What’s Happening? A Lot!

My current mood: motivated!

What exactly does this mean? Well, I do have a lot of plans, and I’m actually getting them figured out. You may be wondering what the plans are. And do they have anything to do with this blog?

Short answer: Yes. And No.

I’m sure you want the long answer, don’t you? Well, let’s go through everything.

This Blog

Blog posting is returning. There’s been a severe lack of posts after a long time of posting daily. My focus on this blog is books and writing, and I will be getting back into that. I intend on writing a bit at a time in my works-in-progress, but also on this blog. What’s returning soon is Read the World, which is also connected to my YouTube channel. I will also be working on more world building. Book reviews will come, but I’ve been reading unbelievably slowly lately. I don’t take the bus to work anymore. I drive. I can’t read while driving.

You may be wondering about Authors Answer, as well. I’d like to get back into it, but probably not until the New Year. And I have three questions that I still haven’t posted yet. I really should do that!

Another thing that will continue is the Star Trek Project, where I review and nitpick every episode of Star Trek. I’d been doing video versions, as well, but I think I will discontinue that and focus on blog posts only. But that leads me to…

Booktube

My main self-named YouTube channel is a booktube channel, where I talk about books. I haven’t been uploading many videos there recently, either. But I’m getting back into it, and I will be recording regularly again. I’m also just two subscribers shy of 800. What’s coming soon on that channel is the continuation of Read the World, more reviews, more Authors Answer, more discussions, and more live streams. Live streams are difficult to plan, unfortunately, but I’ll do them when I can.

But this isn’t the only YouTube channel I have. I have two others at the moment, and one has had some recent uploads. But I’m going to be adding a fourth channel soon! Let’s take a look at them.

Tommy and Dad

This is my vlog/adventure/fun channel I share with my six year old daughter. She loves being in front of the camera, and absolutely loves YouTube. She wants to be a YouTube star. I won’t tell her that she will be, as she understands that it’s extremely unlikely. But we have fun with the channel, anyway. We’ve been visiting some places recently, and I’ve been putting together some videos about our experiences. In the future, we’ll be doing toy reviews, and when I eventually get a new computer that’s capable of playing some decent games, we’ll have some Minecraft Let’s Play videos. Some will be mine, some hers. She’ll probably want to play some Roblox, too.

Science: Not Just a Theory

I also have a science channel I haven’t been updating recently. But that’s going to change. Every second week, I’ll be uploading a new video on that channel. I will be focusing a lot on space and astronomy, but also on other science topics. I have a series in planning stages about the future of space exploration on each planet. I also have a Patreon page that has been underutilized, but I will be putting up some worthwhile perks for anyone who wants to be a Patron. No link right now, as I’d like to revamp the entire thing.

English Lessons on YouTube

And finally, the new channel. This channel will relate a lot to my job, as I am an English teacher (again!). The channel exists, but nothing is on it yet. I will be uploading English lessons every two weeks focusing on anything from grammar to vocabulary and for levels from beginner to advanced. I will also be starting a Patreon page for this where I will offer pdf downloads for the lessons, including worksheets. I will also be offering one on one lessons via Skype for those who contribute more. Eventually, there will be an eBook available for purchase, though Patrons will get a significant discount.

Does it sound like I’ll be busy? Sure, but the number of videos produced per week will be less than what I was making a year ago. I’ll be spending more time on the editing aspects of videos, though my booktube videos don’t require much in the way of fancy effects.

Is there anything you’re looking forward to? Let me know in the comments!

E Is for Environment Minister

Silly days of the week. They go sequentially don’t they? I missed a day yesterday, and posted The Doctor just before this post. But this one is on time!

For the A to Z Challenge, we move on to the letter E, and while there is an engineer in this story, it focuses more on the Environment Minister. But the engineer is a recurring character while the Environment Minister is not. And this is where things start to heat up! So, let’s find out what happened and you can also see what was going on in my head when I wrote this part:

If you want to keep up with the story on my YouTube channel, then please consider subscribing! And let me know what you thought about this part of the story.

D Is for Doctor

The alphabet is easy. The fourth letter is D. And it’s pretty easy to figure out a job that starts with D.

Last time, our carpenter had a mishap, and so he had to have someone check over his injury. Here is the Doctor! No, not from Doctor Who, but an actual medical doctor.

So, we continue the A to Z Challenge with the letter D and The Doctor. Check out the video of me reading my story, and then I talk a bit about some of the background.

If you’re interested in keeping up with the story as I release it, then please consider subscribing to my YouTube channel! I talk a lot about books, reading, writing, and even some science fiction. And let me know what you think in the comments below.

C Is for Carpenter

Part 3 is here for my reading of Ariadne! The letter C stands for Carpenter.

If you remember from my previous posts, I participated in the A to Z Challenge three years ago, and I wrote a flash fiction series based on the letters of the alphabet, each part representing a different profession. For the letter C, I chose carpenter.

On my YouTube channel, I decided to read the stories out and then discuss various aspects on what was going through my mind while I was writing. Who are the characters? What’s revealed about the world and my inspiration? Well, find out in the video!

If you have any comments, then please let me know down below.

B Is for Botanist

Oops! I missed a day. But here it is, this is part 2 of the Ariadne flash fiction series I did three years ago for the A to Z Challenge! You can see the full list of stories here.

In this part, I read the story, “The Botanist.” I also discuss the main character, Malika Said, and a bit more about the tree. Find out what I have to say about my writing thought process in the video:

If you’d like to keep up with the videos on my YouTube channel, then please consider subscribing.

And let me know what you thought about this part!

A Is for Artist

No April Fools today. I actually am going to do a blog post every day this month. Sounds like the old days!

Starting today, I’m sort of doing the A to Z Challenge, but in video form. The first part of the flash fiction series I did three years ago is up! It’s called “The Artist.” Enjoy!

I’ll be posting a new video every day, and if you’d like to keep up to date on YouTube, you can subscribe to my channel.

A to Z Challenge Again?

Three years ago, I participated in the A to Z Challenge. This year, I’m sort of participating, but not really. First of all, I’m not signed up for it. But secondly, this is a blogging challenge, and what I’m doing isn’t blogging. But I am informing you of it on my blog. Instead, I am doing VEDA, Vlog Every Day in April. And it is very much related to the A to Z Challenge I did three years ago.

You see, three years ago, I wrote a 26 part series of flash fiction stories based on my world of Ariadne. This year, I’m reading them out and talking about the inspirations, backgrounds, and characters involved in each part. I’m doing this all on video. Below is my announcement video.

Every day, I will be posting each video on here, and you can leave your comments on this blog or on the video itself, if you want. And I consider this my return to blogging!

So, hi!

The Slow Month! The Jay Dee Show 39

September is done, and I’m finally doing another video digest. August was VEDA, so I was doing a video every day. But in September, I did fewer videos on my main channel than an entire week in August! Let’s just say that I had a bit of a video-making overload in August, and September was my month to recover. But I was able to make a video for my science channel, too! I did a total of 6 videos on my main channel and 1 on my science channel.

On my main channel, I made mostly Authors Answer videos, but also a couple Star Trek Discovery videos!

First up is Authors Answer #44, all about money! Check it out.

And then came another Authors Answer. But this one is about using real life events to influence writing fiction.

Continuing on with some Japan videos, I visited Meigetsuin, a temple known for its hydrangea. Beautiful place!

And then another Authors Answer, one talking about this blog!

And finally, the two Star Trek Discovery episode reviews. Here’s episode 1:

And episode 2:

Moving on to my science channel, there was a big news story coming from Saturn. Cassini is no more! It’s now burned up in the atmosphere of Saturn. I talked about what happened and looked at some of Cassini’s discoveries.

Coming in the next couple days, I’ll be opening up a new channel! This new channel is all about English. As you may know, I was an English teacher in Japan. I’ve got the itch to teach English again, and I thought, why not make quick lessons on YouTube? So, stay tuned for that!

What did you think of the videos for September? Let me know which ones you liked the most.

I’ve Never Watched Game of Thrones!

You read that headline correctly. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones. Of course, I was living in Japan when it started, so I was very far behind by the time I moved to Canada. But also, I’ve only read the first three books. I explained why I haven’t watched the TV series in this video:

So, what do you think? Should I watch it? Let me know in the comments section below.

Social Media Book Tag

Time to get caught up on the blog posts for VEDA! Uh, that’s about 20 videos to catch up on.

For this one, I did something called the Social Media Book Tag. I had to relate different books to different social media platforms, based on the nature of those platforms. It was an interesting exercise. Find out what I said:

Which books would you relate to the social media platforms? Here’s a list of the questions:

Twitter- Your favorite shortest book.
Facebook- A book everybody pressured you into reading.
Tumblr- A book you read before it was cool.
Myspace- A book you don’t remember whether you liked or not.
Instagram- A book that was so beautiful you had to Instagram it.
Youtube- A book you wish would be turned into a movie.
Goodreads- A book you recommend to everyone.
Skype- A book with characters that you wish you could talk to instead of just reading about.

Let me know how you would answer these.