Another 30 Minute Blog
Hey, who remembers this from last time Drew forgot to pre-load a blog? Okay, truth be told, I’m writing this on Thursday, so it might get more attention than the strict 30 minutes, but only for editing! If I’m pitching a premise, I’d damn sure better live up to it.
For those who missed the last one, these blogs are more stream of consciousness than planned and formulated entries like the regular blogs. If that’s not your cup of tea, feel free to come back next week. Not all content is for all audiences.
1. Last time this started with Dr. Winston, and I see no reason to change lanes. He gets stranger with every passing year. Recently, he’d been sleeping on the bathroom tiles. Now that part, I get. It’s Texas, and he’s got a lot of fur, so even with air conditioning I’m sure he gets hot. What’s weird is that he puts only his nose into the part of the bathroom with the toilet. Whole dog sitting by the sinks, with just a nose poking into the toilet section, like he wants the smell without actually being in there. I do love that weirdo, odd habits and all.
2. I recently discovered a new drink that I think is going to fuck summers up from here on out. Mix two gallons of pink lemonade (what you make with a whole jar of the powder) and 1.75 liters of Pinnacle Cherry-Lemonade vodka. Stir and chill or serve on ice. It tastes like a Bomb Pop, almost unnervingly so, and you can crush through way too much of it without batting an eye. On a hot day, bust this out and make your friends think you’re some kind of fancy drink experimenter. You’ll be the hit of the cookout.
3. Authors & Dragons has been going for almost three years. I know that sounds like just a plug, and sure, sort of, but also that revelation is on my mind a lot as we draw nearer to the anniversary. It’s crazy that it’s been that long, and that we’re going strong. After three years, we still love hanging out and being idiots, all that’s changed is we’ve gotten better at it. What’s more, odds are really good we’ll be able to launch Side Quest soon as well (Patreon depending) and I am so psyched to get that thing going. Funny how a random idea can have such unexpected legs, although I suppose that’s also true of getting into writing in the first place.
4. I’m starting to understand entourages, oddly. Working in a non-standard industry comes with a lot of perks, but it also disconnects you from common society in unexpected ways. My days get used differently, and I frequently have non-matching windows of free time with my friends. Not to mention that going to cons and what-not would be better with buds. I’m not saying go grab whatever channel that Jeremy Piven show was on, but honestly, if I had the kind of income where I could support my friends and bring them into my schedule, I probably would, especially for the ones who dislike their current jobs.
5. It doesn’t come up a lot, but I am a fucking nerd for systems. I love digging into them, learning about the complexities, finding good synergies, all that shit. There’s a reason I lasted 3 years in a data department, and it wasn’t only good looks or drinking buddies. Honestly, that might be why I love RPGs so much. Cracking open a new system is like opening a tome of possibility, and I will admit here that I may or may not have actually read a Player’s Handbook cover to cover. And to think, when I was a kid, my teachers thought I had an attention issue.
6. Related to the last one, since it reminded me of a fun anecdote. When I was a child, I read all the time. All the time. In class, at home, even on the last 30 Minute Blog I mentioned that I used to hide books in the garage for when my parents kicked me out of the house to go play. Much as it might surprise some of you who’ve seen me in public, I was a shy one and not big on socializing. If you’re wondering what changed: years of theatre will wipe out just about any shyness there is.
Anyway, the point is I was a big reader, and most of my teachers didn’t care about that, but a few really fucking did. They tried to tell my mom I had an attention disorder, to which she laughed in their faces. My mother takes no shit from no person, however that’s a set of stories for its own day. I stayed in their classes, because facing your enemies head on is also part of the family tradition, but with the caveat that I had to pay enough attention to answer any question they asked during class. To this day, I think I’m still the only person I know of who’s gotten in trouble for too much reading.
7. To be fair, school and I were never destined to get along. I hate being told what to do, and will stubbornly refuse if it’s at all possible. My very first day of Pre-K, after my mom dropped me off, I promptly bolted from the classroom and ran for the exits. Got half the staff chasing me, and when they finally caught up, I was two feet up on trying to scale the front gate. While I have no memory of this, my folks love to remind me of it, and the fact that they found out about the whole ordeal in front of the other parents getting an orientation. Honestly, I don’t doubt the story at all, either. That sounds exactly like what I’ve wanted to do almost every time I walked into school. Except college. Go figure, once learning became my choice, I was way more into it.
8. Just realized, last time I did one of these, it was also before an Austin trip. This time I’m going to RTX, though strictly as a fan. If you’re there and see a giant man towering over other people’s heads, and he looks like me, feel free to say hi. We’ve got a share of tall dudes in Texas, but only so many who match my description, so I’d say your odds are pretty decent of it being me. If not, hey, maybe you’ll make a new friend. That’s even better!
9. As much as I love my big, complex projects (see my passion for systems above) working on the Shingles books has been really fun and cathartic. There’s something to be said for throwing structure out the window and just trying to cram as much fun into 20,000 words as possible. I wouldn’t want to write this way all the time, yet as an occasional indulgence it is damn fun. Maybe there’s a lesson in there about having low-stakes projects to try new things in? I don’t know, advice isn’t really what this kind of blog is for.
10. Got distracted for five minutes by the Discord chat, luckily we’re nearly done. Guess I might as well make this final entry about the chat, though. Recently, the Authors & Dragons crew added a private Discord to our Patreon rewards (please note, that’s for the A&D Patreon, not my personal one) where all the cast hangs out regularly. If that sort of thing sounds like your jam, then come on by! It’s been a lot of fun for the first few weeks, and the more the merrier.