Goal Post: Last One of 2024

Posted on December 28, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

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?

  1. Type in more Darwin & the Demon Game hand edits.
  2. Watch Sonic 3 with my son.
  3. Zoo trip!
  4. Catch Pokemon.
  5. Start watching ‘Tacoma FD’ on New Years Eve.
  6. Work on a puzzle.
  7. Family latke party tomorrow.
  8. Sleep well.
  9. Read my end of year and start of year posts when they go live to figure out what I said.
  10. Possibly do a few March posts.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

What Are Some Holiday Drinks?

Posted on December 27, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

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I’m really curious about this.  Originally, I was going to make this a Ye Olde Shoppe skit, but I thought an open forum would be better.  There has to be many holiday drinks throughout all of the world’s cultures.

For me, I really only know about wine for Judaism.  We have it with every ceremony, especially the Sabbath and Passover.  Nothing really exotic as far as I’m concerned. Not like the famous Eggnog of Christmas.  Those are the only two that I can really find and I even looked for non-alcoholic stuff.  Best I could do there was Egg Creams, which weren’t holiday specific.

So, what are some holiday drinks that you know about?  Even if it’s just a family tradition or non-alcoholic.  We aren’t lushes here.

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Poetry Day: Narcolepsy Queen

Posted on December 26, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

(This is not about anyone specific.  Just noticed way back how there are couples where one person would fall asleep at all times.  ‘Narcolepsy Queen’ had a better ring than ‘Narcolepsy King’ too.)

You slept while the movie played.
Leaving me to watch alone.

You passed out while the baby cried.
Abandoning me until dawn.

You snored for the entire road trip.
Forcing me to talk to myself.

You went to bed at half past four.
Causing me to bring dinner home.

You were snoozing while I was yelling.
Letting the accident come to fruition.

You sleep all hours of the day.
Yet you’re the one who claims exhaustion?

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

Posted on December 25, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

The first night of Hanukkah is on Christmas day.  So, enjoy the holidays.

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Teaser Tuesday: Bad Luck Luke

Posted on December 24, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Cover Art by Jason Pedersen

So, this is an excerpt from Charms of the Feykin.  I posted it a long time ago at the last minute because I had forgotten a promo teaser.  Not really sure why I picked this one other than it built some good tension.  It does bring back some good memories though.  Enjoy.

Continue reading →

Posted in Charms of the Feykin, Legends of Windemere, Teaser Tuesday | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sanitizing Adult Stories for Children

Posted on December 23, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Conan the Adventurer

I used to watch the above show when I was a kid.  I’d already seen the Conan movies on TV, which were obviously censored.  It wasn’t until mid-college that I bothered to read some of the original stories and see the uncensored movie.  Never upset me that I grew up on the sanitized versions of what was rather adult.  Yet, I recently noticed a lot of people bashing cartoons like this on-line.

The argument I saw was that taking an adult story and making it ‘kid friendly’ was an insult to the source material.  Either kids should be shown the pure story or not shown it at all until they are an adult.  I’ve seen this with TMNT as well since the original comics were fairly violent.  It really does revolve around the level of blood and violence that people want their original stories to remain untouched.  Occasionally, you see someone swearing that a story loses something if minor nudity (bare breasts) are taken out, but that doesn’t get the same traction as demanding that dark themes and violence remain even in a cartoon.

Now, I get that people don’t want to see the things they loved getting twisted, especially with it being a major business plan these days.  For example, I’m not going to go anywhere near ‘Rings of Power’ because I don’t like the changes and the reasons for them being done.  Felt the same about ‘The Hobbit Trilogy’, which is why I stopped after the second movie and simply read the book again.  That being said, I’m fine with changes done for reasons that are well argued such as elves at Helm’s Deep and not using Tom Bombadil.  Other LOTR fans, who are more into than me, hated these changes, but none of these were done to make it more ‘kid friendly’.

Getting upset about a franchise being changed at its core to appeal to another group of adults and piss off the existing fans is one thing.  Doing it to get kids into a franchise is something else.  I find it to be a positive and get them interested in the source material, which they can explore when they are older.  I never would have bought a collection of ‘Conan’ stories if I never saw and enjoyed the cartoon.  So, there is a benefit of showing kids a watered down version of a franchise that you want them to get involved in at some point.  Heck, I think there was even a ‘Robocop’ and ‘Rambo’ cartoons.  Definitely remember a ‘Police Academy’ cartoon and I think I had the Tackleberry figure.

Perhaps this gatekeeping against younger generations is new because we see so many older franchises being repurposed.  We see fans who have genuine concerns being lumped in with the illogical haters by those behind the changes.  It’s all an Internet mess where fandoms are fractured, especially when you have newer fans claiming that the franchise is no longer for ‘dinosaur fans’.  With all of the tension, it’s really no wonder people will turn on cartoons from the 80’s and 90’s as well.  This could result in the older generation of fans being the last one of a franchise.  Then, someone will come around to revive it as something entirely different and nobody can say otherwise.

So, what do other people think of cartoons based on more adult stories?  I’m sure most will want to talk about the trend of changing franchises though.

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Ice Age Survivors

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

After looking at ice age animals, I wondered who the survivors were.  There were plenty to choose from, so it was hard to decide.  I took a lot and some were oddly surprising.  Enjoy.

North American Beaver

Bison

American Black Bear

Caribou

Cougar

Gray Wolf (Not a Dire Wolf)

Ground Squirrel

Humans (They did show for the end of the Ice Age)

Musk Ox

Reindeer

Salmon

Posted in Animal Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 16 Comments

Goal Post: Let the Holiday Break Begin

Posted on December 21, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Two full weeks of break and I’m dragging myself into it.  Sort of.  By the time this post goes live, I’ve probably woken up and headed out to the mall for some walking before the shoppers arrive.  Might even get home before it goes live.  No telling what will happen since I haven’t done it yet.  All I know is that I’m writing this post, finishing the last February one, and crawling into bed after laundry.  I definitely need it.

This week was grueling because a lot happened at work and afterwards.  I won’t bore you with most of it, but there is a highlight I’ll mention later.  A victory was that I finished hand-editing Darwin & the Demon Game.  Finished it and felt like a fraud, but it’s done.  There are some things that I need to fix in the beginning because stuff mentioned earlier in the story don’t really match up.  It’ll take a long time to add the changes and make other ones as I go.  Do I think I can finish before the break is done?

Honestly, I don’t know because the next two weeks are going to be busy.  I’m also not going to touch the book until tonight or tomorrow.  The reason is because today is a big Pokemon Go event and I’d rather be outside even if it’s cold.  It’s really a weekend-long thing, but I’m going to use today to go hard on it and tomorrow will be a smaller outing in the afternoon.  After being cooped up all week and only getting a few fresh air outings, I really want to get the cobwebs out.  I dread being stuck inside all winter because that’ll lead to me gaining weight.  Other health problems can return, so I need to get out more often.  Don’t worry though.  I’ll have 5 layers and a 22 ounce thermos of hot chocolate (with rainbow unicorn marshmallows) on my side.

The other reason I want to go out is because of the highlight.  I had my six month follow-up with the sleep doctor.  It’s to see how my numbers are and if the CPAP machine is helping me.  Before he came in, the assistant (not sure of official title) took my vitals and threw me off with the blood pressure.  I’ve had hypertension for a long time, so I braced myself for the high numbers.  Instead, I got 112/50 . . . I actually had to ask him what the numbers were for and if he was sure.  Seems my hypertension is gone because I’m getting good sleep and walking around a lot.  Hence, I really don’t want to stay sedentary all winter.  The fresh air helps too, which means the exercise bike wouldn’t be a great substitute.

Having two weeks off is going to be relaxing, but I will try to accomplish some things.  That is when I’m not with family or sleeping.  The hand edits are the big one, which will be easier when my son is working on his own creative projects.  There’s that jigsaw puzzle I want to work on and finish ‘The Penguin’.  Yeah, these aren’t all lofty goals like writing a new novel.  I’m so burnt out and anxious that getting fun stuff accomplished will be a great end-of-year victory.  Seriously, my anxiety got so bad that I ended up having false fevers one morning.  It’s happened before where I get so stressed that I have 100 degree fever for a minute until I calm down.  The term is psychogenic fever, which I’m going to make sure isn’t a thing during the break.

There’s really nothing else that I have planned beyond two special events with my son.  I won’t say it out loud because they’re secrets from various people.  It’s going to be tough jamming them in though.  The first two days we have some appointments, but I can fit one outing in after them.  The weekend has family and would be a bad idea for the second, which means I’ll have to do it a week from this Monday.  Really hoping the weather holds since it’s an outdoor thing.  I don’t have him for New Years Eve this year, so that will be an editing and binge-watching day.  Thinking of it being this comedy called ‘Tacoma FD’ and I’ll type in hand edits while watching.  New laptop means I can work on my bed in front of the TV again.  We’ll see since the last 4 days of my break see me on my own, which opens the door for a lot of editing time.

Let’s get to the goals:

  1. Enjoy the break!
  2. Type in hand edits of Drawin & the Demon Game.
  3. Finish watching ‘The Penguin’.
  4. Catch shinies today, so that I don’t have to go out much tomorrow.
  5. Cook sweet and sour meatballs tomorrow for dinner.
  6. Enjoy time with son when he’s here.
  7. Sleep!
  8. Eat more lunches from stuff at home instead of fast food.
  9. Have a Happy Hanukkah.
Posted in Goal Posts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Questions 3: Ice Age Animals

Posted on December 20, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

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Right before Holiday Break here, so things are busy.  Figure it would be fun to try some Ice Age questions . . . Yeah, I’m not really sure where I’m going with this either.  Consider it an end of the year adventure?

  1. Which Ice Age animal would you like to have as a pet?
  2. Do you think Ice Age animals should be used more in non-Earth genres?
  3. What you think about the possibility of cloning a mammoth and reviving the species?
Posted in Questions 3 | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

Poetry Day: Mylrix Falls

Posted on December 19, 2024 by Charles Yallowitz

Vivi from FF9

(No reason for the picture.  This is more of a prophecy I hope to use in a future trilogy that explains the reason Windemere’s magic works the way it does.  Almost forgot it existed though.  A side note is that Mylrix was the first fantasy world I made in high school and it was replaced in college by Windemere.  The way the world looked is actually what I now call Pre-Great Cataclysm Windemere.  The name was moved to the plane of magic ruled by Gola.)

On the day the four moons fall

The magic mistress will be free

Her saviors born of mortal femmes

And have risen above their fragile flesh

Gola of the magic realm will fly

As the plane of Mylrix crashes forth

And her power rains into the fields

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments