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Reflecting on my first week of my transition to full-time

Howdy, y’all!

Thanks to y’all’s amazing support, this week I began my transition from hobbyist to full-time “YouTuber” by working a mere three-day workweek at my day job!

With those extra two days, I have already been able to do the following:

  • Recorded an incredibly fun collab with VintageBeef and FalseSymmetry
  • Appeared on The Shaft Podcast for only the second time in nine years
  • Ordered parts to build a new streaming/recording PC that I hope will let me record at 1080p60
  • Learned how to add chapters to YouTube uploads
  • Spoke to the organizers of PlayOnCon about hosting the Minecraft build contest again this year, as well as a possible new Animal Crossing home tour event
  • Started compiling a list of all the entertaining and talented folks I have met in the last decade at conventions who I am overdue to invite as interview guests
  • Accepted a guest spot on next week’s Mindcrack Podcast to discuss current events and gaming with hosts Guude and Sev alongside fellow guest and active Hermitcraft member Docm77.
  • Selected a June book for my Patreon book club, which I’ve been too overwhelmed to hold the last several months: NYPL’s Stonewall Reader
  • Researched dedicated server hosting options and provisioned a new E-2288G equipped server to migrate our current Patreon realm, “Seven of Mine,” to later this month
  • Impressed by her recent efforts on the Draw4Charity fundraiser for Child’s Play, I interviewed and hired NJCoffeeJunkie for a few hours per month to help keep me organized and on track as I wrangle about seven years of ideas I never had time for

I look forward to another three-day workweek next week, and once July hits, I look forward to having even more time and energy!

Keep adventuring!

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Deep into Undermountain

One evening as the sun went down,
And our cooking coals were glowing,
Down the path came a party hiking,
And they said, “folks, we’re all going,
We’re yearning for a portal far away,
In a tavern full of shoutin’
So join us, friends, and let’s descend,
Deep into Undermountain!”

Deep into Undermountain,
There run dungeons hot and cold,
Where the monsters surge in pushes,
And the youngest runes are old,
Where the mimics all lie waiting,
And the goblin werebats roost,
All the wisps and wasps,
And the mezzoloths,
The hidden pit,
Where we’ll all plummet,
Deep into Undermountain

Deep into Undermountain,
All our blades will sing like choirs,
As our arrows strike like drumbeats,
And our green flame pops in pyres,
Our barbarian will stomp a brute,
As the rogues dance shadowplay,
O we’re sworn to go,
At a great tempo,
We’ll chant our spells
As we now delve,
Deep into Undermountain,

Deep into Undermountain,
You’ll always find new gear,
And your old mundane accoutrement,
Can be handed down, don’t fear.
The magic items you’ll attune,
And the artifacts you’ll find,
There’s armor with gems,
And weird potions,
And a propeller hat
that lets you ascend,
Deep into Undermountain.

Deep into Undermountain.
The Mad Wizard stood gates,
So folks can open portals,
He left clues to activate,
He has a thing for puzzles,
And he likes to throw his voice,
We’re going to delve,
To where he dwells,
To the lowest tower,
To seek his power
Deep into Undermountain.

I’ll see you there, the lowest lair,
Deep into Undermountain.

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Existential love

Are love and beloved commutative?
You are beautiful and I love you!
I love you and you are beautiful!

What about loved but beloved?

Is that something one can even say, or something one must show?
Or something one must hear,
Or something one must see?

If we are made in God’s image, is he disappointed when we follow his example the way we are with our children when they follow ours?

Does the Lord feel what parents feel when their children copy their vices each time I harden Pharaoh’s heart?

Does he shake his head when you command survivors of ethnic infanticide to remove their sandals?

Does he plug his ears when we command our session trumpeteer to blow his fifth horn and our vocalist to belt out, “Woe! Woe! Woah!”

Does he hide his face as we cover the earth with water?

And where are our faces?
Why don’t we reflect the light we feel,
Do our contorted masks distort photons,
Like planes skew radar,
Our profiles misleading and shrunken,
While our bellies are exposed to any naked eyes looking up at that moment,
as our backs are exposed to sky,
And what do we have to show for it?

But where are our faces?
Why don’t we feel the light we reflect?
Do the photons scatter like outstealthed radar from our false smiles,
Our cross-sections lighter than air,
While the heavens and the earth envelope us completely and form a shape around us that we push through each day wondering why we feel such resistance?

Are endure and endured commutative?
You are cruel, and I love you.
I love you, and you are cruel.

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Like your enemy

I made war on the sea and became the waves.

I made war on the peaks and became the stone.

I made war on the heavens and became the sky.

I made war on my neighbor and died, flesh and bone.

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Where in these Chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?

Where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?
Well, he builds around the island,
From Modern to Medieval,
He’s a sticky-piston-pusher from build height down to bedrock.
He’ll take you on a flight to the Convex Cathedral.

Tell me where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?

Swipe your soul sand from the nether,
Make the village golems bubble,
From our redstone to Grian Tag, he’ll be dealing abuse.
I never Tennessee him steal from his base to the portal,
Tell me, where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?
Tell me, where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?

He’ll go from village to void space,
From the end to Iskall’s base,
From Mumbo’s to TangoTek’s fountain, and back!

Then he’ll ban half Hermitcrafters,
Run a gauntlet, jewel-encrusted,
Then he’ll have the Convex plunder,
And go prank Python’s Pots.

He put the mail in malefaction when he tampered with my postbox,
Tell me, where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?
Tell me, where in these chunks, tell me where can he be?

From mob spawner to far lands,
From spawn via Pirate Land,
Tundra to jungle to iTrade to loot you.

Well he swims beneath the seas,
Just to sell immoral coral,
He’s a bubble-breathing brigand with a flair for dolphin speed,
His shulker box is loaded up with maps for his mural,
Tell me where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?
Tell me, where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?
Tell me, where in these chunks is Cubfan of the Convex?

Here’s me performing this terribly:

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International Space Station

We saw the ISS tonight—it was really quite far out.
Reflecting sol’s more distant light, and as it arced its route,
It passed beyond some nearer cloud, and faded out of sight,
But dad and daughter didn’t frown, it really made our night.

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City of Brotherly Love

In my heart I was glad, but the city preys at night,
So I was walking angry, looking angry,
Seeming mean past Ben Franklin’s darkened grave,
Past his mint too toward my hotel
When across the street I saw
A bus shelter sheltering someone,
Heaped defensively under dirty blankets,
Sleeping buried trying to stay warm,
I couldn’t see anything about the stranger,
Except that they too didn’t want to be disturbed,
And that they weren’t a bus.
We have bus shelters on every other corner.
Maybe we need more people shelters too.

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It’s only a rental.

A rental car is worse than a rental home,
Because you can’t paint it the way you like,
Then paint it back when you’re done.
Two coats of primer
Should be enough for anybody.

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Gratitude

Thanks, I say,
Over and over.
Thanks, I say,
But its never enough.
Not because others are ungrateful of my gratitude,
But because what I owe to others,
To their patience,
To their kindness,
Cannot be repaid with words,
or one word,
Thanks.
I say.
Above and past that,
Thanks, I must do.