March 2008 Archives
... and yet I manage to fall off it.
It's a kind of gift.
At any rate, I'm back from my unannounced hiatus with all kind of news.
Writing related: my agent writes to tell me that my last round of revisions were good and there are just a few more things to work on she's ready to talk to some publishers! I'm... actually a little shocked, to be honest. Not that she is happy with the story or anything, it's just that... I've never been at a place with Hidden Things where I wasn't working on a revision of some kind for someone. It's new and dangerously alluring territory for me, this "someone else is working on it" place. It's a good place -- I might try to get back here more often.
Wedding: Twelve short days to the BIG DAY. I will not be cliche and say "I'd just like for it to all be over," because frankly that's not the case. However, I *would* very much for it all to be going. Started. In process, if you see what I'm saying. Let's have us a wedding.
The next two weeks, I'm off go-into-work work and am instead working on stay-home-and-work work. This includes two editing jobs on roleplaying games that I'm frankly pretty excited to get started on, but also involves thing like last minute wedding tasks and fun additions to my daily schedule such as being able to catch up on my Google Reader while at the gym in the middle of the day -- there's something very satisfying about doing "real work" on your own personal projects -- it's virtuous and decadent at the same time.
When was you're last work from home day? What did you do that had nothing at all to do with work?
Me: Shall we go to our friends' home and join in the sacrifice of brightly painted, boiled chicken embryos in celebration of the reanimation of the Christian god-king?
Kate: *dirty look*
Me: What?
Kate: ...
Me: Nothing I said was actually wrong.
Kate: I *know*.
Specifically, this: there are a few words that should never, under any circumstances, be linked together in a coherent sentence.
"Toddler" and "beauty pageant."
"Jalapeño" and "chowder."
"Collectible card game" and "investment."
"Quick" and "corporate response time."
... just to name a few off the top of my head.
The local cafeteria has taken this St. Patrick's Day as an opportunity to teach me another must-not.
"Corned beef" and "panini."
Ireland and Italy are geographically separated for a reason, people, and at least one of those reasons is culinary in nature.
It was a relatively quiet weekend at Casa Testerman -- our date night consisted of some we-time together on Lord of the Rings Online, which is something I didn't even realize I'd missed (quite alot); Saturday consisted mostly of some game-time over at the Consortium (much delayed, and fun); Sunday was some very satisfying house-cleaning, getting to know a few folks online, and the start of some new fiction exercises for myself.
This week, I'm wrapping up a course-design project that is both production-piece and application for more work. It's coming together fairly well -- I think it's stronger than anything I've done lately, but then again I probably *should* think that. Wedding plans continue to compress into the remaining time available. (Less than a month!)
Recently read: Neil Gaiman's 1602, Joe Straczynski's Lost Souls, some more of Alan Moore's Lost Girls, and some short fiction by Robert Howard. Also, we've been watching the first season of Bones; not the best of all television, but by far and away the most entertaining 'crime scene expertise' show I've watched. I'm nearly vibrating with my desire to unleash MI:5 on Kate, but we're waiting until the long visit to New York for the wedding is done and we're all back at home.
March, which came in as a lion and will probably go out like a frenzied events coordinator, is upon us here at Casa Testerman. To say there's quite a lot going on leaves a bit too much to the imagination of the reader; I should shoulder some of the burden.
Start with the Democratic Primaries, then add to that a few little wrinkles. Perhaps the two main candidates are getting married. Bill is out of town for two weeks and won't be available to help with any scheduling. One candidate is starting up a new business, and the other is lining up a job in case the whole election thing falls through. Oh, and it's time to start looking at preschools. And there's a book revision going on (again), and two editing jobs.
There's quite a lot going on.
Yesterday was our second anniversary, which is both amazing and kind of sad. Amazing for all the obvious reasons; sad because it will be the last time we really celebrate it as our 'main' anniversary; we'll be (happily) replacing that date with our wedding, which is all to the good, but I can't help but feel as though I'm abandoning a good friend who helped me through a rough time.
The gifts for our flower girl and ring bearers arrived yesterday, and are great. I'm a bit more tickled by the groomsmen gifts, but they aren't here yet -- as far as gift-giving goes, I'll have to settle for finally getting Dave his birthday gift only two months late, as a kind of babysitting thank-you, I suppose. Part of the gift is FROM OUTER SPACE, which makes me happy.
- With the exception of masturbation, each of the elements were condemned by at least one faith group.
- With two exceptions (teen and extra-marital sex) each of the factors were "morally acceptable in most cases" by at least one faith group.
- The only factor over which most faith groups agreed was their near universal condemnation of extra-marital sex.
- With such massive differences of opinion, conflicts between faith groups over sexual matters will probably continue long into the future.
Overall? I feel like I should visit a buddhist temple some time.
As I ponder this, I have to share a simple fact -- for all that I rarely play DnD (and honestly liked the original redbox rules more than the 3rd edition), that game and others written by Gary led me to some of the most enjoyable moments in my life, bar none. He was an inspiration and a muse and someone who, if nothing else, encouraged my creativity and imagination and gave me a space in which to dream.
Every day (and for the last twenty-seven years), I play games directly descended from his creations, or play around with them in my mind; he was to gaming what Tolkien was to fantasy: a recreation of the genre, a defining touchstone to which all descendants are, favorably or not, either compared or contrasted.
My family has always very supportive of whatever kind of creative activities I wanted to dive into (even when it involved hours and hours of tinkering with 'that damn game' in high school), but Gary was family too, of a sort; a kind of great-uncle I only spoke to via wordy, typed letters -- gruff and sometimes off-putting, but the sole adult who went beyond 'supportive' said 'let me show you how *I* create things.'
Appropriately, he will be mourned and missed.
I've yet to make use of the "Worth 1000" category on the journal.
Allow me to rectify that.
The camera: My Motorola Q
The time: On the way to daycare this morning
The angle: Over my shoulder, shot blind, using the same basic positioning that I've found, in the past, succeeds
The Result: Far greater than the sum of the parts.
