Category: Updates

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Update

Twelve’s Design

So… almost two months have passed since my last update. I overbooked myself last month, but I’m back. I’ve almost finished Chapter 4 of Twelve’s Design and am transitioning into Chapter 5. Well, I’ve made the decision to break the book into more chapters, so Chapter 4 will become Chapters 5 and 6 and Chapter 5 will be Chapters 7 and 8. I’ll probably think of the book in terms of the old numbering scheme for a while longer though since my notes are organized that way. I hope more chapters will smooth out Chapter 5, which has a ton of stuff in it, and other messy chapters in the second half of the book. It does make me sad that Twelve’s Design will no longer have twelve chapters. I can live with either two groups of twelve chapters or three groups of six chapters though. >:D

OokiiSoraCon Web App

I hosted the OokiiSoraCon website for pre-convention testing purposes… somewhere on this domain. I’ll keep it secret for now because, while I did follow a security-minded tutorial to implement it, I don’t know how secure it really is. Now I’m squashing bugs and implementing requests as revealed by the members of the OokiiSoraCon staff that tested it. I question if an OokiiSoraCon video game will happen this year, but we’ll at least have THIS. You’ll have to come to the convention to find out what. 😛

The Writer’s Net

I’ve mostly finished implementing the React half of The Writer’s Net. All I have left to do is finish implementing the map. For some dumb reason, I decided to update my old code to the newest version of D3 while also refactoring it for use as a JavaScript module. So, adding it to the application hasn’t been as simple as importing it into the project and attaching the right connections. When I first started this React implementation of The Writer’s Net though, I had no idea how those connections would even work. Refactoring the code has helped solidify that. Now I just have to get it work!

The time I’ve spent learning the other technologies the NuCamp class has moved onto, however, has also slowed development. While I don’t exactly feel comfortable building mobile applications yet, I at least got familiar with React Native last month. Now we’re learning NodeJS, Express, and MongoDB for the backend logic and database portion of the JavaScript MERP stack. I have no idea what the best practices are for designing a database that stores redundant data intentionally, and it doesn’t look like the class will delve into it, so I guess I have more outside research to do to finish The Writer’s Net. I graduate mid-July, so we’ll see if I can at least have the application basically working by then.

Elysium

Something amazing and completely unexpected happened last month. I received an email from Matt and Adam Rovner, the co-writers of Elysium (2003)’s original script. They discovered the articles I wrote on the film and wanted to tell me what they know about its history. O.O Since then, we’ve run into multiple scheduling conflicts, but you can bet that when we get a meeting together, I’m writing another Elysium article. In the meantime, if you have any Elysium-related questions you must have answered, send me a Tweet @SilentFuzzle. 🙂

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Update

Twelve’s Design and Camp NaNoWriMo

Twelve’s Design was going great. I was almost done with Chapter 2, and then… At the start of April, I decided on a whim to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo. In 2014-15, I hand wrote 75% of “Book 5,” an untitled loose sequel to Twelve’s Design. Ideas for how to finish it and modify it had haunted me for years, so I decided to set a goal to digitize and revise 60,000 words of it for Camp NaNo. I was able to implement many of the changes I wanted to make, and by the end of today, I’ll have met my goal.

Camp NaNo was fun and great for typing up a bunch of words in a short time. Toward the end, however, I missed my thoughtful approach to writing/revising. Many of the words I wrote for Camp NaNo already existed. Many of those are also filler that desperately need cutting, but I didn’t have time to think about how to shorten the book’s painfully slow and wordy sections. To give you an idea, I’m 60,000 words in and I still have two full notebooks left to transcribe! That’s even after I skipped at least 10,000 words from the two notebooks I finished typing. I suppose digitizing those shitty words so that I can delete them easier when I return to this story later was a step in the right direction though.

The bad news is I’m still near the end of finishing Chapter 2 of Twelve’s Design. I thought I would be able to keep up with it, but a bunch of other things happened this month that necessitated setting some things aside. I miss working on it a lot more than I thought I would. For now, Book 5 is out of my system though, and I’ll be able to return to Twelve’s Design tomorrow!

NuCamp and The Writer’s Net

Also last month, I learned the basics of React as part of NuCamp’s Full Stack Web Development course. For my portfolio project, I’m building The Writer’s Net, a website for writing, reading, and sharing non-linear fiction, using React. I had planned to finish building at least the framework for it before the React portion of the course ended last week, but because I participated in Camp NaNo and SakuraCon (convention season has begun!), I probably haven’t even implemented half of it. React is awesome though. I love it! It’s actually fun to use, and that’s probably the first web technology I’ve given that praise! …Why didn’t college tell me this existed!?

FirstStudent and OokiiSoraCon

Another thing I almost finished before I decided to throw Camp Nano into my life was OokiiSoraCon’s web application. I made a little progress on it, but I still have yet to fix a couple things, comment the code, test hosting it on a sub-domain, and build the Unity 3D side of the application. I suppose Camp NaNo isn’t entirely to blame. FirstStudent America hired me again, this time to test the capabilities of a web API the company is considering integrating into their business. Despite everything else I was doing last month, I couldn’t refuse the experience, and it might lead to another project in the near future if all goes well.

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Update

Twelve’s Design

A time has passed since I last wrote one of these updates! In the past… month, I finished piecing Twelve’s Design back together and started editing. I “finished” revising Chapter 1, and if all goes well, I’ll get halfway through Chapter 2 by the end of this week. I’ve really tried to slow down and make the characters explain why they believe what they believe in this draft. This has produced some interesting side effects. First, it’s made it clear what aspects require more thought and explanation on my part. Second, the crazy characters have gotten crazier and the asshole characters, assholier. I love my loveable, crazy assholes… Third, the protagonist’s narration is changing quite drastically, but never has he expressed his thoughts and motivations so clearly. It’s great all around!

OokiiSoraCon

I finished a good chunk of the OokiiSoraCon AMP-stack web app and styled it with Bootstrap. The next steps include password protecting it, adding some database logging and user tracking features, connecting its data to a Unity 3D visualization, and creating that Unity 3D visualization. I’m not as far along as I’d like, but I suppose I am learning and using the MERP-stack to build a completely different web app at the same time.

NuCamp

Speaking of, for my MERP-stack web development course, I decided to build The Writer’s Net. Last month, I created a layout of all its pages in Bootstrap. It looks much nicer than what I threw together in .NET last I attempted to build this site! This month we’ll learn React, and I’ll implement everything using that framework. We’ll see how much of this I can complete in the next four months. The main goal of this class, and the OokiiSoraCon project, however, is to get more comfortable with web development. That has been a success so far.

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Update

Twelve’s Design

The first chapter of Twelve’s Design went through Critters again last week. I got two beta readers on that but no one to read the entire book, but that’s okay. My second beta reader from Goodreads is turning out to be a nice sanity checker, so I’m done seeking beta readers and easing back into editing. Currently, I’m mapping what changes I’ll need to make in the next draft. Changes EVERYWHERE! I’m “almost” done and ready to go back to editing. The “almost,” however, hinges on fitting together all the pieces that made the cut and the replacements for the ones that didn’t in the last four chapters. That could take some time to figure out.

OokiiSoraCon

I formally proposed a design for this year’s OokiiSoraCon project and started building a prototype for the web application part of it. That half will have a PHP backend and the data visualization half will probably be a Unity 3D application.

NuCamp

NuCamp started. Last week, we got our development machines setup. This week, we’re starting to learn Bootstrap, which should help me make the OokiiSoraCon web application look at least decent. This week we’re also writing proposals for our portfolio projects, which will likely be the applications we develop steadily for the next five months. I’m a bit conflicted between pursuing The Writer’s Net and That’s Not An Argument. Or I could just team up on someone else’s project because, well, my projects tend to be a bit insane and impractical. 😛

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Update

Twelve’s Design

My first beta reader ever in my fifteen years of writing closet novels finished reading Twelve’s Design. It turns out I was right to worry about the final chapters, but mainly for a reason I’d forgotten was a problem. I knew the book had to have some major flaw, and things had gone too smoothly for my first beta reader. As soon as I got the verdict on Chapter 12, I remembered, “Oh, yes. Duh. The ending has always been a bitch, and it still isn’t right.” At least an outside perspective has finally gotten it through my head to try a different ending rather than to continue fiddling with the one that has never worked. I hope to get another reader or two when the book goes through the Critters Writer’s Workshop next week. I don’t anticipate anyone liking the ending, but I’d like more opinions on the book’s main elements. If I don’t find anyone else though, I think I have enough information to rewrite the ending, fix some other problems, and even cut another 20,000 words.

Programming

When I haven’t been caring for dogs, beta reading my beta reader‘s novel, or reviewing Twelve’s Design feedback, I’ve been following PHP tutorials. I’m still taking the NuCamp class next month, but my idea for the OokiiSoraCon project fell through. We’re still making at least one application for this year’s convention, but it doesn’t require web development as I imagined. Instead, I’m planning to do some things with The Writer’s Net. Yes, the time I spend programming and what I do during that time is all over the place. The point is I’m programming again. Hopefully, I can get it back into a regular part of my routine… because class starts in two weeks.

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Update

Twelve’s Design

Hey, it’s been… a month! Beta reading for Twelve’s Design has begun, and I already have ideas for how to fix some things. I’m refraining from rewriting or editing until I gather more feedback (and problems to fix) though. I worry about the last three chapters the most, and no one except me knows what’s in them yet. In the meantime, I’m beta reading other people’s novels and stories. I’m also rereading parts of another manuscript I wrote a long time ago and started rewriting five years ago. I got distracted by Twelve’s Design before I finished it, and I’ve wanted to continue ever since.

Programming

Now that I’m done writing Twelve’s Design (for now), I’m easing back into programming. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), my schedule exploded as soon as the new year began. I now walk dogs and care for animals 15+ hours a week. I guess that’s one way to make some money!

At the beginning of February, I’m planning to take NuCamp’s Full Stack Web Development course. What I want to do is use the course’s portfolio projects to develop the next OokiiSoraCon project. In the next couple weeks, I’ll put some time into developing specifications for it with the Chair and staff. What is this project, you ask? You’ll just have to wait for next OokiiSoraCon. 😉

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Update

The Twelfth Hour

I’ve basically finished the current draft of The Twelfth Hour, but now I’m converting it to standard manuscript format. I did finish my second pass through the whole book before December 12, so I still say I “finished” it before my deadline though! This final pass through the book includes formatting it and fixing minor wording and continuity errors. I’m currently at the end of Chapter 10, but I’ll need to skim the whole book one more time to fix some last-minute appearance changes. I recently made the mistake of reading up on eye colors and realized my cast probably has too many blue-eyed people. Yes, two families compose the majority of the twelve-person cast, but they don’t both need to have rare eye colors. 🙂

Next week, I’ll start writing a new full synopsis and write up some promotional materials for beta readers. The new deadline for finishing these final details is the end of December.

OokiiSoraCon

After a little more testing, trial, and error, the new registration process I implemented for OokiiSoraCon is now live. Go register for OokiiSoraCon 2019 if you’re in the Helena, MT area!

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Update

The Twelfth Hour

I finished Chapter 12 (for now)! I knew I was going to modify the ending, but I still managed to shock myself with how much it changed. The subtle difference between killing a character and maybe killing a character can make a bigger difference than you’d think. In my second pass through the book, I’m currently on Chapter 6. We’ll see if I can finish this in the next two and a half weeks!

OokiiSoraCon

Two weeks ago, at the Chair of OokiiSoraCon’s request, I researched E-Commerce WordPress plugins for selling tickets for next year’s OokiiSoraCon. I came up with a pretty good solution that improves the somewhat confusing process we had last year. It should be up and running on the OokiiSoraCon website soon.

Miscellaneous

In other news, I helped the Port Polson Players overhaul the information on several pages of their website. I did a little work on The Writer’s Net, mostly ensuring that the user’s input is valid and won’t break the website. And I helped my brother revise several job applications.

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Update

The Twelfth Hour

I’m in the last third of Chapter 12! I might, however, need to go through several of the sections throughout the chapter again because I don’t particularly like how I wrote one of the characters. I’ve found that if the main character doesn’t feel like he’s behaving correctly in a scene, I probably haven’t made him angry enough. Apparently, that applies to one of the supporting characters as well. XD

Shattered Soul

The other programmer on the tech demo for Team KAIZEN’s 3D fighter Shattered Soul recently implemented better hitboxes. I stepped in for a few hours last week to fix a few problems with them. You can check out the current version of the demo in this video on the AddATudez Twitch channel.

The Writer’s Net

Extra Life’s official fundraising event was on Saturday. This year, I decided to raise money with a three-day hackathon where I continued work on The Writer’s Net, a .NET/C# MVC website for building and distributing non-linear books. It includes a map interface very similar to Adventurous Reader‘s. I started this project half-a-year ago, worked on it frantically for a couple weeks, and then returned to working on Team KAIZEN’s Burst!. For my hackathon over the past few days, I picked it up again and finished implementing the map- and book-viewing portion of the website. It’s ugly and buggy as hell, but it basically works. I plan to continue cleaning it up since I’m taking a break from Burst! for personal reasons. That said, I hope to stream that work as well as whatever I do on Team KAIZEN’s projects regularly on my Twitch channel.

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Update

The Twelfth Hour

I’m a third of the way through revising Chapter 12. Writing the middle of the chapter is going pretty slowly. I’m trying to find the balance between that final scene in Psycho that explains everything but everyone hates and explaining enough to satisfy the reader. Hopefully, the final third of the chapter where the big bad is defeated (or not DUN DUN DUUUUUN!) will go faster. In the meantime, I’m splitting my efforts between lightly editing the entire book again and continuing heavy revising of Chapter 12. On my second pass through the book, I’m currently at the beginning of Chapter 3.

The Cheeky Geeky Vaudeville

Last weekend was the annual Cheeky Geeky Vaudeville variety show. As always, I went down to Missoula to run lights and sound. We had a fun show overall! Next weekend, I’ll likely go back for the manager’s post-show meeting.

Burst!

I’ve spent the majority of my time and effort on The Twelfth Hour, so I haven’t done much here. I polished a few aspects of the new stages I built after our internal review and started working on rewriting the system for unlocking items. After implementing Asset Bundles and now requiring the ability to unlock stages, I’ve needed to rethink it a bit. You can see a preview of the new stages in the first fifteen minutes of this video on the AddATudez Twitch channel.