My first thought starting this newsletter today was that I failed. This week I had no progress in my reading at all. I'm only a few pages into The Well of Ascension. I also worked out only one time this week.
And yet.
I did publish two YouTube videos this week. And a blog post.
It's so easy to let ourselves slip into negativity. If I had not taken the time to think a bit more on what I did this week, I would only remember what I didn't do.
Take your wins. Here's mine.
I Wrote an Open Letter to Felicia Day
This week I supported The Guild's Kickstarter. Felicia Day is one of my inspirations, and backing the project got me thinking about everything her work has meant to my creative journey. So I wrote an open letter to her. You can read it here:
Oren Cohen
In the same way I supported Felicia, I also supported Worlds Beyond Number. They are doing an amazing thing right now with their Kickstarter. I didn't write an article for them, but I intend to import all my episode reviews from Geek Peek sometime in the near future.
The next topic is just as close to my heart as Felicia's influence on my creative journey: physical media and its inevitable death.
I Made An Ode to The Dying Publishing Industry
I still remember Shonen Jump and how I would wait for it every month. Sometimes it would contain an Ultra Rare Yu-Gi-Oh! card, which I still have today somewhere.
This came to mind after I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2 on Apple TV and realized how sad the state of publishing is. Most of us consume our content on the internet now, and because of that shift, many of those old magazines simply vanished. The ones strong enough to digitize did, and in so doing lost their soul.
I especially love how Miranda frames it by the end of the movie to Andy: "Runway is just one of the last wood pieces floating next to the Titanic." And it's true. Magazines are vanishing or going online where they are so easy to miss or forget. You don't stack emails like you stacked old magazines and saved them like a small intellectual treasure.
So I made a video about it. A bit spontaneous and different than what I usually make. Here it is:
So now that we're done with the sour stuff, let's finish this issue with some fun news. I'm back to reviewing Min-Maxed episodes!
I'm Continuing My Min-Maxed Review Series!
So Min-Maxed came out to say that Season 2 has wrapped up filming and confirmed that Season 3 will be filmed too.
I lost track of the season's schedule somewhere along the way and thought Episode 10 was the last one, but apparently Episode 12, which hasn't aired as I write this, will be the last one.
When the episodes just started publishing, I reviewed each one and made it to episode 4 until I took a break. Now that I know there's more coming, I want to finish what I started. I published episode 5's review on Sunday and Episode 6's review on Tuesday. More to come this upcoming week.
And finally, I have some news about this very blog. The home of the newsletter you're reading right now.
I'm Documenting The Growth of This Blog
Later today, I'm publishing on YouTube the first episode in a new weekly series, also published on Fridays, where I document my journey to grow this blog into a real home for a community. I am not trying to monetize right now, but I am trying to grow a place where nerds feel comfortable talking to each other about the things we all love.
It would be my absolute pleasure to witness a conversation between two strangers about Mass Effect grow into a friendship. Or maybe theorizing about the Cosmere. Doesn't have to be video games. I also crave human connection. What is an online community without making new friends, right?
It could be a failure. Maybe all the big names have taken all the community growing opportunities. Maybe I'm wasting my time. That said, I want to find out for myself instead of assuming.
Thank You For Reading
That's all I have for you today. What have you been up to this week? Hit reply and let me know, or comment below if you're reading this on the web.
Talk soon,
Oren
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