I lost some time once...

It has been nearly 10 months since I last used my LJ for anything other than seeing the daily LOLcats (and that's because a lot of you don't post on here anymore, either!). I've migrated pretty fully to Facebook and Twitter. Twitter's more fun, perhaps because I have to figure out what I want to say in 140 characters or less. At this point, Facebook just copies what I tweet.

At any rate, I found a link on Facebook to LJ, and wound up browsing through various user info pages, adding folks. If I just added you, then you should at least be familiar with me. The new default user pic -- which I use on Facebook, Twitter, and the Summerland Grove site -- is recent enough that you should be able to match it to me. I know a lot of you from SG anyway.

The past almost-10 months have been.. different. I courted Christianity again, dated a devout Christian (the former admittedly DID halfway occur due to the latter), wound up giving up my D&D game on Sundays forever (I never have Sunday afternoons off anymore), met a great group of people in what I am apt to call the core membership of Summerland Grove, began smoking pipes for fun, became a pagan in name (I suspect I've always been one in spirit, whether I knew it or not), decided on a spiritual path (Asatru), began dating a wonderful woman, and have grown to despise my job at Kroger so much that I almost went to a job fair (my resume was... well, completely unmade and not gonna be ready in time, plus I got called on to help my girlfriend, which I had no hesitation doing).

Of course, outing myself on my LJ as a pagan could be considered... unwise? foolhardy? I dunno. Anyone with half a brain who has watched my Twitter feed/Facebook posts will have picked up on it long ago, though I deliberately don't come right out and say it, because I live in Memphis, TN, where you're accepted for who you are...

...that is, if you're a monogamous heterosexual Conservative Christian who is intolerant of others' lifestyles and points of view. (I still classify as heterosexual, though that's the only part of that statement that still applies to me.) I have far too many Christian friends on Facebook who I suspect will try to help me "see the error of my ways", so I am mum on the subject there, but I realize I don't give a flying fuck outside of being harassed about it on Facebook. I keep quiet at work as well, just because things already are a cluster fuck there, without adding "OMG IT'S A PAGAN!!!11" to the list. I've not dedicated to a specific god, which admittedly bothers me quite a bit (to the point that I can get downright moody/depressed about it), but I'm reading everything I can get my hands on that I think will help me understand my choice of path more clearly. (I'm currently reading "Our Troth, Vol. 1", and Tyr *STILL* looks like a reasonable choice, though he no longer feels like a perfect fit.)

About two weeks ago, I went to Festival of Souls. I'd never been, and even though I had to work two days and missed the workshops, I had a lot of fun. I made a point to attend the rituals, and was.. well, "blown away" is appropriate, if a little cliched. My brother, Ricky (titus_the_mage, though he's never used it), went as well, and surprised me. He'd always referred to himself as an agnostic, or as he put it, a "chicken shit atheist", but apparently *REALLY* took to the pagan point of view. I'm still processing that he has come to that realization, though I'm glad to have a longtime close personal friend with me in this new life.

While I enjoyed every ritual, I was absolutely thunderstruck by the candlelight labyrinth held after the ancestor ritual on Friday night. The solemnity covering the field, where the candles were laid out in concentric circles that slowly led to the center, was absolute. I didn't hear any voices (consciously), nor did I have any brilliant immediately-life-changing flashes of inspiration (again, consciously), but when I had gotten out of it, I felt different. Two weeks later, I wish I had the labyrinth still up to walk again, like I have a new appreciation for it, and if I could just walk it again, even more would become clear to me.

On the D&D/RPG front, I eventually had to drop lordreaibn's 4e D&D game, because work began jumping around on Sundays for me (I don't get to do payroll like I used to, though no hard feelings for the new clerk). I briefly attempted to get a game going involving nyminal, strieson, mfsfreak, and disker and his wife, but that fell through due to lack of motivation on my part. I just no longer "feel it" where D&D is concerned. I am far more likely to wax nostalgic over my old 2e games, and how engrossing they were back then. Perhaps, when my schedule settles down some, or I change jobs, I can start a game again with some folks, perhaps even including lordreaibn, tannenwynn, marius_98, or lostgamers. I have access to a larger pool of folks, and if I mix and match 'em a bit so I'm not stuck with the same collection of people I have played with for the last ten years, things might get interesting. (I have *NO* problem with my old D&D group, but the reality is that lack of fresh blood caused things to get stale, and we all know it.)

Well, that's my life this year so far. It's an oversimplification, and you'll notice I didn't post about work. I'm on vacation for at least two more days, so I refuse to acknowledge it until then. :) Welcome to all the new people. I hope that you add me back. I want to get to know each of you better than I have so far.

Oh yeah, I also, at the urging of my girlfriend, am going to begin writing again daily, even if it's just in here. I am one of the worst procrastinators you'll ever meet, but I want this. I miss writing something down, reading it, and going "holy crap, this is GOOD."

P.S. Holy crap. I've had this account for over 8 years now. I feel damned old suddenly. :)

(Crossposted to Facebook; find me there by searching for my name: Anthony Adkins)

This is day #2 of my days off this week. I have just two full days, and a day of doing payroll, between me and a week of vacation. I'm really looking forward to this. I know that, at some point next week, I'm going to meet up with Troy and Dana, two savvy froods I've not seen in years (and why not!? I have no excuse.). I'm also going to see about beginning to go biking with my buddy Bizz. (I might even swallow my pride, and take another look around my home neighborhood for a simple bike route I can do, even though I really don't like street riding.) Oh! And on the night of May 1 (or morning, whatever's appropriate), I've plans to see the midnight screening of X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Maria and company.

My vacation is shaping up to be a rather social one, rather than my typical "vacation so I can play my current MMO nonstop". Let me tell you, that is NEVER satisfying. I am left wondering where my vacation went. That said, I do plan to play a little bit, since I want to get one character leveled up to run high level things with Jason, Heather, Jeremiah, Brandon, and Charles. (Scott and Alex have both put LotRO on hold while they gorge themselves on Left 4 Dead and (for Scott) Neverwinter Nights 2.

Finally, I suspect that next week, since my roommate Charles (no relation to the LotRO player) is quitting smoking, will be a prime opportunity for me to really push my plans to begin eating better, and fill the house with appropriate food (less carbs, more vegetables, less prepackaged stuff).

Well, we're due to get rain today, so I think I'm going to run outside now, and attempt to get the front yard done before it gets here (provided that the ground isn't too wet -- our front yard holds onto water like a sponge sitting in the sink). Take care, folks!

Work last night was not bad, though no count got done until the end of my shift. It seems the opener forgot to declare the office, and just ran the Sales & Cash reports. We did it when I got in, but things were boofed by then. The night went pretty smoothly, though, so my stress level was reasonably low.

I managed to get everything done by just before 2, though I stayed to cover the night checker's 30 minute break. When I got off, I picked up some produce, canned veggies, and tuna. I thought about trying to improve my eating habits last night, so I jumped on the idea while it was still fresh in my mind.

I came home, and took care of some bills, finally going to bed a little after 5am.

As long as today can go smoothly, I'll be delighted.

The more I think and talk about 4e, the more I find myself liking what I've seen. As a direct result of this, perhaps, I haven't really been logging into either of the MMOs I've been playing. I even officially let WoW lapse last night. I think that I want to pick up some of the new source material, especially the Player's Handbook 2. Swordmage from the Forgotten Realms setting sounds like a bucketful of awesome, too. Sure, it utilizes the "threat" mechanic that I was so disdainful of, but the class is a melee proficient caster, who protects his allies by forcing his enemies to avoid engaging him or take damage, yet when they run, he ports to them, and repeat the process. It's a unique concept, and one that seems to appropriately mesh melee combat with casting into a cohesive whole.

Anyway, I'm going to do some reading in the DMG. I have time to tweak my adventure some, so I think I will.

... but in an attempt to break my rut, I'm doing a little bit of rearranging in my room today. With a queen-sized bed, there's only so much I can do, but hey, I feel like I have to try.

As I mentioned the other day, today marks the beginning of my "new leaf".

Wish me luck!

I've been off for the last two days, and boy howdy, has it been pretty good.

You all know how my Sunday after work went, and I still am happy I did that. No regrets at all. :)

I woke up Monday morning, feeling pretty good, just a little achy, and that was gone before long. I cleaned up a little, but it was mainly picking up my room, though. I worked on my Warlock's Inscription, and farmed herbs for it with my Druid. During the day, Charles (and his girl) invited me to hang out with them at her place last night. So I hit 225 inscription (max level right now since she is 33), and left to go hang out.

Mapquest's directions kinda sucked, in that distances and directions were questionable (i.e., WRONG). Still, I found her place, which means that I'll never forget as long as I need to remember it. We went out for dinner, and since I really tied one on at the Flying Saucer on Sunday, I was chauffeur for Charles Monday. We went to Sekisui on Belvedere, and I suffered valiantly. (Honestly, I really am not a fan of seafood, ESPECIALLY when I'm hungry enough that my criteria for dinner was "cheap and lots of it".) I had the chicken teriyaki, and it wasn't bad. I got to show off my mad anime-inspired chopstick skills to eat rice! /flex

Afterward, we went back to her place, and hung out in the living room, listening to bellydancing music set to a techno beat while they smoked and drank wine, and I sipped a glass of wine. It was a white wine, with a nice aroma (is that what they call the "bouquet" ?), and a pleasant flavor, reminiscent of fruit like peaches, but it had a dry aftertaste, which wasn't altogether unpleasant. Finally, Charles went to bed, and we (his gf, her roommate, and a friend of hers that had stopped by) watched part of a comedy routine involving a Latin American who married some "hillbilly" from Kentucky. He was hilarious, though it was past 11pm when I left.

On the way home, I gave in to my hunger, and stopped by Kroger around the corner from my house to get some food. I picked up a box of some mini-tacos, sour cream, and shredded cheese. YUM! They hit the spot once I drizzled some Taco Bell sauce on 'em. (C'mon, you know you have a bunch of the packets stored in some random drawer in your kitchen....at least if you like Taco Bell, anyway. :) )

I crashed at 1am, feeling somewhat uneasy around my place for some reason. I figure it was in my head, but I did hear one cat meow and arch her back when she never meows, and that "damaged my calm", so that could have been responsible for the creepy sensation I had when I got into bed (I had to enact my "defensive barrier" -- i.e., my blanket over my head!). I fell asleep, and woke up around 7am, so I called Charles to make sure he got up for work, and then I settled into checking web sites and such, since Tuesday is WoW maintenance day.

I saw C briefly, but it was long enough to express my disappointment in something he did. Around 1030am, I left to head to the Dexter Kroger, because that was where I met my old friend Dee Dee for lunch. How old? Well, she's only a little older than I am, but we've known each other since the second grade. I played the priest at her wedding (they'd been to a justice of the peace.. I was just a stand in for the ceremony they did for the family later). We ran around with nearly 10 other people back in 1991-1992. It was great catching up with her, though now I like the idea of a reunion for as many of that group as we can safely manage. We were all great friends. My house was effectively the clubhouse, and they all called my dad "Mr. A."

I was struck by how grown up she seemed. I even commented on it to her, to which she replied, "I don't feel like a grown up yet." Haha.. I guess it sneaks up on us all.

It got me to thinking, and not in a self-destructive, negative way. First was the post I made several days ago where I said what I thought of myself. Now, I see that I have to change. Not for anyone but me, though. I don't quite know how to begin, but I could almost see a plan (5 year?) forming in front of me. What I wouldn't give for another moment of clarity like that. I *will* discover what it was. Something's nudging me that first, I gotta get to biking on a regular basis. So that'll be my first step. Next, I must establish a start date. Perhaps November 1? That's a Saturday, but it's a good clear starting point. (Should I actually grab my notes about the story I once wanted to write, and participate in NaNoWriMo? Even if it's just for me?

Anyway, after lunch, I came back and just wasted a couple of hours playing WoW. I got sleepier and sleepier, until I dozed off around 430pm, and slept in my chair until a little after 5pm. At that point, I decided that I was done with WoW for the night, made dinner, and fired up the last two weeks of "Chuck" and yesterday's "Heroes". I cannot get enough of those two shows (I missed "How I Met Your Mother", because my TiVo failed to record it for some reason. :( ).

Tomorrow, after work, I think I'm going to catch up on Supernatural (two episodes behind already, and Thursday will make three). Then, Charles has promised he's going to spend the evening in his own home, without his girlfriend around, so I suggested we play a board game or something instead of watching TV. Don't get me wrong. His girlfriend is pretty dang cool. She has printings of the Lord of the Rings from the early 70s (I should get a pic), and her personality puts you at ease. The two of them really get on well, and I'm happy to see that.

I don't know why, either, but lately I've been feeling more "big brotherly" towards Charles than in times past. Before, he'd listen to me, and give advice, and he was clearly the alpha. Now, though, I feel this shift in roles almost. Of course, I'm insane, so it's probably all in my head. :)

Now, to settle in for the night, and get more than six hours of sleep. Huzzah!

Nothing major to talk about. I just finally got back on Moonrunner and, more specifically, on my level 70s. The Relief Beef (my guild) has gone through a few changes, and are now attempting 25 man content. They have forums and are using Ventrilo instead of TeamSpeak (yay!).

I got to test my paladin's healing ability tonight in Heroic Auchenai Crypts. Dang, it was tough, but with the shaman's Wrath of Air totem, I broke 2k bonus healing, and we managed just fine.

Now, I'm going to go to sleep and, hopefully, I will be able to mow the front yard tomorrow, though I'm not going to hold my breath. (It's supposed to rain most of the day.)

Oh! Before I forget! I broke down today, and had Charles use his clippers (with the 1" attachment) to cut my hair. It's short now, but not crew cut short. It's short enough now, I'd say, that if I'm easy on the hair products, I can sleep on it, and style it when I wake up (not usually possible).

Well, that's about it for me for tonight. Can't really think of more.