This job sucks. Yes, I needed something. Yes, the rent was due. No… no, I should not have been in such a rush to grab the cash. I should have read the fine print in that contract.
Flash Prompt – Working Title
Tag Archives: Inspiration
The Point
I’ve discussed many times over the years that I don’t believe you need a date on the calendar in order to make meaningful changes in your life. If you chose to change and stick with it, the change will happen.
I picked up an idea during that time when everyone else is making resolutions. It was the D23 challenge – create one room per day during 2023 and by the end of the year have a 360+ room mega dungeon. I don’t do resolutions, but I do D&D so this caught me.
UPDATE
I’m happy to report that things are going strong. I decided rather than a dungeon room I’d create a building in the Free City of Lithia for my world building. Here we are in the middle of February and I’ve got more than 40 buildings in my sketchbook… and that’s the point of the whole exercise. I haven’t gone to any great lengths, nor have I significantly changed my schedule. I have just grabbed my sketchbook and plopped a single thing each day in there. It takes 5 minutes or less (generally) and that’s it. Sure, there’s lots more development to be done on all these locations, but I *have* all those locations now.
Make a change and stick with it. Keep on creating! Day after day and you will see results!
Flash Prompt – The Poncho Men
Success at last. It was a challenging transition, but the poncho men had a foothold in this world. The continued to meld, one by one into the alleyway. Soon they would be legion. Soon they would remake the colors of this world.
Obligatory Posts
Despite having a little time off and the availability to work on things for my website, I didn’t do all the “end of year” things that so many people program and just let go. I find as often as not that I get frustrated by recycled content. There are certainly things to look back at – both good and bad – but there are also many things to look forward to.
No, I don’t do resolutions. I made a new year’s resolution many years ago to *never* make a new year’s resolution again, and I haven’t since then. I post about it every year, and it hasn’t changed.
I received a summary of my “year in books” from Goodreads. I was extremely disappointed in my summary. Not because of the company or the format or anything like that. It was the simple fact that I ended up with less than 10 books for the year. It was just about 2,600 pages of reading total, but the “books read” also included one that I literally shelved as “DNF” because I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. It would be easy to be very depressed about this lack of quality reading, but I’m going to take the advice of a random internet person and be happy that I was reading. I didn’t stop reading, I’m just going slower than my previous years of 2 or 3 books per month. I’ve had a lot going on in my life and reading for pleasure became something of a challenge – but I didn’t stop. There are so many people out there that don’t read at all, and I do NOT want to join those ranks. I’m taking it as a win that I kept plugging along.
So this year I’m going to keep doing the things I love. It will still be a challenging time as things move and change and grow in the family life here. I’ll still have to work at making the time to actually accomplish things, but for some reason the start of this year doesn’t feel as bleak as some in the past. We’ll see.
Up next – some of that “creating” stuff. More to follow~
Flash Prompt – The Doorway
It was a warm day, but not a hot one. Carrying the bag of tools, the mapping equipment and the supplies was an effort, but not an extraordinary one. The quest had almost become routine. Almost.
Endless searching. They couldn’t say that anymore. They’d finally found it.
Now they could step through.
Flash Prompt – Ring
She had seen the old movies, heard the old stories. Working alone, in the desert with all the parts she could scrounge she would create her own gateway. The power was not there right now, but it would come. She was Noah for the modern age. She had faith. She would travel, she would survive.
Flash Prompt – The Creator
The right light was the key. The creator dabbed a brush, then flipped the next creation off the dock. As the page touched the water it transformed, dropping another creature into the mix. “Perhaps more gray for the next one. Maybe more teeth?”
Failure – sort of
As a writer one comes to understand that the words laid out may, or may not, find a home. Sometimes the moment of inspiration that hits amuses or delights you but fails to connect with anyone else. It happens. Keep writing, keep putting words together and hoping to not just turn them into salad.
Some time ago I saw a call for submissions to a ‘course catalog’ for a horror based university. As stated above, it amused me and I had sudden inspiration. My submission was rejected (without any real notice) and that’s just fine.
I was bumping around that aforementioned debris pile that is my notes on writing and found that submission. It’s never going to be publishable anywhere else – so I’ll drop it out for you here. Hopefully you’ll find them amusing too.
From the course catalog:
Established in 1613 by academic and occult pioneer, as well as failed vintner, Fenrick Oglebutt, through trans-chronological fallacies and a lust for knowledge, Nafallen University has become one of the foremost centers of learning on all matters from the mundane to the mythic.
Located in beautifully desiccated Crisp, Texas, Nafallen University is dedicated to bringing its students the best in education, career opportunities, and fulfilling student lives from any university in current existence.
Nafallen University offers a hands-on and practical approach to education, with in-person, virtual, and astral courses offered at all levels of degree tracks.
Within this tome, enterprising students who wish to expand their minds and power will find courses offered for the current semester. Course descriptions are provided by the professors themselves, ensuring an honest appraisal of the material.
Here are the courses I submitted. I think they would have been a fine addition.
School of Architecture
ARC 212 – MASONRY II
PREREQUISITE: Poe; Amontillado
Gain additional skills and practical knowledge of masonry wall systems. Active interpretations of heat applied flashing, mortar selection and weep vent installation. Gain knowledge of residential construction inspection timing, effects of climate on drying time and STC (sound transmission classification).
Purchase of additional materials may be required.
ARC 135 – ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND GRAPHICS
Explore the fundamental issues of spaces, perception of spaces, scale and habitation. Emphasis is placed on ordering principles, pattern recognition and figure ground relationships. Build on graphical representation with an emphasis on observational symbology, aesthetic color choices and drawing presentation.
STR 301 – ADVANCED STRUCTURAL SYSTEMS: ALLOWABLE STRESS DESIGN
Prerequisite: Euclidean Geometry, Plasticity
Combine classical thermodynamics with plasticity and high yield functions. Allow the numbers to flow and discover numerical dissipation and pliability factors. Blocking, buckling, transient and steady state response combined with temperature creep. Emphasis on temporal stability and consistency. Galerkin meshfree imposition of boundaries and domain limits explored. Calculate how much your structure may flex under varied circumstances.
Flash Prompt – The Light
Was there danger? Of course there was danger. There was always danger, but the sins of my past made it worth the risk. I climbed. I reached. I was dizzy with the pheromones of death floating around me. I had tunnel vision. I could see the light. I moved toward the light. I reached for the light. The light so bright. The light so beautiful. Sinking forever into the dazzling light.
The scorching, raging pain of burning myself reaching for that beauty. I fell. I am scarred.
I will reach again.
Flash Prompt – Queen of Chains
My children we must persist. Our road is long, our way winding and difficult. No matter the cost, we will pay.
The Circle may stand against us. The Weavers seek to undo our works. We will break his chains despite our opposition. The world will shake and sunder. We are the coming of the truth.
We shall not bend. We shall not yield. The cursed ground shall not hold us. Death will not stop us. We are bound to free him. We are bound to save him. His chains become our weight, and we shall bear it.
Carry the light of the secret moon with you. The Crimson Crescent shall win out. The Chained God shall be free, and with him, so shall we all.