Is itself a response.

Mom asked us to come ASAP to see dad at the end of February.  We flew down on Tue Feb 24, saw him in the hospital (where he'd ended up due to pneumonia) on Wednesday, saw him come home on Thursday (and we took care of some legal paperwork), and said goodbye to him on Friday before heading to the airport.

Kim and i were scheduled to leave to Europe on Monday, but she'd been dragging healthwise due to what we suspect was human metapneumovirus, and we waffled on whether we should cancel the trip. We decided on Sunday to go for it, but neither of us being at our best meant that we managed to forget our CPAPs, which we then had our dogsitter express to Basel.  Then they got stuck in customs for two days, by which time our river cruise had begun, which required a courier to bring the boxes to the first stop.  All told, that brain fart cost us over $1k.  But it was quite a relief to sleep well after three days of almost no sleep.  The river cruise was eight days and extremely enjoyable, and i managed to see two childhood friends and a cousin along the way.  We then spent another eight days in Amsterdam with our niece and her family.

Dad died twelve days after we left Ecuador (the day before the cruise ended).  In addition to the stomach cancer, they'd also found an aortic aneurysm.  He died at home in the best possible conditions.  His suffering was minimal.  Mom's now in the process of moving to the new house, and my aunt Martha will join her there.

What painter, born in 1887, was called "the mother of American Modernism"?

What comic book hero's first arch-nemesis was the Ultra-Humanite?

What director is alleged to have faked the Apollo moon landings and left clues in his 1980 psychological horror film?

In what year did the following events take place?  The first observance of a federal holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday, the return of Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley, Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" World Cup goal, and the first episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

This new team presently consists only of members of my immediate family.  I cravenly bet 0 on the last question, but we still earned second place in a closely-contested event.

In what country is the geographic center of South America?

What is the densest naturally-occurring metallic element?

What English monarch reigned for 9 days in 1553?

Three clauses of the Magna Carta remain on statute in England and Wales:  the freedom of the English Church, the "ancient liberties" of London, and what other concern, also present in the U.S. Contitution's Bill of Rights?

The things I have to do. Note to get my thoughts in order.

As I'm apt to do, I committed to some things. Projects. Adventures. All these things have reasons and backstories. But now they are all lining up for attention and I need to make more of a schedule.

Tomorrow: Don't forget your doctors appointment! Also find a dentist & schedule an appointment!!

April 23 - 25 days from now I'm going to Alpha  which is kinda like adult summer camp for artists. I'm bringing human sized Tsuro board game, where humans are the pieces instead of pawns, which means I need to make supersized Tsuro. Also this will come with a side of dragon themed crafting. The things I still need to do for MINIMUM VIABLE is FINISH 35 human sized 2'x2' tiles. So far I've finished 1 and 5 quarter tiles. Probably won't work on it much until next week, but sometimes I'm inspired and get at it. One of the reasons I'm doing this project is to prep for Playa del Fuego (see below), which is towards the end of May.

May 1 - 33 days from now applications for Delaware's "Community Reinvestment Fund"  are due. I committed to putting in an application to revamp the Dover Art League's pottery studio. The room needs a floor without holes in it, and walls that reach the ceiling, less dumb use of space and other things of that ilk. Plan to get a draft grant request done this week. 

May 9 - 41 days from now is Pots to the People. I talked my Dover Art League into this fundraiser -- we are bringing 30-50 pottery pieces to the local brewpub. There we offer them up for $35 which includes a drink ticket. Check out the cool flyer/poster in the link - the Art League staff of creatives are amazing. I mentioned I wanted a "Power to the People" vibe, holding a mug, and wow. Anyway, now I just have to arrange staffing, signage, transport, and assist in getting all the pottery items made/glazed. This week, line up staffing. 

May 10 - 42 days from now is Big Ink at the Delaware Contemporary Museum. I have been following Big Ink for some time on Insta, and kept saying "if he ever comes to Delaware, I'm signing up!". Well, last fall I noticed he scheduled a Delaware date, so with some trepidation, I signed up. So yeah, working on that project. For Big Ink, you sign up to make a 2' x 3' or larger woodcut for printing. Mine is going to be Limbus Company fan art of a sort. I started carving a few days ago. This week: carve ~1hr per day.

May 23 - 52 days from now is Playa del Fuego. I'm bringing Dragon Themed Art project wich includes Human Sized T'suro and a 10' Dragon. I need to make a 10' dragon at some point between then and now. "Need" is the word here, because I applied for an art grant which included making the 10' Dragon. I got the grant, now I have to deliver. This week: do nothing more on this except the stuff mentioned for Alpha.

Late November 2026 - like 235 days from now I'm installing two large storefront windows for the Winter Window scene at, you guessed it, the Dover Art League. I decided one of the two windows will be a 10' hibernating dragon. Which is why Playa del Fuego art grant was for a dragon, which led to Tsuro and then Alpha. I hope 235 days is enough for it all to come together. (There is also a second window, which I plan to be Snow Queen themed)

oh yeah, I also have a date in a couple of weeks. I wonder if he'd be up for making a paper mache dragon instead of, dunno, dinner & a movie. 

It's an honor to be here at the Snooze Olympics! Our next competitor is Spike from Germantown 

He's being watched closely this year ever since his breakthrough display of indolence at the Commonwealth Games

Oh this is excellent form. The entire tail off the chair. The one leg sticking out to the moon. The one leg seemingly disappearing into another dimension. And.... Yes.... The one paw entirely covering the face! 

The scores are coming in... 9.8... 9.9... And a 7.5. Yes something really has to be done about these dog judges

Every time I install these I think I should do this. Finally got around to it thanks to Instagram filters.

Volume One is done except for patterns (waiting til I write 3 volumes & then I'll pick patterns for all).

Would've been done yesterday but decided I haaaaated the Welcome page so I rewrote it.

URL is redirected to my stained glass site since I already have good SEO on that one. Did it myself cuz Imma muthafuckin tech! (I also say this when I unjam the printer so don't put too much stock in the validity of that claim. Orrrrr support my delusion if you're so inclined. I'm down with either decision.)

Main page is done with an animated preview & a link to the first article (will have a couple of featured articles on it regularly once we get rolling).

Puzzle page is done for now...will be adding more as new issues of the magazine come out.

I'm sure I'll do some tweaks over time to make it all look better as it's a little boring and uncolorful....I'm not the best web decorator. It does, however, look better than the rest of my site so I had to do the old "I can't see you, you can't see me" thing to avoid redoing my whole site.

Here's a link to the main page if you're feeling bored: 

If anyone knows how to pick which part/picture from a page will show up when you share a link (from WordPress), I'd be eternally grateful if you shared. :)

That's it for the moment. Back to it!

A new version of myweft.com is available now.
It includes the following changes from the previous version:
* Overhauls the editor and removes the left-to-right split.
* Overhauls the writing experience for signed-out users.
* Adds a status for each scene in the editor.
* Shows authors which scenes need attention on the story map.
* Changes the default map layout from left-to-right to top-to-bottom.
* Adds a feedback form to the About page.
* Removes the mini-map from the editor.
* Reduces scene color-coding intensity in the editor.
* Adds an About link with instructions for using myweft.com.
* Adds release history and release notes to the About page.
* Saves the map zoom level and center position with story data.
* Fixes a bug that prevented password managers from auto-filling credentials on log in.
* Simplifies navigation by standardizing button locations and removing unnecessary buttons.
* Shows authors which scenes in their published stories have and have not been read.
* Moves the story stats view from the scene editor to the bottom-left corner of the map.
* Saves reading progress for signed-in users.
* Adds a word count for each scene body in the scene editor.
* Adds the total story word count to the story stats view.
* Stops authors from saving the "Welcome to MyWeft" template as their own.
* Adds a search box to the About page documentation.
* Fixes a series of bugs that caused keyboard latency in the editor.

Two changes today:

• Fixed a bug that made it hard to select stories from the library on small screens.
  

• Added a "Start this story over" button after all story ending scenes.
  

Also added a new item to the roadmap: "Use myweft.com stories to make audiobooks and podcasts that branch."

Percival the Botanist Pirate has 27 views, and fewer than half of those are from me testing it.

There are still a few endings that nobody has reached.

Every choice gets near 50-50 traffic except that on "Shoreline", people choose "Temple of the Tides" over "Pearl Caves" 2:1.