Fort & Key

Something about replacing the "now" post without keeping a record feels wrong. Here's a backup of all of those here.

7/25/26

What am I up to? Well, not much. I've been taking the summer to work off some of the burnout from work over the past couple of months. I've joined the rootring recently, which you may have seen. I've been getting a few more eyes on my work recently. Actually, I've been kind of caging my blogging recently. I was planning on going on a long trip with my family, but there were a ton of factors at play keeping that from happening. Meaning I kind of put a pause on blogging since then (Which is why I stopped the point-a-day thing). I apologize to any long-time readers, most of whom are on Medium more than here, for drifting away from the weekly release. Honestly, there's not much more that I feel needs to be said at the moment. Unless I stumble across some new D&D technology, I think I've covered a lot of bases. I still have some stuff to talk about, reading the rootring has given me a lot of ideas, but none of them feel as pressing as the things I wrote about during the blog's inception. Perhaps I don't have as much to prove to myself as back then. Who knows?

6/09/26

Time just flies, doesn't it? I've been back for a bit, but forgot to update the now page. While it's still not all clear for me, I'm back in a place where I can write more. That being said, I'm not completely able to throw myself into things, so the main blog will be nearly as intermittent as here. I hope everyone enjoys my rantings, and I'm really happy to be back.

4/24/26

While the incredibly hectic part of my life are mostly managed now, I'm still not prepared to recommit myself to weekly posts. I wish Bear could get a wider reach than it does, because I quite like the more personal aspect. Regardless, I'm still around, and I'll get back on track soon enough.

4/8/26

I'm going to have to skip this week's (4/8/26) post again. Everything is fine for me, it's just that I have a ton of crap to do in my daily life that is taking up too much of my time. I don't see it extending beyond the next month and a half at most, but for the time being, I'm putting the major things on hold until that time period is passed, as well as weekly posts. Sorry, but I can't focus on this too much now. I'm going to shift into "Slacker Mode," where I'll try and post on Medium and here, but mainly when I get a chance to, not necessarily regularly. As to not fully kill my momentum, here's what I'm committing to within that period:

I apologize profusely for this, but I just need to prioritize rest and having this, plus work, plus bi-weekly D&D games gets to be a bit much sometimes. I promise to be back with weekly articles by early June at the absolute latest.

4/4/26

April Fools' has come and gone, but I find myself wondering what other ways there are to mess with my readers. Jokes aside, I'm working on more installments in the 30 days of DMing series. Before you ask, yes. I definitely did intend to have a giant meme break up the 30-day timeframe.

Other

7/25/26 Reading. It's good for you. I think reading is prep, really. Gygax gave us all a list of inspired works, after all (cite your sources, kids). All of the things you experience get captured in the subconscious and form the things you experience and the way you describe things. Anyway, I've been working on getting reading habits up to snuff, and have been working through the Iliad for about a month now? It's a pretty thick book. I'd like to work through most of the great western books, the ones I haven't read at least, and I figured this was a good starting place. I'd sincerely recommend it, because understanding the evolution of stories is not just entertaining, but helps with that subconscious stuff I was just talking about.

6/09/26 The past couple of months absolutely decimated my reading habits. Right now, I'm concerned with just getting things back to baseline. I started a reread of the Kingkiller Chronicle, and do not get me started. I'm only mad because the books are so great. This is my first reread, so I'm excited to see some of the foreshadowing, and to really focus on the unreliable narrator aspect, as I almost never trust a 1st person perspective now(thanks Severian).

4/24/26 I've finished The Book of the New Sun, and it's a great Dying Earth novel, with a lot of depth. You should check out the podcast Alzabo Soup, which provides a breakdown and discussion of the series chapter-by-chapter. A solid recommendation to both pieces of media.