Category: YouTube

State of the Dread: January 8-14

He’s a cool dude.

Writing

It pleases me to announce that I will finish draft 2 of HOWLING WILDERNESS this week. Once it is done I will contact beta readers for feedback, and I won’t touch it for six weeks.

While it is down, I will publish at least one paperback edition of an old project.

Reading

Last week I read GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, HOGS IN THE SAND, and INTO THE LIGHT. There is a review pending on that last one at UpstreamReviews.com.

This week I have HELL AND BACK, TRESS OF THE EMERALD SEA, and AN HONEST PRESIDENT on deck. If I blast them all out, MAGNIFICENT NINE will probably happen too.

That’s a Longmire book, a Sanderson KickstarterX4 book, a bio of Grover Cleveland, and a Firefly novel.

Drawing

Toying with new Radcracker art.

Audio

The GI Joe thing is fun and cool, but I think there is still something weird going on with Radcracker. My most recent episode hit 5100 plays in 3 days. Then it stopped. The episode right before that was just about as fast. I’m entering a beta phase with Anchor on ads, so I’m not making any money off the listens. I’ll have to find another way to earn money off it.

Video

Channel link here. Didn’t do one last week. I’d like to this week, I just don’t know what about. Then again it’s about as simple as grabbing a book off my shelf, sitting down in the shop, and flapping my lips about it. Y’all know I can do that for a solid twenty minutes.

Fitness

I did 500 pushups at work, which is less than it sounds because it was 100 per day, in sets of 20. It was cool though. Follow on Twitter, hashtag #PectoCracker

This week I want to do a few more iso sessions in Fortress Fatphobia. I only did one, I’m aiming for three now.

State of the Dread: January 1-7, 2023

My wife knitted this scarf for me a couple of years ago, and since the Pottermore quiz sorted me into Ravenclaw, she added the patch. It is a lovely gift and I love whipping it out at Christmas.

Writing

I owe a Round Robin chapter to my friend Nate, so I need to get on that. Once it’s done, I’ll finish a draft of HOWLING WILDERNESS and set it aside.

I started a Substack. It’s called the CrackerStack. It replaces my Patreon, because you can do a paid subscription there and I’ll put some paywalled posts every month. Otherwise it’ll be for book and movie reviews.

State of the Dread will now be a weekly accountability segment. I’ll still share other things here.

As always, hit up Upstream Reviews for fiction reviews.

Reading

Gonna blast the absolute daylights out of a lot of books. This week I will finish GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE, HOGS IN THE SAND, and INTO THE LIGHT on audio. If I have time, I’ll read AN HONEST PRESIDENT.

I’ve also got a new Lady Mechanika graphic novel to read from the library. Used to own those in print, but I sold them all after volume 6. Long story. I’ll post about it on the CrackerStack.

My ongoing reads in print are AMERICAN MUCKRAKER and SAVING FAITH.

Drawing

I sketched this at Church this morning.

Video

My latest on the channel, which you should sub to here:

Audio

Always sub to the Radcracker Podcast. I record those in the car on the way home. Slice-of-life, what’s on my mind, that sort of thing. It’s funny and insightful and I love doing it.

Fitness

I’m in a fatchat with some gordo bros who are looking to lose weight. Very exclusive, you can’t get in, don’t ask. This week I’m doing 100 push ups per day, counting my calories, and working on stretching my useless arm so that it’s better.

Video proof of the push-ups will be in my Instagram stories every day.

What I read in 2009

2009 was the first year that I actively tracked what I was reading. I had read that Louis L’Amour once read 115 books in a single year and for whatever reason I wanted to beat him.

Granted, I used audiobooks and he didn’t, but I also read a few epic fantasies, and he read a lot of dime novels. I figure it balanced out.

I didn’t have a tidy system for tracking it all, I just wrote it all down without numbering it or putting months on it. Now it’s all numbered and color-coded and stuff. Over the next few days I’ll post each year’s record since I started tracking it. Anyway, here’s 2009.

I’m going live on my channel in a few minutes to discuss all of this.

(Exactly as it appears in my document):

Inkdeath

Warbreaker

Hunt for Dark Infinity

Burying Our Swords

John Carter of Mars

Artemis Fowl

Tarzan of the Apes

Reagan in His Own Voice

Seventh Son

Reading Like a Writer

Black Belt Patriotism

Rings, Swords and Monsters

Hearts of Steel

The Indigo King

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer

Believe in What You’re Doing

Redefining Joy in the Last Days

Too Much to Carry Alone

Eye of the World

Watchmen

Bright Blue Miracle

Escape from the Carnivale

Opening Atlantis

Hourglass Door

Fablehaven 4

Sea of Monsters

Titan’s Curse

Battle for the Labyrinth

Last Olympian

Demigod Files

Hatter M

Epic

Seeing Redd

Godless

Tuck

Forest of Hands and Teeth

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

Federalist Papers

Dragon America

How to Win Friends & Influence People

I Am Not A Serial Killer

The Supernaturalist

The Graveyard Book

Anansi Boys

Stardust

Wings

Silver Kiss

Maze Runner

Red Prophet

Wish List

City of Bones

Superman: Neverending Battle

Silver Hand

Other Side of the Island

Superman/Batman vs Alien/Predator

Patrick Son of Ireland

Arctic Incident

Old Man’s War

The Heldan

Supergirl

Maximum Dinobots

ROTF Graphic Novel

The Sight

I Am Spock

Complete Guide to Guys

Where’s my Jetpack?

Schlock Mercenary vol. 1

The Alliance

Cry of the Icemark

History of the Millennium

Land Keep

Heroes of the Valley

Catching Fire

Across the Nightingale Floor

Key of Kilenya

Pingo

Elantris (Graphic Audio)

Chivalry

Course of Human Events

Mice and Magic

Uglies

You’re Not Fooling Anyone…

Saving Madeline

Glenn Beck’s Common Sense

Alcatraz/Knights of Crystallia

The Lost Symbol

Endless Knot

Leviathan

Something Wicked

Amulet of Samarkand (#90)

Tuesdays with Morrie

Superfreakonomics

Troy Lord of the Silver Bow

Grass for His Pillow (Otori 2)

Christmas on Mill Street

Pretties

Hashbrown Winters

Hunger Games

Storm Front

Next 100 Years (#100)

Notebook

Little book of BofM Evidences

Reagan’s Funeral

Merchant of Death

21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

Lord of the Flies

A Christmas Carol

Shadow Dragons

Hush Hush

Pirate Latitudes (#110)

Stir of Echoes

The Dark Divine

Mormons and Polygamy

A Sound of Thunder

Eaters of the Dead

Heart of Stone

“On a final note…” (20 minutes later)

S/o to Ben for catching that, haha.

I did a review on a book that made my best-of list for 2014. Links are in the video description. It’s about the philosophy of work, and the way people change when they’re in an environment where the quality of their work isn’t the deciding factor in assessing their contributions to the company.

Go watch it. Ran a little longer than I planned, but it’s good.

The Rekieta Whirlwind

Last week prominent law streamer Nick Rekieta was punted off YouTube mid-stream due to a mass-flag campaign. A lot of people in his orbit made videos about it, and I answered a rallying call to speak up on his behalf. (About 150 of my subs came from the chat on his channel.)

On Friday afternoon his channel was reinstated, but he’s still under a two-week ban for some reason. I dunno. I think he’s appealing it but he’s backed up on Rumble and Odysee, and that’s where he’s spending his time. I should start posting my stuff to those channels too.

Anyway, here is my video on free speech.

New Channel Art

Forgot to tell you guys I made these. Go subscribe to my channel, please.

Most of the YT channel will still be about books and reading, but I wanted to diversify the content with other things that I do regularly.

The current reading project for the channel is “What So Proudly We Hail.” I have videos scripted, just not recorded. Those who know, know that I have a lot going on for the next week.

In between video scripts, I’m picking at Howling Wilderness. It’s up and down with that one.

I draw when I can’t write, or when I’m not in the mood. My digital stuff is improving, and when I sit down to do publication-worthy stuff, I’m really pleased with the result. Onward and upward.