Patch Notes: October

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Ian

An image of maple leaves turned orange with the autumn.

It’s fall, a time of changes and really trite observations about the nature of the season. Things have felt like they’re changing Like Whoa in my life, too, so I guess the leaves and I have something in common besides being full of cholorphyll. Thus, patch notes.

Changelog for Ian version 2018.10:

  • Exercise frequency increased to pre-construction levels
  • Cooking frequency down
  • Sleeping algorithm is still off. At this point we’re blaming gremlins.
  • Currently experiencing a bug where Digging is assigned too frequently during Day Job tasks. We’ve taken steps to mitigate this, but a full fix is still forthcoming.
  • Health Insurance is now included in Day Job. Marketplace Insurance will be removed shortly after the Day Job Health Insurance event triggers.
  • Blog post frequency down. This is undesired behavior introduced in this patch. Working on a fix.
  • Long term relationship ended. Relationship status has been changed to Single. 🙁
  • Weather has been reset to “moderate/chilly” so the AC Unit in the bedroom can be removed when the player choses.
  • Iguana has gained the Sick condition, and a side quest has been added to attempt to cure her.
  • Stardew Valley is currently the only game being regularly played under normal player character circumstances. Working on a fix.
  • Time management system difficulty has been increased to challenge advanced players.
  • Several personal items that were removed accidentally in previous patches have been re-added back to player inventories, such as bluetooth headphones and adapters.
  • Small stereo added to bedroom
  • Desire to mess with computers has been increased by 50%

Obviously this individual is still a work in progress. Please bear with us as we work on making this Ian the best we can given the circumstances!

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Links Roundup!

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Ian

Hey all, a small links roundup for you of interesting things from around the internet.

Open Code != Working Open

An in-depth post about how a project being open source doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be run in a way open to collaboration. Written specifically about Mastodon by an experienced contributor to the project.

Fat Girls Hiking

A body-positive hiking community! I’ve never heard of anything like it before, so this is extra-badass from my perspective. I didn’t realize that there was body-shaming going on in the outdoors-lover community. That fucking sucks. But at least this place looks like a good start to fighting back against that sentiment.

Brazil National Museum Burns Down

This isn’t so much “casually interesting” as “emotionally and intellectually devestating.” Long story short: the national museum of Brazil burned down, in large part due to a corrupt government slashing its maintenance funding. (The friggin’ FIRE HYDRANTS were empty!) Twenty million artifacts are presumed lost. Everything from ancient South American relics to Roman artifacts and even mummies. There is a project working to preserve records of the museum itself, if you happen to have any photos of the museum or its exhibits.

Photos of 1990s Computer Novelty Mugs

There are several Very Good mugs in the linked Mastodon thread. Enjoy.

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Week Wrap-up: 20 August 2018 – 02 September 2018

Posted on September 2, 2018 by Ian
Jabberwocky the iguana asleep, facing away fromt he camera, her back foot sticking out of the top of the ramp she's sleeping near.

So tired…

Hey, another two-week wrap-up post because shit’s been crazy, y’all.

The Good

  • Got to do some volunteer work at WTBBL that involved writing book recommendations and such. Really satisfying to get a chance to do more in-depth librarian-oriented work.
  • Continuing to learn more things at work, and am still employed, so clearly they don’t hate me too much.
  • The smoke in the PNW finally cleared up.
  • Grad school started up again. Yay making academic progress!
  • Did some freelance work for Tam, which I always enjoy and feel I grow my skills with. Plus it pays! Yay, money for writing/editing work! Continue reading →
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Dirty Dungeons

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Ian

Photo taken in the crawlspace under a house. The area is dimly lit by spotlights, illuminating the dirt floor and a vent covered with ragged insulation. The joists overhead are cloaked in shadow.

I’ve spent a good chunk of the last two days down in a crawlspace underneath a house we’re working on, installing seismic upgrades. Which are steel plates attached to important joints in a house’s construction to stop it from shifting/shearing/falling during an earthquake. (Incidentally, the standards/county building code for how many you need is ridiculous, according to learned sources.)

I’m not a spelunker by nature, so I don’t spend a lot of time underground. I think the last time I spent a long time in a subterranean place was when I walked through a half mile or so of storm drain with a buddy of mine during college. There were bats. And cockroaches. And trash. It was an adventure.

The crawlspace reminds me of what I think a D&D dungeon would feel like Continue reading →

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Weekly Wrap-up: 13 August 2018 – 19 August 2018

Posted on August 19, 2018 by Ian
The author, with work gloves, a baseball cap, and protective glasses, giving a thumbs up while dirty, sweaty, and exhausted-looking to the point of sticking his tongue out.

I give this week one very tired thumbs up.

There’s good music playing at the coffee shop today, and I finished my writing way early this morning (morning pages turned into my 1k words). Sounds like a good time for a weekly wrap-up. Continue reading →

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Writing RAM

Posted on August 14, 2018 by Ian

In the great debate of pantsing versus plotting, I’ve always considered myself a pantser. I like to come up witht he basics of a character, world, or situation, throw it down on paper, and see where it goes.

Except that hasn’t worked well for me lately.

I’ve found that if I start a story without an idea of where it goes, it meanders. This is fine! It’s how it’s always gone. But I often burn out on writing it before the meandering gets where it’s going. It’s like I can’t hold the whole thing in RAM at once before it’s optimized. Either I need to know where the story’s going, so I can minimize brain-space intensive meandering, or it needs to be short. If not? It’s not getting done.

It didn’t used to be this way. I wrote the first draft of the novel I’m working on by pretty much meandering through it with characters I loved and then cutting/optimizing from there. I wrote a whole other novel with the same approach, plus the guiding question of “how would I write a book in the vein of Tam MacNeil’s books?” I’ve finished short stories via a good meander. It tends to produce a lot of scraps I can’t use, but I still had finished stuff out of the process.

Lately, it’s been the opposite. All I have is scraps. Stories that get one or two scenes in, and get abandoned. Maybe they make it a few thousand words. Normally I’d dismiss it as “oh I guess this story wasn’t ready to happen,” but I don’t think I’ve written a truly finished story in months, except for the novel revision. So maybe it’s time for me to try something different. Maybe it’s time for me to optimize. To give outlining another try. Or use another technique.

I don’t want a writing practice with only scraps and nothing finished to show for it. So now I guess I just need to figure out a new way to go about things and give it a shot.

Any suggestions?

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Time Enough At Last

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Ian

I’ve been experiencing a weird thing since starting the new job. It sometimes feels like I have more time in a lot of ways, not less. Even though I’ve gone from being funemployed to working full time.

I have a few theories about why this is. I think the biggest one is that having limited time outside of work forces me to focus. If I want to write a blog post? Better start it now. Need to work out? Don’t have time to dither, I better start right when I get home. Because of this, on some days, at least, I get a lot more done. Even if I don’t get something done, it’s usually because I made the conscious decision not to do it, which is a way less taxing way of not completing a task than procrastinating until it simply can’t get done that day.

Some of it, too, is logistics. I no longer carpool, which means that I’m 100% in control of my commute, insofar as I only go the places I need/want to go, without needing to consider someone else’s needs. Which feels a little selfish to say. But I think it gives me a more complete ownership over my time than I had before.

Now, the new schedule isn’t perfect. There’s some days where I’m so beat that I can’t do much besides shower, sit around/hang out, and go to bed. And I’m not sure how I’m going to handle school in and among work and my other obligations, since I took a lot of advantage of the flexibility of my time to get schoolwork done, previously. But I’ll find out! And for now, things feel pretty good. I think I can make this hustle work. And that feeling of positivity and agency is a nice change.

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Week(s) Wrap-up: 30 July 2018 – 12 August 2018

Posted on August 12, 2018 by Ian
A game of Quiplash 2 on Jackbox Party Pack 4, displayed on a hanging flatscreen TV. The prompt reads "The name of a conference where internet trolls gather." The answers provided by the players are "PAX" and "PAX (HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!)."

Turns out my best friend and I are still on the same wavelength even after like 14 years of knowing each other. 😀

It’s been two weeks. Whoops! My new job has been making me very tired and scattered after work every day as I get used to the rigor of construction labor and learn how to pace myself (and adjust my daily routine to working a truly full-time job for the first time, like, ever).

So here’s a wrap-up the last couple weeks!

The Good

  • Looks like I have a roommate lined up! Looking forward to introducing them to Seattle. (Boyfriend is moving to an apartment much closer to work so he can live on his own for the first time ever! An exciting adventure! Plus now that I can’t drive him his work commute would have been 1+ hrs each way from our current place, which is NO GOOD.)
  • New job is manageable. I’m trying really hard to not complain about it and keep a positive attitude for this gig, and it’s proven pleasantly easy! I’ve only found a couple things difficult, and neither of them are related to the work itself, which is largely pleasant and satisfying if physically taxing. I’m also learning new things and making a pretty long mental wishlist of tools I want to get so I can eventually do building/extension-level freelance carpentry. (Chop saws are SO COOL everyone. And I learned they make portable table saws! !! !!!)
  • I finally ordered an air conditioner. I’m going to have to make a frame out of 2x4s to get it to sit properly in my horizontally-opening windows, but then I will actually have full-room climate control in the bedroom that holds both me and the lizards. So their heaters can keep them warm without melting me, a very good deal.
  • My boyfriend’s little sister visited and that was neat.
  • My parents visited, that was also neat.
  • My best friend from high school (and beyoooooooond) visited, and it was amazing to see him. <3 (We also died laughing when we gave the same answer to a Jackbox prompt, as seen above, without communicating at all during the answering phase.)
  • My Dungeon World group was down a person, so we played the Discworld Ankh-Morpork board game, which is my very favorite and it was a wonderful time.
  • Tons of people came to writing group today and that makes me so happy.
  • I got to demolish a brick chimney, which was really fun.
  • I learned some stuff about hanging windows.
  • I went on a really good date!
  • My workboots fit and broke in the little bit I needed them to almost immediately, and they were less than $100. Yesssss.
  • I met an internet friend in-person for the first time!

The Bad

  • I am SO TIRED, y’all. Someday I will learn how to sleep right, but that hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully now that things are settling down I’ll be able to get on a more regular schedule.
  • I haven’t really adjusted my lifestyle to the new size of paycheck yet, so I’m worried that’ll come and kick me in the crotch. I have plenty of savings still, so it should be okay, but I expect some growing pains as I need to rework my budget and spending habits. (I also haven’t gotten my first paycheck, that happens this week due to me just missing the turn-in time of the last pay period when I started working. So I’ll have a clearer idea after that happens how well I’m doing.)
  • I haven’t been getting any reading done, and that makes me :(. I want to get through a couple of RPG books so I can start running a game!
  • Eating out is expensive, boo.
  • The way I was taught to shim windows was very frustrating, though I am very grateful for the knowledge! (So I guess it’s kind of a wash, all told? Also this totally doesn’t count as a complaint I don’t know what you’re talking about.)
  • I didn’t lift weights the last two weeks. Planning on getting back into it this week now that I’ve had a couple weeks to adjust to doing physical work all day.
  • It has been so hot. Someone make it stop being hot on weekdays.

#

And that’s about it! How did your weeks go? What are you getting up to in the week ahead?

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Week Wrap-up: 23 July 2018 – 29 July 2018

Posted on July 29, 2018 by Ian

Close-in picture of Jerry the leopard gecko as he peers out of the glass wall of his enclosure at the camera.

It’s a sleepy, grumpy day today. But what else is new?

Here’s a breakdown of what happened this week.

The Good

  • Got a job! I’m starting work as a construction laborer tomorrow.
  • Finished the rewrite of a section of my novel that I’d been working on. Now it just needs a readthrough and it’s off to the beta reader!
  • Good date night with the boyfriend, at which I finally saw Thor: Ragnarok. It’s good! I do think Marvel movies are starting to feel very same-y, though.
  • Submitted a piece to a new market. Hoping it finds a home.
  • Got a good chunk of cleaning done, including finally donating or e-wasting a few things that have been haunting my space for months post-decision to get rid of them.
  • One of my boyfriend’s snakes got a checkup and is doing great and is also huge now compared to last time. (Up to 800+ grams from 200-something a year ago. He’s all grown up!)
  • Actually did okay a few of the nights as far as sleeping timing.
  • Found out I’ll be able to keep volunteering with the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library even though I won’t be able to go in in-person very much anymore.
  • Was able to actually be conscientious about my internet use for a day. Hope to keep developing the habit of “wait, do I really need to use the ignternet right now?” in the future. Continue reading →
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Week Wrap-up: 16 July 2018 – 22 July 2018

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Ian
A panoramic shot of Snoqualmie Falls in the state of Washington. Twin waterfalls fall over a high cliff and merge together before crashing into the river below. The rest of the valley is lined with trees.

Photo by author.

It’s been another week! How? WHY?

*ahem*

Good Things

  • Had an interview that felt like it went well
  • Went to Snoqualmie Falls with some friends. Report: there is a lot of water. End report. (It’s also very pretty.)
  • Some good polycule times in general
  • My novel opening-part re-write is closing in on being done. I think it just needs a few thousand more words, and a re-read to make sure I didn’t bork the continuity between the rewritten scenes and the couple of original scenes I left in.
  • Have a lead on an RPG game to run, once I finish reading the rules. (Reading an RPG! What a concept, in that I haven’t done it for a while.)
  • Mastodon continues to be a cool place where I’m befriending neat people.
  • I’ve slowly been finding my love of computers again. To the point where I’m actually hestitant to take a tech job if i happen to find one because I don’t want it stomped out again. I like slowly learning how to build little standalone things for myself and experimenting with new programs. I’m much less enthusiastic about the idea of building huge systems to support the tech-advertising process.
    • On that note, I finally finished my Bash script that lets me use my laptop in tablet mode properly! It’s a bummer that Linux doesn’t seem to detect the sensor that tells it which mode the laptop is in, so it can’t be automatic, but finally getting the solution ironed out at all, even on manual, is super satisfying and makes me actually feel a bit competent at this whole “computers” thing.
      Continue reading →
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