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Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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1:02 pm
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| Friday, April 4th, 2008
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9:23 am
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Anybody out there looking for work? I'm looking for a clerical assistant. Duties would include filing, answering phones, data entry, payment processing and mailouts. Hours are flexible, but I'd prefer as close to full-time as possible. Pays somewhere around $25 per hour. The appointment will be for two to three months.
If you're interested, please let me know.
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(10 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 19th, 2007
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6:06 pm - Invitation
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It's my birthday on the 29th of December; I shall be one quarter of a century old.
To celebrate, I will be having dinner at the Annalakshmi restaurant on the Perth foreshore from 7:00 PM that day (it's a Saturday). If you'd like to join me, I'd love to see you there!
If you intend on coming, please let me know beforehand (comments are ideal) so that I can let the restaurant know approximate final numbers.
Feel free to invite anyone else you know that might want to attend but may not have heard through LJ.
In other news, I have new glasses. They're nearly invisible!
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, November 2nd, 2007
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1:44 pm - Brief update and job advertisement
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Things are going well! I am busy. I am learning to ride a motorbike and teaching myself to play electric guitar. I have an exam on the 10th in which I have to write four essays in two hours.
I am also now the (acting) Convocation Officer for UWA. This brings me to the advertisement section of the post.
Is anyone interested in casual work? I'm looking for someone to do pretty basic filing, payment processing and telephone reception work. This can be for as many hours a week as you want up to full time, for anything up to six months. I would like to get someone in for at least a few hours a week starting immediately, as I have a function on the 18th that involves a good deal of tedious processing. The pay is at HEE Level 4 with casual loading, which comes out to about $27.50 an hour, I believe. There's nothing involved that can't be learned in a couple of hours.
If this sounds like the job for you, let me know. The more hours you are available, the better.
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(12 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
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10:11 am
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In other news, I am well. I've been working full time at Convocation (the UWA Graduates Association), and I'm planning on dropping back to 30 hours a week to start an Arts degree in second semester (in English, Linguistics and Medieval History). I've been reading Iron Council by China Mieville, an excellent, shorter and subtler counterpoint to the heavy-handed and mildly unsatisfying Perdido Street Station. I've also read a fair bit of Crusades-era European history, and found it fascinating.
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(37 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, December 21st, 2006
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8:25 am - Quick update for the benefit of James
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Looks like I won't be able to do my remaining three slave posts, on account of Amcom being fucking useless wankers. I can't quite get away with typing 1500+ words at work.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, November 30th, 2006
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2:37 pm
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| Friday, November 3rd, 2006
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11:45 pm - NaNooo
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A different section of the story today. This is basically the start, before anything really interesting happens. I had intended to make this a bit longer (around 400 words, in fact, to bring me up to quota) but ran out of time today. I will be attempting to make up for it on the weekend.
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
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6:32 pm - NaNoo
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12:10 am - NaNo
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This excerpt is unfinished. I really need to learn to turn off my internal checks and editing while writing. This section is just over 2000 words, and took something like six hours. Eesh.
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, October 21st, 2006
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10:29 am
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Social gatherings are tricky things. There's always a desire to appear interesting, which is fair enough; who wants to be made to feel that their life or company is boring? After Grahame's (awesome) dinner last night, I formulated some semi-coherent thoughts:
1) Standard exchanges of dialogue piss me off.
You know all those things that people say that are essentially rote-learned? Take the following piece of dialogue:
You: Hi, how are you?
Them: Fine, you?
You: Not bad.
How many times a day do you go through meaningless exchanges like that? Moreover, how often, when going through those motions, are you not feeling fine? I've been sick for over a week now, and almost everyone who has asked me how I am has got a response along the lines of "Fine", "Not bad" or "Good, yeah". This is patently false. I have been deceiving people through lack of vigilance. This even happened when I rang into work sick.
Boss: Hey, how are you feeling today?
Me: Good, yeah.
Boss: That's good to hear. So you'll be in today?
Me: Shit no. I'm sick as hell.
So yeah. This sort of semi-autonomous conversation pisses me off. The worst bit about it is that it provides no sort of lead-in to any further discourse. Once you've exchanged these inappropriately-named "pleasantries", that's it. Now you're both mentally scrambling to find some entirely new topic of conversation, which often leads to awkwardness. It's not on. I realise that these stock exchanges perform some important (probably emblematic) function as part of language, but seriously, fuck that shit. It's time to buck the God-damned system.
2) I need to focus on the interesting parts of life, especially in conversation.
I heard or took part in exchanges like the following about a bajillion times last night:
Person A: So what have you been up to?
Person B: Not much. Working. You?
Person A: Yeah, not much.
This is crap. It is a useless, abortive attempt at conversation; not only does it provide neither person with any lead-in to further dialogue, it also removes the easiest and most open-ended conversation starter. When you're dealing with two people who likely aren't that crash-hot at making conversation in the first place, this is effectively instant death for discourse.
As an aside, Instant Death for Discourse would make an awesome name for an indie rock band.
Anyway, this is another one of those semi-autonomous things that piss me off. People blurt out the stock answer before actually thinking about all the interesting stuff that they've actually been doing, especially me. So what can we do about this verbal scourge?
Break the cycle. When someone asks you what you've been up to, think of something you saw, or read, or did, that really caught your interest. For example, I would have been far better served last night by saying:
Them: So, what have you been up to?
Me: Well, today I read some interesting articles on Muslim culture and its integration into Western society.
Them: So, what's up?
Me: Well, I've been working on an RPG system based around the idea of a holy pilgrimage.
Okay, so some people aren't going to be at all interested in one or both of those, but at least it would have been an attempt. Those responses are nicely open-ended, so if the second party is interested, they can start probing deeper. Voila, conversation, just like your Mama used to make!
Some caveats I've considered:
a) Know your audience. Pitch things that you could reasonably expect people to be interested in first, because you can always work other stuff in later. It doesn't work the other way around. This point could also be called "Don't be weird."
Average Guy: So what's been happening in your life?
You: I've been learning about the mechanics of giving birth.
Average Guy: Um... okay.
b) Have a backup plan. Don't rely on just one conversation starter, however good you might think it to be. If it falls flat, you might be able to just laugh it off and change direction.
You: So I've been learning about taxidermy. It's really cool.
Vegan: That's horrible.
You: Um! I've also been learning to play the guitar.
c) If you're going to talk about games, only do it with gamers. The only people who care about your character in a virtual world are those that cohabit it. Everyone lives in the real world at some point, so it has more common interest.
Them: Whatcha been up to?
You: I got to level 60 in World of Warcraft today.
Them: Get the fuck away from me.
Finally, if you find yourself actually trying to think of interesting things you've been doing and coming up with "not much", re-evaluate your damn priorities. Life is too short to be filled with boring crap. Go for a walk, or read a book. Get out and do something new. For some inspiration (and a damn good read), I can heartily recommend Uncle Tungsten: Memoirs of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sacks.
We must learn to notice more of the amazing and fascinating things that happen all around us, everywhere, every day. Even, as it turns out, if for no other reason than it makes us more interesting to talk to, which makes us feel better about ourselves.
Keep your eyes, ears, hearts and minds open. But not your mouths.
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(53 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, September 28th, 2006
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5:53 pm
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For the past week or so, I've been trying to write a short story for the UniSFA short story competition. It's very hard to do, and I'm not really sure why. I actually have a few decent ideas for what to write (at least three different speculative short story ideas have presented themselves, all of whom would work quite well), so that's not the issue. I just can't seem to get into it.
I guess it's really just a case of my not being able to force myself to sit down and start writing (like I've had to do with this entry, incidentally, so that's something). Being excited about my new idea doesn't help, nor does being bored and having nothing else to do.
I was thinking about this on my hour-and-a-half walk home from Wembley the other day after dropping off my car to the mechanic ($750 later, my car is running much more happily than it was before). On a tangent, that was a really good walk, and it was a nice demonstration of how much the shape and functioning of my spine has improved over the past year or so. Actually being able to walk for a decent length of time without intense pain was a welcome surprise. I may endeavour to make a habit of walking, now that I know I'm capable.
Off that tangent, I was considering (during my walk) in a little more depth how my depression originally would have come about. I now consider myself largely free of depression, and one of the main factors I have to bolster that belief is that I can now remember a time when I was not depressed. Previously, I had no memory of there ever being such a period in my history.
Depression comes about as a reaction to a personal crisis. It is the mind's natural defence against an attack on the identity, the sense of self that holds people together. It generally follows some great change in a person's life that threatens some portion of who they see themselves to be, how they internally define their own existence. While being an incredibly self-destructive period, it is also a chance for a person to reconstruct their identity with regard to this new information.
For me, that event was the transition to high school. In primary school, I was happy, secure, productive, keen and assertive, albeit with a fiery temper to match my hair. Part of that security was knowing that I was the best in any given academic field, and that became a major part of who I was; I wasn't just better, I was THE BEST. Of course, this did make me arrogant and self-righteous, though I hear that's a fairly normal part of growing up.
Anyway, when I got to high school, BAM. I was no longer the best. There were people at my school who were better than me in any area I chose to name. Given that, by this point, most of who I was centred on the fact that I was better at my studies than everyone else, this was a pretty big blow to the system. I became angry and resentful, and came to see no point in achieving anything if I couldn't be the best at it. Of course, anger leads to fear (and, obviously, the other way around as well, I'm going with Yoda on that one). Essentially all the work I actually did in high school was as a result of being afraid of the punishment I would receive for not doing the work.
How does this relate to writing? Well, part of the security I now have, that keeps me from depression, hinges on my skills as a writer. I know that I have talent for it, and I would very much like to explore that further. I intend to become a professional writer; it's not a hope, not a wish, but an outright declaration of fact: I will become a writer.
Unfortunately, there's still that niggling part of my brain that refuses to be satisfied with the simple (and extremely satisfying, under other circumstances) achievement of producing a well-crafted piece of work. Always, somewhere at the back of my mind, is a voice that says, "Is it really worth doing this? You'll never be the best." And I'm like, "Dude, shut up, it's not that important," but now there's the FEAR. I still have some baggage in my mind that equates "not the best" to "the worst". If I'm going to be the worst (read: not the best) writer ever, is there really any point?
Well, duh, of course there is, because I won't actually be the worst writer ever. There are hundreds of published writers whose books I could pick up and immediately say "I write better than this person." But often, that fear and self-doubt are difficult to ignore, no more so than when beginning a new work.
I have been well pleased that I've managed to come up with some ideas, though.
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(14 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, August 28th, 2006
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10:50 pm - Causes
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Triumph! Our regular team (with added extras) has completed yet another Book In A Day, this being the third year running. It has confirmed once again how much I aspire to being a professional writer. Plus, the money we raised helps sick kids or something, so that's nice.
The book, for those of you dying to know, was an exploration into the history of a (fictional) wheatbelt town, and the resolution of a half-century-old mystery, through the eyes of two young children. What I was really impressed with, however, was how well everyone's work managed to mesh together compared to previous years, especially since the criteria for the story were pretty vague, and we had only the sketchiest outline of a plot when we started writing. For the record, our criteria were:
Character 1: A bookworm.
Character 2: A window-washer.
Non-human character: A horse.
Setting: A cemetery.
Issue: An unusual after-school job.
Key words: Hospital, relief, comfort, flowers, sleeping.
Yeah. I think we did pretty damn well to get such a coherent story out of that mess. The criteria in previous years had been much more closely related, which made our plotting a bit easier, but admittedly limited our options a lot. Eh, when Book In A Day gives you lemons, you craft a fabulous masterpiece and give yourself a pat on the back.
Somewhat related to that, I've been thinking about travelling next year, when my contract at Convocation runs out. My main focus would be Ireland, although that could potentially extend to more of Europe or the UK. I'm not sure why the sudden urge to see the world; there are just so many places out there that would be fantastic to go to, and the experience of other cultures and ways of life would presumably be invaluable, both as "life experience" and as inspiration for writing.
Inspiration really does seem to be the thing I'm lacking. My writing skills are, I feel, suitably developed; If someone else gives me the seed of an idea that grabs me, I can flesh it out into a decent piece of work. The other problem is discipline. As long as I can get the work done in one sitting, I'm fine (hence why Book In A Day is so good). If I have to come back to it some other time, however, I tend to pick it apart and demoralise myself to the point where I discard it as worthless. This can be somewhat abated by knowing in advance the starting and ending points of the section I'm writing, so that I don't re-examine and change the plot as I go.
Unfortunately, that knowledge is only available if the story is plotted out in detail beforehand. That's fine for short stories, but I just don't have enough ideas to fill out a novel-length work. This is the section of my writing skills that I really, really have to work on: Adding details to a long plot. I also need to convince myself that the overarching plot of a novel doesn't have to be very complex to carry the story; rather, it can serve as a simple backbone upon which the details and interest are built.
Otherwise, all is generally well. Work is boring (I'm full time at the moment, and this week seems likely to include little more than letter-stuffing, which is hardly the most intellectually stimulating of tasks) but the pay is good, and now I actually have a cause I can save towards. I don't see enough of my friends.
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(13 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, July 25th, 2006
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6:23 pm - Contrangstual Obligations
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I had a highly varied weekend.
First up, there was the issue of spyware. Spyware is getting really God damn sophisticated these days. My computer had things that would automatically renew registry and autorun entries, replace deleted files, hide from the process manager and other process exploration tools, and do all of this while Windows was running in Safe Mode. Ad-aware and Spybot S&D were, as usual, trivially defeated by the programs. I learned that the Windows command-line interface includes an unlink command, which was interesting. After two solid days, my computer is now free of spyware (for the time being).
Second, the hot water system failed. The hot water, y'know, wasn't, and when I went to check that it was still lit there was water pouring out of the box. After having a bit of a stress about how much it would cost to replace the unit, I did the classic comfort thing and talked to my Mum about it. She came and provided a level head, which allowed me to calm down, and identify and fix the problem. Mums are handy things to have around. Having hot water is nice too.
The high point of the weekend was going to an improvised comedy night at the Brisbane Hotel (it turns out there's a pub called the Brisbane Hotel in Northbridge. Who knew? Took fucking ages to find the damn place) with Kieron and Zoe. Oliver was going to be there as well, but he was suffering from an attack of Filthy Piker or something, I'm not sure. Regardless, the comedy was very entertaining. Improv is so incredibly different to stand-up, and while it's usually not as clever (at least not in the same way), it's so much more charming and witty. Rounding out the evening at the Moon Cafe and having a decent chat to Kieron was awesome. Apparently this may become a regular thing.
Work is bizarre. It's often boring, occasionally hilarious, and sometimes just downright weird (I spent today solving puzzles for a colleague's entry to a New Weekly competition). My co-workers often surprise me with how risque their senses of humour can be, given they are both middle-aged devout Catholic women (one Romanian, one Filipino). Also, inter-office politics in the University can be entertaining when you're not directly involved. I'm slowly learning how to beat the MySource content management system into submission and force it to do what I want, and I've made a friend (perhaps more of a co-miserator) who runs the website for Spotlight (and also has to use MySource). Everyone in the office and on the Council (oh God, bureaucracy gone mad) seems to have the impression that I'm a computer genius, which has its ups and downs (mostly ups).
It seems the number of parentheses I use is directly proportional to the amount of wine I've drunk. Noted.
There's probably more stuff to report on, but I'll leave it for next month's updates. Getting back into the habit of LiveJournal is proving difficult; without anything in particular to whine about, my posting feels very forced. Now, obviously it is forced, because y'know, slave, but since my sense of humour pretty much runs off sarcasm and I'm really not feeling bitter towards anyone or anything, it's a bit tricky.
Hope to catch up with everyone sometime soon. Maybe I should have a cocktail party or something, once all this moving and re-arranging is finished.
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(15 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, July 4th, 2006
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9:12 pm - This entry is required to be about Terracon
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So, it seems I am now a syndicated columnist. And by "syndicated columnist", I mean "indentured slave", but hey, I'll take what I can get.
In related news: Terracon! I had a great time this year. Donnelly River was a much better campsite than we've had recently (possibly ever). Our hut even had a quasi-inside toilet, so like, woah. Mainly, as I expected, it was the extra people that made Terracon a better event for me this year. There were still some notable absences, of course, and to those people: You missed out.
The events were strangely one-sided: Combat LARP, Zombie LARP, Dune LARP. It would have been good to get some creative events going, since people that weren't interested in LARPing didn't really have a lot to do. Something for next year's Events Committee to consider. Fortunately, I rather enjoy a good LARP (or spectating while people bash each other with foam swords), so things were peachy keen as far as I was concerned.
The Zompocalypse went quite well, although there were obviously many bugs that had to be ironed out. Colm suggested pirating the rules and using them for a similar event at the next GenghisCon, which seems like a good idea. We'll probably cut out the majority of the remaining rules, and probably set some objectives for the survivors to attempt to achieve before their frail bodies are rent asunder at the claws of the ravening horde. Being a zombie was rather entertaining, really, and I managed to make at least one person scream when I lurched out of the darkness.
The Dune LARP was brilliant, and would have been even better with more people (as Leto Atreides, it would have been nice to have had both Thufir Hawat and Duncan Idaho with me). Everyone essentially discarded all the special rules immediately, which was interesting; it meant that while many of the characters were less influential than they could have been, the character interactions were more important. Diplomacy (and a little bribery) essentially won out, rather than assassination, Bene Gesserit manipulation and mentat prediction. I am happy to say that the honour and charisma of the Atreides managed to wrest control of Arrakis from the clutches of the evil Dave Cake Harkonnen. Everyone did a fantastic job and hopefully everyone had a good time. Mad props to Colm.
Speaking of props, the maddest props of all obviously have to go to Katie and her teams of helpers. The amount of effort involved in their undertaking (and the amount of food produced by it) was staggering.
Having the chance to run both the Quiz Night (many thanks to Danica, Matthias, Reaps and Nick for their contribution also) and the Slave Auction was highly entertaining. Getting up in front of an audience is actually a lot of fun, although the acoustics of the hall were absolutely terrible and I had a lot of trouble making myself heard at times. Maybe some sort of PA system would be nice for next year. I think my idea of having a bribery prize worked well, as it meant that the bribery tradition was maintained (good for the quizmasters) but the scores weren't affected (good for the teams). Speaking of scores: Half a fucking point, heh.
All in all, a most excellent Terracon. I'm not sure if we've yet received word on whether or not we'll be allowed back to Donnelly River next year. Let's hope so.
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(23 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, April 1st, 2006
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4:11 pm
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| Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005
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1:43 pm
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I need more practise at writing. What I lack is inspiration and motivation. Since I'm obviously not trying hard enough to find decent plot seeds on my own, I'm going to follow the Socialist ideal and try to get other people to do my work for me.
So, here's the deal. Give me something. It can be whatever you like... a character, a situation, a theme, a genre... preferably all of those things. I'll try to write a scene (or several) that deal with what you've given me. Make it something that you would find interesting.
I promise that if I ever make money off one of your ideas, I will share the profits accordingly ;)
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(32 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, March 27th, 2005
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6:19 am
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Heh, last entry was a while ago.
So, I'm up at 6 AM... not sure whether to be happy about that or not. I guess it means I might see some sunshine in the next few days, which is a good thing depending on your point of view.
Had a very cozy little gathering last night, for Chenoa's birthday, which is actually today. I haven't got her a birthday present yet, because shops tend to close at night time. Things have been pretty screwed up in my sleeping patterns lately. Anyway, many thanks to the people who turned up, especially Oliver (not sure why, just sayin'). It was a shame more people couldn't make it, also a symptom of Easter being so damn early in the month.
I decided not to go to Swancon this year. So far, I'm not at all bothered by this... the reports I've heard from those who have attended have been positive, but by no means overwhelmingly so (not like last year). Obviously, Charles de Lindt is not even a shadow of the man Tim Powers is. I don't find this at all hard to believe.
Speaking of authors, one whom I am most certainly not idolising at the moment is Stan Nicholls. Apparently the author of the "critically acclaimed" Orcs series (aren't all series' critically acclaimed these days?), his Quicksilver trilogy is, to put it bluntly, dreadful. It is written with an almost childish lack of sophistication, set in a poorly-constructed world, with unlikeable characters and seriously unsparkling dialogue. And it's recommended by David Gemmell! In one scene, a character triggers a device which creates, in the author's (paraphrased) words, a fireball of ten-foot radius. You can practically smell the D&D.
I really need to start reading up on the events of the French Revolution, in order to continue piecing together my own novel (mentioned, I believe, in my last post. You can see how far I got with NaNoWriMo, huh). I find the plot to be the hardest part of writing; I always suffer from a lack of creative inspiration, leading to frustration, anger, and inevitably the dark side. Once a plot is set, the characters, settings and scenes all fall into place very quickly. Hence, I intend to do what most authors do, and put my own spin on an existing story. I'll let the real world write my book for me, it's much more creative than I am.
One thing I've wondered a lot, lately, is why so many authors have such glaring inconsistencies within the fantasy worlds they create. I'm not just talking about poor Stan, either, although his is a particularly shocking example. I'm also puzzled why it only seems common to fantasy, and all but absent in science fiction (at least what I've read). Is it because sci-fi authors are required to actually put some thought and effort into the creation of their fictional realities, instead of just pumping out the latest Wheel of Time clone for the gibbering hordes to gobble up like so much spilled viscera? Perhaps I'm being unfair, perhaps fantasy worlds don't have to make sense. Currently, the most internally consistent, well-constructed fantasy world I can think of (other than Middle Earth, obviously) is Pratchett's Discworld.
I really didn't intend to turn this entry into a treatise of my views on modern fantasy literature. I came here to complain! (Oh, I'm sorry, it's Getting Hit On The Head lessons in here today). Actually, not really. I had been feeling crappy and unmotivated of late, but a certain extended discussion on a certain ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) penchaft's journal has actually left me feeling somewhat uplifted. I've shown myself that I do actually have some sort of inkling as to the feelings and motivations of others. I mean, it's not like I feel empathically linked to every human being on the planet, but at least I feel I can relate to people. That's pretty important, in the scheme of things.
Of course, that led me to thinking how great it would be to study to become a counsellor of some sort, and actually help people get their lives back on track. Unfortunately, that path leads only to stress, procrastination, angst, and flunking out of Uni again. I'm just not cut out for organised learning, I guess. I suppose I'll just have to use my writing as a means of dispensing my (near-infinite) wisdom to the world.
In other news, I came up as the Oracle in a certain "Which Matrix Character Are You?" quiz that's been doing the rounds. I was actually really pleased with that, I was expecting to get, I dunno, Mouse or something. "You are the nerdy guy that nobody really notices, but when the chips are down, you take on more than you can handle and get your ass kicked. Awesome."
So yah, that's about it. A parting thought: If James Bond was assigned to kill Batman, who would win?
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(16 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, October 23rd, 2004
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3:29 pm
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Time for an update, methinks.
At the moment, I actually have quite a few things to occupy my time, which is a nice change. Lately I've been feeling rather bored with my life, having nothing much to do. But hah! All is coming to fruition.
On the main front, I am preparing for NaNoWriMo. Oh yes. Indeed. I plan to tell a tale of a city where magic is everything, and one's knowledge of magic determines one's station in life. The secrets of magic are closely guarded by the powerful houses, and the population at large is given but a pittance of arcane power with which to eke out a living. Of course, with such differentials between the various layers of the power structure, trouble brews. I'm going to try and make my novel as powerful and brutal as a reading of the events of the French Revolution. Throw in a Zorro figure, some tangled love stories, supernatural forces and a twist in the tail, and I think I have all the makings of an excellent first novel. So yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about that.
Secondly, I'm working on reworking, fixing and updating the d20 roleplaying system to suit a cyberpunk-genre campaign setting. Apart from the obvious technological aspects, I've come up with ways to implement some cool ideas in d20. For instance, having measures (which the players can affect as they wish) for how cool, sexy and badass your character looks gets right to the heart of what is important in a cyberpunk setting, where style is everything. For once, I'm actually making some genuine progress on a system, and it's turning out really well.
What these two things really boil down to is that I've somehow unlocked heretofore undiscovered reserves of creativity within myself. The main barrier to my becoming proficient at writing has never been the writing itself; as long as I have a good idea, I can run with it easily. Language just seems to work for me in that way. The problem, I've found, is being happy with my own ideas; all too often I've discarded ideas for being too unoriginal, too derivative, too small in scope to hold the interest of a reader. Now, at least, I can be happy with my own ideas, work through the problems, and end up with a good result.
Other than that, not a lot to report. I sometimes feel that I spend too much of my time roleplaying, but I still want to be involved in it to a greater extent. My campaign is running very well, and I've been pleased with my ability to take the few germs of ideas that I started out with, and work them on the fly into an interesting, intertwined story. Characterisation and development have become almost automatic processes. Ah, life is good.
As always, Chenoa is wonderful.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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| Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004
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8:17 pm
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| My LiveJournal Trick-or-Treat Haul |
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| kadeton goes trick-or-treating, dressed up as a classic vampire. | | col_ki gives you 8 tan root beer-flavoured gummy worms. | | dafwarg gives you 18 light green grapefruit-flavoured pieces of taffy. | | firefly21 gives you 2 brown blueberry-flavoured gummy bats. | | goth_grrl tricks you! You get a broken balloon. | | gretel_ tricks you! You get a used tissue. | | hipikat gives you 18 mauve lemon-flavoured pieces of taffy. | | kalika_vampyre tricks you! You get a pen cap. | | maelstrm tricks you! You lose 26 pieces of candy! | | stephiepenguin gives you 18 dark blue grapefruit-flavoured hard candies. | | tommmo gives you 16 orange orange-flavoured wafers. | | kadeton ends up with 54 pieces of candy, a broken balloon, a used tissue, and a pen cap. |
Tricked by my own girlfriend! Aargh!
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