Bored Gen Xer – Endzone.

I’m back with another game!

Now that I have a better computer, I can show you more games that I like to play to relax. This month, I started a post-apocalyptic game called Endzone.

With Endzone you start off with a limited number of supplies and equipment with the goal being to build a sustainable colony. There are problems along the way. Food shortages, water shortages, dust storms that wreak havoc on your buildings, diseases, lack of tools and proper protective clothing are some of the obstacles you need to constantly be aware of. If they fall short for a long period of time, you end up losing your settlers and the colony will become unsustainable and the game will just end.

My goal is to show video the colony as it grows. I may even do videos like this for other city building games. If you’re interested, I’ve done a ten-minute video of a new colony on YouTube. You can view it HERE.

Of Writers and Prose: To Blog or Not to Blog.

That is the question.

I’ve had this blog since 2011, and before that, I was on Livejournal for a couple years. I even had an account on Blogger ‘back in the day’, and even though I don’t get a lot of traffic for my posts, I still like doing it. Has it become harder to think of topics? Yes, especially about writing, but I’ve added so much more content over the last few years that I think if I miss a writing post every now and then, it’s all fine.

Over the last month I backed away from doing any writing on anything. Personal matters had to be taken care of and it left me drained to the point I didn’t want to do any writing. I’m glad to say that this rough patch is over, and May will see me back at my desk pounding away at my keyboard, but it’s left a thought lingering in my head.

To blog or not to blog?

I enjoyed the time off, and sometimes keeping to my blog schedule drains all the fun out of it. I’m not ashamed to say that if I gave up blogging altogether, I wouldn’t be sad. I have noticed that many blogs that I follow aren’t posting as much as a few years ago. I remember when people would say you had to blog every day in order to keep your subscribers happy. I did that and it damn near killed me to think of something every, single, day. It’s impossible and I found myself posting short one or two sentences to keep readers reading. It was hard and I eventually gave up doing the daily posts and put together the schedule I have now. I post 2-3 times a week, and only between Monday to Friday. Each post is something different, and I’ve found this to be so much easier. As I see it, bombarding readers every day with a few sentences of whatever, doesn’t seem like a good way to keep people interested in what you’re doing. If I see a post from a blogger who hasn’t posted in a while, I’m more apt to actually read that instead of deleting it.

I’m going to try and keep my blogging schedule the way it is. I like the topics I’m writing about, and I hope you do too, so if you don’t see anything from me for a while, take heart that whatever I was going to blog about, I didn’t find it interesting enough write about it.

For those of you who keep blogs, how do you do it? Are you and everyday poster or just when you feel like it?

Movie Night: Eradication.

INDb: INBd link

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Rating: R

Tagline: N/A

~~~~

This was one of those movies that Hubby and I didn’t know much abo9ut and had never heard of it. Just surfing through one of the free channels we have and as it claimed to be an end of world movie, I was eager to watch it. The movie doesn’t give you much information as to how everything turned to shit, and you only get one POV, but it’s enough to keep your interest to find out what happens.

As the main character struggles with the reality of his new life. He is one of many survivors who must isolate from the rest of the world and stay healthy, to provide scientist (which his wife is one of, but not with him) daily samples of blood that they can analyse for a cure. The only connection to the outside world comes from a computer monitor and the daily communications he has with his wife. When those start to become less frequent, his routine to keep himself healthy slowly falls apart to the point where he breaks protocol and ventures outside. What he finds, is that the virus turns people into vampires, and there is no cure.

So why was his wife needed the blood samples?

The rest of the movie deals with the aftermath of his venture outside, with an ending that may surprise you.

4 out of 5

The Green Side of Life: Spider Plants.

I have another plant to add to my collection! It’s a spider plant and it’s one of the easiest plants to grow. Mind you, I have met a couple people who have killed them, but they’re in the minority.

Spider plants are one of the top six plants for beginners. You can ignore them and they’ll grow. Over or under water them and they’ll keep going. They will let you know when it’s time to pay attention to them. The first one I had pushed itself right out of the pot, and we had to cut the pot with plyers to get the root-ball out. I love them, not only because they’re almost maintenance free, but because they can become a bushy addition, especially when they have ‘babies’. Mine is just a baby itself. You can see pictures of it HERE.

Propagating them is the easiest. When they’re ready, they’ll grow long narrow branches called a stolon, with little white flowers on the end. As the flower goes through it’s life cycle, small leaves will appear, and before you know it, you have baby plants on the end. Just take those babies, plant them in the ground and you have more spider plants! There is no pot size to determine when the flower stalks will appear, but if I recall correctly, the plant was pretty root-bound.

There is one drawback to owning spider plants. They are susceptible to mealy bugs, and once the pest is on your plant it can quickly migrate to other plants around it. Best way to keep them at bay is to pay attention to the plant, water and fertilize on a schedule. I add a bit of weak fertilizer to every water, to keep all of them healthy.

Writing Update: March, 2024.

Wow, I haven’t done one of these since October. I didn’t realize it’s been that long. Sounds about right though. When I got promoted to full time, that took away about seventy percent of my writing time. Even with my calendar I still either forgot about posts or couldn’t find a topic idea, but here goes.

Marked

Do you remember me writing this out as a script? Well, I figured there’s a better chance of people reading it than watching it as a movie, so I’ve been reformatting it into a stand-alone. I have two more movie scripts that I want to publish in the future. One is the script I was writing based on the video game Blur and the other is a near future thriller I stared during the pandemic. It’s literally a pandemic story.

Cashe

This story is coming alone nicely. I have the antagonist in custody, and now the fun part begins, because things are going to happen that will show that maybe the bad guy isn’t really the Bad Guy. Know what I mean? Things are going to happen that are impossible for the supposed antagonist to be able to do. That’s going to bring up more questions.

Zombie Book 2

I forgot how much of the original plot was in this second book, and it’s been a long haul of removing and rewriting scenes. I decided not to kill off Arlo (I like him too much), but Tamikia is out of the picture for most of the book, and the people she’s with are playing head games on her. I just wrote out a scene this month that shows just how far they’ve messed with her, and I doubt she’ll be with the group for the rest of the journey. I’m not killing her off. She still has a part to play in all of this, but I’m not sure if it’s good or bad.

Ghost Book 2

This story is messing with me. I’m not sure just how many ghosts I want in the house. Should it be just the bad one, or more? I can make this a really creepy house and have the mother wandering the halls looking for her children (which is a really good idea), but would that be too confusing for the reader? I’ll figure it out after I’ve finished the first draft.

That’s it for this month! Next month my update will include my high fantasy, another Malice update, what the character of Cashe are doing, and how my zombie novel characters are faring in their new world.    

If you’re curious to find out in more detail about the stories above, consider signing up for my newsletter HERE! Or, if you like, for $1 you can subscribe to my Patreon and read about everything from the state of mind of the characters and why they take the actions that they do, to snippets, to who knows what else! If these stories sound interesting to you, you can sign up HERE. Until next month!

Movie Night: Oppenheimer.

INDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/

Genre: Biography/Drama/History

Rating: R

Tagline: The World Forever Changes.

REVIEW:

I was excited to watch this movie as it was a sort of biography on one of the most important people of the 20^th century. I’ve heard stories of how he regretted building the bomb, but to see the events that led up to his decision to run the project, seemed like I would be seeing what really happened, especially after reading that the screenplay kept very close to the book based on his life, made me want to see it even more.

I was so disappointed.

This movie, while it did depict the unusual aspects of his life, jumped around so much that at times I had no idea what was going on. Between telling the story of his life, it jumped to the Congressional hearing on atomic energy, and the private hearing where they tried to prove that he knew there were Russian spies at Los Alamos. I’m not a fan of this type of storytelling. I prefer linear and maybe had they told the story this way, it would have lessened the confusion for me. I felt that it broke the main rule of storytelling—it told me everything instead of showing. At times, the dialogue was so detailed and fast, I didn’t understand what was going on, especially at the end when Robert Downy Jr. character went into a long rant that was probably meant to pull the story together, but at that point, I wasn’t interested anymore.

Another reason for my dislike comes from the fact it was long. Almost three hours, but to try and reduce the time would mean they’d have to cut out some important part and I don’t think they could do that and still accurately portray the story they wanted to tell. Oppenheimer was a genius, that was made clear. He had a complicated life, but whatever ambition he had for wanting to be a part of this project, for me, was not clear. Was it ego? Professional gain? Was it like the movie depicted in that he wanted to create the bomb first before other countries to protect the U.S? All of the above?  

A few questions the movie did raise near the end was, did the U.S. government under Harry Truman need to drop the bomb on a populated city? Would the Japanese not surrender if it was detonated in an isolated place nearby? Wouldn’t the sheer terror of the explosion and knowledge that the U.S. had such a weapon not convince them to surrender? Did they really need to drop the second bomb? History has not been able to answered any of these questions and I’m afraid it never will.

Adventures in Restaurants: Valentine’s Date.

It’s been a while since hubby and I went out somewhere special for dinner, and Valentine’s Day was the perfect time to do so.

There are a lot of fancy restaurants in our city. Mostly downtown, and we’ve been to this one several times. A big negotiator for where we eat is how many vegan dishes they have on their menu. Hubby doesn’t eat meat, but he does eat fish and seafood (he’s considered a pascaterian), so if there isn’t an option, and you’d be surprised how many places don’t offer a vegetarian option, we won’t go.

For this dinner, our meal consisted of a duck amuse bouche (both samples I ate), appetizers were French onion soup, and escargot in white wine cream, tomato concassé, parmesan puff pastry (description from the menu). You can see by the picture HERE that there were A LOT of escargot. It was not the usual 12 in those little cups topped with melted cheese. Our entrees being (for me) braised beef, cheese tortellini, tomato & pepper broth, pecorino, walnuts, cured egg yolk, and husband had sea bass with potato fingerlings. I don’t’ know what fingerlings are, but he said the meal was very tasty. For desert, it was crème brulee for me. I always have that. You can view the other pictures of our meal HERE.

It was a nice, relaxing meal and a great date night.

The Green Side of Life: Alocasia, or Elephant Ear.

I bought this in the summer because of it’s interesting foliage. It’s just beautiful, but it wasn’t until I did some research on it that I realized it’s the same type of plant my grandmother had when I was a child, I just didn’t know it’s genus name. She didn’t have one like this. It’s leaves were a lighter green, and she had it attached to a pole.

This type of Elephant Ear plant is called Black Velvet and is the more popular because of it’s foliage (right!), and that it doesn’t grow very tall. It is known to have soft yellow flowers, but these are rare and not very showy. All varieties love a bright room, but out of direct sunlight. Because it’s a tropical, I need to keep the soil moist, but not wet, and have a high humidity around it, which is easily done by sitting it on a tray of pebbles or misting it. This is a slower growing plant that the others of it’s kind, and can take several years to mature, but never getting any larger than 18 inches or 1 ½ feet. Which is fine with me. You can find pictures of my plant HERE.

I’ll have to repot it in the spring with soil that is more appropriate. Black Velvet likes well drained soil and it’s suggested that I put it in a tropical mix of bark, sand, and loam mixed in with the soil, but after that, I can repot it every couple of years. Alocasia plants are grown from rhizomes, so it’s best to propagate when you replant.

You can find more information on the most popular varieties HERE.

5 Things Every Writer Should Know About: Newsletters.

If you ask a thousand authors what they think of newsletters, you’ll probably get an even split between those who like them and think they’re a good idea, and those who loath them and can’t be bothered. I’ve fallen into both categories at some point over the last fifteen years and I can honestly say I’m still on the fence about them even though I have one.

The biggest decision about newsletters is finding a site that suites what you want to achieve. I suggest doing a lot of research and being honest with yourself about what you expect. With that in mind, here are 5 things every writer should know about newsletters.

1. Newsletters are the perfect way to stay in touch with your audience. No worries about followers not seeing your posts as it’s delivered right to their inbox. It’s a neat and tidy way of staying connected to those who are most interested in your work and you don’t have to worry about whether or not they’re seeing your announcements. Most newsletter sites have stats that allow you to see just how many are being opened and read. This alone, is the best reason to start a newsletter.
2. You have a captive audience. If people have signed up then they are interested in your work, especially if they signed on through a form on your web site.
3. Cultivating subscribers takes time. Don’t expect a lot of sign-ups at the beginning. It could take years to reach double digits. You need to understand this, because this is the biggest complaint I see with writers. The expectation that hundreds of people will immediately sign up for theirs and then ask for a magic bullet when it doesn’t happen. It’s a slow, arduous process. Know that from the start. There are sites that offer you subscribers for a free copy of your book, but I find the majority of those who sign up, don’t really care. They just want the free book.
4. Depending on how much time you want to spend online, learning the basics and putting together a newsletter is time consuming. Don’t go into this thinking it won’t be either. You want to send out something that looks good, and that could take some time to put together. No one wants a half-ass looking newsletter show up in their inbox.
5. Interesting content. This has to be the biggest drawback. I had the worse time trying to think of interesting things to put into mine, and it became so much of a problem that I stopped doing one. It can take a while for a writer to establish a theme (so to speak), but once you’ve found it, keeping it going shouldn’t be a problem. It’s all a matter of planning ahead.

Overall, keep your expectations small at first, about what you want to achieve with your newsletter. Getting started is difficult and it may take you a while before you understand what you want. In the mean time, you’ll have plenty of time to get things organized they way you want it.

Good luck!

The Crystal Realm: Red Jasper.

I have a new addition to my crystal jewelry collection! A red jasper bracelet! Apart from it looking nice with the other three I wear (pink quartz, obsidian, turquoise) it adds the metaphysical properties of bringing physical energy to me, which I sorely need now that I work much longer shifts at my retail job.

You can see it HERE.

Red jasper is known as an enduring stone and along with helping with physical energy, helps with stamina, focus and determination. It can help with detoxifying the circulatory system, and may help with a sluggish libido. Personally, I wouldn’t use it for the last one. There are other stones I find more useful in that department. It’s also thought to absorb negative energy, protect against electromagnetic pollution, and is a good stone for those who are easily overwhelmed. You can find more information on red jasper HERE.

Since I bought the bracelet, I have noticed an increase in my physical energy levels. That isn’t to say that I don’t feel tired at the end of the day, but working seven to nine hour shifts tire me out, especially on the back side of my hour lunch, and I find that drawing on the energy from these stones does help. They give me that extra push to finish off the day. It was a good purchase and I wore it and the others faithfully over the holidays.

Do you wear any crystals? What do you use them for? I’d love to know! Maybe I can add them to my collection.