Rambling, neither funny nor insightful. Sorry.
I've let this languish because it feels like my life is so boring. I haven't been having the kind of wankery deep thought that lends itself to long-form journaling.
As usual, part of it is that I'm bottling things up. I had some cast-related drama, but at first I was nervous about sharing it because it would just stir up more shit. Now I'm tired of it and it's clear to me that almost nobody cares to hear about it anyway. Everyone has their own drama to deal with, after all. I'm considering taking a break, but I fear that would just isolate me from people I really do care about.
I've been working on and off on a side project for an LJ friend, but I don't know how much of it she would want me to share here before it's close to being done. At long last, it's making me learn PHP, which (of course) turns out to be way less intimidating than I thought. I just wish I had a good editor for it. The Coffee Cup freeware HTML editor is pretty sweet and it puts some color-coded formatting on the PHP code, but it doesn't actually point out the parts where I've screwed up (usually by not closing parens, not closing brackets, mixing up single and double quotes, or not putting a semicolon at the end of every command). Obviously, even though I say I wish for that, I don't care enough to go find one and pay money for it.
I've been sniffling a lot. It's weird to me that I'm still acquiring annoying habits like that. I'm nearly 37, and I feel like I should already have developed all the annoying habits I'm going to have. But no, I start sniffling all the time, or chewing gum, or having weird inhalations that sound (to me) like a snore, even when I'm awake and sitting upright.
Work is good enough. Sometimes I feel like I'm overwhelmed and falling terribly far behind, and other times I feel frustrated that I don't have anything to work on. If it were averaged out, I'd have the right amount of work, perhaps.
Following stuff in Iran has gotten me thinking about how insanely lucky I am. I have a good job in a wealthy country. I don't have to worry about the Basij coming by to kick my ass or smash my stuff. (I don't even know how to pronounce Basij, and I can't be sure of the accuracy of anything coming out of Iran. However, I have been following the story to some extent, and I'm pretty persuaded by the narrative where the Basij are the bad guys.)
Christine is still great. She's taking night classes as well as working and putting up with my drama, so she can get a little stressed out. I think we're going to be OK, though.
I had my first experience of running D&D this weekend. It took me by surprise, since we were visiting Christine's parents. Her brother had bought his ten year old son the quick-start version of D&D 4e. It comes with premade characters, a couple of sample adventures, and the dungeon tiles and enemy counters necessary for those sample adventures. As the person with the most 4e experience, I was asked to run one of the sample adventures for Christine, her brother, and her nephew. I didn't explain as much as I should have, but the nephew seemed to have a really good time. I imagine it had more to do with getting to do something new with his father than with my sloppy depiction of 4e tactical combat, but I'm glad that they had a good time.
I picked up A Penny For My Thoughts, a new roleplaying/improv game where you play one of a group of amnesiacs helping each other remember their past. It looks really interesting, but I'm worried about playing it and having it go badly. (I was really excited about Dread until I played in a session of it with my Tuesday group, who promptly ruined my experience of that game.) I think I could enjoy it with the right people, but I'm not quite sure I have convenient access to those people. (I think thealien and voider would be awesome at it, but they're inconveniently far away.)
Actually, now I wonder about a play-by-email/LJ/forum version of A Penny For My Thoughts. There are interactions between players, but not any back-and-forth dialog. Questions are asked and answered, so you'd want people who check in fairly often, but it seems like it could work. I'll have to think about that. It wouldn't have the immediacy of an improv exercise, but it could still work as a creative writing exercise.
In retrospect, I should probably have made short posts about each of the above points, instead of one long post containing everything. I felt like rambling, though, so here's what you get. I wanted to reach out and connect with you, Gentle Reader. I felt disconnected, and I had a lot to say to you.
Thank you for being there for me.
As usual, part of it is that I'm bottling things up. I had some cast-related drama, but at first I was nervous about sharing it because it would just stir up more shit. Now I'm tired of it and it's clear to me that almost nobody cares to hear about it anyway. Everyone has their own drama to deal with, after all. I'm considering taking a break, but I fear that would just isolate me from people I really do care about.
I've been working on and off on a side project for an LJ friend, but I don't know how much of it she would want me to share here before it's close to being done. At long last, it's making me learn PHP, which (of course) turns out to be way less intimidating than I thought. I just wish I had a good editor for it. The Coffee Cup freeware HTML editor is pretty sweet and it puts some color-coded formatting on the PHP code, but it doesn't actually point out the parts where I've screwed up (usually by not closing parens, not closing brackets, mixing up single and double quotes, or not putting a semicolon at the end of every command). Obviously, even though I say I wish for that, I don't care enough to go find one and pay money for it.
I've been sniffling a lot. It's weird to me that I'm still acquiring annoying habits like that. I'm nearly 37, and I feel like I should already have developed all the annoying habits I'm going to have. But no, I start sniffling all the time, or chewing gum, or having weird inhalations that sound (to me) like a snore, even when I'm awake and sitting upright.
Work is good enough. Sometimes I feel like I'm overwhelmed and falling terribly far behind, and other times I feel frustrated that I don't have anything to work on. If it were averaged out, I'd have the right amount of work, perhaps.
Following stuff in Iran has gotten me thinking about how insanely lucky I am. I have a good job in a wealthy country. I don't have to worry about the Basij coming by to kick my ass or smash my stuff. (I don't even know how to pronounce Basij, and I can't be sure of the accuracy of anything coming out of Iran. However, I have been following the story to some extent, and I'm pretty persuaded by the narrative where the Basij are the bad guys.)
Christine is still great. She's taking night classes as well as working and putting up with my drama, so she can get a little stressed out. I think we're going to be OK, though.
I had my first experience of running D&D this weekend. It took me by surprise, since we were visiting Christine's parents. Her brother had bought his ten year old son the quick-start version of D&D 4e. It comes with premade characters, a couple of sample adventures, and the dungeon tiles and enemy counters necessary for those sample adventures. As the person with the most 4e experience, I was asked to run one of the sample adventures for Christine, her brother, and her nephew. I didn't explain as much as I should have, but the nephew seemed to have a really good time. I imagine it had more to do with getting to do something new with his father than with my sloppy depiction of 4e tactical combat, but I'm glad that they had a good time.
I picked up A Penny For My Thoughts, a new roleplaying/improv game where you play one of a group of amnesiacs helping each other remember their past. It looks really interesting, but I'm worried about playing it and having it go badly. (I was really excited about Dread until I played in a session of it with my Tuesday group, who promptly ruined my experience of that game.) I think I could enjoy it with the right people, but I'm not quite sure I have convenient access to those people. (I think thealien and voider would be awesome at it, but they're inconveniently far away.)
Actually, now I wonder about a play-by-email/LJ/forum version of A Penny For My Thoughts. There are interactions between players, but not any back-and-forth dialog. Questions are asked and answered, so you'd want people who check in fairly often, but it seems like it could work. I'll have to think about that. It wouldn't have the immediacy of an improv exercise, but it could still work as a creative writing exercise.
In retrospect, I should probably have made short posts about each of the above points, instead of one long post containing everything. I felt like rambling, though, so here's what you get. I wanted to reach out and connect with you, Gentle Reader. I felt disconnected, and I had a lot to say to you.
Thank you for being there for me.