{"id":47272,"date":"2026-11-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=47272"},"modified":"2026-11-06T10:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T17:58:50","slug":"whats-in-my-now-bill-mize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/whats-in-my-now-bill-mize\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s in my NOW? \u2014 Bill Mize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>I\u2019m an award winning fiction writer, award nominated podcaster, a former Fortune 500 consultant, Air Force Veteran and tabletop gamer. I spend my retirement in a small town in Kentucky, trying to figure out what to do with all this free time. You can see all this random creativity in action at my website, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/8491c7b9-385a-4795-aeb4-15ba34229ee4?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhmZzB6In0.4ieSFe4rvvESx3-YSOApdZUV-VKuM1Arc6QBuHWifaY\" target=\"_blank\">williammize.com<\/a>. I&#8217;m on most socials as \u201c@thatbillmize\u201d but hardly use them, or use them poorly. \u2014 Bill Mize<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47273\" width=\"590\" height=\"331\" title=\"A Confederacy of Dunces, Call of Cthulhu Classic boxed set, and Chessex Vortex Green gaming dice on a white background\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4><strong>PHYSICAL<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/2f3839d2-f1fa-495b-8de5-1b288c102c65?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhmZzB6In0.4ieSFe4rvvESx3-YSOApdZUV-VKuM1Arc6QBuHWifaY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">A Confederacy of Dunces<\/a>. <\/strong>A faded and dog-eared Black Cat edition of John Kennedy Toole&#8217;s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, &#8220;A Confederacy of Dunces&#8221;. Why? It got me a wife. We met on <a href=\"http:\/\/match.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">match.com<\/a> almost two decades ago, and in her first email to me, she mentioned the watch I was wearing in my photo had &#8220;theology and geometry&#8221;, and I nearly fell out of my seat. I wrote back immediately and accused her of using a phrase from one of my favorite novels. She doubled down and told me it was one of hers as well. We&#8217;ve been together 16 years this October, thanks to Ignatius J. Reilly.<\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/5691e550-8ce3-4f74-b2e2-2c1a812c3d65?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhmZzB6In0.4ieSFe4rvvESx3-YSOApdZUV-VKuM1Arc6QBuHWifaY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Call of Cthulhu<\/a>. <\/strong>The 1981 edition of Chaosium&#8217;s role playing game, &#8220;The Call of Cthulhu&#8221;. It was the first tabletop game that I purchased. Everyone else was into Dungeons and Dragons, but I wanted to play regular humans, forming a team and fighting the good fight against cosmic, eldritch Lovecraftian evil. My original boxed set got lost during my many moves while serving in the Air Force, but this reproduction scratches that nostalgic itch of many, many hours with good friends at The Fandom Zone comic book store in Tampa, Florida.<\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/1e764236-1757-4f8d-bddf-721f950e6812?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhmZzB6In0.4ieSFe4rvvESx3-YSOApdZUV-VKuM1Arc6QBuHWifaY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chessex Vortex Green gaming dice<\/a>. <\/strong>When one is taking on evil cultists bent on taking over the world, and the accompanying Elder Gods trying to destroy said world, you really need a good set of dice, and I am irrationally attracted to this one set. The green is so bright it almost glows, the black high contrast numbers for these 65 year old eyes! My favorite among the hundreds of dice I own.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h4><strong>DIGITAL<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/518cc9ac-6d8f-4cc5-aa69-b7357fcaafba?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhmZzB6In0.4ieSFe4rvvESx3-YSOApdZUV-VKuM1Arc6QBuHWifaY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FocusWriter<\/a>. <\/strong>A distraction free, minimalist word processing program. Sure, I plan my novels, stories, podcasts and gaming sessions in Scrivener, but this one also scratches my need for simplicity and functionality. It&#8217;s no longer supported for Mac, so I hold on to it for dear life. Bonus points that I can skin it to look like WordStar, my very first word processing program that I wrote my first novel on while attending San Francisco State University.<\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/substack.com\/redirect\/33e6f2e4-cd38-4ebf-b246-b6ebeb750f0c?j=eyJ1IjoiMXhmZzB6In0.4ieSFe4rvvESx3-YSOApdZUV-VKuM1Arc6QBuHWifaY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Owlbear Rodeo<\/a>. <\/strong>A simple to use, free Virtual Tabletop. Most of the games I play and run now are online, via Discord, after COVID killed my local, long running table, and most games use what is called &#8220;Theater of the Mind&#8221;, which is a fancy term for &#8220;Just use your imagination&#8221;, but sometimes you need to show your players a map, a photo, a handout, or something that is going to be used to evoke fear and terror, or just can&#8217;t be easily described. Open up Owlbear Rodeo, create a table, create a scene, throw the image up there and share it, and you&#8217;re golden. The site also has a very inexpensive paid plan which is well, well worth it for both one shot games and long term campaigns.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<h4><strong>INVISIBLE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Christian D. Larson&#8217;s \u201cThe Optimist&#8217;s Creed\u201d:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-47274\" width=\"344\" height=\"488\" title=\"The Optimist Creed, submitted by Bill Mize\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize2.jpg 382w, https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/files\/2026\/11\/wimb-BillMize2-211x300.jpg 211w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After drifting away from Christianity about 40 years ago, I found myself influenced by New Thought and Positive Thinking authors. \u201cThe Optimist\u2019s Creed\u201d was written by Christian D. Larson, a prolific writer of the time, back in 1912, in his book \u201cYour Forces and How To Use Them\u201d. The Optimist International club adopted the creed in 1922. I try to read it at least a few times a week, and use it as a counterweight and something to remember as I now make my way back to Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/whatsinmynow.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Sign up here<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0to get\u00a0What\u2019s in my NOW?\u00a0a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>issue #278<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2303],"tags":[1553],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47272"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47276,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47272\/revisions\/47276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}