I've not been able to write at work, and probably won't in the future, so my writing up of the adventures is sort of at a standstill. I do have the notes for a few Traveller runs to type in, but the notes I had on the last Horror run... Were scant. At best. They were SO scant that the GM was winging it more than usual! Worse, given that my laptop has a bad lead between the screen and the body, I'm not bringing it to games- at least not til its fixed. (If you close the laptop, the screen won't relight til you get JUST the right position- thus, bad connection)

So. this is a somewhat quick summary of what happened to Our Heroes last time. Ben, who plays Roy, was unable to attend, to he got fiat-ed to his 'employers at MIB. Our other heroes are:

Bill Vicklin- Up and coming monster hunter. Bill is a little crazy, and getting worse as things go darker and darker for him and his friends. He has a longcoat with an enchanted pocket that he can store disturbing amounts of ordinance within, and the uncanny ability to use ANY form of firearm.

Jackie Tall- A woman with dwarfism, Jackie has gained the ability to raise the dead, in additiuon to her other telepathic abilities. This is eroding HER sanity and self control, and she may eventually become the 'Evil Queen' in truth rather than just fantasy.

Greg Poulte- A motorcycle wrencher and biker, Greg is an on-again, off-again Buddist and full-time martial artist. He currently has the spirit of Doctor Beck within him, and the good doctor is showing him how to manipulate reality to a limited extent- Doctor Beck is so skilled at this he can teleport himself and likely even move through time. However- Greg's mind isn't attuned to this, and the stresses could kill him.

- Are we seeing a trend here?

Lastly, the absent member- Roy Smith. Roy is a junior member of MIB. Yes, the thing from the movie, but real. He was trapped in the Abyss for many years, until he sort of just wandered out when the others were trying to seal a portal they'd inadvertently opened! Since then he's reconnected with his employers, but his loyalties are terribly torn- help his friends, or do his job? Both choices have a price.

( Bad Timing )

Well, now that the funds fully cleared into my bank account I've made the monster payment to Discover, which was just under a grand. Ouch. Regardless, I needed to do it. I've indulged myself with some books and such as well, and I've got a goodly chunk of cash set aside for my trip to MFF in November- part of that gets here in August I think, with the property tax return. I'm still waiting on whether or not I have the right stop for Amtrak or not- if they don't get back to me tonight I'll send a couple more emails out and recheck the site. I vaguely recall last year they had the info posted.

This Friday is payday, and of course more bills. The mortgage payment goes out then, as well as the electric bill and cable- I'm essentially all caught up. Woot!

Thursday, in other news, I'm doing required training for work- as a security guard I have to get at least 6 hours of training every year (Oh so onerous, I know!) I just wish it wouldn't fark up my schedule. Training is dayside, of course, and they won't let me work the night before anymore- which is stupid, cos I'll be up anyway to try and keep my sleep schedule at least partly straight. I hate stupid people.

Saturday will likely be the last run of the temporary Dresden game. Whether it is or not things are set up that if joshuwain wants to continue he can, as can any other player that decides to run the city we came up with. I really hope the world continues on either way- its a blast. :)

Today and the next few days I plan to try and get caught up on the damned game writeups. First up will be the two Dresden runs, then the most recent Buffy Horror for the Sunday Group (even though the next run is a month from now- Easter intervenes), and finally the two Western Campaign runs. Somewhere in there I'll also finish the stories I wrote for the Dresden game and also try to work on the other short stories I've started. Agh!

And that's about it, I think. Now all I need is a lottery win!

This was both an eventful and uneventful period. I probably should have posted a few times in there, but one of the things I'll mention here really ruined my desire to do so. The 21st was a Monday, and marked the start of a bit of drama with a friend. That's been totally worked out to my knowledge, and the matter is settled. However, Monday the 21st was ALSO the start of my latest bout of insomnia. It was one of my longer bouts, and it finally 'broke' yesterday. 14 days of getting 2 to 4 hours of fitful sleep really, really sucks.

The 27th was supposed to be the next Sunday Group meeting, but one of the players was sick so we elected to skip rather than spread the plague.

On the 1st, my dad went into the hospital. He had an intestinal blockage, and was having some pretty severe pain. They checked him out thoroughly, and he went into surgery on the third. It went very well, and while it had been scheduled to last three to four hours he was out in less than one. As it turns out, the blockage was a sort-of skin flap- damage left from when he had a burst appendix as a little kid. So this problem has been around for more than sixty years, and just finally became dangerous.

However, despite the surgery itself going well, the recovery was NOT so good. He had a fairly severe reaction to some of the drugs used, and was disoriented and hallucinating to the point of violence. Now my dad is in his late seventies, but he's STILL a big guy- it took multiple orderlies to restrain him. To make it worse, he couldn't wear his C-Pap machine, so he basically wasn't sleeping for days on end. Fortunately, by Saturday the 5th he was fine, though wobbly. He actually looks better than he has for some time. I expect he'll be released in the next few days.

Saturday was the second run of the Dresden game, and that went well. I think it'll be a fun game, even though I have to agree that the rules at times are overwritten and are badly organized. His comment was that 'they read like stereo instructions!' For the food, I made from-scratch pancakes which were actually pretty good, other than the fact that I made easily twice as much batter as I needed. I think I still have one meal's worth left.

Sunday I saw Dad again in the morning, and other than getting REAL sick of the hospital he was fine. The insomnia finally broke, and I slept pretty well after I got home. Of course, it was also the anniversary of my losing Luna; never a good day for me.

I've got a bunch of writing for the various games to do- two Old West runs and the Horror run for the Sunday Group, and I'm going to try and turn my notes from the Dresden game into something readable as well. On top of that I've started a new series of short stories called 'The Believers'. They're urban fantasy effectively, and I think I might have something publishable in these. :)

That's about it for recent events.

Went pretty well. I had a good turnout, and only a few of the invited didn't show up. The Cousin's subs went over well, and were decimated- I really was kinda afraid I'd have half of each or more left! Instead, I don't think there's even enough to make up one remaining. The emergency replacement soup (tm) was two packets of Shore Lunch Traditional Chicken Soup, with the required water and two pounds of cooked chicken added in- not bad, though I should have doctored it a bit- the flavor was a little bland.

What I got for gifts was absolutely not what I was expecting.

It was better!

The Dresden Files game Players book, The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, the Ray Harryhausen Legendary Monsters collection, a novel, 'The Native Star', which is a 'Supernatural Old West' novel which I'll read sometime in the next week likely (still re-reading the Otherworld books!) and a gift card for Barnes And Noble.

Oh- there was ONE more thing... Probably the most surprising: A bottle of scotch! Its a 12 year called The Balvenie, and its excellent.

The cheese went fast this year, and I think I'm figuring out which to NOT get- Swiss isn't all that popular, but the colby, muenster, monterey jack (and variations) and cheddar go fast. So I'll try to keep that in mind for the next party.

Now, its the day after of course. All but one serving bowl are clean, the long table is put away and the trash is out- I should probably vacuum at least in front- a lot of salt got tromped in. I need a bigger entryway!

As to the past few days where I have utterly failed to make daily posts, its been pretty quiet. Mostly it was a bit of cleaning and getting ready for the party. Last Sunday we played in the Wild West game again, and I've a pretty good chunk of notes from which to get the writeup done from. While there, I did get a gift from Scotty G. who couldn't attend the party- an electronic dartboard, which will probably go up in the front room where my pegasus pic is now. That'll get cleaned and relocated when I start some of the 'little' home improvement projects, like painting and the long-promised new carpet.

And that's about it. Happy Holidays to all one last time for 2010!

Not a lot happened today. However, at work last night I started another short story- its about my character in the Old West campaign, Jenny Pagan, and is sort of meant to be her 'origin' in a way. I've a few other shorts in progress as well- one as a background bit for the universe that Ranah is part of, and another that is just a bit of fluff currently named Hellride.

I work tonight and tomorrow night, and then its my weekend. My New Years plans are still not quite fixed, but it'll prolly include at least watching the ball drop on TV at joshuwain's place.

I got one of the remaining gifts in the mail today, and it's wrapped and under the tree. 1 1/2 to go, and I'm done. I also started picking stuff up in my room a little, and I may start organizing the books soonish. Also, I think I'm gonna find a La-Z-Boy dealership and get that damned chair fixed finally- I've found that I can sleep in the chair in the living room if its not too light... Which when I usually sleep, it is. In my room though it's generally plenty dark, so if the chair was fixed that'd be an option.

Tonight I've decided to make meatballs for dinner. Prolly with mushroom-soup gravy and mashed potatoes. Why? I dunno. Just decided to. I've not made 'em for a while, so I figured it was time. Besides, when cooking for myself they'll provide meals for days!

On Sunday we game once again, and I'm really looking forward- I'll be happy just being able to game, but I'm REALLY in the mood for the Western game!

Bleah. I got about 2 hours and woke up. Oh well. In any case, all my orders have started showing up, and I kinda feel sorry for the mailman, who is gonna have a TON of books to get to me this coming week. My brother FINALLY got me a thin-and-pathetic list, but it'll help me with him and Sam- she wants a tea strainer for loose tea, so I'm gonna get her that, and a teapot, and a selection of loose teas. Hah! For Maggie I'll get the one thing he listed for her, and bug the hell out of him til he gives me more so I can keep the gifts even- they're sisters after all.

With those three dealt with, I have four left. One is a stop tomorrow and quick, and the other three... Yeesh. I've no idea really. I'll figure it out though. I hope.

As I think I mentioned before, the Xmas party is going to be on the 7th of January. I'm currently thinking some sub sandwiches from Cousins as the food- prolly a beef, italian combo and turkey for the selection. I may bother someone to bring soup, and I may also make chili to round things out. Of course the usual snackage will be available, and firecatmn has offered cookies. Who am I to refuse? ;)

In other matters, I've seriously started on the editing process of the novel. Simply put, this is gonna be a pain, and I'm going to have to do some pride-swallowing (like sword-swallowing, but it hurts more), to get things right. I have a final target of 100,000 words or more, and I'm currently at 67,400. A ways to go, I know. Especially since there's one entire chapter that has to be rewritten.

I've already got about 3 or 4 new paragraphs for the first chapter, so woot there. Later today I have gaming, and as far as I know its the Desert World AD&D game- Of course, given that what I got done for the writeups was for the Western game, and even THAT isn't done. It'll be a fun night either way.

I've hit a wall. I know it'll break tonight, but I'm not getting anywhere with my NaNo writing right now. Basically, I've hit a slow point in the story and I'm vaguely directionless as to where I should go with the section next. Feh. So far today I've done maybe 30-40 words, which sucks. I'm going to try to get Chapter 7 done before work, and Chapter 8 AT work. I'll still be a touch behind, but I'm still ahead of the curve for completion.

In other things, we started a new game last night in the Sunday Group. Its an Old West campaign, taking place in 1867. All of our characters were on the Union side of the Civil War, and were invited to visit the Colonel we'd served under at his ranch out west after the war. Well, our characters all took up the invitation in 1867, and discovered on the way that the Colonel had died in action some time after we'd been scattered to other postings.

When we got to Belmont, Nevada, the town nearest the ranch we started learning that there was trouble. A speculator was after the property, as well as that of the other ranchers in the area. Naturally, we intervened and started to try and put things right. That's about as far as we got, but it was a lot of fun.

My character is Jenny Pagan, a half-Choctaw woman from New Orleans and full-time wanderer. She served as a Scout in the war, and is very much in the mold (though prettier) of Calamity Jane and other tomboy heroines of the West. Scotty's character is Corporal Kit Burnham, a Cavalry officer and teller of tall tales, while Amy's character is another Scout, named Jamie Danvers. Jamie, like Jenny, has a secret- While Jenny is hiding the truth of her Choctaw heritage, Jamie has gone one further and is concealing the fact that 'he' is a she! Both secrets remain hidden from the others in the little group.

We had the latest run last night, and a formerly lost player has returned! Scotty G, who was off doing skool-stuf has returned! His character is an Elven Rogue named Whispervine- this seems to be his last name, and he's playing it close-to-the-chest with the other characters for now.

We had a blast once again, and ALSO once again nearly got exterminated by one of the encounters- a clay golem! We only survived because I'd 'only' been driven to -3 hit points, and woke up three days later! The others weren't bleeding, and so under the 2nd Edition rules they didn't die either! I'll have the writeup done at some point, but no promises- I have to get more work done on the prep for the novel-attempt next month.

Oh- Mr. G. DID read my story (Thief of Luck) and gave me some good observations and critique to take into account for my writing, and Scotty L. Loaned me a book on writing that may help as well. We play again in two weeks, and we'll finish off the Desert World run before returning to the normal game schedule with Traveller!

A good question. I'm sleeping again, though still a bit less than I'd like. I've gotten the (long overdue) last Horror writeup done, as well as the latest Desert World writeup. I've also gotten the lion's share of the art and photography uploaded to FurAffinity ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sorien/ ), though I still have two posts here on LJ to fix the links on and about 20 or so photos left to upload. But I'm close!

What comes next writing wise is the next of the three short stories for the preliminaries for my novel-attempt. I'll admit I'm kinda hitting the wall, but once I get moving on things I think it'll be easier. Other than that I really ought to clean the house, of which one duty will be tearing down the Goddamned Desk(tm) in the front room and dragging its carcass out back for the trash to take. I never should have gotten it- its too damn big and just kinda sits there, eating the front room.

Beyond that, There is a plan afoot to go to the Carpenter Nature Center on October 9. It'll be from 10 to 5, and I've put in for some time off so I don't have to worry about sleep and such. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures. After that is the Halloween Party on the 31st, then Midwest Furfest. Woo!