Update October 2023 (and a special surprise)

Heya all,

Sorry for the lateness of this update. The last few weeks have been a really wild ride, which I will get to shortly. Still, though, I should have made this post at the start of the month. Whoops. 

Chapter... fifteen? I think it's fifteen... is planned and underway, although unlike the last few, I'm pretty much starting from scratch for once. I'm also playing around with the much-awaited SI!Dark chapter I've been sitting on for, like, a year now. I've been re-reading the chapters leading up to it, re-familiarizing myself with the story and the like, and reminding myself about what I was planning. Hopefully I can get some meaningful work on it done, post it, and... actually finish Lyn's story in Blazing Trinity! Le gasp! Yes, I'm trying to get some closure on these things while I have the time. 

I'm also in the process of FINALLY compiling everything to make some 'Start Here' posts for the Patreon. This thing has been going for, what, five years now? It's a bit of a mess, so it's high time I did some damn housekeeping. So, keep a lookout for those. 

As for your super-special surprise... ugh. I hate it. But! I have recorded a reading of the parliamentary scene from ch13 of the Self Insert as a sort of test-run to make sure my microphone still worked (it's not a particularly fancy one, just a basic-bitch Blue Yeti Snowball. I miss my Marshall MXL mic...). The sound is a little tinny, because I had an error halfway through the recording and got this really bad static I had to noise-cancel the fuck out of, and the sound peaks a few times because I got too close to the thing, but I figured it was good enough to share. Even though I cannot stand the sound of my own voice. Which is why I hate it. I've also attached an MP3 of the reading to this update, in case y'all want to really torture yourselves. 

So. This last month has been pretty dang nuts. I'll start with a good thing: the surgery on my right hand went perfectly, the surgical scars healed up so well that I actually had my surgeon, GP and physiotherapist comment on how well they healed, and the ligament they had to cut through is on its way to recovering now, too. Which, unfortunately, apparently takes longer. I would post a picture of the scars, but they healed so well there's really nothing to see. I remember when my Oma had the surgery years and years ago, and she had this big gnarled scar starting at her palm and going halfway to her elbow, so I'm super stoked that they could basically do the surgery keyhole. Okay, a bad thing: after a long struggle with Alzheimer's and dementia, my paternal grandfather, my Opa, has finally passed away. I'm talking about the man that gave me my first sip of beer, who taught me to make a fist, who made me proud to be Austrian. Fortunately, I did get the chance to say goodbye before the dementia set in, and I still got to spend time with him afterwards, but... he used to call me 'The Professor', so proud I was the first in our family to get a Bachelor's Degree. He was the most supportive of me starting to write, and I miss him. And now, for some tasty family drama! We had to find out that he passed via a goddamned sympathy message to my mother on Facebook, because my aunt, his 'primary caregiver', and my father have had a falling out in the last few years and are no longer talking. Not only did she not tell us he was dead, but she and most of her goddamned family moved into my Grandparents' house, rent-free, and have been mooching off his pension for years now. I'm not fishing for sympathy, I'm just stating these facts because I'm absolutely fucking livid. Please see below gif for my feelings, and then it's on to more good news. 

Okay, and finally, the best news! The final surgery, for my left hand this time, is scheduled for mid-November! That's right, after years of severe carpel tunnel, I'm gonna have both my hands back! This is super-awesome, because I actually didn't expect Worker's Comp to shell out for both hands. So, basically, I'm off work until January now, which means more time for painting and writing! Yay! 

As for what else is going on... pfffffffffff. Not a lot, honestly. I haven't even been reading much, because I just... haven't had that boredom that I'd usually get at work. I've been watching a lot of YouTube video-essays while I paint about philosophy and existentialism, which has been pretty fun. I've also been painting a veritable boatload of miniatures, mostly Warhammer, but some historical stuff from Warlord Games, too; some WWII Germans and some Middle Ages Vikings. I've actually been painting a lot of minis and color-schemes I don't usually work with, which has been super fun. Warhammer's also in the midst of their 40th anniversary, so I've been working on a lot of retro minis and 80s-inspired color-schemes on my 40k and AOS minis. My brother and I also just went halfsies on the new Battle of Osgiliath Lord of the Rings Miniature Game box, so I've got a whole helluva lot of Gondorians to paint now, too. It's a good thing I've got so much time off work now, huh? 

Okay, I think that's about it for me. I hope y'all enjoy the reading, and look forward to some finished chapters in the near future! Thanks for your continued support, and Nagaspeed, my friends!