So, here we are, halfway through January already, and I have yet to make a post to this blog. In my defense, part of the reason for this is that I suffered a catastrophic computer failure on New Year’s Eve. After six years of being driven really hard, my old laptop kicked the bucket, and I had to order a new one in the emergency. After all, I’m not going to get anything done without a working computer or be able to write to this blog. Since then, I’ve had some usual distractions, but have been spending most of my time on the new computer (which I’m writing this one) setting it up the way I like it. Which is not easy, as I’ve been married to Windows XP for the last ten years. In my opinion, XP is where Microsoft finally got it right, and I was reluctant to move away from something that had proven itself so well. I avoided Vista like the plague, and I’m now running on Windows 7, which is familiar and yet different enough that I get lost easily. So far, I like it and I don’t, although what I don’t like is probably due to my lack of familiarity.
Well, onto the New Year’s post. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write in this post. All I knew was that I needed to write something. I’ve averaged about one post per month lately, which isn’t good. I need to keep up, make people know that I’m still alive. I didn’t want to write any New Year’s resolutions. I don’t believe in them. I’m a firm believer that, if you want to make a change, there’s no reason not to do it now, immediately, in the middle of the week, month, or year. However, I will make some New Year’s reaffirmations, to be sure that I stay on track with my goals:
- Continue getting in better shape. I was doing this fairly consistently, although I’ve had some trouble lately for various reasons. So I just need to keep plugging away.
- Finish the first draft of my novel by my birthday. I initially had the goal of completing it by the end of 2011, but I knew at the time that it was probably too ambitious. I’m giving myself a new goal of completing it by my birthday in March. Again, this might actually be rather ambitious, but it’s more reasonable, and I’ll hopefully make it. Then comes the editing…
- Continue the job hunt. I’ve had some good prospects, but I need to continue looking for regular work, even at the expense of finishing my novel in March. The bills need to be paid.
- Post more regularly to the blog. Yes, I know, I keep saying this, but I’m coming up with a schedule in my head for how I want to do this, so I can make it more consistent.
- Find a cheaper place to live. I need to cut my expenses down, especially with the anticipation of more expenses in the future. So I need to save more money, and to do that, I need to cut expenses. I’ve enjoyed where I’m at up to now, but the expense has recently been vastly outweighing what I’m getting for my money.
I don’t think these are unreasonable, and they’re just continuations of what I’ve already been doing. Although the last one is new, but something I’ve known would be coming along anyway.
On a side note and an as update to my earlier posts on my experience DMing Dungeons & Dragons Encounters, the season I was DMing finished, and it seems that a fun time was had by all. I had a very consistent group during the entire season, and by the end I had killed two players’ characters. I guess I was more brutal than I’d planned. Unfortunately, the location where I’ve been playing did not get the new season because there was too much interest in it, so now I’m in a group has started getting together in the off season to play The Dresden Files RPG. We’ve had one play session so far, but it seems pretty fun and I’m looking forward to the whole campaign. And while I’m talking about D&D, I will have some thoughts about D&D 5th edition (commonly referred to right now as D&D Next) later on. But in short, I think that Wizards of the Coast may be missing the point of why they’re having some issues with 4th edition. More later.
A happy belated New Year, and get cracking on those resolutions.
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