A lot is going on at the moment, so let’s get right to it!
To summarise: NaNoWriMo, old Gen updates, new Gens, and lots and lots of Trees!
NaNoWriMo
Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo! For those of you that don’t know, that’s National Novel Writing Month. You can find out more and join in here; it’s not too late to sign up. For those of you taking part, do your best, and may RanGen’s Gens serve you well!
I’m too busy to officially take part this year, but I will do an alternate version and try and get some significant progress done for the Plot Generator this month in place of writing 50,000 words. If all goes well, I might be able to release an alpha or even beta version of it. We’ll see how that goes!
Old Gens
Speaking of Gens, as I mentioned before, I’ve been working on getting through a backlog of tasks relating to many of the existing Gens whose construction was on hold. I’ve been working hard to get them all to the “Complete” state; that is, filling in any sections that were missing so that I can then focus on updating them and adding new content in future.
It took a while, but I’ve managed to get quite a few stragglers to the Complete state, and now, I’m relieved and pleased to have brought the last two in line. Finally, the Plot Device Generator and Murphy’s Law Generator are no longer unfinished!
Aside from filling out the missing genres, both Gens got an update, especially the latter. Now, Murphy’s Gen will be a lot more useful under more circumstances, so much so that it’s evolved to be an even stronger sibling of the (future) Plot Generator than before. As such, I hope that it will be more useful to you all while I continue to work on rebuilding said Plot Generator.
New Gens
Aside from working on the old Gens, I’ve been focusing on updating several of the others, whether that’s by adding more content, or adding new features or adjusting the layouts.
Recently I’ve started working on new Gens, some which I started ages ago but had to put on the backburner, while others that were either on my to-do list or were suggested by users. While I normally keep my current projects a secret, I’ll let slip that one of the Gens currently in the works is the Country Gen, sibling to the existing Continent Gen. Not sure what the release schedule is for that yet, but it’s on the way.
Another Gen that I’ve wanted to make is a Plant Generator. It’s been on the to-do list for a long time, and I was recently encouraged to get a start on it when a user asked if I planned to do one. So, I got to work on the Gen, starting it off with a detailed tree description. Then, one evening, while browsing my YouTube subscriptions, all of a sudden, 6 of my channels posted videos all at once, each one about trees, and each one tagged with #TeamTrees. Curious, I clicked on one of the videos, and after learning what it’s all about, I thought: a) I’m all about that! And b) what a coincidence!
#TeamTrees
If you haven’t heard by now, #TeamTrees is a global effort to raise money to plant 20 million trees by January 1st 2020. Started by YouTuber Mr Beast looking for a way to commemorate reaching 20 million subscribers, someone suggested he plant a tree for each subscriber. With the help of Mark Rober and an increasing crew of YouTubers and influencers, #TeamTrees was born.
While anyone who can physically plant a tree themselves would be helping the cause, for everyone else, there is another way. By donating $1 via the Team Trees site to the Arbor Day Foundation, a well-established organisation that plants trees all over the world, you can pay for one tree for them to plant on your behalf. $1 = 1 tree. $10 = 10 trees. Simple! To learn more about the effort, or to make a donation yourself, check out www.teamtrees.org.
And if you’re not able to donate yourself, no worries; just spread the word! We’re already at over $11 million trees now, so if it continues at this rate, we’ll reach $20 million and beyond in no time.
Meanwhile, I’ve always wanted to plant at least one fruit tree (apple ftw), and though a series of hurdles have prevented this so far, it’s still on my to-do list. One of these days! In the spirit of #TeamTrees, I stepped up production of this new Gen, and am happy to announce its release. Today, you can use the Plant Generator to produce detailed realistic descriptions of trees, including fruit trees. Soon, I hope to be able to add grasses, shrubs, flowers and a whole range of other plants to finish the Gen. It’s still under construction right now, so keep an eye on its progress as I add more to it soon.
Misc
In the meantime, I’m in a bit of a transitional phase. Finally clearing away that old pile of tasks allows me to look forward more clearly now. Soon I’ll be able to sit down and figure out what Gens I want/need to make, and work on them faster and more frequently.
Before that, I will be focusing mainly on some spring cleaning around the site and see if I can get things to run smoother. That and I need to do some work on the ad presence on the site.
For those of you who are not using an ad blocker or have whitelisted the site (thanks!) you may have noticed an increase in ads recently, as well as one or two that, for no reason whatsoever, think it’s a great idea to jut out over the content, obscuring part of it. I, like everyone else I’m sure, hate intrusive ads, so I want to get them under control. RanGen needs ads to support it, but annoying users with a writhing collage of images ain’t doin’ no favours! Please bear with me while I try to improve the balance.
Once again, thank you all so much for your continued patience and support!
And a big thank you to RanGen’s Patrons:
Duncan, Ellie, Lokomotives, Sander, Stuart and Terence!
Your continued support helps immeasurably and keeps RanGen going. Thank you!
