Today is National Bird Day, so I thought I’d highlight one of the biggest conservation success stories: The Condor.
Specifically, it was the California Condor that was pulled from the brink of extinction. We also have the Andean Condor. Now, California Condors had a slight boom in the late 1700’s because of human settlements having livestock, which gave them an ample food supply. Eventually, the people started moving to other areas and hunters began taking the game that would naturally feed the condors. Land was being taken over and eggs were being collected by people, which was decimating the condor population.
Condors were first protected in 1966 when 60 were in the wild, but it didn’t help and they dropped to 22. A recovery program began in 1979, which was controversial because people didn’t like the plan. It was that wild condors would be captured and used in a controlled breeding program. This could be difficult even though condors can live to 60 and are sexually mature at 6. They are monogamous and lay only one egg at a time, which is why the egg collecting was so destructive. Yet, there was a habit that conservationists could take advantage of.
While condors only lay one egg, they can have a second in the same breeding season if they lose the first one. So, people would take the first chick to hand feed and have an unpaired adult to raise, which prompted the mating pair to have a second chick. In 2021, it was also discovered that female California condors could have chicks without mating, which is called parthenogenesis.
It took a long time for the release part of the program to work, but it eventually took hold enough for the wild ones to breed. As of this year, there are 343 free-flying condors and 217 in captivity. The breeding program continues and is seen as a great success.
Here are some condor facts:
They are actually vultures, which means they are scavengers.
Condors are the largest land birds with California ones having a wingspan of 9.5 feet and Andean at 10.5.
Condors prefer to fly in windy areas in order to glide since they are so big.
Andean males have brown eyes and females have red.
I don’t go back to work until Monday, so my sense of time is messed up. I could normally handle two weeks off without getting confused, but switching to 2025 and my son going back earlier threw me off. Didn’t help that I had to wake up at 5:30 am on one day to get my son to school, which triggered my internal work schedule. At least I only have two days of frigid weather, Pokemon catching, and editing to go. *counts fingers and checks calendar* Yup . . . Two days.
In the realm of writing, I’ve added half of the Darwin & the Demon Game edits. I might get another 1-2 chapters typed in, but it’s been slow going. I’m editing my edits and several of them require checking previous volumes for continuity. Still have an issue with the corner my desk is in having bad lighting, so I can’t read the changes once the sun goes down. No space to put a floor lamp in either since this is what one could call a doggie dormer. Basically, my room is shaped like a chubby T-block from ‘Tetris’ and I’m in the base.
For those who never played
Still, progress is progress and time management wasn’t on my side. I had my son for four of the days, but not New Years Eve. My plan was to get a bunch of hand editing done on that day. Things got shaky because 2024 had a few final haymakers to throw at my head before it ended. So, I spent a chunk of New Years Eve evening filling out medical paperwork. I tried to get into editing mode after that, but wasn’t feeling it, so I did some March posts and watched ‘Tacoma FD’. Definitely needed some stupid humor to cheer myself up. Sent out a long email too since I had the time.
My son and I did get to see ‘Sonic 3’, which was fun. I expected more Shadow the Hedgehog, but he was used just enough. Jim Carrey stole the show as the Robotniks as usual. That might just be my generation who grew up with ‘In Living Color’, ‘Ace Ventura’, and ‘The Mask’. Anyway, that was a fun outing and matinee tickets made it affordable instead of tear-inducing.
The rest of the week was the traditional family latke party, Pokemon Go outings, and hitting up the zoo on Monday. It was supposed to rain and be cold, but the weather changed to be more pleasant. The Bronx Zoo still has some things closed during the winter, so it was a quicker visit than usual. We’re looking forward to the summer when they reopen the ‘World of Darkness’. I think my son likes the zoo, but he’s not as fascinated as he used to be. It’s a relaxing outing where we get to talk and be away from the chaos. That’s all we really want on some days. Well, it also gets him away from most of the video games.
Have to admit that 2025 isn’t impressing me, but I knew it would really just be the continuation of other headaches. I can say ‘new year, new me’ as much as I want, but certain entities won’t abruptly back off. So, I’ve already had to contend with the usual suspects. That’s another reason I haven’t done as much editing as I wanted since I had to deal with texts and phone calls. Even interrupted some of my Pokemon Go outings, which was awkward. I do hope that things improve as the year goes on, but that doesn’t look like a given. At least not in a few arenas.
I’ve also been wondering about publishing. Been over a year since I reached out to my cover artist since my life got busy. My finances got messy too. So, I don’t know what to do about Slumberlord Chronicles. I really should reach out even though I have no idea what I’m doing. Car repairs, new laptop, and a bunch of other unexpected expenditures really hit me hard. Even if I scrounge up money for a cover, I don’t have the time and money to properly publish and promote the book. Talking to people, it feels like the indie author landscape is desolate. You can find blips of activity if you have a strong support system, but I don’t have that anymore.
So, what do I do with these books? I still have to edit one more before I tackle writing a new book. Kind of scared that they’ll just sit around. Maybe I should take 2025 to figure out what to do here. Part of me considered just posting the Darwin stories on my blog like I did with ‘Bedlam’. Only that ended up being the death knell for the series and this blog doesn’t get enough traffic to make it worthwhile. Darwin was one of my favorite characters to play and now write, so I want to do him justice like I did with Luke Callindor and Clyde. Wish this was like the old days where there was a higher chance of some success when you published a book.
Since I’m going back to my usual grind on Monday, I don’t know what I’m going to be planning. January is going to be crazy in general too. Next week is normal. Week after that is when my son has All County rehearsals and his concert. Week after that is midterms, which means work and home will be in upheaval. Somewhere in there, I hope to finish typing in the hand edits and print out Darwin & the Beast Collector. I need to start setting up March posts as well. Far too much to do and I don’t get a lot of time to do it. Ugh.
Goals of the week:
Get back into work schedule.
Type in a few more chapter edits of Darwin & the Demon Game.
Help son with schoolwork and studying.
Pokemon Go because that’s the only exercise I get.
In fantasy, you may come across the term ‘primordial forces’. It shows up in other genres too, but it tends to pertain to ancient powers. Some may think of ‘primordial soup’, which was basically the goo that started off life on Earth. That’s close to what we’re talking about, but still very far often. So, what would be primordial forces?
Primordial forces existed before everything else and are considered older than the universe or whatnot. They were here at the beginning of time and will exist for all of eternity. This can include reality, matter, energy, magic, space, time, and many other forces. The point is that they have to be something that existed at the beginning of a world’s existence. So, you do have some limitations depending on how the story’s world works.
These forces tend to be what keeps the world together or birthed it as well. This can allow life and death to be included since one could say primordial requires there to be living things. Same goes for time, which would need beings to exist for it to be noticed. Much of this depends on your personal definition and the building of your world though. You can see that there is a lot of flexibility. Still, they all share the traits of being ancient and becoming a building block for the world itself. This is probably why the genetic soup gets the name.
Science has some primordial forces too, which are: gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear forces, and weak nuclear forces. Those last two cover a lot of ground, but that does simplify things. Makes sense to me too. These are the forces that keep our universe together, so they had to exist at the start. Otherwise, the universe would never have formed and everything else wouldn’t be created. Space and energy might be the only other forces I could see coming before them, but that might not be scientific enough for this group’s use.
Another possible primordial force is change. Everything changes at some point, so one could say it’s a force. It could be defined as evolution, but that doesn’t include non-living things changing. So, the general term could be change, which explains how the original components of the universe become what people see during the story. Maybe this falls under the strong and weak nuclear forces.
The interesting thing is that I kept finding different sets of primordial forces depending on the world. So, I don’t think there’s a clear set. Science does have the 4, but fiction tends to be different across the board. Yes, the Infinity Gems could count as would DC’s seven forces of the universe. I know at least the first one would be mentioned in the comments if I didn’t do it first. It does prove the variation of systems and how there tend to be stories about people trying to capture all of this power. Makes sense since one who controls the primordial forces of a world would be able to change that world to whatever they want.
So, what do you think of the overall primordial forces concept?
(This poem involves the reaction some people get when they are honest about not feeling happy. So many are big on sharing emotions, but they really only mean the good ones.)
I am told it is wrong
To say when I am down
As if my pain
Is an open wound
Festering with pus
Disgusting to all who see
Why should I lie?
Hiding my true mood
Insulting their intelligence
When they clearly see
The misery I hold
Close to my crippled heart
It is what I have become
The form that life
Has forged me to
I am the negative man
Nemesis of the optimist
Destroyer of the silver lining
First, I’m thinking of testing out a new type of post on Wednesdays this month. It will be scenario posts. Basically, I’m going to pose a scenario and people can say how they would handle it. Might be reality-based or fantasy-based. Figure it could be fun. The goal is to also get people to think outside of themselves, so there will be scenarios where they are a specified character type.
Anyway, I guess this is where I post my hopes for 2025. Didn’t do very well with my hopes for 2024. Quite frankly, last year was definitely the worst one I’ve every gone through. The ‘life event’ was over by the end of January, but the results kind of infected the rest of the year. Lots of unavoidable anger, tension, and stress. Changes at work happened soon after too, so that wore me down to a numb. Barely did any editing and I didn’t do any new writing. Not even going to imagine that I can publish Slumberlord Chronicles this year unless I get lucky. My health has taken a hit due to the stress and machinations of others amping up my anxiety to terrible levels. None of this looks like it’s going to change in the near future.
Guess my real hope is that 2025 isn’t as bad as 2024. I’ll be happy if I can finish editing Slumberlord Chronicles and at least start the next book. Be nice if I can lose weight, but exercise requires energy and healthier eating habits require more affordable healthy foods. Fruits and vegetables are fucking expensive around here. Pretty sure some people will voice their opinion on this one. My point is that life seems to be getting more stressful and grueling than before. It’s not easing off. I mean, I’m writing this while suffering from my nightly anxiety itching, which drives me up the wall.
So, I guess I only have tw0 goals for 2025:
Survive
Improve my life somehow
Honestly, I’m already seeing signs of that second one being a challenge. Events might be getting set in motion by other people, which will create a lot of chaos. Fingers crossed that I make it through all of that. Hope everyone can meet their own goals. Enjoy a rather low-key month of posts here while I get things together, especially my new scenario thing.
Thought about what I should do since this is the last day of 2024. I already have my end of the year posts set and it is a Tuesday. So, how about the very first teaser/excerpt I ever put on this blog? It’s also the opening chapter section of Beginning of a Hero. It’s a long one due to me not knowing what I was doing back then. I considered cutting it down, but thought it would cheapen whatever it is I’m trying to do here. The book is still free on Amazon as an eBook too. Enjoy the post and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Typically, I would do this on the 31st, but I wanted to do a special Tuesday Teaser. People will be busy tomorrow anyway. Well, I already asked how 2024 treated people, so I won’t repeat that . . . So . . . I guess . . .
I’m really going to say that this has been the worst year of my life:
Barely any progress on writing since I still haven’t finished editing the Slumberlord books, which I expected to finish by now.
Events of January made certain aspects of my life more difficult and painful, especially with the stress it put on my son.
Work is always a challenge, but my personal life stress combined with that to make it even more of a slog.
All of the progress I made on my weight in 2023 has been undone, except for maybe 4 pounds staying off out of the 19 I lost.
As the year progressed, I found myself with less and less free time even during evenings and on weekends. This would be due to having 3-5 weekly appointments, which doesn’t count the non-weekly ones that would show up at times.
Generally treated like dirt by several people who I can’t simply tell to ‘fuck off’ and walk away from. To be fair, they sometimes treated me like shit, so the dirt days were the ‘good ones’.
Car repairs and needing a new laptop happened close enough to each other that I took a financial hit.
Third time with Covid in the spring, which messed up my stomach. Get random shots of pain if I each spicy or hot temp foods even now.
There were some good things that I will admit to:
Took a trip up to Oswego with my son in April, which was fun.
Took a solo trip up to Oswego in August, which was relaxing.
Started playing Pokemon Go, which kept me active.
A late event (December 18th) was when I learned that I no longer have hypertension thanks to my CPAP machine and walking a lot.
Did some fun Lego sets . . . Trying not to think about how much they cost or how badly I want the X-Men Mansion.
After having a full week of break, I’d like to say that I accomplished all that I wanted. I would be lying. Have to remember that the holidays means my friends have off and are in the area too. So, I need to make time for that on top of getting my other projects done. I think we know where this is going.
Typing in the hand-edits of Darwin & the Demon Game are going slow. I’m still in chapter 4 for a variety of reasons. It being really cold even in the house is part of it, so I’m kind of sluggish. I tried editing while sitting on my bed with covers around me, but my back hurt after a few minutes of being hunched off. Another issue is that the area where my desk sits is rather shadowy, so I have trouble reading the edits. Doesn’t help that the Lego D&D 50th Anniversary set is in a position to cast a shadow on the papers, which I have nowhere else to put. Need to get more light in the area or see if putting the laptop in tablet mode would work better. Either way, I have another week to figure stuff out and make progress.
The cold weather made exercising difficult as well. I still went out to catch Pokemon and get at least 10,000 steps in. Saturday was slated entirely for this activity, so I was surprised to get anything else done. Don’t regret this since I made sure to put a few hours aside for editing. Just got caught up doing errands, chores, and cooking, which took longer than expected. All of this when I was feeling really cold and bundled up as much as possible without wearing my winter jacket. This is probably why I dozed off at the laptop a few times too.
There was a fun surprise event though. My friend invited me to a NY Islanders game on Monday, which was a last minute thing. They went against the Buffalo Sabers . . . And lost horribly. I haven’t been to an Islanders game since I was kid and they played at Nassau Coliseum. Can’t say I enjoyed it as much as I used to and not because they lost. There were so many pauses for music, cleaning the ice, and other reasons I couldn’t figure out that there wasn’t a steady flow of action. Huh . . . I might have to make a post comparing this to writing in the future. I’ll put it on the April list. Anyway, the game was nice for socialization, meh on the food, and ugh on the score. There’s a personal reason seeing Buffalo beat the shit out Long Island was painful too, which I won’t go into. Definitely seemed to fit 2024 though.
That brings me to the end of 2024 and beginning of 2025. I have posts going up about that, but I don’t even remember what I wrote. Changed up a few things, but then gave up and left them as is. This year has been a series of painful experiences and is in the top 3 worst years of my life if not #1. I definitely learned that no matter what I do, my life can be upended by the actions and decisions of others. Got pushed into survival mode so often that I still get twitchy when things are going smoothly. Not that I experienced long periods of peace this year. My victories were rather small with finishing Lego sets, finishing puzzles, editing books, making it to weekends, and catching special Pokemon. Nothing grand, so it was more about bullshitting myself to keep going.
Will 2025 be better? It isn’t like New Years Eve happens and life gets Etch-A-Sketched back to factory settings. The stuff I was struggling with and the people I have to contend with are waiting for me next year. They will do the same things they did in the previous year until they face consequences or go somewhere else. Believing that things will magically change only sets me up for emotional crushing. So, I’m really just hoping for things not to be worse and to carve out a handful of victories. I can already tell that there will be at least one massive event in the future that will be an upheaval, so this seems like the best policy.
Well, there aren’t many things on my to-do list for next week. What are the goals?
Type in more Darwin & the Demon Game hand edits.
Watch Sonic 3 with my son.
Zoo trip!
Catch Pokemon.
Start watching ‘Tacoma FD’ on New Years Eve.
Work on a puzzle.
Family latke party tomorrow.
Sleep well.
Read my end of year and start of year posts when they go live to figure out what I said.
Legends of Windemere 