Goal Post: Me vs Rona Sequel

Last Saturday I was feeling tired and had sinus issues, but it was also raining.  I feel that way when the weather is bad nowadays.  I was feeling worse on Sunday and decided to get myself checked out.  No fever or coughing, so I figured it was a bad cold:

I caught Covid again!

This means I spent the entire week in ‘self-isolation’, which I guess is the new term for quarantine.  Since I wasn’t too bad, I was sent home with a few meds to cover the symptoms, but no antivirals.  On Tuesday, I was getting worse and went back to ask for the antivirals.  It was still in the 5 day window for Paxlovid.  That helped me start making a recovery, but I’ve been tired and going stir crazy this whole time.  It’s hard to tell how I’m doing today because it’s raining, which sets off my sinuses and possible asthma.  Don’t have anything for the latter, so I just suffer here.

Probably easiest to say what I missed instead of what I did:

  1. Cosplay Contest– On Sunday, my son had a slot in a cosplay contest.  I made the costume and signed him up on Saturday.  With Covid, I couldn’t take him there, so I had to ask his mother to do so.  He won a Judges Choice award, which were two rice cookies.  I had to settle for pictures and a video.
  2. Junior Tri-M Induction–  On Monday, my son was inducted into Junior Tri-M.  This is a junior honor society for music.  He sings and he got in, which is great.  My parents went in my place, so they should me as many pictures and videos as they could get.  I still feel bad about missing it.
  3. Tenure Recognition Event–  On Tuesday night, my school district had a small party for those who got tenure this year.  It was me and one other person.  Coworkers sent me a picture of the banner that had my face on it.  There was one of those scannable patches that brought you to a site too.  Managed to get it working and saw the video from my coworkers.  Really wish I could have made that.  Not the biggest fan of attention, but it would have been nice.
  4. Work in General–  Yeah, I wasn’t there.  It was also ‘Neurodiversity Week’, which is an event to celebrate and educate on neurodiversity.  Not just autism.  It was the first time expanding it to other mental disabilities.  Missed it all, but saw the activities on social media.

Did I accomplish anything?  Well, I’ll probably finish writing Darwin & the Demon Game this weekend.  As of typing this up, I only have the final chapter since I wrote the final battle last night.  This means I can rest during May and start getting things ready to write Darwin & the Beast Collector over the summer.

With Do I Need to Use a Dragon?, I set up the preorder site.  Not really going to promote it much.  I did it to make the blog posts easier to set up, including the ‘Book is Live’ one.  I’m almost done with the July posts too.  This means I can probably finish up August by the end of May.  I know that’s far in advance, but it opens up the summer to more writing and father/son time.  Since all of it is going to revolve around the new book and giving advice, it shouldn’t be too hard.

The final thing I did was some gardening:

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Given the bout of Covid and being worn down, I’m not going to be pushing myself too hard next week.  I’ll try to get back into biking, but we’ll see how it goes.  Next weekend, I have a Bar Mitzvah to go to, which means I need to conserve my energy.  People keep talking as if the moment I test negative will be when I return to normal.  If this is like last time, I’m going to have the stamina of a soap bubble in a hurricane for a while.  At least the brain fog hasn’t been as bad.  That’s the only reason I was able to get writing done.  We’ll see what happens next.

Goals of the week:

  1. Get back to work.
  2. Finish Darwin & the Demon Game this weekend.
  3. Finish the July posts.
  4. Be in the same room as my son.
  5. Try to do biking.
  6. Recover energy.
  7. Work on a James Bond puzzle.
  8. Stop writing this and make breakfast.
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Happy Arbor Day!

A few things came to mind before this post.  First, I really couldn’t think of anything to post for today because I’m busy and burnt out.  Second, I don’t really hear about Arbor Day as much as I did as a kid.  Do people no longer like trees?  Third, the memes for this holiday were a lot more hateful and political than I expected.  Thought it would be easy to find stuff, but nope.  So, enjoy the handful of fruits of my labor and go thank a tree for providing oxygen.

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The Story Tree

Ciao, SEers! Happy Arbor Day! Today is a day (in several countries, the US included) dedicated to planting trees. Trees give us air. They give us …

The Story Tree
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Poetry Day: Dungeon Crawlers

Legend of Zelda

(I’ve played so many D&D games that involved dungeon crawling.  Shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s in the title.  The reasons always differed, but we always found our way into some kind of dungeon.)

In search of fame and fortune

They delve into the darkest holes

Magic torchlight licking skulls

Of those that failed to live

Dust and dirt stuck to the floor

Held fast by long-dried blood

Creatures scurry within the gloom

Harmless scavengers awaiting death

And fearsome beasts of hell

They rest and wait for greedy guests

Listening for the sounds of traps

Reset by the screams of death

All to find the ancient trove

Filled with coins and jewels

And magic tools long lost to man

These adventurers enter into darkness

To claim the blinding treasure

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Mari White on Lisa Burton Radio #newbook

Don’t touch that — Look at all this dust. I’m embarrassed to invite anyone into the studio since we haven’t used it for a few years. Don’t touch that…

Mari White on Lisa Burton Radio #newbook
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Training vs Experience

James Bond Movie

Another area of discussion is ‘Training vs Experience’.  People argue over which one is better.  You see this a lot when people are debating characters fighting each other.  Many think training always wins against experience alone while others go in the opposite direction.  Let’s go forward taking these two alone with no combination.

Now, those who think training beats experience work off a logical belief.  If a person has been trained then they know what they are doing.  They have benefited from the experience and lessons of others instead of figuring stuff out on their own.  They have practiced the basics and even advanced concepts before entering their adventure.  A personal example would be Luke Callindor from Legends of Windemere.  He starts with only training under his belt and makes pretty good progress unless he faces someone who has both.

Of course, a character with only training runs into problems.  They make mistakes because they don’t know any better.  Training can’t prepare you for everything because the unknown can strike at any moment.  So, a person with only training may come up against an experienced person who knows how to get around their tactics.  They may have less flexibility and can’t adapt because they are locked into what they have learned.  Even if they are told to expect the unexpected, they won’t know what to do until the are facing the problem.  An easier way to explain this is that their deeper instincts haven’t been honed even though their body knowns the moves.

On the other side of the field, you have those who were never trained, but have grown through experience.  People think these characters would lose easily because they’ve gathered a hodgepodge of skills and moves.  With no stable foundation, they may have simply developed a style out of whatever has worked.  This can make them fairly unpredictable and constantly looking for alterations.  If something seems like it will work, they might just try it, especially if it’s close to a known move.  They are fairly good at adapting on the fly too because they’ve been growing in the face of the unknown since the beginning.

The downside here is that they might be too sloppy and unaware of their weak points, which a trained fighter can take advantage of.  A character like this might believe that being aggressive and on the offensive is the best way to go because it’s always worked for them.  They won’t have much in the way of defensive moves other than a high endurance and pain threshold.  While they can come at a trained enemy in a way that isn’t expected or easily handled, they could very well lose after their enemy has regained some of their composure.  Experience without training doesn’t mean the character is even fully aware of what they are doing when fighting, so they could not be working to their full potential.  This means, they can steadily fall behind a trained character as the adventure continues unless they take time to learn.

As you can see, there are general pros and cons to each one.  People have their preferences and examples to prove they are right.  The truth, in my opinion, is that a character should aim to be combination.  Whether they start trained or with experience, they should take from the other side in order to shore up their weaknesses.  This makes them well-rounded and opens a variety of paths for them to take with their skills.

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Death at the Asylum by Noelle Granger #newbook

I am very pleased to have Noelle Granger join me today. She is launching a new book and is here to tell u about it. Noelle, the floor is yours. Thank…

Death at the Asylum by Noelle Granger #newbook
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Homonyms with Harmony, Part 2–American and British English Conventions

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay  Hi SErs! It’s a day of Harmony here at Story Empire 🙂 Today, as promised in Homonyms with Harmony Part 1–…

Homonyms with Harmony, Part 2–American and British English Conventions
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Teaser Tuesday: Are We Making Progress?

Cover art by Jason Pedersen

Today we have a section of The Merchant of Nevra Coil where Nyx and her rival, Queen Trinity, aren’t exactly acting like themselves.  I loved writing these scenes and was tempted to split this entire book into two in order to keep this scenario going.  The problem is that I did run out of ideas to have it be more than a few chapters without going stale.  Best to know when to stop instead of pushing an idea too far.  If you like it then pick up the full adventure as a $2.99 eBook or a $13.00 paperback.  Enjoy!

Continue reading

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Research #newbook

Time for another look behind the scenes of “Once Upon a Time in the Swamp.” These are promotional posts, but all the authors out their might get a …

Research #newbook
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