Now page

Think of a Now page as what you would tell a friend you haven't seen in a year.

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Last updated: 6 March 2023

Doing

I'm learning how to do some basic video editing— I have a few long overdue videos I want to record (with specifically a few people in mind, but would be cool if more found it useful). Am I making CONTENT now? Perish the thought. There's a visibility to 'content creator' life that I am not thirsty for, and I do not want to trade my full-time job to romance social media algorithms. Having said that, there are some things I want to make that would save me plenty of explainer video calls, so that's where I'll start.
I'm interrogating craft and fiction, and exploring expressions of storytelling. Something I am toying with is practicing at being a game master for new and old friends to role-play with. I've only ever watched actual-play tabletop RPGs on Dimension20 so I am super new to tabletop games in general, let alone being part of adventures or campaigns. The game systems that are most appealing to me so far are Fate (Accelerated), and Powered By The Apocalypse (not really a system I know, but the philosophy of those popular group of smaller RPGs). I also came out of the whole rules-light exploration also badly wanting to own a Mausritter boxed set.
I'm repurposing the spiritual wellbeing workbook I wrote and compiled in the first year of the pandemic into a series of online posts. I hope it reaches its intended readers. See The Signs In Ourselves.

Sensory

I've been spending my work breaks outside, and am slowly starting to identify birds and other fauna regulars in the area. I know ChatGPT is all the rage these days, so please be careful about the data you're feeding it for its free training! I can confirm in this case that ChatGPT has been super helpful for identifying birds. I can just describe it in my own messy way and then it shortlists birds for me that would take me ages to find with bird watcher site search filters. It's also helped me identify a bat and a scorpion from a list of possible species— this is how I found out I live around at least 6 types of scorpions by the way 😭
Looking into ways to improve my interoception— even meditation for me is such a cerebral process, so I'm trying to do the types of meditations I usually avoid, the ones that make you sit and scan your body and stuff.

Reading

I've been reading the rulebooks of game systems that are not Dungeons & Dragons. It's really interesting to see how narrative, action, and character development get designed into systems for into each role-playing game.
I have over 200 books in my Want To Read queue! To cope with the stuff that brings up in me, I often find myself peeking into a non-fiction one and reading the contents page— I check out how it's arranged, admire the flow from one chapter to the next, and consider how the chapter titles express the book title. I may never read all 200 books in my lifetime and I know I will definitely want to read more than those, so combing through chapter titles has been a calming coping mechanism in the face of all that.
I devoured Malaysian author Hanna Alkaf's novel Queen Of The Tiles within 24 hours. The premise for this one was so intriguing— an excellent Scrabble player returns to compete a year after the death of her best friend, who mysteriously starts posting on Instagram again (despite being fully dead!!!). Hanna has really been killing it with her novels lately— I get invested in every one of her girl protagonists.

Watching

Deeply into watching actual-play roleplaying stories, mostly on Dimension 20. It is a joy to watch experienced improv folks collaborate on a story together backed with vivid set design and character art. Currently watching their take on fairytales with Neverafter. Their parent channel Dropout is one of my most worth-it subscriptions.

This is a /now page inspired by Al Ibrahim's. Al was inspired by Derek Sivers, who says to think of a Now page as what I would tell a friend I haven't seen in a year.