Posted on October 2, 2022
October Goals
Autumn is here and it feels like the year is almost over. I have a lot of exciting projects in the works and I thought I’d try documenting them here. This isn’t intended to be a full list for the rest of the year, just my list of goals for the month of October.
Music:
I made an iOS game called SquirrelWarz for Tribal Games back in 2017. It was a great experience workin g with some of my most talented friends to make a game I was really proud of. It didn’t make us rich, but I was still very fortunate to be a part of it. I was the lead game developer and audio guy on the team, but I also helped with some of the art and other aspects of the game.
The SquirrelWarz soundtrack is some of my favorite music I’ve ever worked on. I wanted it to feel like it was made by a group of small little mammals, so I tried to use cute sounding instruments like melodicas, mouth harps, and toy drums. I created 8 full tracks for the game, but never got around to releasing them until now.
After a long wait, the SquirrelWarz soundtrack will be available this Friday on DocPop.Bandcamp.com at a great price. It also happens to be #BandcampFriday, so it’s a great time to pick up a new album you’ll love.
Card Games
My first big game, Knifetank: The Shüffling, was released in 2020, and sold out quickly. I’ve been meaning to print another run ever since then, but just couldn’t make the time. I still get plenty of emails about the game so I’ve decided to do another crowdfunding campaign later this month to fund it.
I won’t be using Kickstarter this time around though, so I’m trying to decide between GameFound and Backerkit.
I’ve also been asked to demo the game at Big Bad Con later this month. I’ll be showing Knifetank in the Small Press Expo room on Saturday October 29th.
Yo-Yo
I have a bunch of prototypes and new yo-yos on order, but due to supply chain issues, I don’t have much of an idea of when they’ll arrive. I do have a few things that are more under my control though, such as running yo-yo meetups.
I run an online yo-yo club each month for my Patreon backers that is called the YoIP! (yo-yo over internet protocol). That happens on the second Saturday of each month.
I’m also hoping to run a yo-yo meetup in San Francisco the following Saturday in Golden Gate Park. If I do end up confirming that, I’ll probably share it on The Yo-Yo List, a new website for organizing yo-yo meetups. So keep your eye out there.
Comics and Art
Speaking of local meetups, I’m hoping to bring the San Francisco Cartoonist Conspiracy back to life with monthly meetups in the Mission. I have an old email list for the SFCC here, which might be a good way to keep track of those events.
The SF Cartoonist Conspiracy is a club I ran for many years. We’d meet in a coffee shop and work on jam comics or exquisite corpse style drawing games.
WordPress
I’ve been really busy working on a bunch of WordPress related projects lately. Last month I went to WordCamp US and posted a ton of videos for TorqueMag.io about the event.
I’ve been running the Torque Social Hour for a few years, that is a weekly livestream about WordPress news and events. I’ve also started running the Press This podcast for WP Engine. Good times!
As part of my journey I’m trying to get better at building WordPress websites, so I’m currently working on Andorsand.com. This site is live now, but my hope is to have it finished by the end of October. Part of this site will involve creating a webfont that includes the andorsand glyph, so I can have that appear on the page like any other punctuation mark.
Posted on September 25, 2022
The Permanent Damage comic fest on Valencia Street
I wanted to give a shout out to the folks at Silver Sprocket (1018 Valencia Street) for hosting the Permanent Damage comic fest this weekend. Steen and I stopped by yesterday and picked up some rad comic books. I think they had about 15 vendors on hand selling prints, comics, patches, and more.
I picked up a bunch of rad comics and one of those butterfly knives with a comb on it. I’ve always wanted one of those.
I heard a cool story I wanted to share too. The folks at Flor de Café, a nearby restaurant, wanted to help support the artists, so they offered space in their restaurant for artists to set up. It was rad seeing comics and posters spread all throughout the restaurant. I even heard they hooked some of the artists up with free food. That’s super cool!
Posted on September 18, 2022
Using Custom Emoji As An iPhone Wallpaper
One of the new features in iOS16 is the ability to create your a custom wallpaper/lockscreen using your favorite emoji. Here’s mine:
To set up your own custom emoji wallpaper in iOS16 go to Settings > Wallpaper>Add New Wallpaper>Emoji.
Posted on September 11, 2022
I’m back from WordCamp US 2022
Last week I went to San Diego for WordCamp 2022. It was my first WordCamp in two and half years and I really enjoyed it. This was a much more intimate event than previous years, since they limited the number of available tickets to 650, so I really got to spend more time with each person I met.
I was on location shooting videos for TorqueMag.io and have been rushing get those videos online (watch them here). I shot about 13 interviews and managed to edit and upload over half of those videos before the event was even over.
I really appreciated the steps the organizers took to mitigate the spread of Covid at this event. Masks were required when indoors and they were using a checkin system called Vow that required attendees to show proof of vaccine or a recent Covid test. I hope events can keep these policies up. I haven’t had Covid yet, and I’d like to keep it that way 😉
I’ve taken one test since the event ended and have a negative result. I’ll check again mid-week to see if that changes. I wore my mask when indoors and traveling and didn’t do any indoor dining, so I have a pretty good feeling I didn’t bring anything back home with me that I didn’t want.
