I want the world to know ♫ (I'm starting to notice a trend with these recent posts....) Embers Hot, Embers Cool Rereading transcripts so I can catch up on (re)writing Cael's journal entries months after playing the relevant session(s) has its perks. It's not the same as writing them while my creative synapses are in full tilt, which also has its uses, but maybe that's because both modes are two sides to the same coin, like the constant flip between the faces of discipline and

(This has absolutely nothing to do with the post; it's just a masterful performance. Elaine Paige's singing and acting are top notch.) One of my favorite pastimes while working on a story is imagining how that story will end and what the "after" story entails. Running with the assumption that everyone will survive, what will the characters go off and do once they've handled the story's main threat? For the longest time, I struggled to imagine the kind of life Cael would want

"Sail" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game" continue to lounge on their sofa cushion in a growing squirrel pile of items that migrated from the office out into the living room, which my partner and I really should address. I would say the games haven't moved far, and while true to a degree, we played a couple more chapters of the LotR game, losing more often than we won. And still it didn't bother me! Well, okay, one of the times we lost m

Two boxes sit on the couch cushions, set aside from the gaming table in preparation for our Skies Over Aefala campaign session. The first and smaller of the boxes depicts artwork by Weberson Santiago, a ship sailing in the vast openness of the sea, vibrant yellows, blues, and greens rendered in watercolor's likeness. The ship takes center stage, the focal piece with its many sails reflecting the colors of the surrounding horizon, the bow of the ship nearly glowing with a bron

What a wild work week. By all accounts, I shouldn't have finished transcribing Cael's Session 0 material in the least. We had the scare with Salad, which persisted into Thursday (8.6) and Friday (8.7) before she really started to recover; my partner and I then had a 3-day weekend because of the way his work schedule aligned for this next week; and then yesterday was his once-a-month odd workday, so he got off at 11:00 instead of the usual 15:00. Between Session 139 from last

Today's post is a brief accountability update, because my partner and I are keeping a close eye on our senior cat, Salad, whose health has been rapidly declining the past few days. We took her to the vet Monday, and they gave her an antibiotic shot to help with a UTI, but it's difficult to determine at this moment in time if her lack of appetite is the consequence of the shot or because her body is starting to shut down. We're hoping for the former while steeling ourselves fo

My diet growing up was trash. I ate sugary cereals or pop-tarts for breakfast, which shifted to ramen when I entered high school; sandwiches on white bread for lunch; and a whole slew of fatty dinners from over-cooked steak to fried chicken to boiled hot dogs to frozen pizzas and more. Oh, but let's not forget dessert. We kept a shelf in our pantry dedicated to fudge rounds and cosmic brownies and oatmeal cream pies, and we had boxes of Mt. Dew cans sitting on the floor. Tech

The imitation sun rises daily at 6:30, accompanied by humming wind chimes meant to stir you from slumber. Yet your eyes fluttered open sixty minutes before, when the artificial dawn first lifted night's curtain. You sigh that quintessential sigh of someone waking into lethargy for the fifth, sixth, eighth consecutive day. Turn away from the sunrise with its looming orange glow instead of reaching over to press the button that would see your room darken again. Fifty-four min

On March 13, 2024, my partner surprised me by ordering a pull-up bar for me to hook onto the top of the office door's frame. I'd been hem-hawing on whether to buy one immediately or wait until I could invest in the bench I wanted, so he made the decision for me. I didn't order resistance bands for another 2 and 1/2 months. What can I say? From computers to simple rice containers I fall into a research loop death trap that lasts weeks, sometimes months, all because I need to f

I have been listening to this piece on repeat since ~18:00 yesterday. I'll admit, the first time I listened to it, I thought it was alright but wasn't overly impressed. The buildup toward the end sounded muddied to me and removed me from the experience. However, shortly after that first listen through, I received a message from my father, which got me thinking about Teyr'loch Delter Pach and wondering how I'm going to up the ante for Cael's next (final?) performance. It can't

During 2020's lockdown period, I bought Gary Chapman's, "The Five Love Languages," on my Kindle to better understand how I myself feel most loved. Up until that point in my life, I never had a solid understanding of what it meant to truly feel or express "love." As a teenager, I had closed myself off to most others except for a very small circle of teachers, friends, and one or two family members, because I quickly learned that most of the people with whom I interacted feigne

(No blog post next week, seeing as how it's the 13th week.) Statblocks When I first downloaded Obsidian and began using the ITS Theme, I avoided one of the primary features that makes it a powerhouse for TTRPGs: the statblocks callout. First, many of its elements centered around D&D mechanics, which Daggerheart renders irrelevant, such as the Initiative and Death Saves. Second, the code block intimidated me: > [!statblocks] > ![Char Image|cover right circle htiny wtiny lp]()

You know how some people thrive(d) in school while others struggle(d)? I was one of the former. I graduated near the top of my class in high school and graduated Summa Cum Laude for my Bachelor's Degree. Post-graduation was where I struggled, suddenly finding myself standing amidst the collapsed walls where structure had once existed and not eager to rack up even more student debt by aiming for Master's or Doctorate degrees. Certainly, such pursuits would have given me the st

I currently have 41 plug-ins installed in Obsidian. We'll be lucky if I make it through this post without installing another. I can't help it. I get bored and start wondering, "What other cool plug-ins do people use? How can I optimize my setup further?" Then, within minutes, I find myself browsing articles or Reddit and installing new plug-ins to tinker with, which, to be fair, is a much better pastime than doom scrolling. You've seen the Theme already, but look! Look at how

Humble Beginnings Roughly 9 or 10 years ago, I played a session or two of D&D online with some people I knew. I couldn't tell you what edition, but I created a Warforged Wizard who was on an adventure to search for their creator, who had gone missing. Brand spankin' new to the concept of TTRPGs, and my giddy little nerd brain was thrilled at the idea of being able to cast magic. My giddy little nerd brain also could not grasp how to properly use magic. The descriptions were v

Forget the lemonade! The universe has enough derelict lemonade stands! *Tosses beverage over shoulder.* No, no, no, establish an entirely new delectable lemony lineup, like the layers of a tantalizing lemon mille-feuille that tingles every last taste bud with pleasurable little shivers. ASMR for the tongue. Better yet! Transmute those lemons into melons as an affront to karma's mockery and smear its pigment across the maker of your misery in boisterous remonstrance. To make s

Tuesday, May 5th, Evening: Two Days Before the Wipe 'I should back up my Obsidian Vault sometime just in case disaster strikes,' I thought as I deliberated integrating all 300 gigs of audio into my Vault. 'Should I integrate these files into the Vault first though? It'd make sense to keep everything together and not scattered to the four corners of the universe. They could also bolster the Transcript folders, keep the transcripts paired with the appropriate session. That'd be

Okayokayokay, think of a skill you've been building for a long time, perhaps across years or decades, a skill that you've taken for granted because learning it came easily or because you started with a natural talent that you've continued to develop, whatever the case may be. No, really. Play along with me for a moment before you read ahead! What's a skill you're genuinely proud of or have enjoyed practicing or have worked hard to better? Now, go back and find the earliest po

My Vault Graph as of April 29, 2026. I should take more progress screenshots in the future. The Vault My Vault has grown substantially since I started using Obsidian in early October 2025. I only ever intended it to house my Skies Over Aefala (SOA) work, but in late January I decided it was the best location for me to keep track of Fermi's, and eventually the Trio's, development as well. Then, in mid-March it struck me that I could write my blog posts for Fear No More direct

I love TTRPGs. Pathfinder 2e and then Daggerheart have been the vehicles through which my partner and I have been telling our Skies Over Aefala story. However, there's been a sneaky little tax that has kept us from playing consistently in recent months, an insurmountable hurdle that slams like a shutting gate on us when our energy is lowest. I call it the "setup tax." Used to, when we had a full group of players, I controlled Cael, and the two others controlled their charac