COVID-19 โš›๏ธ

  • I finally caught COVID a couple of weeks back. It completely laid me out for two weeks. Even light exercise gets me gasping for air now. Let’s hope I get over it soon.
  • On the other hand, I managed to get through ten audiobooks during that time…

Games ๐ŸŽฒ

  • Andrew and I are engrossed in Ensemble Stars Music. If you’re into beat/rhythm games I highly recommend this one.
  • Good Sudoku+ is still my go to when I want to spend a few minutes crunching numbers. This one is on Apple Arcade so it doesn’t have any annoying ads.
  • Recently bought the board game/card game/deck builder Hardback. It’s as if Scrabble and Ascension got together and made a baby. Andrew and I liked it so much we’re playing it on iOS too
  • I’m still loving Starforged and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes TTRPG.

What I am watching ๐Ÿ“บ

  • Ah, so many K-drama and C-drama… some of them of dubious quality…
  • For something different, I would suggest watching John Mulaney: The Comeback Kid. Stand-up comedy on Netflix is pretty good.

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

Work

  • After resigning from my job of over ten years, I am now experiencing the excitement+terror of starting a new job, in a new environment, with new people. ๐Ÿ˜ฑ

Games ๐ŸŽฒ

  • I’m playing Starforged, using the Stargazer digital tool – still trying to decide whether I want to do a write-up of my sessions
  • Wordle – because we all played that at least a little bit
  • Dragonicle – an iOS MMORPG – this is such a time-suck + micro-transaction engine, but also my guilty pleasure

What I am watching ๐Ÿ“บ

  • Jujutsu Kaisen – I don’t know why it took me so long to watch this; it’s pretty good
  • Criminal Minds – I never watched this while it was on, so now I have 15 seasons to catch up on

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

COVID-19 โš›๏ธ

  • I’m back in the office everyday of the week now. It’s been strange losing all that time commuting again.

Games ๐ŸŽฒ

  • I’ve been really interested in reading the rules of indie/solo Tabletop RPG on itchio.io
  • I’d been watching Estate of Affairs, a live stream of a Good Society tabletop RPG
  • I’ve also been prepping for an Apocalypse World 2nd Edition game that I’ll be hosting in a month or so – I’ve only ever DM’ed once (and for a Vampire the Masquerade game) so this is all new to me

Analogue stuff โœ๏ธ

  • I’ve been really getting into Obsidian and haven’t been using my pen and paper as much lately

What I’ve been watching ๐Ÿ“บ

  • Haikyu (this brought back memories of when I was in my high school volleyball team)
  • My Hero Academia
  • Fruits Basket (I’ve never actually finished it, but friends kept nagging me to try it, so I did. It’s a strangely paced show.)
  • Heaven Official’s Blessings
  • The Way of the Househusband
  • Salvation (Don’t watch it, it spirals out of control and is full of really stupid characters)
  • Tale of the Nine Tailed
  • Death Note (animated series – apparently I’ve never watched this version; I’ve only ever watched the live-action movies)

Yes, I’ve been on an anime binge lately

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

  • I’ve been reading the rules for a few different solo tabletop RPGs and will probably write something about it if I get a chance to play them
  • Micro Chapbook RPG
  • Ironsworn

  • I’m also reading Lynda Barry’s “Syllabus”, a book that talks about writing, drawing and how you “see” the world. It’s a chaotic book (in a good way) and I’m trying to work my way through it.

  • For quite a while now I’ve been having an issue with my Apple Photos where the thumbnails don’t match the actual photos. I’m now at the point where I’m exporting and importing all my photos into a new photo library to see if that would fix it. To check, I need to scroll through every photo in Individual view and check the thumbnail at the bottom of the screen to make sure they match – 23K photos is a lot of images to scroll through…

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

  • COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne are lifting, and I’m returning back to the office one day a week, which has been interesting
  • Nanowrimo is over, but that doesn’t mean the writing has; it’s been a long time since I’ve really focused on fictional writing outside of November, and I want to give it a try again. My childhood dream of becoming a published author before I was sixteen may be dead, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a story inside me.
  • I’ve finally played around with Omnifocus Automation – having automation that work on both macOS and iOS has been fantastic.
  • I discovered AO3 Reylo fanfics… don’t judge me.

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

COVID-19 โš›๏ธ

  • Still quarantined at home and grateful that I have the temperament to enjoy it

Podcast ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ

  • Trigger Point FM” is still on hiatus although Peter will reconsider recording remotely if we’re still in quarantine by the 14th…

Games ๐ŸŽฒ

  • I’m walking more, courtesy of Catan: World Explorer, the latest Niantic game (you know, Ingress, Pokรฉmon Go, and Wizards Unite)
  • I’ve recently discovered Picross and so am now playing Two Eyes
  • Just finished playing Thousand Year Old Vampire (the solo RPG) with a group – write-up coming soon
  • Nile Online, Pathfinder and Seattle by Night are still games I’m playing regularly

Analogue stuff โœ๏ธ

  • My Galen Leather A5 Zip Folio has arrived, so I’m carrying that everywhere with me
  • That Amy Tangerine class I talked about before? It was terrible, don’t take it.

iOS ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ’ป

What I am watching ๐Ÿ“บ

  • a lot of Twitch music streamers
  • Supernatural – Season 15 – I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel
  • Cobra Kai – I didn’t think I would like it, but it’s not too bad
  • The Boys – Season 2 – I don’t know if I can continue watching this. There was a particular scene involving a whale and a speedboat that really put me off. Maybe it’s the current world-climate we’re in now, but I don’t have as much leniency towards scenes which serves no purpose but to shock the audience.

Recently finished:

  • Batwoman – I love Ruby Rose and am sad to read that she’s not returning for season 2. And I want all of Rachel Skarsten’s coats in the show!
  • Enola Holmes – it’s more action-packed than intellectually stimulating, but still good

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

COVID-19 โš›๏ธ

  • Since Melbourne has entered Stage 4 quarantine, I am at home every day ๐Ÿก; I have discovered that I am perfectly happy squirrelled away like this. ๐Ÿฟ๏ธ
  • This has led me to do a lot of the following…

Website ๐ŸŒ

  • Finally changed the name and tagline of my site – the previous one was always supposed to be temporary
  • I got a logo designed for the website (I discovered Fiverr via YouTuber/Muralist, Ten Hundred). If you're willing to shell out for a domain and a server, a logo isn't that much of a stretch.
  • Changed my theme to GuCherry Blog; it's not an officially IndieWeb-supported theme, but it seems to work fine.
  • Considering how long this Now entry is, I'm setting a reminder to update this monthly, so I don't have such a huge backlog.

Podcast ๐ŸŽ™๏ธ

  • "Trigger Point FM" is on hiatus for much longer than expected as my co-host absolutely refuses to record remotely

I am playing a lot more games ๐ŸŽฒ:

  • The original Vampire: The Masquerade game I was playing moved from face-to-face to being played via video chat, to not being played at all. Instead, I've replaced that with a play-by-post VtM game hosted on the Seattle by Night Discord Server. Instead of writing up session summaries, I am now sharing my posts from the Discord game.
  • Pathfinder is still happening once a week – we are now facing a world-ending event that requires us to do some tomb-diving, and my character spends 1/3 of the time as Chaotic Evil, and no one notices…
  • I spent two weeks playing No Man's Sky again, but that resulted in some serious sleep deprivation, so I decided to shelve that for now.
  • I am playing Thousand Year Old Vampire – too early to share my thoughts on this…
  • I've rediscovered Nile Online, a browser-based worker/resource management game. I forget how much I enjoy these games – especially when there's no warfare involved – This led to me discovering GreaseMonkey/Tampermonkey

Analogue stuff โœ๏ธ

iOS ๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ’ป

  • I've created a Shortcut that keeps track of the web-series I'm reading (webcomics, web novels etc.), and which chapter I'm up to – I just need to write it up

I am watching ๐Ÿ“บ

  • All fourteen seasons of Supernatural – currently onto season 12
  • Recently finished:
    • Suits
    • Nashville
    • Nirvana in Fire (again)
    • Mystic Pop-Up Bar
    • Lucifer – Season 5

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

  • I’m very loosely playing with the idea of a Yearly Theme. I had some trouble coming up with a theme, but did feel a Year/Season of Less would be a good place to start – I have a tendency of taking on a lot more than is healthy and then get snappy at the people around me, so I thought being a bit more aware of what I’m taking on would be a good idea.
  • In line with the Year of Less, I had a talk with my podcasting co-host and we have put “Trigger Point”, our monthly podcast, on hold for three months as we revisit our priorities.
  • In addition to playing Pathfinder, I've now gotten into Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition. It's a completely different kind of game where “shit happens” doesn't necessary mean TPK, and it allows for players to be a little more creative. Is this a commentary on how to create a constructive workplace? I don't know.
  • I'm trying to get back into writing, but did not want to start a completely new project (see Year of Less, above), so I decided to combine it with my Vampire: The Masquerade game by novelising the game sessions as a character journal. This allows me to flex my writing muscles and explore the complexity of my character more deeply than 4-hour gaming sessions every fortnight would give me.
  • Was trying out the gym at work to try to slow down the rate my body is falling apart, but with the recent Coronavirus situation, the gym has been closed until further notice…
  • The company I work for hasn't made any announcements about when we'll be working from home yet, so for now it's all business as usual; driving into the office every day to crunch out Excel spreadsheets and Infopath forms.
  • Nearly forgot, I’m trying out contact juggling – anyone remember David Bowie in Labyrinth? (and yes, I know he wasn’t the person actually juggling those crystal balls)

This page is inspired by Derek Sivers.

  1. IndieWeb
  2. Explore automation with Keyboard Maestro (on Mac) and Workflow (on iOS)
  3. Try to use OmniFocus properly again
  4. Re-think how I use Ulysses
    • use it to keep notes on OmniFocus projects (cross-referencing using x-callback-url)
    • this would also include links to emails (Spark mail links)
  5. Attempt a version of David Sparks’ Hyper-scheduling
  6. Work through Michael Sullโ€™s โ€œThe Art of Cursive Penmanshipโ€
  7. Try to actually cook at home by using Hello Fresh

This page is inspired by Daren Sivers and the /now movement.