I record most of the games I play. If the videos turn out to be moderately entertaining, by my incredibly low standards, I upload them to my YouTube channel. I don’t have a schedule. Usually I talk about whatever I’m currently playing on my blog, but it takes a while before I get around to uploading videos, and I don’t upload everything I play.

This is the list of videos I’ve recorded about Elden Ring, which maps out my progress through the game. If you want to know the general path I took through the game, without any knowledge of the right way to go, this is it. A very lengthy playlist of videos have been uploaded to youtube and can be found starting here: Warning: Spoilers probably. Thu 02/24 Elden Ring Blind Pt 1 - Character Creation, Introduction (00:40:26) This series will go well beyond 200 episodes recorded over more than two months, so buckle up for the longest video game journey I've ever made.

This is the list of videos I’ve recorded for the Elden Ring DLC, which maps out my progress through the DLC. This will be updated periodically as I record new videos and/or edit the descriptions. My intention is to wait to upload these videos until all of my Lords of the Fallen videos are finished uploading, or until I finish with the DLC. Until then, you can read the descriptions.

Starting in 2022, I’ve created this page to keep track of books that I’ve seen recommended, and whether I’ve sampled them, and whether or not I was interested enough to continue reading (or listening) beyond the sample. This is a master list of books I’ve looked at recently, showing which have been recommended, which I’ve sampled, what I thought, and whether I went on to read them or not, and a link to a review if I wrote one.

Here are some other blogs you might enjoy. A Page Where My Brain Leaks Onto (Blockade85) Aywren's Nook @Aywren Bio Break @Sypster Chasing Dings! @tipadaknife Contains Moderate Peril @ModeratePeril Dragonchasers @pasmith Dragons and Whimsy @jaedia Gaming Conversations @Braxwolf GamingSF @TelwynGSF Glittering Girly Gwent Gaming (Easha and Poppy) Going Commando @ShintarCommando In An Age (Azuriel) Inventory Full (Bhagpuss) JVT Workshop (Joseph Skyrim) Leo's Life Me Vs. Myself and I @mevsmyselfandi MMO Gypsy @Gypsy_Syl Nerd Girl Thoughts (Krikket) Nomadic Gamers, eh! @Stargrace Occasional Hero @ChaosConstant Scopique's Shards of Imagination @Rakuno3 StarShadow @eldaeriel Tales of the Aggronaut @belghast The Ancient Gaming Noob @wilhelm2451 Time to Loot @Naithin Welshtroll @welshtroll Why I Game (Jeromai)

Older gaming posts. Prior to 2021, the site ran on WordPress. I’m still trying to work out how to get Hugo to build a page of all posts in a given year, not just the ones in a given category. Hugo has infinite capabilities, but it also has infinite complexity. 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Imported archives from older blogs and web sites, coming someday.

A list of horror movies I’ve seen, grouped by year.

A list of horror movies I’ve marked to watch.

A list of horror movies I’ve seen recently.

A list of what I would recommend as anywhere from good to great horror movies, by year.

It’s odd that so many web sites discussing literary archetypes use the characters from the movie Star Wars as their examples. Aren’t there ANY other movies that have classic archetypes? Or is Star Wars such a cultural touchstone that literally everyone on the planet recognizes it?

What is the backstory of John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt? Why is his name the same as my name? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jacob_Jingleheimer_Schmidt

I just finished Perdido Street Station by China Mieville, which I read because it was supposed to be an example of the “fantasy steampunk” genre, although it turned out to be more in the “Lovecraftian horror” genre. Mieville’s writing is incredibly detailed and imaginative, and he’s pretty creative with his vocabulary, too. In other words, I was using the Kindle’s dictionary feature quite a lot. It wasn’t quite pretentious, but it seemed a tad unnecessary at times.

I’m suffering from a major case of post-nanowrimo depression right now, which I would assume is pretty similar to post-partum depression. Or drug withdrawals. It’s pretty simple really. The act of creation is so thrilling and stimulating and awesome that when it’s over, there’s nothing left inside but a black empty void of nothingness. For me, it generally manifests as a fervent desire to stare at the walls and feel useless all day.

I like to keep both of my fans informed of my work, so here’s what I’m doing. This month I have been working on revising my NaNoWriMo 2011 novel, and it hasn’t been going very well. I finished close to half of a second draft, wherein I rewrote a lot from scratch, but I had to stop when I sensed a rather major flaw. I like the characters and I particularly like the character relationships, but there is unfortunately a startling lack of plot around them.

I’ve been listening to the Writing Excuses podcast lately (which is excellent imo), and Brandon Sanderson often refers to his own works as examples of the points he’s making, so I thought I’d read some of his stuff. First up is Mistborn. I’m reading this book “critically,” as opposed to reading for pleasure, so I’m making notes along the way about what I think works and what doesn’t. (I think a big part of learning to be an author is learning one’s writing preferences, which might sound silly, but one doesn’t always know what one likes writing when you start.

For some years now, I have spent roughly the last hour of my day before sleep reading. I now realize this was a gigantic mistake, and I don’t recommend any writers do this. Why? Because now when I try to read at any other time of the day, it makes me incredibly sleepy. I have accidentally trained my brain to associate reading with going to sleep. This is an awesome trick if you have trouble sleeping, but it’s not cool at all when you are trying to read more during the day.

I was about to write in my medieval fantasy story about a character entering a dark room and lighting a candle he found on a table. Then I thought, hey, how exactly would one have done that before the invention of matches? Apparently you would have used a tinderbox. But I couldn’t figure out from the descriptions and pictures how all the pieces of a tinderbox actually worked together, so I watched this YouTube video.

I finished Servant of a Dark God by John Brown the other day, and I thought it was a pretty good epic fantasy. It is the first in a series of books (as is the unspoken requirement for “epic fantasy”), but it was still very self-contained. Ie. the book had a satisfactory ending, and I didn’t feel like I was being coerced into rushing out to get the next book. (Don’t get me wrong, there were many questions left unanswered, but answering them would begin a new story.

So in my continuing quest to read more modern epic fantasies, I started The Kinshield Legacy by K.C. May. I honestly don’t remember where or why I got it — it’s possible it was a free Kindle offer at some point. Actually it looks like it might be self-published since Peach Orchard Press isn’t exactly lighting up a Google search. Here’s my question: How many pages should I give a book to grab my attention before I set it aside?

Time for another fan update. Because real writers do that, or so I’ve read. Last time I mentioned a short story about a magic sword with a bad personality. Well, I got bored with that. I was trying to write it from the perspective of the sword, which sounded very cool in my head, but, well, it didn’t work out. I did, in fact, write a short story called Lucas the Jewish Vampire, which I thought was hilarious, but it will probably not be as funny when I go back to revise it.

It is said that new authors should read recently released books in their genre to get an idea of what publishers are looking for. It is also said that new authors should read everything in their genre to avoid repeating what has come before. The problem is, in the fantasy genre, that is quite a daunting task. I actually thought I was reasonably well-versed in the classics of the genre, but guess what?

I find it amusing and heartening for some reason to see “famous” authors using a character name that I’ve thought up for one of my novels. I somehow feel like it validates my own work as an aspiring author. The other day I was looking at the description for Fred Saberhagen’s Empire of the East, and noticed that the protagnist’s name is Rolf. The five of you who have read my Lute of the Sparrow may recognize that as the name of Jasper’s quirky sidekick.

I read most of The First Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. I’m not sure, but I think I was supposed to start with Empire of the East. But I didn’t feel like I missed any essential pieces of story. I stopped reading about 75% through because it was pretty clear there would be no ending, and I would have to read all of the other Sword books. Saberhagen’s writing has a more literary feel to it.

In catching up on the fantasy genre, I wanted to read popular books that were considered good, and popular books that were considered bad. So now I’m reading Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind, the first in the Sword of Truth series, which for some reason is often seen as the “rival” to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. Goodkind is a very devisive writer. People seem to either love him or hate him, which I suppose, is exactly the reception that Robert Jordan gets.