Upgrade Request

I was almost there! I finally finished all the real writing tasks for Peryton RPG and I'm ready to put everything together in the book format. And now my hand has to go all screwy and keep me from typing or using a mouse for more than a few minutes at a time! I'm pushing it just doing my part time job but I really can't afford to stop that too, and so far it's getting better as long as I rest it at home, take asprin, and keep the wrist immobilized.

But hey, there's good news too. It really is almost done, and it's totally gonna rock. So there's that anyway. Guess I can use this time to pull back and look over my printouts so far. Make sure it's all gonna fit together when this carpal tunnel thing settles down.

I keep toying with adding this one new class but I still haven't made my mind up. Sort of an ascetic healer/transcendentalist type. It would have some abilities in common with the D&D monk class but would not be as focused on combat and funky weapons and Oriental culture. More of a healer type, but (hopefully) with enough tricks to make it still fun to play.

So maybe I can work out the details of that while I'm sitting around re-playing the Doctor Who episodes I recorded and cursing the frailty of flesh.

The Greatest Generation?

I'm getting really sick of hearing about how everyone who's too young to have fought in World War II is a spoiled brat who'll never be anywhere near as wonderful as the least among the "greatest generation."

There's nothing all that great about that generation, anyway. They fought in a big war. They went with the tide of history. They did what anybody else would have done in their situation. There's nothing heroic about that. It's just life. And they bred like rats, too. Thanks a lot for that population nudge, greatniks. Thanks for the boom that led to urban sprawl, toxic wastelands, and global warming. I am so humbled before your greatness.

There's no such thing as a great generation. The only thing we get from glorifying the past is the inability to grow out of it.

Puritan Pain

I've got a headache so bad that it's actually upsetting my stomach as well.  I just wanna go home and lay in the dark for the rest of the day, but noooo, I had to have this stinking "work ethic," so here I am, squinting at these crabby little correction notes and updating engineering specs instead.  Yet another reason to curse the black souls of my Calvinist ancestors.

Merchandising and the Modern Nomad

I was listening to this news item on NPR this morning about the troubles of the nomads in Mongolia.  Apparently they used to be taken care of by the communists and even had some sort of health insurance.  Then the reporters talked to this organization that was trying to help them out.  One of the things they were trying to do was teach them to "diversify their business."  I couldn't stop laughing all the way to work.  I just had this image of John Cleese wandering around on the steppe with a pack of brochures under his arm, trying to explain the benefits of multiple product lines to a bunch of grimy nomads herding... whatever they herd in Mongolia.

Ow

Note to self: head not to be bashed into hard wooden posts.  That is just not cool at all.  Happened last night and it now it's giving me a whole different kind of headache.  I wonder if I bruised my brain.

Also, I got no work at all done this weekend, unless putzing around with the cover layout counts.  So maybe I cracked myself on the head because deep down, I knew I deserved it.  Damn, I'm mean.

I Got No Idea What's Goin' On

It can't be healthy taking two different antihistamines... one at double dose... It really can't. But that's what it took before I finally stopped sneezing. That's gotta be good for something. Hello? Well, I guess I better go slip into that coma now. Seeya later.

And I Feel So Much Safer Now

Rough Summer Is On the Way for Air Travel
By JEFF BAILEY, May 21, 2006

CHICAGO, May 20 — Brace yourself for a summer of miserable air travel.

Planes are expected to be packed fuller than at anytime since World War II, when the airlines helped transport troops. Fares are rising. Service frills are disappearing.

Logjams at airport security checkpoints loom as the federal government strains to keep screener jobs filled. The usual violent summer storms are expected to send the air traffic control system into chaos at times, with flight delays and cancellations cascading across the country...

http://www.nytimes.com/...etc.

Well, that's just great. The one summer I have to fly because a car trip to my brother's wedding in San Francisco would be even more expensive, and shit like this is happening.