Potential Work

So a friend directed another friend to me. The third party is offering (what sounds like) real money for the project - between $1k and $2k.

They sent me an early edition of the book. It's a collection of magic items. Between 3 and 4 / page. There's about 100 pages. And they would like a full color illustration for the front cover.

So the math breaks down to about $6.66 dollars / image if I assume only 3 images / page AND they go the full $2k.

And that's without a cover illustration.

*le sigh*

I (sincerely) appreciate that laying out a couple grand out of your own pocket feels like a lot. Hell, it is a lot. But the amount of work he's asking for...

More info as I have it.

In the meantime, the gooder news:

Caravan!

I'm working pretty hard at a game I'm creating and I'm currently calling Caravan! The idea behind it is really pretty simple:

Create a simple character, who agrees to join a caravan that's going on a 30 (or 31) day trek to provide support of some kind. Use random tables to determine a daily prompt and then write ~1,667 words on that prompt. Do that every day for a month. It's like a hybrid of NaNoWriMo and some of the journaling games I've been seeing that seem popular right now.

It all evolved from my efforts during the NaNoWriMo of 2022.

I'm pretty stoked about it. It's a very simple concept, but I feel like it has a lot of potential flavor without a lot of crunch. I'm not a crunch guy.

How about you guys - what are you working on?

At 4:17 a.m. the National Weather Service sent us an Emergency Alert Snow Squall Warning for about one sixteenth of an inch of snow.  Okay, reduced visibility is a road hazard, but could we save the OMG WAKE UP noises for something like a tornado that might kill me in my sleep?

• Justin Bell, Eternal Journey: more atmospheric soundtrack-quality pieces, this time not attached to any video game.
  
• Madison Cunningham, Ace: this is not your typical singer-songwriter album.  Cunningham started in the praise music genre, and has left that behind and also divorced her husband.  There's some real weight to the lyrics, and the song structures and chord changes are captivating.  Some are making Joni Mitchell comparisons which, eh, kind of a stretch.
• Die Spitz, Something to Consume: i have been sporadically checking out KEXP on YouTube and Instagram over the years; i saw the first 30 seconds of this and was hooked on their gritty, punkish energy, plus the rhythm section is solid.
• Florence + the Machine, Everybody Scream: she released it on Halloween and you can feel the spooky, witchy energy.  The lyrics for One of the Greats are so good.
  
• Kaki King, Tutto Passa (EP): amazing breadth for an EP, acoustic guitar to soundscapes to loud electric guitar.
• Kaki King & Tamar Eisenman, SEI: "Kaki King and Tamar Eisenman have co-created SEI, a full-length performance piece where guitar movement takes over the entire stage." The album is very good but the performance looks amazing, wish i'd've seen it.
• Kaki King, Stop Sometime (EP): more acoustic guitar from King. 
• Sarah McLachlan, Better Broken: another solid release, this features her daughters doing backing vocals on a couple of tracks.
  
• Mogwai, The Bad Fire: the Scottish post-rockers are back; saw them live this year and THEY ARE VERY LOUD. (mistakenly put this in 2024)
• Nation of Language, Dance Called Memory: remember synth-based New Wave? These folks do.  Another KEXP find.
  
• Vernon Reid, Hoodoo Telemetry: the master guitarist with another eclectic collection of songs, some featuring members of Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber.
  
• Sphinx Virtuosi, American Mirror: the selections for this album focus more tightly on underrepresented contemporary composers.
  
• Steel Beans, Steel Beans: this guy went viral three years ago and somehow turned that moment into becoming the opening act for Tenacious D, and then Tool.  He'd been doing his own thing for over 15 years (he has over a dozen albums on Bandcamp), but suddenly caught fire.  I bought the EP that contained the viral song, enjoyed it, and waited to see what the next album would be like.  It does not disappoint.
  
• TAKAAT, Is Noise Vol. 1 & 2 (EP): like Garfield Minus Garfield, TAKAAT is Mdou Moctar minus Mdou Moctar.  Two short EPs featuring Tuareg rock originals and covers.
  
• Takénobu, Cosplay Karaoke コスプレカラオケ: another set of cello-centered chamber pop, this time with all lyrics in Japanese.
  
• veg., Defenestration: the instrumental metal grows in complexity in their first (short) album.
  
• zbs.fm, Tell Me Who You Think I Am: chill, downtempo electronica from the kid of a friend of a friend.
  

Change the channel now, if you're not interested in my current thoughts on 'self help' for Yours Truly. I promise - I will not take offense. I can get pretty gag-tastic sometimes when others talk about it. I'm mostly writing this all out for myself.

The Problem

I'm 'driven to distraction' (just always liked that title). In my case, it feels more long tail than in the traditional sense. I follow a cycle of interest > disinterest > renewed interest > renewed disinterest even on things I really like.

It's when it gets difficult or frustrating that I have a knack for suddenly finding heaps of interest in something else. If I have related or connected interests, it makes it even easier to jump topics because working on one feels like working on the other.

With that in mind, I have interests in many different fantasy related genres, art, games, writing, and pretty much anything connected to any of those on some level.

If you're familiar with the concept of 80/20, I find that the real progress is actually made once you enter that difficult 20%. Or maybe it's better to say the progress that matters because anyone and everyone can do the 80% that only requires 20% of the effort.

But here's the thing - that first 80%? It's still a big part of the project du jour, so each time I come back, I find another part of that 'easy' 80%.

What does all this mean? Well, put simply: I spend a whole lot of time spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere. 

Current 'Solution'

Solution is in quotes because there really is no solution. You can adapt to the way your brain works, but that doesn't change how it works. Maybe that's okay. I'm not here to argue for or against.

The Big Picture Planning has been an issue my whole life. It has arguably ended relationships and deeply tried others. I'm too 'in the moment' for almost my whole life. Doesn't seem wrong, to me per se, but it makes things challenging to say the least.

So how do you improve things without a big picture plan?

Habits. Eat the elephant with one small forkfull at a time if need be.

This isn't a new idea. There's tons of literature. One of my favorites is Atomic Habits, but that borders on cliche at this point. (It's also fresh on my mind because Mom got me the new Atomic Habits Workbook for Christmas after seeing an interview with James Clear.

In short: Atomic Habits does a great job of breaking down habits and how to work with them effectively in similar sense to the way James Clear did with To-Do items in Getting Things Done.

If I was to simplify both into one sentence? Break big things down into small (and manageable) bites and then do those little bites.

But that all requires planning. You have to look at the big picture and break it down. That's the very essence of planning, and I fail to do it every time.

So I'm Going to Skip the Planning. Okay, honestly, only sorta. I mean, I'm doing the big picture planning right now, I suppose - just not with a specific project in mind.

So the simple concept is this: Pick as few categories as possible. Health (mental and physical), Wealth, and Social? (Still working that out.) and select some habits (again - as few as possible) to work on to improve those areas. Small, simple, easily attainable habits. Then work like hell to make those small habits routine.

That's it for now. That's the whole shebang. It's why I recently mentioned getting back on Habitica.

Wish me luck. Or don't. I'm not the boss of you.

A while back, I joined Habitica. It's meant to be a 'gamification system' for your tasks and habits. It does this by turning your task lists / habits into goals for an RPG setting.

I don't think I get enough out of it if I am 'playing' by myself, but it has a number of social components built in to help with motivation / accountability.

Since Brad and I were talking about making a game of our tasks / to-do lists, I remembered Habitica and re-joined.

It's a little goofy / hokey, but if it helps us to stay on task...

The Pros:

1. It's free and open source. There's an option to pay to an upgraded 'group' if you want to share specific tasks etc, which I find very appealing for Brad and I, but I'm going to hold off until we prove we can use it with any consistancy.
2. It seems like a solid habit tracker / task management system. If you strip away the 'game' side of things, it handles a lot in a pretty simple / straightforward way. It's tempting to just use it and ignore the 'game' side of things.
3. Breadth and Depth. This might be a subsection of number 2, but I like the way it breaks things down into Habits / Dailies / Tasks. They may be essentially the same (in some senses) but I like those as categories. What's more, I like the depth of information you can add to each, but aren't required to, if that's not your thing.

The Cons:

1. I just wish there was a way to use other artwork than what they have built into the system. It's styled after JRPGs, and that's just really not my thing. This is really not a BIG deal since it's just 'look and feel', but as an illustrator, those goofy / cutesy little pixelated characters / items just bug me.
2. Partly because of number 1, I'm going to have to manually set up a lot of 'rewards' for myself and possibly Brad since I really won't give a shit about earning a new suit of armor for my little avatar.

Anyway, I'm checking it out, and it seems worthwhile, and hell, it's that time of year where we all renew our promises to ourselves to do X,Y, and Z this year - for sure! And who knows, maybe this will help me do that. 🤞

ETA: If you decide to try it out, please feel free to 'friend me' or whatever. UserID in the screen cap at the top of this post. :)

I made an "Alternative Christmas" word search for my extended family in lieu of a crossword.  A representative quote: "Kyle's cheating and looking at my chickens!"

NEKCIHCCNCNCHICKEN
CECHICHHHEHHNIHNCE
CHKICHIIKIKECHIEHK
NHICHICCCNKCHINKIC
​​​​​​​EIIKIKIHECCHICECKI
KCHEEHCKINHICHKIEH
CIINCNCHICNNKCCHNC
IHNCHICCINKNEIHCEH
HCIEHCCHICKENKHHKI
CHICKENINHKCNICICC
HINEKCIHCIHECHIIIK
ICHICEICIKCKNEKEHE
KCHIKENHHNEKCIHCCC
NENEKCIHCNKICHENEN

In what country do people rollerskate through the streets of Caracas on their way to Christmas Mass?

What substance with atomic number 82 was used to manufacture tinsel until its use was discontinued in the 1970s due to health hazards?

The version of "Pennies From Heaven" featured in the movie Elf  is by what singer also known for voicing King Louie in The Jungle Book (1967)?

What ancient Lycian port city (located in modern Turkey) was the birthplace of Saint Nicholas?

Eowyn, a shieldmaiden of Rohan,
Pining for the king without a crown...
Who can kill the Witch King?
He'll say "No man".
But she can do the job when he is down.

Later on, things are dire.
Frodo stands by the fire.
His friends are betrayed,
But Gollum's repaid
Falling with the One Ring in his hand.

• BALTHVS, Harvest / Khruangbin, A LA SALA: these are very similar; loungey, funky, chill, mostly instrumental rock, two dudes on guitar and drums, and a gal on bass and vocals.
• Andrew Bird & Madison Cunningham, Cunningham Bird: a complete cover of the legendary (and unpublished since its 1973 release) Buckingham Nicks, which put them on Mick Fleetwood's radar, whose band they would then join and the rest is history.  Buckingham and Nicks had made sporadic noises over the years about reissuing it, and it does not seem coincidence that they finally did so a year after this stellar cover, which in many ways improves upon the original.
• Andrew Bird Trio, Sunday Morning Put-On: Bird puts together a trio to cover some of his favorite jazz standards (coincidentally including "Django", which was on Buckingham Nicks and thus on Cunningham Bird).
• Nelson Echandia, Tu Creación: the bassist for the progressive joropo (my label) group Compasses puts out his first solo album.
• Garbage, Lie to Me (EP): three good new songs plus a remix from their worst album Bleed Like Me. Add the album they released this year and it seems that every fourth album of theirs is a stinker.
• David Gilmour, Luck and Strange: definite case of old man voice, but he collaborates with his youngest daughter on a couple of tracks to good effect, and his guitar is still amazing.
• Tony Levin, Bringing It Down to the Bass: the master of the bass guitar shows some range in this solo effort.
• Loreena McKennitt, The Road Back Home: a live album where she plays some of her favorite Celtic classics from her busking days.
• Mdou Moctar, Funeral for Justice: more socially conscious desert rock, Moctar agitates for his people and culture.
• Christian McBride & Edgar Meyer, But Who's Gonna Play the Melody?: two double bassists trade leads and share compositions.
  
• My Brightest Diamond, Fight the Real Terror: the title (and title track) are an homage to Sinéad O'Connor.  More of a solo affair, the instrumentation is a bit sparse, but the songs are good.
• St. Vincent, All Born Screaming: a return to form after the self-indulgent Daddy's Home, although it is probably her second-worst album.  She also made an extremely ill-advised companion album with the lyrics translated to Spanish that is best avoided.
• Tragic Lovers, VALENTINE (EP): post-punk from Portland, their compositions are really starting to gel.
• veg., DETONATION (EP): San José's own instrumental metal band.  The songs show more dynamics and breadth from their debut EP.

The winning team had 9 players in flagrant violation of the rules, but we're not going to file a formal protest over a free appetizer, right?

What 2014 film directed by Damien Chazelle tells the story of Andrew Neiman, who attends the fictional Shaffer Conservatory?

What vocal group was formed by the 1961 merger of two friendly rival groups, Otis Williams & The Distants, and The Primes?

What Confederate city was captured after the decisive battle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip?

What are the two non-Ivy "Colonial colleges"?  [10 other schools have historical roots predating the American Revolution and are excluded from the list on bogus technicalities​​​​​​​ because they were not formally chartered as colleges with degree-granting powers, but we're not going to complain about that, either.]