Month: January 2024

State of the Dread: Jan 29-Feb 4

Omg he’s literally me

Last week was shot from the word go. But I still got some stuff knocked out. On Monday we had a giant ice storm in Oklahoma City. I will spare you the details, suffice it to say that I started work 8 hours behind schedule and that cascaded across the next five days. I am exhausted.

WRITING

No new writing on HW. However, over at the CrackerStack I posted more chapters from the old manuscript. Check it out a subscribe for updates.

READING

I finished an urban fantasy, a book about Teddy Roosevelt, and the 4th Jack Reacher novel. This week I will read a Witcher book, along with another Alatriste installment. Most likely I will read Dungeon Crawler Carl #2. And I think tonight I will sit back and read a big piece of XENOS by Abnett (Warhammer/Eisenhorn.) It’s slow but very good.

DRAWING

I’m posting from my phone and the latest version of my WiP is on the computer. However I did finish the piece I was doing last week, because of the ice storm. So.

VIDEO

I did publish five low-edit videos on the channel, which is probably a new record. But you all know that because you are subscribed, yes?

FITNESS

Oh boy. I did 4 reps on the AbWheel, waited a day, and wanted to die. This week I will hit it twice. By the end of the year I will be able to blast out 25 rolls a day all week, and you’ll be begging to wash clothes on my shredded core. I will demean you with slurs. We will both smile.

Get back to work.

State of the Dread: Jan 21-27

Things I don’t miss: screwing around with chemboxes in the snow. (2019)

WRITING

Through my artwork on HOWLING WILDERNESS I realized I’ll need to explain certain things about the riders, so I came up with the idea of actually typing out their individual profiles and including them with the illustrations as excerpts from the in-world newspaper. So I’m picking at that when I’m stymied elsewhere.

Check out my Amazon page and buy a book.

READING

I powered through DISQUIET GODS by Ruocchio. Hefty series, almost impossible to summarize. I’ll do a writeup at UpstreamReviews in the coming weeks. Check the CrackerStack for my other reading updates.

DRAWING

Didn’t finish this piece, I stupidly picked one that required me to draw two feathered animals, and I had a few lost nights along the way. I’ll finish it by Tuesday of this week, and from there I will probably pick a simpler one to make up the time.

VIDEO

Had a few new ones on the channel, and the success continues. I’m happy and grateful. Should be purchasing some new channel tech in the next week or so.

The big news is that I’m openly declaring what I’ll no longer put up with in the comments. This has been the case for a while but racist histrionics are popping up a lot on my Mayflower stuff, so I’m putting it out there for everyone to know.

Talk dumb, get punted.

FITNESS

I am finally, for the most part, over whatever gunk had plugged up my lungs for the first two weeks of the year. On top of that I managed to lose two pounds. This week I’m hitting the ab wheel every day after work, it’s time to make AbCracker happen with a vengeance.

Back to work.

State of the Dread: Jan 14-20

Little bit cold out here.

WRITING

Zero this week. You’ll see throughout this report that I was waylaid with nasty throat gunk all week long. I had a productive Monday/Tuesday, then after that it was “work and survive” until the weekend. I’m not thrilled about it. This week I’m setting Wednesday and Saturday as my writing days.

READING

Naturally more productive on this front, but it’s easier to do so. I finished two books and punted on three, and I also caught up on some of my comic book reading. More on that over at crackerstack.substack.com.

This week I’m finishing a western called THE LEGEND OF PERLEY GATES (yeah) and tackling DISQUIET GODS by Ruocchio.

DRAWING

Finished another piece for HOWLING WILDERNESS. I’ll do a touch-up round on all of these when they’re done, I know (for example) that I’ll want to make the firework look more convincing and that will take some practice. I’ve never tried that effect before.

Gonna finish another piece this week.

VIDEO

I did manage to get a few out before my voice disappeared, one of them covered a book I didn’t finish. SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL.

FITNESS

The sickness has only exhausted me, and the cold makes it worse, so I haven’t been out to the shop. I freaking hate this time of year. On the positive side, I’m still under 215. Back at it.

Get to work.

State of the Dread: Jan 7-13

Okay, the New Year hangover is behind us, it’s time to solidify the process and see how the first week went. For me, it was about 50/50.

WRITING

I drafted a semi-long piece over at Upstream, comparing the film and novel versions of Jurassic Park. Going forward, I’ll have one writing night where I do an Upstream piece and a CrackerStack piece, and another night where I pick at CODE NAME RAZOR. Other than that, I am in drawing mode.

My next Upstream piece is a review of Godzilla Minus One, which goes live on January 11th. A little behind the curve, but the schedule was already full when I wrote it.

READING

Finished three books, including the fifth Sun Eater book. This week I will read at least three more. I have two titles I need to get to on Speechify, then Shadiversity’s book. I also need to pick a reading night with my family. Might be Sundays, now that I think of it…

Make sure you’re following the CrackerStack for full updates on the reading anyway.

DRAWING

Good news! Knocked out the first piece for HOWLING WILDERNESS. I have maybe 20 on the docket. This week I want to finish another one. Tall order, let’s see what I’ve got up my sleeve.

VIDEO

This week has been plagued with audio problems. I recorded a lot of segments but most of them have feedback issues so I can’t use them for decent videos. I’m trying to fine-tune that process, sorry for the lack of production. I did get one book review up, though.

The really cool part about last month is that the channel made a few dollars, and I can invest in some equipment to improve said channel. I’m putting together a list right now.

FITNESS

After spending a year doing push-ups, my brain is molded to that exercise as a preferred workout. I don’t want to lose the ability to do powerful sets like I have been for the last few months, I just want to work in other stuff.

Every day when I get home I’ll take the kids straight out to the shop and we’ll do some workouts. I’ll hit the ab wheel and the pull-up bar. That’ll be the start for this week, to just log reps and see what I can really do.

Aiight, get back to work.