TMM 011: Toads, Notes & Drawers

Hey! So I've been casting toads! 36 of them. It took a long time, about one every 15-20 minutes but I smashed it out in about a day and night with a few distractions in between. The mold is completely destroyed now so that's it! No more toads from me.

I've also been making a mini diorama using some original Nurgle Diaries toads and an old jewelry box I picked up from an antique shop. At the same time with the scraps I've been making a traveling DM box/screen for D&D and Arcane Ugly.

Through Arcane Ugly's development and even before that, making the d666 Tavern Generator, I've really struggled with managing notes. I've tried hand written notes in notebooks, I've tried Google Docs, I've tried voice memos. The best of everything I discovered in the last couple of months surprisingly has been my phone's native notes app, in this case Samsung Notes. The beauty of this app is the speed and organisation. Loading the app and starting a new note is a second away, as I've pinned to the bottom my phone screen, in the exact place the new note button is. When I double tap the app, it loads the app and a new note near instantly to begin writing.

The other great thing is the organisation—it has folders, why doesn't Google Docs have folders!? In my notes app I have a folder for each chapter of Arcane Ugly and then a document for each topic/subtopic. When I have a quick idea or someone makes a suggestion/question, I write it down quickly in that topic’s note.

Then when it comes to making an official rulebook update I can reference EVERYTHING about that topic in a glance, it's a little thing and might seem obvious but it helps immensely and somehow I've avoided this workflow for so long.

It is amazing what I manage to forget over time. Sometimes I'll think I have a great new idea, only to realise I've already had it, I just forgot about it because something else came up.

The Arcane Ugly Discord has had SO many community ideas I need to consider but the chat moves fast and I quickly discovered it's way harder to go back and re-read the conversations later than it is to make a quick note in the moment and move on. I used to avoid notetaking but with this new system it's a breeze and has been wicked for keeping my scattered brain on track.

Before I publish something to the rulebook I usually bounce it to scribens.com which is a spelling/grammar checker and a great FREE alternative to Grammarly. Though the rulebook ends up with errors everywhere anyway because it's constantly being readjusted with new ideas within the document on the fly… but without scribens it'd be much worse!

I've upgraded the camera with a new accessory which I'm hoping will make your viewing experience a bit better. This very fancy new microphone captures very clean, crispy audio alongside my wireless microphone that I use for capturing my voice. I'm hoping now I'll be able to emphasize the sound effects of making/crafting just as much as what I have to say.

This microphone is called a shotgun microphone and is designed to capture the sound of what it's pointed at to rather than just general ambient noise. This means I can turn up volume of me chopping up plastic parts, for example, without also turning up the sound of lawnmower outside, or the birds chirping or the neighbour’s phone call.

I only received the correct cable for it today to utilise its full potential but so far I am very impressed and I'm very excited to put it to the test making things rather than just chasing the cat around with it.

To mount accessories to a camera like this securely you also need a cage, which is a metal case with lots of mounting holes in it. My cage currently holds the shotgun microphone, a wireless receiver for my lavalier microphone (the clip on mic I wear) and a SSD to write my footage to.

Along with this upgrade I've got a new tripod mounting system so I can quickly change from my big tripod to my little tripod without having to unscrew anything anymore.

One of the many goodies found in the abandoned TV station are these metal drawers of which I have about 20ish. I just finished emptying them of old microchips and resistors ready to be repurposed. These were once used for camera repair and now I think I'll be using them for bits storage. While I love my current sorting system (throw everything into one box) for the looseness and inspiration it generates, it does make finding things you know you want difficult and time consuming. I think the perfect solution might be somewhere between, maybe I could make a more curated bits box of inspiring things and have a sorted collection to accompany it.

I've also uncovered some nice boxes for storage as well that will soon be emptied, cleaned and repaired.

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This is your last chance to submit questions for January’s Q&A video! All questions welcome, big or small.

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