rumors of my demise...
Submitted by Trigear on Mon, 12/11/2006 - 6:55pm.
...have been greatly exaggerated.
Yes faithful reader, your eyes are not deceiving you. I'm back. Really. Truly. Honestly.
I know I disappeared for a month, and it wasn't intentional. Things have been pretty busy lately, and I expect they will remain so for a while longer. So you might not see me around very much more in the foreseeable future, but fret not, faithful reader, for I am still alive after all.
I suppose a grand update is in order, right? No? Well I'm going to give you one anyway, if you'd care to click the "read more" link just below here. Otherwise, I won't waste your time any further.
OK, so now that we're alone, how about letting you all know what I've been up to, yes?
For the past three or four months, I've been battling a deepening depression preceding and following a personal loss. I'm not going to go over all the gory details, I'm just telling you that it's been foremost on my mind. Don't worry though, because ladies and gentlemen, I can rebuild myself. I have the technology. Better than I was before. Better, stronger, faster. You know, all that Billion Dollar Man stuff. I've been working on developing myself a bit, focusing on my personal strengths and weaknesses.
That's been the main focus of the past month or so, rebuilding. In that month I've joined a gym, and I'm starting to get into a decent shape (vis. not round). It's fun, energizing, and it definitely makes me feel better about everything, including life and myself, when I've got my heart pounding and the blood pumping through my veins. I think it might have something to do with more oxygen in my brain, you know?
I've given up on World of Warcraft, for the time being. It stopped interesting me about a month and a half ago, and much like updating this site, a week had gone by, and then two, and then three, and then four, and it just never happened. I generally don't play a lot of video games lately. I don't have the time, nor the interest. I mean, I still play, just not as much. When I do, lately it's been Neverwinter Nights 2 and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin for my DS. But that's not very often, like I said.
I've gotten my little sis hooked on Dungeons & Dragons. It's geeky, sure, but it's cute watching my kid sister rolling her d20 and adding her attack bonus. She seems to enjoy it, and we both enjoy our time together, and everyone wins. It's a bonding experience. And besides, who are you to judge? You're sitting here reading my personal blog, so remove that plank from your own eye, buddy! :-P
The Weekly CD Program is still going, even if I haven't been posting about it here. I just found it was hard enough getting the time to go out and buy the CD, let alone writing up a blurb about it... lately I haven't been particularly inspired about the music I'm listening to, and it's draining sometimes trying to force yourself to feel that way when you just don't. I'm treating the program as my 2006 New Years Resolution... which is to say, come December 29th, it'll be officially over. I'll still be buying CDs, just not on a weekly basis. And I probably won't be updating about each and every one, unless I have something specific to say. You know, because posting every little thing that happens to me on this website is not really my top priority right now.
I've been working on getting back into the dating scene. Nothing new to report, I guess, aside from several rejections and some strange "WTF" moments. (but what's dating without a few of those, right?)
I've recently become hooked on The Show (with zefrank), a daily video blog with some pretty intelligent things to say. And it's funny, too. Yay! I'll probably write more about that (and my new iPod), soon.
Rumors of your demise?
I swear I wasn't starting them! Really! All right, I admit it; I was thinking about starting them, though. I was wondering where you've been.
Sorry to hear... er... read about your depression. It's a wicked beast, to be sure. Hope everything's on the up and up now, or at least on its way there. Granted, we're not lifelong partners in crime or anything, but if you ever feel like bending a friendly ear, mine are sharp and usually available. The eyes are good, too, for the reading of e-mail. Y'know, whatever.
So you're done with WoW for the time being, huh? That explains why no matter what time I logged on I never caught you. I play mostly on Suramar, because that's where my best friend (who finally got me to play the game) plays. Though I do have a promising tenth level rogue on Undermine. I was beginning to suspect you either stopped playing or kept even more ridiculous hours than I do.
What else had to be addressed? Oh, right! Dungeons and Dragons. How old is your sister? That's awesome! I'm finally getting my two sisters (15 & 18) to come around to the dark side. I haven't played D&D in way too long. And you want geeky? Are your dice tucked away in a chainmail pouch? I made it myself.
And now, at 1:13 in the wee hours of the morning, I'm off! Sleep would be the smart thing, but Twilight Princess calls to me...
Take care.
yeah
I saw your pouch on your website. Very cool.
Actually, I'm sorta new to D&D too... I mean, I've played almost every D&D PC game since Baldur's Gate, as well as several of the console ones, and I've got an extensive collection of Drizzt Do'Urden books (which got annoying after the fiftieth rehash of the same essential plot, with the macguffin changed slightly in each), and I've owned the handbooks since 3.5E came out, but before a month or two ago, I'd never actually played the game. My sister is a very intelligent 10-year-old, and I'd love to get a gaming group going, but I don't feel like playing with a gaggle of 10-year-old girls (her friends), and I don't think a 10-year-old would be welcome to an older RP group's table, even if she is intelligent. So for now it's just her and I. She enjoys playing, I enjoy DMing (though creating campaigns is entirely too time consuming, given how anal retentive I am about every single detail), and all that, but one-on-one gets boring quick. It'd be fun to join up with your group, at least by myself, even if I couldn't bring my sister (though I'm sure she'd enjoy it too).
I had kind of figured you had gotten into WoW, but I didn't know for sure. I stopped playing about a month ago... right around the time I joined a gym. I don't have the time to play much anymore, and even when I do, I find I have other things to worry about. I logged on the other day, and my guild rejoiced like I was the prodigal son... it was hard breaking the news that I was probably going to disable my account for a while. There's only so much grinding I can take before I get bored, I've never cared for RPG PvP, and there's absolutely no storyline to get involved in, so the game got boring. For a while I was having fun just exploring (you can check my back pages here and see the photo journal of one of my treks), but that got old eventually too.
As for depression, yeah, it's more or less behind me now. The break up was really getting to me, and I was already depressed before that even happened, so I was just at one of those really low points. Had a mini breakdown and everything. The gym helped a lot, though, not only because of the self-esteem boost I get from being a few inches thinner than I was, but also because of the extra energy I seem to always have now. It's a life saver, which is amazing considering I always fought exercise like it was e coli. Also, the ex-girlfriend situation has stabilized somewhat, so I'm able to look at everything objectively and recenter myself. Being single really gives me a lot of free time to focus on my interests and personal development, which is awesome.
Yeah, and I got an iPod. I'll probably post about that soon, I guess. I'll see.