No column again today… yeah, you figured that out. Why not? Well, things are starting to smooth out except the weather crapped on us here a little and now once that rolls away, things should return to normal. I’m going to provide some quick tidbits to keep the site from being completely devoid of content this week.

I honestly would have thought we’d have had several episodes up and running by this point in the year. With a quick cast round up, I’d like to explain where we’re headed.

Bob’s work schedule, for all intents and purposes, sucks. Getting him on at the Saturday night recording time is nearly impossible lately… and I’m not sure getting him on other times is much better.

Saurabh is much in the same situation, though his is more of an on call situation.

Kevin Couick (or Stabby as we’ve taken to calling him) has a life now and Saturdays aren’t optimal.

Rachel has a job… where she works nearly every Saturday (weekend).

Metal Jesus, Tricia, and I seem to have the most availability on the standard recording times but we’re having issues getting on track with returning to the normal shows.

That means that one of two things will end up happening: 1) we either have infrequent shows or 2) we re-invent the show, again.

The show has been reinvented before, a few times, and in order to keep the show rolling. I won’t speak on what the show will need to be at the moment, so just know things are changing… I still want to have on Dirk Manning, Dan Berry, Pete Fitz, Eddie Webb, and a couple of the other guests I’ve been working on getting on, so that will still happen.

I used to write multiple columns on multiple subjects… then I condensed them all into the Journal of the Emerald Specter. I’ve been keeping this version rolling for awhile and I like the concept of the column, I am not entirely sure about the follow through.

The idea of the column is to put out updating content that keeps all the readers informed and allows me to stretch my writing muscles a little… with the intent of writing other stuff in the background that has a little more structure.

I want to write but I want to write a little more structured a lot more often. Hopefully that leads to much better content rather than “just” content.

A podcast originally about “nothing.” I wanted to have a show where I could talk about all kinds of the stuff that interests me. That, in turn, would interest some others and spur on conversation about other things that might be discovered in the process.

This has, however, turned into the “what’s up with BuJoRPG” show.

I am going to continue recording as normal until episode 50, then I’m hoping to have my new “podcast studio” set up for more of a “live broadcast to recorded” show running, meaning I’d be recording at a set time (or times) per week and the show will have at least some hint of a format.

Like Journey Into Mystery, Tales to Astonish, or Tales of Suspense, the show will continue on with the numbering (or I’ll change to using actual dates instead of episode numbers like Rebel Force Radio does).

I have gotten some software that will allow me to “live stream” my audio without buying time on a service (like Mixlr, though I’d really like to be able to be on Mixlr at some point in the future), and that should allow me to set up a schedule to broadcast on along with having a chatroom and other ways to interact with me… 

Specter of the Galaxy?! Where the hell has THIS been?

Like a network with “unproven” television series these days, I had Specter of the Galaxy run as if it were an inaugural TV season. There are currently seven episodes in “season one” and I knew I’d have to have a short run like that due to the Christmas peak season at work. Now that the peak season is over, I want to get back into exploring the galaxy.

There have been a few updates since the last recording I made of the show and I’m hoping that if I take an episode to do most of the “exploring the new content options” wouldn’t be too out of line. Then, like everything else, I’ll return to live streaming my content and posting it on a regular basis for Season Two.

Which leads me to my newest bit…

Guess who purchased EA Sports UFC 3?

Way back when UFC 2 came out, I broadcast my career mode as “Specter of the UFC.” I created myself and ran through an entire career (it is no longer available online).

I’m planning on doing something like that again… a little different, though.

I used to play Madden and keep track of the “franchise career” I played through way back when you couldn’t stream video games online. I utilized the game’s “in universe” franchise mode and had a hoot of a time doing it. Rather than use the career (or G.O.A.T.) mode within UFC 3, I’m going to create myself and broadcast a story… of myself, going through an MMA career.

This should, though I’m not going to guarantee this yet, include non-fight “story” videos telling the complete story. This means I won’t be using the UFC 3 career mode, I won’t be live streaming every second of the story, and I can tell a particular story rather than be at the mercy of the game (as my fight skills are not necessarily the greatest. I’m trying to get better, though.

No promises on when this will start, I’ve only owned the game for five days as I write this and I’m still getting used to the controls.

Speaking about all this video game streaming, my wife and I usually play Final Fantasy together (she runs the game and I run the “strategy guide” helping to guide the expedience of completing the game)… and I think we’re going to stream this, too.

Unlike the above two items, this one will be 100% streamed and be on a schedule. We would pick a day and broadcast regularly. Hopefully that would be interesting enough to follow along, though I understand that lots of people do this type of thing. I’m pretty sure we’d have commentary.

That’s all for now… see you soon.