Hey all, Sam and David here.
Welcome back to WIP Wednesday, a series here on the blog where we talk about everything we’ve been reading, watching, writing, and doing over the past week. Basically it’s just a big ol’ check-in so we can keep track of what we’ve been up to. And honestly, it’s kind of cool to look back through all of these and see how much we do accomplish week by week…because sometimes days or weeks start to blend into fuzzy static.
Anyway, we’re not going to spend too much time with the intro, so let’s go ahead and get started with this week’s breakdown.
Sam
Not a super thrilling week, but still decently eventful. Let’s talk about it.
Reading: I Am Ace: Advice on Living Your Best Asexual Life by Cody Daigle-Orians, The Cleaving by Juliet E. McKenna, Manga Classics: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, Stacy King, Kuma Chang, and Crystal S. Chan.
Overall, not a terrible reading week, but I still wish that I had been able to complete more books. Still, what I read was enjoyable, and I will be working them into my review schedule soon.
Oh, I can also say that I’ve recently been approved for some titles on NetGalley that I’m really excited about reading. And I have a 24 Hour Readathon coming in a little over a week, and I’m really curious to find out how much I manage to read in that time. A lot of the time I end up reading around nine books or so, which is pretty cool.
Watching: “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” Season 5 Episodes 1-3, “Fruits Basket” Season 2 and Season 3, “Chuck” Season 1 and Season 2 (in progress), “Alias” Season 1 (in progress), “Covert Affairs” Season 1 (in progress), “Haven” Season 5, and “The Mandalorian” Season 3.
Why yes, I randomly got the urge to watch a bunch of different spy shows, I guess. And then I wanted a little more fantasy/paranormal in my life, so I finally finished up “Fruits Basket” and “Haven.” I’m sure I’ll re-watch them again at some point.
Writing: Most of my writing this week, aside from all the blogging here, was on my Camp NaNoWriMo project, Tale of Blood and Mourning, and I can absolutely say that I crossed the finish line. My word count, which doesn’t include writing yesterday (because I took yesterday off) and also doesn’t have any writing from today in it, stands at 25,310 words, which surpasses my goal of 25k. Obviously the story isn’t over, far from it actually, so I’m going to keep writing. I had set myself a larger goal of writing 50k on the story by mid-June, and that seems very doable now. I’m thinking the rough draft should be around 100-120k, so we’ll see if I can get that done by the mid-point of the year. It’d be nice to be able to speed through the rough draft of the second book July-Dec.
When I finish writing a book I can’t immediately jump into editing. I need a little distance to gain some perspective. So I figure if I start writing the next book, I’ll still have the world fresh in my mind, but I’ll be focused on a new plot and a different couple as the leads. By the time I get that done, I should be ready to go back and work on edits for book 1, while also hopefully starting to rough draft book 3. I don’t know. This is just a dream of how I want things to work.
Other: Last week we learned that though our town advertises two full disc golf courses, there are actually three at the park. One of green baskets, one of yellow, and one of red. The green course is the most well maintained and it looks like the yellow course might be the oldest, or at least its baskets are…but the red course is the most interesting, and part of that is because a couple of the baskets require traversing some steep hills that are more liking going down and then back up a ravine. We were not expecting that when we were walking the course, trying to figure out the layout. We’ll probably play the green course the most frequently, but most of the baskets are short distance and very similar on layout and difficulty. Yellow and Red courses have a little more variety and challenge going for them, although they need better signage and directions.
Aside from that, I haven’t actually had a whole lot going on. I should probably pick up some video games or board games…or try to work more on the puzzle that’s only partly finished on our dining room/gaming table. But it’s been hard to find the motivation to do a lot of things; I’ve been very depressed this year, and it really sucks.
David
Printing: So printing has been my biggest project this week between the working and the video game playing. I have been working on printing some of the creatures that our DND group could meet and possibly fight while out and about on their adventures.
I wont go into details, but what I will say is that will more than likely have to deal with some more classical and stereotyped villainous humanoids and villains. I can say for sure that I do not plan on having them start of in a tavern, unless that is where they would feel more comfortable doing so. I have even gotten a basic map of the city they will start in and I have a vague idea of some of the nearby countryside that they could end up exploring right away.
Needless to say unless they get into some big time shenanigans super quick, it should not do anything to harm the campaign. I Can also say that will be utilizing quite a few figures that I have printed due to having a subscription to Loot Studios.
I have been printing some more of the articulated beasties from Cinderwings, but I am hoping to begin printing some more terrain for use later on as well. Does anyone know any good sites that have a good variety of options for that?
Gaming: I have not tried anything new as of late since last week but I am playing a bit more of the same games at the moment. Speaking of I did finally manage to beat the boss at the end of Chapter 1 of the DragonQuest Builders game. It was a bit of a tough fight but I managed to beat it on my third try.
I also finally managed to get enough credits on Warframe to be able to build a few new weapons as well, which means I will be able to raise my Mastery Rank by maxing them out and hopefully get access to even better weapons. It is an almost never ending cycle but the gameplay with others and being able to solo play the quest missions still makes it fun to play when I get a bit tired of getting my rear handed to me in Dragonquest Builders.
I actually have a few games I am lookign forward to and will be adding to my arsenal here soon. Zelda Tears of the Kingdom has been pre-ordered, Diablo 4 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor are definitely on my list of ones to get as well. I have not really heard of any other games that I am interested, but I often struggle to keep up with that. Thankfully I have other gamers and nerds who constantly have recommendations on that front.
Watching: So I managed to finish the 2nd season of By the Grace of the Gods. I started Sirius the Jaegar, and also am trying to finish the Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest. The last two just do not seem to hit the spot like a few others in the past, but they are still good anime.
By the Grace of the Gods continues to be as wholesome as it was at the beginning, and I do not see that changing anytime soon. Sirius the Jaegar seems to be lacking something as an anime with vampires, but I cannot quite pin it down. I think I would enjoy Strongest Sage a little more if I didnt find myself watching so many that seem to be pretty copy and paste with the way the story seems to go, but I am still going to finish it. Hopefully my opinion will change by the end of it as I still have a few more episodes to go.
The Mandolorian Season 3 was a fun watch and I hope me and Sam will watch some of the other Star Wars series we need to finish soon as I think I might be getting back into a Sci-Fi mood once again.
I do believe that is all I have got this week since Sam mentioned the Disc Golfing and it continues to be busy on all fronts when not at work. Next time I am hoping to have some pictures of some of the printed stuff. I may even have time to paint it a bit by next Wednesday. Any who I think we are off to play some putt putt while the weather is good so I will chat with you all later. BYE!!
Well, that is all from us for today. Thank you so much for stopping by. Feel free to share with us what you’ve been up to recently, because we’d love to hear about it, and we’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
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