TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE Feb/15 - Metric Tonne of Common Street Trash
Time to whinge *and* time to write this newsletter; much wow.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2021 -- beyond.
Cutting myself some slack.
I’m terrible at this. I expect the most out of myself, and that’s quality alongside quantity.
I always grind in the office until midnight, and so I should be able to grind every damn night, no exceptions [well, maybe 1 exception a month]. In my brain, that makes sense, there aren’t many variables that should shake that.
But this week I tried to be realistic and take into view a few elements from outside that 3 hour block every night. Why, just this week:
It was the second teaching week of the year, so I’m at work from about 7:30-5:45 every day, and I’ve managed to bring home some kind of work every night. They’re long hours, and I’m enjoying my class which means I’m hustling in the room, and during breaks, to have a really good week. That’s the funny thing about teaching, the more you’re enjoying it, the more you work yourself to the bone doing it.
Outside of the class, I’m trying to read this educational book so I can help run a committee this year.
I also prepped to pitch one idea at work, and while I don’t think it’ll happen, I’m angling to repurpose a lot of it into a new second thing. So that means I’ve been building this thing in my spare time.
I exercised 4 mornings this week, and went for a few afternoon/evening walks.
I’m trying to read a comic a day, and finish a collection of short stories I’m reading. I know I’m falling behind on this, but it’s the least urgent part. I think. I hate seeing my reading go down because I’m busy at the day job.
I’m prepping to launch the new year’s D&D club at school - this time, I’m creating specific character sheets that I’m building on D&D Beyond so the students can learn how to read, and use, an established character with the right stats, spells, weapons, and traits.
My kid wants to play D&D at home, so I’ve been prepping the next adventure.
I’m trying to work out which pitches to send to this new publisher that wants to see stuff from me.
I’m breaking the ground hardcore on a new story idea.
I’m keeping the Patreon stuff - 300 flash fic and D&D character histories - moving along.
I prepped to cook my wife a super romantic Valentine’s meal - homemade Sausage and Egg McMuffins. They actually came out alright, though I can see room for improvement so will have to try them again soon.
Also bought a giant cable drum for the wife, which I plan to turn into an outdoor bar table. So there was time to collect it with a mate, then clean it a little, and dump half a can of bug killer into it, and then empty the metric tonne of common street trash they’d been putting inside it and was clogging it up.
I made sipping vinegars - tomato/rosemary and a raspberry one. A whole lotta fun, and I have no idea how they’re gonna come out.
Oh, and I had to go to the dentist and get half my face numb, and it honestly left me feeling fairly a little woozy/wobbly.
So, for one night [after said dentist] I just took a break. And put myself to bed about 20 minutes early. Not much, but it was stupid how difficult it was to allow myself even that. Even though I know burnout is a thing, and that nobody does their best work on the brink of insanity.
I imagine a world where I’m successful enough - or don’t care enough - to have a night off a week. It’s been so long like this, I can barely imagine. I’d probably go nuts.
Though I did find myself recently considering my writing in retirement. I could see myself just writing comics analysis, and short fiction, and weird rpg zines, and the thought made me smile. It’d be nice to dial down the hustle - so making m/any OGNs or anything might be out - and just dialling back to writing the writing I love in its purest form, and that I know I can just put out into the world with the least hurdles to leap.
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You got yourself a stew.
Breaking this story on [THE BLUEPRINT PROJECT] and realising how helpful it is to just walk away and let it stew. I gotta reread my notes all over, sprinkle some in, until I got no sprinkles left, and then just bounce. Go to bed, a thought appears, email it to myself from my phone. Wake and hit the shower, a thought appears, run out dripping and jot it down in the office. Staring at the story from an angle, around a corner, through someone else’s passing car’s windows = helpful.
I know I won’t have the story ready by Thursday, or anything ridiculous/arbitrary, but I know with every pass, every note, I’m slowly chipping away at that marble and letting it all come free.
I also realised last night that this other character, who I’m considering building a story/world around, totally fits into this story and elevates it instantly with her presence, so I’ll see how that works out. So often it’s two offcuts you are tending to in their corners that come together to make something new and spectacular.
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Gratitude.
Lest I come across as negative, it is important to reflect on, recognise, and value the good in your life. And I do, can, and should - my life is pretty good.
The basics are met - I have a job, I have meaning in my work [both jobs; classroom and writing], I have true friends who are supportive, I have great kids, and I’m still insanely in love with my wife.
I can also see, compared to last year, my mental space is wildly improved. So I don’t want to whine about being tired without giving the same energy to understanding that my life fulfills me in many ways right now and that I’m thankful for that.
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ASD&D.
As I said, have created sheets for fighters, barbarians, wizards, rogues, rangers, clerics, druids, paladins, bards, and sorcerers so far. Some are really good sheets, so I’m excited to see what the kids do with them. Getting them to really engage with the character elements always makes for more fun. So it’s not just them with a sword, it’s this character they’ve got who acts in specific ways and they need to channel and consider that.
The first session was this afternoon, and I’d call it a huge success. 35 kids filled the library to listen to me explain D&D, talk about the character types, and then discuss that D&D at school is about fun, and about creativity, and about creating an awesome story together with epic moments.
I then shared out the character sheets, gave everyone time to find the one they’d be happy with, and gave them the homework of sketching their character, and writing a little about their back story. I really want the kids doubling down on knowing their character intimately.
I’m excited for next week, which is always a lovely thing to say about anything work related.
OH, and my librarian said she would spend some money on book orders this month and so sent me the D&D section of the seller she goes through and she asked me to pick out what I thought she should get for the library. I put in a dream order that I think the kids will dig and she bought it all, which made me smile.
She also asked for graphic novel recommendations, so I went wild there, too.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
BUCKET OF BOLTS, an rpg zine on Kickstarter - this thing looks gorgeous, and it’s about creating spaceships with back story. Figure it’ll be good to read with an eye for story writing, but also might help me when I start playing Star Wars RPG with my kid.
SPORES: THE BROKEN CIRCLE on Kickstarter - this is written by Dave Dwonch, one of the first guys to ever take a chance on me in comics, and he’s just an awesome hilarious guy, and a heck of a writer. Check this one out!
What I learned from reading a Ram V Double - I wrote some thoughts about emotion and pacing after reading THESE SAVAGE SHORES and BLUE IN GREEN.
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
THE MANDALORIAN S2 - finally finished it, and damn it’s just good tv for the soul. So much fun to watch, so enjoyable, so geared at making you enjoy it. I won’t spoil anything, but a whole sequence in the final episode was very damn cool.
WANDAVISION - am all caught up on it, and it’s a really great premise. The mood and unfurling pace has me completely locked in. So excited to see Marvel do something this strange. They’ve always allowed a modicum of genre hopping, but usually at the core it’s a spandex smash ‘em up, but this feels like it’s got enough independence to really be its own thing.
Marvel 616 Docos - these are on Disney+ and I’m really digging them. I especially love that it’s a gateway for the kids to watch documentaries, as it unpacks that genre, tone, style for them, but with content they are digging. I can see the platform has loads of other ones about Pixar and Star Wars, and I’m down to engage with them all. They’re basically just old DVD extra-style things, but I always loved the extras, so I’m 100% down for this kind of content in my life.
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
So, this is the first proper Homeopape from the new home of Substack.
I’ve made the switch because tinyletter was going to eventually be absorbed into Mail Chimp, and I’m not really down with their system, so I figured I might as well jump ship now while I have a minute to figure this new system out.
I hope it feels as good as the previous ones. I’m looking to slightly tweak the flow of these, but overall they’ll just be the Head Key twisted in my neck and my brain creaking open for you.
Next week, I might talk about the release of the SHE HC. But not now. No.
I like that I can comment now! Were the shrubs hard to make? What will you do to upcycle the cable drum? ALSO I definitely get what you mean when you talk about not allowing yourself time to take a minute off. Sometimes the constant movement is a way of distracting ourselves or trying to compensate for something we feel we’re lacking, and I think it’s important to deliberately reframe it from “taking time off” to investing in a new method of productivity that lets your mind stew to complete its own sorting for quality thoughts. I struggle with this but reluctantly I’ll admit that spending time NOT being productive often results in higher quality when I am next productive. Thanks for prompting the self reflection this week, Ryan!
I enjoy hearing about your teaching. It’s a gift that you are so passionate about it.