Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog. Show all posts

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Taking a Break - 100+ Days

I love to brainstorm ideas and run with it all willy-nilly. In my last few posts, I have mentioned a few projects that are "almost done". And I have at least a dozen other ideas that need to be done. It is time to step back and reflect on my goals and priorities without the distractions of blogging. I think I will take a break for 105 days.

A few months ago, my ancient Power Mac bit the dust. This was my main machine for writing, with my clamshell iBook being the backup. Now I am operating with no backup at all. That is not good. 

I have been gifted two 2010 Mac Pros to get my writing and blog back on track. Yet they sit next to the broken Power Mac unused. What is holding me back is data recovery from the old Mac and recycling equipment that is no longer used.

Second, next to the computers is my gardening shelf, which is covered with crafting supplies. As May 7th is the last frost date in Western New York, I am going to need this space for my gardening supplies in April. It needs to be emptied and supplies bought for gardening. 

This also ties into the Giant Frickin' Bunny that inhabits our home. He needs a nice place to play, both inside and outside. His name is Fiver and maybe he will get his own blog. He certainly is cute and photogenic. 

Anyway, the garden and rabbit are linked topics because one needs the other. He is a cross between a Flemish Giant and a Continental Giant, so we can expect him to grow to be at least 30 pounds and maybe 3 feet long. We'll be using the garden to supplement his store-bought foods. We give him plenty of fresh food and it would be nice to not shop specifically for him.  

Third, my blog, in some form or another has been rolling since January 2010. It has developed a lot of cruft in 14 years. Formatting has gone weird, some posts link to places that no longer exist, and half a dozen things that bother me are begging to be fixed. That doesn't even cover the fact that I have a high-quality camera and microphone that sit unused on my desk. I need to clean up to keep this place nice. I also need to integrate it better into my social media accounts. 

In no particular order: I would like to scrub ads off the blog, fix formatting that is broken, and provide better images for existing posts while creating a standard for future posts. 

All of this takes time. Maybe 105 days.

When it comes to the content, I have a bag of holding worth of books and games waiting to be read, and played, and reviewed. 

I don't expect to go radio silent for the next couple of months. You can expect to see a few posts, probably less than what I have done in the past year. As I tick items off my list, I will definitely post updates. However, I don't plan on spending a lot of time on social media promoting things. While I am working on all this, I want to think about how I present on those other channels and gear my posts to work better in those places. 

Again, I would like to thank all of you for supporting this blog. 

Thursday, November 14, 2019

A Little Something New For Throwback Thursday - pt. 1

For #TBT, I'd like to share the top 10 searches on my website since July when I started using Google Analytics.
  1. Pregenerated Characters - Love it. 
  2. GSIV - This is one of my favorite games, Gemstone IV. 
  3. Peninsula of Plenty - My campaign sessions. 
  4. Experimental - Not sure why. This is my experimental writing. I should probably rename it to be clearer.  
  5. The Tek - I share my stats so other bloggers have something, anything to themselves compare to. 
  6. Nace - A city in my campaign. 
  7. mostfavored - These are my favorite products, which I suggest with no compensation. 
  8. AD&D - 'nuf said. 
  9. Appendix N+ - Books that have a role in my worldbuilding and game play. 
  10. Zero to Hero - My first book. 

A Little Something New For Throwback Thursday - pt. 2

For #TBT, I like to share my top five posts since I switched to Google Analytics in July, 2019.

Never ever do I ever - Horses, Drownings, and First Aid
Miniature Treasures - The Moldy Unicorn
A walk down memory lane... thru a Motte and Bailey Castle
Practical Tactical - Which Edition of D&D is Best?
Macaulay - Great Books, Lousy Pictures

Now, what do I wish was on that list?

At five, I'd like to see the A walk down memory lane... thru a Motte and Bailey Castle. My dad has built many iterations of this castle and it is my favorite.
Number 4, Update for Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners! I have to plug my own stuff, right?
Number 3 is my review of Module Review - BSOLO Ghost of Lion Castle.
Number two is another review post called Book Review - A Brief Study of TSR Book Design. This is great, free book by Kevin Crawford. If you want to do retro-games that look like old TSR products, you need this book.
Unconventional, but I would put Miniature Treasures - The Moldy Unicorn at number one.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Charles' New Podcast and Patreon

I have a couple of different outlets for communication. Facebook, MeWe, Ello, pluspora and a few others. The killer thing about promoting is that promotion is necessary, but by rote sharing doesn't work.

You need something more "organic", more "natural" to really get that impactful share to work for you.

I stole this image without permission, mostly because I used to have those dice.

Charles Thorin has a blog called "They Might Be Gazebos". I'm hoping that is a play on "They Might Be Giants", because I really like those guys. What do we have in common? Charles does reviews, he likes luck mechanics, creating interesting magic weapons and we both like to try different games.

What does Charles do that is different? He is a podcaster on Anchor, the host of Playing It Wrong. On the 'cast, he has a smooth voice but an exciting tone. This isn't the sort of 'cast that helps you to sleep at night. Playing It Wrong is an amplification of They Might Be Gazebos retooled for an audio format. He uses music and sound effects in enhance the show without being overbearing or obnoxious. Each podcast has a very newsy sound to it as Charles takes on currents in the blogosphere, topics that interest him, such as Swords and Wizardry.

Just a few episodes back he was talking about finding your voice, something that he has personally managed to do.

This week, to support his passion, he has launched a Patreon page to support his habit. I can't wait to see what new things he comes up with. Please take a moment to explore all the quality content on They Might Be Gazebos, the Playing Wrong Podcast and if you like, his Patreon Page.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

A Study in Recreation: Fear Itself

Today’s update is about Kippers and Jam‘s blog post on recreation. Adrian BK and company has revisited a module called Fear Itself, created back in 1999.
The authors lost the original copy and rewrote it after reconnecting with each other.
The details:
Module: BK1 Fear Itself
Author: Adrian BK
Level: 2-4 (AD&D)
Pages: 18
Price: Free!
You can download a copy from Kippers and Jam. This module features enough leeway to plug into nearly any campaign or play style. Fear Itself features glorious artwork from many artists and professional quality layout and formatting.
Take a look and don’t forget to thank the folks at Kipper and Jam for providing high quality game products.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Kippers & Jam

Google+ Communities are wonderful. I joined the gaming community and was able to circle a score of gamers in just one go. 

Last night, I subscribed to Kippers & Jam, a blog mixing the best in RPG’s. In the most recent post called Bring Back the Magic, the author addresses the fun and the danger of introducing magic in to campaign. Ideas and tips abound. It is well worth the read and offers excellent advice for any gamer.

(2024 Update - Kippers & Jam is gone, but a little of it is still available through the Wayback Machine.)