Hey all, Sam and David back again today.
In just two more weeks we will be on our way to Gen Con. Oh my goodness, we’re starting to get really excited about that. It’ll be nice to indulge our tabletop game loving sides, because we haven’t been able to do that as much this year.
Next week for Tabletop Tuesday we’ll be diving into our plans and hopes and goals for Gen Con, so that’ll be a fun chat. But in the lead up to going to this con, we also have a bunch to get finished to get ready for it, stuff that we need to get in order before we leave home for a few days.
Anyway, welcome back to our regular series where we talk about everything we’ve been doing over the past week. This includes books read, shows and movies watched, games played, things done, and basically just an easy rundown of everything we’ve done. Some weeks it’s a lot, and other weeks it’s just an okay amount of stuff.
All right…let’s get started.
Sam
Reading: Role Playing by Cathy Yardley, Ghosted by Amanda Quain, Critical Role: The Mighty Nein Origins: Mollymauk Tealeaf by Matthew Mercer, Taliesin Jaffe, Jody Houser, Hunter Severn Bonyun, Cathy Le, and Ariana Maher, The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero-Lacruz, One Piece Vol 7 by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece Vol 8 by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece Vol 9 by Eiichiro Oda, Dragonfall by L.R. Lam
It has been another pretty darn good week of reading for me. I am devouring books so quickly, and I’m honestly loving it….even if it means that I’m not spending as much time on writing as I probably should be. But I’m definitely keeping up with my NetGalley reads and reviews, or at least I’m keeping up with them better than I have in the past.
Okay, and I have most of these books already scheduled out for review, with the novels coming in the next handful of days, and the manga will be coming over the next couple of months.
I’m also actually getting pretty close to reaching the original goal I set for books read for the year, which means that I’m going to have to increase that goal. I feel pretty great about that.
Alright, now onto my current and upcoming reads.
When it comes to current and upcoming reads, obviously I have more than this, but I’m trying to keep it focused on my primary choices and options. I’m in the middle of reading The First Binding in hardcover (it’s over 800 pages, so it’s a chonky boi), and these other books I have in digital, with Bone Smith and The Valkyrie’s Shadow being digital ARCs courtesy of the publishers via NetGalley. So again, it’ll be more books that will be reviewed shortly after I finish them.
Watching: “Secret Invasion” Season 1 (in progress), “Charmed” Season 5, and Season 6 (in progress), “Critical Role” Campaign 3 (in progress), “One Piece” anime Season 1 (in progress)
Yes, my watching section is a bit smaller this time around…probably because I’ve been doing so much more reading lately, plus with work and sleeping…it’s just eaten up most of my free time. Oh well. I’m not complaining too much.
Writing: So, I got an e-mail from NaNoWriMo HQ recently, and my application for ML for USA::Iowa::Elsewhere region, which is pretty exciting, even if it is going to be a different sort of challenge from my previous experiences as Municipal Liaison. Granted, not too much different from doing NaNo during the pandemic, but still.
Regardless, I’m excited, and I’m looking forward to getting all prepped up for all the virtual write-in options.
Of course, I do need to figure out what I’ll be working on for NaNo in November…which would be a whole lot easier if I could focus on actually doing work for Camp NaNoWriMo. If I could finish one of those projects (or here’s a lofty dream, finish both of those projects), then I could absolutely focus on something else this fall.
But I have started connecting with my new region and chatting with a few folks. I’m sure more will visit the region page and the region Discord as we get closer to NaNoWriMo in November.
Other: I don’t even remember if we’ve played any of our video games this week, but if we did, it was Diablo IV.
Oh, and we’ve had some packages arrive over the past couple days, and I have even more coming in the next couple of days. Some of them are for Kickstarters, and I’m sure I’ll be talking about those in future Tabletop Tuesday posts, and some have been book mail…like, I’m excited, because I did a good sized order from B&N, the first one that I’ve really been able to do in months. Having a job and a regular paycheck again is quite nice.
David
Reading: So I actually got to read a bit this past week. Work was a bit slow so I got to read during a few of my breaks. I managed to reread a few titles since I wanted to get back into them long term. Min-Maxing my TRPG Build in Another World Volume:3, Light Novel, Muscles Are Better Than Magic Volume 1 Manga, Chainsaw Man Volume 1, Clay Lord Volume 1, and Shaman King Volume 13.
Most of these seem all over the place but overall have a fantasy or supernatural theme. Those types are my usual go to manga and light novels. Shaman King is one of my “I’ve not read this in so long I don’t remember what all happens.” manga, I watched some of the anime when I was younger and only remember vague bits and pieces. I am glad it is still just as funny and awesome as I remember and Wooden Sword Ryu is still my boy. The title kind of gives away the gist of the plot as the main characters are mostly all Shamans vying for position as the Shaman King, the Shaman who bonds with the Great Spirit and will usher the world into an age of light or darkness.
Muscles Are Better Than Magic I think I read while half asleep the last time. The main character being a muscle bound beef cake powerful enough to resist magic it a pretty funny principle. The interactions between Yuri (the beef cake) and Filia (self proclaimed elven beauty and magic user) are hilarious. I mean the first creature they have to fight when they meet is a plant/tentacle monster and he just brushes off its magical attacks like it was nothing. Then proceeds to want to cook it cause he knows it is delicious. Obviously our elven maiden is in disbelief and a weird friendship is formed. Though they don’t get along too well at times.
Chainsaw Man I managed to get a hold of the first few volumes and finally rereading volume one. I still think Poochita is my favorite regardless of what happened. I mean Denji’s dreams may seem simple to some but for a young man who didn’t grow up with a lot it means the world. Getting to meet a few of the other characters like Power who also had a pet that she loved was fun. I think it is interesting that there could be a whole wide range of different devils and I am interested to see what some of them look like. Based on the artwork I have seen already I really hope for some more gruesome devils and some who are like Poochita. I am debating whether or not to watch the manga with this one though.
Clay Lord as you can imagine revolves around people who can make Golems. When a young molder of Golems named Clay decides to enter a contest, the winner of which had their creation become guardian of the city, things get interesting. As people begin to seek him for his unique abilities, his ecentric
The third volume of Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World did not fail to impress me once again. I have a bit of a weakness for some of these isekai stories, especially when they are fighting to protect the family that raised them when they were reincarnated. Erich grew up a farmboy in a rural area of this fantasy world he now lives in and events have led him to becoming a servant to a shut in of an elven magus to protect his sister and make sure she is properly cared for. Based on what I have managed to get through in this volume (about 55 pages), he has a long way to go and many a hardship ahead.
Printing: So printing of Cinderwings stuff has halted for now and I am trying to focus on some for fun prints. My first project was printing those weird horror themed Grogu. Those were fun and I am sure I can find a home for them at some point. Gemstones and a few figures for painting were also printed, the figures aren’t ready for pictures yet but until GenCon is over I am not sure when exactly I will get to those. A couple of the pictures have a clue to what my current pet project is with the printers. I am hoping to have the time to get the others running so I can try and finish the printed parts of the Goblin Slayer cosplay.
Seems like wordpress doesn’t want to work for me very well right now so I am going to cut it a bit short here guys. I am hoping to have more of my projects actually done by the time GenCon comes and passes. I will do my best to also keep you all up to speed as the following weeks of geekery come to pass as well.
Well, that’s all from us for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and we’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 