I wanted some cool visual section breaks with catchy titles to help give this thing some structure. Some of the titles speak for themselves, this is one of them.
The biggest thing I’ve been working on the last few weeks (months) is CyberSync. CyberSync is a cyberpunk-themed comic book anthology launching on Kickstarter on October 24th that I couldn’t be more proud of. Check out our prelaunch page if you haven’t yet. The book is nearly completely put together at this point. I don’t want to count any cybernetic upgrades until the ripperdoc’s done, but it’s looking like we’ll have a proof in hand by the time the Kickstarter launches. During the campaign at the latest.
In case you missed it, we revealed this stunning variant, illustrated by Bob Little.
I mean, dude, how fucking epic is this? I have to pick my jaw up off the floor every time I see it.
So yeah, things are going great for CyberSync. We’ll be teasing more interior pages in the next few weeks leading up to our official Kickstarter launch. And probably some more after that. It’s 72 story pages… so we’ve got plenty to show off.
This section is just for my rambling. Complete brain dump. Maybe some occasional stories. We’ll see how it goes. I ripped the name from “What’s happened happened”, my favorite line from Christopher Nolan’s Tenet. It’s also meant to be me talking about “what’s happened” in my life in the last week since the last newsletter (ignore that this is the first newsletter), so I thought it worked on a couple of levels.
I’m 27 now. I don’t feel super strongly about it, I don’t think. Which maybe means I do feel really strongly about it. 30 is like right there but it’s also pretty far away. I’ve got a lot I want to accomplish by then, but also things change. The most important thing I want to accomplish is being happy with what I’m doing day in and day out. I’m achieving that right now.
Ooooh yeah here’s the fun stuff. This section is all about what I’ve been investing my time in lately. Games, movies, comics, books, podcasts, whatever it is. Lately, it’s Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m no stronger than the rest of the internet. It’s got me in an absolute chokehold. I’m about 35ish hours into my first playthrough and a little bit into Act 2. It’s probably my GOTY already.
It’s just unreal. I’ve never played D&D before, but I’ve been trying to get into it for the past couple of years. I have the Starter Kit in my office closet currently. I just haven’t taken that leap yet. BG3 is going to make me take that leap.
The world is so rich, the characters are so engaging, and the story pulls you in completely. It’s got the RPG elements down brilliantly. The dialogue choices actually feel like they matter. I had something happen recently that was the result of my actions from dozens of in-game hours ago, it’s ludicrous.
And the gameplay, my god the gameplay. It’s challenging as hell (to me, Idc. I’m playing on Explorer and still shaking in my boots through a lot of encounters) but it’s so cathartically rewarding because of it. The world begs to be explored completely and it’s STUNNING. I could rave about this game forever. I’ll stop myself for now only because I’m sure I’ll be doing it again next week.
Other media let’s seeee The Creator was bangin’. Love some good original sci-fi. I’ll probably go more in-depth with that one some other time. I’ve been reading through Dune again, I’m a little over halfway through and it’s got me itching to rewatch the film. Big bummer it’s not coming out this year. And for podcasts, I’ve just been listening to a ton of Philosophers in Space. I’ll be talking more about them in the next section though.
This is the philosophy section. Get ready for a whole lot of questions and no answers.
You’re welcome.
I jest, mostly. I guess it’d be fitting to start with the philosophy that’s helped me the most. Stoicism genuinely changed my life. I think it gets a little (a lot) misconstrued in modern conversations about people being “stoic”. The term gets thrown around and is generally used to describe someone who’s emotionally detached or unavailable. While I think there are certainly readings of stoicism that fit that bill, that’s not how I’ve chosen to interpret and apply it to my life.
Stoicism, to me, is the ability to control your own mind and actions. It’s accepting things as they are, not as you wish them to be.
It’s a lot fucking easier said than done.
It also doesn’t mean not having any emotional attachment or reactions. It’s about trying to control how those things impact you. Mostly it’s about not letting those things impact you negatively. It’s a constant ideal to strive towards. There’s the ideal of a “Stoic Sage”, which is something that’s pretty much impossible to achieve. No one ever gets there, but it’s a good thing to aim for.
How To Be Free is the first full philosophical text I ever read. It’s a collection of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus’ Encheiridion and selections from his Discourses. I highly, highly recommend it. One of my favorite quotes is as follows:
Right now, then, make it your habit to tell every jarring thought or impression: You are just an appearance and in no way the real thing. Next, examine it and test it by these rules that you have. First and foremost: does it involve the things up to us, or the things not up to us? And if it involves one of the things not up to us, have the following response at hand: “Not my business.”
First a little vocab clarification, by “impression” here Epictetus is essentially referring to intrusive, negative thoughts. Feelings of doubt or uncertainty that have no actual basis in the world. He’s basically talking about overthinking shit.
And his response is the best thing. Can you actually do anything about it? No? Then move on. Let it go.
Again, this is a lot easier said than done. It takes practice. Constantly. This is the striving I was talking about earlier. A mantra that’s helped me when I’m facing those doubts is, “You are merely an impression. You are not reality and you have no bearing over me.” It centers me and reminds me what does matter, what I do have control over, and how I can move forward from there.
This is just going to be a little tips, tricks, and advice section. I’m going to keep it short and sweet this week and leave you with another quote from Epictetus. From the Encheiridion:
Don’t ask for things to happen as you would like them to, but wish for them to happen as they actually do, and you will be all right.
P.S.
These will normally be sent out on Sundays, but the idea of sending the first one out on my birthday felt neat. See you in the next one.
Happy birthday!! Hope you got to celebrate! 🥳🎂 Looking forward to future editions, I’m especially curious about the philosophy. Have you read the comic Epicurus the Sage by William Messner-Loebs and Sam Kieth?