Hey, y’all, it’s been a minute since I’ve written a real Malice post. I mean, not that long I guess, but longer than I’d like. I have a lot of fun writing these update posts, but I really love writing long winded rants about things I feel like talking about - like On Discipline, or Some People That I Used To Know. And these are definitely concepts I’m looking to come back to, and will be reoccurring themes throughout my posts, but I’ve really just been busy the past month.

Work and Job Hunt Update

I talked about how I had lost my job at Walmart, but it was fine because I still had my contract position for the tech-conference that shall not be named for doxxing reasons (but if you’re local, you know lol). Welp, that contract’s over now! It’s bittersweet. I had a really fun time putting it all together, and it turned into something I’m genuinely proud of. But now what? Primarily what I’m spending my days doing now is either applying to jobs, or improving my professional designer site. I had bought the domain.. three years ago now? But it’s largely been sitting with a placeholder layout that isn’t great. All the work that’s on it is outdated, along with my resume. I really wanted the domain for the fancy custom email and figured if I was paying for it I should actually use the website for something but I’ve. Let it collect dust since then. But that ends now! Because I kinda know how to use html (at least enough to alter a template). Here’s what it looks like so far from my mockups vs. the old version.

Screenshot of the landing page of a portfolio site. It is largely a dark grey with some bright blue accents. A photo of Dallas is on the right side. One the left is text that reads 'Hello! Nice to meet you. My name's Dallas. I'm a graphic designer with a passion for...' After this it turns into filler text. There are two bright blue buttons on the bottom reading 'My Projects' and 'Contact Me'.

Screenshot of the landing page of a different portfolio site. It is green with yellow accents. There are four designs on the page in a piss yellow color. The site looks unfinished and sloppy.

I’ve also had an interview recently! I nepotism’d my way into it, my mom works for the company. But I’m hoping that my skills will be enough to pull through. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an interview at this company. One of them was my worst interview ever where it started with me and the interviewer agreeing I was wholly unqualified for the position and ended with him telling me he was praying for the salvation of my soul. Very interesting. Anyway, this interview went much better even though I was very nervous and was clearly stuttering and saying “like, you know, uh, like”. Haven’t heard anything back since then because it’s only been a day, but I’m hoping to at least move forward to the second stage of interviews. That would be the furthest I’ve gotten since my last graphic design gig with Mrs. Bossbae and Mr. Car Salesman.

I’m also really pissed off because I only found out this week that I had mistyped my phone number on my resume. Which potentially cost me a job last month. I had gotten an email from someone saying that they had tried calling me to talk about a job I applied for, but I never received it. I followed up a few times trying to schedule something, but they ghosted after that. Really upsets me that if I had been able to answer that initial call that I might have a job now. But, now I know. Nothing to do but move forward now.

Bragging

Okay, I kinda glossed over it before, but I’m SUPER PROUD!!!! of the finished project with the tech conference! A lot of people I know attended as volunteers so it was really awesome seeing how much they loved it. I’ve put together a little album here so people with the password can flip through the images. Just shoot me a DM if you want to see.

https://photos.asphodel.cc/share/hoYQ7QwnZqA6w8W5XhZdPOmaBxnnRtlHTnvwaQDH2xH7phmO5o9JW2-AOxZ1ePHo4Ak

Cousin Doug’s Birthday

One of the very nice things about having no job is the amount of time I can spend with my family. It was my cousin Doug’s birthday last weekend and I was able to go with my grandma to go see him with some other members of our family. I’m not super close to my dad’s side, to the point I didn’t know several people’s names at the party. I had to embarrassingly ask some of them what they were and how we’re related - but its okay, they were all surprised to find out I had graduated college almost 3 years ago. We don’t do a good enough job of keeping in touch, but its hard when your great grandparents had more kids than hands.

But it was really good that I was able to go to Doug’s party. Doug is special to everyone in the family, he got really sick when he was a kid and has been stuck there mentally ever since then. He was taken care of by his parents his whole life, until his dad passed away a couple years ago. Not long after that, his mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and it wasn’t realistic for her to care for him by herself. Last year they found a nursing home that was able to take him in. We had the party there and he was really happy to be surrounded by everyone. The change was hard for him, specifically he only likes and trusts a few of the nurses. I didn’t get the impression that other nurses were mistreating him or anything, it’s just. I think it makes sense to be picky about the person who has to wipe your ass when you shit.

Image of a birthday cake sitting on a table with a plastic tablecloth on it. The cake has chocolate frosting and reads in white icing 'Happy Birthday Doug!'. There are drinks, plates, and other objects scattered on the table.

Anyway, the party was great. He opened presents and we played with the Bop-It he got.. one of the kids at the party asked me how I knew what they were. That aged me. A lot. It didn’t help that when the same kid said she liked Melanie Martinez, I instinctively said “Oh, I remember when her first album released.” and I realized that happened when she was TWO YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Campaign Planning!

I’ve also been making myself busy by planning the next Shadow of the Demon Lord campaign I’ll be running! Should be doing it soon, but it’s been taking up a lot of my free time. I really love DMing campaigns, it’s one of the most rewarding things ever for me. I love getting in the weeds to make sessions as immersive as possible, to the extent it’s almost ridiculous and CERTAINLY overkill. I would never suggest a new DM to run sessions the way I do, but I love it. One day I might have to write a whole post about it, but I’ll share the bits and pieces I’ve been doing lately.

The campaign I’m doing is focusing on the party delving into the ancient, abandoned city of Arkannon in search of magical knowledge and relics form times long passed. And what’s a good treasure hunt without a map? So, partially inspired by this YouTube video, I made diegetic maps for the characters to use in universe! One of them is a very, very old map of the various wonders and highlights of the island city, and the other is made by an NPC scout after exploring the island. I also have a 100% accurate map I’ll be using behind the DM screen, but I’m not posting that here in case my players are reading.

A digital illustration of a mountainous island. It is colored with a desaturated watercolor and contains numerous magical and odd things on it, such as a huge circular platform, a white sphere at the peak of the tallest mountain, and five different wizard towers. It is also host to four entrances to some underground tunnels and nine glass barns. It also has three bridges leading to it on the bottom left, right, and top right corners. There is a compass in the top left taking the appearance of a dragon's eye with a gold pupil.

A digital sketch of a mountainous island. It is a sloppy sketch with unfinished lines and jagged edges. There are a handful of towers and circles on the right side drawin in red. It looks vaguely like the previous map, but at a different angle and with odd proportions. It also has a thin hexagon pattern on top.

Another one of my favorite aspects of planning a new campaign is all the fun and funky characters I get to make! I’m especially happy this time, as I only have two players joining me, which means I have a lot more room for different weird and whacky NPCs to create. Yet another shoutout to my very good friends Evan and Michaela for printing and painting the minis I’ll be using for the campaign. They look so great and its so satisfying to me to see unique characters come to life like this, rather than using generic grey minis.

Image of three minifigures. From left to right is a kenku with a dagger, an orange and white tabaxi sneaking, and a goblin woman looking indignant. They are painted very expertly and look really really cool.

Image of the same minifgures previously, but from behind.

Other Random Updates

A few weeks ago I slipped on some ice and skinned my knee really fucking bad. It’s fine now, it just really really hurt and I want to make a note of that. I slipped January 19th and I still have the scrapes. I literally couldn’t wear pants without pain for a full week, it was that bad. For a little bit I almost genuinely thought my knee was broken. Oh my god.

The Kendrick Lamar halftime show was really good, everyone should watch it if somehow you haven’t yet.

I got into a car accident on the 11th that I talked about in the last update. Still haven’t heard back from insurance! Oh my god!!!! GAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was supposed to have my car repaired and be getting a rental by now, but nooooo. Jesus Christ, FUCK PROGRESSIVE bro.

Recently I found a new website to be autistic on while categorizing media. I have an album of the year account now where I review and rate different albums! I’ve been very busy on it lately because I’ve been trying to listen to more music. I get so bored if I only listen to the same things over and over again, it really just drives me insane. I need to listen to new stuff or I’ll lose it.

Screenshot of the recently rated page of Dallas's Album of the Year account.

I’ve already accomplished one of my New Year’s resolutions! That’s right, already in February! I really thought this would take way longer, but it looks like I’ve underestimated myself. I accomplished a sub :45 time in tetr.io 40 line sprint. I’m genuinely really fucking proud, but another thing that was even more difficult for me to do was quit drinking soda. That one wasn’t explicitly part of my resolutions, but I wanted to generally work on my self discipline more and I just wanted to see if I could even do it. I had to wane myself off the caffeine, which was the worst part about it all. It took so long to not have consistent horrible migraines, but now that I’m on the other side of it I feel.. well, honestly not much different. But all the weird and crazy sodas I liked before taste like shit now. I can’t stand Mountain Dew Code Red or Baja Blast anymore. It’s awful. Root beer is the only thing I can drink, and I let myself have a can or two a week as a treat.

Obligatory Cat Photos and Goodbye

Anyway, that’s about all I feel like talking about right now. Hopefully more posts soon? I have so much cooking up on the backburner, I would love for them to be finished soon. But yeah, catch y’all next time.

Image of Cupcake laying upside down and a hand scratching her face and neck. She looks pleased and sleepy.

Image of Cupcake laying on the ground. Her front paws are folded in neatly, while her back paws are splayed out like chicken legs. She looks at something off camera.

Image of Cupcake loafing perfectly on the floor. She is looking at the camera.

Image of Cupcake laying on the couch. She is in an odd shape, laying almost in the shape of a D. She is making an unknowable expression looking just past the camera. As if she is recalling something traumatic.