Buffy Vs Biblio Dragons & Tamed Beef

I traveled to six different blogs this week starting with Me Vs Myself and I and ending up at Books, Bones & Buffy and encountered some common themes. Two of the sites had reviews on books that I think I might very well read soon, two of the sites focused on building up the blogging community, one contained a looked at using Patreon and the other examined the recent theme of gaming and faith. 

Six Degrees for May 27th, 2016

Me Vs Myself and I
Cannot be Tamed
Star-Fired Beef
The BiblioSanctum
Dragons & Whimsy
Books, Bones & Buffy

Me Vs Myself And I – The Dragon Cometh #NBI2016

Izlain over at Me vs Myself and I kicks us off this week with an announcement of the Newbie Blogger Initiative for 2016. He basically ran things last year (and did a great job of it) and was going to take a back set this year when Doone from XP Chronicles volunteered to run it. Each year for the past 4, the NBI has been an event where veteran bloggers support newbies coming into the ranks. We game together, we share topics, we share our experiences, and we grow the community. I’m so glad we didn’t let this year pass without it. You can check out Izlain’s post for more info or mine from yesterday for info about Twitter and the forums. As for Discord which seems to be the new shiney thing this year (Jaedia set one up below as well) an NBI server has been set up. Here’s the link: https://t.co/bZLA0YGZSk

Cannot be Tamed – The Problem with Patreon

As can be pretty obvious from my posts, I never had any intention to blog for anyone other than myself. I like to throw together blurbs and rambles to just get my thoughts out there and if anyone wants to check them out…that’s great…but I really dislike hearing when people get grief for trying to earn a little bank for their efforts. Pam, over at Cannot be Tammed, just started a Patreon and is really perplexed by the reactions people have been giving her. She’s had people who have followed her for a long time leave not that she mentioned the idea that someone might want to float a little cash her way – why is that? I can’t imagine people wouldn’t want to support something they appreciate.

But then we live in a Google world. Google has made “everything” “free” or supposedly “free”. Gee…YouTube makes plenty off the content people put on it and Google owns YouTube…those ads we all hate…Google…Google has made everything seem “free” and people take it for granted that the content out on the web is available for “free”.
As a content “creator” (I really just babble so it’s not much creation), I can sympathize. Putting the effort in to make things that go online takes time and resources that could easily be considered a job, but most just do it as a hobby. There’s nothing wrong with having a link for someone to send some support if they want…it’s not like a paid subscription.
If someone makes content you like and they have a Patreon or Kickstarter for support…float them some $$. If you don’t want to give them dough, you don’t have to insult them, it’s not like they are hurting you by having a fundraising site.
In any case, I liked Pam’s rant.
To sum up though (even though I am not a fan of pop-music) Haters gotta Hate.

Star-Fired Beef – Spiritual Gaming

There’s been a bunch of talk around the blogosphere in the past few weeks about gaming and faith and this week, Dahakha takes on the topic, and I think covers it pretty well. I tend to agree that most faith’s stress balance, mine included and I’ve never really questioned if gaming was against my belief system. While overdoing anything is usually against most religions, from what I’ve studied, if a person spends time focused on family, faith, and themselves, it’s ok for them to have a little R&R and gaming, tv, movies all fall into that category. I think Dahakha has it right though…a balanced life petty much works, and considering one of my favorite podcasts is The Break by Father Roderick, a priest who frequently plays video games, is an avid Star Wars fan, and podcasts about topics ranging from games to LOST to Battlestar Galactica to travels around the world, I think there are many even in the Catholic community who believe gaming is not incompatible with faith.

The BiblioSanctum – Backlist Burndown: The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

Mogsy posts about the Backlist Burndown over at The BiblioSanctum. This is a weekly meme started by Lisa of Tenacious Reader in which participants review a book from thier backlist on the last Friday of every month. That’s a pretty big effort in my view – I certainly don’t read fast to get through a “non-back logged” book AND a back logged book each month. But I applaud those who can.
For Mogsy, she takes a look at The Rook by Daniel O’Malley and likes it. 4.5 outta 5 stars is a pretty good rating, so much so that with the description provided in the review, I’m gonna have to put this on my to-read list even though I don’t read a lot of paranormal fantasy. Go read the review…it sounds like the story could very well be a sorta superhero comic from some of the character portraits provided. And the good news is that there is a new book in the series coming out soon.

Dragons & Whimsy – Discord: Game Bloggers Anonymous

Jaedia over at Dragons & Whimsy talks about setting up a game blogger Discord server where bloggers from around the gaming community can share, chat, and make friends. She’s laid down some ground rules which seem totally fair and smart…who wants to join a community that just causes more problems – I’ve already got League of Legends for that. She also encourages people to promote their blog, create shared content, and generally just have a good time with fellow bloggers and readers. I think it’s a great idea and once I read the post, went over and signed up. Here’s the link she provides for the server: https://discord.gg/0z6a3wgOyXlsvNXM

Books, Bones & Buffy – SLEEPING GIANTS by Sylvain Neuvel – Review

Tammy puts forward another book review this week…this time for Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. From the post, this would like a pretty interesting take on aliens and documentaries. Apparently the story is told in an epistolary format (yes…I had to look that up) that is basically a documentary or interview style, and it makes for a change of pace from standard science fiction. Similar to The Rook earlier, this is the first in a series and similarly, this book sounds like a pretty good read. Of course you should check out her review since she read it and I haven’t…yet. Another book for my to-read list. How is it that my list keeps getting longer when I am reading more than I have in years? Oh well.

Roundup

Well here we go with a second attempt at a roundup…

Community, spirituality, civility, and knowledge are the exciting stops I made this week on my travels around the blogosphere. If you get a chance and are a gamer, give the NBI a shot and start a blog or join in with Jaedia’s gamer Disccord.  If you like to read, give The BiblioSanctum and Books, Bones & Buffy a look.  For my part, I highly suggest civility towards anyone who puts links on their site.  There’s no reason to attack someone because they out a Patreon link on thier site.  Let them make a few bucks…they’re not Google, they’re not tracking your web movements, just let them be if you don’t want to contribute. And finally, I’ve enjoyed all the discussions on nearby sites talking about spirituality, faith and gaming. In my view a big part of life is finding the right balance of family, work, faith and recreation and part of that is reconciling gaming and. Blogging with everything else. 

Morning Ramble 2.107