Of things unspoken, catchup in the land of those not in the know.
This is my first public post in a long, long while. I do not approach it with trepidation, but with a calmness that soothes the soul and guides the fingers to strike the keys with graceful precision and confidence. I'm not suffering from my usual writer's block when it comes to this or any other journal; perhaps the amount of writing I've been doing over the past year has something to do with that.
I was very excited to get a freelancing job with White Wolf, Inc. working on their Exalted line. I had the pleasure of writing 25,000 words in 15 days in December of last year for a product that will hit stores in December of this year. I'm very excited about seeing my name in print as a published author. It was a real pleasure to see my name in playtester credits earlier this year. The only downside to having worked on this product is that I developed a taste for doing so that has been as-of-yet unfulfilled since. Well, I shouldn't quite say that. I'm currently in the process of editing a movie script for an upcoming movie that won't see movie theater screens for another three years at least. It was a quick-edit job that fell in my lap earlier this week and for the amount of time that I'll have spent on it, it will be quite lucrative.
Of course, I'm doing all of this on top of my day-job, but I've been off from that since Tuesday afternoon, so it's not a concern. The job doesn't offer me the kind of satisfaction that it once did, but perhaps that's due to the fact that I'm teaching very small classes in an alternative school. The accomplishments that I achieve with the students that I do have are still very rewarding, but it does seem rather hollow in comparison to what I've become accustomed to over the past decade of teaching. We also have a separate set of challenges that traditional (read: normal public) schools do not have, but we also have some perks that they don't, so it all balances out.
I've taken on a number of additional volunteer activities that keep me very busy, but not too busy for my girlfriend of almost a year now. Those activities are not limited to administrative duties on three websites, two of which are associated with White Wolf, Inc. and the other is associated with Blind Ferret Entertainment. I'm also still very active in my community chorus as their assistant director, and Rachel (my wonderful girlfriend, for those who have not been introduced) is also a member of that chorus, so it's an activity that we're able to share. We've got a concert coming up next month; we'll be performing Amahl and the Night Visitors, among other things at a local community college. Then, later in the season, we'll be performing music from the movies for our spring concert. It will be music that comes mostly from the earlier era of the silver screen, but if you're able to attend, don't let that deter you. We've got some pretty fantastic numbers up and coming.
Rachel (the aforementioned "other half") is a native Californian who came out here in February and we've been getting along (mostly) well. We've had our disagreements, arguments and fights, but I think that the fact that we've been able to resolve them has been a testament to the strength of a positive and healthy relationship. Don't let my opening statements fool you, though, as we've had a great nine months together and we're continuing to look toward a future together. My family loves her, and my friends really like her as well. It seems that my poor choices of the past (those that I ended up dating, and those that I did not)have been worth enduring to get me to this point and they certainly provide an unique perspective on just how good I've got things, even if they may not be what most would consider "perfect". Let the naysayers say "Nay!" They shall do so anyway. Not that I know of any...
Thanksgiving week has been a very good time with family. My mother, her fianceé and my younger brother came out for the week and just left yesterday. I was slightly annoyed that they helped to clean things around the house; it was my goal to give them a real vacation and they wouldn't have to lift a finger, but that's okay. I have to let people do things for me, too, and I'm okay with that. My mother went out to do research on genealogy in Annapolis-we have relatives that emigrated to the United States through Baltimore and the records are now kept in Annapolis. I was not able to go along, as I had work, but my family had a good day out with Rachel. We did go out to see one of the local historical sites; the home of Thomas Stone, who was active in local politics and was one of the four signers of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland. We were going to go to the Smithsonian, but due to the rain that we had all week, no one really wanted to go out walking around at the National Mall.
Thanksgiving dinner was my wish for a non-traditional presentation of traditional holiday dishes realized. We had a porcini mushroom turkey with herb-butter and mushroom gravy, a pineapple rice stuffing (Rachel made that, actually), marscarpone and porcini mushroom potatoes au gratin, creamed sweet potatoes (probably the most traditional thing I made), roasted vegetables and potato skins, an orange-cranberry sauce (Again, Rachel made that) and a pumpkin custard pie (another Rachel creation). Everyone was full and satisfied. I managed to burn my thumb taking the turkey out of the oven, but it's a superficial burn and is healing quite nicely.
I should get back to my work on the movie script. I have until Monday, but I think I can get it finished this afternoon and sent back to my employer for a round of revision if necessary. Then I'll have the rest of the weekend to enjoy with Rachel and make up fro some much-needed us time after a week of guests.
Ja ne!
I was very excited to get a freelancing job with White Wolf, Inc. working on their Exalted line. I had the pleasure of writing 25,000 words in 15 days in December of last year for a product that will hit stores in December of this year. I'm very excited about seeing my name in print as a published author. It was a real pleasure to see my name in playtester credits earlier this year. The only downside to having worked on this product is that I developed a taste for doing so that has been as-of-yet unfulfilled since. Well, I shouldn't quite say that. I'm currently in the process of editing a movie script for an upcoming movie that won't see movie theater screens for another three years at least. It was a quick-edit job that fell in my lap earlier this week and for the amount of time that I'll have spent on it, it will be quite lucrative.
Of course, I'm doing all of this on top of my day-job, but I've been off from that since Tuesday afternoon, so it's not a concern. The job doesn't offer me the kind of satisfaction that it once did, but perhaps that's due to the fact that I'm teaching very small classes in an alternative school. The accomplishments that I achieve with the students that I do have are still very rewarding, but it does seem rather hollow in comparison to what I've become accustomed to over the past decade of teaching. We also have a separate set of challenges that traditional (read: normal public) schools do not have, but we also have some perks that they don't, so it all balances out.
I've taken on a number of additional volunteer activities that keep me very busy, but not too busy for my girlfriend of almost a year now. Those activities are not limited to administrative duties on three websites, two of which are associated with White Wolf, Inc. and the other is associated with Blind Ferret Entertainment. I'm also still very active in my community chorus as their assistant director, and Rachel (my wonderful girlfriend, for those who have not been introduced) is also a member of that chorus, so it's an activity that we're able to share. We've got a concert coming up next month; we'll be performing Amahl and the Night Visitors, among other things at a local community college. Then, later in the season, we'll be performing music from the movies for our spring concert. It will be music that comes mostly from the earlier era of the silver screen, but if you're able to attend, don't let that deter you. We've got some pretty fantastic numbers up and coming.
Rachel (the aforementioned "other half") is a native Californian who came out here in February and we've been getting along (mostly) well. We've had our disagreements, arguments and fights, but I think that the fact that we've been able to resolve them has been a testament to the strength of a positive and healthy relationship. Don't let my opening statements fool you, though, as we've had a great nine months together and we're continuing to look toward a future together. My family loves her, and my friends really like her as well. It seems that my poor choices of the past (those that I ended up dating, and those that I did not)have been worth enduring to get me to this point and they certainly provide an unique perspective on just how good I've got things, even if they may not be what most would consider "perfect". Let the naysayers say "Nay!" They shall do so anyway. Not that I know of any...
Thanksgiving week has been a very good time with family. My mother, her fianceé and my younger brother came out for the week and just left yesterday. I was slightly annoyed that they helped to clean things around the house; it was my goal to give them a real vacation and they wouldn't have to lift a finger, but that's okay. I have to let people do things for me, too, and I'm okay with that. My mother went out to do research on genealogy in Annapolis-we have relatives that emigrated to the United States through Baltimore and the records are now kept in Annapolis. I was not able to go along, as I had work, but my family had a good day out with Rachel. We did go out to see one of the local historical sites; the home of Thomas Stone, who was active in local politics and was one of the four signers of the Declaration of Independence from Maryland. We were going to go to the Smithsonian, but due to the rain that we had all week, no one really wanted to go out walking around at the National Mall.
Thanksgiving dinner was my wish for a non-traditional presentation of traditional holiday dishes realized. We had a porcini mushroom turkey with herb-butter and mushroom gravy, a pineapple rice stuffing (Rachel made that, actually), marscarpone and porcini mushroom potatoes au gratin, creamed sweet potatoes (probably the most traditional thing I made), roasted vegetables and potato skins, an orange-cranberry sauce (Again, Rachel made that) and a pumpkin custard pie (another Rachel creation). Everyone was full and satisfied. I managed to burn my thumb taking the turkey out of the oven, but it's a superficial burn and is healing quite nicely.
I should get back to my work on the movie script. I have until Monday, but I think I can get it finished this afternoon and sent back to my employer for a round of revision if necessary. Then I'll have the rest of the weekend to enjoy with Rachel and make up fro some much-needed us time after a week of guests.
Ja ne!