On the Move

Well, not really. That is, we are moving, but we're not sure where yet, nor anything else! We know this much: we're as broke as we have ever been... It is a really dire situation, but we're doing the best we can. The worst thing is that I haven't been able to figure our taxes yet because of everything going on. I plan to do that this very night/morning.

HOPEFULLY I'll ttys!

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Taxes, Banished to the Basement

Well, I finally gave up and filed for an extension. The reason I didn't do my taxes before now is because a company didn't send me my 1099 until mid-March. Once I got into them, I was thoroughly confused by TurboTax and couldn't figure out where my expenses were supposed to go. If I list them as deductions, I get one result; if I list them as expenses, I get another. And seeing as how I'm in a targetable category (self-employed with under $25k revenue), I don't want to send any red flags.

I am moving into my parents' basement for the interim. That is to say I found a place I like, but it's slightly out of my price range - and I mean slightly. Then again, the other costs (utilities, etc.) are also higher, so altogether, it's out of my price range. And, where I was once able to count on a certain amount of revenue from the site and blogs, I can no longer do so; the long and short of it is that I can't really afford it at this time and need a few months to get caught-up. The good thing is I'll be living basically rent-free, so I might actually be able to do just that.

The other good thing is that my parents' place is way out in The Boonies, so I'll definitely be adding more content and focusing on the site. What else will I have to do? Even as far out as I already am, it's too easy to get caught-up in other things here; now I will literally have nothing else to do and no way to get anywhere to do it, so I'll be more... focused, for lack.

Also, I had the occasion to meet several area artists last weekend, one of whom does (or has done) covers for Marvel Comics. I plan to interview him and will also likely get some artwork from them all. The Weirding was always meant to be art-intensive, which is a big reason for the stark, Minimalist design, but there have been issues all along the way - namely, scanner problems. Now that the scanner is working, I've been able to get more images digitized - I just need more time to get them formatted for the Web (they're all too big).

So, I thought I'd stop by and let you know how things are going and all that. And I hope to have more content for you soon!

© C Harris Lynn, 2009

Find Those Supplements!

Obviously, tabletop roleplaying games support is our big Thing. I mean, we cover a lot of ground here to The Weirding, but the RPG section is one of which we are most proud, as well as the one on which we generally spend the most time and on which we put forth the most effort. And though we try to present materials and content which everyone who plays the games we cover can use, a lot of what we provide is dependent on previously published material contained in additional sourcebooks in the product line.

Dark Conspiracy is a great example. While you can use almost everything presented with just the basic rulesbook, the section really only comes to life if you have the Empathic Sourcebook (well, that or the second-edition rulesbooks, but I heard the printing and so on was just awful). Because the Empathic Sourcebook contains so much pertinent systematic information - information which includes rules addenda that covers a lot of the holes I was trying to cover with house rules - and I cannot legally reprint any of it, you really need it.

Of course, a lot of the books for these games have been out-of-print (OOP) for a decade or more, and they can be difficult to find. That's where ShopWiki comes in: it's basically a shopping search engine, which scours the Web for all listings of whatever it is you are looking for. You can see it in action by clicking the link above.

With ShopWiki, you can find literally anything you can think of, and you are guaranteed to find the best price, as ShopWiki returns every instance of the item it finds. No more searching through every shopping site you can think of and comparing prices the hard way; ShopWiki lists them all, along with the price, on a single returns page (or multiple pages, if apropos).

And they cover everything, not just books or games - coats and clothing, fashion accessories, movies and music, cooking utensils, baby strollers, adult diapers... ShopWiki is literally a shopping search engine, dedicated to finding whatever product(s) you are looking for, wherever it is available for purchase, across the entire Web. And because it can find anything anywhere, it is the perfect place to start your shopping.

You can enter specific search terms or check through their categories. I am not sure where you will find the RPG stuff, but I would start in Books and work my way out from there. And if you go there, you will notice ShopWiki even provides a handy list of websites which offer free books, book swapping programs, and more. It's very possible you could find whatever it is you are looking for for the low, low price of absolutely free!

Truly a great idea we collectors and roleplayers need to take advantage of every, single time we search for anything to buy. I saw where one of the gaming supplements I've had in my library for years, and never done more than flipped through, is going for darn near $100 these days! Who can afford that, these days?