Back

When I started this thread 6 years and 4 months ago, I said "This is going to take a while. I would love to see some discussion around these ideas, but I have Many to get through, so I may not respond super quickly.

But seriously, talk to me about the things that resonate with you."

That goes double on both counts.

This is going to take a long time for me to get through, and I want to hear about the things that resonate with you.

- Analog Revolution Magazine: A bi-monthly punk zine about music, art, media, and social stuff. 14 issues, so far. Originally published this out of Analog Revolution Records in Kennesaw, GA (which has been closed since April 2016.) Last issue was August of 2016.

As of 2017, status was: Suspended, I think? This thing was a LOT of work, and I don't have many writers who are still active.

As of today:
We've released 6 more issues, including a 10th anniversary issue, and the 7th is on the way~

- Of Many Trades: A Tilde.club like community server. Lot's of shell scripts and various bits stitched together in to an almost social network from the command line. Lots of hack-y code that needs revision. Currently, 4 (semi)active users.

As of 2017, status was: Suspended, probably dead.

As of today, Suspended, definitely dead.

- Analog Revolution Records: A record store, Cassette and CD label opperating out of Kennesaw GA. Open from May 2014 to April 2016. The most work I've ever done. The most fun I've ever had on a project. The store shuttered when my business partner left to hike the AT. The record label gave out a few weeks later, when the last of the bands we were supporting broke up because everyone lived to far away for them to keep playing music. I miss it.

As of 2017, status was: Suspended, probably dead.

As of today:

- This project is very much alive We release a new cassette every month, we have two LPs out with two more on the way, and five or six CDs, and a bunch more stuff in the pipe.

We run a full recording studio. We sell records from the coffee shop. We do a regular concert series, and those get filmed and taped for new ellijay television.

- A Brief History of the Future: A quarterly pulp-style magazine of vintage and modern scifi/stories about a future that might have been but wasn't.

Published Print on Demand, eventually sold through my website for $6.

No issues released so far. Issue 1 has been complete for 8 months, and ready to print. Issue 2 - 4 have their story selection mostly finished, and their layout mostly done. Could literally go to press at any point, but marketing is hard.

as of 2017: Active, I guess?

as of today: I kept up with this one for a few issues, but it just wasn't as fun as I'd hoped it would be.

We release some similar stuff occasionally, I still publish books, and we've launched a new pulp magazine called Fight The Future, with new fiction.

- The Galactic Patrol - A DIY 3D printed Starship Dogfight Tabletop game: The rules to the game have been finalized. My play testers enjoy playing. I am currently using CC-BY-SA models, but hope to design my own soon. Lots of work lef to do on design, presentation, and marketing.

as of 2017: Active, just slow

as of today: I finished a set or two of this, and we played the game and it just wasn't fun so I gave up on it.

- Big Damn Comics: I researched public domain comic books. I picked the ones with the best (and least well known) artwork, and started about remixing them in to new comics.

We would re-write dialog, rearrange panels, and even add new artwork atop the vintage material. The end result was really neat! And I loved being a part of it! but doing the actual photoshop work required to clean up the scans and add our dialog and changes was punishing, and I struggled with it

Then: suspended, but temporarily, I hope

Now: I haven't thought about this project in years. It was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work.

For now, we clean up and re-release old comics, and occasionally make new ones, but we don't do these kinds of remixes.

- Analog Revolution Podcast: I want to do a podcast that features the same kinds of topics as the AR magazine. That means politics, DIY media, jazz, rock, and the weird shit that slips through the cracks elsewhere. I'm not married to the name Analog Revolution, but I like it for sentimental reasons. The only thing stopping me from doing this is that I kind of don't want my voice to be on it, because I think other people will not like listening to my voice.

Then: (Active, but only just this side of considered.)

Now: I've gotten used to the sound of my own voice, but I stopped doing this particular podcast, and I'm doing several others instead.

- Jupiter's Ghost - A Space Corps Podcast: I wrote 6 episodes of a podcast called "Jupiter's Ghost." It presents the exploits of the crew of a spaceship in the Space Corps, a civilian organization that studies deep space, through the reporting of a college student named Eliza.

Eliza is an intern aboard the ship, and has been tasked as the official record keeper. She takes to the job with a surprising gusto, and gets way in to everything going on around the ship, relaying it all in a Valley-Girl-from-venus vernacular. I need to polish the scripts, find some actors, and start recording.

Then: (Active, I guess.)

Now: Wow this idea changed a lot from then to now. Active. See the current state at https://intergalactic.computer

- The ARC: ARC stands for Analog Revolution Console. This was a Raspberry Pi based Game Console that we prototyped, and did an Alpha release of, while I was running Analog Revolution. The idea is to make something Raspberry Pi based, that takes USB game cartridges.

It is important to note that this was not! an emulation/pirate box. We were looking specifically for games that we had the legal right to release, either because they were licenced in such a way that allowed it, or because we had contacted the developers of the game.

I hacked together a custom UI and game launcher. I wrote a couple of simple games in LUA, and was working with a few others on a Doom TC (that is, we were building a new game using the DOOM I engine.) I had also experimented with an engine for playing Twine games, and RenPy games using a controller.

A combination of cost, lack of developers, and the closing of the store forced me to put this project on the shelf. I hope to follow through with it at some point in the future.

Then: (Suspended)

Now: A few weeks after I posted this I roughed out a few more prototypes on "orange Pi" boards to varying degrees of success, but I just wasn't ever happy with the performance. I probably would have stuck with it if I hadn't moved back to GA, because it was something I talked about all the time, but I have bigger fish.

- mBBS: The internet is not as safe as we once thought it was. mBBS was/is an attempt to fix that. It is a local wifi network, that does not connect back to the larger internet. Folks could share things locally, peer-to-peer, or publish them to the box (provided there was enough storage.) We experimented with various methods of moving content between various mBBS instances, in an attempt to make something federated.

Long Range Wifi worked, as did various FTP-based psudo-sneakernets. We ran a node at Analog Revolution for nearly a year, and enjoyed it a great deal.

This one was killed by the technical complexity of long range (5+ mile) wireless communication, and the shuttering of the store. It's at the top of my list for projects to revive.

-Then: (Suspended, but I'm sad about it)

- Now: Still suspended, and I'm still sad about it. I've done a lot more work with offline messaging, with intranets and sneakernets and digital publishing without the web, and I've written about and talked about these topics a lot.

If I ever have six months with nothing else to do but tinker, I might come up with something that might do some good, but I'm not likely to.

- Records: I developed a method for making LP records from a polyurethane resin. It works! It doesn't work very well! There is still a lot of work to do refining the proccess.

Blockers: I need (access to) a record cutting lathe. I need someone with more experience working with these chemicals than I have -OR- I need to do a LOT of experimentation to get our mixture just right.

This is pretty cool, but it's pretty damn hard.

- Then: (Suspended, but only until I have a dedicated workshop space again.)

- Now: We have a record cutting lathe. We have a lot more experience with chemicals.

We've also had records professionally produced.

There are some new blockers (lacquers are basically impossible to find these days.)

- Space Anxiety Twine Game: I've talked about this before. I don't want to re-hash it all right now. It's a game in twine set in space, which uses anxiety and stress as a game mechanic. I'm still in the planning stages, so I'm not going to count this as active

- Then: (considered)

- Now: I forgot about this thing entirely until read about it here.

See all the details here: https://retro.social/@ajroach42@mastodon.social/97857147763237734

I worked on it for a while back then, but it was just So Big and it never really worked the way I wanted it to, and I had too much else to do, so I moved on to things that I enjoyed more.

I'd still love to see that game happen, but it won't be me that implements it.

- Short fiction: I write works of short and medium length fiction one a semi regular basis. Some of them are okay, and deserve more attention

- Then: (active)

- Now: I haven't written any fiction in a long time, but I have written lots of other things, like https://communitymedia.network

- DIY Computer Games, From Zork to ZZT: (Working Title) This is a series of essays I have been working on for several months, cataloging the history of DIY/Self released computer games. It's not meant to be a definitive work, but rather a catalog of the big movements in homemade games, and self distributed games from ~1977 - ~1997.

Then: (Active)

Now: I haven't worked on this particular project in a while, but I have a *bunch* of unreleased essays on this topic, and notes and half finished bits and baubles.

Before I got around to releasing it, the Shareware book came out, and it covers a slightly different topic than I was, but it also covers a lot of the same ground.

I had too big a scope on this one, and I should revisit it with a smaller scope.

- Retro Social: A mastodon instance, with a strong retro theme. Instance has been set up, currently skinning the UI

Then: (active, finished soon)
Now: active, in active use.

- Unnamed literary magazine/podcast (I discussed this above)

- Analog Revolution Mixtapes: I make mixtapes, and release them on mixcloud. I've done two so far, I have another recorded, and notes on a few more. I'll probably make these a regular part of my life moving forwards. Then: (Active)
Now: Replaced with https://mountaintown.fm

Blog:

Then: Active
Now: less active, but not dead. https://ajroach42.com

- Modern Vintage Film: Remixes of classic movies in the style of Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, new scores for silent films, etc. Released a couple of re-scored silent films, and got

Then: (suspended, folded in to DIYMedia.cc)

Now: Well, I didn't talk about DIYMedia.cc because I'm not sure what to say about it. It's not what I wanted it to be, but I haven't given up on it.

In the meantime, the spirit of MVF lives on in New Ellijay Television, although much altered.

- Games: I have ideas for computer games! Pico-8 games! Twine Games! Doom Mods! Beats of Rage sprite sets! Levels for various platform creation engines! an Ambitious project involved some RPG engine or similar that I planned more than 10 years ago! Other stuff.

Then: (suspended//dead, because seriously.)

Now: I haven't worked on a video game with any seriousness in ages, because I don't enjoy it.

I like playing games, designing games, planning games, but coding for games is not something I enjoy. It took me a long time to realize this, but I'm okay with it.

- Character Sheet Resume Builder: This is an idea I've tossed around for years. Basically, you feed it your work history (or link up with a linkedin account), and rate your skill level in each skill you have, on a scale from 1 to 20 (where 20 is "I'm a god"), you present your accomplishments and achievements within previous roles (or the non-work-related stuff you've done) in terms of the XP points they gave you towards your various skills.

It generates a "Professional" resume with all of this information, and also an RPG character sheet resume with the same info. With graphs, and charts, skills, and an inventory of software, or a spell book, and things like that.

Then: (considered)
Now: I never put any work in to this. I stopped job hunting, life goes on.

- Tiny Monster Handheld (totally not a pokedex or a digivice): Use a Raspberry Pi 0W or an ESP8266 wifi development board. Hook it up to a 90s Nokia brick phone screen. Write some basic code to govern behavior, draw some sprites, make a simple Training game, make a wifi battle game, maybe do some Augmented Reality stuff. Basically P O X for the modern age.

Then: (Considered/Suspended)

Now: I never built this, but I actually did prototype it out. Used an ESP8266. Got it working with the old Nokia brick phone screen. Coded up a basic battle system. It was cute, but Pokemon Go already existed, so there was no need for it, and I was solving the problem at the wrong level.

- Regular Book Publishing: Many great books are in the public domain. Some of the great books in the public domain are virtually unknown today, aside from the fact that they are in the public domain. I'd love to commission new illustrations, and print new editions of some of the best forgotten Scifi/Fantasy/Adventure novels.

Then: (considered)
Now: We have printed and bound dozens of books in the years since, and I've also had some professionally printed and bound to great effect.

I spend more time making zines than books, but we're always printing something.

I broke the thread

https://retro.social/@ajroach42/111038362367730019

- DVDs and BluRays: For a while, I made DVDs of public domain films or TV shows, two movies per disc. Occasionally, I'd include some special features, like vintage commercials or audio to classic radio programs. This was fun! and it was a way for me to practice various design skills. I would love to do more of this, but I never really found an audience for it, so I only really consider this stuff around Christmas, as gifts for family.

Then: (suspended/retired/active but mostly as gifts for family?)

Now: I have full on disc printing and duplicating facilities and I can do hundreds at a pass.

I got it for doing CDs, but we've done some DVDs too.

I want to do more of this, bu I don't know what the market is, or for whom I would make them.

- T-Shirts: I design and sell t-shirts through my website.

I use movie posters, art, and comic books that are in the public domain. Occasionally, I use my own illustrations or photographs as well. I'm pretty active with this, still, but I haven't given the website the love it deserves, and it's starting to show it's age in a bad way.

- Then: (Active)
- Now: you can find most of our current shirts at https://ellijaymakerspace.org

We make a lot of shirts, and have fun with it. They're made by hand, and I don't have to depend on a flaky third party.

- Cassettes By Mail: For two years, I did a monthly Mixtape service. It was $8 per month, I had ~10 subscribers (one month I shipped 3 tapes, one month I shipped 30. Most months, I shipped around 10.)

I would curate a collection of local/independent music, usually a collection of 45 minutes from 2 artists (one on each side) and put together custom packaging for it all. I dubbed the tapes on pro-grade equipment, with nice labels, and high quality double sided J-Cards.

It cost me about $2.50/tape. I took $1.50 for myself. The remaining $3.00 was split between the two artists (at $1.50/tape each.) We were never going to change the music industry, but it was cool. (This was in 2013-2014) I've considering bringing this back with the option for CDs or digital delivery, because I like helping musicians make money.

then: dormant
now: Active, Cassette, CD and digital download. Production costs have gone up a bit, and we pay our artists a little more.

Learn more at https://cassettesfor.me

- Maker Space: I used to run a kind of Maker Space out of the Record Store. I'd love to open up a real Maker Space in the Tyson's Corner area in the Washington DC metro. Who's interested in helping

then: (considered)
now: https://ellijaymakerspace.org

7,000 sqft of maker goodness, mostly focused on media production, in the north GA mountains.

- Freelancing: I used to freelance as a web designer and developer. I was pretty good at it, and I made a fair amount of extra money doing it. Extra money is nice. I'm toying with doing this again.

- then: I never did
- now: I have more or less committed to building a thing for myself that I will then try to sell to other people.

- Robots: I have been on a robot kick recently. I want to build robots. Maybe ESP8266 or Arduino based.
Then: (Considered)
Later then: I built a bunch of robots! None of them were special or impressive, but it was fun.
Now: I'm considering a roboSumo league, but I don't think having kids around the makerspace is a good idea, and I haven't been able to talk adults in to doing robo sumo.

That's the end of my list from 2017.

The list from 2023 has even more, though.

Before I dig in to thee 2023 list, I want to take a moment to reflect on this list so far.

A lot of these things are things that I've done on and off for 10 years or so.

Some of them are younger than that, but a lot of the things I was working on in 2017 are things that I'm still working on, and many of the things that I stopped doing sometime after making that list are things that I'm still planning to do, or that I still think about doing.

When contrasted against all the other things that I (and my team) have accomplished in the time since, and all the other things that we've back burner'd or abandoned, it really does start to look like we've got a pretty good win ratio.

Anyway, I wanted to take this moment to say:

Don't let folks discourage you from continuing to work on something because you haven't finished it, or from starting something new because you didn't finish an old thing.

Keep track of the things that you've worked on or are working on, revisit them sometimes. Often, you'll find that things you were not able to finish at 25 you're more than capable of finishing at 30 (or insert ages here as appropriate.)

Trying a thing, and realizing it doesn't work, isn't a sin.

Working on a thing for a while, and never finishing it? Also not a sin.

Working on 5 things at once, and only occasionally making visible progress? It's fine.

If folks tell you that you're spread too thin or doing too much or whatever, they're probably wrong.

They don't know you.

If you tell them you're spread too thin, that's another story! Listen to yourself, trust yourself, be kind to yourself, and block everyone who tries to discourage you.

Alright, so on to today.

Current/ongoing projects:

- Analog Revolution Magazine (as mentioned above) has an issue due out this month
- Analog Revolution Records (as mentioned above) has a record due out next month that I'm very excited about, and we just released a tape and CD that I'm also pretty excited about, and you can find both at https://analogrevolution.bandcamp.com

- New Ellijay Television: https://newellijay.tv

This is a live streaming television network and video on demand platform run by independent artists in the north georgia mountains.

We have a roku channel (that works again!) and lots of public domain and original programming.

We also produce a weekly news program, which is one of my favorite things, and releases on fridays.

- Television and Film Archival

As part of the Ellijay Makerspace (mentioned above) we digitize 8mm and 16mm film, mostly from episodes of forgotten TV shows from the 40s and 50s, occasionally also public domain films.

We also digitize VHS, Betamax, DV, miniDV, HDV, MiniHDV, High-8, Video8, Digital8, VHS-C, and a bunch of other video formats, plus various audio formats on the consumer, pro, and semi-pro spectrum.

Most of these things make it up to New Ellijay Television and the Internet archive eventually.

- Mountain Town Toys

Our little Action Figure and Playset making operating has turned in to a big toy store https://mountaintowntoys.com

We're currently working on a whole new line of original, hand sculpted action figures and playsets. We also recreate some vintage toys, and we've started working on vintage style papercrafts.

- Podcasts

https://intergalactic.computer
https://expeditionsasquatch.org

They both release infrequently/when the episode is done, and not before, but they both exist and are in progress.

Plus, we've got the weekly news show, and a bunch of other video stuff happening too.

- Mountain Town Antiques

https://mountaintownantiques.com

I worked in antiques and records from 2008 - 2015. Now I run a 14,000 sqft antique store in the north GA mountains.

We sell toys and records over there, but we also provide space for artists to sell the things they make, and we sell real antiques. It's a lot of fun, and it's in this big 100 year old building which I really appreciate.

- Ellijay Coffeehouse

My wife and I operate a coffee shop. It's a hub for our local community, and hosts concerts and game nights and sells books and is just generally a thing that makes me happy.

- Mountain Town Coffee Roasting

https://gamountaincoffee.com

Can't have a coffee shop without roasting your own beans, right?

Well, actually yeah. You can. But we decided to roast our own beans.

We get them from all over the world, but lately, we've been specializing in west Africa and India. We roast a bunch of different ways, we make a bunch of different blends and single origin roasts and just generally love and respect coffee and coffee makers.

We even do a coffee zine (cryptids and coffee) which you can find on our website.

I mentioned Mountain Town Radio above, but we run a radio station. https://mountaintown.fm