Tag: Ramblings

A double South Dakota wedding!

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Yesterday evening was an interesting experience. It was my first time at a double wedding.

Some people are going to have their imaginations spike and see churches or cathedrals (or really expensive event centers), flowers everywhere, lots of people dressed in formal attire, extraordinary fancy food and cake.

Well, not here in small town South Dakota.

One of the grooms is a long time friend of mine (and previously a roommate) and he and his bride wanted to share their special day with her sister/best friend. So that’s just what they did!

It was a beautiful ceremony. Nothing extravagant, like at a huge church, but they held it at a very nice little lodge and event center on the edge of a small town (literally, the population of the town itself was below 1,000 people.) There was plenty of room for the four families and friends that attended, which was probably around 50 people or so? Dress code was practically non-existent, as people showed up in everything from blue jeans and a hoodie to something more formal. (I was worried about this part myself, and had asked my friend if it was a tie/no tie event and they said whatever we’re comfortable with.) People were very understanding about children, and even laughed and rolled with it when some struggled to stay quiet during the ceremony itself. Lots of little informal quirks during the ceremony that got laughs from everyone, including the brides and grooms. Like putting on a ring moments before being told by the officiant, or the officiant saying the other groom’s name incorrectly only to be corrected by both bride and groom (and a few others from the family section, which again drew laughs from all present).

The dinner was delicious, and again I know some people might think fancy catering, but here in South Dakota we apparently do family barbecue. The step-father of my friend’s bride/now wife had smoked something like 50-lbs of brisket and pork loin, and had started it at 2:00AM that morning! Absolutely amazing. Aside from the meats, there was baked beans, coleslaw, corn, and chips. For the dessert they didn’t do a massive wedding cake that everyone would get pieces of, but instead did cupcakes! (Personally, I think cupcakes is the way to go for events regardless of it being a wedding.)

The dance part of weddings was never my thing, but I made sure to stay for each couples first dance before I needed to leave. My roommate had also been invited (because the one groom had lived with us both at the same time) and although he wasn’t feeling well throughout the week prior (throat problems, not contagious, I promise) he felt well enough by the day of the wedding to join, so I drove us, but he was still struggling and was fading by that point, so I didn’t make him stay. It was already getting late and we had an hour long drive home.

I’ve been to multiple weddings (and part of a few) in my life, but this double wedding was my first and it was still a good time.

Some favorite websites in 2024

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Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite websites?
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A year ago when I answered this prompt I had a very different mindset going into writing out my thoughts. Reddit had changed a bunch of things that really upset the general public, so I no longer actively use it except when it pops up in Google search results. (Maybe I’ll go back to it more frequently someday, I don’t know.) I also brought up different social media sites and how I had been using Instagram more.

This time around I want to share a few quick links to some actual websites instead of talking about social media.

Crunchyroll is where I’ve been getting my fill of anime. I’m a huge sucker for the Isekai trend, even if the anime isn’t really that good or has trashy writing.

I’ve been watching a LOT of stuff on YouTube, particularly on the channels Dropout, Dimension 20, Nerdforge, and Mythical Kitchen (just to name some of the most common ones on my list).

On the more creative side of things, I love Inkarnate for the world building/map making stuff, and then World Anvil for the writing parts. These tools are super handy for visualizing and organizing my thoughts.

I think I’ll stop there, or else I could potentially just go through all my bookmarks and that would just be tedious and overwhelming.

Today’s little temptations

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What tempted you today?

There’s a couple things that tempted me today (and sometimes they tempt me everyday.)

My bed tempted me to stay in and not work.

My phone tempted me to keep hitting snooze on alarms and not get up from a nap.

The cookies I baked yesterday, sitting on the stove waiting for me to walk by to go back to work, tempted me but I had to remind myself I’m full and the desire is spurred on by boredom and a weird need for temporary distraction.

Video games tempt me everyday but I’m always working on ways to get around the desire to game instead of being even slightly productive. Like right now as I type this up! (Monster Hunter Wilds demo calling my name.)

I’m sure there are, or will be, others that will tempt me throughout the day, but these are the most common that popped into my head.

Halloween 2024

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Nothing special today! I’ve been busy the last week and a half or so, and my schedule has been royally messed up, so I’m just going to enjoy the evening.

Happy Halloween everyone! (For those of us that celebrate it. I think I heard that Australia doesn’t????)

Knowledge for all – Round 2

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Daily writing prompt
What’s something you believe everyone should know.
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Last time I answered this prompt I mentioned some things I like to make sure I know how to do (for the most part) like navigating. I’ll be taking a trip to a new city in a couple of months and I’ve already been looking up places and street names to try to familiarize myself with the area.

Some other things I think everyone should know include:

  • How to read instructions (and I mean REALLY read them)
  • How to take instructions from people via email and not just act like they know better (I’m looking at all you folks who like to email tech support/help desks and not follow instructions when they’re trying to help you appropriately diagnose your issue. I don’t care if you think you’re tech literate. Do as your told.)
  • Similarly, how to give and take criticism!

Too many people think they know better, and they wind up screwing themselves over or hurting other people.

Sharing some life lessons

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What are the most important things you have learned in life so far?

I’ve got a few I can share, and I’ll keep this post simple by not going into too much detail or history behind what they mean to me.

You are the center point of your own world, but you are not the center of THE world or anyone else’s. Every step of the way through your life, you are the only person guaranteed to always be there, so remember to take care of yourself.

We may not always have someone else around to be there for us, but nobody gets through life alone. Unless you are somehow making absolutely everything you own from scratch, someone else is always providing something you have/want/need, so be grateful for the things you have that others put time and effort into making.

Don’t assume that everyone has their eyes on you, cares what you do, or even knows you exist. Don’t worry about what other people are thinking or doing except when you know your behavior/decisions will have an impact on the outcome of whatever you are doing, and vice versa.

I think about these few things near daily so as to remind myself of how to act as a decent person and not be a greedy, selfish, and cynical asshole.

A return to wishes

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Daily writing prompt
You have three magic genie wishes, what are you asking for?
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The last time I answered this prompt was almost a year ago and I think I still stand by those three wishes.

However, between then and now I watched a funny video on YouTube about trying to craft the perfect wish with no loopholes. Seriously, you should give it a watch. It might make you rethink how you word your genie wishes, just in case.

I really liked the way they handled the first wish to help determine the ramifications and loopholes that a sneaky genie might manipulate to mess with the person making the wishes.

Personally, having that kind of foreknowledge would be crucial in that exact case, but since we’re still dealing with a fictitious situation I wouldn’t worry about it. I might still go over my original three wishes with a fine tooth comb just in case there are unintended slip ups that aren’t intentional on the genie’s part.

For instance, the first wish, originally worded as such: I wish I could safely hop in and out of the stories I read so I can experience them as if I were really there.

I have a better idea of how I could wordsmith this one, especially after also having watched a TTRPG Live Play from Dropout and Dimension 20 called Never Stop Blowing Up which reminded me of the big premises of the anime Sword Art Online. Reworded, my first wish might go something like this: I wish I could safely choose to hop in and out of the stories I read, whenever I want, so I can experience them firsthand, choosing which character perspective I take, and never risking actual death due to the event of a character death because I would be safely ejected from the story so that I can choose to re-enter in the perspective of another character.

I think I’ll the other two wishes from the original post alone. Not because I think they’re perfect and have no loopholes, but because trying to work those ones out could be messy and I don’t want to spend the time trying to “Rules Lawyer” them to death.

Bouncing back from failures

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How can I embrace challenges and failures as opportunities for growth and development, rather than viewing them as setbacks?

I know this is similar to how I responded to the last couple of prompts I put up (When you want to seek constructive criticism and Artistic inspiration) and it should be considering the source (the DayOne app website) but I wanted to briefly expand a bit on the mental side of things.

When I think of “setbacks” I think of falling behind. Falling behind what or who? I don’t really know. The idea, though, is that there is a preconceived goal that you’re aiming for, even if you don’t consciously recognize what that goal is. Additionally, on a subtle level, there is a kind of time aspect to all of it. Keeping up or keeping pace in some kind of “race” to be good or successful. All of these things are external factors, though.

So, for myself, I stopped looking at these external factors as the hurdles for development. I’ve read it elsewhere in many places, but the thing that helped me break from these external factors is a quote from Matty Mullins that has been taken and reworded or expanded in different ways.

The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday.

Matty Mullins

Taking those words to heart, and only focusing on how I did things before, makes it easier to look at those challenges and failures as opportunities instead of setbacks. It’s not the external factors that are important measures of progress, they just exist to provide ideas and direction. It’s what I actually try to achieve that matters, and if I fail then I can just step back, dissect and analyze, and try a different way to see if I do better. That’s how I try to frame it in my mind so that I can keep moving forward.

When you want to seek constructive criticism

Taylor Burian1 Comment

What are some ways I can seek out feedback and constructive criticism to continue growing and improving?

At least when it comes to writing, I’ve done a few things to try and get feedback.

One is this very blog! I know I don’t exactly solicit people to leave comments for feedback and constructive criticism, but I haven’t discouraged it much either.

Another that I’ve done earlier this year was a writing contest that promised two avenues for feedback: peer feedback and judges. The peer feedback was done through a private message board where we could all read each others stories and then respond in their respective threads, while the judges were tasked with providing objective feedback on how our stories were written and the things that we should look at it for future attempts.

Something that I’ve dipped my toe into so far is joining Discord servers that are focused on writing. I haven’t started socializing in them as of yet, but I have access to them so I can start building connections and such. I’ve also started to do some reading/writing group activities for others who are writing so that I can get some experience under my belt as part of a sort “book club” as an alpha reader.

Those are all the things that come to mind at this time that I’ve been doing in this regard, and you can apply similar tactics in other areas of your life depending on what it is you’re seeking feedback on.

Now, for myself, I just need to put more effort into the “social” aspect of a lot of it.

Artistic Inspiration

Taylor Burian1 Comment

What are your sources of inspiration? Why?

Apologies for the lack of a post yesterday. I spent Wednesday evening through today (so far) with my dad as he was getting some surgery and I just didn’t have the mental faculties necessary for most of my usual daily habits.

So, for today’s prompt I decided to pull from the official DayOne app website where they have a post for Journal Prompts. As I was scanning through I ended up on the Inspiration section and decided to combine a couple prompts, but I wanted to focus specifically on the artistic side of inspiration.

When it comes to painting miniatures I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from several mini painters that I’ve discovered on Instagram over the last few years. I see the different styles and techniques that they showcase, thinking about how easy they make it look, and I feel like I want to give them a try myself. Obviously, those styles and techniques of theirs have been honed over years of practice, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try them out to see where I might shine or need more practice. I’ve been good about not being discouraged when I don’t “instantly master” what I’m trying to imitate because I remind myself of these facts, but it also spurs me on to watch them again and again, to repeatedly dissect what I’m watching in different ways to see what I can glean.

In recent months I’ve taken to more general creative hobby crafting through the YouTube channel Nerdforge and the mind blowing things that they create. I find it not just inspirational but also refreshing when a wild new video is uploaded to their channel and it turns out to be something incredible like the full sized Warhammer “mini” they made. The ideas that get pulled together from different sources to create the final result is absolutely amazing and stretches the way my mind thinks about how to approach different situations with techniques that may not have been originally intended for the scale they were working on.

That’s where I’ve been getting a lot of my artistic inspiration these days, and as long as I keep watching these amazing people work, I believe I’ll always be able to find inspiration.