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Dec
21
2021

December ProgBlog #3: "Christmas holidays"

Yeh right like I ever take them.

I have seriously been moving like molasses and I really do need to actually change something, but because I'm me I'll probably just burnout again, have to recover for a few days again during which I'll relentlessly beat myself up over being an idiot again and that I really should have fixed it before it became this bad again, only to do exactly the same thing down the line again.

Neither of my main projects have advanced too much further since the last progblog.  I've kind of started working on Gundry's hands

hand sculpting in Blender 3

and Zara's tattoo is still going.

Dec
17
2021

November Homeschool Miscellany

I don't know what happened to October either, aside from the roleplaying games continued (I have this vague idea that I will write about how roleplaying games are good for maths, drama and general language development one day).  I think we may have also started more hardcore development of my dice system.  12yo has been making suggestions and helping test mechanics.  October may have also been the month where I found out that 16yo was doing more algebra, because apparently he thinks he needs algebra for the TAFE course he's thinking of enrolling in.  Not sure how much he's done as I think he's gotten himself a new Khan Academy account instead of resetting the password for his existing one so I'll have to try to remember to check that up when I'm compiling the report for the moderator meeting.

Dec
14
2021

December ProgBlog #2: less ramp, more ramp, less prog

The last major gymnastics event for the year is over, which took a lot of pressure off.

I finished the photobooks, more pressure off.

Then stuff happened with made things ramp up again, and it got so bad that I deliberately didn't do some mental health stuff that would have helped the frame of mind I fell into because there is literally absolutely no point whatsoever, because I'm wrong and everyone else is right and that's all there is to it no matter what.

And after I got over the thing that put me into the depressive spiral in the first place (spoiler: not actually over it) I felt really annoyed about not having progressed any of my projects so I stayed up late once more ostensibly to try to get some prog for the blog (I really need to stop staying up late and waking up early, apparently lack of sleep is pretty bad).

Dec
08
2021

TTRPG writeups: WoD Modern 2 - Vampires #1

When the kids expressed interest in playing Vampire, I told them that I hated the subsystem.  Mechanically it's not any different from Changeling, it's the lore that I don't like (there's nothing wrong with it per se, just not my style), and while you can be combat heavy with it (which given the insane strength and speed vampires have can be quite entertaining and occasionally interesting to manage), it's generally geared towards more political intrigue which I am absolutely terrible at because I'm lucky if I have Wits 1.

Dec
07
2021

December ProgBlog #1: ramp

Stuff is ramping up.

I've been mostly working on photobooks trying to get them done in time for printing and shipping back to the island in the vain hopes it might not get there too late.  I've also been working on my dice system (it has undergone two major overhauls in about as many days) and roleplaying notes (gained a bit of extra time as the kids didn't feel like playing the weekend just gone, I brought the stuff over anyway just in case I actually needed it but got to just hang with my friend the entire time).

And I need to try harder to catch up with the homeschool miscellanies and ttrpg writeups.  I don't seem to have taken any photos at all in October (not even normal ones) so there's just November and December to do.  And I'm apparently getting a new moderator next year and am probably going to make a great first impression with the nonsense this year has been.

Nov
27
2021

November ProgBlog #5: kinda rage

I should probably start going to bed earlier as I'm constantly tired and staying up late trying to cram more work in doesn't seem to be working.  But I keep doing it because I feel bad about not getting a lot done.  It's a vicious perpetual cycle.

Nov
26
2021

September Homeschool Miscellany

September was States month and it felt unusually close to Regionals because it was (we had the slightly awkward situation of that we needed to put people forward for states before we had the results from regionals to make sure they'd actually qualified, and to add chaos to the confusion, because it had been another unprecedented year, people were allowed to apply for states if they hadn't done regionals (there were a number of people that missed out due to being sick or having to quarantine).

I forgot to mention, over badge test and regionals, 16yo learned how to make chips in a commercial deep fryer from one of the people he would accept chips from and helped out on regionals and states weekends.  He makes a great bucket of chips.  Below is one he handed me during a break.  We hung out at the door I guard before he headed back to the canteen to get ready for the between-round rush.

Nov
23
2021

November ProgBlog #4: railroading

I'm apparently that good at not being too obvious about railroading (unless I make it obvious like when I want to end a session, like I did on the weekend and had my players playfully accusing me of railroading when after a while I was like "YOU'RE GOING BACK TO THE FREEHOLD.") that I can't even railroad myself when I need to.

Weekend was busy again with gym events so once more not a lot got done.  I worked a bit more on the dice system, and some notes, yesterday I got started on Gundry.

sculpting Gundry

Nov
19
2021

TTRPG writeups: WoD Modern 2 - Mercenaries #1

Mild content warning: occasional swearing and mild adult themes

We had a slight derailment right at the outset as S was unable to make the session.  I only do character driven stories so players not being able to make sessions can make things fall apart, so normally we would just skip (I had previously tried to encourage the kids to make Redcaps that we could use in a casual drop-in/out filler game as a Redcap gang lends itself well to that, plus they could get any murderhobo/random dickishness/silly out, but the older boys had decided "Changeling is cringe").  However in this case seeing as it was early on, I managed to restructure stuff in my head (and later on in my notes) enough to postpone S to the next session.

Nov
16
2021

November ProgBlog #3: out of whack

I have done literally nothing on either project since the last progblog.

This time I got distracted choreographing a "fight" scene for the big boys.  And because I'm a bit extra it's easier to visualise, I 3d'd it.

choreo visualisation