Jon F. Zeigler

sketching with friends atm

Didn't get much done today, aside from a visit to the dentist which at least reassured me that I'm not developing a serious problem with any of my teeth.

I did review a mathematics assignment that's due in about a week, which I'll probably start work on tomorrow.

#studying

Another day mostly spent #studying in mathematics and astronomy. Making good progress. By this weekend I expect I'll be done with the current tranche of reading, so I can get started on assignments.

The math assignment will be interesting. Going to give the equation editor in Word a real workout.

While doing my #studying in astronomy today, I'm reminded of one of the more amusing tidbits in the sciences:

The quickest way to start a knife fight in the physical sciences is to ask an astronomer to define the term "metals."

The irony is that I spent the last two years of my federal career designing a curriculum that, among other things, taught Department of Defense officials about international law.

I would hazard a guess all that work has been thrown on the trash heap.

Good thing I retired when I did.

First of the month, and I set up my planning board for March, although I haven't gotten around to posting my planning message to my blog yet.

Spent most of the day doing reading in astronomy and mathematics. Some assignments coming up in the mid-month, need to be ready.

#studying

I've thought for many years that the crisis of the modern world is one of epistemology. Too many humans have some form of power without having the slightest notion of how the world around them actually works, because they never learned, refuse to learn, wouldn't recognize solid fact if they saw it.

Was a little under the weather today, plus (waves hands in all directions), but I did manage to finish and post a chapter of the current story. So that's one more check box on the list for February.

Next couple of weeks are probably going to be focused on university coursework.

#studying #writing

Statement from Major General (Ret.) Paul D. Eaton, an Army commander during Operation Iraqi Freedom:

... to create a "Metallurgy" sequence instead of having a series of disconnected items. Going to review other items too.

I'm also changing the way I generate cultural Quirks.

Finally, I'm adding situational modifiers for species that evolved on planets with unusual environments.

Progress. (2/2)

Finished my first trial run of version 0.5 of the Cultural Evolution Game today. It went okay, and it gave me several ideas for changes to the mechanics, so I suppose version 0.5 isn't finished yet after all.

Notably, I'm rearranging the list of cultural Capabilities a bit ... (1/2)

#gamedesign

I joked with my collaborators yesterday that the whole series of books, including "Architect of Worlds" and the two volumes that haven't been written yet, could be marketed as #worldbuilding "for people who get really compulsive about the fine details." They're not going to be for everyone. (4/4)

The mechanics seem to be working pretty well, though. With the right worksheets to keep records on, I imagine it wouldn't be hard to get through several rounds per hour, and the whole detailed process shouldn't take more than an afternoon. There'll be a short-cut version in the book, too. (3/4)

So far I've gotten them through the Iron Age and their first really big territorial empire.

I need to build a set of worksheets to make this process go more smoothly. I'm trying to keep track on an old Chromebook, and I keep having to flip back and forth between documents, and it's painful. (2/4)

Got some writing done today, and then got started on a trial run of the current version of the Cultural Evolution Game.

This time, I'm working up a species of (mostly) carnivores, very aggressive and callous by nature, although civilization seems to be starting to mellow them. (1/4)

#gamedesign

Scientists Analyzed the Genomes of an Ancient Culture—and Rewrote the History of Europe A study of ancient human DNA from a wetland region in Belgium, western Germany, and the Netherlands yielded surprising information about early British history.

Some interesting new DNA research on the ancient people of Western Europe.

Also started on the next chapter of my current story, and got about 500 words down on that.

Tomorrow is busy - tai chi lesson in the morning, bar trivia in the evening, so I'm not sure how much creative work I'll get done. Also need to get some reading done for my uni courses. (2/2)

#writing

Productive day today.

I'm finished tweaking the main body of the Cultural Evolution Game's mechanics. The next step is going to be the "reading the entrails" material (how to take the game's output and turn it into as detailed a history of your fictional species as you want). (1/2)

#gamedesign

... a science-fictional extension to Marxism for a TTRPG project, many years ago. He said he intends to bring it up in classroom discussion if it's appropriate.

Wouldn't be the first time he's gotten some minor kudos for the fact that his dad wrote a bunch of #GURPS books back in the day :-). (2/2)

Over dinner, my son mentioned he's about to read "The Communist Manifesto" for a writing class, as part of the degree he's pursuing. Which gave us an interesting discussion about Marx, Engels and their consequences over our mac-and-cheese.

At one point I reminded him I had invented ... (1/2)

Against the black background of space, which has distant stars and galaxies scattered across, is a large spiral galaxy filled with streaks of blue and pink. The galaxy has warped spiral arms that wrap clockwise around its bright yellow core. Toward the upper right, one of its arms appears to be breaking away from the rest of the galaxy.

Hubble Space Telescope image of Arp 25, also known as NGC 2276.

The lopsided galaxy has a core offset to the upper left and a spiral arm separated from the others. It is interacting with a nearby galaxy, just out of frame.

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, P. Sell
Source

Being retired helps. It’s nice to be able to work on creative projects full-time.

If (a big if) this version works well with private trial runs, playtesters' review, and collaborators' review, I may be able to push this section of the book to editing and layout.

You know, sometime in the next 2-3 months. Not going to get too excited just yet. Lots of work to be done first. (3/3)

I think, if I'm really ambitious, I may try to get the whole package written in rough draft before I share it out to my playtesters and collaborators again. Which probably pushes that to sometime late next month, but hopefully the result will be a no-kidding first complete draft. (2/3)

Okay, the Cultural Evolution Game (version 0.5) is just about mechanics-complete.

I've also started outlining the incomplete portions of my half-ish of the eventual book, including all the *supporting material* for the Cultural Evolution Game. (1/3)

#gamedesign #writing

Nah, that's just my usual design process. It's always iterative and takes a long time, and the final result usually doesn't look anything like the first draft.

It took me eight years to write "Architect of Worlds," and there's only a few mechanics in that book intact from the beginning.

This one hits hard.

Also (finally) finished the next chapter in my current story, and got that posted. So there was a minor milestone knocked down today, at least. (2/2)

#writing

Still plugging away on the redesign of the Cultural Evolution Game. I think I'm going to roll back a feature I added in the last draft - my playtesters seem to concur with that idea too. Probably a few more days before I've got a mechanics-complete draft to take on a trial run. (1/2)

#gamedesign

Personally I think where things started going really wrong was when Ronald Reagan was elected President. Although I have empirical evidence for that contention.