New Year's Resolution 2025 and Overseas Travel Recap

Well, I'm finally home from my overseas journey and happy that I am! I had a really fun and super interesting time in Indonesia and Taiwan, but as the old saying goes, "there's no place like home." But I have to say, getting off of the airplane from 80+ degree (that's 27C for everyone not in the US, lol) weather to 32 degree Seattle winter weather (that's 0 degrees C) was kind of a shock! All of our flights and connections went smoothly (other than an over 2 hour delay on our Lion Air flight from Bali Denpasar airport to Semarang on Central Java. I am unimpressed by Lion Air. It's terrible. Fortunately, that was a short flight).

I saw a lot of amazing sights (amazing to an old American guy, but commonplace to the people living in those places). Bali has a reputation (in the US, anyway) as an exotic, tropical, romantic vacation spot - made famous by the old movie and play "South Pacific," but to be honest, I wasn't that impressed. The hotel we stayed at was wonderful. The hotel grounds were beautiful, and the staff people at the hotel were some of the nicest and most helpful people I've ever had the pleasure to meet. But the famous Kuta beach on Bali was dirty, with garbage strewn everywhere, and lined with vendors of cheap tourist trinkets, beer, and other assorted junk. For me, having grown up in Oregon, with its beautiful, clean (but much colder!) beaches, I was so disappointed and disillusioned. The roads on Bali are bad, except around the airport, and to an American accustomed to (relatively) sane driving, the traffic on Bali was...chaos, to be charitable. To be fair, I didn't get to see that much of Bali, but the reason is that, because of the traffic and bad roads, it takes next to forever to get anywhere. I'm sure there are beautiful beaches somewhere on Bali that live up to the reputation, but I didn't see them. Nevertheless, our hotel and the lovely people there more than made up for the traffic and dirty beach.

After being in Bali for a week, we went to Central Java (the city of Salatiga) to visit our friends that live there. The roads around Salatiga are much better than those of Bali, which was surprising to me, since Bali is such a tourist destination (especially for Australians), but then one of my friends explained that Bali grew so fast that the infrastructure development hasn't kept pace with the population and tourism growth - and that made a lot of sense, since in southern Bali in the Uluwatu area where we were staying, there was construction going on everywhere (including right next to our hotel; the sound of jackhammers from 9 in the morning until 6 in the evening every day wasn't super pleasant).

Our friends in Salatiga have a gorgeous home, and they let us stay in their guest bedroom, which was as nice as any 5-star hotel room. We traveled with them up to visit a couple of mountain villages (the roads there aren't quite so good). This was our second trip to Salatiga and up into the mountains around it. I wish I could convey what it is like. It is a strange mixture of extreme poverty and modernity. One family we visited that was relatively well-off (by the standard of the area) had several cows - living with them in their house! The family got a fair amount of income from the milk and meat from the cows and used that income to upgrade their house and to buy more cows. In another village we went to, a family we visited has a small rice mill, with machines to husk and polish the rice grains. The processed rice is loaded into 100+ pound (50 kilogram) bags, which this little village woman - no more than about 5'2" (maybe 158 cm) tall - lifted by herself and took down the mountain on her little motorbike. I tried to lift one of the bags, and I could barely get it off the ground, and I'm not a little guy (but I'm getting old, lol). That little Indonesian woman is amazingly strong! Even though they are poor, the people are super hospitable. They welcomed us into their homes and brought out their best food (which was mostly delicious) and best serving plates and utensils for us. We had a great time with our friends in Salatiga. I hope we can visit again someday, even though the long travel is getting more difficult for me (to get from my house to Salatiga takes well over 30 hours on airplanes, waiting in airports, and driving).

After our time in Salatiga, we spent a week in Taipei, Taiwan, and really enjoyed our time there. Taipei is a cool city, and in the area we stayed (just a few blocks from the main subway station) there are tons of funky little shops selling all manner of things. We were fortunate to have good weather every day we were in Taipei (except for one day of drizzle), so we walked a lot around the area of our hotel, shopping and taking pictures. We went (of course) to Taipei 101 (the huge tower at the center of the city). The view from the observation level is incredible. And of course, we went to the National Palace Museum, which houses thousands of priceless imperial treasures from the Forbidden City in Beijing (taken by the Nationalist government of China to Taipei in 1949 when they fled mainland China to Taiwan after the civil war with the CCP). We met some really pleasant people while we were in Taipei, and I hope I can go there again. We really enjoyed our time there.

Well, there's a lot more I could say about our long journey to Indonesia and Taiwan, but this article is really supposed to be about what other people wrote for WorldEmber. I'm looking forward to reading the creative things other people have written! As always, I'll used a random number generator to select the articles to read and give everyone that submitted articles a fair shot.

1) So, there are 23 categories for WorldEmber this year. The RNG says the first article I read will be in lucky category number 13, which is "Building." I didn't submit anything for this category, so I'm interested in what others have written. There are 93 entries, and the RNG says...article 12, "Grand Library of Sithaline" by Noah_Oowada. The Grand Library of Sithaline sounds like an interesting place, and I'd like to hear/read more about it. I haven't included really anything about libraries in Derkomai; though, there are a couple of references to some. This article gets me thinking that I should flesh our those bare beginnings of ideas. Libraries can be fascinating places for adventurers to visit for clues to solve mysteries or for leads to further adventures! At the end, the author says, "Will be edited over time. There's still a lot to be told about this place." I'd like to read more!

2) The RNG rolled up category 8 for the next article, which is "Prose." I submitted Two and Six and Seven for this category. I'm looking forward to reading what others have written. There are 57 entries, and article #53, "Cray Fishing" by Asmo is chosen. Well, a demon as one-half of a two person? team hunting crayfish is a concept I don't think I ever could have thought up! This is the kind a creativity you find on WA that is so awesome. Though short, this article is very well-written. It gets me into the demon's perspective. I think the story could be fleshed out with a little more background and detail to make it even more engaging. I'd like to know more about Necktsh.

3) The next article will be from category #5, "Technology." The article the RNG selects is #22, "Bloodsteel" by Grimbjorn. This is another creative article that feels kind of "old school D&D" to me. The concept of a metal ore that only "wants" to be made into weapons and enhances the power and speed of warriors - but only when they are attacking aggressively - is one that would fit into many old school campaigns, especially when that ore is hard to obtain and illegal. A bloodsteel weapon wielded by a blackguard seems perfect.

4) The 4th article comes from category 10, "Plot." I didn't submit anything for this category, and I'm not really sure what qualifies as a plot or how it differs exactly from Prose, so I'm looking forward to learning something from this. There are 47 entries, and the RNG rolled up #15, which is "Ch.2 | Shimizu Incident" by SheWolfSymphony. This is an outline (plot) of a chapter for a Yakuza (Japanese organized crime gang) themed story involving a war between rival Yakuza gangs, with two of the main characters infiltrating a warehouse where a gang is storing up explosives for the upcoming war, leading to a shootout between the principle characters and members of the rival gang. I really enjoyed reading it, both because the plot sounds pretty cool and exciting, and because I learned a lot about how to flesh out a plot. When I write longer stories, I typically have some ideas in my head about how I want it to go, and then I just launch in and see where it takes me. A plot outline like presented here might help me be more focused, which could be helpful (though I suspect I'd end up going "off script" quite a bit as I have new ideas as I write).

5) Once again, the RNG came up with #8, the Prose category, so I'll read another article. Out of the 57 entries, the RNG says! #37, "Brain Weasel" by Nathalia Books. The title is a little confusing, since the story is a retelling of the classic tale "Hansel and Gretel," but I suspect it has something to do with the unexpected and strange behavior of Sir Jules, a king's guard captain and someone that Gretel thought a reliable friend. The article presents only a part of the larger story, which is continued in Nathalie Books' book called "Spinning Shadows." I wanted to read more, but unfortunately, it seems to be open only to subscribers or something, as when I tried to access it, I was unable to. The story was an interesting take on the classic tale, but the article (in my opinion) could use a bit of editing and formatting work. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable read.

6) This time, the RNG spat out category #12, which is "Natural Law." I didn't submit anything for this category, so it will be interesting to see how creative people have been. There are 81 entries, and the trusty RNG pulled #71 out of its virtual hat. That article is "Magic" by BuWeiLong. This is a really long article (over 30K words!) going over the history and manifestations of magic in the world. It includes a lot of material from superhero movies and other sources. Frankly, it was just too long for me to read all of it, but the level of detail put into it is pretty impressive.

7) For next article, the RNG returned category 21, "Military Conflict." There are 56 entries in this category, and I will read article #30, which is "Kraken's Rampage" by RogerPellicano. This article tells of the origins of Kraken sea monsters. They are the result of a dark ritual performed by merfolk deep in an ocean rift that opened a breach in reality that allowed Kraken, a sea god, into the world. After battling a kingdom of merfolk and a race of sea giants, Kraken was defeated, but his remains polluted the ocean and spawned the Kraken sea monsters to plague the world's oceans. I liked the concept of a supernatural origin for the sea monsters.

8) The 8th article I will read comes from category 11, "Organization." For this category, I submitted Danhabn Shipwrights' Guild. It will be interesting to see what another Anvilite has written. There are a lot of entries for this category - 150, to be exact. The RNG selects article #138, which is "The Magica Inquitarium" by Knightly_Gamez. The Magica Inquitarium is an organization that ensures that magic is used properly and lawfully and investigates violations of magic laws. The article is quite detailed and goes over the structure, public agenda, core beliefs, and assets of the organization, but it lacks a description or summary, which I think would be helpful in understanding why the organization was created, who gives it authority over magic, etc.

9) The penultimate article I will read comes from category 6, "Species." This is another category I didn't submit an article for. This category also has a lot of entries - in total, 169. I will real article #83, which is 'The Nullborn" by Dallatron. The Nullborn are a mysterious, powerfully magical race living in the spaces where the barriers between reality and the "Inbetween" are weakened. The Nullborn hear "Stygian's song." They are tall and have black skin and green, cat-like eyes, but are physically frail. Rather than a mouth and nose, they have a cluster of tentacles (the description reminds me somewhat of D&D mind flayers) that they use to communicate. Though the article is short and doesn't go into a lot of detail, I like the concept. I think it could be developed further into a really interesting idea for a D&D monster (and I might shamelessly borrow from it for an evil species inhabiting the Unknown Depths under Isolabirre).

10) And finally, the last article I will read - per the cast of the RNG - come from the last category (#23), which is "Character." For this category, I submitted an article about Margrethe Thøgersen, the head of the Danhabn Shipwrights' Guild . Let's read about a character another Anvilite has created. From the 215 entries, the RNG pseudo-randomly selects #182, which is "Bryce" by Lady Wynter. I've read articles by Lady Wynter before, and enjoyed them, so I expect this will be a good one. Bryce is a "Master Defender" and has telepathic and "translocation" powers; albeit, apparently unusual ones. He does not know his parents or siblings, as he was taken from them as soon as he manifested his abilities when he was very young. He was raised in the Palace of Merkan by his grandmother and Lann (a character that is not described). He is now married to Seanna, who is queen of the Kingdom of Merkan. The Sielah Universe that this article is part of appears to be relatively new and/or not fully developed yet. Many of the links from the Bryce article are still stubs, so I hope Lady Wynter will continue to develop more!

Well, that's it for this year's New Year's Resolution. Year after year, the WA community surprises and impresses with its creativity. I hope others will enjoy my feeble attempts as much as I have enjoyed what others have written! Let's all look forward to another year of incredible worldbuilding.