Jamais Jochim
Bio
I'm the guy who knows every last fact about Spider-man and if I don't I'll track it down. I love bad movies, enjoy table-top gaming, and probably would drive you crazy if you weren't ready for it.
Stories (296)
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Dealing With Outsiders After Civilization Falls
A common topic of discussion among preppers is what to do when people come calling. There you are, minding your own business, and suddenly you need to deal with some sort of visitor. You have just enough to support yourself, unless you’ve been lucky, and now you need to debate what to do with them,. Usually, you can break them down into five types and each one has its own issues that come with it. These types are marauders, allies, freeloaders, temps, and recruits. How you deal with each is up to you, but here are some suggestions.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Lifehack
Convention Checklist
Conventions are hard. They require a lot of prep, are highly stressful, and are not for the weak. During the convention, you’re going to meet all types and you’re going to have to find a way to deal with them; you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with them on your own. However, preparing for the convention is easy: It’s just a matter of getting organized and staying that way. Fortunately, it’s not that hard to get organized.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Art
The Mechanics of Creating Logos
Every company should have its own logo. The logo becomes a shorthand for the company, allowing the company to better develop a marketing plan. This is because people tend to think visually; if they have a picture associated with the company they can better relate to it. This makes branding extremely important, especially in situations where the logo appears next to others; it needs to stand out so that it can effectively market the brand.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Lifehack
Improvised Weapons
You're not always going to have access to weapons when you need them. Sometimes you'll leave your gear at home or be caught in a situation that wasn't as peaceful as you thought it was. This means that you need to need to find a weapon if possible as quickly as possible. However, it's likely that there are no weapons and you will need to improvise something. Fortunately, most environments have some sort of way for you to defend yourself if you just look closely enough.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Lifehack
Worst Advice for Self-Publishers
For some people, this is going to be an eye-opening experience as they find out that the cherished advice that they've been giving out like water to everyone is either bad or totally worthless; a lot of advice is great until it's put into practice. The problem is that bad advice backed by a lot of confidence can cause a lot of problems, especially if the advice is based more on ignorance than actual experience. With that in mind, here is some common "advice" that you would do well to ignore.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Roughhousing to Effect
Self-defense is all about responding without hesitation to solve a specific problem. Anything that introduces a hesitation into the system is likely to cause that chain to slow down and even collapse; in a fight, this means that acting with hesitation can cause you to lose, possibly suffering injury as a result. One of those things that women are socialized into is that they should not confront others physically, and in fact any form of roughhousing is "unacceptable." This creates a potential liability in a fight.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Lifehack
Self-Publication for Dummies
For too many authors the steps of self-publication are a mystery. While there are plenty of books on the subject, most are unsure of where to begin. This is actually easy: Finish the bleeding manuscript first. While there are some exceptions to this, it helps to have a finished manuscript in hand before you even think about publishing. However, once you have a manuscript in hand, you can now debate publishing it. Whether you choose to pay a group of freelancers, use a hybrid publisher, or (Heaven forbid!) do it all yourself (or some combination of the above), the steps are pretty much the same.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
The Convention and Your Business
The standard convention is a great place for businessmen of all stripes to meet and discuss all aspects of the related business. While this makes them the ideal place for businessmen to network, a lot of people have no real idea how to do so; most of them are more interested in the business itself than the social aspects of it. This means that while they can run the business well, they may not always be taking full advantage of opportunities that fall their way. This applies especially when it comes to social situations such as conventions where they are more interested in selling their product and attending the panels and workshops than they are shaking hands.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Runnning A Money-Making Booth
Writers hate dealing with people. This is probably why they don't do so well when it comes to business matters: Business involves dealing with people up close and personal. Going to conventions only focuses on that issue as it requires the writer to deal with lots of people over the space of hours for a day or two. The biggest problem most authors have is that they lack confidence when it comes to dealing with people; however, with a little prep, it's easy to build some confidence, making convention survival that much easier.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
Marketing For Writers 101
For a lot of writers, marketing is one of those things that everyone hates. We tend to be an introverted lot, and marketing is just something that needs an extroverted mentality. We're good at tasks that require an individual to do things on their own, like researching, world-building, and even writing; we like going down some weird rabbit holes. Introspection and projecting what we find is our bread and butter, but sometimes we need to poke our heads out of the hole and interact with others.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Writers
So Your Players Want to Run A Tavern
At some point, your players are going to want to run a tavern. This is inevitable. They may be inspired by Dragonlance, possibly their favorite detective novel, but somewhere along the line they're going to want to try their hand at running a bar. It looks simple, it's a great way to find adventure, and it ensures that you have all of the ale you can drink; all told, this is not a bad way to spend some downtime. However, this does not mean the referee cannot use the tavern against them.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Gamers
The DMPC Can Be Your Best Friend
In most campaigns, the DMPC is looked down on. The basic concept Is that the referee runs a party character; that is, a character who is fully integrated into the party and is just one of the PCs. Usually, this is a problem because the DMPC has access to information that the other PCs don't and takes advantage of that information, gets all of the best loot, and generally gets favored treatment. This makes the character a problem for the campaign, especially as he tends to tread on the toes of the PCs.
By Jamais Jochimabout a year ago in Gamers
