Welcome to October

Happy October, everyone! Welcome to my favorite month. It has fall, leaves changing colors, Halloween, and a distinct smell to it between the crisp air, fireplace and pellet stove smoke, pumpkin spice, apple cider, and decay of vegetation going into hibernation for winter.

There are two other reasons why October is my favorite month. One of which is that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

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So, in honor of BCA, I'm changing all of my hyperlink colors from blue to pink for the posts I publish this month. If the shade of pink I choose ends up hard to read for you, please let me know in the comments below, and I'll try a different shade.

Also, please remember that, at least in the USA, breast cancer screenings are either free or very-low cost. They are uncomfortable, sure, but they aren't all that bad - I've had mammograms and ultrasounds myself - and the technology is there for nearly everyone to survive breast cancer if it's detected early enough. So please, go get yourself screened. Self-check at home. Remind any breasted persons you know that they should get checked. Also, remember that you don't have to have breasts to contract breast cancer, it can affect any soft chest tissue. Watch yourselves; check yourselves; be knowledgeable of your bodies and talk to a doctor if you notice anything new.

Long-time readers of this blog would know that my mom is a breast cancer survivor. My mother-in-law was one as well, as was one of my mother's aunts, one or two of my mother's cousins, and a few of my mom's friends. I've had a friend or two myself who have had breast cancer scares. Of all the cancers that infect this world, breast cancer specifically seems to hit the most of my friends, family, and neighbors. It is a cause near and dear to me, and I will fight the only ways I know how - and can financially manage - to make sure no one else has to die from this disease. So, please, use this month to remember to check yourselves, and remember to screen for other cancers throughout the rest of the year. Stay safe and healthy the best you can. Love you all!

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As for the last - and arguably, now the most important - reason October is my favorite month? Well...

I had known for some time now that I was going to be working this past Tuesday, and therefore couldn't work on my blog post in the morning, as I usually do. I even planned on spending Monday evening – while the football game was on – writing my post so it would be scheduled and ready to go for my normal noon update time. Clearly, that didn't happen. I didn't even open Blogger to start it.

Such a slacker.

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So, why was I working on a Tuesday anyway? Well, it's so I could have Wednesday off, of course. It was kind of an important day. The main reason why I love October so much, although, to be fair, my love for October to begin with was the main reason we picked it....

Hubby and I celebrated 8 awesome years on the 2nd!

Look how cute we were!

I grabbed a shot of Rogue and Gambit from a comic book cover
in order to cover up Hubby's face and mine.
I think it works awesome for me, but Hubby looks like he's
wearing a creepy plastic mask. XD
Sorry, Hubby. <3

We celebrated with quite the lazy day on Tuesday. Hubby has been hit with the plague for the past two weeks, plus his long work shifts have been giving him back problems, and so leaving the apartment to go and do anything would be tricky. Didn't really matter much to me. If I could spend all day snuggling him - after spraying him down with Lysol, of course - I would be a happy camper.

With that in mind, we started our anniversary off right by not turning the alarm on when we went to bed the night before, and then slept in until 10am.

Like the adults we are.

Yeah.

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Once we decided there should be more to our anniversary than snuggling in bed, we made a hearty brunch, and proceeded to finally plow through Good Omens.

Yeah, we caved, and grabbed that free month trial of Amazon Prime so we can get our Halloween costumes situated on time. Which also means we can FINALLY watch the Prime shows people have been gushing about. We already binged The Boys a few days ago, and now that we're done with Good Omens we have Carnival Row queued up. We'll see if we can manage to get through it before the trial ends, especially since we've also been playing catch-up on the YouTube series Oxventure.

Official Oxventure promotional artwork from 2017
by DustyLeaves (aka Bendix)

Yup, while seemingly the rest of the world is obsessing over the D&D campaign series Critical Role, Hubby and I have started up watching Oxventure instead. We've been following the channels OutsideXbox and Outside Xtra for some time now, but we usually stuck with their listicles, so we didn't really know what was up with their Oxventure segments.

What was up was that, in September of 2017, to celebrate hitting two-million subscribers on OutsideXbox, the OX crews – Andy, Jane, and Mike from OutsideXbox, and Luke and Ellen from Outside Xtra – decided to film their first ever attempt at playing D&D. It was fantastic, and became a fan-favorite. Since that premiere session, they've continued kind of sporadically posting campaign sessions. They are currently up to thirteen sessions and a leveling video – split into 28 videos – and roughly half of those gaming sessions were filmed live at conventions. As first-time players, they seem to be having great fun, and their kooky role-playing antics just feel so much like my own play group. Complete with the players dumbing down their characters - or the DM dumbing down an NPC - simply because it's more amusing that way. For instance, the bard Dob has become canonically horrendous with money. He tends to accept quests for no reward, overpays for everything - such as spending 50gold on a round of drinks for the 5-person party when a typical pint of ale is generally half-a-gold in most D&D campaigns - uses the party's loot as if it were common items - such as weighing down a makeshift diving bell with gold bars - and he also routinely tosses their loot overboard, assuming it will be "safer" at the bottom of a lake. While not a reference to Dob's financial ineptitude, the pirate and self-appointed party leader Corazon canonically sells tunics that say "Don't be a Dob" on the front of them.

Likewise, as I mentioned, my play group also does stupid "our character should know better" moves for the overall entertainment value it brings to the story. Heck, in the latest session Hubby and I participated in, our characters - WHO SHOULD HAVE DEFINITELY KNOWN BETTER - requested probably the dumbest reward for clearing out a goblin den. We were going to be staying in the town for a few days, so my character asked for "free room and board" for the length of time that we would be there. However, Hubby's character misheard, and asked for "room and A board." So now the party has two free rooms - one for the men; one for the women, even though we never split the party that way - in the local inn for as long as we're in town... and a plank of wood that my character - who is a cat-person - uses as a stress-relieving scratching post. Along with the free room and "a board," Hubby's character - who really shouldn't have been the one to hand our reward request to the town mayor - requested just ONE SOLITARY MEAL voucher for us all to share for that night's dinner. We also received a large boat-shaped cookie for each of us when our original request for a fleet of "baby boats" - rowboats - was denied. We're good at this "receiving a reward" thing.

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So, when I hear the Oxventure Guild characters doing The Stupid, such as the dragonborn paladin propelling himself over a wall by standing on his shield and exploding a bomb beneath it, I just... I feel at home?

Hubby and I will have to get to Critical Role eventually, but each of those videos are roughly three hours long, and the first campaign alone is 121 videos! That's a little over 15 straight days! It will take us over 4 months to finish just the first campaign if we watch only ONE session each night; nevermind catching up on the second campaign. That 4-months schedule also takes for granted that we wouldn't be watching anything else - such as anime with Omnibladestrike on Saturdays; football Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays; or The Masked Singer on Wednesdays - otherwise it will take even LONGER to catch up with the series. We'd also have to ignore all of the extra content on that channel! Meanwhile, each Oxventure video is between 40 and 70 minutes long... a touch easier to get through. Especially when it looks like the last one was posted in August, so it's not like we have to catch up on a new one weekly. Although, it should be noted that they're doing another live session at EGX in London the weekend of October 18th, so the campaign seems to still be going strong.

Anyway, if you want a goofy, light-hearted, quick-to-watch D&D campaign series, I do suggest Oxventure. And if you're still not convinced, I'd like to add that Merilwen's cat form is friggen adorable.

Luke as Half-Orc bard Dob, and Ellen as Wood Elf druid Merilwen.
Stuffed kitty as Merilwen's Cat Wild-form.
Screen shot from "Bad Chair Day"

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Soooo, yeah.

Hubby and I have been taking in the stories of the Oxventures Guild, The Boys, and Good Omens. I've also tried to go through a few more prompt ideas, still struggling with Ronoxym's now much-belated birthday gift. At least my struggles have helped ChibiSunnie come up with a new story idea. She was trying to help me brainstorm for Ron's gift, and in doing so I somehow got onto the topic of the show Altered Carbon on Netflix. The basic concept of the series ended up sparking an idea for Chibi, and she kind of ran with it. Her teacher and classmates are super excited with the solarpunk alien-world story she's developing, and I also can't wait to see what she came up with. Sooooo... there's always that. Happy to help.


I was still struggling though, and while talking to Wolfhearted about my Ronoxym dilemma, he told me that Ron's favorite character of all time just might be Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. I looked the series up and.... it's up to fifteen novels! Just reading ONE novel quickly enough to write a Dresden fanfic before the end of the month would be challenging, but to read FIFTEEN so that I could fully know the lore, and Harry's character development, and yada-yada? Nope. No way I'd be able to do that. Especially with the shows I still want to watch this month - I didn't even mention above that I also want to watch the Dark Crystal series on Netflix - and finishing pre-NaNoWriMo prep.

Feeling defeated yet again, I noticed that Butcher has a sort of prequel short story as well as a vignette posted on his website. I read both to get the basic feel for the series and the character of Harry Dresden. In doing so, I had a bit of a light bulb moment.

The concept of The Dresden Files is that Harry is a modern Chicago P.I. who happens to also be a wizard, and therefore also works to help magical creatures in need of a P.I. He also uses his magic to protect normal humans from the magical world they didn't know surrounded them.

Now, Ronoxym also likes the works of Rick Riordan, in which ancient Greek/Roman, Egyptian, and Norse gods/mythology are real and still around in the modern world. The teenage main characters must keep the mythological world hidden from regular mortals. Also, the protags all have special abilities of some form thanks to being mages or demigods or – in the case of The Trials of Apollo – a god-turned-mortal.

On top of that, while it is on my always-expanding “to read” list, I have yet to get to the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer. However, it was Ron who had suggested it to me, and Ron who is cautiously excited about the Disney adaptation of the first book coming out early 2020. The concept of that series? A modern-day, teenage, criminal mastermind, and his interactions with Fairies. Although he starts off as an anti-hero – holding a Fairy hostage in the first book – he evolves to become a sort of reluctant ally of the Fae throughout the series.

Now hold up, because we're not quite done yet. The last I checked, Ron's favorite TV series is Supernatural. For those who don't know, that series follows the Winchester brothers Sam and Dean as they fight the – surprise, surprise – supernatural forces in the modern world. Usually it's demons and generic monsters, sometimes it's angels, who aren't nearly as kind and loving as the Bible would imply. The long-and-short is that it is yet again a modern, urban fantasy in which supernatural / paranormal / mythological beings are being hidden from mortal common knowledge.

Then you have the LARPs Ron plays via the White Wolf World of Darkness campaigns in which vampires, werewolves, mages, changelings, and even mummies roam the world; hidden from public knowledge.

Sensing the same theme I did?

Urban fantasy in which magical creatures are part of the day-to-day, but are somehow hidden from public knowledge, and the main character is the bridge between the two worlds? I could do that. It wouldn't be a Hunger-Games-like dystopia, nor would it be about Harry Dresden or any other fandoms Ron is in. However, if I do it correctly, perhaps a completely original work can still be entertaining enough that Ron will enjoy it.

So back to searching for more writing prompts. I actually collected quite a few that I enjoyed, even though most of them wouldn't really work with the urban fantasy feel I was now going for.

• The king has passed away without naming a proper heir to the throne. However, none of the six siblings are interested in inheriting the crown. The struggle to push the crown to someone else begins now.
• You are the king. After your daughter was kidnapped by a dragon, you offered the standard reward of her hand in marriage to whomever rescued her. You weren't expecting her to be rescued by a different dragon.
• With hair as black as ebony, lips red as blood, and skin as white as snow, you are a truly terrifying vampire. The people still tell of you to this day, even though you haven't publicly paraded as a vampire for centuries. The only problem? Some idiot screwed up, and now people tell the story of “Snow White” the Disney princess, rather than “Snow White” the deathly feared vampire.
• First appearing as a discoloration on your shoulders, now the scaling has spread across your chest and arms. You are changing, and you're not sure how much longer you can keep it a secret from the ones that you love.
• Three ancient dragons have existed for thousands of years. They hold the key to the kingdom's power source while protecting it from outside threats. When two of the dragons are killed mysteriously, a ragtag group of Orcs must find a way to the third before it's too late.
• Tinnitus is actually the result of pissed-off pixies, who haven't been properly fed in a couple of centuries (hint: it involves sugar and rum).
• You've been raised all your life to fulfill a prophecy, only for the seer to realize they were mistaken – you have no great destiny after all. What do you do now?

I could go on, but this is getting a bit excessive already. Just know that I now have a file of prompt ideas for my next writer's block moment. Before I move on, though, there are still a few others I wanted to make sure I shared. First, there were some that made me think of Taurus Pixie's story Immortal Bond, or Ali Luke's Lycopolis universe.

• Due to certain circumstances that are best left untold, you are now fused with a demon. What this means, however, is unknown.
• You're possessed by a demon. You quickly realize he's never done this before.
• The demon stands amid your destroyed kitchen screaming. “How? How were you able to summon me!?”
  You're standing in the corner frantically flipping through your grandma's cookbook, screaming back, “I don't know!! You were supposed to be chicken soup!”

That last one makes me chuckle whenever I re-read it.

And then there was one which made me think of the Legend of Zelda character Navi: bane of just about every player who played “Ocarina of Time.”

The tiniest fairy settled on your shoulder. She was cute at first, but several months later, you are desperate to get rid of her.

The main one I wanted to share though, was the final prompt I read to Hubby.

You finally build enough courage to talk to that cute someone you see every day on the bus. Their face turns dark as they respond, “You shouldn't be able to see me.”

This one proved to be the winner. Upon hearing it, Hubby actually thought of a slightly different prompt for me. He quickly jotted it down, and when I read his idea I fell in love. I could work with this prompt. In fact, while at work on Tuesday, I did some research and worked on my world-build. I don't know if I'll be able to get the story done before this upcoming Tuesday, but I'm aiming for the 18th at the latest, that way it's within the first month of Ronoxym being 30. Still counts, right?

Speaking of writing prompts and self-appointed deadlines. The Fruits Basket fan-event “Kyoru Week” begins on Sunday. One week of daily prompts – already released so people can get a jump start on their stories/artwork – dedicated to the Fruits Basket ship of Kyo Sohma and Tohru Honda. As Chibi pointed out, I've already written two Kyoru stories, unprompted, over the past few months. If I tag-team thinking of those seven prompts and figuring out my story for Ron, might I be able to conquer both???

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For those who want to join in with Kyoru Week over on Tumblr, the link is here, and for those who don't want to go to Tumblr, here is the list of prompts.

I will either be in a writing frenzy the next couple of weeks, or I won't get anything accomplished. I guess we'll have to see which way I go. I'm personally pulling for the “writing frenzy” option, but considering how late this blog post is I don't have terribly too high hopes....

Although, to be fair, I HAVE been working on it daily since Tuesday, but time restrictions prevented me from working on it for more than a few paragraphs at a time....

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OH! I almost forgot! I can officially retire my netbook now!

I've been complaining for quite a bit lately about how slow the poor thing has been running, and how it's gotten to the point where it won't even charge properly anymore. It is roughly a decade old, to be fair. Also, the keyboards is... shall we say... worn?

My glorious 10" HP Mini

Can you guess what keys, what part of the space
bar, and what portion of the touch-pad
I use the most?

The poor thing truly is in such bad shape. Most of the keyboard writing is missing from it! Also, do you see the claw marks my habitually long nails left behind after so many years? Poor keyboard!

I'm not actually getting rid of the netbook. That way I have it and the cables as emergency back-up should my laptop, my new netbook, and Hubby's laptop all fail me. It's an unlikely event, and I probably shouldn't "hoard" in an already overly cluttered home, but still....

To replace my old HP Mini, I now have an HP Stream, which is supposedly the replacement model after HP discontinued the Mini.

I've been using the Stream for about a week, as of this writing.
So there's quite a few finger/hand prints on the ribbed cover already.

It's not as pretty as that awesome vibrant red Mini cover, but it's still sleek, and it's suuuuper light. I think I've read BOOKS that are heavier than this thing! But it doesn't feel flimsy either. It should be able to last me for a little while.

Look at this happy new 11.5" netbook

Oh, hey! All of the letters are still on the keys!

I'm excited with this purchase, and the Stream is FAST too. Not much space on it, but once you clean up some of the surplus programs that come standard with HP Windows 10 - such as Xbox live stream, a couple of game demos, and Skype, which I rarely ever use - you have a comfortable amount of memory available to save a couple of small things. I also almost exclusively work on my netbook with my external plugged in, so everything is saved to and taken off of that. More than enough for what I use the computer for. I can actually use the internet with ease as well. That was always the big irony of my Mini. It was a Netbook, but even when it was new it was fairly slow while on the internet. That's not a problem for me anymore.

Now to find my Muse again, and some downtime at work, and I'm in business again. Yay!

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