Get your copy of Imposter Syndrome

It’s a good day to find your value, and throw off those labels. We are not just experts at something, we have a unique set of problem solving skills. Other people see them in our work, it’s time we see them ourselves.

Imposter Syndrome is a self help book aimed at IT professionals to throw off the burden of labels and fear, and to get confidence back into what we bring to our teams. To help identify what kind of challenges ignite your brain. To see how others see you as a force to solve problems.

So grab a copy, and try the game in the last chapter. It is a wonderful group activity for work, church, or even at family gatherings. Be your strengths and stop being an imposter.

Imposter Syndrome is out today on Smash Words, Barnes & Noble, and on all major ebook retailers. Get your copy today.

New Book – Preorder Now

Releasing on May 27th is my new self help book, Imposter Syndrome. A guide to help navigate the feelings of not being good enough in the tech industry, and rejecting societal pressures to go through life being a diagnosis.

Through my time as a software engineer, the one thing I’ve held true is that helping others improve is the best use of my time. I grew that idea into learning about the “super powers” of my teammates, and encouraging them.

There’s this secret identity that people hide in their professional life that is driven by their passions. It comes out when the work gets close to one of their skills, and you can see them light up.

One way to get the best end result is to find a way to keep people lighting up around their interests. It’s a lot like project managers removing road blocks, and simply getting things out of their way. Maybe it’s better to think of it like lining up dominos for them.

Imposter Syndrome explores the mindset and pressures of tech workers, and how to move past the labels that hold us back, and provides an interesting activity to try as a team building tool to identify these things.

Preorder Imposter Syndrome today!

Chumbalaca

Must be time to help pull some skeletons out of the closet of North American phrases. What does “chumbalaca” mean? There’s no consistent explanation on the internet, so let’s help those search engines a little.

If you’re reading this english blog about a misspelled Mexican nonsense word, it’s probably because you heard it on a baby shark video. It makes it confusing for audiences completely unfamiliar with the song it’s from, which is a day of the dead children’s song. It’s about skeletons and clocks.

The real phrase is “chumba la cachumba.” This misspelling may be why it’s hard to find meaning in the phrase. Think of “ashes ashes we all fall down” which was originally “a tisha a tasha”. Without the real words, it’s just a funny noise.

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Monster Portraits

There’s a hearty helping of monsters in the Akkadian Rhythms monster guide. Many were newly added from the playtest group, and were really fun to play. They also needed a home in the monster guide. It’s still under construction but I hope to get it out soon.

These portraits are some of the larger creatures.

So without further introduction, besides this little part where I just delay things more for some reason, here are the new pictures.

Encanto Even

Disney, and other animation studios, have been taking a world tour as of late. It has been a long term theme to stop basing Disney movies in renaissance Europe, but highlighting specific cultures has become more specific as time goes on. Which leads to the impossible to understand Encanto.

I’ll start all the way back with Moana, which was a smash together of Polynesian culture, and got criticism for changing young Maui into a stereotyped obese, adult islander. It created a positive start to the sub genre. Hearing the Rock sing was fun and novel and showed you that he has drive, he has power.

This continued, with another notable stop at Coco, which somehow shines despite being a diluted genre. Not the smallest achievement in the film is the artistic style of animating paper cutouts and creating a complex emotional finale for kids who actually morn the loss of the titular character.

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Superman meets Mad Magazine

Mad Magazine’s iconic mascot is Alfred E. Nueman. A mischievous looking face with great big ears and a toothy grin. He represents youth up to no good, and the voice of an uneducated everyman.

Most people recognize the character for Mad Magazine, which got its start from Entertainment Comics (EC), a part of what we know of now as DC Comics. What is virtually unknown is that he got his start in Action Comics.

Mad Magazine started using the character as a mascot in the 1950’s, but the Max Fleischer cartoons, a 1941 incarnation of superman, featured the face first.

*Louis* *from the 1941 Superman Cartoons*

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That TikTok Song That Sucks

What is that TikTok song that goes “oh no” in the chipmunk voice?

The internet didn’t have a quick answer to this yet, and I had to know! Most articles will begrudgingly talk about a vulgar and repetitive song made by Kreepa, which is claimed to be the origin of the horrible high speed version. That’s not the answer, and even that is generally buried within completely unrelated text about the dumb things people like to do on TikTok.

The real answer is that it’s a 1964 song from the Shangri-La’s (have to appreciate the pun) named Remember. It’s a decent 60’s Girl Group song with an unusual amount of variety as the tone changes often. The band is best known for their song Leader of the Pack, in case you are trying to place them in your memory.

As always, there’s more to the story. Kreepa is not the origin of the chipmunks mix. It’s actually rapper Capone with his song “Street’s Favorite.” This particular fact is easy to find, once you have the name of the original song, Remember. And if you go searching it up later and forget the name of the original song, well, you had that coming.

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Monsters

After grabbing a copy of the AD&D monster manual 1 and 2, it’s painfully obvious that the monsters of the Akkadian Realm need some monochrome sketches. Working on those. Here’s a sneak peak!