Blog Plans

Greetings Everyone. I felt that after a few days of dwelling on the negative topic on manipulation and how widespread it’s become, I should spell out the overall plan for the blog moving forward. There’s more planned for sure. 🙂

First, yes I am going to put more focus on social issues now. That will all be tackled from the prospective of taking a middle ground and working toward real, long lasting solutions. My goal is to do something about the sea of negativity society is drowning in. While I intend to be positive, I also can’t pretend that I our leaders on both sides aren’t spreading the hate to keep the spotlight off of them.

The bottom line though is that most people are genuinely good and have been goaded and fearmongered into believing that they’re doing something noble by hating those who disagree with them. I want to change that in my own small way. I’m hoping it will ignite a spark also, much like the candle lighting on Christmas Eve used to demonstrate at the church I used to go to:

Now this is sort of slow going because this particular video is back before the fire marshal decided that many real candles in one place was a fire hazard, lol. Set aside the specific religious references if that offends you. Focus instead on the idea that doing good, speaking kindly, etc… promotes others doing the same. If we do it enough, soon we’re no longer the lone candle in the dark.

Other Plans:

I also want to address consumer and privacy issues. We’re living in a time where it’s harder and harder to find good products, avoid getting scammed, or use an electronic device that doesn’t spy on us in some way. A little awareness can go a LONG way in that regard.

Beyond that, there are old topics I used to blog about:

Creative Writing: That was the original purpose of this blog, and I’d like to get back to that as well. I have a half dozen or so story ideas that II started here but always let self-doubt and distraction get in my way. Anything I do here will be strictly anywhere from G to the soft side of a PG-13 rating (to put it in US movie rating terms).

Cooking was a fan favorite here. I’m no master chef, but occasionally I do even amaze myself. Sadly this one is on the shelf until my wrists finish healing and our finances clear up a little.

Personal Posts are something I’m going to work away from. There have been too many of them and I’ve sunk into the habit of using the blog to vent.

Martial Arts is something I’m likely to do on a once a week basis. They are something I enjoy doing and writing about, and the discipline that comes with them is something that got me through some very dark times in the past, including an UGLY two year long divorce.

I *may* restart my “Friday Night 80s” posts also, but with fewer music videos per post. Sometimes you just need something fun after all.

I may also dabble in spiritual posts. For a brief time, I had a separate spiritual blog. It’s still up, even though I haven’t posted there in years. Self doubts on numerous levels caused me to stop there, but I’ve always been drawn to the spiritual.

I Survived!

Yes, that’s what the last week and a half have felt like at the new job. It’s manufacturing (which is all I’ll say to protect my privacy), AND I have to be up at 3:30 AM to be there on time. New trainees also have to go through 3 weeks of hour long workouts before work.

So yeah… When I got home each day, I didn’t even have enough energy to check email, LOL. It’s slowly been getting easier each day though.

I can’t guarantee how much I’ll write the next two weeks as training finishes up, but I’ll do what I can to make an appearance here when possible.

I Return After a Grand Adventure!

Never let it be said that I’ve lost my flair for the dramatic, LOL.

Side Note: Film Symphony Orchestra is AWESOME. Check them out on YouTube

OK, so let’s get down to what’s REALLY been going on.

Much of my free time the last couple of weeks has been spent indirectly on the new WordPress.org site. A bit of behind the scenes tweaks, tuning and editing for starters. Most of my work has been spent storyboarding my planned reboot of my Witchfire story series. I was far from happy with the original attempt and I want to knock it out of the park this time.

To give you an idea the amount of work that’s gone into this, I have a 7 page spreadsheet of data comprised of 8,326 filled cells on character info, mapped out locations, etc… I’m determined to maintain consistency, keep the characters unique and weave an entertaining plot.

A small part of me wonders why I’m bothering using Danger Babe Central’s universe as a backdrop. Recently, I almost gave up on the idea.

I know why I’m doing it though. I have something to prove to myself. I’ve doubted my writing and so many other areas of my life… let others tear me down too easily. If I can take this setting and these characters; turn them into a real story and fix the inconsistencies and barely existing canon… I’ll know I can handle anything the world of writing can throw at me.

In Other News…

Yeah, this will be one of the greatest examples of burying the lead in history…

I FINALLY got a new job!

Only those who have been truly following me for a long time know the story here. I’ve had a bad back and neck that kept me out of action for over a decade. Before leaving California, I had a job as a Realtor, but lack of support from my office / broker and lack of money really made that a job in name only.

After getting treatment for my back and neck almost 2 years ago, I had hoped to be back on my feet sooner. My road of self-rehab was a LONG one though. I hurt my back again a couple of times along the way and had to learn to take it slower.

Truth? I’m scared to death I’m still not ready for this, but we’ve had a brutal couple of years and really need this to work out. I’m determined to make it work no matter what.

Along those lines, I’ve stepped up my training / rehab trying to build back up my endurance and strength. Hard to believe I used to be somebody that trained 3 1/2 hours a day. I’m being careful not to overdue it while still trying to push myself. Beginning the first of next month, we’ll see if I’m up to the task.

Blast Off!

FINALLY… I got the new Silk Cords website launched this morning! It still needs some fleshing out and polishing in a few spots. I got several posts transferred over and re-written in some cases though. I even managed to set up an age gate and get a plug-in that allows me to stay compliant with all the Euro cookie rules.

As promised in an earlier post, I’ve kept the adult content completely segregated from the normal content, and intend to make sure any blog posts and notifications stay completely PG rated.

THAT was actually what caused the delay in launching. All these bright new features for WordPress are completely geared around everything on your blog being a post. The only way around that is a pretty solid knowledge of CSS code. The site will evolve as I learn there. Right now, it’s still pretty freaking awesome. How awesome?

It’ll hit you like Mjolnir:

I’m still trying to figure out how much WordPress.org ties into WordPress.com. Thus far, it seems awkward at best. All stuff to work out.

No, I didn’t bury the lead either. I’m just building anticipation. 😀

Silk’s Writing Corner: Creative Writing, Erotica and Discussion on How To Write

Until I see that .org sites are tied into WP.com sites somehow, I’ll be posting notifications here regarding anything new popping up at the site.

Not Quite A False Alarm…

OK, so I did a little digging into this whole gravatar thing. Turns out the hack happened almost 2 years ago.

F’ing AV pop-up. This is the kind of distortion that’s usually reserved for the media.

I don’t recall hearing anything from Gravatar or WP at the time though. If you haven’t changed your password in the last year, it’s still probably a good idea just to be safe.

Gravitar Got Hacked!

To the tune of 167 Million accounts. This per the warning I just got from my internet security software:

At the very least be wary of new spam and scam emails coming from people claiming to be with Gravitar, or anyone else. Fake blackmail schemes claiming to have more data on you than what was breached, or to have put malware on your PC are also common scams.

Spread the word.

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS, HERE AND AT GRAVITAR!

New Site Progress Report & Other Stuff

This is a slightly modified copy of the post I just made at my other blog. I announced there my intention to continue blogging, but that I wanted a different format. I’m switching to self-hosting and using WordPress.org. I’m also going to be narrowing my focus on my blog posts. I’ve been hard at work on the new WordPress.org self hosted site. It’s getting close to finished at this point, but there are still some behind the scenes things that need to be polished and tweaked. Things like making sure all my pictures have proper names for searching my media library, and descriptions to help search engines. Soon though…

Thinking over the site, and past experience here, I’ve decided that the new blog is going to focus entirely on writing. Absolutely no more social issues, political talk, personal drama (nobody cares), product reviews or even cooking posts. Just everything writing:

• Vanilla Creative Writing; nothing over PG-13
• Reviews of “How To” products on writing (books, videos, websites, etc..)
• Critiques of movies and TV shows from a writer’s perspective; what works and what doesn’t
• Erotica

Part of my creative writing is going to be going back and finishing or continuing stories that I left hanging, such as my alternate Star Wars version based on the meme where Luke killed himself with his new lightsaber:

Hell, I *may* even rewrite the prequels and sequels just to show how I believe they SHOULD have been done.

Erotica and anything “Adult” related will be in a separate section of the blog, and will be behind an age verification pop-up. I’m going to do a better job than I did with this blog in terms of keeping anything NSFW behind that age check. That means NO racy pictures or backgrounds in the primary section of the blog.

Creative writing of all flavors will have separate pages, and the blog posts announcing new stories will only have links to those pages with a note regarding whether it’s NSFW or not.

Realizations

Part of the process with the new blog has been moving some of my more relevant past posts and existing stories from the two old blogs to the new. I want to rewrite damned near everything also, and already have in a couple of cases. I noticed something though as I went back through my lists of pages and posts.

I jumped around WAY too much on the focus of each blog. With the actual creative writing, it was self doubt and too much real life drama killing my mojo. The stuff I tried to do as filler too often took over though. Not only that, I jumped from idea to idea as I tried to keep things fresh and attract new readers. Even when I tried to have a structured theme for daily posts I flopped. I just need to focus on the writing and stay consistent. THAT is my pledge with the new blog.

AND that I’ll also be upping my game across the board. No more holding back on my writing.

In Other News:

This isn’t the new blog, so I can sneak in one or two QUICK personal updates here.

First, the house that we got defrauded on is back on the market, at $50,000 higher than we bought it for. All the mortgage company or listing agents did was the most basic of house flipper cosmetic repairs to hide the defects (patching the cracked mortar, fresh paint, clean the carpets, etc…). It pisses me off that somebody else is going to be put in a likely world of financial trouble as well living in a toxic house. I have precious little idea what I can do to correct the situation though. The laws in Georgia are completely corrupt and promote screwing the buyer. I could get sued for tortious interference with a contract with most options or charged with trespassing if I put up signs, try to talk to people during open houses, etc…

Most people nowadays would sadly be content to sit back and let things unfold, especially if it meant the house would sell for enough money to put them in the clear. This level of injustice literally makes my skin crawl though. Likewise, it’s not right to be made whole at the expense of an innocent party.

And lastly, I *MAY* have a new job; a real one for the first time in a decade. I had the realtor job for a while during that time, but between my health and lack of money, I was never able to really make a run of it. I’m in the final phase of the hiring process. All that remains to be seen is if they will accept the fact that I’m a virtual blank. No social media presence, no credit history now thanks to following the Dave Ramsey plan, and really no recent job history as well.

I’m just glad that the spinal decompression and physical therapy got me to the point I can work again. The prospect of being a contributing member of society has been a huge morale boost.

My First and Newest Vader’s Vault Lightsaber

The time has come for the reveal of my crown jewel in my lightsaber collection.

Yesterday, I went back to the Vault and picked up the first lightsaber I ever ordered from them. Confused? 😀 Good.

It’s pretty simple actually. The first two I got from Vader’s Vault (external store link) were “Ready to Ship” sabers offered on May the 4th and Black Friday. They were already finished, what you see is what you get, models. The “Battle Wrap Havoc” was (is) customized with an engraved shroud on the emitter, and my “Protector Elite” (from Christmas 2021) is all standard options, but fully maxed out in that regard.

The Reveal and Some Background!

My beautiful Sovereign Elite was custom ordered 2 years ago and finally finished at the beginning of this week.

She sports a black chrome finish, custom lit power switch, and “Order of the Grey” in Aurebesh acid-etched on the emitter bell. Beyond that, it’s every bit as decked out as my Protector saber.

For those who forgot, “The Order of the Grey” was a creation of mine within the Star Wars: The Old Republic video game. Follow the link for the full story. The short version is that my character Adoxia and I both got tired of the overly evil-spirited Sith players in the game AND the emotionally dead Jedi reinterpretation that Lucas tried to foist on the fans as part of the prequels. I made the game’s first “Grey” force users guild, and at least one of the first instances the concept in the franchise. Unlike the weird interpretations running through fandom nowadays, my concept was based on the Eastern ideas that shaped the early Jedi concept. Emotions are accepted as a part of life, but are meant to be controlled and learned from instead of letting them dominate you.

Like the other sabers, the Sovereign is capable of changing blade colors, even to the point of oscillating colors. It comes with 16 pre-installed sound configurations and blade colors, and software to custom configure the blade to a vast array of colors.

I talked to the owner at Vader’s Vault about getting a truer “Mace Windu” style purple out of the blade via that software. Long technical answer summed up, it’s really a question of blade brightness. If you want a deep purple that’s not all the bright in normal daylight, you can do like Hasbro did with their ‘Black Series’ Mace Windu saber:

It looks great in the dark. Not so much in the daylight. If you want a bright blade in the daylight though, you’re going to get the purple white washed out a bit till it looks a little magenta or blue-ish.

For what it’s worth, a stock “Sovereign Elite” saber looks like this:

So, mine isn’t as fancy as some of the truly expensive custom sabers that Vader’s Vault has made.

Maybe when I hit the lottery, I can afford something like those. For now, I’m happy with the detailing and finish on mine

A Little Trivia:

The Vader’s Vault ‘Sovereign and Sovereign Elite’ models are NOT, as you might think, inspired by Luke’s “Return of the Jedi” saber:

It’s actually taken from the “Star Wars: The Old Republic” video game, and is one of the lightsaber models available for use by player characters:

In the game, it’s called the “Tempted Apprentice” model. Ironically, my character even uses the same color blade as the new saber comes with as it’s default selection. Given the financial developments over the last year or so, it’s likely this will be my last lightsaber for some time to come. I finished with a bang though, and I’m all set for the lightsaber dueling competitions.

Let Mortal Kombat begin!

OR I could just get into garage studio special effects and become one of the people that has Hollywood scared to death:

A Special Note:

Keep an eye on Vader’s Vault towards the end of next month or a bit beyond. Remember I mentioned way back in my post about taking a tour of the Vault that they had something special in the works? Well, much like completion of my saber, that project was delayed majorly by COVID. I was able to see the status of it however, and it’s close to completion. I’ve been sworn to secrecy in exchange for that peek however, so that’s all I can say.

Share this:

What Did We Get Ourselves Into?!?

Oy vey… It’s been one of those days, and a LONG one to boot. Why? We brought THIS home:

Do NOT be fooled by it’s appearance!!! Tis a dread, snarling beast with a foul temper and long sharp teeth!

I should have known when the other people at the adoption agency were all like:

LOL, If she could read, she MIGHT have a complex by now.

Seriously though, this little tornado was all over the house from one end to other for almost 5 hours straight!

You name it, she attacked and chased it. The poor octopus toy there never stood a chance. 😀 She was up and down both cat trees, frequently jumping from the top of the one that’s inside the house proper (the other is in the sun room).

She tried to jump on top of that book case also, LOL.

At 1:30am she finally settled down. It’s now 2:30 and she’s running about again.

She’s a cutie, but we’re going to have our hands full with little Trinity the Tortie here. She’s batted water out of her bowl all over the hardwood floors, and goes from “Pet me, NOW!” to “Now I’m going to bite and claw your hand or foot” in .0005 nanoseconds too.

Kidding aside, it’s apparent her foster home didn’t have the kind of accommodations (and toys) that’s she’ now enjoying. We’ll have to see how she gets along with our other cat Machi.

So far, it’s been interesting. When Trinity was first taken out of her carrier (at the adoption center) she ran into Machi’s and hid curled up next to her. Then when we took them both out, Trinity growled and tried to swipe at Machi (who is twice her size). Once we got them home, Machi hissed at Trinity, who was still in her own carrier. Since then, they’ve avoided each other. More like Machi has avoided her.

So yeah, the next few days will be interesting. Both in terms of seeing if this 14 week old wild child ever powers down, and if the two cats can get along.