0138: A History in Pictures

I just like how that sounds. Don't expect an image-laden post. :)

Well, things change, and things remain the same. I checked today, and I've done *19* posts in LJ this YEAR. (This one makes 20.) There was only ONE month last year that I didn't exceed that tally. I realized that I miss posting on LJ. I have a fairly complete picture of my life back in 2002-3, but since I got into World of Warcraft, my posting habits have been atrocious. And...why was I on here today to notice how little I've posted this year? Simple.

I'm getting tired of playing WoW. I knew it was coming, though I didn't expect it to happen so soon after changing servers and getting everyone I know on one server. However, I'm 30, and have to play when I have free time. Therefore, I am not a hardcore player. Getting to level 45 with Sluggy in around 7 weeks, to me, is playing pretty hard, pretty frequently. (We're going to ignore the fact that his enchanting is over 235, his mining is over 230, and I've not really played him for a week now.) I like his Mortal Strike Arms build, and it's crazy-go-nuts when I get to swinging my Whirlwind Axe.

Yet, it's not there for me anymore. To anyone working on getting to 60, SLOW DOWN. Enjoy the ride. Remember, it's not about your destination, but how you get there.

In more news of the kind that none of you want to hear, I started playing a cleric in my Sunday D&D game. We folded our Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil game, and I've sworn to never let anyone touch the module again. Some may have played it, and love it, but in my circle of friends, we call it "cursed". It's responsible for 3 different campaigns folding, because it was going to be the key adventure in them. We then decided that a campaign reset was called for. We asked the DM to pitch the adventure, and let us all reroll level 1 characters. Not only were we sick of the endless options, we were sick of always playing humans to get the extra feat. So, we went with the core rules only, with spells and feats from the "Complete" series with DM approval.

The end result? It's nice.

• mfsfreak is a Halfling Rogue.
• strieson is an Elven Warrior (2 weapon style). 
• nyminal is a Gnome Illusionist. 
• Allison is a Human Sorcerer. 
• And I am a Half-Elven Cleric of Pelor.

We agreed, and all come from the same town, and have known each other for at least five years. We are getting along, and while I can't speak for the others yet, *I* am having a blast this time!

Niow, I spent today -- an off day -- working on a wiki-style character sheet for the Wiki site that lordreaibn has set up for his forthcoming D&D game. I'm rather proud of how it turned out, and will be posting my session logs over there, too. My dilemma? This character is a cleric, and I wasn't sure I'd get to play him anytime soon when I made the cleric for the Sunday D&D game. I already like the idea of going Cleric20 for the Sunday game, which brings me something of a conundrum of what to do for my character for lordreaibn's game. The only thing I can say for sure is that his backstory is locked in, and won't be changed. The question is how to work out things from there. Ah, well, that's what sleep is for. :)

In non-geek-ish news, things are proceeding quite nicely with that girl, though we've both agreed that taking things slowly right now would be best (since that seems like the surest way to NOT ruin what has been a fantastic friendship thus far). At any rate, though, we're going to Shelby Forest on Thursday, since she's never been, and the place rules. (That's assuming a lot, of course. Namely, that temperatures in Memphis aren't at the danger level.)

Finally, I'm as into heavy metal as I always have been, but I'm rediscovering country and traditional celtic. And by country, I mean Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Gene Autry, Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, and Marty Robbins. While I like Garth, too, I'm referring more to the good ole country. That music has a life all of its own. And it's great. :) I have found that I am particularly fond of jigs and reels where celtic is concerned, though I will listen to anything that can safely have the "celtic" label. :)

Now, I've got to sleep, and figure out what I'm going to do for a D&D character in lordreaibn's game.

G'night, folks!

0139: Goodbye, David Gemmell

He may not be Douglas Adams... but I find this news harder in some ways. The man had a way of writing that floored me. They were real page-turners whose characters seemed to leap off the page. David Eddings may craft a fantastic story, and Weis/Hickman make a memorable world, but Gemmell made his characters alive. My favorite books by him so far are a pair of novels in which he retold the Arthurian legend. As some of you may recall, I am a sucker for Arthurian legend retellings. It was phenomenal.

At any rate, I found out that Gemmell passed away while reading Neil Gaiman's blog this morning. Found below is a link to the BBC news article:

Fantasy writer Gemmell dies at 57

Fantasy novelist David Gemmell, best known for stories such as Legend and Waylander, has died at the age of 57.

Gemmell had heart bypass surgery two weeks ago and appeared to be making a good recovery, according to his publisher Transworld. His career began in 1984 with Legend, a tale of a fortress under siege. He wrote 30 novels in total. Transworld managing director Larry Finlay said Gemmell was "writing at the peak of his powers".

"He was a true pleasure to work with," he said."We will surely miss him, as will his thousands of devoted fans around the world. Our thoughts are with his wife Stella and his two children."
A statement from the publisher said he died on Friday morning.

'Sense of adventure'

It added: "His themes of heroic adventure, leadership,personal heroism and the possibility of redemption for every one of us ring as true today as they did when he first published the novel that was to become a classic of heroic fantasy, Legend."

SFX magazine editor Dave Bradley said: "Gemmell wrote heroic fantasy novels - he had a real sense of adventure about him, wrote stories about great battles. "At the heart, they're cracking fantasy yarns but he also had a good eye for character and how people develop, like how a young soldier deals with war.

"He had masterful plotting and a real sense of how excitement builds in a story. His books were real page-turners."

The second part of a planned trilogy of historical novels, Troy: The Shield of Thunder No 2, is due to be published in September.

Born in west London in 1948, Gemmell was expelled from school for gambling and went on to work as a labourer, driver's assistant and bouncer. One rejection letter he received in the early 1960s read: "You mention in your resume that you are working as a lorry driver's mate for Pepsi Cola. This is an occupation not without merit.Good luck with it."

He went on to become a journalist and editor ofnewspapers in Sussex, but his career ended after the publication of histhird novel, Waylander, in 1986, after he used his colleagues' names for characters in the story.

"The managing director regarded it as a poisonous attack on his integrity," he later recalled.

0140: Making a real effort..

As some of you can see, I'm making a real effort to post more on LJ, since I've decided that it shouldn't be neglected after all. Of course, my audience is small, since about half of the people on my friend's list have long since abandoned their journals (including most of my RL friends). Oddly enough, I am not really worried about that. standing_dragon once asked if I was posting for others, or for me, when I posted. I can now say that I am posting for me. This is a chronicle of my life, as dull or ho-hum as it may be. If I died on my way to work today, this is something that people could look at, and see how I thought, felt, and lived.

I really appreciate each of y'all for not removing me during my slow content months. Just goes to show that some people really ARE as cool as they seem.. or they're just lazy. :) (Just a little humor.. hahah.. oh, come on, laugh!) I've never stopped reading journals, though I am certainly guilty of skimming entries when I didn't feel like reading them. I got horrible at replying to comments for some reason, though I cannot fathom why. I used to check my e-mail EXCLUSIVELY in the hopes that I'd have a comment to reply to. No matter, I guess. :)

Well, I work 2p-10p today, as the MIC. Unlike back in Jan-Mar, I do *NOT* wear the shirt and tie now. I wear a red department head shirt. In some ways, I think that's because I realized that I am *NOT* going into management (yet), and I want the manager to realize that (since he got to treating me like a co-manager without the pay or authority -- basically, I did what he wanted, when he wanted, and to hell with what else I thought). At some point in the possibly-near future, I may want to go into the management training program, since I will be living on my own soon (well, with strieson as a roommate), and extra cashflow has been proven to ease the burden on bills. :)

Doing the MIC thing right now isn't that bad, though. I generally have something grocery-stocking-like to do to keep me occupied, or I receive the grocery loads (I'm getting quite skilled with the motorized pallet jack as a result). Anything that keeps me off the front end most of the night makes me happy. I like it when it runs itself (truthfully, there's a supervisor scheduled, and if I have to go up there, it means someone isn't doing their job -- so it's not QUITE running itself, but it means I don't have to babysit it).

I still have to think of what path I want to take with my character that I will be playing in lordreaibn's D&D game, since I feel that cleric is probably out (at least the "healer/undead turner" style -- perhaps I can think of a different style, though that was kind of a big things, since my background halfway pointed to it).

Anyway, I have to go. See everyone tonight!