Some random stuff and uninteresting personal updates, mainly because I’m tired of seeing nothing but book reviews in the front page blogroll and this is not what I want the blog to have as a primary focus (and I’m only writing this now because I’m home getting over some kind of bug):
- I’ve been working on my novel again. Actually, I’ve been working on it a lot. Hooray! It’s still a rough road and I find myself getting into a rewrite pattern often, which slows progress, to say the least. But progress is happening, even if it’s slow. I am hoping that I’ll have a first draft finished by the end of the year, although that might be a little ambitious. If not by the end of the year, then hopefully by my next birthday. It will be either my Christmas gift or my birthday gift to myself. I’m thinking of taking a page from Brandon Sanderson and tweeting my daily word count on days I write a lot. It would give me some public accountability.
- Now that I’ve been writing again, I’m using my Alphasmart Neo a lot, which I got a long time ago on the recommendation of a NaNoWriMo buddy. In fact, I’m writing this post on it. I have to say that I really like this little device. Since I can’t format on it or do anything else, it forces me to focus on writing only and getting the words down. I have a feeling this thing is going to be my constant companion for quite some time.
- I’m still acting as a Dungeon Master for the Neverwinter season of Dungeons & Dragons Encounters. I’m really getting my feet underneath me now, and I’m figuring out how to keep the players on track and not breaking the game (a few seem to try to test the limits of this) without simply telling them “No, you can’t do that.” Instead, I find a logical reason in-world the “encourage” them to stay on a particular path. I also try to keep things light and funny when I can. I’m thinking of running my regular group who I’ve recently been playing Dark Sun with through this season separately, although I can’t go ahead of the Wednesday night schedule. It might also let me play a little looser with the direction and the rules. We’ll see how that works out. But for the time being, I’m having a lot of fun DMing these Encounters games.
- Still on the hunt for regular work. I had a job test recently. It went okay, although not great. It was for a very techie job, which demonstrated something I’ve known for a while: I don’t know how people started thinking I’m a technical person, because I’m not. I have a higher than average understanding of this stuff, but that’s where it ends. I know enough to get myself into trouble, but not necessarily enough to get myself out of it. I’m an artist. I’m a designer. I’m a creator. But I’m bad at implementation and the heavy technical lifting. So, if the job comes through, great. If not, I’m not surprised, so not that disappointed.
- While I’ve been a bit of a gamer, I’m more of an old-school gamer. The new stuff…kind of scares me a little bit. Still, I do play it, and I’ve recently started playing “Assassin’s Creed II.” Having no money means that I’m going to be a bit behind on the latest releases, or in this case two years behind. I liked the first “Assassin’s Creed.” It was a great idea and a great story, but it got very repetitive. The second game has sharper graphics and seems to have a deeper story so far, although I’m not far enough in yet to see if this one will have the same problem with repetitive missions.
- I need to get my weight back under control. I know I’ve been gaining weight again, although when I weighed myself yesterday, I saw that while I have gained weight, I haven’t gained as much as I thought I had. I just don’t feel good when I’m carrying extra weight, and it makes me feel sluggish physically and mentally. Having the back problems I do makes it difficult to exercise a lot, so I need to double down on my diet and stick to only the healthiest stuff as often as possible. No gimmicky diets. Just eat healthier and eat less. Tomorrow…
- I’m trying to get through my backlog of review books. I’m way behind of where I should be, so combined with my writing, I’m going to be immersed in literature for quite a while yet. Hence the reason for all the book review posts recently.
Anyway, enough updates for now. More updates later. Yes, there is more, just not now.
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