The Joy Factory Weekly Newsletter! (New Issue Up)
Heyo, folks. I’ve not been updating much on the blog. Hence the new posts today! For those that don’t know, I’ve started a newsletter (title in the, uh, title). It features a collection of interesting links, reading lists, books to check out, articles and other writing projects, interviews, and more! You can subscribe to the newsletter at GetRevue or here! Also: a brand new issue just dropped (#8, y’all)! Coming soon: an interview with the lovely Adri Joy! Thanks for hanging about. Have a good’un!
New Podcast: The Joy Factory Monthly!
Hiyo, blog follower ninjas! In case you didn’t know, I’ve been releasing a mostly-weekly new podcast as part of the Joy Factory project called The Joy Factory Monthly. You can find the show on almost every podcatcher (iTunes, etc.), stream the episodes right here on my website, and find episodes on Acast! If you don’t know what the show is about, here’s the simple pitch: each episode, I’ll talk about a joyful topic with a guest (or just you, the audience). The topics will be geeky and run the gamut from specific films or books to video games and culture to fascinating science and *joyful* news. Basically, it’s intended as a fix for joyful geeky content and represents my desperate attempt to not feel like the entire world is burning to the ground and we’re all doomed! If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, give the show a listen, subscribe on your favorite podcatcher, and give the show a five star review on iTunes! Oh, and a brand new episode just dropped! It features a conversation with Iori Kusano about the joy of video games, from the escape they offer to the NPCs and games living rent free in our heads, and much more! Check it out below!
Capricon 41: My Schedule (Panels, Live Podcasts, etc.)
Welp. It’s that time of year for Capricon, a Chicago-based science fiction convention to run virtually this year. Capricon 41‘s guests of honor include Aliette de Bodard, Brandon O’Brien, John Jennings, Michi Trota, and Dr. Cacophonie Tamayo, all exceptional individuals in general (and within their respective fields). Needless to say, Capricon is going to be on fire this year! This year is unusual, too, for the fact that I helped a little with programming, though not nearly as much as I should have or wanted to when I first chose to participate. It’s been a learning experience, though, and I hope to continue growing and being better at this going forward! With all that out of the way, here’s my schedule of panels (all times in CDT). Come hang out!
Announcement: The Joy Factory is on Medium!
For those who follow me here or on Medium direct, you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve put together a space for The Joy Factory content in the form of a Medium Publication. This will create a central designed space for all of the joyful content! It also means that following me there and my personal Medium page will go a long way to supporting the content I create for this project. Content will still show up here and on the Patreon page for The Joy Factory, but you’ll see a bit more thought going into their placement on Medium going forward. Also in the works: a newsletter. More on that later. So there you go. Go follow me on Medium. Support my stuffs!
New Year’s Resolutions: No More Intentional Misery
2020 is over. It’s dead. Time killed it. Thank the maker. Bye bye, 2020. Go die in a fire. Now that 2021 is here, it’s time for that magic tradition that many folks following: declaring New Year’s resolutions! I’ve declared these in the past, but there have also been years where I felt disinclined to do much of anything about the new year. But 2020 was an absolutely horrific year for a lot of people, and it exposed a lot of the activities and behaviors that don’t, for me, make life particularly excited. While I can’t control a lot of the miserable activities happening around me, I can make changes (or continue existing changes) that will make life less stressful, more purposeful, and more joyful. That’s why I’ve decided that 2021 is going to be the Year of Deliberately Manifesting Joy, continuing the mission I began in November 2020 with The Joy Factory and extending those actions across the spectrum of my life as much as possible. So what does that mean in New Year’s Resolutions terms?
The Joy Factory: A Project Primer
Welp. I did something potentially ridiculous: I started a project called The Joy Factory on Patreon, launched it, and now I’m here to explain what this whole thing is about. Here we go… What is The Joy Factory? The Joy Factory is a Patreon project designed to draw more attention to joyful things, whether it’s stuff I’m doing (TTRPGs and writing) or stuff other people are up to (movies, books, and more). It’s really that simple. OK, well, there’s also some silliness about getting on a space cruise ship called the Joy Factory, but mostly it’s that first thing. To get an idea of the kinds of things I’ll do there, here’s the main description from the page: