Current mood:	okay
Current music:	Summer Solstice 2 - Windham Hill

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.