Blaugust 2014

According to my desktop calendar, it's somehow time for the annual ego trip that is Blaugust yet again. The last two Blaugusts have been somewhat lacklustre in terms of actual content, but this year there are some compelling reasons why we won't be having a repeat of those fiascoes:

I am not in Green Day

There are a bunch of people out there on the internet doing just this, blogging August away instead of getting on with their lives. I'm sure none of them will be producing the same eclectic mix of papery/gamery/didactery/asphyxery/doggelery/amateurwordsmithery as myself, but it's nice to know that there are people out there doing interesting things as well as people in here inflating their egos.

Some of those people will be familiar to longtime readers of the Leaflocker. Ale has promised an offering of art and John will be wowing us all with his sci-fi writing. Both of them consistently impress me with their expertise in their chosen fields, and I'm sure they won't disappoint.

We've also drawn some fresh blood, mostly from EVAC, my local video gaming club. Check out these guys and give them some love. Paul will be actually making progress, or at least talking about doing so, on his much anticipated Advance Wars mod. Mark will be taking the Thomly route, and making it up as he goes along. Shaun will probably be talking anime or games or something, but you never know. Mason will be doing media reviews and analysis, which sounds serious. Michael is going to steal some souls and discuss the experience on the internet. Rosie is going to make beautiful things and look good doing it... And I'm sure more will be joining us as the month wears on.

That should be something for everyone, but it's not too late for you to join in, dear reader. Many of these guys will be posting daily, because they're more committed/manly/time-efficient that me, but there's no need to push yourself beyond your limits. Set a pace that you're comfortable and stick to it if you can, pick up your keyboard and type, and remember send me a link so that I can feed on your creativity.

2) I've been channelling Helen Shapiro

The last couple of months I've been putting a lot of stuff in my life off in order to complete my work as AVCon thrall. Now that that's behind me for another year, it's time to get to actually doing things that I want to do. Creative projects, housework, proper hygiene, all of this stuff has been on the back-burner, but it's time to change the batteries in the stove, get that front burner on and get to using my brain again. How exactly rambling about popes is going to do that is beyond me, but let's find out.

3) There are worse things than death

So that I have a stick for myself as well as the tasty carrot of a job well done, I have set up the 'first' and hopefully 'only' chapter of a Hikaru No Go / Naruto crossover story that I began writing earlier in the year on a dead man switch. This will mean that if I fail to post for two days, or forget to change the publish date, then the internet will suddenly know my dark and terrible secret and I will have to be ashamed into never again leaving my house as a response to taking that last terminal leap into the dark pit of internet depravity that is fanfiction. Hopefully I have too much self-respect to let that happen.

I think we all know me well enough to admit that any schedule we try to keep will be absolutely blown to pieces by day three, but for now let's just pretend that I have even the slightest capacity to meet a rigorous and disciplined schedule.

Mondays at the Vatican.

Monday content will probably be cartoons. It just seems the right day for it, blame Garfield. Since for years I've been unable to draw cartoons without popes in them this will almost certainly degenerate into jokes about obscure religious figures that have been dead for centuries.You have been warned. 

Tuesday Book Club

Along with my regular hopeless quest to read more books than I somehow acquire, I also plan on embarking on a very special and phenomenally ridiculous reading project. So yeah, that's gonna work. I can assure you all right now that I won't try to read Neuromancer again for a while.

Wednesday Quiz

In order to irritate long-time reader, Joanna, I intend to start yet another season of Wednesday quizzes, then discontinue it just before I proclaim her the winner. There are some traditions that are just too fun to stop. I'd appreciate ideas, so if you have a quiz you'd like to see, let me know.

Thursday Night Games

Games. So many games. Games have been such a big part of my life for the last few months that I can't imagine doing a blog without them featuring heavily. Might be board games, might be computer games, and if I get really desperate, it might just end up being poems about Diplomacy.

Friday Ties

The whole tie thing has really gone downhill and off the rails before crashing in an all-consuming inferno, but it's time to bring it back, since it's not like my tie collection is doing anything else except slowly rotting upstairs. Starting next week, I'll be picking a weekly tie and wearing it, just like the good old days. Apparently that's counts as content, so tick another day off.

Secret Squirrel Saturday

Saturday is my day for talking about all the other things that I do that don't justify a weekly post to themselves. It's also a day for sleeping well into the afternoon, though, so we'll see how that goes. Unless I can think of something better, it will start with before and after pictures of my long-overdue bedroom cleanup, so hopefully we'll come up with something better and thus put off that Sisephyean task for another week.

Sunday Inquisition

Since I'm the token religious guy around here (you know, on the internet), I may well devote the sabbath to actual serious religious content. This should be considered a warning to you all that if I'm posting on a Sunday it will be overtly religious in nature, so if you have issues with people banging on about Christianity, or just with the shallow insights and poor writing style of this eternally amateurish and particularly rusty apologist, maybe stay away on Sundays.

As always, I reserve the right to skip/swap/defrenestrate as many of those as I see fit, but the aim will be for a post at least every two days, or the self-respect gets it. It promises to be a good month, guys, so best of luck to you all, readers and fellow 'writers' both.