The Monster Mish-mash

Been suffering a bit of writer’s block with a mild case of apathy of late. It’s been kind of difficult to get momentum built back up on my own blog on top of keeping the posting schedule over on the HoP on track in the face of Dethtron’s increasingly glamorous lifestyle. What with the fancy degrees and the metal and all. The lucky bastard. Lol.  Brent too, for that matter. Man, I forgot how much of a bitch school could be this time of year if you’re a student.

My main issue has been getting posts to a full length. So, I think I’ll just go ahead and try and scotch-tape two ideas together..

First up tonight is a brief little bit on the benefits of blogging that I just couldn’t the get off the ground until now:

Since I’ve already plugged four blogs at this point, might as well keep going. Kennedy over at 40k for the New Professional has an amazing little niche. The stuff he produces on using job skills as game skills is one of those things that most of us wish we had thought of. And then had the wherewithal to maintain.

He’s got stuff on how sleeping more will make you a better general, how business acumen can lead to better army lists and how stress management is good for targer priority. But it works the other way too. Your hobbies can be good for you professionally. Especially in the case of blogging.

Communicating using the written word is extremely important in many professional jobs. Unfortunately, you’ve forgotten most of the stuff you learned in school since you got all your composition requirements out of the way early. Plus, no one gives a shit about the five paragraph framework in the real world.

This is where blogging comes in. It’s much needed practice. The more you use a skill - in this case, using the written word to communicate complex ideas in a short format - the better it gets. Which is good when those job ads mention ‘excellent written communication skills”. Plus, it turns out that sometimes they actually check to make sure.

But here’s the rub: It’s only useful practice if you take a second to reflect. Check that grammar, proof read those sentences for errors and misspellings. Those things are incredibly important! Especially since you’re being paid rather than graded. Continuing to get that monthly salary is waaaaay more important than the A you didn’t get in Comp 101.

Anyway, my blogging has helped me tremendously in my professional life. My practice has made writing all those reports and cover letters just that much more easy and helps to keep me looking like an illiterate hick in the eyes of my bosses.

------[Bonus RPG Content]------

The HoP has been a wonderful experience in terms of coming into contact with new ideas and new bloggers. One of my sleeper favorites is the World of Wonder of Chambana resident, Loquacious. Since I’ve yet to shoehorn her great stuff into a top x, I’ll give a shout out here in the meantime.

There’s a lot to like about this blog - she has a unique POV as a lady and a mom. So right off the bat she’s working with a different brand of crazy than the rest of us.  It does wonders to differentiate her from all the 20 and 30 something dudes who make up the rest of the HoP rolls. On top of that, she’s lives in a town(s) that’s near and dear to my heart - Champaign-urbana. Dethron and I went to school there at various points and the bartenders at the Blind Pig still remember me after three years. Lots of good times in that town. 

Right, so one of the fun things she spends a lot of time blogging about is her other (or, perhaps, main) hobby - RPGs. Which also happens to be something that’s right up Dethron and my street. Dethtron and I are currently on a bit of a hiatus from our really great Shadowrun campaign and I thought I’d collect some thoughts on that to keep it fresh.

I’m running a bit long already, so I wont dive too far into things, but here’s a taste.

With Dethtron as GM, myself and two other friends - UglyRaincoat and VanMetal - started up a small campaign in order to keep ties and just hang around. Unfortunately, the fact that we live as far 1000 miles away from one another limits us a bit. Luckily, we’re fortunate enough to live in an age of cheap and easy communication. Using a combination of gchat, an online dice roller and Ventrillo we were able to cobble together a pretty reasonable facsimile of hanging around the basement and getting drunk.

To be honest, its been an immense pleasure. Over the much less busy summer, the game was the highlight of our weeks.  In my own life, it did wonders for making me feel less isolated as a one-car household in a commuter state.  It also got us into some very cool areas of role playing that you don't typically get to explore in a big groups.

Well, I think that’s all for now, keep your eyes open for more of this RPG bonus content in the future.