May 2026 Update
by Bobby Smith - Written on June 24, 2026
Happy June everyone.
I hope you have had a wonderful start to the summer, I know I have. Its been a busy month both personally and professionally, and I can't ask for more. Lots of projects, lots of media, and lots of adventures. Now lets get into the details.
Website Thoughts and Updates
For the website, not much to say as of now, besides, I'm planning some things. I don't have much to show for it this month, but continue reading. I have a lot more following this.
Blog Posts of the Month
Two posts this month. Firstly, one about a cool personal assistant program that you can learn about in the post or by reading later on in this very post. Secondly, the April 2026 update. A smaller one, but glad to have done it.
Blog Posts From April
- May 19 - Pulse - Building a Personal Assistant, One Module at a Time
- May 31 - April 2026 Update
Current Projects
Quite a few projects this month. More than I realized, but they were all a blast and poked into many different areas. I find it necessary to work on a diverse set of projects, otherwise it gets a bit too stale.
Playground - Godot Sandbox
Playground - Godot Sandbox
One of my major goals for this year is the idea of reusable code. Modular code that can be easily modified and moved from project to project to fill a need. And I always get the hankering to create small objects or mechanics that don't really fit into any of the larger projects I'm working on. So that is what "Playground" has become.
Playground is a playground for small modular components, objects, etc that I want to play with, but don't have anywhere else to go. And this month has been a fun one with it. Starting out I wanted some player controllers to allow for easy iteration and control of whatever I want to create. And FP(First Person) and TP(Third Person) Controllers were created. I'm also playing through God of War 2016, and that introduced me to the retrievable throwing axe. And so I created a throwing TP controller. This allows you to throw a ball, then retrieve it. I also toyed around with importing various assets I've had, but never imported into Godot. First was a vending machine. Its been a fun project and I look forward to adding more to it.
Small Combat - Godot Hex Wargame
This month was a quiet one when it came to Small Combat. I implemented a simple combat results popup when two units fight, which is more useful than pretty. I might be taking a break from this while I toy around with other projects.
Take That Hill - Godot Interpretation of the "Take That Hill" Wargame
Take That Hill - Godot Wargame
This month, I got inspired by a ruleset I found called "Take That Hill". Take That Hill is a basic, yet versatile, wargame that revolves around teaching the player the basics of modern offensive combat. So I became determined to try to translate, even if just the first level of rules, into a video game that can be easily picked up and played.
You can find Take That Hill on the Fight Club International's site here. Funnily enough, after I had started on the project they have an official adaptation listed on steam for later this year. That is found here. So that limits the ability for me to share my version, but it is a fun exercise none-the-less.
This month was extracting assets, basic designs, unit, player, location objects, and general game flow.
Pulse - Python Personal Assistant Program
Pulse - Python Personal Assistant
This month I started on a project that has been a massive game changer for me on a personal productivity level. I've always wanted an RSS Reader/Personal Assistant app that I can create modules for and have it sit on my desktop so I can quickly access whatever I want. I also wanted to experiment more with AI agent assisted programming and this felt like the perfect project for this. Pulse is the culmination of these two needs. And its been a great one.
You can read more about it in the blog post found here.
The color difference is because of a new "Theme" functionality I've added to it.
Solo RPG System - Godot Solo RPG Sandbox Program
Solo RPG System - Godot Solo RPG Sandbox
Following on my AI assisted success with Pulse, I started work on a Solo RPG System project. This project is using Godot to create a virtual tabletop specialized for quick editing and creation for the solo offline player. So many of them are either clunky, fully online, and/or very complex. I wanted one that allowed me to quickly create maps and tokens and get playing really quickly.
It uses a folder based campaign system where each campaign folder contains everything about the campaign. This folder holds everything from the logs, tile types, maps, images, etc. I wanted it to be easily portable and allow for easy understanding of where everything was stored. It has a hex/tile based system that allows you to draw and modify maps easily to what you need. It also has a built in dice roller, measuring tool, and the basis for a journaling system. You can also spawn in tokens that can be objects or characters depending upon what you need of them. It has been a fast moving fun project that I know I'll be plugging away at off and on as I need things.
What I've Been Reading
"Darths & Droids #1 - The Phantasmal Malevolence" by The Comic Irregulars
Started April 26
Darths & Droids #1 - The Phantasmal Malevolence
by The Comic Irregulars
From the end of last month through this one I've been reading through the Star Wars parody comic "Darths & Droids". A webcomic that sees Star Wars transformed into an all too familiar tabletop roleplaying game similar to the famous Dungeons and Dragons. Where you both get to experience both characters as they play both their internal characters and see their real personalities and backstories bleed through with their out of character dialogue. Darths & Droids has been going since 2011 and is still going strong. It is seeing its way through all official movies and heavily using movie screenshots to tell a story both familiar to fans, but changed to fit a much more comedic tone. And an even better part of this is following each comic a paragraph or two of metacommentary on the comic helps give insight into the comic or ttrpgs in general. I can heavily recommend it so far. Check it out at darthsanddroids.net.
"To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery" by Lindsey Nyx Walker, Neil deGrasse Tyson
Started March 23 - Finished May 3
To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery
by Lindsey Nyx Walker, Neil deGrasse Tyson
As you probably know, over the past few months I've been plugging my way through Neil deGrasse Tyson and Lindsey Nyx Walker's work "To Infinity and Beyond: A Journey of Cosmic Discovery". Overall it is a great book that gives you a rather rough exploration of space starting from earth and our history and moving outward through the solar system and space. I have finished it as of May 3 and can now say definitively I highly recommend it for those looking at a high level jaunt through space.
"Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years, Vol. 2" by Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, Jo Duffy
Started May 4 - Finished May 12
Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years, Vol. 2
by Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, Jo Duffy
Continuing on through the Star Wars Old Canon Book Club's list of books we have reached "Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Original Marvel Years, Vol. 2" by Michael Golden, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, and Jo Duffy. Mistakenly when reading through the "Vol. 1" of this collection, I read through an older version of the collection that contained about 2/3 of the content in the more modern "Vol. 2" that they are reading now. So that made my job a bit easier. Starting with a good head start I rapidly moved through the rest of the comics, in their varying quality. Some where great, often they were good, many where okay, and a few were even worse. But, it was a fun experience to see what they thought Star Wars was in the 80s and what they thought it might become. I can recommend the Star Wars Old Canon Book Club and all of the Star Wars old canon for those interested in a bit of Star Wars history.
"Han Solo and the Lost Legacy" by Brian Daley
Started May 13 - Finished May 31
Han Solo and the Lost Legacy
by Brian Daley
"Han Solo and the Lost Legacy" by Brian Daley. The last in the Brian Daley Han Solo trilogy. Each one is the trilogy was a fun jaunt into the retro sci-fi world of early-mid 80s Star Wars. I enjoyed Han Solo and the Lost Legacy. It follows the structure of the others in being a squash buckling romp through a sector of Star Wars that will probably never be touched by anything of note in any other Star Wars work to follow. You follow Han Solo as he and a motley crew come together to search for a space pirate warlord's treasure that has been lost for thousands of years. And it has all of the twists and turns that you expect from a book of its type. And is a very fast read. I can recommend the whole trilogy.
Magazines
- Lucasfilm Fan Club #2 - Read May 4
- Lucasfilm Fan Club #3 - Read May 4
What I've Been Playing
I've been working my way through God of War and R.U.S.E. Both are very fun, but RUSE has been really grabbing my attention. Its a larger-scale, WW2 real time strategy game that is looking to try to fill the gap between operational and tactical. Its been a blast. I'm on the path to finish it in June and looking forward to seeing where it goes.
Towards the end of the month I grabbed a Nintendo Switch 2 and Donkey Kong: Bananza. And that has been a cool experience. I'm looking forward to exploring more Nintendo products to come on the Switch 2.
The hour total was 20.8 hours in total.
- God of War - 5 hours
- R.U.S.E. - 14.8 hours
- Donkey Kong: Bananza - 1 hour
Life
This has been a long post so far, so I'll wrap this up with a short breakdown of the highlights that have happened this month.
May 9 - Friend's Housewarming
An old friend of mine moved back into the area and was having a housewarming. I was glad to see them, and their family, and know they are in the area again. They did a lot of work on their new house and it looks wonderful!
May 23-26 - Ventura, CA Trip
Went to Ventura, CA to see my partner's friends and see the sights. First time there and first time meeting some of them. It was a blast! And I value my partner bringing me along to see the sights and spend time with everyone.
Looking Ahead to June
June has come and almost gone by the time this is up, But, I'll say I've wrapped up a project, got a new one started, and trying a few things. Have a great month, and see you in the next.