Digging In

The driveway work got started Thursday. We were expecting it this week, but then the weather predictions went haywire. At one point we were expecting six inches of snow. We got nothing more than a dusting here. Parts of western Oklahoma ended up with ten or more inches though.

Turns out that the contractor is a guy who used to do tower work with Number Two Son, and got a huge kick when I told him. He’s also really good with kids (he had his daughter with him when he came out to give us the quote). He invited Grandson up on the excavator with him, and I’ve got a couple of minutes of video of Grandson having the time of his life helping with the digging and spreading dirt.

There was only one real mishap. We had the utilities marked, but I don’t think anyone expected the internet cable to be as shallow as it was, which was really just a few inches deep. That left us without terrestrial internet for about 18 hours until Vyve was able to get out and replace the line on Friday.

You’d think I’d have used that time wisely and cranked out a lot of writing since I didn’t have any distractions. I ended up hammering out about 1,100 words on a couple of projects, which is better than nothing, right?

Playing Games

Years ago, I learned of a naval miniatures game called Harpoon. It was a way to simulate naval battles using dice and miniature ships. Living in southeastern Ohio, I didn’t really have the resources or interested friends to get into it, though I loved the concept.

Fast forward to 1990. My then-wife had a Macintosh, and at some point, I discovered the computer version of the game, and I was hooked. I played it for hours. But I lost access to the Macintosh after the divorce, so no more Harpoon for me . . . until I bought my own computer and found the DOS version of the game. I played the heck out of that version, too.

At some point though, I quit playing. Then by the time I was ready to start playing again, my hardware had surpassed the software, so the DOS version wouldn’t run on whatever system I had. I kept looking for a version that would run with Windows, but I recall there being some issues with who owned the rights to the game, and those issues causing development delays. I guess Matrix Games eventually developed another version of it, but I missed out on the announcements at the time.

I’ve been halfway looking for something similar over the years and happened up on Matrix’s Command: Naval Operations. I’ve seen it called the “spiritual successor to Harpoon.” I watched several gameplay videos on YouTube and quickly got hooked. When I checked it out on Steam, not only did I see there was a big content upgrade coming this week, the game itself was also on sale for half-off. Hard to beat that. Pulled the trigger Friday afternoon.

All the downloadable content was on sale too, but I decided to hold off on that for now. I’m sure the basic game is going to be a huge time-suck all by itself. I’m forcing myself to not play it yet until I’ve caught up on my Storyworth projects, and I’ve got until sometime in March to finish those. Then my productivity will drop through the basement.

Hootsuite

I’ve been using this as a social media client for something like eight or nine years, since I was introduced to it during my Booktrope days. It’s pretty handy in that I could set up different screens for different feeds. I could put all of my writing lists and searches on one tab, then all of my sports lists on another. The free plan only let you work two social media accounts, but that was fine for me since I really only needed my Twitter and Facebook accounts there.

Thursday, Hootsuite announced they were ending their free plan as of March 31 with no real explanation. They said they’d give us a 60-day free trial of the Pro plan if we grabbed it in 48 hours. I looked at the regular pricing for Pro and was just gobsmacked: $99 a month! That’s $1,188 for the year, and that was their cheap plan. There’s no way I need to spend that much money on something like Hootsuite, even if I could afford it, which I can’t. Guess I’ll start looking for another client, and switch to Tweetdeck if I don’t find one by the end of March. In the meantime, I’m happy to look over your suggestions.

Digging into the research for a new client, I saw that Hootsuite seems to be in some financial difficulties. Earlier this month they laid off seven percent of their employees in the third round of layoffs in 12 months. Overall it looks like about 40% of their employees are gone. That’s never a good sign.

By Friday I’d figured out that it’s going to take me a while to choose a new client. I used Hootsuite mainly for the “inbox” functions it provided—the tabs and such I was talking about. But the big thing now is scheduling lots of content across your different social media accounts. Most of the clients I’ve looked at aren’t real big on the consumption end of things and focus almost solely on broadcasting. To use a radio analogy: they’re more focused on transmitting than receiving. But you can’t have a conversation if all you’re doing is talking. You need to hush and listen sometimes. Isn’t that what “engagement” is all about? Or did business-oriented social media leave me behind? That’s entirely possible. Sigh.

I’m playing with a combination of Tweetdeck (free) and Social Champ (using the free plan there) for now. Tweetdeck isn’t ideal for me, because you can realistically only put five columns up, and there’s no provision for tabs like Hootsuite had. The Home column is a firehose, too, that I haven’t figured out how to adjust the speed of.

And I really wish sites would put up a screenshot of their dashboard. You may have exactly what I need when it comes to publishing tools. But if your UI sucks, that doesn’t do me any good. And I’d like to see that your UI sucks before I spend 15 minutes setting up an account and connecting feeds.

Reading

I picked up two books from the library this week. The New Backyard Idea Book is, I hope, going to help me continue with my landscaping ideas. I’ve already decided that my first landscaping project will be the living space in front of the house. Now I just need to figure out what’s going where.

The other book I grabbed I did so solely because of the title. Didn’t read the back cover, look up the author, or anything like that. Saw it; grabbed it. It’s Michael L. Brown’s The Political Seduction of the Church. He absolutely hooked me with the title. The politicization of The Christian Church (meaning all denominations of Christianity) is something I’ve struggled with for years, long before I ever really started deconstructing. The idolization of Donald Trump as The Church’s savior really cemented the thought in my head that most Americans don’t know the difference between a Christian Nation and a nation of Christians.

I started digging into the book right away Wednesday and . . . I’m not sure it’s going to be what I wanted or expected. Dr. Brown is unapologetically evangelical, so our positions are already somewhat antagonistic. We’ll see how it goes. Expect a book review in a couple of weeks.

Writing

1,450 words on Ghost this week. Nothing on Storyworth. It’s hard for me to switch between the two projects. But it feels good to be writing more on Ghost.

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