Returning to Writing
It's been over a year since I made a post to this journal, and a lot has happened since then, so I have some catching up to do. Since my last post, I've gone on a vacation to Munich, gone to several Magic: the Gathering prereleases, turned 30 years old, and soon, I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month.
First off, I went on a trip to Munich last November to visit an old friend of mine. I spent a week staying with her and her flatmates, and did quite a bit of sightseeing. I went on a walking tour of downtown Munich with my friend working as the tour guide. The next day, I visited Dachau, the site of a former Nazi concentration camp. I didn't get any sleep that night, but that might've been as much because my friend had a fellow tour guide over for dinner and the three of us were drinking and chatting long into the night. Not to the point of being totally drunk, since it was just wine, but still more than I usually do. My third day in Munich featured a visit to the Deutsches Museum, the world's largest museum of science and technology. The highlights of my visit there were the high-voltage display and going through the museum's mining exhibit and its 700m long replica mining tunnel. Later that night, my friend's roomates and I went to a nearby movie theater to see Skyfall. And yes, it was in English, without subtitles. A lot of Germans also know English, so despite my only real knowledge of German coming from a copy of German for Dummies, communicating with the locals wasn't much of a problem. Finally, I visited Neuschwanstein Castle, which King Ludwig II commisioned to be his home (he died before it could be completed, however). He was sometimes called "Mad King Ludwig", but his was the fun kind of madness rather of the genocidal kind, and Neuschwanstein was one of the results. He was a huge fan of fairy tales and Richard Wagner's operas, and this castle was full of homages to them. Overall, it was a wonderful trip!
I'm also still playing Magic. Since my last two posts about the Return to Ravnica prerelease, I've been to four more. I went to the prereleases for the other two sets of the block; Gatecrash, which featured the remaining five guilds of Ravnica which weren't featured in the first set, and Dragon's Maze, the final set of the block where all ten guilds fought to be the first to solve the Implicit Maze that ran through the City of Guilds and claim the power at the end. Then there was the 2014 Core Set, which, like other core sets, brought things back to basics, and most recently, the Theros prerelease, the first set in the new block, set on a plane inspired by Greek mythology.
Last March was my 30th birthday. Though the day itself came and went with little fanfare, it does feel like the point of my life where I'm no longer a "young adult", and I'm now a just plain "adult". There are some ways that is acccurate, and some ways that it's not. I'm still holding down my job as an IRS mail clerk. And yes, I was one of the non-essential federal employees who was furloughed as a result of the government shutdown. But one week into it, they apparently changed their mind about me being "non-essential" and called me back in. On the other hand, my love life is still as non-existent as ever, and reaching that milestone without having ever had a girlfriend and being 3/4 of the way to being a real life 40-Year-Old Virgin was a hard pill to swallow. I'd was even considering seeking professional help (I meant therapy. Get your mind out of the gutter). That depression has mostly worn off, though, and I'm feeling much better now. While I still hope to have a good relationship someday, it's better to be single than in a bad relationship.
And finally, tomorrow is the first day of November, and I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short). The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (It doesn't have to be in publish-worthy condition. A rough draft will do). I'd heard about the program years ago, but I have a lot of use-or-lose vacation time to burn off by the end of the year, and I've taken a few weeks off to write this novel. This was something I've been wanting to do for a while, but having the vacation time to spare was what made me decide that this will be the year I go through with it. So wish me luck!
First off, I went on a trip to Munich last November to visit an old friend of mine. I spent a week staying with her and her flatmates, and did quite a bit of sightseeing. I went on a walking tour of downtown Munich with my friend working as the tour guide. The next day, I visited Dachau, the site of a former Nazi concentration camp. I didn't get any sleep that night, but that might've been as much because my friend had a fellow tour guide over for dinner and the three of us were drinking and chatting long into the night. Not to the point of being totally drunk, since it was just wine, but still more than I usually do. My third day in Munich featured a visit to the Deutsches Museum, the world's largest museum of science and technology. The highlights of my visit there were the high-voltage display and going through the museum's mining exhibit and its 700m long replica mining tunnel. Later that night, my friend's roomates and I went to a nearby movie theater to see Skyfall. And yes, it was in English, without subtitles. A lot of Germans also know English, so despite my only real knowledge of German coming from a copy of German for Dummies, communicating with the locals wasn't much of a problem. Finally, I visited Neuschwanstein Castle, which King Ludwig II commisioned to be his home (he died before it could be completed, however). He was sometimes called "Mad King Ludwig", but his was the fun kind of madness rather of the genocidal kind, and Neuschwanstein was one of the results. He was a huge fan of fairy tales and Richard Wagner's operas, and this castle was full of homages to them. Overall, it was a wonderful trip!
I'm also still playing Magic. Since my last two posts about the Return to Ravnica prerelease, I've been to four more. I went to the prereleases for the other two sets of the block; Gatecrash, which featured the remaining five guilds of Ravnica which weren't featured in the first set, and Dragon's Maze, the final set of the block where all ten guilds fought to be the first to solve the Implicit Maze that ran through the City of Guilds and claim the power at the end. Then there was the 2014 Core Set, which, like other core sets, brought things back to basics, and most recently, the Theros prerelease, the first set in the new block, set on a plane inspired by Greek mythology.
Last March was my 30th birthday. Though the day itself came and went with little fanfare, it does feel like the point of my life where I'm no longer a "young adult", and I'm now a just plain "adult". There are some ways that is acccurate, and some ways that it's not. I'm still holding down my job as an IRS mail clerk. And yes, I was one of the non-essential federal employees who was furloughed as a result of the government shutdown. But one week into it, they apparently changed their mind about me being "non-essential" and called me back in. On the other hand, my love life is still as non-existent as ever, and reaching that milestone without having ever had a girlfriend and being 3/4 of the way to being a real life 40-Year-Old Virgin was a hard pill to swallow. I'd was even considering seeking professional help (I meant therapy. Get your mind out of the gutter). That depression has mostly worn off, though, and I'm feeling much better now. While I still hope to have a good relationship someday, it's better to be single than in a bad relationship.
And finally, tomorrow is the first day of November, and I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short). The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (It doesn't have to be in publish-worthy condition. A rough draft will do). I'd heard about the program years ago, but I have a lot of use-or-lose vacation time to burn off by the end of the year, and I've taken a few weeks off to write this novel. This was something I've been wanting to do for a while, but having the vacation time to spare was what made me decide that this will be the year I go through with it. So wish me luck!