random life updates
Long time, no post, I got swept away by work about a month ago. So I’ll try to recap.
Work - Bored, crazy, bored, alarmed, bored.
Church-Retired, still busy.
Furries-graymuzzle blues (more of the same, really).
Finances-a bit stretched, need a car, see #1, work.
Gaming-two good games, starting a new one soon, we’ll see.
Relationship-no new developments there, which isn’t a bad thing
Work: The University just did about a 15% budget cut, and Texas education’s hit by government-induced hard times. Those are our two big funding sources, so...yeah, a lot of cutbacks lately, including a few of my co-workers. I *think* my position is stable, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better, considering some of the people who got cut. There’s a lot of “unfair” in the world.
Because of the cuts, and the summer in general, it’s been awful slow in the office, and it’s been soooo quiet, it’s hard to concentrate. I hope some of this picks up a bit, more people in the office. But I think it won’t.
We’re moving about as far from my house as we can and still be in Austin, which is frustrating. I’ll be able to work at home a bit, which is a mixed blessing. It’ll save on gas from the 25-mile commute, which is good, but even more quiet-time, which is bad. And my gourmet tea consumption will probably increase. Meh. The staff is going to be entirely “rotating chairs,” nobody except the head of the department getting their own personal space. Is this the way all offices are going to look in the future? I wonder.
This change will probably require getting a car, I just don’t want to be dependent on people with such a huge commute-even if I can carpool, that’s still a vulnerable point. Whines has suggested that I could drop him off and then drive to work, but that’s a long jag out of the way through a heavy-congestion area. Oh, well, it’s been a nice year of commuting with Whines.
Did have a nice time a few weeks ago travelling - almost a week in Houston and a week in Dallas for some conferences. Went to Dallas with Bauson and Whines, was in Houston mostly by myself. Not a bad trip. Stupidly hiked about 9 miles one night in Houston. That was dumb and exhausting.
Church-I’m having a bit of a heavy heart over this. I’m just going there to do volunteer work, which is NOT a good arrangement. I hope the new minister will help me wake up inside a bit, she starts in August. It’s starting to be a cost-benefits situation, I’m not really getting much out of it, except a lot of people who appreciate and care for me, which is definitely not nothing.
I’m largely without official obligations now, since I stepped down from my committee chair role. There’s still some transition time stuff. I’m not sure if I’ll stay on past September, one of my two Big Strangleables is back on the committee (I bitched and whined until he stepped off last time he was there.) Just a pushy, insensitive old codger, but he has his fingers in everything, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass for anyone who’s forced to listen to him talk, and talk, and talk. *sigh* I’m starting to feel very burdened by the people I don’t like.
Oh, hey, furries are next. Good transition.
Furries-I still like the furry community, don’t want to leave, but there are days when the psychological weight of “people I don’t want to deal with” is larger than whatever joy I get out of the community. Those are the bad days. It’s not a lot of people, but they do chronically make me feel older than I am, and less social than I want to be. I’ve been feeling like this for like two years now, so it may just be a function of being older, saner, and occasionally trying to be a social hub. But there’s been some active, dangerous crazies out there, too. Why can’t we jettison the dangerous predatory people into the sun, like the toxic waste they are? It’s what Superman would do. We should all do what Superman would do.
Finances-I could use a little raise, just because things are expensive, and likely to get more so, but I’m not hurting. The “need a car” thing may seriously impact my ability to save/buy things randomly/spend too much on ingredients.
Gaming-Whines’s campaign is still fun We have a few minor disagreements on lethality levels and desired size of gaming table, but it’s still a good game, and I like my character, he’s interesting and has a nice time bomb built into him. Themyskeria’s game started again after a 4-6 month haitus, and she’s gotten some creative juice back. And I really like my character in that game. Because he’s a gnoll, AND crazy.
I’m starting a campaign in a couple of weeks, a sci-fi game in the GURPS rules set, a bit Avatary (in the “refugees on a hostile world” way). We’ll see how that goes. People asking, even demanding, to be included has gotten kind of frustrating. People demanding things of a GM burn out GMs faster than anything I know of, and get bundled into the Superman plan above. It’s like someone gave you a Christmas present and you telling them to take it back and get it in a different color.
Beyond that, I’m feeling okay about this. The weak point is that I’m having a hard time with the Plot Engine, D&D makes “plotting” so simple-heroic quests are easy, but it helps that the world is completely unrealistic and ethics go out the window. A more realistic world with realistic obstacles and realistic characters is harder. I respect immensely the GMs that are able to pull it off (Mark, you are my inspiration, GM-wise, and always have been).
Neo-GURPS is a challenging rules set, though. I guess with GURPS the hard point is always figuring out just how much realism and simulationism you want to add to your gaming mix, because the rules could get bogged down really easily with bullet trajectories and suchlike. I’ve never had to figure out as many cube roots as I did when I tried to use the GURPS solar system generator. Really? Cube roots? *sigh*
Relationship-I have nothing negative to report there, it’s all good : ) The only fights we have about gaming and people I’m too stupid/optimistic to get away from, and that’s not even once a month. I guess we’re looking at seven years together soon, and it’s all still a good thing, I’m still engaged to my best friend. Can’t complain there!
Work - Bored, crazy, bored, alarmed, bored.
Church-Retired, still busy.
Furries-graymuzzle blues (more of the same, really).
Finances-a bit stretched, need a car, see #1, work.
Gaming-two good games, starting a new one soon, we’ll see.
Relationship-no new developments there, which isn’t a bad thing
Work: The University just did about a 15% budget cut, and Texas education’s hit by government-induced hard times. Those are our two big funding sources, so...yeah, a lot of cutbacks lately, including a few of my co-workers. I *think* my position is stable, but that doesn’t really make me feel any better, considering some of the people who got cut. There’s a lot of “unfair” in the world.
Because of the cuts, and the summer in general, it’s been awful slow in the office, and it’s been soooo quiet, it’s hard to concentrate. I hope some of this picks up a bit, more people in the office. But I think it won’t.
We’re moving about as far from my house as we can and still be in Austin, which is frustrating. I’ll be able to work at home a bit, which is a mixed blessing. It’ll save on gas from the 25-mile commute, which is good, but even more quiet-time, which is bad. And my gourmet tea consumption will probably increase. Meh. The staff is going to be entirely “rotating chairs,” nobody except the head of the department getting their own personal space. Is this the way all offices are going to look in the future? I wonder.
This change will probably require getting a car, I just don’t want to be dependent on people with such a huge commute-even if I can carpool, that’s still a vulnerable point. Whines has suggested that I could drop him off and then drive to work, but that’s a long jag out of the way through a heavy-congestion area. Oh, well, it’s been a nice year of commuting with Whines.
Did have a nice time a few weeks ago travelling - almost a week in Houston and a week in Dallas for some conferences. Went to Dallas with Bauson and Whines, was in Houston mostly by myself. Not a bad trip. Stupidly hiked about 9 miles one night in Houston. That was dumb and exhausting.
Church-I’m having a bit of a heavy heart over this. I’m just going there to do volunteer work, which is NOT a good arrangement. I hope the new minister will help me wake up inside a bit, she starts in August. It’s starting to be a cost-benefits situation, I’m not really getting much out of it, except a lot of people who appreciate and care for me, which is definitely not nothing.
I’m largely without official obligations now, since I stepped down from my committee chair role. There’s still some transition time stuff. I’m not sure if I’ll stay on past September, one of my two Big Strangleables is back on the committee (I bitched and whined until he stepped off last time he was there.) Just a pushy, insensitive old codger, but he has his fingers in everything, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass for anyone who’s forced to listen to him talk, and talk, and talk. *sigh* I’m starting to feel very burdened by the people I don’t like.
Oh, hey, furries are next. Good transition.
Furries-I still like the furry community, don’t want to leave, but there are days when the psychological weight of “people I don’t want to deal with” is larger than whatever joy I get out of the community. Those are the bad days. It’s not a lot of people, but they do chronically make me feel older than I am, and less social than I want to be. I’ve been feeling like this for like two years now, so it may just be a function of being older, saner, and occasionally trying to be a social hub. But there’s been some active, dangerous crazies out there, too. Why can’t we jettison the dangerous predatory people into the sun, like the toxic waste they are? It’s what Superman would do. We should all do what Superman would do.
Finances-I could use a little raise, just because things are expensive, and likely to get more so, but I’m not hurting. The “need a car” thing may seriously impact my ability to save/buy things randomly/spend too much on ingredients.
Gaming-Whines’s campaign is still fun We have a few minor disagreements on lethality levels and desired size of gaming table, but it’s still a good game, and I like my character, he’s interesting and has a nice time bomb built into him. Themyskeria’s game started again after a 4-6 month haitus, and she’s gotten some creative juice back. And I really like my character in that game. Because he’s a gnoll, AND crazy.
I’m starting a campaign in a couple of weeks, a sci-fi game in the GURPS rules set, a bit Avatary (in the “refugees on a hostile world” way). We’ll see how that goes. People asking, even demanding, to be included has gotten kind of frustrating. People demanding things of a GM burn out GMs faster than anything I know of, and get bundled into the Superman plan above. It’s like someone gave you a Christmas present and you telling them to take it back and get it in a different color.
Beyond that, I’m feeling okay about this. The weak point is that I’m having a hard time with the Plot Engine, D&D makes “plotting” so simple-heroic quests are easy, but it helps that the world is completely unrealistic and ethics go out the window. A more realistic world with realistic obstacles and realistic characters is harder. I respect immensely the GMs that are able to pull it off (Mark, you are my inspiration, GM-wise, and always have been).
Neo-GURPS is a challenging rules set, though. I guess with GURPS the hard point is always figuring out just how much realism and simulationism you want to add to your gaming mix, because the rules could get bogged down really easily with bullet trajectories and suchlike. I’ve never had to figure out as many cube roots as I did when I tried to use the GURPS solar system generator. Really? Cube roots? *sigh*
Relationship-I have nothing negative to report there, it’s all good : ) The only fights we have about gaming and people I’m too stupid/optimistic to get away from, and that’s not even once a month. I guess we’re looking at seven years together soon, and it’s all still a good thing, I’m still engaged to my best friend. Can’t complain there!