So I continue to neglect this blog, though I probably shouldn't. One of the biggest issues I have with the modern internet is that everything is centralized into a handful of sites when it comes to community and talking with friends.
In the old 1.0 days of the internet, we used to build our own spaces. This was the space that I chose to build for myself, and it served me well for quite some time. The forum was small but active. I updated this blog multiple times a week, and followed friends through RSS feeds. It was a space that was ours.
But now it sits here more a memory than anything else. I maybe make one post a year, and spend all my time on Tumblr, Discord, and occasionally Facebook. And the thing is... I have a community on those services. Nerd & Tie has a Discord that runs at a steady hum. But our data lives on services we don't control. As Twitter has shown us, the spaces we thought we had can disappear at the whims of billionaires who only see us as engagement on a spreadsheet.
And it's exhausting.
So I decided to do something about it.
In the year 2023, we're launching an official set of Nerd & Tie Forums -- we're calling it NerdAndTie[dot]Social and it's a community that's all our own. Right now we're in a soft launch (I expect very few people will actually read this post so it's not really a public announcement), with the hopes of getting everything locked down and settled in the next week.
Then we'll tell more folks about it.
And maybe it'll fail. Maybe no one will use them. But we're going to give it a shot. Complaining about things only gets you so far -- sometimes you need to offer solutions.
So I'm doing that.
(Also, Forum software is way better in 2023 than it was in 2000... holy crap.)
- Traegorn
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So I should probably mention this publicly somewhere, but I stepped down as Convention Director of No Brand Con a couple of weeks ago.
It wasn't for anything terrible or awful, and I'm not leaving the organization. I'm stepping back into my old Head of Advertising and Public Relations position for the time being, and may take a larger role depending on how things shake out. No Brand Con XX is moving forward in interesting ways.
In truth I never really wanted to be in charge of the organization. In early 2021 though, when Pat stepped down, we were deep into planning a very delayed con and no one else was really prepared or in a position to steer the ship. So I stepped up, because I'd done the job before.
And, not to sound like I have an ego, I'm pretty good at it.
But here's the thing, I'm in my forties. I don't have the energy to do the sorts of things like I did in my twenties. I work a more stressful job, I'm trying to run a podcast network at the same time, and my health is drastically different. I'm not dying or anything, but my body can't take the abuse like it used to.
And, thankfully, unlike a year and a half ago, we have a couple of people who now have the experience to fill those shoes. Well, two people. Because they're sane, and not dumb enough to try to do it on their own.
Y'know, like I was.
Jun and Chris are going to do a great job with the con, and they have my full faith and confidence.
And, like, also I'm still here. Just not in the drivers seat. So I can occasionally take a nap...
- Traegorn
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Look, I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I'm of the firm opinion that if you plan on watching both TNG and DS9 that you don't watch one then the other -- instead watching them in order as they aired.
Like, the way they fell on the timeline.
There are a couple of reasons for this. The least important one is that it makes sure the minor crossovers line up. This is just a minor thing, but it helps to know who the hell Bashir is when he shows up on TNG.
The other reasons are far more important. First off, it means you're alternating episodes during the early seasons of DS9. DS9 was still finding its footing early on, while TNG was a well oiled machine telling some of their best stories. It gets you through any of the weaker episodes by knowing you might watch a great episode after.
But also... it preserves the experience Trekkers and Trekkies had in the 1990s. Like we were getting two Star Trek episodes a week. Even today, when we literally have five fucking Star Trek shows on TV it's not the same. Picard, Discovery, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and Prodigy are all set at different time periods (although Lower Decks and Prodigy are weirdly just a couple years apart). These are shows that will reference each others canon, but never have a major cast member walk on from one show onto the other in the same timeline as their original show.
I love the hell out of all the new Trek, but it isn't the same.
Like, when we watched DS9 and TNG together there was this idea that these were happening at the same time. They aired the same week, the events from one could influence the other... Like even if it rarely happened it really felt like they could. Worf literally joins the crew after TNG's run ends.
And when you just watch all of TNG and then watch all of DS9 separately... you lose that and I personally think it's a very important part of the experience.
So, y'know, something to think about...
(I love VOY but it can be watched on its own, just because the Delta quadrant setting meant it was never affected by DS9 when the two ran concurrently beyond the first VOY episode. Also, if you want an airing list, for 1990s Trek, this list from a long time ago is the easiest to read I've found.)
- Traegorn
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So every few years I've felt the need to make an update about my ever evolving workspace, and how I (more and more) seem to be cultivating an aesthetic that screams "secondary side character in a cyberpunk story who probably gets killed off in the third act." It's an aesthetic I've been working on on purpose (well, not the getting killed off bit), but every time I declare it's reached "peak cyberpunk" I end up outdoing it soon after anyway.
Like that 2017 update? I exceeded it in mere months.
Anyway, since I made some significant changes recently, I thought I'd post an update about my weird hole of many screens where I run The Nerd & Tie Podcast Network from. I'm not going to run through everything, but I will map out the biggest differences from 2017. The first is (obviously) the 32" display up top, which I now use to stream media on instead of the Kindle Fire (though the Kindle Fire is still used for audio bumpers on podcasts). An Apple TV runs that, though I also have a spare Switch dock hooked up sometimes. The Linux laptop is gone (I mean I still have it though), replaced by the late-2011 13" MacBook Pro which used to be my main personal machine. That MacBook Pro is tucked away, but displays on the relocated black monitor in the lower left.
Of course, my new main personal machine is a brand spankin' new M1 Mac mini, which is controlled by the keyboard and trackpad that sit where my laptop used to be. I've expanded the physical desk (and retired the mini fridge) to support the monitor for the Mac mini. And don't worry, Linux isn't gone from my desk (and I mean I still use the laptop) -- as you will notice one last monitor on the lower right which is hooked up to a Raspberry Pi 400. This is notably used from a different chair, as that's my "goof around" computer, and would literally be a distraction if I was trying to use it while getting work done.
It's funny, I bought two computers in 2020, both of which are ARM based. With a good chunk of my desk now on RISC architecture, I'm happy I can just dig out this image without context as I sign off for today...
- Traegorn
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Posted Sep 9, 2020 - 9:04:36
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Forty. Forty years old. It's official, there's no more pretending that I'm not a full ass adult.
It's here, I'm forty.
It's a weird thing. Like if you'd asked me growing up where I thought I'd be at this age, the life I would have pictured for myself would have been so different. I had a lot of expectations I put on myself back then, and I'm happy I defied so many of them.
I mean, seriously, twenty year old me had no idea what they were doing and had no place trying to tell forty year old me what life should be like.
My thirties were a decade of change -- at thirty I had just gotten married, Crysta and I had just moved to Indiana, and I was sort of lost. I was lost for most of my twenties too. Not having a rudder was kind of my THING it feels like sometimes. I've spent most of my adulthood not really having direction. Even when we moved back to Wisconsin three years ago, it wasn't with any purpose beyond "we like it more than Indiana."
If the last year has taught me anything though, having "direction" is friggin' overrated though. I know so many people whose plans were tossed overboard in the storm that is 2020, and I've learned to appreciate what I have so much more.
I mean yeah, it's been stressful as shit and I've had a massively hard time working on creative projects (I was going to start Peregrine Lake and revive Crosarth this year -- which very much did not happen), but that's just, y'know, because we're living in a nightmare.
But my turning 40 is not a part of that nightmare. Turning 40 is, frankly, kind of nice.
- Traegorn
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Ten years ago today I stood across from Crysta in a chapel in Glacier Hills Park in Washington County. Ten years ago we got married. Ten pretty freaking awesome years.
Right now as we buckle down during a global pandemic, every day I thank the gods that she's the one I spend my days with. I can't imagine going through this with anyone else at my side.
So much has changed since we got married -- we're both different people than who we were back then. But as we've grown, we've grown together. For every challenge that has come in front of us, we've tackled it as a team. I count myself as lucky every day because of it.
We celebrated our anniversary early back in May with a week in a cabin on a lake up near Phillips, WI -- and tonight we probably won't do anything more than order a nice delivery dinner and watch Netflix in the living room.
But any time I get to spend with Crysta is special no matter what day it is.
- Traegorn
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So back in December I announced my new comic Peregrine Lake would be debuting in "April 2020." Well, it's April 30th, and clearly nothing beyond that initial teaser image has materialized. I've had a lot of people asking me why it isn't here yet, and understandably so. So that's what I'm going to explain.
It's not here yet because I haven't drawn it yet.
I have a lot of Peregrine Lake written. I have scripts for the first couple of months done, the arcs planned, but I haven't committed any panels to virtual ink. The part of the work that usually takes me the longest is actually completed. But yeah -- none of it has been converted to actual comics.
And the main reason for that, frankly, is that we've been living in lock down during a pandemic. My mental state has been not the best. I mean, I don't want pity -- my wife Crysta and I have been both working safely from home, which is a privilege a lot of other people don't have right now. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining at all. The fact is though, it's stressful, and Peregrine Lake isn't the only thing on my plate (some of you may recall that whole podcast network I help run).
I don't talk about it all the time, but I have an anxiety disorder and it's literally taking all my spoons to keep up with my day job and the ongoing projects I have. So, Peregrine Lake (and the return of The Chronicles of Crosarth) have both been put on what I'm now referring to as "extended schedules."
The original plan was to launch Peregrine Lake in April, and then hopefully return Crosarth to updates in the Summer. This is obviously no longer the plan. The new plan is to try and launch Peregrine Lake in some form in either late May or early June, and the Crosarth timeline will be evaluated some time after that.
I know this may disappoint some people, but it's just what I can handle right now. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy, and I'm still very excited to share this story with you.
- Traegorn
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So fans of our actual play podcast Stormwood & Associates know that we use a role playing game system called Super Awesome Action Heroes which I created about fourteen years ago. I've always teased a print edition of that manual would come out, and once we started seriously running it with Stormwood (and I started to update issues the rules had I hadn't noticed), I started talking about a second edition.
Well, that second edition is finally here.
I'm happy to announce the release of Super Awesome Action Heroes Second Edition (how many times can I say second edition?). The rulebook is just as slim as the first edition, which is why it only costs $6.99 to buy. Characters created with the first edition rules should be 100% compatible with the new version, but some rules have been tweaked (and some Archetypes completely rewritten, removed, or added). An electronic version will eventually become available, but I haven't decided how I'll be putting that out yet.
I should also note that this is just the core rules, and does not include the Fantasy archetypes or the Supernatural add on. Those are still available on the official website for free, and will remain so even if they end up in a print expansion down the road too.
It's neat!
- Traegorn
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So the mascot for No Brand Con is "Duct Tape Boy," a member of the No Brand Heroes. Years ago we set up a Facebook page for him. We only post to it occasionally, and you would expect the responses to be innocent.
They are not.
Posts made to the page fall into two categories: Promotional links for the con and "in character" musings. It's supposed to be super obvious that the page is the mascot for a convention. We try to be very, very clear with that.
We are apparently not clear enough.
Every once and a while, the page gets sent messages. It's only happened a couple of times in the last few months, but these... well... are really really strange.
Here are the best examples:
(And yes, I sent that guy a photo of a Playdia)
It's just super, super weird. Like please -- horny fetishists of Facebook -- stop sending messages to innocent convention mascot Facebook pages? The only people who end up reading them is me and the other page manager Calvsie. Spare us from your kinks, okay?
Duct Tape Boy is supposed to evoke a childlike wonder, not whatever gives you your weird boner. What consenting adults do at home is their own business -- so please stop trying to make it mine, okay?
And if you're a pedophile, you can fuck right off.
- Traegorn
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