Hello! Long time no see. I know I haven’t posted anything in a long time looking at the timestamp nothing has been posted since September 28th, with my last update being September 22nd. Well that is going to change. Starting for the Month of December, i’ve decided to start a hobby streak for the website to get it back up and running along with catching up on updating my progress on all the various projects I have.
Now a Hobbystreak is not a new concept but for those that do not know. A hobbystreak is simple and contains two main features:
- Effort everyday must be put into the hobby of choice. In this case the website
- A public record of your effort must be made as motivation to keep going.
The Rules
- Effort put into hobby must be at least 30 minutes each day. This can be split up between multiple sessions.
- A record of the effort will be put into this post as an addendum counting each day. Website Streak Day #1 etc.
- The website streak will attempted to be maintained as long as possible. If I miss a day the streak starts again.
What are some examples of effort?
- Writing posts
- Updating and adding information to pages
- Improving/Optimizing storage & website speed
- Organizing labels/ categories for improved navigation
I am sure more will be added to this list as the streak continues.
Why am I doing this?
I am truly passionate about creating a site to document my personal growth in the tabletop hobby space, how I accomplished each task and create a catalog of all the things i’ve done to look back upon. I hope to one day share this with my children and hope it will foster creativity. I also hope to add some educational material/ reference material so that way others might learn and I can inspire.
Website Streak Day Quick links: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8
Website Streak
Day #1 12/1/2020 Top
Day 1, I’ve updated the Goblin Post and scheduled it to be released 12/2 at 9am. Along with creating this post to track and document my hobby streak. Attempted to do research on how to decrease the gap between the title of posts/page and its content. I absolutely hate all the white space but it appears that is a paid feature of wordpress. I one day hope to pay for a real domain and paid wordpress plan but desire to prove to myself that it is a site with content worth paying for. I’m still so new. One day…. I’ve also attempted to update the homepage a little bit.
Day #2 12/2/2020 Top
Day 2. I have written and submitted my owlbear write up to be published tomorrow morning! You can find it here.
I have also been working on my notes, documentation and write ups on my resin printing history log. Along with resin troubleshooting to potentially make a page to help others learn from my mistakes. Since there is no autogenerating print history on my resin like FDM I am currently manually writing down the data in a journal. It is probably not the best of setups but works for the moment. I’m trying to get completely caught up on everything i’ve printed in resin.
I have also worked on linking Evernote to Trello to help with project management. Here is a list of the Fat Dragon Games Posts I am in progress of: 13 out of 24 complete! I know I can finish this write up by Christmas at the latest. Formatting is still to be improved on Trello but i’m getting organized.
Day #3 12/3/2020 Top
Wow day 3. I cannot articulate how difficult it was for me today to put in the time for the site. But I got time in. Mostly time was dedicated to putting in print data for several posts including Minotaur, Dragon, Lizardfolk, Hill Giant, Mushroomfolk, and the Giant Worm. They are not quiet ready for a new posting tomorrow but hopefully tomorrow morning I’ll be able to finish one off and publish it. Much of these posts were updating photographs, print data chart, and location and listing of where to find the STLs. Tomorrow I need to add more comments on the prints themselves as well as my introduction paragraph. I’m also attempting to learn about page jumps and working on improving them. The experiment will be internalized here on the page first.
Day #4 12/4/2020 Top
Day 4. This streak is now starting to become something. I published a minotaur post, overall not the biggest fan of the models bust still trying to be informative. I have also scheduled a post for mushroom folk for tomorrow! Not much but the posts are getting done.
Day #5 12/5/2020 Top
So today I worked on my hobby streak and almost forgot to post. I was literally going to bed and stopped to come back and post my update today. Ironically I spent a very serious chunk of time working on back end data collection and photography for posts. Working on photographs for the Monstrous Encounter Kickstarter as well as going through my print history from July 15th 2020 until now. I have approximately 384 print jobs to go through and document and sort through the various projects. Several of those projects are small side projects, functional prints, or apart of the major projects i’m writing up. As an example and provide proof of todays workings. Here is a picture taken from the skeleton archer collection from the monstrous encounter kickstarter. A lot of data was added into my Trello boards to improve ease of import to the site.
Day #6 12/6/2020 Top
Got the Octopus Warriors write up done! I also scheduled a post for the Lizardfolk for tomorrow morning. This streak has been great because so far I have been capable of getting a post out every day to catch up on what i’ve been working on. If my count is correct in about a week I should be done posting about all things Fat Dragon Games and i’ll be capable of catching up on the other projects i’ve been working on!
Day #7 12/7/2020 Top
So close to finishing the dragonlock miniature collection write ups that I can almost feel it. I’m so excited to be wrapping up the project and bringing others forward to showcase. Next up the Giant Rats and Rat Swarm write up is coming out tomorrow! Lets get things scheduled ahead of time to really make this site come to life. Also already scheduled for Wednesday is the Roper, and Thursday the Hill Giant.
Day #8 12/8/2020 Top
Today was hard to get in the time. I really wanted to do a ton of other projects but told myself I would keep pushing. So today I put in my time and worked to gather all my data for the Dragonlock Miniature overview post. My goal was to have the total print time, total filament used along as well as number of miniatures in the post. So i’ve had to go to my past posts and start calculating all the data. Here is a picture of the spreadsheet in progress as proof. Slowly but Surely I’ll get there. Perhaps i’ll set a goal of a kickstarter a month once I set my pace after this one!
Day #9 12/9/2020
In terms of physical accomplishment today i’ve gotten little done. However I have decided to join a Beginners Blogging course to see if there are things I can do to improve the site and the type of experience I can provide. Much of my time has gone towards the administrative side of setting that up and getting logged in and introducing myself.
I have also been doing a significant amount of self reflection about my goals and real reasons behind the site. Throughout my life I have struggled to be able to tap into the side of myself that is truly creative and articulate. The passionate writer and vocal member of the community to speak out. I have always thrived and lived in a world that is mathematical and scientific, thus the Crazy mad scientist. However over the last several years I have discovered that there is a beautiful creative side that needs nurturing. I want to show my kids that you an thrive being left and right minded. That there is no limit of how much you can grow. Now if only I believed that more when it comes to my painting. I hope to improve but sometimes it is so terrifying it can be impeding.
Although I did not make a blog post, gather more data. I did accomplish to put time and my mind to why I am here and what I am aiming to do to make it better.
Day #10 12/10/2020
Back to the grind. Time to get another post out scheduled for tomorrow. This time it is the Trash Beast! I also have only 3 more categories left to write for the Dragonlock collection! I’m so close. I spent time updating the kobold warriors set but not quite ready to publish yet. My goal is to have all the categories done and an overview write up done by Monday morning. So excited I can’t believe I am about to finish. I am also almost done printing another kickstarter and preparing the data and going to take photos to start those posts rolling. I do want to see if I can restructure the print posts to be more engaging, interesting and informative.
I am also trying to get setup a calendar to flush out the site over the next month or two and the projects i’m working on and the pace I wish to take. Stay tuned change is happening.
Day #11 12/11/2020
Kobold Warriors and the Giant Worm are written! I have also finished gathering ALL the print data for the entire Dragonlock Miniature collection. I wont show you the total numbers yet because I want it to be a surprise. Overall I was surprised that the print time for this project was not nearly as long as I thought it was and filament usage was reasonable. One more post to go, cough cough i’m looking at you Dragon, and I am almost completely wrapped up in the printing portion of this project.
Day #12 12/12/2020
Day 12 and I FINALLY finished the individual write ups for the Fat Dragon Games/ Dragonlock miniature figure collection! The last post for the Great Dragon will be posted Monday Morning. Now to write the overview write up/review and I am 100% done with this project. Such a good feeling seeing my Trello board I use for project management completely moved to the posted category with of course the overview card. Now for some work to be done on the site itself!
Day #13 12/13/2020
Lucky Day 13. Today I did not work digitally but analog. Working on a schedule and goals to plan out the pace of my projects through January! Woohoo we can do this. I am going to attempt to balance painting, printing, information teaching and have more regular updates. I have also decided to start moving my print updates as pages instead of posts. This should reduce bloat of posts and have posts that are made be more meaningful. Overall I have a lot to do but trying to plan it out in a realistic fashion. Right now I might be pushing too hard already but I’m motivated to turn this into something. Oh pictures of my hand written calendars i’m working on as proof.
Day #14 12/14/2020
Today I started the FINAL page write up for the Dragonlock Miniatures collection. This will be a page to hold all the information about the project rather than a post. I am going to attempt to get away from constant posts and rather build out the website with indepth pages. First stop in the overview write up, connect and link all the previous pieces and posts for a widespread collections gallery section. Check out the sneak preview.
Day #15 12/15/2020
I took a day off from writing about Dragonlock Miniatures and instead decided to give the page a little bit of a facelift and attempt to steer the site into a direction of format and UX that I would like to go. I still have a ton of content to write to flush it out but it is sure a beginning!
Day #16 12/16/2020
Today I tried to pull out every painted model i’ve ever done and attempted to put them in chronological order for photographs so I have a proper documentation of “where I have been” as a painter. Lets just say I have a ton of room for growth. I also took some time to dig though my old harddrives to see if I had any pictures of painting miniatures in 2014. Turns out I don’t but do have a picture of what our board looked in the final area of Castle Ravenloft 3.5e also now known as Curse of Strahd. This picture will be great to show growth in terrain for later posts. Doesn’t seem like much but a lot of research was done to bring a foundation to the site.
Day #17 12/17/2020
Man I almost forgot to post today. Today I spent the day working on the indepth write up for the Dragonlock Miniatures collection. I am SOOO close to publishing it and will probably do so tomorrow. As proof here is a blurb about the data regarding the project.
Day #18 12/18/2020
I did it I finally finished!! The Dragonlock miniature kickstarter indepth write up is FINALLY completed. This took soo long and in reality there are so many ways I could have improved it. Perhaps I need to change up my methods to make this easier in the future. But here you go. ITs live and enjoy! Dragonlock Miniature Kickstarter massive project.
Day #19 12/19/2020
Day 19. Today was spent spending a crazy amount of time fixing my 3d printers. Not just one of them but both of them needed some serious TLC. The Prusa had a massive scary blob of filament failure, so much so the filament ended up inside some of my headblock cables. Due to fear of a fire hazard I replaced the heatblock, thermistor, and all cables to my FDM printer. It took some time and i’m in the process of recalibrating to adjust to a new setup. Also on my Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K i replaced my FEP film for the first time due to concern of lack of adhesion lately and some big dents and dings on the previous film.
On top of that I am working on a new years resolution of goals for the 2021 year. I’m counting out the write ups and estimating how many things I need to write when. I really want to flush out the site for the 2021 year for sure. I’m really excited for my New Years Resolution write up. So far so good, a lot of administrative work but things are happening.
Day #20 12/20/2020
Day 20. Today I actually wrote a post…. well draft I need to put it onto the site but will come tomorrow. It is my tale of how I got started on 3d Printing. I’ve also been setting up a digital version of my 2021 calendar which is on Evernote and linked to Trello. We are getting some serious amount of organization!
Day #21 12/21/2020
Today I got out a post about my origin and start in 3d printing! Trying to add more information about myself and why I am so emotionally connected to it. You can find it here.
Day #22 12/22/2020
Today I attempted to track down an issue with pictures loading from the intro to 3d printing post. I do not know why but others cannot see all the pictures. I also have begun planning/writing the write up on how I started painting miniatures. I realized however this might be a two apart story. 1) Intro to the crafting/modeling hobby and 2) Painting miniatures beginning/timeline. More to come but nothing to show today. A lot of backend work.
Day #23. 12/23/2020
This was unfortunately my day of reckoning. Overall it was not possible to continue the streak and it was broken due to travel in the holidays, an unbelievably fussy baby and a series of unfortunate events.
Overall I’m grateful for the streak and the achievements I accomplished. I got a lot done including completely writing up the Dragonlock Kickstarter Project. I started a momentum that I enjoy and am doing well with.
As a result once I got home from the holidays I started a new hobby streak over at Instagram using the user tag @crazmadsci. Check out the feed on the home page to follow along. Hobbystreak now includes, painting, crafting, and writing for the site!