Mark Joseph Young's Blog: The Ides of Mark

Down Time

My deteriorating health put me in the hospital for two short stints in the latter half of April.  After the first I managed to catch up on missed posts, but after the second I decided to take the week off and pick up the following Sunday. So there were posts, but fewer than usual.

Because they get written in advance and placed in an automated publishing queue, RPG-ology #89:  Characterization went up on schedule.  The Christian Gamers Guild also continued the Chaplain's Bible Study with Mark 15:35 through 41, and Quote #283 .  Quotes on Facebook and Instagram had a brief hiatus, but resumed this week.

There were only four chapters of Con Version , chapters 183 through 186, but there are some exciting moments in them.

Obviously I'm not back up to speed, but I'm expecting therapy, which hopefully will help.  I have kept up on the Patreon blog.

Making a List

My health has been deteriorating, so I'm just going to attempt to simplify this to a list of items published in the first half of April.

Faith in Play #89:  Grateful , discussing gratitude as a character trait.

Mark 15:25 through 34 on the Christian Gamers Guild chaplain's Bible study.

Quote #271 and Quotes ##279, 280, 281, 282 on that same Bible study group.

Con Version chapters 174 through 182.

Mark Joseph "young" web log post #519:  Versers Congregate , behind the writing of Con Version.<

RPG-ology #89:  Characterization .

Do You Trust Me? received a 5-star review.

Wearing out, need to go.

Knocked for a Loop

Around mid-month everyone started getting sick, and it kept getting worse.  Complicating it, someone thought the diaper rash on the bottom of the younger boy looked like a handprint, and called child services, and so atop everything else I was required to supervise the parents whenever they were with the children.  It took about a week to get that rescinded, and I expect the kids had a blast going with me to the laundromat and the grocery store, but their mother did not, and in retrospect it was a bit draining.  By the last week of March into the early days of April I was exhausted but still had the workload of caring for my temporarily invalid wife--who also spent the better part of the month trying to get her health care coverage fixed so she could see her orthopedist and get the physical therapy she was supposed to be having months ago.

I managed to keep up on most of the regular stuff through the end of March; I have some catching up to do from April Fool's Day, which I hope to do tonight.  Con Version continued with chapters 164 through 173, with another behind-the-writings mark Joseph "young" web log post #518:  Versers Plan looking at chapters 157 through 168 and the continuing stories of Tomiko Takano, Brian Cooper, and Derek Brown.  The Chaplain's Bible Study at the Christian Gamers Guild continued with Mark 15:13 through 24, plus Quotes ##265, 266 and Quotes ##268, 269, 270, 271 .  Quotes continued daily despite my difficulties, and the guild published RPG-ology #88:  Celebrations , another recovered Game Ideas Unlimited article reviewing other articles in that series and discussing why and how we celebrate.

My notes suggest that I made some progress on An Analytical Commentary on The Book of II Corinthians, Verse a Tile, and When Verse Comes to Versed.  On the last of those, I'm afraid we had just hit a snag regarding how Derek was going to overcome a technological problem when I became too sick to work on it, and I'm aware that my collaborator Eric Ashley has added something to the text since then, but I haven't yet seen it. 

Despite this, I added two other features to my workload.  One is that looking for article ideas I started listening to something called The Min/Max Podcast, which has paid off at little cost, as I listen while driving, sometimes getting changed, and sometimes changing bandages.  It might be cutting into my Netflix time a bit, but that's not an issue.  The other is I accepted a somewhat pressured invitation to join a self-published writers support group, and have been checking posts there a couple times a day.  Maybe I'll provide links to those sometime; I'd rather delay each of those for different reasons.

I think at this point if I've omitted anything, it's forgotten, and you can find it on social media and particularly my Patreon blog.

Repeat

When it is not leap year, the dates in March match the days exactly as they did in February.  This is certainly not the first time I've noticed this; in fact, I could say that I did not notice this this year, just knew it as a fact of the calendar.  I suppose for most people it's not even a very interesting fact--however, having just read last month's The Ides of Mark #90, Where Was I? , I felt like this blog entry could almost be a repeat of that, but that the numbers have changed.

For example, I'm still waiting for word on the re-release of Multiverser, crawling through the setup of An Analytical Commentary on The Book of Second Corinthians and Verse a Tile, and in the early chapters of When Verse Comes to Versed, already hitting hangups in all three storylines.  I'm still moving forward with the chapter-by-chapter online publication of Con Version , chapters 157 through 163 covering the stories of Tomiko Takano, Derek Brown, and Brian Cooper; one difference is that this month began with mark Joseph "young" web log post #517:  Versers Moving , looking behind the writings of chapters 145 through 156.  The quotes continue, including a few repeated to the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Bible Study as Quotes ##254, 255, 256 and Quotes ##257, 258, 259, 260, 261 .  The study itself continued with Mark 15:3 through 12, and the guild also published Faith in Play #88:  Approval , about how the opinions of others in our lives impact our conduct, and how that might be reflected in our characters.

Nearly all of that echoes last month.  Am I falling into a rut?  Maybe not--I've drafted more articles and story chapters for the future, and they're different and I hope interesting.  It just looks the same in summary.

Well, we'll see.

As always, you can follow me on social media such as Patreon, and I should be back at the end of the month with more.

Where Was I?

I feel like I'm in the middle, but no, like I haven't reached the middle of anything.  I'm still waiting for word on the re-release of Multiverser, I'm crawling through the setup of An Analytical Commentary on The Book of Second Corinthians and Verse a Tile, and I'm still in the early chapters of When Verse Comes to Versed, and already hitting hangups in all three storylines.  However, progress has been made.

On the stories front, I've continued publishing Con Version with chapters 149 through 156 continuing to unfold the stories of Derek Brown fighting the devil while Brian Cooper and Tomiko Takano find their roles as superheroes.  I continue posting quotes from various books, some of which were also posted to the Christian Gamers Guild's Chaplain's Bible Study, as Quotes ##247, 248 and Quotes ##250, 251, 252 .  The Bible Study also continued with Mark 14:65 through 15:2.

February also saw the publication of RPG-ology #87:  The Alien , a recovered Game Ideas Unlimited article recounting how I designed the completely inhuman Bah of Bah Ke'gehn (in Multiverser:  The Second Book of Worlds).

I feel like this is short and I must be forgetting something, but I don't see it in my notes, so I'll just remind you that you can keep up through social media and support me through Patreon and PayPal.me.

Making Up for Lost Time

I have a battery-powered clock on the wall over my desk.  I suppose it's a bit redundant, as I also have a clock with four built-in timers on my desk, plus the clock on the computer, and of course I carry my cell phone.  Twenty years ago or so I stopped wearing a rather sophisticated electronic watch, but I noticed that I would periodically glance at my wrist even after all this time, so when I saw a cheap ($5) watch with a step counter at Aldi's last week, I indulged.  I'm getting used to wearing it again.

Anyway, the wall clock:  a few days ago it stopped, and I realized just how much I look at it rather than the others as for two days it told me it was a minute before six, and the second hand feebly struggled to reach forty-one seconds.  Eventually I dug out the power cell (battery technically refers to a multi-cell arrangement, and this uses only one) and stretched across the desk to get the clock and reset it.  The next afternoon I realized that it was somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes ahead, and I'm still not sure whether I set it wrong or it somehow started running fast.  I joked that it was making up for lost time, for the time it was stopped.

Sometimes I feel like I'm doing that.

My copies of my two-volume An Analytical Commentary on The Book of First Corinthians arrived today, and I'm quite pleased with how they look on cursory inspection.  I'm continuing to read through, edit, and format the Second Corinthians sequel.  I'm also still waiting to hear that Multiverser is back in print and available as an e-book.  Collaborator Eric Ashley and I are moving forward slowly with the fifteenth Multiverser novel, When Verse Comes to Versed, as I do set up on the fourteenth, Verse a Tile.  I continue publishing chapters 141 through 148 of Con Version , the eleventh in the series now with Derek Brown fighting for the soul of New Orleans as Brian Cooper and Tomiko Takano are superheroes in Berkeley Colorado.  There was a mark Joseph "young" web log post #516:  Versers Stymied giving a behind-the-writings look at chapters 133 through 144.

Turning to the Christian Gamers Guild, Faith in Play #87:  Crosses looked at what it really means to bear our own, and whether our characters might have similar issues.  The Chaplain's Bible Study continued with Mark 14:55 through 64, and also posted Quotes ##235, 239, 240 and Quotes ##242, 243, 244, 245 .

Quotes continue on some of my social media sites, and you can keep up on my publishing there including through Patreon.  As a footnote, you can follow my Patreon posts without becoming a patron, so there's no cost or obligation there, although of course to a significant degree my online presence is supported by contributions there and through PayPal.me.

Rain with a High Chance of Rain

The title was today's weather forecast, as delivered to my phone, but it might describe, metaphorically, the latter half of January here.  Our oven went on the fritz, my son's car died, and our refrigerator quit.  But that's not really why you're here.

During the latter half of the month Eric Ashley and I made some progress on When Verse Comes to Versed, and I've done a bit of setup on Verse a Tile and An Analytical Commentary on The Book of II Corinthians.  I also wrote another Faith in Play and converted another Game Ideas Unlimited to the next RPG-ology, so I have accomplished a few things.  On top of this, my laptop was upgraded to Windows 11.

I continued posting quotes from my books daily, with select quotes making it to the Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Bible Study.  The past sixteen days saw Quote #223 , Quotes ##224, 225, 226 , and Quotes ##227, 228 .  The Bible Study otherwise continued with Mark 14:44 through 54.  The guild also published RPG-ology #86:  Uncertainty , a recovered Game Ideas Unlimited article about tactics.

On the novel front, I continued posting Con Version with chapters 131 through 140, plus mark Joseph "young" web log post #515:  Verser Troubles looking behind the writing of chapters 121 through 132.

Let me again mention in closing that you can keep track of what I'm posting through social media, and particularly Patreon, and I should be back mid-February with another update.

Halftime

We've finished the first half month of the new calendar year, and it's time to look at those fifteen days.  It has been fairly routine.

I began the year with mark Joseph "young" web log post #513:  Another Year , indexing most of my 2024 writings not already included in the Christian Gamers Guild index I had posted the night before.  Then the next week the Guild added Faith in Play #86:  Tempters , addressing whether it is wrong to play the part of Satan in a game.  Meanwhile, the Chaplain's Bible Study continued with Mark 14:32 through 43 and Quotes ##215, 216, 217 and Quotes ##218, 219 .  Quotes continue to be posted daily to Facebook and Instagram, and regularly to Patreon.

Work continues setting up Verse a Tile and writing and editing When Verse Comes to Versed with collaborator Eric Ashley, and I have published chapters 123 through 130 of Con Version , continuing the stories of Derek Brown, Tomiko Takano, and Brian Cooper.

Someone asked his pastor whether it was a sin to use certain formerly illegal but now legalized drugs, and apparently the pastor referred him to me.  I've not heard whether my response in web log post #514:  Legalized Drugs was satisfactory to either of them, but it was a challenging question.

I've also continued inching forward in the pre-publication work for An Analytical Commentary on The Book of Second Corinthians.

I feel as if there must be more, but that's all I see at the moment.  You can keep up to date through social media and particularly Patreon, and I should see you at the end of the month.

Finishing a Year

I'm rushing to get this posted before 2024 ends.  It is a review of the last half of the last month of the past year.

A lot of the month has been devoted to medical care for my wife and myself, but I have continued posting Con Version with chapters 114 through 122, the stories of Derek Brown, Tomiko Takano, and Brian Cooper moving forward.  There was an associated mark Joseph "young" web log post, #512:  Versers Work , looking behind the writings of chapters 109 through 120.

In related news, I finished setup of Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story including the character sheets, and continuing my collaboration with Eric Ashley am writing When Verse Comes to Versed while setting up Verse a Tile.

On the Christian Gamers Guild front, I just posted the Christian Gamers Guild 2024 Index , and earlier in the month we saw another recovered Game Ideas Unlimited article, RPG-ology #85:  Common .  The Chaplain's Bible Study continued with Mark 14:21 through 32, along with Quotes ##208, 209 and Quotes ##211, 214 .  Those quotes continue on Facebook and Instagram.

Well, as long as I mention social media and particularly Patreon as ways to keep up, I've made it by midnight.

Wound Care

Much of my time has been given over to caring for my wife, who as mentioned returned from rehab but cannot walk nor even stand for more than a moment.  Meanwhile, my own medical problems have become more complicated, with respiratory allergies requiring more treatment and wound care of my abdomen becoming more complicated.  This has limited my work generally, and although I did touch on the character sheets for Multiverser:  The Thirteenth Story and do some work on setup for An Analytical Commentary on The Book of Second Corinthians, progress on those fronts has been minimal.  Collaborator Eric Ashley and I have picked up When Verse Comes to Versed which is starting to get some direction.

Con Version continues with chapters 105 through 113 telling the stories of Brian Cooper, Derek Brown, and Tomiko Takano, with the superhero world coming into focus, and a behind-the-writings look in mark Joseph "young" web log post #511:  Characters Change covering chapters 97 through 108.

The Chaplain's Bible Study continues with Mark 14:10 through 14:20, Quotes ##201, 203, 204 , and Quotes ##205, 206 .  The Christian Gamers Guild also published a look at personal ethics as Faith in Play #85:  Codes .

Quotes continue to appear on Facebook and Instagram, and I reviewed the book Simple Genius by David Baldacci which my son gave me when I was hospitalized.

I think that's everything.  As always, you can keep-to-date through social media and particularly Patreon.