Avatar photoSteven Savage

Civic Diary: 9/5/2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

Been awhile on one of these hasn’t it?  Nope, haven’t forgotten, but it’s been a crazy few weeks.  Work, book launch, friends had problems, more work,a class.  It honestly got on top of me.

This also means my civic engagement has been low – right when I wanted to get more involved, after going through some pretty crazy adventures finding out just how I could be.

No excuses, I had to prioritize and was exhausted.  But there’s lessons in this.

Civic Diary Lessons: Priority.

I actually am a pretty planned guy- shocking, I know.  I usually have plans, however rough, about 12-15 months out.  My months also include general plans (do X on Y days).  So how did all of this get on top of me to the point where I’m just now getting to my GOTV plans?

Simple.  I didn’t really plan.

When you’re organized you can decide to do something but not look ahead on everything else.  You’ve got a plan right?  It’s not hard to introduce one new thing?

Actually, it is.  It’s easy to say “a few hours here or there” or “I’m not doing anything that Saturday” and miss the much larger context.  Could you be interrupted?  Will you have the energy to do your “new thing?”  What will your psychological state be?

When you got a plan, you don’t just swap something in.  You don’t think you’re so organized you can make time.  You make a new plan.

Sure I had one – a vauge one – but it wasn’t enough.  It wasn’t paced.  It didn’t acknowledge realities.

It’s probably as I’m experimenting with larger civic engagement.  But lesson learned – civic engagement is something that I need to do as part of the rest of my plans.  Set aside time, know my limits.  Do more when I can, less when other things call.

A good lesson for you too.  Also, maybe start small – I think I overdid it.

Other Activities On The Civic Front

So where am I otherwise:

  1. I found you can do GOTV online.  Planning to do that, and maybe a meetup later.
  2. Longer-term still looking at being involved in communications.  But that is for – yes – an actual plan.  As in I can figure it out after the Election.
  3. News-wise the news media has been erratic to dismal this election, so I’ve taken a bigger interest in media watchdogs.  Signed up for some action alerts to help me stay on top of things.
  4. I haven’t written my reps on much lately.  I’m setting my alert on that to weekly.
  5. Donate.  Because seriously, money matters.

 

That’s it for me.  Hopefully I’ll have more useful insights next week now that I’m getting back in the swing of things.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 8/23/2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

 

Wait, so where have I been?

Sorry to vanish for, well, nearly two weeks, but it got crazy.

Short form is I had a crazy 4 weeks with work, book publishing, class, and a bit of illness.  This then compounded with two more weeks of crazy brought about by exhaustion, more work, family and friend issues, and more.  The smoke is finally clearing, but my major reaction is roughly A) WTF happened, and B) Thank goodness for No Man’s Sky and Gravity Falls as a break.

So six weeks so nutty it could be a candy bar.  So what’s up?

  • Way With Worlds Book 2 is now slated for “Q1 2017.”  Getting the editing done has been a challenge – my editor herself got mobbed at work, had technical issues that mangled one of the documents, and more.  After talking, she’s going to take it easy to focus and I’m moving the editing to someone else.  On top of that the holidays are still approaching so I figured best to keep this scheduled within a given quarter – not a month.
  • The Sailor Moon Book, Her Eternal Moonlight, drops in a little over a month!
  • Though I’m insanely busy, I have made some plans for my next writing in the coming 18-24 months.  This is not to overload myself so much as focus it and avoid overloading myself.
  • The Pizza generator has data ready to go (try 100 different ingredients) so now I just need to set something up.  I may not get it done this month but hope to soon.  Not sure what food to do after that – I was considering coffee or pastry, but I also have some notes on a candy bar generator that would be descriptive enough to nearly be used as a recipe . . .
  • I’m waiting to hear what I do at Con-Volution and Kraken-Con.
  • I got accepted to speak at the PMI Silicon Valley symposium.  I’ll be speaking on how to ruin a project.  Yes, you heard that right.
  • I’ve put some of my Civic Diary activity on hold, but am resuming – and have some interesting insights on what it’s like to sign up to help a campaign in the modern age (short form, technology makes things much easier . . . and gives you a bit too many options).

That’s currently it for now.  I’ll be back on top of this, return to Civic Diary, and more in the next few weeks.

– Steve

Steve’s Update 8/10/2016

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(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com, www.SeventhSanctum.com, and Steve’s Tumblr)

 

Hey everyone, had a busy time with the book launch and so on, so here’s the latest.  I’ve had a crazy few weeks so it’s not much of an update:

  • Way With Worlds Book 2 is now coming out in January.  There’s two reasons: 1) Editing the last book was brutal and with the holidays I wanted more time, and 2) Deploying the book during the holidays is going to mean it’ll get lost among all the activities of the time.
  • I plan to write more books on creativity, since after a few decades of writing, making generators, coaching people, playing RPGs, and more I’ve got a lot to share.  In time of self-publishing, I figure more advice for creatives can’t hurt!
  • The Pizza Generator is in progress.  No delivery date in mind yet, mostly due to the recent craziness, but I think it’ll be worth it.  Pizzas have an interesting philosophy behind them, and when you look them over, you can see patterns.  For instance, there’s all sorts of ways to combine meats and toppings, but going outside the “normal” spices usually involves only one or two.

I hope to have more in the next week or two.

– Steve