Old Timing It (Patreon)

A mostly normal week this time around. The kids were at Adventures in Cardboard, which is a cross between RenFest and a week-long capture the flag game in a local park. This is William's fourth year and Arya's first. As expected, it was more or less Arya's thing ever. William apparently earned the play currency by standing on a pillar and holding forth about history, which has been his obsession for much of the last year. He also apparently taught his team to execute a phalanx tactic in such a way that they were fighting in the shade while their opponents were fighting in the sun (it was in the 90s at the beginning of the week, which I'm sure made for miserable fighting weather) - so he's retaining the part of his history studies that are most applicable to this particular activity.

I've been working my way through the Foundation series (currently on the third book), which is about as classic sci-fi as sci-fi gets. It shows its age, understandably (publication date in the early 50s) - sometimes in awkward ways (kiiind of a manifest destiny thing going on, and the portrayal of women is a bit dated) and sometimes in borderline comical ones (everyone smokes - yes, even on a spaceship). I last read it when I was in college, albeit not as a college assignment, so it's been long enough that I've forgotten details that result in me being slightly surprised by twists - less what they are than exactly how they unfold.

Our TV group started the final season of What We Do in the Shadows, which is a lot of fun, as always. As much I've enjoyed this show, I prefer that a show or book series come to some kind of conclusion rather than lingering on way past the point where its premise is still entertaining.

Today is expected to be relatively quiet, so hopefully that means I can get this otherworldly conspiracy written before Tuesday. With the exception of a few weeks when I was working on paid freelance gigs or moving Black Vans from beta draft to final, I've been cranking these out at the rate of one a week, which has been really gratifying, but I'm also ready to be done with them so that I can start revisions. There can be no final draft without a first draft, though, so first thing's first.