5 Things I've Accomplished This Week - #3

Mar 30, 2025

Here are the things I’ve accomplished as a writer this week:

Publishing

Published a live book review of Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us by Paul Koudounaris on the Audio Germanicus podcast. This is the first time I’ve done livestreaming, and the first time I made use of Substack’s live video feature. I’ve learned from this experience and now I know what do in future livestreams (hypothetically speaking).
Published the Table of Contents for Prisoner and Ransom (March 25, 2025) on Germanicus Publishing, my recently finished five-part military sci-fi/cyberpunk serial.
Published the third chapter of Adventures in Balkania on Royal Road.
Published a new photo album in Flickr: Kalahari Resorts & Conventions - Wisconsin Dells. I spent about three days on vacation at Wisconsin with my brother and his family for Spring Break, and I took pictures of the resort we went to.

Writing

Started the first draft of a blog post reflecting on Indonesia’s rising visibility based on an experience I had on the road to/at Wisconsin this week. To be posted on Indonesian and American sometime next week; title in progress.

Reading

Continued my reading of Barren Metal by E. Michael Jones. Have finished Chapter 12 (Lorenzo and the Renaissance) through Chapter 16 (The Fall of the Medici Bank). Currently on Chapter 17 (Marco Strozzi and the Monte di Pieta) out of 101.
Continued my reading of The Walter Ulric Files by Jack McLiam (AKA Ian T. Wilson). Have finished Chapter 2 (Dead and Breakfast) through Chapter 4 (The Bugbear). Currently on Chapter 5 (The Sign of the Snake) out of 17.

Miscellaneous

Went through the third full week of online classes at Universitas Kristen Indonesia (UKI) on law. This was actually the last week before the university takes a break to celebrate Lebaran/the end of Ramadan. Because of this upcoming holiday break, some classes were cancelled and the work this week was relatively light.
- I welcomed the lighter work load because of the three days I’ve spent in Wisconsin (which include attending lectures from my hotel room). That said, I have some assignments to do.
- This also the first week in which I’ve attended the lecture for my Islamic Law (Hukum Islam) class (the first two classes couldn’t meet for various reasons). While I learned a lot of things this week, I found the stuff I learn in Islamic Law to be very striking probably because how new it is to me. I even downloaded an Indonesian Quran app (for educational purposes only).
Posted a dragon/wyvern-themed note on Substack Notes which may serve as the inspiration for a future story/post for the Holy League Universe/Germanicus Publishing.

-Michael P. Marpaung