I don't watch or draw anime. Like, ever.

So, of course, that's the only kind of drawings my nephews seem to want. 😂

This one is, as you might have guessed from the subject, a character called Kokushibo Demon Slayer. I've never seen the show or movie, and I willfully took some liberties when drawing my version, but... what the hell. 

If you're an 'anime person', feel free to tell me all the ways I'm wrong!

And for those who like process videos...

Just watched a YouTube video that some my my linquistically oriented nerdy friends might really enjoy. I certainly did. The channel seems like something I'll be paying more attention to going forward in large part because of this video.

Edit: Hmmm. Looks like the link for videos isn't working (I tested the url). Well, ye olde copypasta should work (just add your own https://)...

youtu.be/UAT-eOzeY4M

I've wanted to create a TTRPG for a while now. I'm using the fact that my nephews are coming for Thanksgiving as an excuse / motivation to Do the Damn Thing.

My intent is to make it:

• Uncommonly simple - we are talking about kids (2 teens and 2 pre teens) so attention span is a thing. Also, this is without a screen and doesn't beep, so... challenging. I'm not trying to make it a one page (there are many out there) but... close.
• Universal - I'd like to make it flexible enough to be used for any genre of game play.
• Flexible - I want the players to have more input into their skills / abilities once they're comfortable with the system. As long as they keep balance in mind, they can make up things like spells, skills, and ancestral abilities.
• Fun - I mean, it's a GAME. But more specifically, here, I guess I mean 'cinematic' (though I HATE the generic nature of that term). I want to try to create those moments at the table where the whole group roars when one of the players rolls a 20, and they feel the story that their teammates tell...

Anyway, I'm working on a very rough draft, but I know some of you are gamers, so if you're interested in seeing what I've got so far, let me know, and I'll share a (Google Docs) link.

For those who haven't seen it elsewhere:

I want to make a winter holiday themed coloring book, and I could really use your help!

Specifically, what are some of your favorite (fantasy) winter holiday creatures and/or characters? Let me know below, and they might just be in the coloring book (which will be free / PWYW)!

• I'm not looking for any religious themes / characters.
• Fantasy / High Fantasy for bonus points.

ETA (unrelated):

Still working on #Gobtober because I'm determined to finish, despite having not done so 'in time'. Today I did Day24 - dragon - and had a lot of fun with it, so I thought I would share the YouTube Short for it:

You know - like Inktober, but with goblins!

(More as I do them, but I wanted to share the list since the clock has ticked over to the first.)

Long story short: Last week, I had my first positive response to my job hunt efforts from a company called Aircall. They're looking for a tech support guy.

Today at 2:30pm I had my first interview with them. I was pleased to find that instead of someone in HR, the (Zoom) interview was with the guy who would be my boss if all goes well.

We chatted. It went generally well. It became clear to me that the thing I could use the most improvement on is my (never finished) CCNA studies that I mentioned on my resume.

CCNA certification, for those who don't know, is costly in both time/effort and financially for the testing. So I told him that I wouldn't register for the course until we had things a little more solidified (I should hear back in ~1 week according to him) but that I would get on refreshing myself via YouTube and other resources. He seemed to really like that.

So that's what I'm doing now. I found this CCNA Full Course on YouTube and dove in.

Wow. It's amazing how much of this is coming back to me and how quickly. I'm now actually a little worried that I undersold my networking prowess in the interview.

Sure, I'm only a couple videos into the playlist, but everything he's covered so far brought back very specific memories from my I.T. past.

I have to say - that feels really damn good.

Oh, and the starting pay is better than I hoped, and the job is fully remote, so I could work from anywhere! Please keep your fingers crossed for me. :)

Think I'll do some live streaming as I draw tonight. Free and open to all. 
Details: 

Brad and I pulled all of our LL stuff from Patreon and started over.

I'm kinda glad we did. While we haven't started posting again yet, I feel MUCH happier about the finished products. They feel more professional. We have more of them. They're better refined.

They're just way more gooder-er.

We also wanted a way to talk about the Pages without just copying and pasting the same stupid links to all our social media, and I kinda like the plan we developed.

We created a collection of 'NPCs' and they're going to be interacting across our social media in a variety of ways.

Lexx Keenleaf

Lexx is the one writing in her Location Lexicon which seems to lose Pages on occasion. Adventurer, Explorer, and Scribe, she's gathering information for Covenant Arcanum. She's also mentor to Sylas Emberwood.

Sylas Emberwood

Sylas is apprentice to Lexx, and avidly wishes to follow in her footsteps - literally. Still, he remains at the Arcanum since she took off recently to head back out into the wilds without a word to him. He suspects that the Powers That Be within the Arcanum are trying to pull her back home for some reason and so he's doing everything in his power to run interference. He knows what she wants is to be out exploring, not within the confining walls of the Arcanum.

Rione Vyrethorn

Rione has always felt herself an outsider - even within the Arcanum, and despite her uncle being one of the Archons. She feels she has much to prove, and she would just as soon do that 'out in the world'. So when her uncle tasked her with tracking down Lexx? She jumped at the opportunity. She will not be disuaded from her task.

The Blade of Mar

Little is known about the Blade of Mar, and that's just how he likes it. A sentient being, a master of illusions, and a magic device which grows in power by...

...well, I guess you'll just have to follow along to find out, won't you? ;)

So what questions do you have?

I want to get back into the habit of recording random ideas / notes as I go down the road. I've fallen out of the habit, and it makes life far less fun.

Also, less creative.

Latest idea: produce a series of simple sketches that are 'base poses' of the RPG archetypes: Warriors, Rogues, and Spellslingers. (There are about a miiiiiillion subgroups, but the poses (I think) all would generally fall into those categories.)

Day before yesterday? (While I was still on break and talking to my brother) the idea was 'recreate the Sons of Anarchy back patch, but with School of Xavier and Cyclops as the 'wraith' in the center. I'm a nerd.

Do any of you recall my brief attempt at NaNo back in 2022? I've been thinking about that a lot lately.

Why? Well, it's because I'm being... condescending. Not my proudest moment, but if I can't be honest with you folks, who can I be honest with?!

Condescending how, you ask?

Well, I've been listening to a lot on Audible recently. (Yes, I know there are other, ostensibly better audio book storefronts out there. Yes, I should give them my business.) Like, A LOT of audio books. I stopped listening to podcasts altogether for a few months. That dumped a lot of listening time back into my schedule. On top of that, the hours for this 'new' job are... significantly longer.

If I'm doing the math right, I've listened to 42 books since starting the job in November. Some of these are pretty lengthy.

All but two of them are in the LitRPG genre.

I'm kinda fascinated by what I'm hearing. Partly because it fits that ooooold fantasy trope that I so enjoy - someone from 'the real world' going to a fantasy world. This trope is not the newest thing in the world (the Guardians of the Flame series was one of my favorites as a kid) but the LitRPG genre is at least new to me.

So I'm making a little 'study' of the genre. Trying to figure out the similarities and differences between the different authors. Figuring out what the audience of the genre expect.

From what I can piece together, the LitRPG genre is to fantasy novels as streaming is to video game playing. There's this sense of 'no real start or stop - just follow along with out hero on the adventure!'.

Some series even seem to eschew the whole 3 act format. More than once, I found myself surprised by the Audible Guy saying "Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program." Side note: if you see me in person? Ask for my imitation of that guy. I have heard so many audio books, I feel like I can actually nail his every nuance.

What's more, the writing is... not amazing. Some series are better than other, for certain. And the voice actors really help here. Still.

Seeing it yet?

My NaNo thing was fun for me in part because I used a randomizer to create a kind of prompt for that day's writing. That, in turn, made the whole thing a bit like a solo TTRPG for me.

And I think that the audience for the genre is so hungry for MOAR they don't care that it's not as polished. Call it the YouTube-ification of novel writing.

I say all of this to simply say that I write moderately well during my first draft of most creative writing.

In other words "I could do that. Maybe better than that."

A novel series (especially in an audio format) is obviously a looong way out. If I was to get a three book series completed, it would arguably be the biggest accomplishment of my life.

But I'm looking at NaNo 2022 and thinking...

Did you read my efforts in 2022? Would you like to see Morgan make a return?

ETA: Looks like I never posted the words I did for Day 4. I'll see about doing that asap.