20k of the 64 novel, in hopes to have a beta-read copy soon = 2000 words
• Designed, drew, and colored two badge art proposals for MaricopaCon = 200 words.

Not the finished product.

• Edited about 10k words of the rulebook forGo Action Fun Time= 1000 words.
• This blog = 1000 words. 

 

That’s 6000 out of 5000.

 

I’m still not walking the dog. That’s Rey’s job.

 

Now we know. 

 

Logical Enemies

There are concepts that are the logical enemies of other concepts. Some are obvious: good is the enemy of evil, smart is the enemy of stupid, meetings are the enemy of sanity. Here are few worth considering in detail:

As a quick memo to the US Senate: Perfect is the enemy of Done. If you’re not comfortable with the terms, put a time limit on it and pass the damn thing.

We’ll come back to this.

Sanitary is the enemy of sustainable. One thing I learned when my mom went through chemo-therapy is that modern sanitary practices make great use of the disposable nature of our technology. Yeah, you can sterilize the dishes, but it’s even better to throw them away. Yeah, you might be able prepare pre-packaged meals in your own kitchen, but even better is having a commercial kitchen prepare it, and bring it to you – in disposable containers. (As long as it’s hot!)

Dish towels are the enemy of sanitation. If you’re immuno-compromised, or just trying to get past a virus, you are way better off using paper towels.

Security is the enemy of Productivity. I see this all the time on construction sites: guys getting paid $X/hour waiting for some one to find a key so they get get into the otherwise empty room and continue their jobs.  But I have seen this happen in much more developed and supposedly functional work spaces – where no one can get where they need to go to do their jobs.

Or they are not authorized to help a customer.

We are not and never have been besieged by a constant invisible menace of terrorist criminals. Most things stolen from (non-retail) businesses were stolen by employees who had access anyway.

Another thing I see all the time while we’re on this subject: The reason the temp of the over-hire just stare at you when you ask them to go get the thing is that they do not have keys. You’ll have to give them yours and trust they’ll come back with both the thing and your keys.

Distrust is the enemy of Society. If we are going to work together to solve a problem, we have to able to trust each other. There is no other way. On any large scale this requires trust in basic institutions – whether they’ve earned our trust or not.

If you do not believe government is ever helpful or that media is every truthful or that you have any obligation to participate in a collective action that you do not wholly believe in, then you are as part of the problem. You might as well be an active criminal.

But if I have to explain that to you, you didn’t read this far. Too many words.

Speaking of too many words, and getting back to perfect vs done:

WORD COUNT:

I am editing Taliesin’s Last Apprentice (because it is finally written). I have yet to settle on a formula for word-count equivalent, but I should be done by the end of the month.

(TLA is the sequel to The Beanstalk and Beyond).

That is basically all I did writing wise last week, and all I expect to do next week.

Next month I final edit One of 64.

In May I expect to do a full edition of Go Action Fun Time

I still have a job (I work off-site anyway), and things would have to get three orders of magnitude worse and stay that way for that to become imperiled. But our slow season has gotten slower, so I expect to actually make real progress editing.

Unsurprisingly,  there is no upcoming event, either game or festival wise, that I have enough confidence in to announce at this time.

Stay well.

 

 

Explaining Rules is Hard

First off, let me get to this before upcoming events make it all quaintly irrelevant:

I plan to vote for Elizabeth Warren in the upcoming AZ Prez Preference whatever (which is not the regular state primary). I am a wonk, and she is the wonkiest of the wonky-wonks, and I am going with my people here. How often does a genuine wonk make it this far?

I would not, however, bet money on her.

“I’d explain it to you – but you’d die.”

Bernie Sanders got 50%+ of the Latino vote in Nevada. If he duplicates that in Texas or California, he’s the nominee. Because math.

And for the partisans hyperventilating about the stigma of socialism, let me be clear: anyone who doesn’t understand that Democratic Socialism isn’t Communism is voting for the other side anyway.  Trump is Lord of the Ignorant, and you aren’t going to get those votes away from him.

It’s hard to sell new ideas – even to smart people, but they are your only plausible market.

Marginally related, I have made a couple of tweaks to the core Go Action Fun Time Rules. That’s going to be the rest of the post, so if you don’t care, thanks for getting down this far.

Go Action Fun Time : “We Are All Sam…”

Saturday – Feb 29, 2020 – my house. 6pm. Because leap day is for time travel. 

GenCorp Base 29 is under siege, and the VP in charge of the base doesn’t care. And the inhabitants … well, they’re only clones. Clones aren’t really people, are they?
Are they?
They are, but the Problem is that they are small parts of something much more frightening.

Games will take place in my west-central Phoenix residence unless we find someplace better. It is a house. There will be cats. I will pay for pizza. You are on your own for beverages – or if you somehow do not like pizza.

For this episode only I may grill meat earlier that afternoon, and all would be welcome to it, for I will grill a lot. You would still be on your own for beverages.

There will likely be fire and libations afterwards for all interested.

The event on MeetUp.   The event on Facebook. 

I have simplified the Plot Point development formula, particularly as it takes place after initial character creation.

• Gone is the formula. The new formula is just new value times the multiplier. The multiplier depends on what sort of ability you are increasing.
• You can only increase any ability by one between any two episodes. You can increase multiple abilities by one, but you can’t go as far as +2. I could make a logical case for this, but slowing it down just feels better.
• When you initially create the character, it’s still the multiplier/point. You can just buy them up in any order and as far as you want to pay. The previous value of the ability does not affect its cost.

Abilities reduce Difficulty in addition to adding to the roll – at least for uncontested tasks. Each +1 reduces the Difficulty by one dice (and inverse for negative values).

See? That’s a pretty straightforward concept that proved hard to write with any grace.

Maybe that’s why I admire warren. She’s pretty good at just that.

But she’s rolling against a lot of dice.

WORD COUNT:

The actual last chapter of Taliesin’s Last Apprentice – 2nd draft (transcribed into the Word). = 2000 words.

Editing Go Action Fun Time for the above rule changes, two column format, and moving Powers to the front of character creation = 2000 words

Writer’s group = 500 words

If I had written this yesterday, I would have been over quota – but I’m under by 500 words.

 

This version of Warren would be up by ten points – just saying.

Now we know.