September '23 Roundup & Ramblings

Raw Data:

Novels – 12 ↓

Short Stories – 1 ↑

Manga/Graphic Novels – 4 ↑

Comics – 1 ↓

Average Rating – 3.14 ↓

Pages – 3625 ↓

Words – 1152K ↓

The Bad:

One Piece #43 – 2stars of complete and utter manga burnout

Black Sun Rising – 2stars of romance masquerading as SFF

The Good:

The High King – 5stars of series ending goodness

Mortal Errors – 4stars of Hitchcock picking good tense stories

Movie:

X3: The Last Stand was a thoroughly forgettable movie that even the people in the comments forgot about as they typed.

Miscellaneous Posts:

• Conversion – MTG 4E
• Warrior
• 9/11 – The Slide into History
• Adventure Suites: How the Other Half Lives
• 2023 NH Highland Games and Festival!
• Coral Helm – MTG 4E
• The Staff of Prophecy
• Cosmic Horror – MTG 4E
• WP Reader Changes
• Currently Reading & Quote: Charmed Life

Personal:

What a great month!

Taking the couple of days off to celebrate our 15th in the middle of the month really helped both of us. Took the stress away for 3 days and allowed us to catch our breathe before diving back into life.

I am in the middle of negotiating so I can keep putting up artwork once a month. If I can pull that off, that will give me the outlet for telling little micro-fictions with each picture continuing the mythology of Bookstooge, the Emperor in Shadow. I have fun making stuff up like that, mainly because I just let my ego go completely out of control 🙂

Started playing some Magic with Spalanz over the net, like I had done with Dave earlier this year. Considering they are both bigger Warhammer 40K fans than I am, it seems only right we’re playing some WH40K Commander. Markus played his favorite little Necrons and then experimented with the Tyranids while I tried to pilot the Emperor Botherer’s deck. I had a great time.

My reading for September was the at the lowest level since January. As can be told by all the numbers in the Raw Data section. Considering that allowed me some breathing room in regards to writing, I was perfectly ok with that. Especially since I just broke the 200 barrier this month. The rest of the year is just going to be coasting.

The window replacement stuff is done! That was quite the process and I am very glad it is over. Plus, pouring out all the money on it is now done too, so our bank account can begin to recover.

On a slightly sadder note. I really miss Meatbag Intern. I’m currently working with a guy who’s been with our company for about 2 years. He’s had no land survey experience before so I take that into account. BUT. He shows very little initiative, can’t seem to handle more than one instruction at a time, ignores what I tell him half the time and even when I walk him through something, doesn’t understand the underlying principle and thus can’t extrapolate what I’m aiming for. When I tell him to do A and B, he doesn’t think ahead and realize that C is the next step. He’s not incompetent, he’s just not as good as Meatbag. I soldier bravely on though. Us outdoorsy manly men do that kind of thing you know.

Cover Love:

Dedication of the High Priestess. While the story wasn’t up to what I was hoping for, that cover almost makes up for it.

Plans for Next Month:

Going to be easing up on the reading even more, hence my reviewing numbers will down, so I am hoping to keep a couple of days each week clear. Not for anything, but because I need to make sure I don’t burn my little writing self out. October of last year was when I worded myself out and had to take the month off from reviewing. You all did a great job of commenting on the lists that I read, but I don’t want to repeat that. So I’m deliberating easing up now.

A Pumpkin Festival is coming up, so we’ll be attending that and I plan on writing about it. IF it isn’t rained out (a distinct possibility, every year, sigh)

Groo is the only visual medium I plan on consuming in October. I’m letting manga go, I’m letting Asterix go and I’m letting Bone go, at least until New Years. I’m almost completely burnt out on the visual so I need to stop now.

Going to be watching and reviewing the Wolverine trilogy for my X-Franchise movie watching. Origins, The Wolverine and Logan. I’ve watched, and enjoyed, Origins before, so at least that will be good. We’ll see about the others.