Giving Thanks… for Civilization VI

Yours portly had a massive burst of productivity on a lazy, rainy Saturday early in November.  I buckled down and finished my lesson plans, quizzes, tests, study guides, exams, exam review guides, etc., for the rest of the semester.  I spent the following Sunday afternoon churning out blog posts, as I’m trying to get back ahead so I don’t have to worry about writing over Thanksgiving.

One upshot to all of that hustle is that I have a rare thing now:  free time in the evenings.  I’m always working a bit on something, and I have plenty of grading to keep me warm over Thanksgiving Break, but I’ve been slamming that stuff out, too.

That’s all to say that I’ve had way more time to play video games in the evenings, usually while watching horror movies.  The game that has dominated my time the past few weeks—and which has kept me up far too late on a number of occasions—is Civilization VI.

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Confessions of a Frustrated Creator

Yours portly has to get something off of his massive, hairy chest:  I don’t think I’ve been delivering the best content lately.  Blogging daily is always going to be a game of quantity versus quality, but I feel as though I have been phoning it in more and more.

It’s my job to give you what you want, and I haven’t been doing that very well lately.  Quite frankly, though, I’m frustrated.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Ankle Break

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

On Monday, 30 October 2023, I suffered a very bad fall in my laundry/mudroom.  I had an infestation of these little tiny beetles that are, fortunately, harmless; however, I wanted to get rid of them.  To that end, I sprayed a lemongrass indoor insecticide liberally throughout the laundry room.

Well, it worked:  it killed the bugs—and it nearly killed me!  I missed a spot when stepping into the room to take out Murphy, and fell hard onto the concrete floor.

At the time, I just thought it was a bad sprain, as I was able to hobble around well enough.  I iced my ankle and elevated it on some pillows on my bed, and struggled throughout a night of pain.

Well, after spending Halloween walking around on my hobbled foot—and borrowing first some crutches and then a cane from colleagues—my foot seemed to get worse.  By Wednesday morning, it was clear I needed to see an orthopedist.

Well, it turns out I had a broken ankle.

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Sleep!

Ever since I was a small child, I get very grumpy when I am sleep-deprived.  My brothers would tease me about how angry I would get after about 8 PM, which usually just made me angrier.

As an adult, sleep deprivation tends to make me grumpy and nihilistic.  It’s not a good combination, and I struggle at times with despair (a terrible sin, because it fundamentally fails to place faith in God and His Provision) as it is.  Combine extreme exhaustion with a bad, or even just particularly stressful, day, and I can be downright insufferable.

Such was the case last Friday, 6 October 2023.  It was perfect storm of a day:  I released a new album to Bandcamp, which saw me awake at 3 AM to publish for Bandcamp Friday; I had to build out an entire pep band setup for a school pep rally in about forty-five minutes; and I had myriad Homecoming day responsibilities, including sound checking the choir (they sang the National Anthem Friday evening) and calling the game.  It all meant a long, exhausting day, one that left me drained mentally, physically, and spiritually.

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Gig Day VIII: Tickling the Ivories

Tonight, for the first time in awhile, I’ll be playing a solo gig at a local coffee shop in Darlington, South Carolina.  I’m looking forward to stretching out these stubby fingers and doing some soft rockin’.

Well, it won’t be entirely solo:  my buddy John will be joining me on a number of songs.  His gorgeous twelve-string guitar and his capable backing vocals add a great deal of depth and texture to my tunes, so I’m glad he’ll be joining me.

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Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2023]!

Another Labor Day—another day for eating hot dogs and chilling out around the house.  Other than some half-days and a professional development day, it’s the last holiday for yours portly until the insanely good Thanksgiving Break that I get now.

I’m on mild dog sitting duty for my neighbors, so I’m keeping it local this weekend.  I did quite a bit of driving (most of it floozy-related) in early-to-mid-August, so I’m looking forward to a little time at the house.

Looking back at prior year’s LD posts, it seems I did not make it to Florida as predicted last Labor Day.  It ended up being a weekend for some South Carolina-based adventures.

There are more adventures to come, just not this weekend.  This weekend is for the dogs—both canine and hot.

With that, here is “Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2022]!“:

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September 2023 Bandcamp Friday; NEW RELEASE!

Ah, yes, Bandcamp Friday has returned, which means I hope you will consider pitching in a few bucks to buy my music—or my second book!  After a long hiatus over the summer months, this celebration of indie musicians is back.

The first Friday of a bunch of months in 2023—February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November, and December—will feature this pro-indie music observance, a day on which Bandcamp waives its usual 15% commission on sales.

In other words, when you buy my music, almost 100% of it goes to me, instead of almost 85%.

To celebrate, I have a brand new release:  Spooky Season!  Spooky Season is a collection of seven new compositions with a spooky, autumnal vibe, perfect for pumpkin-spiced living and ghostly vibes.  These tracks won’t hit streaming platforms until October, but you can purchase them now via Bandcamp!

Spooky Season is just $5, and includes full scores and individual parts for every track—a $28 value!—plus a bonus track.  It’s also crammed with videos, handwritten manuscripts, and other goodies.

Currently, my entire discography of eleven releases is $18.39a savings of 50%, which is not bad for eleven releases.  That’s $1.67 per release—not too shabby!  To purchase the full discography, click on any release, and you’ll see the option to purchase all of them.

You can also listen to a ton of my tunes on YouTube (and it’s free to subscribe!).

I’m also selling all of my paintings for $10, with free shipping in the United States, regardless of how many you purchase.  They’re one of kind, so once a painting is purchased, it’s gone.

I’ve also joined Society6, a website that lets artists upload their designs, which can they be printed onto all manner of products (like this throw pillow, or this duvet cover).  Why not get a bookbag with a mouthy droid on it?

I only get 10% of the sales made there, but some of the stuff looks really good—I really want these notebooks with my “Desert View” painting on it (now SOLD!).  Some of them are straight-up goofy, like this church doodle I made celebrating the presidential pardon of Roger Stone (the description for the piece is “Anger your friends with this doodle commemorating the presidential pardon of America’s most dapper political operative“).

I have a few new paintings in the works, and hope to be attending the South Carolina Bigfoot Festival to try to hawk some of my works.  We’ll see how that goes!

My first book, The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot, is $10 in paperback, and just $5 on Kindle.

My second and newest book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures, is $20 in paperback and $10 on Kindle.

Finally, after I finish Offensive Poems: With Pictures, my planned third book, I’ll be uploading those doodles to Society6 as well.  I have high hopes (perhaps naïvely) for this book, but we shall see.  The doodles are some of my best work—and in glorious color—and without notebook paper lines!

Thanks again for your support!

Happy Friday!

—TPP

The Joys of Fasting

Yours portly got very portly over the last year.  I struggle against two of life’s greatest delicacies:  food and women.  Without getting into too many specifics, the untimely implosion of involvement with a member of the latter led to a self-drugging with the former.  Combined with the cold winter months, when all I want to do in the evenings is eat an entire pizza while watching horror movies, yours portly’s weight ballooned from around 235.5 pounds to a disgracefully fat 271.8 pounds in a matter of six months or so.

Being morbidly obese is certainly on-brand for this larger-than-life blog (and the chunky personality behind it), but it’s not exactly good for mental and physical health.  I’d like for readers to continue to have something to read from me, so after months of overindulging, I’m finally taking steps to right the ship and throw some of the blubber overboard.

My solution is one I followed last summer, when I found myself in a similarly bechunked state (though not nearly as bechunked as I am now):  intermittent fasting.

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Scramblin’

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

Last Saturday was the annual Lamar Egg Scramble.  It also marked my first foray into the world of arts and crafts selling, as I obtained a vendor spot to attempt to sell some of my paintings.

I managed to land a vendor spot in exchange for playing the Taste of Lamar, so I was able to market test my paintings in a festival setting.  While I’ve made a few private sales to family and friends, I’ve not had much success selling my paintings online.

Finally, I had the opportunity to discover if I’m just a delusional hack, or if there actually is a market for amateurish, Primitivist paintings of squids and landscapes.

It was an abject failure.

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Phone it in Friday XXXVI: On the Road, Festival News

I’m chaperoning a trip to Washington, D.C. for my school’s ninth and tenth graders, and we’ve been going nonstop since about 5 AM on Wednesday, 29 March 2023.  Indeed, I’m writing this blog post on the bus to our nation’s capital.  The bus is equipped with WiFi, which is one of the more decadent instances of modern travel amenities I’ve enjoyed.

After the madness (and awesomeness) of my school’s annual Spring Concert (more on that tomorrow), it’s good to hit the road for a few days.  I was not looking forward to slogging through the rest of the week after the high of the concert.  That’s not to mention the burn of it:  according to my fitness app, I burned over 1900 calories and walked a little over seven miles throughout the course of the day.

There’s been a great deal of walking on this trip, so the burn keeps going.  I haven’t been able to get in my morning run, but the perambulation to historic sites has made up the difference in terms of caloric burn.

I’ll have more details soon.  The other big event is the Lamar Egg Scramble, which kicks off this afternoon, the bulk of which is tomorrow.  I have some big (for me) news in regards to the ol’ Scramble.

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