Busy morning..

Oh yeah.. This is great. I'm awake at *checks clock* 7:20a, and have been for nearly *four* hours. It's nothing bad, necessarily, but I hate having to use my alarm clock on my off days. Let's begin with yesterday morning, though....

I woke up, took my dad into work, and went to work myself. I had to do the End of Day, and it went pretty smoothly, though I didn't get through until after 8am. Interestingly, in an update on the "Dana situation", she called in on New Year's Day, so she lost her holiday pay anyway. HAHAHA! Stupid bitch. Serves her right. Ahem..

I did a map of the parking lot of our store in MS Paint, and pasted it into a Word document detailing where we're allowed to park now. I was really proud of the results, since it was the first time I had ever used pics in Word like that. It was fun, and simple. I'll have to remember that for later, when I run a game.

After work, I swung by Comic Cellar to get my comic and KareKano Volume 7 paperback. I also bought three boosters of Dragoneye, and got a Brass Dragon, a Blue Wyrmling, another Ogre Ravager, and a Cleric of Nerull. That'll teach me to whine about not getting dragons, eh? (I just need a Small White Dragon, and I've got all the dragons in the set.)

Since my dad is still without transportation, I took him and my mom to Wal-Mart again. While they shopped, I picked up some things I needed. More Oscar Mayer fat-free bologna, more yogurt, more cheese, and MORE BOCA MEATLESS SMOKED SAUSAGES! These things rock. I got some of the hamburger patties as well, and they're good, but no where near as good as the hot dogs. I love buying stuff at Wal-Mart: It's cheaper, so I get more of it. :) Granted, there are some things that I have to get at Kroger, because Wal-Mart doesn't carry them, but that's just how it's going to have to be with my 4-packs of Diet V8 Splash Tropical Blend. :) As long as I can get the big bottle for less than $2, I'll live with picking up the other at Kroger.

I became very tired last night, and grew a thin skin regarding having to drive my dad around. He hasn't said squat about giving me gas money, even though it's nearly as far to his work as mine, so I'm going through my tanks of gas twice as fast. I'm not going to bring up the trips to Wal-Mart, Super D, and Kroger. Honestly, though, while I would really appreciate some gas money, I would settle for him ASKING to be taken somewhere, instead of saying, "After this, we'll go to X and get Y." Just show a little gratitude. "Please" and "thank you" should not be foreign concepts. *sigh*

At any rate, I'm in a better mood this morning, and have finally sorted my stat cards for Dragoneye. Looking at what I have, I'm so going to get my ass handed to me today, because Dragoneye itself doesn't have enough to build a proper warband. I also would have loved my 200 point warband to consist of an Arcane Archer, a Bladesinger, a Brass Dragon, and some Medium Air Elementals. I cannot wait for the game tomorrow, because I'll get my stat cards back from Brad, at whose house I had left them back in November.

I think I'm going to take a short nap now, so I am more rested, and less bitchy, come noon when I arrive up there.

A relaxing Saturday afternoon..

Yes, it was.

You see, I went back to sleep after my post this morning, and slept until around 11am. I showered and got ready to go to Comic Cellar, for I was meeting jartravian and mfsfreak up there for some D&D Skirmish.*

We played some great games, though I got my butt handed to me in the first one. In the second one, it was close, but Jason still won. (Thanks to a rather unpleasant Red Samurai.) For the final game, we all were playing Chaotic Evil, because we all wanted to play with our Large Red Dragons. Beautiful minis they are, and they should be used because of it. I managed to win that one narrowly. To be honest, it's because Jason and Alex were across the table from one another, and got to fighting immediately, while I had to work my way slowly across the table. By the time I was in "fighting" range, I realized it would be better strategy to hang back a bit.

I didn't enjoy that win, mainly because it seemed no one else was having fun by the time I won. I guess the reality is that I interrupted a duel. I need to learn to be more respectful of other people's games, and not just "jump in" because I believe it's a "three person game". :)

While we were playing, though, Gameboy came in again. I've mentioned him before. He's this guy who hangs out at Comic Cellar, and wears his Gameboy Advance SP on his hip. I dubbed him "Gameboy" because he brought it up there the day it first came out, and played it in the midst of all the card players, and was talking like any of us wanted to know what he was doing. I've since learned he's big into comics, and remembers minute details about various comics. As you might expect, he's even more into video games than I initially thought. Oh, it doesn't make him any less annoying, but another emotion has surfaced. Pity.

Why should I pity this guy? He seems happy enough. I think it's because, listening to him, I see part of myself, and when I think "this guy cannot get any girls", I am saying that about myself. I don't know if that makes sense, but it occurred to me during the matches today. I was listening to him talk about some new video game, and realized that if this is how he is all the time, the chances of him finding someone for him to be happy with couldn't be high. It's pretentious of me to assume so, but like I said, I think I'm seeing part of me in him.

I don't want to be him. I don't want to be the guy so obsessed with some hobby like video games or comics or even RPGs, that I cannot ever manage to interest any girl. Oh, there are gamer girls out there (Comic Cellar's owner Jason is dating a beautiful example of one), but that doesn't mean that they'll just latch onto a gamer guy just because. I want to be accepted. I don't want to be collecting comic books and playing video games when I'm 35.

That doesn't mean there's anything necessarily wrong with doing so. I just don't want to do it. I feel I must move on, because if I don't, what have I achieved? I think there is some truth to the phrase "Life is a journey," and I'm at a crossroads of sorts. Down one path is temporary happiness represented right now by comics and games. Down the other path is long-term stability and happiness, which is best represented by my love of astronomy, if I had to pick something.

Will I quit playing RPGs? Not very liikely. Will I can my Dragonlance campaign idea? No, it's a creative outlet, not just a game. Will I cancel my comic subscriptions? Given that I haven't read them in six months, and have no real desire to do so, most likely. Am I going to buy any more video games? Possibly, but nothing that will require a lot of my time. Will I quit associating with my gaming friends? Nope. I just may not be as enthusiastic about the games as I once was.

I just think that times are changing, and I have to keep up, for my own peace of mind.

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* - No, that's not it's "real" name. It just feels better to me than saying "D&D Miniatures using the skirmish rules".

Because I felt it was necessary..

I'm publicly congratulating my bud Charles Wilson on his 3.85 GPA. He's already Phi Beta Kappa, and he only has to pass *two* classes this semester in order to graduate Magnum Cum Laude. I'll keep everyone posted (like you care).

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Does anyone think that this, in some way, is behind my previous post? I think that I need to think long and hard about what I want out of life....