Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Thorin N. Tatge's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, July 9th, 2009
7:26 am	June wrap-up CONvergence is still fresh in my mind, and I'll have something to say about it eventually.  For now, though, it's time to reach back before it into the month I consider my favorite of the year--June.  The program I work for is adjourned for the summer, which left me nervously looking for work at the beginning of the month (and before), struggling with things I hate doing, like calling strangers and trying to find elusive information on websites about work opportunities and dealing with technical difficulties.  Eventually, it was too late to join any summer programs and I gave up on it.  I may, however, be doing online tutoring for tutor.com.  I took tests in -all- their subjects in early June, passing most of them, although I had a lot of help from the internet.  I applied, but then they announced a site redesign and put all new hiring on hold, and I've just now gotten an e-mail telling me to schedule a mock session.  I'm nervous about it for various reasons, but it may go well, as I like explaining things and I like chatting online, so you'd think it would work well for me until my program resumes in autumn.  (And it will, although just barely.  I'll be the only paid tutor left at my location, working with volunteers, instead.  I was worried that -none- of the funding would come through.) Taking those tests was interesting and educational, at the least.  In particular, I finally learned some basics in statistics, a branch of math I never studied in any depth before.  I also now have an online friend who's quite good at math (and economics) and also enjoys tutoring, so he's been teaching me some concepts now and then.  He's awesome. So, the book.  I totally wanted to have it out by now.  I wanted to have the e-store open and promotional materials printed to bring to CONvergence.  Did not happen.  Who would ever have expected that print-on-demand publishing, just a step removed from self-publishing, would involve delays or unexpected problems?  Impossible.  It's a fluke.  But anyway, right now I'm waiting for another (hopefully final) proof of the book to be shipped to me, and for several days I've been putting off putting into practice one of the tutorials I've found on isolating Photoshop images.  That comes after I finish this post.  I gotta make me some bookmarks. This month I went to the doctor for the first time in over ten years.  Yeah.  It was...uneventful, really.  Although I went to the wrong site at first and had to deal with a scary parking ramp and stuff.  Um.  I wasn't aggressive in asking questions because I wanted to just test the waters and get an idea of what basic medical coverage could do for me.  I was totally uncertain what to expect, and I'm still fairly uncertain, but the gist is that I feel like I'm on my own unless one of my medical issues becomes a serious problem and not just a minor inconvenience.  And at the end of the year, chances are I'll no longer be eligible for MinnesotaCare and have to content myself with paying for some sort of catastrophic coverage.  I have things I can try doing.  Really, the reason I took so long to see a doctor was that the whole medical establishment really scares me. I've been going in to the library on Thursdays to run Puzzlemania.  I get out a couple bins of jigsaws and tangrams and things, I bring some special games from home, and I get the kids who show up involved.  It was a one hour thing from two summers ago that's now two and a half hours.  Although I don't have a contract yet, I'm told I'll be paid twenty dollars for each session, which isn't much but it's something.  Puzzlemania is enjoyable, although a bit dull compared to how it used to be, with visiting groups dropping in. Now that I'm no longer working Tuesday nights, I'm able to go to writer's group meetings again.  They moved the night at the end of the NaNoWriMo year (early December) from Monday to Tuesday, but I didn't really mind not going to meetings, because I'm not all that into the group and I was working on a book that wouldn't have benefited that much fro their kind of critique, rather than the short stories I was doing before that.  (I did revise one of those stories this month, though I know I'll have to again.)  But now I've been back to the group twice and it's okay.  They have a couple new members, and it's a decent time with decent people who have a kind of lifestyle connection that allows them to talk knowingly about how being (mostly) unpublished writers is.  I feel like I'm a bit on the outside, and I don't really like the semi-structured way the meetings go, with their critique slots and presentations on themes, but eh--they amuse.  And I get a nice walk downtown, and sometimes walk all the way home, which means I must be getting some energy/inspiration from the whole shebang. I terminated my domain registration account with a company that I just signed up with on a lark something like a year and a half ago to see what happened.  What happened was the company turned out to be horribly evil and incompetent.  One of those dealies where it's almost impossible to close your account, which in my opinion is offense enough on its own to justify shutting a business down completely.  I'd thought the worst case scaenario was that I'd throw away four bucks on a service not worth it, but actually, they later sent an e-mail saying that unless I specifically responded to the e-mail in a certain way, they'd go ahead and upgrade my account to some premium package for a charge of $50.  This, is my opinion, is enough to justify jailing the people in charge of the company for ten years.  I said no, and wasn't charged.  Still, my fear of talking to strangers on the phone (not unrelated to my fear of doctors, I daresay) kept me from calling up numbers and demanding to cancel the account, which the internet told me was hard to do even then.  (The internet also told me that the company is technically incompetent, too.)  I did end up charged fifteen dollars for a premature renewal I didn't ask for, but I decided not to try and get that back.  I eventually got around to dealing with it this month, and was able to cancel the account by speaking with live chat operators.  At least, I think it's canceled.  I got multiple messages saying it was canceled, but my login still works and one page still says I'm up for renewal, which I was told is a 'glitch'.  We'll see.  I was going to leave the company's name out for some reason, but why bother?  It's Globat.com, a.k.a. DomainsAreFree.  I should have checked their reputation ahead of time. I went to the wedding of cari_rose  and crytel .  It was nice.  I kept busy and everyone seemed happy.  I thought I was going to witness the union, but they got members of the wedding party to do that, so I got other duties instead.  The weather was lovely and the turn-out respectable.  And I played my first ever game of frisbee golf. I went to davidwilford and Erin McKee's anniversary party/MN-Stf meeting, which also observed Erin's birthday.  It was great, even though I got into a funk for no good reason partway through.  It wore off.  I played croquet and lawn bowling, and did some filking, and drummed for the musicians who played later on.  I was proud of being brave enough to take a turn in the music circle, singing an extended parody of Christina Aguilera's Coca Cola jingle. Game parties have continued to be delightful.  I got to play two games I'd wanted to try for a while, Amazonas and Formula De.  Blokus-3D is also nifty.  And I played a series of solo games of Agricola, the elaborate farming game.  I failed on my first try with the simple deck, but I won my second series with the complex deck very handily.  I also played a jiggity freeware game called Polychromatic Funk Monkey, and the sequel to a favorite flash game, Hedgehog Launch.  And I've been roleplaying on MUCKs and on AIM, which is satisfying, even if the campaigns I care most about are lagging endlessly. I trimmed the hedge (not as hellish as it sometimes is, though I made an ugly mistake), gave my father the latest Peter Beagle book for Father's Day, was amused by a robin tugging at length on the rope attached to the ladder outside my window, dug up a bunch of unwanted little trees, paid estimated taxes, helped a Somali immigrant train for her citizenship test, ran a game of Magnet Maze that didn't end well, and installed a window blind for the first time.  And I missed a bunch more things I could have done. Oh.  And I walked to Southdale, the world's first heated indoor shopping mall, something I'd wanted to do for a while.  The walk was about six miles, but it was hard because I went in the morning after being up all night working on my book's back cover.  I bought black pants and stuff from the dollar stores, and was hugely sleepy all over the place.  I put my head on the table in a Taco Bell and elsewhere.  A Sbarro combo meal was horrible, but a Starbucks white chocolate mocha and petite vanilla bean scone were excellent.  And I got a massage from an electric massage chair.  Mmm...in the state I was in, that really hit the spot. Current Mood: anxious (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
4:01 am	May wrap-up May, in general my second favorite month of the year, was marked by the end of my Homework Hub program for the academic year.  The program is facing cuts, but barring catastrophe I will still have a job with it in the fall.  In the meantime, I've been looking for summer work.  I've applied with Tutor.com to be an online tutor, after taking -all- the subject exams (many of which were quite educational).  I'm planning to apply to the Princeton Review to teach SAT prep, and I've been looking into other education-related opportunities, like substitute teaching.  I'll be continuing to go to the library on Tuesdays to run my weekly game and provide homework help to whoever's there, and I'm told there's a chance I may be paid a little to come in and help run Puzzlemania sessions once they start up. Looking for work is frightening and frustrating.  More exciting for me by far (although at times hardly less frustrating) is the fact that I've finally finished the novel I began in November, What Is Best?  I'm going to do a little looking for a potential publisher, but given that the book is highly unorthodox in numerous ways and is also lengthier than the standard offering from a first-time author, I'm probably going to be self-publishing it through Lulu, CreateSpace, or another print-on-demand service.  I'm currently waiting for proof copies from those companies, and I'll be soliciting a little more feedback from friends regarding the challenge system in particular.  Once the book is available to the public, I'll post all about it here. The Homework Hub year ended well enough.  The head librarian provided cupcakes and cookies in a little party for us on the last day, while a coworker bought sambusas, a Somali meat pastry, and the staff passed around oversized cards that our regular students signed in gratitude to us for all our help.  In addition, I went to a potluck luncheon for people associated with the Franklin Learning Center, a service that overlaps Homework Hub.  It was nice--the food was delicious and there was a mix of sixty-somethings and twenty-somethings talking about travel and politics. On a related note, earlier in the month I attended an 'Open Mic' night for Learning Center students.  The attendees were pretty much all adult English Language Learners from East Africa and the volunteers who help them.  They hesitantly but proudly read the essays they'd gotten into the learning center newsletter (or a broader one), and I provided a change of pace by reciting my lengthy rhymed poem "The Selfish Salmon", which the Learning Center staff loved.  (One of them said it reminded him of Poe and gave me an article to read about his life.) The game parties have been quite fun.  A lot of cheerful people are coming semi-regularly, and even bringing their friends.  The social atmosphere is great--the only downside is that they tend not to be into hardcore games--such as Agricola, the olden times farming Euro game my father was recently given, and which I quite enjoy.  It was especially nice to have an unexpected visit from Matt and Emily on the 29th. Now that the weather's nice, I'm back to my pastime of taking long walks.  I walked to the library in LInden Hills one day and read a book about ferrets.  And on another occasion, I went a formidable distance just to use a Dunn Bros Coffee gift card I was given by the Learning Center staff.  But the topper was when I walked all the way from my home on South 40th Street to Bloomington's Moir Park, on 104th Street.  This is the park where my friends cari_rose  and crytel will be married on the 20th.  In addition to a couple of digressions en route (such as stopping at a lakeside gazebo to write back-cover copy for my book), I wandered in the forest surrounding the park beside Nine Mile Creek, climbed a little on the rocks, and had trouble actually finding the park proper before dark.  Just as I was about to give up, I came across the pavillion, and so I rested there and listened to a father playing with his children on the swings.  On my way out, I got lost again and had to race against the darkening sky to find my way out of the forest before it became black.  I made it with maybe half an hour to spare, and followed 106th St., Lyndale, and 98th St. until I reached a bus stop and caught an 18 home.  In all, I calculated that I'd walked 19 miles that day, which makes it a solid fourth place for me. I also rode my bike to work on Ride Your Bike to Work Day. I got to visit with the aforementioned happy couple on the 2nd, and then went to keep them company while babysitting on the 9th.  Both evenings made for relaxing chats. Also in May...The May Day festival was a little gloomy for me this year.  The lowlight for me was a disappointing interaction with one of the specialists in the tents, and I spent a certain amount of time alone in contemplation.  Some days later, I encountered a hapless baby squirrel on the sidewalk and helped it up to a yard where it was able to find seeds.  It was an utterly cute experience.  In other news, the KFC value menu turns out to be disappointing.  The last game of Magnet Maze I ran at the library was also disappointing, with enough unruly kids that I couldn't keep under control that several of the better behaved players quit.  I hope tomorrow's game will be smooth.  Not long ago, I caught stomach flu, vomiting and suffering for a day and a half.  Slumdog Millionaire was only okay.  I enjoyed the tail end of Kelly and Matt Strait's baby shower.  The finale of Survivor Tocantins was 'eh'.  I finally finished a book my mother gave me years ago, one of a collection she picked out at a yard sale while my old bike was being stolen.  The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge is the first of several books from a Peruvian-American author who, in his naive yet intrepid younger days, studied under a Mesoamerican 'man of knowledge', or mystic.  (Looking it up now, I see there's some controversy over whether the books are actually true.)  I read it only while eating in Jimmy John's, and found it interesting, not least because it will enrich my roleplaying sessions with my magic-mushroom-using raccoon character. Current Mood: nervous (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
3:12 am	April wrap-up The highlight of April was Minicon, at which I not only ran the 4th Annual Minicon Medallion Hunt, but published the con newsletter.  It was mostly devoted to the hunt (which was originally started in order to provide material for the newsletter), but each of the four issues included at least half a page of other content.  Most of it was given to me through a submissions box; there was no investigation to speak of.  I enjoyed doing the editing, though, and it impressed me how perfectly each issue came out at exactly the right length.  I'll probably do it again next year.  I also have plenty of ideas for next year's Medallion Hunt, and I liked the way the con went overall. I went to the Minicon Devonian Ductina party, which allowed me to get the solution to a devious puzzle the designers of the pocket program hid therein, as well as to celebrate my father's birthday in a place where people would sing for him and to hear people's excited thoughts following the convention. I observed April Fool's Day by buying milk and orange juice and then swapping them into each others' containers, which my father enjoyed but my mother may not have noticed. Game parties have been fun lately, with a lot of cheery attendees.  Barac Wiley gave my father a renowned (and expensive) farming game called Agricola, which was great fun--and amazingly, Barac and I both like it.  I haven't been playing many games, though, preferring to take the role of co-host or to retreat to my computer.  I seem to be most productive when there are other things I could (or will soon) be doing; it's an understandable irony. I've continued work on my interactive novel.  On the 27th, for example, I spent all day renumbering and then rearranging the 251 sections, which is something most readers won't even appreciate, but numbers are important to me and I wanted to make sure each section was given exactly the right number.  I have a giant chart of all the branches and a smaller chart showing showing how each family of branches connects to the others to prevent any loops.  And then there's futzing over margin size and page number font and so on.  Pretty much all that remains is to give all the sections one last revision, and then I'll (most likely) make it available through CreateSpace.  I've been surprised by how many people are showing interest and say they'll want a copy--even a Somali-born student of mine. In the meantime, April saw the deadline for making use of the offer CreateSpace made all 2007 NaNoWriMo winners for a free proof copy, so I took a break from my '08 novel to reformat and section my '07 novel.  The book looks pretty good, but as I haven't revised it since November '07, it'll be a while before I create a copy I'll be ready to let anyone read. Due to the fact that they haven't grown in yet, I was able to trim the hedges in a few hours on one day, a chore that normally takes several horrible sessions. I finally finished the His Dark Materials trilogy, after taking my long, sweet time with it.  I thought it was fabulous, but the ending left a lot to be desired.  I've been tangling with concepts in physics and mathematics that I never studied, and reading a book about play therapy.  I also discovered a new webcomic that interested me, called Out There, and read the archive.  Aside from Bruno, I think it's the only webcomic I've ever read and enjoyed with no fantastic elements whatsoever. And that's all I feel like saying about April. Current Mood: blank (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 6th, 2009
1:26 am	March wrap-up March, March, March.  Welcome, spring!  I didn't start this month with much scheduled, but a fair bit popped up.  I began the month by finishing the novelty mystery book Dracula's Heir, with its lovely inserts and letters and such.  I compared my solution with that of my father, and we managed to figure most of it out before reading the solution. This month I watched Citizen Kane (four out of seven wands), Across the Universe (five stars), Sleepy Hollow (five swords) and Get Shorty (five swords), the latter two of which I'd seen before. Work has been good, with volunteers of various sorts picking up the slack left by a departed coworker.  I was able to run my game Magnet Maze three more times, with very mixed results.  I'm picking up on what kinds of things are a good idea to include in a game for a large group of kids. For Pi Day, a geek holiday celebrated on 3/14 in honor of the famous transcendental number, friends Matt and Kelly Strait announced that they were hosting a party.  It occurred to me that while I had never given a serious attempt to memorizing more than the first few digits of pi, nonetheless that's just the kind of thing I would do, and so I proceeded to memorize 300 digits.  I did it by associating each group of ten with a character from the casual Popcap game Peggle Nights, a contestant from the first season of Survivor, or a character I roleplay online.  If I were to continue memorizing pi, I would use contestants from the rest of the seasons of Survivor, thus making use of this nearly useless knowledge.  As for how each character matched up with ten digits, that's a matter of endless associations I have with numbers.  Each numeral has its own color in my mind (more or less), and I thought of the sequences in terms of evens, odds, squares, multiples of three, rising parts, falling parts, and symbolic groups like 26 as the number of instruction, 502 as the Egyptian number, 535 as the horn of the unicorn, and 73 as the number of Minneapolis fandom. The party itself was pleasant enough, with many delightful pies (including a very nice homemade mixed berry pie from skylarker) and merry games.  I recited my list of digts dramatically to an appreciative audience, although I misplaced the page I'd brought for verification. Speaking of Peggle Nights, I found myself a slave to that game, trying to beat the whole thing in Adventure Mode with no retries.  On the 19th I finally managed that feat, to my great jubilation and relief.  I've hardly played it since. On the 21st the MN-Stf voting meeting was held at my house, though I had to work through the first part of it.  It was nice, giving me a chance to talk with a number of people I'd wanted to talk to, to win at Uptown, and to get thoroughly beat up at Search for the Emperor's Treasure. The next day, I visited the Sheraton Bloomington to scout locations for this year's Minicon Medallion Hunt.  I'll be running it for the fourth time, which means hiding shiny marked pennies and coming up with clues for seekers.  This year I'll also be editing and printing the con newsletter, since my mother, who's been doing it the past few years, is running programming instead.  It's only going to be a relatively small portion of the bulletin for the medallion hunt, though.  I have most of the locations and clues decided at this point, but have yet to design the hardest ones. On the 23rd, I finished the second draft of the epic interactive novel I've been working on since November.  What remains is a long list mostly consisting of cool things I want to work in, formatting issues, and consistency issues.  I plan to finish it this month. I also read a couple of small interactive novels for kids from publishers I hadn't seen before.  These were Christmas gifts.  I found them both to be remarkably poorly structured, with numerous unnecessary bottlenecks and precipitous dead ends and mistakes (in one case an incorrect page number given in the winning line, making one book half-unwinnable) and basically all kinds of poor design decisions.  They gave me perspective and basically made me feel better about my own book by comparison. On the 27th, I had the rare opportunity to meet a friend I'd hitherto only known on the internet, who'd come all the way from Mexico City to stay with our mutual friend Amanda.  The game party boasted a huge turnout and a great deal of fun, and our honored guest, while initially nervous, enjoyed himself quite a bit.  Seems he's one of those people who's quieter in real life than he is online, though that may have been due to the context.  While driving him back, he read me the words to a song I'd written for a MUCK we both played on a couple years back, so I could then sing it to the best of my memory, which was good for laughs. Also during March, I discovered that you can make banana pudding in the same way as pumpkin pudding, using bananas instead of pumpkin.  Best, though, is if you use some of each. I finished the month by filing my taxes, which was for various reasons messier than in past years, but it worked out all right. And that's the end of the first quarter! Current Mood: good (Comment on this)
Monday, March 2nd, 2009
11:37 pm	February wrap-up Guess what?  I did a whole lot of fun things this February!! On the 3rd, I saw The Dark Knight. It was the first Batman movie I've ever watched in its entirely without falling asleep partway through. In fact, I was standing in front of the TV for most of it, tense and wondering how it could possibly not be over yet.  And while I understand it's significantly different than other Batman movies, I now feel that I finally understand what Batman is about.  He's about a particular, gut-wrenching species of awesome. That said, I don't think Batman's awesome is for me. I doubt I'll check out any of his past or further adventures. But I'm glad I saw it; it's really a powerful movie. The next night, I went to see Line 45 'converse in verse' at Nina's Coffee Cafe in St. Paul. My friend Emily and my coworker Ann are both members of the four-women poetry collective. As it happened, I was able to get rides to and from the venue with other library staff members, thus getting to know them better. Afterward, one of those random coffeehouse things happened to me, and I ended up playing Go on the intersections of a chessboard with a random theater woman in her late fifties from Massachusetts.  She told me about being part of a 48-hour play project.  I gave her my e-mail, but never heard back. That Friday and Sunday, I attended the annual gaming convention Con of the North. I found it good fun as always.  The highlight was playing the much-touted new resource management game about running a 17th-century farm: Agricola.  Not only did I enjoy it, I kicked butt at it.  (My key to success was building a large family early.)  I also enjoyed learning Rithmomachia, an eleventh century game of numbers moving around a board that was reputedly played by monks and intellectual elite who looked down on those who played chess.  (For the greatest victory, simultaneously create arithmetic, geometric and harmonic sequences on your oppont's side of the board!)  Moving slightly outside my comfort zone, I learned simple miniatures games called Gladiator Wars and the perennial Aliens: Hunt for the Queen (played on a 3-D board that spans several tables.)  I even happened to roll the killing shot to take out the alien queen!  I had the opportunity to play two new games by a local designer: a card game about casting spells based on the classical elements, and an abstract game about placing colored shapes strategically on a board.  I played Spy vs. Spy on the Commodore 64 (wow!) and looked on as they played an old Nintendo favorite of mine, Archon, on the same system.  I also got to play Torres, a fairly modern board game I enjoy.  No roleplaying this year, but I had a very good time. I didn't mind not being there on Saturday.  That day was taken up by attending my grandmother's ninetieth birthday party.  It was a hotel affair at which several of her childrens' families were staying overnight, but we only went for an afternoon.  My grandmother wowed her progeny by posing in a glossy little black and red dress she apparently bought at a dollar store.  I enjoyed playing pool with my cousin, Jill. Speaking of pools (and games), on Valentine's Day I went swimming for the first time in several years at the MN-Stf Pool Party.  (Call it my late observance of A Year Closer To Balance Day.)   I had a great time in the pool and out of it.  The swim was spiritually exciting for some reason, and left me writing philoso-poetry in my blank book afterwards.  I also enjoyed the sheets of fill-in-the-blank puzzles with things like "13 C[ards] in a S[uit]", the Wizard game, the boisterous game of Quirkle, chatting about game design with kids who know me as the creator of the Minicon Medallion Hunt, and an excellent spread. I enjoyed two visits to my friends Carolyn and Tom in February, who are good people to relax with.  They're planning their wedding for this June, which I'll definitely be looking forward to. Tutoring has been a little harder following the departure of a coworker at the end of January.  We're gradually getting more help, though.  I ran a new game called Secret Number for the youngsters in the Teen Center, which made use of my experience creating trails of interlaced clues on hidden pieces of paper.  It got too crazy, though, and they had too much trouble following the instructions, so I'm going to stick with Magnet Maze. I read the last book Douglas Adams never finished, published in The Salmon of Doubt.  I've also been reading a fascinating historical work called The Jesus Dynasty, slowly approaching the end of The Amber Spyglass, enjoying one of the interactive novels I was given for Christmas while not so much enjoying another, and puzzling over a sequel to Dracula in mystery form (Dracula's Heir), with extra little bits like materials in envelopes and the private journal of Renfield. And of course, I continued to work on What Is Best? the huge interactive novel I've been writing since November. I paid a visit to my friend Amanda in her new Brooklyn Park apartment on the 20th.  We and her brothers went out to a Thai restaurant and an Asian grocery store, watched Baseketball and an episode of MST3K, and did drawing exercises from Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain.  Plus, I got the chance to play Spore!!  What unfettered fun! Filking on the last day of the month was also a very nice time.  Laramie gave me her slat drum, which I used to enjoy puttering with and now get to enjoy again.  We had ten people there, which made it, I believe, our largest group since the original host, Lady Lavender, moved away about a decade ago. I made some yummy sandwiches this month.  I also discovered that Aldi is not only very cheap but also not as unappealing to shop at as I'd thought.  I watched Psycho for the first time.  And finally, I joined Facebook at last, which is where you're reading this if not on LiveJournal.  I'll be posting my monthly wrap-ups in both locations from now on. Best February ever! Current Mood: excited (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 22nd, 2009
7:37 pm	The end of The West Wing I watched the very last DVD of The West Wing yesterday, which is a bittersweet thing.  And then I went right to bed, and found myself dreaming of the show's milieu all night.  I don't remember any specific characters from the show being in it except for Matthew Santos, who was prominent, but I know it was chock full of characters from the outgoing Bartlet administration saying endless goodbyes and pursuing new opportunities and fitting into nifty new shots for the future, and it just kept going on, and on.  Like my mind wasn't satisfied with the actual last few episodes and wanted even more closure.  It actually kind of reminds me of other dreams I've had featuring endless transcendence, which in turn make me think of the end of The Last Battle, the final Narnia book, in which the characters run on and on forever, from one version of existence to another more vibrant and colorful and real, in perpetuity. Adding to the Narnia impression is the fact that I do remember two boys and two girls wandering about the White House and possibly other D.C. locations.  They were some combination of children of presidents in the West Wing universe, touring the place together and discovering wondrous things like swimming pools.  After waking up and falling asleep again, I then dreamed of a board game with a loose Lord of the Rings theme but which consisted only of marbles rolling around on a varnished two-level board, moving up and down through tunnels, and hitting each other.  The object was to land one in the middle (or the One Ring's area).  But the brilliant men playing and marketing it (still in the West Wing universe) were able to make shots so intricate that the marbles would swoop around and hit others at exact angles which would in turn swoop around and keep going with astonishing precision for minutes at a time before finally going a little bit wide.  (One of them eventually turned into Santos, and the other into me, I think.)  I feel like their technical acumen corresponded to the remarkable political acumen demonstrated by the experienced characters on the show. Current Mood: reflective Current Music: None (Comment on this)
Friday, February 13th, 2009
2:04 am	January wrap-up I haven't yet written a summary post for January, which is embarrassing. Better now than never, though.  Part of the problem is that I don't remember everything notable that happened during the month.  I haven't been updating my diary much, and only a few things are on my calendar. Oh well, anyway, my birthday was the second day of the month, and as it happened, the small game party turned into a little celebration for me.  There were still a number of presents left to distribute from Christmas to and from various guests.  We all got to show them off.  And I got a bunch of games as gifts myself, so we had to try out a couple of them (Amuse Amaze and Sixteen).  It was cozy and friendly. I went out the next night with my godmother Barb to Vilification Tennis, a show at the Bryant Lake Bowl (and imported from the Renaissance Festival, I gather) in which contestants insulted each other back and forth for teh_lulz.  It featured the ebullient mplspunky . I didn't do much writing all month.  I did hammer together the rest of my interactive book's challenge system, which included some amusing time mulling over things like, 'What is the logical consequence of a star crossed with a buzzard?'  I formatted the book and wrote rules for it, and sent copies to some of my friends, and found that the rules are too hard to follow and will have to be revised.  Oh well.  Since the end of January, I've resumed fleshing out the branches that need it. I also entered a 24-hour short story contest put on by WritersWeekly.com.  I was sent a topic and word length at noon on Saturday the 24th, and had until noon Sunday to finish.  I was expecting to write a 5000-word story, but the length limit was a surprisingly trim 950 words.  The big challenge, then, was being very concise but still entertaining.  I'm happy with my entry; I'll find out whether I placed in the top three out of up to 500 entrants in a week or two. I worked through a book of tricky maze-like puzzles by Robert Abbott, Mad Mazes, that I was sent as a Christmas present. :)  I eventually solved them all.  They took a surprising variety of different methods to solve. I ran my game Magnet Maze twice more, and it went more smoothly this time than before.  The kids were more cooperative and the process was more fun.  Rounds 3 & 4 were called Neptune's Run (fish magnets swimming back and forth) and The Junk Heap (deadly brass tacks encroaching from above like Space Invaders). Unfortunately, it's not clear whether I'll be able to keep running it.  At the end of the month, my coworker Nancy B. resigned suddenly.  She said that she would no longer qualify for health care so long as she worked at the library as well as getting paid as a personal care assistant for her ailing mother.  So she had to quit.  So sad :-(  She said she would try to return as a volunteer, but she hasn't yet.  WIthout her help, and with the Homework Hub system short on money, we're struggling to find volunteers to help, which means I may not be able to leave the Learning Center where the tutoring goes on for long enough to run my games on Thursdays.  We'll see what happens. On a related note, I attended an Advisory Board meeting concerning what to do about the program's shortfall.  It was pretty sad.  The first half of the meeting was all about all the cool things we could do if we had more money to expand, and the successes at a location that's probably going to get cut.  The second half was about how none of that is possible and how we can save money by cutting weeks or hours or locations from the program.  Stop faleing, economy. I watched Obama's inauguration as it happened, which was a nice way to spend a noontime.  I especially liked the classical piece, Air on Simple Gifts. Another old friend from Lion King MUCKing got back in touch with me that evening.  I hope she joins Chimaera, though I've only seen her once since then.  I spent hours telling her and another MUCKing friend about the whole Endless Round saga. The long-running internet Diplomacy game I was in finally came to an end.  I had at one point had the most units on the board, but immediately got betrayed by eveyone and knocked down very quickly to just two units.  Oddly, the position was such that my two units were unassailable, so they survived until the end of the game.  It ended as a draw between Germany, Italy, Turkey and myself (Austria), although I thought there was plenty of play left to be had between Germany (who had numerical superiority and the possibility of advancing in the western seas) and Italy (who had the potential to take Turkey out with careful play).  I sent out one last letter in character, but I don't think t went through since the game was over.  I've saved all my correspondence from the game, including the results sent out by the computerized judge, so I could, I don't know, put it on the web at some point or something. :) Matt K., who played Germany in that game, is now going to grad school in Wisconsin while his wife teaches at the university, but he made the time for a visit to the Twin Cities between semesters in mid-January.  It was great fun spending a weekend with him.  We visited the Como conservatory, and played various games, and he read a draft of my novel, and we used coupons from Cub to have an 'Italian evening', and so forth.  His wife Emily stopped by for a couple hours and gave me a fake book for hiding secrets in, and I gave her and Matt a copy of Dark Crystal and a couple of humorous Victorian era spoof books from Wondermark.com.  (I read them first; they're fascinating!) And that's January 2009. Current Mood: hopeful (Comment on this)
Monday, January 19th, 2009
4:04 pm	Five happies make up a post? Here are some happy things! 1: I just spent a couple days with my good friend Matt, who was in town between terms in his quest to become a high school psychologist.  (He goes to grad school in Wisconsin.)  While he was here, we went to the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, made spaghetti and cheese bread, and tested out games I got for Christmas and my birthday, as well as graph paper Battleship.  He perused my novel in progress (and tested the challenge system), played a bunch of Crayon Physics Deluxe, and hooked up his Game Cube and relaxed with John Madden football.  His wife Emily was in town on Saturday and stopped in for a while, too, and we exchanged presents.  Matt is always a lot of fun.  He also got to visit other friends while in town. 2. Moreover, Emily hinted that her poetry collective, Line 45, will be doing another reading soon, at a time and place I can attend.  And therefore, I intend to!  The group is twice as relevant for me now because, as it happens, I know another of the members from work, and she's nifty too. 3. I've been informed that a librarian at Northeast Library is creating a youth center or program there and is interested in using Simon's Revenge, the game I invented and ran for several months in the Franklin Teen Center.  Whee!!  There's a special magic for a game designer when people actually play your games without you having to be there urging them to do so.  I know because I felt it one evening in college when I saw two housemates start playing a card game I'd invented and taught them without my having anything to do with it.  (That was the only time, sadly.)  So, I've written her an e-mail about Simon's Revenge and hope to hear from her soon. 4. One thing that always gnaws at my heart is the Battle for Wesnoth campaign I left unfinished years ago.  (The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based fantasy combat game developed by the open source community.)  I recently recieved an e-mail from someone who remembered the old campaign and was in the process of updating the files.  He even said he was thinking about finishing the campaign!  I'm really excited at the idea.  Even if the ending isn't as cool or personally satisfying as it would have been had I designed it myself, it'll be a huge weight lifted if A Gryphon's Tale can finally be completed.  And the developer seems genuinely interested in where I was taking it, so, maybe, in the best case scenario, I'll still get to write the campaign's ending while he does the programming nitty-gritty.  Not that I would expect that of him, but it surely would be awesome. 5. I've entered a 24-hour short story contest run by WritersWeekly.com.  At noon this Saturday, I'll be sent a topic, and will have until noon Sunday to write a story about it up to 5000 words long.  For the $5 entry fee, I have a chance at $200-$300.  Aside from the fact that it's a bit of a longshot, I have a good feeling about the upcoming experience. Current Mood: happy Current Music: http://www.myspace.com/borealnetwork (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 11th, 2009
3:56 pm	Crayon Physics Deluxe A long time ago, I posted about the awesomeness of a little game called Crayon Physics.  The Deluxe version was going to come along eventually, but eventually was beginning to feel like never.  IT'S HERE!  Crayon Physics Deluxe is a simple but profoundly empowering game where you draw whatever you want--in crayon--and it falls, and slides, and whirls!  The object is to get a ball to touch a star by knocking blocks into it, knocking it against blocks, and using hinges and ropes to manipulate said blocks.  And it's really cute, too.  This casual game has a unique, godlike quality.  I played through it all in just three sittings and a few hours--but I'll replay it a bunch.  Plus--a level editor!!  If anyone does check it out and enjoys it, I'd enjoy trading levels, just used I used to hope to get to do with Lode Runner years ago. Current Mood: giggly (Comment on this)
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
2:12 pm	December wrap-up December is always an exciting time for me, but this one a bit less than most.  I spent more money on Christmas shopping than ever before--around $300--but don't feel like I hit home with most of the presents I gave.  The thing I'm proudest of this holiday season are the cards I sent out, including to some people I only know over the internet but who dearly deserve recognition and kind wishes. After finishing 70,000 words of my interactive novel What Is Best? during NaNoWriMo, I continued working on it diligently a week or so into December, and then got distracted by Christmas-related things and let it slide.  Perhaps it's to be expected that I found it (and am still finding it) difficult to resume work.  Rather than fleshing out the text for the most part (and there's a lot more to be fleshed out) I've been working on the challenge system, which will appear deceptively simple to come up with in the final version, but was really rather a challenge to put together.  I'm just about done with it now, but there are many more steps to take before this book is ready for me to put it in print (on demand).  I'm still excited by it, but also anxious that I'll be disappointed. One highlight of December was my creation of a new game for use with youth at the library.  I call it Magnet Maze.  Using Powerpoint (which I discovered while making Watership Down: The Confrontation can be used for more than just slide shows), I made cards with directions like Left 45 and Forward 1 in ten different colors.  I made a big 8x11 gameboard out of posterboard which hangs from the mantel in the Teen Center, braced by a yardstick.  Tacks, magnets and pushpins are the playing pieces in this game of simultaneous movement, inspired by RoboRally and the classic programmable 'turtle'.  I've run it for groups of kids twice now, and it seems to be good.  I just need to be able to keep the kids from getting bored while also keeping the confusion level down.  My plan is to run the game once a week, like I did Simon's Revenge before it. This month I was reacquianted with someone I knew from The Lion King MUCK eight years ago.  It turns out that we have many interests in common and we're growing to be good friends, within the limitations of the internet. My Christmas haul: A rainforest-themed wastebasket A whirry-globed pen A mystery jigsaw puzzle A vintage puzzle activity book A classic bridge book (which I've already read and enjoyed) A new edition Endless Quest book A blank book with homemade paper (made notes in it for the challenge tables mentioned above) Assorted colorful game pieces, with the suggestion to invent a game based on them. An iPod Shuffle (how groovy!) A penguin-themed calendar A faerie-themed Tarot deck And probably more I've forgotten (and my birthday is tomorrow, so who knows?) In the last portion of the month, I discovered armorgames.com and found quite a few amusing little flash games I enjoyed.  I got good enough at Achievement Unlocked to shatter the best scores of everyone in the forum discussing it.  I even downloaded a free screen capture program to record my 101-second run. I didn't go out a lot this December.  I made one daylong trip to the megamall for most of the shopping I couldn't do online.  I attended the Thank God It's Over party for NaNoWriMo, but it was a little disappointing.  I made a special trip to the library the day after Christmas to run Magnet Maze with a smaller group.  I saw the Wayniacs perform at Patrick's Cabaret, where my father was doing lights and my godmother was running sound.  My father and I arrived late to filking the next day, where we adjourned early to play a board game the hosts wanted to try.  On New Year's Eve I went to the MN-Stf party, but accepted a ride to Erik Emery's party at the Sheraton Bloomington, with a brief interlude at the Anime Detour party being held nearby, and then back after midnight to the MN-Stf party.  I spent most of my time reading quietly or working on my challenge tables, and that was the way I wanted it--just basking in the energy of the people around me. Current Mood: optimistic Current Music: None (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008
10:43 pm	WALL-E! I just watched it on Netflix.  HEE. Even though I wasn't crazy for the movie, I couldn't tear myself away.  I kept watching the scenes out of order over and over until I'd seen the whole movie twice and then some.  And the bonus features.  The featurette on sound design for the movie and Disney's history of sound design was fascinating. I think the thing that grabs me about the movie is how shamelessly it makes its robots emotionally accessible.  While that's not very realistic, I don't see why it shouldn't be done for a family audience so we can experience what it would be like to have semi-articulate robots around with purpose and personalities that blend aspects of machines and living beings...and are our friends.  Aw friends. :D (20th Century Fox's Robots totally failed to do this, since that movie's characters are basically just humans with quirks--not different enough to be appealing.) Seems to me WALL-E... * Is probably the only movie ever made whose main character moves on treads. * May have the cutest cockroach ever. * Has one of the best end credits sequences ever.  I bought the original song by Peter Gabriel on iTunes and will think of WALL-E whenever I hear it. Am I wrong? Current Mood: jubilant (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 15th, 2008
9:02 am	If you want to give me a gift for Christmas... ...or for my birthday, here are a few modest ideas: Interactive books!  Owing to the thing I wrote (and am still working on) for National Novel Writing Month, I have a renewed interest in non-linear books.  I read the most common kind, Choose Your Own Adventure, a lot as a kid, and two people have mentioned #45, You Are A Shark, in particular as one that stuck with them, so getting a copy of that would be nice...but a more interesting interactive book--for example, one with an inventory and/or dice system--would be nice.  Or a graphic puzzle book--something like that.  (I've already bought the chick-lit novel Pretty Little Mistakes.) Posters!  I've had mostly the same ones for a while now, and a change would be welcome.  My favorite subjects for posters are animals, imaginative scapes, and colorful geometric designs. Magnets!  For use in a game I'm hoping to start for youths at the library.  Multicolored rows or turtles about an inch square would be ideal, but anything under 2.5 inches with no rotational symmetry would do Some other ideas...  A mousepad with a wrist support?  A balaclava (ski mask?)  A sweater?  A cool T-shirt (no text, please)?  A new watch?   A fun bridge book?  A drawing journal? Okay, that's all I can think of.  Anything's cool.  Be well, take care, happy holidays. Current Mood: cheerful (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
3:10 am	November wrap-up Well, it seems I've just been getting more and more LJ-shy with each passing month.  I'm not sure why, though I have a theory or two.  Anyhow, I'll start by mentioning that I succeeding in reaching 50,000 words in my 2008 National Novel Writing Month endeavor: Being a 'winner' just means I met the wordcount goal of 50,000 in a month, not that what i wrote was anything special.  But it was!  It's an interactive novel, same as the classic Choose Your Own Adventures or Endless Quest books, to name a couple.  Written in the second person, where you choose which section to turn to whenever a choice arises.  Only I'm jampacking mine with all the goodies I always wanted one of these to have.  A combat system.  Secret bonus branches.  Cryptic numerology.  LIttle snippets of doggerel at the end of each branch.  No, it's not done yet.  I still have the tables to design and about forty branches to flesh out.  I'm hoping to take advantage of an offer for NaNo participants with a print-on-demand site. This was my sixth year doing NaNoWriMo and my fourth 'win'.  It was also my second year doing it with a laptop computer, which meant being able to go to write-ins at coffeeshops and such.  I went to four events: a so-called 'pitch meeting' where local participants advised each other on where they could take their stories; two stops on a 28-hour writing tour; a write-in at the Loft LIterary Center, and the Thank God It's Over Party.  The two stops on the tour I made with the middle-of-the-night Perkins stop, followed by Nina's Cafe in St. Paul.  Typing in Perkins from 3-7 a.m. was probably the most striking part of the whole month for me.  The NaNo group was about fifteen strong and occupied a whole corner of the restaurant, keeping it bustling with energy and power cords and laptops everywhere.  Every so often someone would announce a timed Word War.  My notes for the novel are kind of unique: I have two pages with maps of branches, a list of numbers from 1 to 257 with most of them circled (accounetd for) and crossed out (written) with some marked with asterisks (placeholders) and some with purple circles (need to be expanded).  And notes on the combat system that I'm working out. Aside from this, I'll just mention the other four Saturdays of November.  MN-Stf Halloween party--I didn't take much part, but it was fun and cheery.  Riverfolk performance at davidwilford and Erin McKee's--also fun and cheery, though attendance was low.  Filking, with potluck dinner--yes, it was fun and cheery, too.  Thanksgiving feast at mplsfish 's place--first a bunch of neat people I don't know, and then a bunch of neat people I do.  And yes, it was fun and cheery. Current Mood: awake (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
8:00 pm	October wrap-up Right then, time to look back at October 2008.  Probably most saliently, I spent the first twenty days continuing to worry about money, as I waited for my checks from the contract work I did over the summer.  I also had to amend my taxes, having discovered that I'd entered data from the wrong W-2 and thus underreported my income.  It actually increased the refund I was due, which I expect will far outstrip any penalty for the error, but it was still stressful.  The work checks eventually did come--I still haven't heard why they were delayed--but instead of going on a spending spree, I followed their arrival by going into a rut, doing little with my time (when not at work) but playing video games (like Peggle Nights and the first three Homestar Runner games from Telltale Games, called Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People), roleplaying online, watching television, and sleeping. I finally got back to work on revising a short story, "Begin One Way," but failed to complete the final draft and submit it to a market by the end of the month, as I'd hoped.  It was nice to work on it, anyway.  I went (guiltily) to two writer's group meetings.  These were made more enjoyable by the presence of people who hadn't come before, drawn by the alluring approach of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, which was the reason for the group's genesis a year ago.  It's always nice sharing the good things you have and know with newcomers.  Likewise, a new, enthusiastic person at the filking circle this month made it a lot of fun.  She seemed eager to return for future months. Similarly, one highlight of the month was my friend mbala  coming to visit.  I took him to a party at the house of minnehaha , where he enjoyed a number of conversations and basked in the differences between music there and at music parties in his native Czech Republic, and afterward we discussed a sequel to my game Five Stones and listened to the radio show I did as a teenager for KFAI.  He ended up staying all night. I haven't done a lot of planning for NaNoWriMo, but I'm going to be writing an interactive novel this year.  This kind where you make choices and turn to the according page or section.  I've wanted to write one for...really since I was a kid, and since then I've come up with various extra things I'd like to do with it, like adding a dice system, and now I get to indulge. :)  Id o hope to finish revising the short story before I get too deep into November, though. On November 2nd, I fasted in order to help out a couple of girls who were gathering names of non-Muslims to fast on that day for the charity Doctors Without Borders.  (Coincidentally, in the interactive chick-lit novel I bought as inspiration for my '08 novel (Pretty LIttle Mistakes), on my second or third pass through I ended up working for Doctors Without Borders in Chad when I was killed by a pipe bomb.)  Presumably they had another list of people who'd pledged to donate a certain amount for each person they got to fast.  I've gone without food for a day or two before, but never both food and water, so it was challenging, but fortunately the injunction was lifted at sunset. The Franklin Learning Center, a place offering various kinds of one-on-one tutoring for adults in the Phillips neighborhood, especially recent immigrants learning English, celebrated its twentieth anniversary this month.  It was really quite a to-do, thanks to the diligent staffers who run it, and whom I have the pleasure of interacting with at work.  (Their program shares a space with Homework Hub.)  I enjoyed the party and also helped set up and clean up for it, for which trifles I was invited to an appreciation party which I'll probably attend. :-)  The Center really is a valuable community asset. I enjoyed a couple of visits to my godmother's house in October, one somewhat lengthy and one very brief, but both delightful.  I wrapped up the month by celebrating Halloween.  I dressed up as the concept of Dimensionality, which is also the title of a song I wrote for an online character but which doubled very well for something to sing in costume.  I went to the library's Halloween event for kindergarteners to sixth graders, and then helped my father entertain Trick-or-Treaters with various schticks, like singing on the porch roof and throwing candy at opportune lyrical moments, or communicating only through a kazoo and a foamboard arrow.  My father's huge display was a huge draw, as usual; the kids numbered over two hundred.  He had dozens of artificial pumpkins on display, and I carved a jack-o-lantern with the face of a bat.  It was a good Halloween. Current Mood: okay Current Music: Summer Solstice 2 - Windham Hill (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 29th, 2008
5:04 pm	National opinion poll I just got called by the National Opinion Poll!  This is the first time a genuine political poll has interviewed me--in the past it's always turned out to be some private organization asking biased questions.  I was asked by what sounded like an elderly black woman about my attitude toward the candidates for President, Vice President and U.S.Senate, about labor unions and whether I'd been contacted by unions, the NRA, or American Workers, and a handful of other things.  She said at the end that I sounded knowledgeable and was surprised I'm only 28.  I didn't feel particularly knowledgeable during the interview, but I guess it sounded like my answers were well-reasoned.  She said she enjoyed our interview; I shudder to think what kinds of calls she normally experiences. Current Mood: chipper Current Music: iTunes main playlist (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 13th, 2008
1:58 am	Photobucket rollover According to the banner on its web pages, Photobucket contains BILLIONS of images...or perhaps that's how many it's contained at one point.  It tells us this through a ticker that's updated every second or so, about 75 images at a time.  I don't know whether this is an accurate, verified update or just an estimate.  It is pretty amazing, though, huh? Photobucket.com just rolled over to 6,000,000,000.  SIX BILLION IMAGES.  I watched it happen while chatting with my friend online.  It was like New Year's Eve. *8) Current Mood: amused Current Music: iTunes main playlist (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 8th, 2008
2:33 am	Mall of America, take two!! I'm happy to report that today I fulfilled the unfinished goal left dangling from my Solstice Adventure this year.  I walked from my home in South Minneapolis all the way to the Mall of America in Bloomington!  I did not make the mistake of trying to skirt the airport to the east this time, which made the trip fairly easy.  It was overcast most of the day, but never quite rained.  In all, I walked nine miles (a far cry from twenty-something on the solstice), stopped at a supermarket, took several rest breaks, and arrived after four and a half hours.  Finding that the theater was closed for renovations, I browsed Games by James, watched car races at Legoland, and bought some shirts at Ragstock, instead. Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: None (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 5th, 2008
1:15 am	August wrap-up Okay, so. In August, I continued working at the Franklin Teen Center, with a major twist.  As I'd feared/expected since I started helping the Youth Coordinator, Tracy, there in July, the library was unable to find a replacement for her in time for her departure, so I was left to take over and run the center in the interim.  I was happy enough to do so, even though it was much harder keeping the youth who use the room in line on my own.  So, for the past four weeks, that's what I've been doing.  It's been a lot of fun, as I've gotten to play out a fair bit of my desire to create puzzles and challenges and organize games--the part of me that wants to be a challenge designer for a reality game show got a workout these last four weeks.  The youths who use the Teen Center (mostly 10-16 years old) were treated to several movie days (after which I tried to hold discussion, with limited success), contests (two Jeopardy games, and a weekly installment of a game I invented called Simon's Revenge), several attempts at the party game Werewolf, and plenty of board games and video games, including occasional games I chose to feature, along with a few events organized by the library (workshops on making puppets and masks, for two), and the toys the center offered, many of which I brought.  The center also has five computers, a bunch of books, art supplies, and sitting space.  These were some lucky kids this summer. I enjoyed the opportunity, but I'm glad to have it over with.  The new Youth Specialist was scheduled to begin this week, but an unexpected circumstance means she'll have to start next week, instead.  Meanwhile, starting next week, I'll be the Lead Tutor for Franklin's Homework Hub system, which means more hours than last year, and more money per hour.  Most of my extra duties are things I was doing anyway, and I'll still get to spend some time in the Teen Center.  I'll be continuing to run Simon's Revenge, or other games like it, every Thursday afternoon.  I'm excited. On August 3rd and 4th, in accordance with the deadline I'd set myself for the writer's group meeting on the 4th, I submitted four stories to various markets.  It felt like a great triumph, since often going through the motions of a submission is harder for me than the other stages of writing.  Since then, three of them have been rejected (with notes that suggest they were near misses), and I've done basically no writing.  I let the goal of making two more submissions by the following group meeting pass by, so now I'm once again doubled down, set to make four by the next one.  Should be a piece of cake, and yet.  Blah happens. Because my work over the summer was all on contract, I had to invoice for payment, and I'm still waiting to get paid for the first part of it.  It should arrive any day now, but may not until the 21st or so.  As a result I've had to borrow money and have been feeling squeezed...well, generally a little nervous.  Plus, I caught a cold over two weeks ago and the sniffly aspect of it is still lingering.  Bother that. My online roleplaying has been quiet, but the main two plots I'm in have been progressing, and a couple more promising possibilities are opening up.  I also read a novel set in 1940s Nigeria called The Joys of Motherhood, which was insightful and delightfully educational.  Bee Movie was made of fale.  I'm watching Big Brother and I've started watching the new series America's Toughest Jobs. Game parties have been pretty okay.  The online Diplomacy game I'm in continues, although two players have dropped out and several times players have missed turns.  I'm two-thirds caring now.  I went in August to the first birthday of baby Miklos, Brust grandchild, and to Matt and Emily's place for dinner, at which we used a gift box of ingredients they gave me a year and a half ago to make chai milk tea.  I did not attend any Fringe Festival shows.  I did get around to playing the second minigolf course at the Walker Art Institute, Walker on the Green, with cari_rose  and crytel , and we were delighted to get a free pass inside for filling out a little survey.  We checked out the Richard Prince et al exhibit. Current Mood: listless Current Music: None (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 18th, 2008
12:31 am	Retroactive happy birthday I only just realized it was cari_rose and alierajean's birthday at the beep of midnight--when it ended.  Oops!  I hope that it was a good day, and that the observation of it last week was equally resplendent. Current Mood: quixotic (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 4th, 2008
3:06 am	Watch this video! And maybe vote for it! This is a video submitted by the husband of my coworker Tracy, Michael Leonard.  He's competing in a contest for a law school scholarship, and is one of ten finalists.  If you like his Lego-tastic video the best, you can vote for it to win here! Current Mood: amused Current Music: I don't know, but it's cool, isn't it? (1 Comment |Comment on this)