- Jun 12, 2019
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November 2019 Site Update
Is it just me, or has it been an awfully slow month? Every other month this year zoomed past, but October slowed to a crawl. Maybe it's just because I have a trip at the end of November that I'm excited for. Anticipation is distorting time itself. Perception is weird as hell, guys. Anyway!
What Was
October Event Participation
This month we switched it up a bit and tried some new things. A crossword, murder mystery, and group RP, with a new set of Spooky Medals in the event set for the taking. These are the ones who participated in this months activities, with our thanks:
Dao Ma | dewdrop | Dream Catcher | Eeveeborn | Junnabee | Lunar | lyriclyrandom | Seshet the Story Weaver | Tarieles | Teneo Lupum
Donations
As always, we've got to spare a moment to shout out the loverly souls who saw fit to put their own hard-earned coin forward for Umbra. These are this month's donors:
Anonymous Donor (contact us if you want recognition/medal!) | Candi Cosmo | Tarieles
Housekeeping
Throughout October we had a bonus spooky font and Halloweeny theme for the site up for anyone interested. Since the season is a-shifting, those things will be going away… at least for now. If demand is high enough and desire great enough, Nev could probably be persuaded to keep them in rotation. That's really his thing more than mine. Like did you notice how he uses tabs in his announcements, but I force you to scroll through every line of my exhaustive, unnecessary verbosity? Yes, I AM a pretentious dick!
What Is
November Events NaNoWriMo
This month is a special time for writers of all tiers and lanes. Casual, professional, manic, or slovenly, November is known fairly well as National Novel Writing Month, OR, more colloquially, NaNoWriMo. The goal is to help writers build a work ethic and form connections in their community, and that's what we want to inspire here on Umbra.
For all those wishing to do some Umbra-style NaNo activities, we've put together a few low-stress threads for everyone to enjoy. Not participating in NaNo this year? Don't worry, these threads are open to anyone wishing to get some extra inspiration for whatever project you have going on.
Threads will include a daily writing prompt (with an additional NaNo word count tracker for those participating in the event), a story/advice thread for all those who have participated in the past or wish to join NaNo in the future, and a character creation hub for writers to share their favorite pro- and antagonists, ask for feedback from the community, or whatever your writer's heart desires. For those just wishing to kick back and relax, we'll have another crossword available for our puzzle-lovers.
All events will put up by Nev in our Writing Advice forum [here] later, so keep an eye out!
Of course, as usual, there will be incentives for participation beyond mere human connection. Because really, people are so much work. Medals, on the other hand, are no work at all.
Note: These medals will arrive sometime next week or this weekend. Time got away from me. Sorry guys!
The official NaNoWriMo site: Here!
What Will Be
Happy Holidays
I just want to remind everyone that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas.
Nev's Nibbles
I currently have all of my make up spread out over my desk in a maddening cluster of cheap drugstore and way-too-expensive luxury products. There's a crochet project next to my bed I'm working on that I have to ensure is safely wrapped up so the cats don't chew on it. There are two unplayed Witcher 3 DLCs just SITTING there on my Xbox that I will get to on the weekend (like an ADULT). I recently purchased new bath mats for the bathroom that I am creepily excited about, and tomorrow I have an appointment to get all of the tires on my car replaced and I don't WANT to spend $500 for new tires but they're basically bald and once it starts raining I'll go careening off of something if I don't deal with it now.
My point is we're all adults, we're all a mess, and the fact that we continuously come back to Umbra for a little break, a respite, some fun, whatever you wanna call it is a ladybug-sized miracle.
Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or offensively exhausted, I remember that when all else seems like it's just adulting, after adulting, after adulting, Umbra is filled with people going through the exact same nonsense, we're all feeling the exact same things, and still we write together to make ourselves and one another happy. And that's pretty fucking golden, my friends.
Not the most eloquent of Nibbles, but y'know. When have I ever not been a rambly space cadet. I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween, because the holidays are coming. Oh lawd, they're a-coming...
Conclusion
I'm gonna be blunt with everyone. Over the last couple months I've been struggling to find my spark and keep the fire of passion going for Umbra. I stepped into the role of being an administrator without actually knowing what went into it, and without fully anticipating the sort of issues that would arise as a leader. Personalities clash. Sometimes people are outright unreasonable; sometimes I am. Sometimes we're both perfectly reasonable, but can't see eye to eye for whatever other reason.
And, typical in fashion for how I usually process this sort of thing, it took me a while.
But I can say that as of now I am past it. I may not be burning with starry-eyed fury like I was at the onset, but now I know much better what it actually means to run a site like Umbra. It takes patience, understanding, and effort. Like writing itself, one must be disciplined, organized, and prepared for potential roadblocks. I was sparse these last few weeks, and I'm sorry for that. I'm back now.
October saw us lose some ground in the polls. It's been a quiet, slow month for a lot of us, but let's all turn that around. November is a time for creativity, gratitude, and remembering what really matters. I'm happy to count Umbra among the handful of things I consider worthwhile.
- Nyctibius
Is it just me, or has it been an awfully slow month? Every other month this year zoomed past, but October slowed to a crawl. Maybe it's just because I have a trip at the end of November that I'm excited for. Anticipation is distorting time itself. Perception is weird as hell, guys. Anyway!
What Was
October Event Participation
This month we switched it up a bit and tried some new things. A crossword, murder mystery, and group RP, with a new set of Spooky Medals in the event set for the taking. These are the ones who participated in this months activities, with our thanks:
Dao Ma | dewdrop | Dream Catcher | Eeveeborn | Junnabee | Lunar | lyriclyrandom | Seshet the Story Weaver | Tarieles | Teneo Lupum
Donations
As always, we've got to spare a moment to shout out the loverly souls who saw fit to put their own hard-earned coin forward for Umbra. These are this month's donors:
Anonymous Donor (contact us if you want recognition/medal!) | Candi Cosmo | Tarieles
Housekeeping
Throughout October we had a bonus spooky font and Halloweeny theme for the site up for anyone interested. Since the season is a-shifting, those things will be going away… at least for now. If demand is high enough and desire great enough, Nev could probably be persuaded to keep them in rotation. That's really his thing more than mine. Like did you notice how he uses tabs in his announcements, but I force you to scroll through every line of my exhaustive, unnecessary verbosity? Yes, I AM a pretentious dick!
What Is
This month is a special time for writers of all tiers and lanes. Casual, professional, manic, or slovenly, November is known fairly well as National Novel Writing Month, OR, more colloquially, NaNoWriMo. The goal is to help writers build a work ethic and form connections in their community, and that's what we want to inspire here on Umbra.
For all those wishing to do some Umbra-style NaNo activities, we've put together a few low-stress threads for everyone to enjoy. Not participating in NaNo this year? Don't worry, these threads are open to anyone wishing to get some extra inspiration for whatever project you have going on.
Threads will include a daily writing prompt (with an additional NaNo word count tracker for those participating in the event), a story/advice thread for all those who have participated in the past or wish to join NaNo in the future, and a character creation hub for writers to share their favorite pro- and antagonists, ask for feedback from the community, or whatever your writer's heart desires. For those just wishing to kick back and relax, we'll have another crossword available for our puzzle-lovers.
All events will put up by Nev in our Writing Advice forum [here] later, so keep an eye out!
Of course, as usual, there will be incentives for participation beyond mere human connection. Because really, people are so much work. Medals, on the other hand, are no work at all.
Note: These medals will arrive sometime next week or this weekend. Time got away from me. Sorry guys!
The official NaNoWriMo site: Here!
What Will Be
Happy Holidays
I just want to remind everyone that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas.
Nev's Nibbles
I currently have all of my make up spread out over my desk in a maddening cluster of cheap drugstore and way-too-expensive luxury products. There's a crochet project next to my bed I'm working on that I have to ensure is safely wrapped up so the cats don't chew on it. There are two unplayed Witcher 3 DLCs just SITTING there on my Xbox that I will get to on the weekend (like an ADULT). I recently purchased new bath mats for the bathroom that I am creepily excited about, and tomorrow I have an appointment to get all of the tires on my car replaced and I don't WANT to spend $500 for new tires but they're basically bald and once it starts raining I'll go careening off of something if I don't deal with it now.
My point is we're all adults, we're all a mess, and the fact that we continuously come back to Umbra for a little break, a respite, some fun, whatever you wanna call it is a ladybug-sized miracle.
Whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or offensively exhausted, I remember that when all else seems like it's just adulting, after adulting, after adulting, Umbra is filled with people going through the exact same nonsense, we're all feeling the exact same things, and still we write together to make ourselves and one another happy. And that's pretty fucking golden, my friends.
Not the most eloquent of Nibbles, but y'know. When have I ever not been a rambly space cadet. I hope you all had a fantastic Halloween, because the holidays are coming. Oh lawd, they're a-coming...
Conclusion
I'm gonna be blunt with everyone. Over the last couple months I've been struggling to find my spark and keep the fire of passion going for Umbra. I stepped into the role of being an administrator without actually knowing what went into it, and without fully anticipating the sort of issues that would arise as a leader. Personalities clash. Sometimes people are outright unreasonable; sometimes I am. Sometimes we're both perfectly reasonable, but can't see eye to eye for whatever other reason.
And, typical in fashion for how I usually process this sort of thing, it took me a while.
But I can say that as of now I am past it. I may not be burning with starry-eyed fury like I was at the onset, but now I know much better what it actually means to run a site like Umbra. It takes patience, understanding, and effort. Like writing itself, one must be disciplined, organized, and prepared for potential roadblocks. I was sparse these last few weeks, and I'm sorry for that. I'm back now.
October saw us lose some ground in the polls. It's been a quiet, slow month for a lot of us, but let's all turn that around. November is a time for creativity, gratitude, and remembering what really matters. I'm happy to count Umbra among the handful of things I consider worthwhile.
"Mary Pickford" said:
- Nyctibius
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