I was flying my drone today. It's not all fancy and sexy like the big (really) expensive ones, but it wasn't cheap, it fits my life nicely (it's just slightly larger than a smartphone), and it's been a hell of a lot of fun to play with.

The down side to it being so small is that it's crazy light weight and gets blown about by the lightest of breezes. Still, I took a slight risk. There's been a ton of wind here in TX, and today wasn't terrible. What's more, I was in an are somewhat protected from wind by trees in a wall around me.

It wasn't enough. I was flying for a little bit when a gust of wind came in, slammed my drone head on into a concrete pillar, and she dropped out of the sky and smack dab into the middle of a creek.

What's more, I wasn't able to get to it immediately.

You can picture me running the long way around to scramble through some underbrush and through muck to find... the creek was muddy as hell, so I couldn't see the drone at all.

Fuck.

That's where the bad luck ended. I was able to find her, and eventually recover her.

I pulled the battery as soon as I got it in my greedy hands, but I'm sure the damage was done.

Stopped at Fry's (holy hell do I love that store and wish they had locations on the Right Coast) and picked up a T5 Star Head screwdriver. Which - you know - you can just pick up any ol' time you want when there's a Fry's nearby. Brought the drone back to my hotel and opened her up as much as I could (there's a couple of screws I couldn't get at without breaking the case and causing perminent damage) and she's drying over night.

I'm not really hopeful, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I really want this to work.

In the meantime, here's a little video that Google assembled of some of the footage I previously took:

I write and draw every day.

The new plan is a simple one - which is arguably the biggest reason that I like it so much. Call it positive affirmation, call it a daily chant, or call it whatever you like, but that opening sentance is something I will write down every day.

Then I will do it.

My intent is to try to do 1/2 hour each in the morning and in the evening for a total of one hour writing and one hour drawing every day. If it's a crazy day, and I have no time, I'll allow just 1/2 hour each. Then the next day I will get back to the full hour each.

It might seem like a lot, but it's really not when you realize how much free time I should have each day. That, of course, assuming that I'm not screwing around and wasting my time.

Set my timer and go. I like that.

The best part? Sure, there will be some garbage, but there will also be some good stuff, and it will pile up. I'll have a collection of work in a very short span of time. It's the best way I can think of to make that happen.

All my illustration and writing projects can happen - I just need to eat that elephant one bite at a time.

So, what's on the list now? What are my current projects that I want to focus on?

Art

• The Greek Gods - A new project with an old friend. He's designing a card game and I'm doing most (all?) of the illustration work. I'm really looking forward to this, but it's not a small order. 14 gods by the end of November. Good thing I'm planning on spending an hour on art every day.
• Relics - Yes, I'm still plugging away on this - slowly but surely. I drift off at times, and at other times I've had paying clients that took priority, but it' long past time I finished the third faction so we can send out a beta version for public release. This is the third year that I've been hoping I could complete the work in time for an X-Mas beta release.
• Sketchwork - I doubt I will have much time to focus on anything but the above items before the new year, but if I do, I would like to put together a free digital 'sketchbook' to give away. This might include anything and everything from random doodles to WIPs for client work.

Writing

• Patch Book - writing is the easy one. I really only want to focus on the book. Maybe it's because it's NaNoWriMo, and I have that sense of missing out, but I really want to get this damn thing done. Much like Relics, this one has been gnawing at me for a while, and it's past time.
• Another Blog?! - I was thinking about where I would want to post chapters for ARCs. I could post here, but I get so damn worried about eating up my 'daily post' on random things, and this place seems, well, personal. The very nature of the single post per day seems like it makes it more intimate. So probably not here. LJ? Maybe. Hell, GRRM posts there (still, I believe). But probably no. Same issue as here. I have a LOT of old posts there that are pretty personal to me. So I'm thinking that I might clear out any / all posts over at mrlich.wordpress.com and post there. It's not like there's a lot there,  and it would make a good spot to just post 'book updates'. My 'professional writing' update location. But it means another location online that I'm updating. I already feel too scattershot online. That's the whole reason I set up mrlich.com as a menu for where to find me online. I need to narrow my focus a bit online, but that seems like a project for another day.

Journal Update

I went and visited the King yesterday. I had the option to route my travels through Memphis, so I did. I'd never visited Graceland, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity.

It was interesting. Not the $40-$80 price for tickets interesting to me, but interesting. Not upset that I did it (how would I know what I thought of it otherwise) but I probably wouldn't go back unless it was with a group of friends, and that would likely be more for the company than for the tour.

They give you an iPad to use through the tour which has a complete guided tour narrated by John Stamos. Why John Stamos? I have no idea. Still, it was neat, and I like that it allowed us to choose our own pace. I took a crap ton of photos, so if any of you would like to see some, let me know below.

I had to make my way back to Decatur last night to pick something up though, which made my trip to Memphis a 6 hours of driving detour. Bah. Worth it.

I did, of course, enjoy a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich after the tour.

Now I'm working my way to Kansas City for my next project. It's not a YUGE project, so I'm not sure how long I will be there, but a few days at least. It's a small enough region (for the project portion) that I should be able to stay at one hotel for the duration. That's such a good thing for me. I love my job, but these smaller projects tend to mean bouncing around every night. It's a bit annoying to pack up everything every day. Even two nights / hotel seems so much more worthwhile. Ahhh, the life of a nomad.

The election. I'm over it. Yes, I understand how important it is. I have a low threshold though for repetition, and both sides (and their supporters) are saying so much of the same damn thing over and over again that I'm really just ready to scream and start breaking shit.

Also, it breaks my faith in humanity that anyone could think that Trump would be even an acceptable president - let alone a good one. I mean that sincerely. I don't see any plus to him. The only thing I've heard said about him (that I believe) is that he won't be 'business as usual'. Probably true. 1. Not being equal to is not the same as 'greater than'. 2. I will never have kids, but if I did, I would never want them or my beloved nephews to ever act like he does regularly. Why would I want someone like that representing out country? I honestly don't know as much as I should about Hilary, but what little I do makes her an infinitely better choice than him. Infinitely. Even if she was going to be 'business as usual' (which I have no reason to believe she will be).

Already over my 1/2 hour. More later.

ETA:

First

I was terrified. I felt like I was clinging to the edge with bloody fingernails. It was that moment in the movie where you see the killer moving in and the next victim is oblivious to what's coming.

Then

I wanted to be physical. I wanted to smash, to break, to rend and tear. To smash whatever I could get my hands on.

All the while knowing it wouldn't help, but it's what I understand.

Now

This is a different kind of fight. It's a kind I've never taken part in before. I don't know the first thing about it, if I'm honest.

Looks like it's time to learn.

I decided to go a little sideways with my reference for this one. Look familiar?

Also - the darkest of my Prismacolor markers was going dry. You can see it in his sweatpants.

Tools - I 'cheated' by using pencil to rough out the design so tha it would follow the reference closely enough to be recognizable. Next was the cheapy ballpoint pen to draw the design. Sharpie pen to very line weight, and traditional Sharpie for the 'bold' stuff.

Day One of both Inktober and Drawlloween. Went with something a little goofy, and light hearted to start things off.

Used a pic of Bugs Bunny running to get the body posture.

Already noticing that some of the proportions aren't really right, but I'm not too worried about it.

Used a cheapy ballpoint pen for the base drawing, a Sharpie pen for inking,  traditional Sharpie for the bold, and Prismacolor markers for the greys.

Tomorrow? Noisy Zombie. I have an interesting idea....

First, I should point out that I hate the name Drawlloween. I love the concept behind it, and I'm taking part, but there's just something about the name that is very much like fingernails on the chalkboard for me. I think it has something to do with the way some people have asked me throughout my life to "please drawl me something?". That's not the word.

I'm not really a grammar nazi. Not really. I just play one in my head.

Okay, yeah. I kinda am.

Anyway. I love the idea behind Inktober and Drawlloween. (Links are to their respective FB groups.) This year, I decided to take part in both. Yes, that's a little bit insane.

Unless, of course, someone got the idea in their head to combine the two. Which I did. So I created a quick cheat sheet which can be found here: Inktober Drawlloween Combo Prompts. (Document also contains the list of prompts for each separate group.)

So - I don't know if any of you were thinking of taking part, but if so, feel free to let me know! (I'll probably be posting the images here - or at least links to them throughout the month.)

Good lord did I just stumble upon the way to lose ALL of my time. I've been rediscovering Reddit over the last couple days and finding a lot of stuff that piques my art curiosity.

I just found the /r/Imaginary.../ subreddits.

Example:  /r/ImaginaryVikings/

Once you're there, note the menu structure along the top of the page.

You're welcome/I'm sorry.

That sounds a bit more dickish than I mean it, of course. Here's the thing though - I've realized that I'm spending way too much time on social media. Again. 

So it's time for a revamp of how I interact with social media, and FB in particular since it's the worst offender. This may seem like self centered ranting, but I decided to post about this because I think many folks might benefit from using my 'process'.

My process for checking Facebook is pretty straight forward: 1. I look through / click on the notifications I've received since I last checked in. 2. Once I'm through those, I might read my wall/stream/wtf they're calling it these days.

But I noticed that there's only a handful of types of posts folks are making on Facebook, and they are:

• Political posts: Okay, I get it. You have strong feelings about one or both of the candidates. That actually makes me happy because it means you're invested. Most of the folks who read this post? I probably agree with your mindset. Those who I don't agree with? As much as I would like to think myself a 'bigger man', you're not likely to sway me with your vitriol towards my candidate. End result? I'm not reading political posts.
• Charity posts: There are a ton of really worthwhile charities out there who deserve our resources - be that time, money, or effort. Chances are pretty good that I'm already familiar with the charity you're doing your 'awareness' post on though. I can't easily put in time helping with the run/event that is coming up because I'm not going to be around for it. I genuinely wish I could, but.... And lastly, I already put what moneys I can into a handful of charities that I've picked out. End result? I'm not reading charity posts.
• Pet photos/videos: Look, I'm a sucker for cats and especially dogs. If you know me at all, you know this to be true. But holy hell are there a shit ton of pet videos on the intarwebs. If it's not the cat/dog/other of one of my friends? I just don't have the time/bandwidth to spend with it. Which kinda brings me to the close of this post:

tl;dr - I now look through those same notifications, and when I'm deciding whether or not to click, there's one simple question I ask: did the post originate with my friend? Yes? Click. No? Move along - nothing to see here.

To show what I mean about that Randomizer being useful in other scenarios (it's not just for role-playing kids!) I was thinking that I would do up another example to randomly create writing prompts for those of us who get stuck *cough*allthefrickintime*cough*.

So I invite you to give me your favorite writing prompts below and I'll build them into this mod. :)

Should be able to do it by tonight/tomorrow morning.

This morning it's been rainy here, so I'm off the road. Decided it was a good time/opportunity to do some work on a little project that I've had brewing in my back brain for several years.

It all started when I fell in love with a program created by rpg game master Bruce Gulke called Tablesmith ( http://www.mythosa.net/p/tablesmith.html ). If you're a gamer who is using a Windows system, I highly recommend it. It's basically begware and well worth the money he asks for it if you can swing a few bucks.

That said, it's Windows only. I asked him a couple years ago about any interest he might have in creating a mobile app, and that conversation didn't really go anywhere.

If I had the time / inclination to do it properly, I would learn enough code to create the app myself, but I've never been a programmer - not really on any 'true' level.

I can figure out Google Spreadsheets though, and I just knew that there had to be a way to do what I'm looking for in there.

I'm here to say that I've figured it out!

Okay, maybe it's better to say that I've figured out a lumpy, hacked together with duct tape means of effecting something similar with a bit more effort on the part of the user. (Tablesmith is still a far superior product.)

I really think this will be useful to not just gamers, but also writers once I build out some parallel versions (this is for fantasy npcs, but could easily be tweaked to work for modern characters filling the background/environment of any genre). The concept could also be used to build out any kind of 'random' description you want - rooms, environments, scene backdrops, groups (organizations, religions, governmental crews...) the list of possibilities are absolutely endless.

If you would like to check it out the link is: 

This is a 'public' copy, so you can feel free to edit to your heart's content. The results auto generate any time there is a change to the sheet.

That's probably my next project for the sheet - to find a way to get the sheet to create a new entry without having to edit anything. I'm currently just changing an empty cell and then doing an undo/redo until I get a satisfactory response from the sheet. A push button in a cell would be perfect.

One of my primary purposes is to help myself get past those times when I'm feeling 'artist block' by creating a place I can auto generate an interesting sounding character to draw. A way to make it 'mindless' so I can just start working and let the ideas start flowing later.

Anyway - as always, I welcome thoughts/opinions/suggestions below or using the comments function on cells within the sheet itself.

Some feedback I'm especially interested in:

• Is this something you think you would use?
• Would you be more likely to use it if I made it more pretty/refined?
• Is there something you feel is missing from this version (the fantasy RPG character version)?
• Would you use a different version - i.e. Not for rpg work, but for generating some other random data for writing or...?

So I'm late posting this (how often do I manage to get it posted in time?!) but whatevs.

It rained today (yesterday) for my birthday. That may sound like a complaint, but it's the opposite. It meant I had the day off.

Went out for a nice big breakfast at a chain restaurant called Cora's. They're only up here in Canada, and I think they might only be in Quebec. I don't recall seeing them elsewhere, at least.

Anyway, after my tasty breakfast and about a gallon of their coffee, I retreated back to my hotel room where I watched most of the second season of Daredevil and just did a shit ton of drawing. Quiet, peaceful (the rain was very soothing), and productive. The images above and blow are what I did today alone.

In addition to these, I updated my Deviantart page, and created a couple different videos. The only video I uploaded is here. The technique I used is very different for me. Far more 'painting' than 'drawing' once I got past the initial sketch stage.

Alright - I'm hitting the sack. Hours to make up for work tomorrow!