Tag: blogging

  • Do You Ever Feel Like You’re Writing Into A Void?

    I just wonder if anyone feels the same – that we’re sharing, but not connecting as we might have thought we were, expert or not.

    -The Stratagem’s Archives

    Are We Sharing, Or Just Speaking Into the Void?

    I had always wanted to start a blog; it was something I wanted to do since high school, but never pursued it. After years of wishing, wanting, and agonizing over why I wasn’t good enough to write, I finally hit that “publish” button in late June of 2025.

    This was an idea that lingered — something I told myself I’d do one day, when I had more time, more to say, or more certainty about what I even wanted to write.

    I finally stopped waiting, I finally gave myself a chance and do something new, even though it scared me.

    When I first started writing, I thought I learned enough to share what strategies I use for my own life and that I could share my ideas and thought with other people.

    However, I’m not an expert, I don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time, and I’m okay with this.

    I’ve created this space to become my personal archive — a place where I share what I’m learning, what I’m unlearning, and what I’m still sitting with. It’s not always neat. It’s not always deep. But it’s mine, it’s real, and that’s enough for me.

    Still, sometimes I wonder:

    Are we really connecting in these spaces, or are we all just publishing and scrolling past each other?

    I’m not upset about it. It’s something else.

    It’s more like… curiosity mixed with quiet disappointment.

    Like when you wave at someone across the street and they kind of wave back, but you’re not sure they even saw you.

    I see “likes” on my posts, and I’m grateful. I really am.

    But sometimes I wonder:

    Did anyone actually read it? Did what I write sit with them like it sat with me when I wrote it?

    Because when I click “like” on someone else’s post, I’ve read it.

    I’ve usually felt something.

    Sometimes I comment. Sometimes I don’t know what to say. But I try to engage, because I came here to do more than just tap and scroll.

    What Were We Hoping For?

    When we started these blogs — whether on a whim, in a spiral, during burnout, or because of that one night where the urge to write finally won — what did we hope would happen?

    I think a lot of us wanted to:

    • Share what’s on our minds.
    • Feel less alone.
    • Maybe build a quiet corner where people think similar to us.

    And I still believe that’s possible.

    But connection, real connection, seems harder to come by than we expected. At least, to me it is. It’s not automatic, not even in this age of platforms and algorithms.

    I write because I’m afraid of wasting my life and having nothing to show for it.

    I’m afraid of watching life slip by while I waste it — even if I end up wasting it by:

    • Procrastinating.
    • Getting easily distracted.
    • Filling my time with “productive habits and activities” that aren’t going anywhere right now.

    But I choose to write, I make things, I learn something new and interesting, and I archive my thoughts. I press publish — even when I don’t know if anyone’s reading.

    This Isn’t a Call for Validation

    It’s a moment of wondering:

    • Do you feel this too?
    • Do you feel the same, that we’re writing into some void?
    • Does it feel like writing, hitting publish, and simply waiting to be noticed by someone feels like a knife driven into your chest?

    If you’re reading this, and it resonates, I’d love to hear what keeps you writing.

    Or what you hoped your blog would be when you started, or simply say, “hi”, in the comments below..

    If you’d like to check out any of my other works, just to take a look, then these other articles might give you more pieces to the puzzle I’m trying to unravel and decipher myself below.

    Real fast before you move on, a few questions if you’d please:

    What post of mine stuck with you—and why?”

    “What would you want to see more of?”

    “Would you support this space if I offered a way to?”

    Until then — thanks for reading, even silently. The archives will be closing now, and I’ll see you when the archives opens again.

  • What If I Got to Build a City Exactly As I’d Want It To Be?

    How would you design the city of the future?

    If I could design the city of the future, then I would introduce more opportunities for play, learning, and challenge. It would still be optional, like a bike and zipper lane. Although, it would bring the playfulness most people have out to try something novel and new.

    For example, the outdoor calisthenics gyms are in dedicated areas, similarly closed off like and away from the public eye as the morgues and hospice and hospital care. Out of sight and out of mind, unless we really need those services.

    Imagine this; you’re minding your own business and you see children and grown adults alike playing hopscotch along the sidewalk. Or someone is navigating a small maze next to a fountain. Or friends are challenging each other to a battle of wit, words, riddles, and rhyme.

    Everything would be optional; these obstacles and challenges are visible and part of society to challenges ourselves to move, think, or play differently. It’ll be adding small doses of chosen, personal chaos in our set routines.

    Nothing would obstruct, block, or hinder anyone or our day to day. Rather they would be there as reminders to move, think, and do something different once in a while.

    If you liked this prompt or felt it resonate with you drop a hi in the comments, then you can explore the other examples below. Subscribe and follow me on this journey of how writing can be a way to ground me, ground us. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you when the Archives open again.

    What The Little Things Mean to Me — And Why They Matter More Than They Should.

    If You Gave Me A Blank Page, This Is What I’d Start Writing About.

    I’m Afraid of Wasting My Potential — So I Learn Everything I Can, While I Can.

  • Learning About My Name Was A Surprise

    Where did your name come from?

    If you have a name that looks similar to a simple to pronounce name, yet have people struggle to say your name, then it can be a wonder as to what’s wrong with people.

    Over the years, people struggled to pronounce and read my name, but it, to me, wasn’t difficult. Some times people forgot that, in English, the ‘s’ and ‘h’ combined creates a, “shhh” sound. When people omitted the ‘h’ in my name and made the ‘s’ longer, I’d think that people needed to go back to Elementary school to learn basic phonics.

    Anywho, back in 8th grade, my English teacher had been the first to read and pronounce my name correctly because it was the exact same pronunciation and spelling as his wife’s name.

    Later that school week, I was introduced to my English teacher’s wife, she was substituting, by my Math teacher and she asked if I was related to someone. I told her I was, she asked if that person was my mom, I told her no, the person she described is my mom’s sister.

    It turned out, when I asked, that my mom had met her sister’s classmate, my 8th grade English teacher’s wife, back in high school. She liked her name that, when I was born as a surprise because my mom didn’t realize she was pregnant, it was the name she gave me.

    I had met the woman who I was named after and it was an interesting experience. It really shows you how much of a small world we live in.

    I write more than about where my namesake came from.

    If you are someone who is curious and enjoys learning new things from the beginning – 0 experience and no prior knowledge – but don’t feel confident in learning, and likes this kind of content, hit subscribe and like to follow my journey into new skills, knowledge, or what I’m pursuing as a beginner.

    Below are blog posts where I share the things I’ve learned from 0 as a complete noob, to still not knowing what I’m doing, but I have a plan to learn by doing. You can check out now and see if I’m learning something you might be curious about!

    I Had No Idea What I Was Doing, But I Still Fixed This Xbox 360 (With No EXP)

    The Autodidact’s Journey: Starting Over With “Coding”: Part 1

    A.I. Was Taking Over My Writing Life — I Had to Pull Myself Back

  • I’ll Tell You The Secret of What Motivates Me

    What motivates you?

    I’ll tell you what motivates me, it’s simple really; Much like in my blog post I’m Afraid of Wasting My Potential — So I Learn Everything I Can, While I Can., I am motivated by my anger, curiosity, spite, and fear of regret.

    “…I’m striving to reduce fear’s hold on me and to expand my options. To use my anger against myself, circumstances, other people that irritates me for something constructive…”

    My Goals Go Through a Process – Archivist

    I hate feeling small, worthless, useless, and like a failure. This doesn’t have to be just feelings in a workplace, but also in my relationships too.

    If I feel this same anger, spite, and the regret that taking no action will lead to feeling even worse regret, then I will take necessary action. I’ve done plenty of reflecting, it’s just a matter of doing the extra work of following through.

    Many of my goals, curiosities, and actions do come from a place of mild obsession. So, after years of telling myself, “don’t do that or I’ll fail,” I flipped it around and started to say, “If I DON’T do that, then I’ll have actually failed.”

    Enjoyed this post? Hit subscribe so you don’t miss the next one.

    New posts daily to weekly. Subscribe to keep up with my latest writing and reflections.

    Check out more of my other daily prompts or other works below.

    I’m Afraid of Wasting My Potential — So I Learn Everything I Can, While I Can.

    If You Gave Me A Blank Page, This Is What I’d Start Writing About.

    The Real Pros and Cons of Rage Rooms (From Someone Who Works in One)

  • Starting From Scratch: Learning to Code After a D in University: (Seedling)

    “My coding NIGHTMARE!!!”

    My C++ Nightmare!!!

    Starting Over: Why I’m Giving C++ Another Shot

    My first experience with C++ was a spectacular failure.

    Ten years ago, I walked into a university computer science class with zero coding knowledge and a very big dream: I wanted to make my own video games. That dream quickly turned into a nightmare of syntax errors and confusing concepts. By the end of the semester, I had a D- on my transcript and a deep-seated belief that coding just wasn’t for me.

    My path to that point didn’t help. Unlike many of my classmates, I never had a computer science class in high school. While they were building projects, I was learning a trade with my building and construction major. My only prior experience was messing around with RPG Maker on my English teacher’s computer—a memory I’d long since buried under the weight of that D-.

    For a decade, that D- was the last word on the subject. I told myself it was fine; there were other things to learn, other paths to take. But the idea of building something from scratch never completely left me. The curiosity was always there, simmering in the background.

    Then, just 13 days ago, I decided to face that old ghost. I wasn’t going back to a university classroom or picking up a massive textbook. Instead, I’m starting from the very beginning with an app called Mimo.

    This isn’t about getting a certification or a perfect grade this time, though that would be pretty useful. It’s about proving to myself that I can learn this, that my past experience doesn’t define my potential, and that maybe, just maybe, I can turn that old dream of making games into a reality.

    In this series, I’m going to share exactly what it’s like to start over with a skill I thought I failed at. Part two will dive into the specific tools I’m using to learn, and part three will cover the lessons and progress I’ve made so far. If you’ve ever felt like you’re not smart enough to learn something new, or you’re stuck on a skill you gave up on, this is for you.

    Join me on this journey as I get back to the basics and finally build the coding skills I once thought were out of reach.

    The archives will now be closing, I will see you in part 2, and until we open again. Thank you!!!

    I’m not an expert—I’m a learner.

    If you’re into stories about figuring things out, trying again, and making progress on your own terms, hit that subscribe button and join me on the journey.

  • My Top (10) Movies

    What are your top ten favorite movies?

    My top 10 favorite movies, huh? It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to sit down and watch something that’s not a YouTube video, a podcast episode, or a Netflix series. However, if I had to pick, not in order of what is and isn’t my favorite, I would pick:

    1. K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025) Netflix
    2. Dungeons and Dragons (2023)
    3. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
    4. Saw VI (2009)
    5. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2006)
    6. Lucy (2014)
    7. Doctor Strange (2016)
    8. Resident Evil (2002)
    9. The Platform (2020) Netflix
    10. Game Changers (2016) Netflix

    I like a lot of different movies genres. From sci-fi, fantasy, dystopian, suspense, psychological horror, action, documentary, as long as the premise is interesting and the movie keeps my attention.

    Whenever I’m watching something at home, I’m on my phone more or doing anything else and letting the screen watch me than anything.

    Lots of movies had very interesting concepts, like “Tarot” looked interesting. Where a bunch of college kids finds a cursed tarot card deck and, because they didn’t bless it or something, whatever the card is drawn for them relates to their death. It was a cool concept, but it made me root for the monsters a little more than the college kids.

    Actually, it kind of reminded me of a move from years back where a spirit was inside of a video game disc. How your character died in the game was how you died in real life.

    It was called, “Stay Alive (2006)”. If you didn’t want your kids playing video games, trust me, this movie made me not touch ANY games for a long time, until my kid mind was okay with playing games again.

  • If You Gave Me A Blank Page, This Is What I’d Start Writing About.

    What do you enjoy most about writing?

    “Oh, writing, please don’t forsake me now.”

    Writing Has Been Enlightening and Liberating

    This is a tough question for me because I like to write about a lot of things. In my “About Me” page About The Stratagem’s Archive: The Debriefing Area:, in my “Homepage” The Stratagem’s Archive: You Begin Here:, and even on my post pages, I’ve written that I’m just an average dilettante who likes learning new things, see what outcomes I get, and share what I’ve learned here.

    I like to write about things I find interesting, even if my knowledge is incomplete or bare, as it gives me an opportunity to bridge my personal gaps.

    However, if I really had to pick something, then I would say that I like writing D&D story prompts, like in my most recent post D&D Stories I Won’t Get To Use (Yet): Idea #1:

    It’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to writing a story that combines world building, fantasy and/or sci-fi, potentially horror, using real life inspiration, and many more elements without it becoming a book. Many D&D stories eventually become books, though it’s not the main reason why I write these kinds of stories myself.

    I’m a gamer and a bookworm looking for recommendations – books, games, cartoons, stories, movies, writing, and other media I could get ahold of – are things I hold dearly. Being imaginative filled my days and D&D, when I got into it at the end of 2023, gave me a chance to share the ideas I kept to myself and refine them over time with other people.

    I’ve ran a few of my own home brew stories before I had to put D&D and GMing on pause. My first story was called, “The Golden Chest of Lady Ahn’ket”, it was supposed to have been a one-shot, but I didn’t know how long a one shot was supposed to be and it took roughly a dozen 2-4 hour sessions to finish.

    I could share more about this story as part of the “D&D Stories I Won’t Get to Use (Yet)” series I’m building. Although, I have used this in game with people, I wanted to refine my first story and, hopefully, share it other people.

    Although, I had to quit with the group I played with on Discord because my schedule wouldn’t allow much free time as before, but I would love to get back into playing and running games.

    In conclusion, D&D stories and prompts are what I like to write the most. They can expand in many different directions and you’ll never know where the players would take it. They’ll derail all of your hard work, but that’s why it’s great how flexible it can be, and how flexible I need to be, to keep moving forward with the story.

    If you like D&D, I would love to know what kind of stories you’ve played, what elements you’ve found fun to play, or if you have recommendations for a novel GM. Let me know in the comments down below, and I’ll see you in another post. Thanks!

    Enjoyed this post?

    I write about creativity, coding, art, and personal growth.

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  • Quarantine Life: In The Confines of Comfort: Idea #1:

    D&D Ideas For Later Exploration

    Welcome, Co-conspirators, to The Stratagem’s Archives, open for perusing. Today, the archives will be exploring story ideas for D&D that I want to explore in the future, be it a one-shot or a full campaign, and articulate it here.

    Author’s Note: I used ChatGPT to assist in this article and further expand my idea, not write the idea itself. ChatGPT has been a collaborative tool and soundboard, it’s not a ghost writer. The ideas in these posts are from my own imagination and stories I want to explore. Thank you.

    Quarantine Life

    I recently thought about took place during a world wide pandemic where people fled to quarantine zones that wizards control to keep the healthy people safe from infection. The facilities have Golems, known as R.O.A.M (Ready Optimal Articifical Mediator) take care of everything for the players and keep the facility on lockdown.

    The players have been in the facility for so long they don’t remember what outside is like. R.O.A.M. Also makes the players take medication to keep them healthy that it is part of their routine and they don’t see the Golems as threats, but active caretakers.

    The purpose is for the players to want to escape, to see if the pandemic is real or fake, and why there are less people in the facility than when they went in. This will also have the players figuring out what armor, weapon type, and skills they would choose for their character creations live and in the moment thnn pre-game. I want people to be engaged and invested than existing in the game.

    How ChatGPT Made This Sound Epic

    D&D Campaign Intro Prompt: “Quarantine Protocol”

    You don’t remember the last time you saw the sky.

    Not clearly. Not without a ceiling light buzzing above your head.

    You’ve lived inside this quarantine facility for what feels like years—or maybe longer.

    A global arcane contagion swept across the world, and the wizards promised protection.

    Here, inside the walls, you’ve been safe. Monitored. Medicated. Kept alive.

    The caretakers are artificial constructs called R.O.A.M.s—Ready Optimal Artificial Mediators.

    They glide down corridors in absolute silence. They never sleep.

    They know your routine.

    They always know where you are.

    You take your daily pills like everyone else. You eat the food that appears in the walls. You watch the faces of others, dwindling in number—

    —and no one questions where the missing have gone.

    Until now.

    As the Game Begins

    You don’t remember who you were before the facility. Not completely.

    You don’t know what you can do. Not yet.

    You’ll discover your abilities—your class, strengths, and skills—through play, based on how you react to the challenges ahead.

    Are you strong? Clever? Dangerous?

    You’ll find out soon enough.

    For now:

    The power flickers. The alarms stay silent. And the hallway is empty.

    Something is different today.

    It’s time to remember who you are.

    It’s time to find out what’s outside.

    From Concept to Campaign: A Taste of What’s to Come

    This idea is just one piece of a larger concept I’ve been developing—a narrative that explores memory, obedience, curiosity, and the subtle horror of being too comfortable. It’s a story where players will discover who they are in real time, shaped by their choices, not their character sheets.

    This blog post marks the beginning of what I hope becomes an evolving project—one I’ll be expanding on with additional encounters, player-facing materials, worldbuilding ideas, and campaign tools that encourage deeper roleplay and immersion.

    If you’re interested in campaigns that challenge the mind more than just the dice, or stories where truth is a puzzle waiting to be unraveled, I invite you to follow along.

    More will be shared in future posts—ideas around character creation as discovery, subtle dystopia in fantasy, and how you can make your players want to escape before they even know why.

    Until next time, thanks for exploring the Archives.

    More D&D Articles to Explore

    Want to Explore the Tower?

    I’m sharing this campaign idea as part of my D&D journey—no solutions, no step-by-step guide—just a story, a world, and a glimpse into the chaos and mystery of the tower.

    If you like what you see, you can support my work on Ko-fi: it helps me keep creating, experimenting, and sharing ideas like this one. Even a small tip shows that the effort of world-building, sketches, and character ideas is appreciated.

    Your support doesn’t buy instructions or answers—it simply helps me keep making stories, designs, and other creative experiments that might spark your imagination.

  • What Do I Love About Where I Live?

    What do you love about where you live?

    “A Mastermind’s always thinking!”

    What Makes My Home Special?

    Where I live is the only place I’ve ever known; I’ve lived alongside the ocean all of my life and besides the mountains, so you could say I live directly between the sea and the mountains. I’ve lived in the “country”, though it’s not purely country like the mainland, but it is for us because it’s far out of the way of any tourist attractions.

    It’s also considered “ghetto” and, people outside of the state need to understand that “paradise” has its own share of troubles, has a lot of issues. I remember, before moving out, that our neighbors were climbing their fences one night and called my dad. My parents and I went out looking towards the neighbor behind us’s property and our next door neighbor said he saw 2 kids climbing on the roofs of people’s garages to get into everyone else’s yards.

    We’ve had issues with the surrounding distant neighbors, but kids sneaking in the dead of night and trespassing into other people’s properties? That was a new and terrifying development.

    We’ve had fires, water mains breaking, rolling power outages, cops and fire fighters and EMTs showing up at random times throughout the day and night that it was normal.

    My city literally only has one way going in and one way going out, there’s no other way to get to it unlike the other cities that are connected by the highways, freeways, and backroads. So, getting home would take between 2-3 hours before, maybe longer, because of traffic and the long traffic lights. Though that was before I moved to a different city, but it was home.

    Renting in a different city is different because I don’t have the luxury of my own space as before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m renting a studio and I have the place to myself, but having neighbors just less than a feet away from my door is stressful.

    I could play with my dogs, let them run around in the yard without much problems, I could eat as much ice cream or chocolate shakes if we had because my city has a dry heat to it. Even with a nice breeze, it would carry heat instead of cooling us down, though privacy was ensured from people we didn’t like.

    Our neighbors were good, we’d help each other out, I’d pick mangoes from our tree when they bloomed and make sure to share. Our neighbor’s wife would offer us mango bread in turn, she’s good friends with my grandma, and it was nice. We didn’t expect anything, though it became a ritual.

    I’ve visited a decent amount of places over the years in my lifetime:

    • California
    • Texas
    • Texarkana
    • Las Vegas
    • Colorado
    • South Korea
    • Japan

    Even though a lot of places were nicer than where I lived, it never felt like a place that I could call home. Everywhere else, though this isn’t to say it’s true, felt disconnected. It didn’t feel like a place I could call or make it a home because I’ve never stayed long enough to explore that possibility.

    I do miss living near the ocean and smelling the salt being carried on the breeze, seeing the white haze on an early morning drive because the water churned up so much salt, and getting a nice view of the night sky because there isn’t as much light pollution.

    I miss my family as well, I do what I can to visit and keep in touch, but when I was presented with an opportunity to experience independent living, I took it. They won’t be around forever, so learning what it’ll be like without them will be a lot, it is a lot to think about, so I better do what I can and appreciate and irritate them while I can.

  • Positive Emotions, You Say?

    What positive emotion do you feel most often?

    Throughout the entirety of my personal journey – betting on myself and moving ahead with projects I had postponed – I hadn’t been gripped with a shadow of “positive emotion” in a long time.

    I sat with the emotions I usually feel: anger, resentment, bitterness, and regret. But beneath them was something else, something subtle, and fleeting, yet it made itself known.

    Pride.

    Resilient.

    Persistent.

    In the moments where my demons surface, beneath their screams and shouts is something quieter; when it seems all of the work I’ve been putting in to build something I can call my own, to live my life on my own terms, is for naught, it whispers, “keep going.”

    These emotions: my pride, my resilience, and my persistence will channel my anger and regret into something better, beautiful, and enduring for my life to matter.

    Make it count. Make it matter. Move forward.”