Personal

An Open Letter to Everyone

Dear reader,

To those who have supported me, and to those who may soon do the same, welcome to my blog and future community website. In the previous two posts here, I showed off the possibilities of what I can do with support from all of you. In this letter, I’d like to explain the challenges I face without support and how you can prevent that from happening.

In the first of those two posts, I showed how I would transform this simple blog into a full community website which would be a one-stop for all your family-friendly content needs. In the other post, I explained how with your support, I would add jobs to my community by hiring the right people to ensure that I could sustain that growth in the long-run. The vision in both posts depends entirely on the backing of a committed community.

Let me now explain the challenges I am facing without support. The biggest challenge I face is my rent. This alone costs me nine hundred dollars every month, and without a steady income, it’s not easy keeping a roof over my head. Without a steady place to call home, I won’t be able to produce any more of my family-friendly content that you enjoy. I also have other bills that need paying each month, and in total without groceries, I need around twelve hundred fifty dollars each month. This is why community backing is so important—it can help keep my work alive and ensure I can continue creating the content you love.

I know that not everyone can support me financially, and that’s completely okay. But there are other ways you can make a meaningful impact. Even small gestures—like sharing my work with others or engaging with my content—help more than you might realize. The YouTube algorithm isn’t easy, but with your likes, subscribes, shares, and comments, you can help ensure my content reaches the people who want to view it! Sharing these posts on my blog also will help get the word out to those who are interested in reading about topics I write on from my perspective. Sharing my podcast will help my fellow Catholics and other Christians learn about it and consider listening to an episode, and maybe even subscribing to me on Spotify. None of these actions cost a dime—just a moment of your time, and they can make a huge difference.

For those who are able and willing to support financially, here’s how you can help. For one-time support, you can send a tip through PayPal or LiberaPay using these links. You can also choose to buy my merch at my Fourthwall store, or purchase a service you are interested in from my Ko-fi page. For recurring support, both Fourthwall and Ko-fi have memberships that you can choose, with Ko-fi having two tiers to choose from. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference, and I’m grateful for your support in whatever way feels right for you.

At the end of the day, every bit of support—whether it’s sharing my work, engaging with my content, or contributing financially—helps bring my vision to life. Your encouragement, kindness, and belief in what I’m building mean the world to me. No matter how you choose to help, know that I deeply appreciate it. With your support, we can create something truly special together.

Your family-friendly content creator,

Swagnilla Ice (Nathan Pinno)

Videos

Swag Plays Factorio S2 E33: Mastering Factory Tweaks for Yellow Science!

Video

In this episode of Swag Plays Factorio, Swag works to refine his factory’s efficiency while grinding out production circuits for yellow science. By optimizing miners and output belts, and making key tweaks to factory belts, he ramps up the production of vital basic circuits. Tune in to see the highs, the lows, and the missteps in this action-packed episode!

Work and Life

Building the Future: A Strategic Plan for My Community-Focused Business

After thinking about the future of my business, I realized that I had made a major mistake in how I was going to hire people when I wrote that post about it earlier this year. In this post, I will explain the correct first few hires that I will make and why each one is vital in the order I will be hiring them as my income from online content allows me to do.

I will be the first person that will be hired by my company, and I will be setting it up as a Limited Liability Corporation or LLC for short. I do not know what name I will use, but I will have to check and see if it is available, and I will be using a lawyer to ensure that this goes smoothly, even though I have incorporated a company in Alberta before. I will be the company’s Chief Executive Officer as well as the Chief Content Officer, thus ensuring that all content produced by the company meets my standards.

I would like to point out that my vision for the company is to create family-friendly content and spaces to give parents a place to be able to send them online and not have to worry about exposure to content that is not appropriate for them. This blog will be transformed into a community website where that vision can be fulfilled. This will include moderated forums, safe games in the arcades, fun videos for them to watch and comment on, my weekly podcast, and of course, weekly blog posts about interesting topics from yours truly.

The second person the company will hire is a Chief Financial Officer when it can afford to do so. By hiring such a person early, the company’s financial future will be secured, preventing spending money that it doesn’t have. This person will also help to determine when it is safe to expand the team and hire the others I will be mentioning in this post. Ideally, they will have experience doing this, but willing to help a young company grow into a profitable one.

The next person I’ll be hiring will be working closely with the CFO and that is the person who will be in charge of human resources. Their job will be to hire everyone after them, following a priority list that I will be giving them, when the CFO says that they can hire someone. They will also be handing everything to do with employees – from pay to benefits and everything in between.

A Chief Graphics Officer will be the fourth person I’ll be hiring instead of the second one. This person’s job will be ensuring all graphics meet my vision’s standard as well as coming up with new graphics as needed for products and Minecraft mods and modpacks that future hires will need for their projects. They will also work with me to ensure my videos have the best thumbnails for whatever video platform the community website is using.

The next role to be filled will be the company’s Chief Programmer. They will work closely with me to not only improve the website but also modpacks that I am developing. This person will also co-head the future Creative department with the Chief Graphics Officer, ensuring that all coding meets the company’s expectations – from HTML and CSS to Java and PHP.

Reporting to the Chief Programmer and the Chief Graphics Officer will be the next hire, the Lead Developer. This person will be in charge of a development team for new mods for games and plugins for WordPress, as well as maintenance to existing ones. The ideal candidate will have a good sense of time management and team leadership, two critical things that I feel cannot be learned but are a part of a person from a young age.

After the above roles are hired, I’ll pivot and get the HR lead to focus on the community by hiring a Community Leader, a Public Relations team, and a moderation team for the forums. Existing staff members will also be required to act as mods, especially for topics that they have excellent knowledge in. I’ll also ask to hire an expert in Catholic religious teachings to help me with my podcast writing and maybe even hosting it alongside me. This will ensure that my community will get the best possible staff that will be focused on keeping all members happy and content.

After all these people are hired, I will ask the HR lead to look for experts in various fields that the forums are covering and that I’m interested in writing blog posts on. These will not be full-time employees but contractors who will help ensure that posts in their fields are high-quality yet family-friendly. They will be offered the chance to write guest posts on the site about their topic of expertise and will be asked to do a AMA in the forum corresponding with their field.

Hiring the right people at the right time is essential to ensuring my company grows into a stable and thriving organization. With a foundation rooted in family-friendly content, structured engagement, and community-building, every role I’ve outlined plays a crucial part in making this vision a reality.

By starting with financial stability and strategic hiring, I’ll be able to build a team that shares my passion for creating safe, engaging spaces online. As the company scales, these hires will help develop innovative content, powerful tools, and a vibrant community that members can trust and enjoy.

This journey is about more than just running a business—it’s about shaping an ecosystem that fosters creativity, learning, and meaningful connections. With careful planning and the right people by my side, I’m ready to turn this dream into a lasting success.

Videos

Swag Plays Banished S2 E26 | Building Futures: Three New Homes, New Families

Video

In this episode of Swag Plays Banished, the citizens of Otterview work hard to expand their village, building three new houses to shelter their growing community. Yet, the cycle of life continues as one elder passes away from old age. But hope is renewed as the population begins to flourish once more. Witness the challenges and triumphs of survival—don’t miss this compelling chapter in Otterview’s story!

Site News

The Evolution of My Blog: Future Plans & Upgrades

I love sharing my thoughts here on WordPress, but I envision something even bigger—a thriving, community-driven platform where blogging is just one piece of the puzzle. As I build toward this goal, each upgrade will happen as resources allow, ensuring steady growth and, hopefully, the opportunity to turn this into a sustainable livelihood.

The first and probably the best change will be a custom domain from Idotz.net and hosting through DreamHost as they have Paypal payments. I would have loved to stay with WordPress.com but they don’t have Paypal as a payment option for any of their hosting plans or other website products like themes or plugins. I don’t want to dive back into credit card debt when I’m in the process of getting rid of it! This upgrade will give me more flexibility with site customization and ensure that I’m building something sustainable—without financial setbacks slowing me down.

The next update will feature me switching themes from Twenty Twenty-five to GeneratePress. This will allow me to totally customize my site to the way I want it to feel going forwards. Currently on WordPress my options are limited to what I can do as a free member, and my themes are limited as well. Having a totally customizable theme will totally change everything – even before the bigger updates that will come after this one! With GeneratePress, I’ll finally have full control over my site’s look and feel, from fine-tuning design elements to improving speed and functionality. Even before the bigger updates roll out, this shift alone will make a huge difference!

With the theme and basic hosting out of the way, I’ll start integrating my other sites into my blog by adding WooCommerce and bbPress. With plugins for both, I’ll be able to add a lot of features to the site like a shop, services, memberships, and even a donation form that WooCommerce will be able to handle the payments for via Stripe and Paypal. The forums will replace my current Discord server for a community hub and place to find my beta modpacks for Minecraft. With WooCommerce Members, only paid members will get access to certain forums and posts, just like they do currently on my Discord server. Also, I’ll be able to shut down my Fourthwall shop with a WooCommerce plugin for a site like Printify which can handle the physical merchandise for me.

The second to last update would be adding an arcade via the MyArcadePlugin for WordPress. With addons to add stuff like theme integration, contests, feeds, and notifications, it will be certain to draw in a lot of people of all ages and encourage them to return and play some more!

The last update will be moving my video content off of YouTube and to either self-hosting or Vimeo – I haven’t decided which one. Regardless, both would allow me to add video content to WordPress with plugins for each option, and for the ability to make playlists via series. This is where another exclusive feature for members would start to shine – exclusive videos and live streams just for them. Members would also get other perks like the Beta modpack testing and feedback area in the forums, exclusive merch and merch discounts, and even exclusive contests in the arcade I mentioned earlier.

These updates are just the beginning, and I’m excited to take this journey step by step. My goal is to create a thriving, community-driven platform where blogging is just one part of something much bigger. As my blog evolves, I’d love to hear what you think—what features are you most excited about? Drop a comment and let’s make this space the best it can be together!

Videos

Creative Engineering E19: Automating Andesite Alloy!

Video

In this episode, Swag dives into the Create mod to demonstrate how to automate andesite alloy production. Along the way, he teases upcoming automation for stone and smooth stone, bridging the gap between this episode and the next. Discover essential tips and tricks to master this crucial step in unlocking the full potential of the Create mod!

Videos

Swag Plays Factorio S2 E32: Optimizing Yellow Science & The Factory!

Video

In today’s episode, I focused on boosting yellow science production to tackle the 500 needed for logistics research. By automating processes and improving green circuit output, I made significant strides toward speeding things up. Along the way, I discovered one of my iron mining operations was depleted, so I relocated it and added more miners to ensure a steady flow of iron ore to my smelters. Come see how these improvements helped streamline my factory and how far I progressed in the logistics research today!

Personal

Why I’m Voting the Way I Am

Normally, I would choose to not write about politics here on my blog, due to the fact that I want to keep this site family-friendly and politics is one area that most people steer clear of when doing such content. However, the stakes in our country’s future are so much higher in this election that I felt I needed to explain why I’m going to vote the way I am, and maybe convince you to vote the same way!

Canada is grappling with challenges unlike any we’ve seen in this generation. Now more than ever, we need leadership with a clear vision for the future—one that defends individual rights and ensures our nation remains independent, free from undue influence by external forces.

After examining the platforms of the Conservatives, Liberals, and New Democrats, I found that none of them align with the vision I have for Canada’s future. However, the Christian Heritage Party stands out as the one party that embodies every value and priority I hold dear.

My biggest reason for supporting this party—and proudly being a member—is their unwavering commitment to being pro-family, pro-life, and pro-freedom. True to their name, they aim to build on Canada’s heritage, rooted in Judeo-Christian principles, much like other Western nations. They steadfastly protect innocent human life, from natural conception to natural death—something I know none of the leaders of the big three parties, nor the People’s Party of Canada, will do.

Another reason I’m proud to support the Christian Heritage Party in this election is their commitment to restoring the definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman—just as the true Church and the Bible teach. I firmly believe that any other view of marriage is sinful and should be repented of, so I’m grateful to have found a party that shares this conviction.

My third reason for supporting the Christian Heritage Party is their sound financial policies, which make total sense. From replacing the GST with a fair tax on purchases to introducing a Personal Income Security Account (PISA) as an alternative to CPP, and enforcing mandatory balanced budgets—these are solid steps toward putting Canada back on the right financial track. Who wouldn’t want a nation that is economically strong and stable? The only ones who wouldn’t are those who don’t want Canada to be strong and free!

The Christian Heritage Party is committed to safeguarding Canada’s independence by withdrawing from the WHO and the Paris Climate Accord. They also prioritize ensuring our troops are well-paid and properly equipped for their peacekeeping missions. These are policies I wholeheartedly support and stand behind!

In this election, the stakes couldn’t be higher, and the choice couldn’t be clearer. The Christian Heritage Party stands for the values and vision I believe will lead Canada toward a brighter future. If you share these convictions or want to learn more about their platform, I encourage you to visit their website and consider how your vote can make a difference.

Videos

Swag Plays Banished S2 E25 | Yearly Progress & Double Deals with Our First Merchant

Video

In this episode of Swag Plays Banished, we journey through the seasons until late fall. As the year unfolds, citizens grow up and step into vital roles in the workforce, roads are built, and the much-anticipated new house inches closer to completion. But just as life seems to settle, a trader arrives with an intriguing array of goods. What deals were struck? Were they worth it? Watch to find out, and be sure to share your thoughts in the comments—did we snag bargains or get swindled?

Your Portal to Personal Takes, Modpacks, And All Things Fun!

Swagnilla Ice

Your Portal to Personal Takes, Modpacks, And All Things Fun!

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