Archive • The Erin Endeavor • Buttondown

I retweeted this on Twitter earlier today, the head of a thread about ADHD stuff that really resonated with me. People with ADHD are often crushed by the...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] As April gives way to May and I transition to different ways of being and doing...

April 29, 2022

So, you might be guessing -- based on the fact that it's not the first Monday of the month or even the second Monday but a Friday that happens to be the very...

[AE.Personal] Twit and Twitterability

April 26, 2022

So, this is not the newsletter I had planned to put out next, but events have continued to eventuate in a way that has taken up a lot of my time and...

[AE.Personal] Why couldn't Murphy be satisfied with a firm suggestion?

April 20, 2022

I've spent the past several weekdays working on a draft of a newsletter that was meant to be a basic catch-up/check-in message about what's going on in my...

[AE.Mailbag] When you twist, and then shout...

March 25, 2022

It's Friday, Friday, and as the song says, "gotta get in touch with community members, it's Friday." Yep, it's another mailbag. The topic I put forth for...

[AE.Personal] Mobile machinations.

March 25, 2022

Author's Note: I wrote this yesterday, got it formatted and ready to send out, and then apparently neglected to hit the confirm button when I tried to send...

[AE.Personal] Habits & Habitations

March 23, 2022

Content Note: This one's going to talk about alcohol use, and the reasons I found it useful. Feel free to skip if that's not something you need to read...

[AE.Personal] On taking it lying down.

March 22, 2022

Last night, throughout my dreams, I kept suffering minor accidents and small injuries, most of which seemed to be completely random and not particularly...

[AE.Mailbag] Obstacles & Opportunities: Select reader perspectives on tabletop RPGs.

March 19, 2022

When I came up with the idea for doing a weekly reader mailbag, it was because I'd moved to Buttondown, which doesn't have a comment section, and I noticed I...

[AE.Personal] No newsletter today.

March 18, 2022

Sending out a newsletter to say no newsletter today. Too much pain, not enough brain. Community mailbag tomorrow. -Alexandra

[AE.Meta] On the balance...

March 16, 2022

Last night, when I realized it was about a minute to midnight and I was still putting the finishing touches on my newsletter, I had a couple of immediate and...

[AE.Gamedev] Playing with the heart (and club, spade, and diamond) of the cards.

March 16, 2022

Pausing to note in a matter-of-fact and not actually apologetic way that I've been sending this newsletter out late at night this week. Things have been a...

[AE.Gaming] Questions on the subject of precisely when the wizard means to arrive.

March 15, 2022

I'd like to start by sharing a timely video I saw on Twitter today, from Amy Vorpahl....

[AE.Mailbag] Mailbag for Friday, 3/11/22: Journal games, Flash emulators, and more.

March 11, 2022

So, one of my ambitions since moving my newsletter to Buttondown has been to get a regular reader mailbag type thing going on the end of the weeks, in order...

[AE.Writing, AE.Gamedev] Writing as play, play as writing.

March 10, 2022

If you've been wondering why I'm so preoccupied with play as a concept right now, it's a confluence of two things: my ongoing attempt to recapture some...

[AE.Personal] When you wish upon a book...

March 9, 2022

So, while I was thinking about the relationship between imaginative play and artistic creation recently, I realized there's a very strong connection between...

[AE.Gamedev] Optimization as Gameplay: "Your character optimized in 30 minutes or less, or your run is over."

March 8, 2022

So, there's a couple of casual games I've become very interested in lately that I think might form a micro-genre together, as they are both a very specific...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] March NiNoBilMa: Must be the Season of the Silly

March 7, 2022

Another month, another iteration of NiNoBilMa, my ongoing, year-long attempt to acquire or renew writing skills I was meant to have learned as a child and...

[AE.Personal, AE.Food] Pannac at the Otta

March 4, 2022

If you follow me on Twitter -- and most of the people reading this do -- then you have probably inferred that my household is very much not on the "covid is...

[AE.Gamedev] We Are Not At Home To Mrs. Fish

March 3, 2022

The most recent episode of HBO's prestige TV show The Gilded Age presented one particularly memorable scene drawn at least loosely from actual history: Mrs....

[AE.Disability] Perhaps planning for failure is also part of planning for success.

March 2, 2022

So, to briefly continue on the theme of plans... I woke up this morning with a clear plan for my newsletter today, including not just an idea but an outline,...

[AE.Personal] Even the best-laid plans still need to get laid.

March 1, 2022

Between NiNoBilMa, my budgeting project, my Lenten plans described yesterday in this space, and a smattering of other scattered things, it feels like the big...

[AE.Personal] Friends, Roman Catholics, Countryfolk... Lent Me Your Fears

February 28, 2022

Just a note in advance that this newsletter will mention food and voluntary dietary restrictions, Christian culture, and Catholic upbringing. While I was...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] A NiNoBilMa check-in of sorts.

February 25, 2022

So, when I posted off the NiNoBilMa project for this month, I said I would be following it up with some notes about my thoughts and intentions regarding the...

[AE.Gamedev] Reading Ron Edwards

February 24, 2022

It's become a very common tactic these days among the "opposing oppression means opposing freedom" crowd to claim that all of us who refuse to associate with...

[AE.Personal] Please Allow Me to Explain Myself, I Am a Woman of Digression and Other Notes

February 23, 2022

As the point of NiNoBilMa is for me to acquire some writing skills I missed the first time around, it's certainly been useful for identifying my weaknesses...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] February NiNoBilMa

February 16, 2022

Apologies for the late start this month. I'm learning that the beginning of months tend to be unsettled; it's one of those obvious lessons that I leaned over...

[AE.Personal] Lessons from a Twitter Lockdown

January 20, 2022

So, I'm on my second day of being locked on Twitter, and it's been nice, and interesting, and relaxing, and instructive. I mentioned this on Twitter, but...

[AE.Personal] Yielding the Stage, or, the *Other* Kind of Lockdown

January 18, 2022

The lede: In the next few days, I'm going to be taking my Twitter account private ("locking"), for an undetermined length of time, and for reasons I'll get...

[AE.Disability] Home Ergonomics

January 14, 2022

There's an old joke that goes something like, "I told the doctor 'it hurts when I do this.' and the doctor said, 'So don't do that.'" In a sense, the field...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] NiNoBilMa January 2022: First Grade

January 13, 2022

The thing that became NiNoBilMa has its roots in my adult, ADHD-medicated regret over not having internalized or retained the writing structures that were...

[AE.Personal] In which my mother still takes me to school (even when I have a sick day)

January 11, 2022

Picking up a thread from yesterday's newsletter and from my ongoing life-long process of self-reflection generally: a thing that stops me from writing more...

[AE.Personal] When does getting better become being better?

January 10, 2022

Hey, all. This is a little personal update as I claw my way back from a bad cold. I talked a bit in my last newsletter about the intersection of a chronic...

[AE.Personal] When An Illness Meets An Illness Coming Through The NYE

January 5, 2022

A few minutes before I started writing this, I tweeted out the words "Chronic illness is what happens when you're making other plans." I did have plans for...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] Kindergarten, Week 4: Just write.

December 28, 2021

I said on Twitter yesterday that I'd be doing this week's NiNoBilMa stuff today, as my schedule for things on Monday was thrown off by outside factors. Turns...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] NiNoBilMa: Kindergarten, Week 3 (Colors)

December 20, 2021

Welcome to week 3 of #NiNoBilMa! This one's going to be shorter and sweeter because this is the first week I'm not reinventing everything mid-stream. It...

[AE.Personal] Voicing My Concerns

December 16, 2021

A big part of my plans for boosting NiNoBilMa as we go into and through 2022 is holding virtual events, like group write-ins or writing streams. This idea...

[AE.NiNobilMa] NiNoBilMa 2022: Kindergarten, Week 2

December 13, 2021

Hello, and welcome to week 2 of #NiNoBilMa! I have been reflecting a lot on what worked well the first week and what didn't work, and the short version is:...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] There's An Alligator In The House!

December 8, 2021

Yesterday's octopus game got a better response on Twitter and in my email than the open-ended prompt did, so I'm going to keep going in the same vein. Not...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] Clarifications, course corrections, and exercises. (Tell Me About Your Octopus)

December 7, 2021

Well, two days into NiNoBilMa and I am learning some things about what works and what doesn't work. Among many of those of you who have contacted me, it...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] NiNoBilMa 2022: Kindergarten, Week 1

December 6, 2021

Welcome to the first day of the first week of the first month of #NiNoBilMa 2022: Kindergarten Edition! If you don't know what #NiNoBilMa is, you can find...

[AE.NiNoBilMa] Introducing NiNoBilMa 2022

November 27, 2021

So November will be ending in a few days, and with it, NaNoWriMo. While I've relished the effect that ADHD medication has had on my ability to sit down and...

[AE.Writing, AE.RPG2FictionPipeline] Telling Stories Without Dice: Entering The Tabletop-to-Fiction Pipeline

November 18, 2021

Last week, while brainstorming some ideas about TTRPG (tabletop roleplaying game) design and theory, I spun out some thoughts on Twitter in a thread that...

[AE.Books, AE.Politics, AE.ADHD] Bluebeard Revisited

November 16, 2021

It's an interesting thing, re-reading a book that I had found to be profound as a teenager, as an adult. It's not the first time I've read this book since...

[AE.Personal, AE.ADHD] My path to a prescription.

November 9, 2021

So yesterday I told you that today I'd say more about how I got here. I'm glad that I started writing about that yesterday because early this afternoon I was...

[AE.Personal, AE.ADHD] One month on the pills.

November 9, 2021

So about a month ago, I said on here that I intended to share more specific information about my journey with ADHD meds when I had been on them for a month....

[AE.Mailbag] A Friday Reader Mailbag Situation Inauguration

October 15, 2021

Welcome to the inaugural installment of the Erin Endeavor Friday Reader Mailbag Situation! I'm going to be honest, I'm not sure off the top of my head if...

[AE.News. AE.Editorial] Netflix and the Malcontents of Laughter

October 14, 2021

So Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, doubled down on the company's decision to stream a Dave Chappelle special that contained anti-trans hate speech that was...

[AE.Opinion] Of Fair (And Balanced) Reporting

October 12, 2021

Author's Note: This is an essay adapted from some old tweets of mine as an exercise in creative non-fiction writing to hone my rusty skills after a long...