pack it up, we're done here.
^ I wish. No, instead it's time to get my thoughts in order. Instead of letting them careen around wildly, like last night.
Hoo.
Besides the workout I spent some time making Neverwinter Nights characters and discarding them. Making characters in d20 is not especially fun. Playing the combat in NWN is not especially fun. I made a pretty sweet water genasi monk - kind of a water bender theme, right? I'm not sure I will ever play as her, though, because of the combat.
I might give Jade Empire another try with a controller. I didn't much enjoy the combat with a keyboard. Otherwise, it's off to jRPG town for that game fix.
- I still did a workout last night, though. That's something. Last week I blew off my "legs" day, because I didn't want to do the squats in the morning and then we had DorkCon at night. For shame. I am determined to see my bench go up; it's been stalled for too long.
- I had another idea for uniform costumes: the Saiyan armor from Dragon Ball Z. (Though everyone calls it Saiyan armor, almost all of Freiza's soldiers wear it. It's definitely a uniform.) It's like a blue jumpsuit, and would probably need molded foam for the main armor. Anything else probably wouldn't look good.
There's too much going on just now for ol' Ken and it's only going to get more complex. Let's break this down.
RPGs
- Tonight: Team Rocket, leaving off for a while. Going to try and put together a cliff-hanger.
- Pirates! - off-week, Sprites instead.
- Sunday one-shot: didn't happen, too wiped out.
- Others: stop trying to figure out perfect RPG stuff, it will make you crazy.
House and Errands
- Grocery shopping
- Clean up basement
- Recycle excess boxes
- Stop by hardware store; L-brackets and see about foam from Michael's?
- Put away air conditioners soon
- Clean up garage
- Filter out some clothes, to go to Goodwill or get tossed.
The kegs
- Clean out kegs - probably time to simply pitch the raspberry wheat
- Wash out kegs extensively
- Transfer: hefeweizen to keg
- Transfer: Berliner weisse to keg
- Other beer projects: start lager starters, think about cider
Work
- Finish up abstract
- Work on Design for Dept Conference
- Register
- Read more about HJs
- Continue mutating plasmids - handle the east and west mutations tomorrow if colonies grow fast enough; Thursday otherwise.
- Lab lunch on Friday.
Weekend!
- Get the hell out of town
- Do a ton of hiking
- Pack at least a little food to go along
For a while I've been wanting to do a post that's kind of a round-up, of what has been working and what hasn't. To be honest, none of the approaches I've been using lately have fully yielded thee results I want. While my focus has improved, it's still not yet where I want it to be.
Podcasts - I really like podcasts, they're a fun way to feel like you're learning something while doing something else, like cleaning or walking or whatever. It's important to remember, though that the amount you learn from them is limited and that they are distracting.
Music I've been listening to a ton of different music lately and liking a lot of it. I think I've been a bit more receptive to new stuff than I sometimes am.
Video games This is a tricky one, because it is insanely easy for me to get caught up in researching games, reading about them, and never actually play any. After playing a fair bit of Dragon Age II and just ..taking it easy, last weekend, that helped a lot. I think it was more about setting the time aside and giving myself permission to relax that was more important than the game itself. Especially since - as noted - Dragon Age II has a lot of issues. But I was resolved to play it and enjoy it as much as possible.
Anime I think we're out of Attack of Titan for a while. Though it does have some missteps, some anime-isms, it's the best show I've seen lately by a wide margin. Whether I watch any other animes - or continue rewatching old ones, like Outlaw Star or Bebop - really just depends on what grabs me.
Other TV I am not just being contrary, but I don't much feel like Breaking Bad. Maybe there is a reason I mostly watch stuff a few years after it's made its mark? In any case, I am extremely glad that I stopped watching Dexter.
Overall self-reflection:
Part of what makes hanging out with other people tiring for me is considering where they're coming from; what we have in common, what's different, and what I feel like I'm bringing to the table. I realize that this kind of consideration is not ideal and is even a bit .. neurotic. But I do it anyways.
Strangely - and this may be a misapprehension on my part - I'm not sure my role within the Awakening group is all that different from my role within my group of high school friends. I'm not the loudest, not the main organizer, and am generally agreeable. But there's a little something I have in common with most everyone and can talk about - partly because I am agreeable. I also seem to be falling into kind of a "back-up game runner" position, which is mostly okay with me. It fits my more on-the-spot, freeform style (especially for one-shots) pretty well. And I have command of a few simple systems that work well with that sort of starting point.
In terms of influences, it's interesting because I have a lot of classical fantasy reading under my belt, but not that many classic fantasy movies or TV shows, even after the 80s fantasy movie week. I think I have the deepest roots in anime and jRPGs except for Kyle, so I can steal liberally use music from that sort of thing to establish a different mood or aesthetic than Shane's game.
This maybe shouldn't be important to me, but I can't help considering it. If I am running a game, people will compare it (consciously or not) to other people's. If I run Call of Cthulhu, it will be compared to John's, and so on. I have to remind myself that I do have something different and interesting to bring to the table, and keep doing so until I believe it. Past that, well, my instincts kind of take over. That was what happened with Paranoia; I just hope it was an enjoyable game for everyone involved.
What do you know? I feel better for typing all that.
Hoo.
Besides the workout I spent some time making Neverwinter Nights characters and discarding them. Making characters in d20 is not especially fun. Playing the combat in NWN is not especially fun. I made a pretty sweet water genasi monk - kind of a water bender theme, right? I'm not sure I will ever play as her, though, because of the combat.
I might give Jade Empire another try with a controller. I didn't much enjoy the combat with a keyboard. Otherwise, it's off to jRPG town for that game fix.
- I still did a workout last night, though. That's something. Last week I blew off my "legs" day, because I didn't want to do the squats in the morning and then we had DorkCon at night. For shame. I am determined to see my bench go up; it's been stalled for too long.
- I had another idea for uniform costumes: the Saiyan armor from Dragon Ball Z. (Though everyone calls it Saiyan armor, almost all of Freiza's soldiers wear it. It's definitely a uniform.) It's like a blue jumpsuit, and would probably need molded foam for the main armor. Anything else probably wouldn't look good.
There's too much going on just now for ol' Ken and it's only going to get more complex. Let's break this down.
RPGs
- Tonight: Team Rocket, leaving off for a while. Going to try and put together a cliff-hanger.
- Pirates! - off-week, Sprites instead.
- Sunday one-shot: didn't happen, too wiped out.
- Others: stop trying to figure out perfect RPG stuff, it will make you crazy.
House and Errands
- Grocery shopping
- Clean up basement
- Recycle excess boxes
- Stop by hardware store; L-brackets and see about foam from Michael's?
- Put away air conditioners soon
- Clean up garage
- Filter out some clothes, to go to Goodwill or get tossed.
The kegs
- Clean out kegs - probably time to simply pitch the raspberry wheat
- Wash out kegs extensively
- Transfer: hefeweizen to keg
- Transfer: Berliner weisse to keg
- Other beer projects: start lager starters, think about cider
Work
- Finish up abstract
- Work on Design for Dept Conference
- Register
- Read more about HJs
- Continue mutating plasmids - handle the east and west mutations tomorrow if colonies grow fast enough; Thursday otherwise.
- Lab lunch on Friday.
Weekend!
- Get the hell out of town
- Do a ton of hiking
- Pack at least a little food to go along
For a while I've been wanting to do a post that's kind of a round-up, of what has been working and what hasn't. To be honest, none of the approaches I've been using lately have fully yielded thee results I want. While my focus has improved, it's still not yet where I want it to be.
Podcasts - I really like podcasts, they're a fun way to feel like you're learning something while doing something else, like cleaning or walking or whatever. It's important to remember, though that the amount you learn from them is limited and that they are distracting.
Music I've been listening to a ton of different music lately and liking a lot of it. I think I've been a bit more receptive to new stuff than I sometimes am.
Video games This is a tricky one, because it is insanely easy for me to get caught up in researching games, reading about them, and never actually play any. After playing a fair bit of Dragon Age II and just ..taking it easy, last weekend, that helped a lot. I think it was more about setting the time aside and giving myself permission to relax that was more important than the game itself. Especially since - as noted - Dragon Age II has a lot of issues. But I was resolved to play it and enjoy it as much as possible.
Anime I think we're out of Attack of Titan for a while. Though it does have some missteps, some anime-isms, it's the best show I've seen lately by a wide margin. Whether I watch any other animes - or continue rewatching old ones, like Outlaw Star or Bebop - really just depends on what grabs me.
Other TV I am not just being contrary, but I don't much feel like Breaking Bad. Maybe there is a reason I mostly watch stuff a few years after it's made its mark? In any case, I am extremely glad that I stopped watching Dexter.
Overall self-reflection:
Part of what makes hanging out with other people tiring for me is considering where they're coming from; what we have in common, what's different, and what I feel like I'm bringing to the table. I realize that this kind of consideration is not ideal and is even a bit .. neurotic. But I do it anyways.
Strangely - and this may be a misapprehension on my part - I'm not sure my role within the Awakening group is all that different from my role within my group of high school friends. I'm not the loudest, not the main organizer, and am generally agreeable. But there's a little something I have in common with most everyone and can talk about - partly because I am agreeable. I also seem to be falling into kind of a "back-up game runner" position, which is mostly okay with me. It fits my more on-the-spot, freeform style (especially for one-shots) pretty well. And I have command of a few simple systems that work well with that sort of starting point.
In terms of influences, it's interesting because I have a lot of classical fantasy reading under my belt, but not that many classic fantasy movies or TV shows, even after the 80s fantasy movie week. I think I have the deepest roots in anime and jRPGs except for Kyle, so I can steal liberally use music from that sort of thing to establish a different mood or aesthetic than Shane's game.
This maybe shouldn't be important to me, but I can't help considering it. If I am running a game, people will compare it (consciously or not) to other people's. If I run Call of Cthulhu, it will be compared to John's, and so on. I have to remind myself that I do have something different and interesting to bring to the table, and keep doing so until I believe it. Past that, well, my instincts kind of take over. That was what happened with Paranoia; I just hope it was an enjoyable game for everyone involved.
What do you know? I feel better for typing all that.