JAG18

If pic only posts still aren't allowed, then here's my second response: "Your words cut deep, deeper than any three-blade scissor."

(No featured image because for some reason I never take horizontal pictures) Did you know the phrase, "The horrors persist but so do I," was only coined in 2023? I thought for sure it was taken from the letter of an 18th century explorer or writer or someone like that. Anyway, that's relevant to the how I'm doing portion, but I'd rather start with fun stuff I've been doing since my last update entry (which was somehow last July?). All The Boards Games I've Loved Before: Four cards, four games. These four are card/board games that I've made since 2021. Don't ask why, but they were all designed so I can play them against myself on the computer. Not even on Tabletop or a simulator I literally just open up the jpeg file (although I've very recently switched to PNG files) and move stuff around. It'd take too long to go in-depth for all of them so a super quick run down. End of Infinity: an attempt to make a card game you can play standing up. Cool idea, I like how quick and easy it is, but I can't balance the cards and so I have a small number of cards which makes games get old fast. Still an interesting idea. Onslaught: a pretty obvious rip off of "Xenoshyft Alien Onslaught" which is a tower defense game as a board game. This is cool because it does have a solo player variant. Enemy cards march in waves towards your villages and you move and attack with your small band of heroes to stop them. Combat is deterministic. I think this would be better as a flash game (do they still make those?) because it's a lot of work move all the cards and keeping track of health. Not sure how well it'd work with multiple players. Dumb Card Game: the name is fitting. Both players have a line of 7/8 cards and attack with dice until only side remains. Some cards of special powers, but the game can't really have that many so this one gets old fast too. Dumb Board Game: maybe the best if not the most original. This is basically a combination of all my favorite board games: Star Wars Epic Duels, Summoner Wars, and Heroscape. It's a simple skirmish game, but uses cards instead of miniatures. Roll dice, deal damage, and use special powers. The only problem might be how much of a copy it is. None have a strong theme and I just use whatever images I have on my computer. But since I've been doing this for years I now have a folder of 700 pictures just for games like these. The main image is of a character from my books, because turning any of these into an official "Law Bringer" board game might make it worth trying to share these online but that's beyond my means right now. What I Consumed: I obviously I can't talk about ever movie, TV show, and book, I've consumed over the last few months, even though it's a short list because I don't enjoy any of them as much as I used to. BUT, I learned the other day that Youtuber Raven Chantal tried to have a music career. Which is "I Don't Care (Nanana)" is my fave song right now. It takes me back to 2019 despite being from 2022. Writing: I don't know what I said about these in my last update, but I'm making the final edits so I can send it off to beta readers next month. I have a hard publishing deadline of December, but it's going to come down to the wire. I'm honestly speed running this edit because I think finishing is more important than anything else. Focus on the character arcs, plot points, and important moments and just hope the rest is good enough. What I've learned from trying to be a writer is that being successful (in terms of readership let alone sales) has more to do with marketing and having good people skills, Needless to say my career is kinda stuck right now. It's a good question why I keep going, but that's a whole 'nother thing I could go on about. Since I'm already be depressing, that's the perfect Segway into... Life: Lately, I've found myself saying that the spring was better. That sounds weird because I don't think it was that great either. A question I think over a lot lately is whether or not it's worth talking about what's wrong. So far I've come to the conclusion it's just better to keep all inside, but also try and be matter of fact about things. Hence, "the horrors persist but so do I." Things aren't looking great, but I don't think my life has changed much over the last year, so I'm not sure what might be coming in the future. Although, I'm turning thirty next month though so that's something big. Okay, I think I'm done. I've had several ideas for topics I want to make (Overthinking The Great Beings, The Most Bizarre Greg Quotes), but either lose interest in them or never find the time to write, but that might happen in the future. -JAG

"I Don't Care (Nanana)" - Raven Chantal. I'd share some lyrics, but I actually don't find much meaning in them. It's a high-energy pop song by a youtuber I like, that's it.

"mark like cain" - Nathalie Miller. "Tell me how I’m lucky it’s not worse You’re lucky I’m not"

"CROCO" - Olivia Addams. "C-R-O-C-O crocodile tears, uh huh!"

"Blouse" - Clairo. Yes, I just discovered this song too, and no despite being soft and quiet it is actually kinda dark lol.

Don't know if this is what Cheesy Mac n Cheese is referring to, but I found this by searching "pirates" in the grand archive.

"Caribbean Blue" - Enya. This song is older than me and was a worldwide hit, but I just heard it in an IG reel the other day and now I can't get enough of this enchantment.

"Manalan Mailla" - Vilma Jaa (for Control Resonant). Finnish lyrics I don't understand (but did look up the translation once). I honestly can't remember how I discovered this, I just found it on my "songs to listen to" playlist and liked it. Probably a Finnish artist I follow on IG used it in a story, but again I have no memory.

I agree, the fact that those cartoons are still remembered decades later is proof they did something right and that the sentiment of dismissing them is a little harsh, but I think it's also fair to a point. I made that statement partly because of something a guy (who grew up in the '80s) in a discord server I'm in said when the topic of the new "He-Man" movie came up. That the show had "no characters or lore", although checking the comment now he also said "G.I. Joe" was great, so I'll concede that. The point is, it doesn't take much to step back and see how shallow old action cartoons often were, especially if you compare them to what came after (the 2000s cartoons I grew up watching). Shows that proved how mature and deep children's TV can be. Of course, other old cartoons absolutely deserve the description of "toy commercial" more, but if I had said "Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm" would it have gotten across the point I was trying to make? It's like how George R.R. Martin likes to point out flaws in "The Lord of The Rings" when discussing why he wrote his fantasy books. But if you read between the lines, his criticisms better describe fantasy books inspired by Tolkien and not actual Tolkien. Books which also hardly anyone recognizes by name. Is it flippant and unfair? True. Am I doing the same thing by lumping in beloved TV shows with actually bad ones? Also, true. But I stand by the idea that the shows I mentioned are closer to Hero Factory on the toy commercial-to-art scale than the greats of 2000s cartoons.

So, I recently discovered that Faber had an idea for Hero Factory where Mr. Makuro is the villain or something. I'm not saying that would have made HF better or that executive/corporate meddling is always bad, but it sounds like LEGO laid out some specific rules for what HF could and couldn't be. It reminds me of "Ben 10: Alien Force" which had 2 great seasons, then a mid/bad final season. According to the crew, that's because for season 3 Cartoon Network told them to lighten the tone of the show and shot down their original idea for the season's arc, so the writers just made up whatever to fill-out the season. I'd be more surprised if LEGO didn't have a similar mandate for HF that didn't include at least one mention of "Don't do what you did with Bionicle." I'm not saying the people who worked on HF were salty and intentionally sabotaged the series, but maybe if a company gets in the way of its talented creative people and hinds their creativity, then it shouldn't be surprised when what they do come up with isn't the best. But that's all just speculation on my part.

"Get Back Up" - TobyMac. "And one day, you gon' shine again/You may be knocked down, but not out forever Lose our way, we get back up again/So get up, get up, you gon' shine again It's never too late to get back up again/You may be knocked down, but not out forever."

Hero Factory is a great example of what Bionicle could have been. I know both were the result of a massive company's mandate, but I think when you look at Christian Faber and Alastair Swinnerton's commentary on creating Bionicle (and throw in Greg too once he became the driving force of the story in the later years) it's obvious they didn't treat it as just another job. It was very much a passion project for them. Bionicle didn't need to go so hard, but these and other people made sure it did. Hero Factory (which I do have a soft spot for) really felt phoned in by comparison. It's kind of the difference between old '80s cartoons like "He-Man" and "G.I. Joe" which were just long toy commercials and later animated shows like "Avatar" and "Young Justice" which were also about selling toys but are also great pieces of art in their own right. It's also probably why we're still talking about Bionicle after all this time, because of how much effort was put into it.

"Wiser" - Beth Crowley. "And whatever happened/to the life I was promised? told I could be anything/if I worked the hardest instead I was handed/a world that's so broken and you act surprised when/I say it seems hopeless"

"Hummingbird" - Kyla La Grange. "Like a hummingbird I'll hover/but never taste the fruit Like a memory of a lover/that flickers into view. And all the things you wanted/that kept on calling you. Oh you try, but cannot choose." Tropical tinged ode to analysis paralysis. Was (is still?) my fave song of 2016.