Current mood:	optimistic
Current music:	None

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.