Summercamp Reading Challenge!!!!

Another Year, another success....kind of

I GOT A SHINY, A DIAMOND SHINY!!! by World Anvil

So this Summercamp I had a lot of goals, and then we found out how many prompts there would be and that the total to get diamond had changed. This triggered my inner badge goblin, cause clearly its a whole NEW BADGE cause it has new rules, so it is new and shiny and I MUST HAVES IT!!!! Given my initial mission was to go for quality and not quantity and learn a bunch of new tools I arguably failed. Or I would have, and yet....I do not feel like I failed in my goals.

To elaborate, I still have a lot to work on over this next half year for those goals. Containers and Columns are two things I want to learn and master, and my hope for WorldEmber is to have even just a nice background image set up as CSS for my world articles to sit on instead of the plain backdrop, and perhaps a regular world header instead of the generic one. Nothing to fancy, I know my limits, I understand the challenge that is what I do for a living, how much time it eats, and learning something like CSS. But that's the hope. However I did improve my BBC useage noticeably to the point where my confidence is high I can start laying things out my own way now when I write new articles.

Headers, colored text, alignment, tables, inserting images, messing about with Midjourney, I improved all those skillsets, and learned and am learning a new one (Midjourney) and I did all that this year with Summercamp, all whilst finishing Valerick's Arcane Magick System on the side, and whilst handling real life nonsense and ups and downs, and managing to finish or at least submit 300+ words as a concept for all 42 prompts. So yes, I do not think I failed at my goals...I simply think my goals pivoted, I adjusted as I came to evaluate and understand the tasks at hand.

Goals moving Forward

As noted my goal for WorldEmber on one hand is to have actually dabbled the CSS system enough to publically have at least two small pieces up and running. I realize in the community it does seem that CSSing can become an addiction and suddenly you've built a while rig and theme, however I am aiming small solely because I do not think it a good idea to set such an expectation for myself. A background and a simple world wide base banner header, and that'll be a win on that front.

On the other hand, the containers and columns I wish to be making far more use of by WorldEmber, and perhaps even have begun doing a revamp, overhaul, mass edit, whatever one wishes to call it, of the material in Valerick I've written and published so far. It is currently small enough in amount to make such a task manageable, and as such, this is likely the best time to do such a thing if I ever intend to do it at all. Regardless if I do or not, the goal moving forward is much more BBC formatting, in the fashion of making the layout of what I write more reader friendly and easy to follow, utilizing containers and columns along with all the other BBC tools I already know and love, and continuing to grow on that front, slowly but surely. I feel no rush, as I have no professional intentions from anything I'm doing here, it is a hobby space, and as such, I just wish to grow, love and live within the space, and community. I wish the interaction and joy of exploration to be sure. I hope to present interesting stops and interesting ideas for others to explore as well, nothing more, nothing less.

Finally, I wish to keep learning and growing with how I use Midjourney. Learning how to speak to it, how to get it to do things in just such a way through words, not image training, as I believe that is the best way for me to utilize the tool, even if more time consuming. The point of such a tool, to me, is to allow those of us with all the words in the world to try and assemble, compile, and scratch together visual interpetations of our verbose descriptions, the things we see, but can only really describe through written language, in our minds eye. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so managing to get such a tool to do what you are envisioning, or even get close, with just word based commands and references, can be quite the task. It is a unique tool, and one I am pleased to have added to my toolkit. That is the crux of new tools, they come with a learning curve, always. Now with that said, time to get to the reading part of this challenge!!

Prompt 1: A conflict between two unequal powers in your world

Article Template Type: Military Conflict

Miltary conflicts are some of the hardest to write for this community every summercamp, and I am generally right there with you all. They are, at first thought, due to the word military, often large, spanning affairs, massive in scope and nuanced and complex in the events and timelines of them, which initially always throws many of us off. As Janet and Dimi so often remind us, they don't need to be a war, they can be a battle, a single engagement even. They don't even need to be military, though the article template is called that. Conflicts are not always armed, nor are they always between armies.

With that said, though I struggled with the scope of this article and prompt, I did not struggle with the concept. Assymetrical conflicts are something of a...let us say passionate interest of mine and as such I was pleasantly surprised by this prompt. I credit this prompt with really driving me to get more engaged on a community level this camp, which I hope to carry that momentum forward and upward beyond Summercamp, as I was able to offer help to the community writ large, confidently. Its a subject within which the broad strokes and notions I understand very well. By no means PhD level or anything, but an enthused and reasonably well read amateur. So it was a distinct pleasure to help even the few whom did ask, as some decided to avoid the military aspect entirely, and take a different and fun tact. Within this prompt, the three who really caught my eye however, are listed below;

This first entry is one of those that really bent and twisted this prompt to fit into their world, and yet it works and works well. It is an interesting twist and take on the concept, written in a fun and interesting style, and I would humbly like to suggest everyone should take a look, as it is a fine example of creative flexibility in the face of a prompt that many acknowledge is always a difficult one. Well done Cassie.

This second entry is perhaps one of the prettiest visually by layout, and yet that is perhaps the least of the praise i can offer. The writing is evocative, yet informative, very matter of fact, yet full of emotion. It dances the subject matter well, leaving no room for doubt the horror and utter destructive scale of the event, whilst being tasteful and totally PG and reader friendly in how it handles the subject matter. The true abject horror of this conflict that is so well portrayed here is the knowledge that so far as the reader, and likely the inhabitants of Mercury at the time knew, there were no avenues for peace. No road for diplomacy. That which they faced, so far as they could tell, simply would not be open to such things, perhaps not even capable of them. This piece is a master class on painting a hell of a picture without needing to stick an M or R rating on your material when discussing such a subject, yet leaving no room for doubt or misunderstanding. Well worth the read.

This last one is a nod to the Sci-fi, and an example of a sci-fi conflict that I think is easy to follow, and to at least sort of roughly picture the beats and tempo of it. Its well written, gives needed references for understanding the timeline and distances/speeds involved without needing to teach a full astrophysics class, just giving very light rough references, which is all one really needs to allow the mind to picture a conflict appropriately. Sci-fi isn't my preferred genre of thing to read or explore, and yet this was a tasty one to read, and I think it deserves a solid nod.

Prompt 2: An Animal Found in an unpopulated Area

Article Template Type: Species

I am at heart an animal and plant lover. I simply love the wilderness, love wildlife (and I include flora as wildlife, it grows in the wild, it counts) and as such, I had to pick one of the many species prompts for the reading challenge, and this one was one I found a few interesting offerings from, three of which in particular stood out, listed below;

For those with a phobia of deep water, this article is not for you. For everyone else, this is a wonderfully interesting creature, a unique hybrid twist between animals you will recognize, to create an all new mysterious beast of the deep. Well worth the read for sure.

Nnie makes her second appearance here, but I had to. The derpy space bird/manta ray is just to dumb and cute to ignore.

This article needs no real explanation for its inclusion, the concept is brilliant, humorous, captures the human spirit beautifully, because yes, we love chocolate, yes we would absolutely try and eat anything even remotely chocolate smelling or flavored at least once.

Prompt 3: A children's tale or song based on a real event

Article Template Type: Myth

This is the third I set of prompts I made the choice to include, and you can thank number one on this list for it solely, because...well go ahead and read it and listen to the little soundbite included in it, you'll understand.

I don't need to explain this. Its brilliant, and it'll stick in your head forever. Don't believe me? Go listen to the audio clip she attached to the article. Your welcome.

This one is here for similar reasons to Han's in that as soon as you account for the Ring Around the Rosie based inspiration, this will stick in your head and will never ever leave. That is a well done piece.

This one is just a well done piece that I promise you, you won't be able to stop thinking about or get out of your head, and even if the intended beats and tempo are different, it gives very Come out ye black and Tans vibes, has that sort of attitude and biting anger within it, but put into context as a children's rhyme, which is an impressive accomplishment. Another well written piece.

These are just the nine I highlighted, but of course there are so many more. This summercamp has been a massive showcase of how wildly creative and fun and whacky and brilliant this community can be. A real celebration of you all, of us all, and an amazing July overall. I head into august now recharged and ready to see how the next year goes, and cannot wait to see what comes next for this space and this community.