I have become buried in projects.  It happens from time to time and it stems from the logical argument that since I don't really have many demands of my time, I can afford to spend that spare time to do something meaningful in some way, shape, or form.  "Meaning" is variable here.  Even video games have meaning because they're defined in some way as being different than just wasting time.  Finishing the StarCraft missions has a defined end-goal as opposed to say, playing a few games of Galaga, which doesn't have a set end at all.  That's not to say that Galaga is wrong in some way, but that it holds less meaning. 

That's not how all of my justifications work, but it's a guide to some of them.  Some of my present projects are quite open ended, but their value lies in the nature of the intended result.  For example, I've been a news hound for many years, but reading everything in the whole world today would still mean that I'd have to read the news tomorrow because there's something new happening all the time.  Of course, there's no way to read everything - but I try to be balanced and knowledgeable.  Hence, the pile of unread magazines as a project.

On a similar vein, elections are coming up.  I have the time to be an informed voter, so I need to make sure my vote isn't wasted on the best sounding name.  That's a project right there.  I've been watching the Republican presidential primary debates, I've been reading online materials, and I've been watching local city council meetings and I've recorded a school board meeting.  It's a lot of work to stay informed.

I'm trying to learn to program - really program, though the idea hasn't gotten much past the hopeful stages.  I've gotten some books and other materials and am slowly slogging my way through them.

I've always been interested in History and Science, and those have clogged up my DVR for some time.  I also try to stay current on movies, so those also fill my DVR.  There's no way to watch them all, but I certainly try.  I mean, I have all this time, right?  There are shows I want to watch or catch up on, series I want to get into, and books I want to read as well.  In short, in trying to bring meaning to a life that is really meaningless, I've filled all the nooks and crannies and spare spaces.  It keeps me busy, but I'm not sure I'm accomplishing what I really set out to do.

Finally, last but not least in mind, I want to write.  I've written enough random pages, I want to tell stories.  Even if no one else reads them, and I'm realistic about my chances of that, I need to write these stories - for myself if no one else.  Still, writing a book is more complicated than I've ever considered.  I've fallen into the classic trap of wanting the books to be perfect.  It annoys me to no end to read science fiction that is dated, or read fantasy novels that aren't historically accurate, even if set in other times and worlds.  And yet, here I am.  I won't say that all the research I do is pointless, because I think it adds realism and depth to the stories I tell, but such research is never-ending.  Theoretically, I could live the rest of my life learning and never write anything, all in the name of being a perfectionist or completist.

I'm not complaining... well, not really anyway.  But I have concluded that I need to at least spend some time catching up.  I have a list of goals for this year and I need to work on those as best I can.  To that end, I've designated my time until the end of February to get certain things done or caught up.  It's not inclusive of everything I work on and it certainly isn't more than a fraction of the things I want to accomplish all year, but I think it will make the other things easier. 

I don't think I'll change any of the countdown clocks on the side of the blog.  I still need to update them for the new year.  But, I figured I'd post and tell everyone I'm up to.  At the moment, it's trying to clear my DVR and trying to catch up on all the magazines that I'm behind on.  That's not the entire list, but it's the biggest chunk, I think.

- Jim

This will be a short post, sorry.  There have been no further major events with my Sister and things seem to be heading back to a degree of normality.  Less obviously, there is some reason for concern, but there are no concrete diagnoses.  So, the good news is that nothing further has happened, but the bad news is that we don't really understand why it happened in the first place.  It may be a blessing however, if whatever they found turns out to be unconnected yet a concern nonetheless.  However, it is too early to say one way or another.

Life for the rest of us is also going back to normal as well - somewhat.  Again, we are watchful, and she doesn't spend much time alone.  She can't drive, which means we have to adjust there as well.  Apparently there is a law that once you have a seizure like this, you have to go 90 days without another one before they will let you drive again.  Ouch.

Anyway, here's hoping it's all over,

- Jim

I haven't written in a few days, mostly because there is nearly nothing to write.  Honestly, I haven't done anything for the last several days.  It's not that things don't need doing, it's that things just don't seem as important compared to recent events.  There's been no progress there either - while it's good there have been no further events, there also has been no progress in determining causes or effects.  Things are what they are, and we walk on eggshells waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I try, really I do.  I've watched a couple shows, I've read a few pages, I've written a couple notes.  My concentration is shattered by any noise, phone call, door slam, or random thought.  There's not much that can make someone forget that, I suppose.

Yeah, I'm obsessing.  Well, the wait may be over though - the doctor appointment is today.  Hopefully they've discovered something that can be fixed - Not that medicine has ever fixed anything ever, of course. 

- Jim

I don't even know where to start.  Though I've had time to consider events, my thoughts haven't exactly been productive on the matter.  Too many what-ifs remain and too many worst-case scenarios may have only been narrowly averted.  I suppose one always tends to look at the possible worst in these situations.  I can't imagine the thought.

It should come as no surprise that I have had trouble sleeping lately.  Between my knee, this weird reaction that never goes away, and the inevitable conflict between my night-owl ways and my desire to stay in contact with the regular daylight-shift world, my sleep patterns are irregular to say the least.  Compounding this issue is the fact that I really don't need a schedule.  I can come and go (or not) as I please.  I've no where to be and no when to be there by.

So, I laid down to try and sleep a bit on Saturday afternoon.  I had a headache, possibly from the changing weather, although I can get headaches from lack of sleep as well.  I couldn't sleep so I just lay in bed trying to pretend to when my older Sister screamed.  She screamed again, "Call 9-1-1!"  My Dad yelled back that the phone downstairs wasn't working.  I think in his panic, he didn't press some buttons or something.  It didn't matter.  I was out of bed and running downstairs with my phone.  My youngest Sister was slumped in her chair, head back and gurgling.

I did not acquit myself well here.  I was tired, not really coherent, panicking, under the influence of Tylenol PM, and shaky as all hell.  "Weneedanambulancetocometomyhouse.MySisterishavingsomesortofseizureorsomething!"  Those poor 9-1-1 operators.

It took a while to get my Sister out.  She came to in a few minutes, but she wasn't herself.  It was like she was a six-year old girl again.  She wanted people to leave her alone.  She fought.  She screamed.  The paramedics thought she was on drugs.

They screamed to the hospital as my Sister really started to come back, though the process would take several hours.  Once there, they did tests as my Dad and older Sister waited by her side while I informed family members and shared what little information we had.  She was the one in trouble, but I've never felt so helpless.

Now the waiting begins.  When they sent her home from the hospital that night, they didn't know what was wrong.  They gave her no medicine.  She had no prescriptions.  The scans were inconclusive, but they found a spot during an MRI on her brain.  They had no neurologist on hand to analyze it.  What does the spot mean?  Well, it could mean anything - or nothing.  It might cause a stroke, it might have been caused by a small one.  It could be cancer or worse.  Yeah, worse.  Or not.

When she was little, she used to be scared of the dark.  She'd always want to sleep in my bed, but being a brother, that was just too weird for me.  So, she'd wait until I was asleep and then sleep at the foot of my bed where I often, mostly accidentally, kicked her.  She figured it was still safer than being in her bed alone.  Yeah, she was an annoying little Sister, but it did kinda feel good that she looked up to me like that.  And now, there's nothing I can do to help.

So, that's what happened.  I haven't done much in the last two days except relive that.  I'm sure she has too.

- Jim

My youngest Sister was taken to the ER on Saturday by ambulance.  Though she was allowed to go home that night, they may have found something serious.  She has to go see a specialist in a few days.  Things got very weird for a while there.

But, for the moment she is fine and is resting relatively comfortably. 

- Jim

- Jim

Amazon.com shipping delays

When I was growing up, I had a group of friends.  (Amazing, isn't it?)  Anyway, being high school students and college students, we usually didn't have a lot of money.  During the holidays, we would make promises to each other not to buy each other gifts, or some years when we were feeling particularly saucy, would put spending limits on such gifts - $10.00 or so.

There was always one person that made the promise and bought everyone presents.  We would get mad, they would protest that we didn't have to buy THEM presents, but there was an obligation.  We would have to spend the money.

Well, I'm not friends with any of those people anymore.  Time and lives have diverged and blah blah blah.  I figured I was over that nonsense.  Though I have a little more money now, I pay bills and help out among family.  So, we make the same deal with family members.  And again, despite all the promises, there is one person that goes out and buys gifts anyway.  "You don't have to buy ME anything!"  Yeah right. 

So there I am, on December 23rd or whatever, shopping on Amazon.com for a present that I know will not get here in time.  I feel somewhat guilty about it, but if they'd followed the rules, it wouldn't have happened.  But, being Amazon.com, I figured they'd ship it sooner or later, even if I was cheap and chose the Super-Saver shipping.  Ah me and my silly beliefs!

It got here yesterday.  But that's not all. Yup, two weeks before they even shipped it out, much less delivery time.  I figured what the heck, it's the holidays, they're busy and swamped. But... I made another order on January 8th, because I needed some computer supplies.  Again, I chose Super-Saver shipping, and again... they just send me a note today saying they were shipping it.  Note - it hasn't left their warehouse, they just arranged for it to be shipped.  Add another day or so for the post office to pick it up.  That's 5 days before it left their warehouse. 

So the question is, are they slowing down because they're that much busier now, or are they slowing down because they want me to convert to their secret tax in the program Amazon Prime for $79 a year?  I've checked the news and can't find anything about it, but it does seem somewhat suspicious. Oh yeah, and that's not the complete order - they're still waiting for part of it.

I dunno.

- Jim

So what did the last post mean?  Well, over the past couple months, I've turned down more than one opportunity in more than one area.  On the surface, these opportunities might have been pretty good deals.  Unfortunately, the reality is that I would not have been able to make the best of any of them and worst is something that I can all too easily contemplate.  The problem is that in each of these opportunities, there would be a cost to failure and those costs would not have been borne entirely by me.

So, it seems clear that I need to move on.  Well, yeah.  And insane people need to be normal and homeless people need to get homes.  It's easier said than done.  I've noticed that people with the simplest solutions for other people's problems are often the ones with the most messed up lives themselves.  "Well, it's different for me, Jim.", is something I've heard far too many times.  If your advice is so easy for me to follow, then perhaps you should prove it by following it yourself.

But this isn't an attack on others either.  In my own glacially slow way, I am moving through these issues.  It's just a more complicated and painful process than I could have ever imagined.   I admit that I try to ignore it from time to time, but it's always there, below the surface, always bubbling up. 

- Jim

How do I end up making personal posts like this in public?  I don't know.  I would guess it stems from a desire to explain myself and the reasons for my actions.  I am aware of many of my faults.  Some, I have taken steps to alleviate or fix entirely.  Some are second nature to me and any attempt to ameliorate their effects would accomplish no more than to fool myself and others for a short while.

The truth of the matter is that my life did change in 2006.  More than I realized, more than I know now.  Those changes were sudden, profound, and sometimes mysterious - especially to me.  Not all of their effects manifested themselves at once, and not all of the beliefs that I could rise above these matters have proved realistic or even possible.  As I wrote to someone a couple days ago, I am a broken person. 

That sounds more dramatic than the reality is, but the effect is still the same.  2006, followed by 2007, was a tremendous year.  In 2005, I was baptized Lutheran in preparation for getting married to someone I loved.  By 2006, that dream was over and I was betrayed.  Blah blah blah.  My Brother died.  I injured my knee - permanently.  I lost my best friend.  I wandered and muddled through the year in such a haze that the full effects of the events that happened were lost to me. 

2007 was hardly better.  I continued to recover from my knee injury and the resulting surgery which may have been even worse for it.  My Mom died.  I lost my job.  My family fell apart and I went with it.  2007 was a dark time indeed and we're still paying the price for those days.  Again, I muddled through much of it, this time with pain medicine.  No, the need was real, but the effect was more far-reaching than just my knee.  In addition to the normal guilt I feel about things, I also regret that I didn't feel more than I did.  I did feel more than I knew, clouded by that medicine, but I lacked the ability to analyze and eventually deal with it.

Since then, I've wandered in my thoughts.  I am unable to move on.  I am unable to continue.  I am unable to go back and fix what I've done or didn't do.  Indeed, if somehow the impossible happened and I could go back in time and change those events, I'm not even sure many of the things I did were wrong.  They're just hard to live with.

This isn't really news.  To the long-time readers of this blog, all of this information was readily available until I took it down.  However dimly it may be though, I am aware of how who I've become affects some others and how it would affect even more still if circumstances were different.   As I said, I may not be able to rise above my faults, I am aware that I have them.  To impose them on others, however well-intentioned, would be to commit an even more grievous sin.

To some extent, I recognize that this post will fail.  A rejection, however it may be worded and however well it may be intended, is still a rejection.  Rejections hurt.  I wish I could avoid that, but I must merely choose the lesser of two evils.  I've tried to avoid reality at other times in my past, and the blow up that inevitably follows is even worse.

I'm sorry,

- Jim

The picture above doesn't do them justice, but I finally replaced the ten-sided tens GEM die that got stolen from me some ten years ago.  Ten seems to be a theme here.  Anyway, I got two clear ones and a red one, all ten-sided, tens dice.  Ahhh... I am such a nerd.

Anyway, if you're interested, that is the number to the place that fulfilled the order - Gamescience. 

- Jim

I'd like to bring your attention to a reference that may have been missed in the past.  This is an image from the Deep Space Nine Technical Manual of the skeletal structure of a runabout - a workhorse vehicle designed to use modules:

This, is the picture of the starship from Star Control II, a video game from back in the day.  It is described as a workhorse vehicle which is customizable by adding and rearranging... modules.  Interesting.

I figured you'd like that.  In my fantasy world, everyone is interested in the same things as I am.

- Jim

I hope this isn't the start of a trend, but another Aunt died on December 27th.  I would have posted sooner, but I had a pretty bad cold and wasn't on my computer enough.  I'm sorry about that.

For the record, I'm feeling better, though I'm still not over it.  It'll just take a couple days to get it all out of my system, I think.

New Year's Eve is coming up.  Everyone stay safe.

- Jim

I have to be honest, I haven't been the hard worker I'd like to be lately.  To tell you the truth, I'm still suffering from that reaction I had a while ago.  How long ago?  Some indications are that this thing started far earlier than I realized, making a real diagnosis difficult.  The trouble is that my body is largely taken for granted until it stops working or starts hurting.  I'm working on tracking the source of this, but I'm afraid I may be no closer to determining the cause or finding a cure than I was a few days ago.  I tried a treatment then, it's still being evaluated.  We'll see.


The end of the year is approaching and I have to say that though I wasted more time than I would have liked, and spent less time on the things I had planned, this year may have been my most productive yet.  Again, the outside world is often ignored by me.  Things outside my immediate interest remain outside my interests.  I acknowledge the loss; it's one of the reasons I spend the time to read my news magazines cover to cover.  I have no interest in the art world, for example, but it helps to broaden my perspective a bit.  I am imperfect, but I do my best to improve what I can.

Anyway, reality sets in every now and then and it's clear that I'm not going to finish everything or anything I wanted to by the end of the year.  That's normal.  There aren't any small projects for me.  I also can make any project much bigger than it needs to be by my very nature of being picky, though others call it OCD.  Maybe it is.  I like what I like.  The computer has to be just so, my work area needs to be just so, drawing area needs to be just so, reading area needs to be just so, blah blah blah ad nauseum.

The rest of the year will be spent on _sundry_.  All the little odds and ends of this or that project are the focus.  Too many piddly things are put on the back burner because they're waiting for this or that bit of attention.  I also plan on watching DVDs, movies, television series, magazines, and other things.  There will be a daily list, I'm sure, but I'm not working on anything larger than day to day stuff.

Next year's resolutions have been pared down.  Oh, they're still probably unattainable - I am who I am, but I will try harder to do my best all the time.  I'm still working on that list, but it will involve unread books, periodicals, movies, as well as branching into other areas of fitness and financial responsibility.  I have not been completely remiss, but I have been too remiss nonetheless in these areas.  Despite my best efforts, it appears that I may live for a while yet, and I need to prepare for that eventuality.  While nothing I do is really inherently dangerous, I suppose there's always that chance that one or more items on the list might kill me.  If it must be so, then it will be so.  I don't think I'd make a very good old man anyway.

No.  That's not anything more than it says right there.  I'm not secretly trying to kill myself.  I'm not publicly trying to kill myself.  The person who thinks they're solving a problem by getting me help is wasting their time.  They will be wasting my time and whatever professional's time that happens to be spent as well.  Having said that, there are many ways of killing yourself I suppose, and apathy is my means.  Or isn't.  I'm not done mourning, I'm not unbroken, but I need to finish living this life before this life is finished living.  I'm not a fan of wasting time and this has been a big waste of time in that area.

So, that's some of what I've been working on and what I plan to be working on in the near future.  Yes, I'm still working on writing.  Yes, I hope to have a book(s) done soon.  Done, of course, is a relative term - I will definitely need to spend some time rewriting.  Still, the story is closer than it's ever been before, and I'm happy about that.  I just need to finish it.

I may post before then, but if not, I wish everyone a Happy New Year.  Best of luck in 2012.

- Jim

Merry Christmas Eve!  I don't think I will be online tomorrow, so I just wanted to shout out to everyone that I hope they have a wonderful Christmas.  Be safe, drive careful, don't drink and drive. 

Take care!

- Jim

My Niece, Stephanie got married on Monday.  I feel quite old.  Haha.  Seriously, I'm happy for them.  I hope they have many wonderful years together.

I'd have posted sooner, but this allergic reaction is killing me.  I would rather have the old reaction of being sick than this.  Ah well.  I think I'm getting it cured, it will just take two weeks for it to take full effect.  Until then, I'm stuck with being insane.

- Jim

My Great Aunt died last Saturday.  Though other members of the family have seen her more recently, I haven't seen her in a couple years.  She was 97 years old.  She was possibly one of the nicest people you could have known and was a good friend to my Mom when both were alive. 

I suppose it was probably for the best since the years had increasingly gotten harder for her.  I just dislike the thought that it was for the best.  The world is a little darker because of the loss.

- Jim

There are a couple types of books you read in your life.  The books you read because you want to, and the books you read because you have to, or think you have to.  I put that last bit into the latter group because there's more pressure on you to read them than desire.  It's not that they're not good books - some of the best books I've read were because I had to.  It's just that one type of reading is for fun and the other type of reading is more work.

Case in point - the first time I read The Fellowship of the Ring, was because my best friend at the time was reading it.  I stopped reading during the Council of Elrond for an entire month because it seemed a lot like work.  After I got through the series though, and coincidentally started playing a role-playing game more or less based on the books, I not only liked the book, but I counted that chapter as among the best.

So it is with movies.  I watch movies on my own that I like or that interest me.  I watch many more because I think I should, either to catch references or because others have talked about them.  Even though they are hardly building trailers or even working at a pizza place, I consider these movies work, because I have to watch them.  Can you become OCD about media?  I don't know.  These things certainly become somewhat destructive at times.

Anyway, I had an unfortunate accident where my DVR deleted a Republican presidential primary debate because it was too full, so I have been attacking that DVR with a vengeance for the last several days.  Of course, as space becomes available, I've been recording more things.  If this was a show on A&E, I'd be some kind of digital hoarder, possibly tying into my theory of OCD.  Ah well, it's a theory I can't prove or test and such speculation is pointless.  I'll do it anyway because I'm like that though.

In any case, I also got my Blu-ray player.  I have some research things to spend time on as well as all of the movies that have piled up in the past years.  Oh yeah, the other part about calling it work - I normally don't sit and watch television for very long.  Unless there is some kind of constraint, either time or other people sitting there threatening me, I will take four or more hours to watch a two hour movie.  As a matter of fact, I've paused Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows right now.  Although, I think I had a pretty good reason.

So, anyway, for a while now, the plan has been to work as hard as I can until the end of the year trying to get done what I can get done and push the rest back another year.  Things I cannot possibly finish before then have taken a backseat to things I might finish.  For me anyway, measurable progress is more motivating than long hours.  Writing is being worked on, but at a far lesser pace than might otherwise be.

- Jim

I think I've said this a thousand times, but with all the time in the world, you'd think I'd find the time to post here more often.  You would, of course, be wrong.  Silly rabbit.

I have all sorts of projects going around.  Some are important, some are much less so.  If one could be a hoarder of such things, then I could possibly have my own television show.  I'd have to find someone to cry though.  Reality shows have lots of crying.  Anyway, one of the things I'm working on is putting all the stuff I had to remove from my last computer because of space issues, back on to my computer.  No, I don't have a space issue yet, but it is inevitable.  If you thought my regular to-do list was long, the stuff banging around inside my computer is far worse.  There's games, books, documents, movies, television shows, documentaries, writing, and so on.  Even without an internet connect, with no way to leave, and no contact with the outside world, I estimate it would take me ten years at least to get through it all.  So... yeah, not going to happen.

But I try.  So here I am.  I've already transferred almost a hundred DVDs and a few CDs worth of stuff.  Some of this stuff is pretty old.  I figure I probably have a hundred more or so, but taking the time to count would just be more time.  I try not to sit here while the stuff is transferring and do nothing, but it means that I don't get much done in whatever else I'm working on either.  A DVD is five minutes at best of transfer time, which means I get just a couple minutes of work done before I have to take a break.  "Work" being a very loose term indeed.

The end of the year is coming up.  It's an arbitrary deadline, but it's a deadline nonetheless.  Reality is setting in about what I can and cannot accomplish.  It's not pretty.  Still, I hope that what I do before the end of the year helps to avoid the several months that typically happens at the beginning of new years where I catch up with all the stuff I was working on before I can work on this year's stuff.  In a way, that's a lost cause.  Everything I've failed to finish goes onto the next year - I rarely really give up on something entirely. 

The writing is progressing.  I'm not going to publish word counts any more because they're just not a metric worth measuring.  I can scam the system and just write crap if I really want to, and to be honest, even stuff that seems worthwhile today, typically isn't tomorrow.  I've thrown out a lot of ideas over the years.  The books are moving forward, but slowly.  Even when I work hard, the work is hardly moving.  Or that's the way it sometimes seems.

Anyway, the disc is done, so I've got to get going for the next one.  G'luck,

- Jim

When things are going well, I have remarkably little to talk about.  When things are going badly, I'm afraid to post the excuses.

Generally speaking, things are going well.  My wrist has not resolved itself.  It'll get better and then I will hyperextend it doing something while not thinking and then it will be hurt again for a few days.  I'm left-handed, it's my left wrist.  It cuts down on a lot of the things that I normally do when I have to wear the brace.  Can't write, can barely type, can't play most video games, it's annoying to have to try and read, can't clean, can't sort, can't do much of anything.  Even watching movies is annoying because with the left-handed thing, I can't hold a glass in my hand to drink from.  Normally, not a problem, but it can be when I'm into a movie and while not thinking, reach over to get a glass.  My fingers are about a half-inch too short to stop myself from knocking over a glass before I can feel it.  Sigh.

On the other days, things are getting done.  Sure, it's never as much as I'd like and never as much as is needed, but things get done.  The new computer is nearly as useful as the old one while being much, much faster.  I've moved most of the files I have saved on various drives, CDs, and DVDs.  That's not particularly hard, but it is time consuming.  Oh yeah, and impossible when I'm wearing the brace.  My computer naturally, is on my left side. 

Writing is going well, when I can do it.  Some days are better than others with the wrist.  You can plan for years and years, but when pen meets the proverbial paper, a million things pop up that must be reconsidered.  I've resolved to deal with these things later, but it's hard.  I don't want to make mistakes, but my inexperience virtually guarantees it.  Could I work around these mistakes later?  Yeah, probably, but I'd rather not.  The whole experience of being a GM for MERP works against me here and it's probably more relevant than I care to admit.  Playing with a bunch of fanboys is the same as writing for a bunch of fanboys and we fanboys know when there are mistakes.  Most are even worse than me with stuff like this, but I hate to retcon or to change what has already happened.

The other thing that hurts/helps is that I'm working on so many projects at once.  True, it keeps me busy when I can't work on one or foresight fails me, but it also means that every pound of effort is divided by ten or twenty different projects.  The numbers always look smaller that way.

But, as I said, I'm getting there.  It's been a longer road than I care to admit, and I probably won't reach my goal of finishing by the end of the year, but high hopes for next year.

- Jim

Okay, this post will fill you in on some of the crazy things I've been working on and why I'm too stuck up to post often.  First and foremost, I'm still having trouble with my wrist.  I don't think I give it enough time to heal.  It starts to feel better, so I take off the brace.  Lately, I've been moving things - not big things, not far distances, but it's enough.  I'll get to that more later, but suffice to say that my wrist now hurts more than my knee from doing these things.  I've been taking it easy for the last couple days and trying to wear the brace more.  Unfortunately, this new keyboard is even worse than the old one when I have the brace on.  So, that means less typing period.

The main thing I've been working on is setting up this new computer and getting the old one working.  The equipment was set up and working in a day, but it took two days to figure out the best way to fit them all in the cramped space I have available.  Even so, it's not an optimal solution, but it's probably the best I'm going to get for a while.  Meanwhile, there's the printer to worry about, cables to worry about, peripherals to worry about.  Getting them working is easy.  Fishing the cables through is the difficult part.

I've also been sorting papers, cleaning around, and organizing.  I spent three hours the other night shredding old receipts and paperwork that I let build up.  I'm a pack-rat, so that three hours was probably far less than needed.  I also organized magazines, books, and DVDs as well.  I even pulled MERP stuff out and made some attempt at organizing it before I packed it away.  It was necessary and no, I didn't do any work on the game itself, but there you go.  It brought back memories though and I wish I had time and means to play.  Sigh.

Finally, I've been reading.  By my count, I have just over 46 days and 3 hours before the end of the year.  That deadline is never a hard one - it's as random and meaningless as the daily deadlines I keep for things.  Still, there were things I wanted to accomplish that aren't going to happen.  So I've been trying extra hard to get reading done and some of these shows watched that I wanted to see.  I will never be truly caught up in this regard.  Just yesterday, I think I added two books to my "Someday" list.  I have about forty index cards with books on them, just waiting for me to run out of other things to do.  Amazon.com must love me.

During the computer outage, there was a plan to get much of this work done.  After the initial shock and depression, I think I made a pretty good start on it.  Since I got the new computer, I've slowed these things way down.  Some of what I did was necessary, and some was just simply playing Heroes of Might and Magic II on a brand new computer.  I probably overdo that game stuff, but it helps me handle stress.

So that's that.  I'm currently reading November's Discover magazine that I got about a week ago.  I'm also reading David Eddings, The Rivan Codex.  I'm in the midst of watching several movies, a bunch of Republican primary presidential debates, and a biography of J.K. Rowling.  I'm working on watching old Beavis and Butthead episodes as well, since I've missed so many when they were on during the 90's.  I'll try and keep everyone updated as things get accomplished.

- Jim