Games, Gabbing and Good Friends

The word of the week is gravitas.

Dec 15 – Book 2 = whew!

Today was a big day for me, novel-writing-wise…

I showed my first two chapters of Book 2 to my trusted critique-group members, and held my breath.

To my great relief, they liked what I had written! More specifically, the two of them said( and I’m paraphrasing here somewhat ):

“The direction you chose to continue the story makes perfect sense and is well-executed.”

“I have a good sense of who the characters are from the first book and am interested in how their story arcs are developing in this sequel.”

“Great establishment of pending conflict between the various parties involved.”

My group also suggested that I re-sequence the scenes I had written, to better introduce the characters and story lines of the second novel, which upon reflection, I completely agreed with once I had thought over the suggestions.

I had fretted that what I had written would not gel with my first novel, but it seems I had worried needlessly. I have a solid first third of the book written and I can confidently now continue with the rest of Book 2 in 2015 to complete the first draft. I am eager to do so, as I really want to be able to dive into Book 3, with quite a few scenes bubbling in my head that need to be written. To be sure, I have them sketched out so that I don't lose any of the ideas, but I have made a deal with myself that Book 2 must be completed before I can write any scenes for Book 3… a kind of incentive, if you will, to get the work at hand done and not jump ahead.

What's waiting in Book 3 is worth doing right!

Dec 16 – Car Wars!

Tonight I played a game I hadn't touched for almost 20 years: Car Wars.

Created by Steve Jackson Games in the early 1980s, it was a huge hit with gamers around the world. Here’s what it’s all about, straight from SJG:

Car Wars is the game of the freeways of the future, where the right of way goes to the biggest guns. Choose your vehicle -- complete with weapons, armor, power plant, suspension, and body style. Then take it out on the road. You'll come home an "ace," or you'll crash and burn. If you survive, your abilities will improve, and you can accumulate money to buy bigger and better cars.

Two friends and I got together for dinner at my place to play a game of Car Wars. They had recently picked up the simple Starter Set and wanted to try it out; knowing that I was a huge fan of the game, they were eager to include me, which I thought was wonderful. Here’s a video of four friends who were also playing Car Wars again for the first time in 20 years recently:

I was a bit rusty and things started out a little slow, but once we had our cars chosen, information sheets filled out and had gone over the rules, we were ready to do battle!

The arena was simple: the top of my coffee table, the edges of which were out of bounds for our three vehicles. I had chosen a simple design with an antitank gun at the front and moderate armor, trading acceleration for offensive firepower. My two opponents had chosen different strategies, with one of them having a defensive dropped weapons suite and the other a more balanced vehicle.

The combat was restrained at first, with no shots of any note being made in the first five rounds; to be honest, we all rolled horribly and probably couldn't have hit a barn door if it'd been right in front of any of us. More time passed as we all maneuvered to better line up shots and the first exchanges of effective fire shoots in decent roles in our vehicles. Things really heated up when my one friend's defensive weapon( a flaming oil jet )put paid to her boyfriend’s vehicle, toasting his armor nicely on the thin top and bottom facings. Then he chose to ram my vehicle head-on, which could have been fatal to both of us if we hadn't been puttering along at a measly 30 miles an hour each when we hit. Even so, it did a fair amount of damage to both of us. Here's what things looked like, sans the spikes and the grid:

Those are spikes, all right... but we don't need the Grid with a Key!

A sudden turn of events occurred when his vehicle took a shot from his girlfriend straight through his front armor, destroying his power plant and ending his driver’s career messily. It was down to myself and my friends girlfriend, maneuvering for advantage around the edge of the map, which went on for a fair amount of time before I managed to end the game with a solid shot to her vehicle side armor that hollowed out the car nicely for its trip to the scrap yard.

Total game time was approximately 3 hours from set up to finish and we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I was quite obviously a static to be playing Car Wars again and I saw that my enthusiasm had certainly transmitted to my two friends, so I am certain will play again soon.

I should have a really neat vehicle and strategy thought up for the next time…

Dec 17 – 6 months to wait?

It looks like I have longer to wait before leaving Staples than I thought.

While talking to HR about my benefits package at my government position today, I was told that it would be six months from my November 2014 start date before my new benefits kick in – dang!

So instead of leaving Staples early new year, if I want to keep myself covered with benefits I will have to stay until sometime around May 2014. It's a little disappointing to discover, especially as I have not been given any information about benefits at my government job, which the lady at HR was surprised to hear. I hadn't even received the standard introductory package to my pension, which she also sent me today.

I looked into what it would cost for me to leave Staples and just pay for my benefits separately, which turns out to be a substantial amount of money every month… meaning there’s no point in leaving, as I pay far less than that as an employee.

Even so, it may be that I lose a major portion of those benefits in the new year, as Staples reviews its employee’s hours-vs-benefits ratio a few times a year. Meaning that I may get a letter in the mail stating that I'm not working enough to qualify for benefits, at least ones that are worth having.

Slightly maddening, but I'll have to figure out how to cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, I'll be making a few beneficial-health appointments for early in January just in case.

Dec 18 – Interview clips!

I'm so excited today: my interview clips went live!

My friend the proto-journalist finished editing three separate clips culled from my interview last weekend and posted them on YouTube today. Here’s one of them for you to enjoy:

Watching myself in the video, I did notice a few things that I'll have to remember to keep in mind for any future videos. For one thing, I do tend to him and all far too often for my liking, something I don't think that I do in regular conversation: I tend to pause instead. As well, I think I could perhaps speak more clearly to the point of each question, but I think that will be something that has to come with experience in practice rather than simple forethought.

Don't get me wrong: I am incredibly thrilled to have such high quality footage available to use for marketing my books and introducing people to the worlds I am creating. Eventually hope to have amassed enough material to allow floating imagery, transparent backgrounds and so forth to be present in the interviews that are created for my writing.

For now I'll just have to be satisfied with a fantastic job my friend did. Many thanks, Chris!

Dec 19 – Relaxing and Singing!

It was the end of a long month tonight.

Between my two jobs, I've worked every day save one for the last month, quite often doing overtime - my choice, of course but still tiring when you add it all up… on top of my not feeling great due to my recent lack-of-protein dietary oversight. The proof was in the pudding though: with all my hard work this month, I nearly doubled my regular paycheck and that alone put a tired smile on my face: it's nice to get a good bit ahead, once in a while.

It was with great relief that I spent the evening in, watching Singing In The Rain with a good friend, not having a care in the world and thoroughly enjoying the company. She even helped me decorate for Christmas, making my place look seasonally sensational in a short time!

I hadn't actually seen Singing In The Rain since I was a kid nor do I recall seeing it in its entirety either at that time, so tonight was a special treat. I found myself grinning ear to ear at many points, thinking again and again that this was a simple and honest masterpiece of cinema, for good reason. The unmatched performances of all the actors and the sincerity of the films premises still resonate today, enough so that I'd like to see it again fairly soon.

My friend also introduced me to the singing group Pentatonix, whose perfect melodies are instantly addictive… in a good way. Here’s their Christmas album, which I had running in the background as I wrote this week’s blog:

Though I was tired, I couldn't fall asleep until well after midnight and my last thoughts before sleep claim me was that I was really looking forward to tomorrow, my first day off in far too long.

I have a whole lot of nothing planned - gratefully so!

Dec 20 – Carving Art

Ten years is a long time to dedicate to a single task… that’s exactly what one artist did to realize his dream and passion. You can see the stunning results:

Ra Paulette shapes the sandstone caves of New Mexico into magnificent works of art, with just his own hands and no other help. A recently-completed documentary covers the work of this extraordinary artist, following his vision over a decade to leave a ‘magnum opus’ of his art.

I’m a big believer in discovering( and following )your passions and seeing them brought to such stunning life by Ra is reason enough to reinvigorate my own dreams, to see them as achievable. I don’t work in a physical medium like Ra does but the idea is the same: create with passon. 

You can learn more at Cavediggerdocumentary.com which has the movie available on DVD. I’m reminded of the carved works of Petra, or of canyons hewn by flowing water… however you want to look at his work, Ra’s art is breathtakingly beautiful.

Enjoy.

Dec 21 – Holiday Retail!

I had a good time at work today, which was unexpected given that it's only a few days to Christmas and people are busily shopping their little hearts out.

Now THIS is my idea of Christmas shopping...

While it was busy, I didn't find it nearly as overwhelmingly crowded as at other busy times of year I've worked. Most people were in a relaxed mood and smiling, which I found quite refreshing; having worked in retail for several decades now, it's a rare thing to see this time of year. Perhaps people are realizing, albeit slowly, that's materialism isn't the be-all and end-all of this time of year and that they should try to enjoy the season for what it is. Even the single grumpy grinch that walked in right at the end of the day couldn't spoil my good mood and I went home smiling.

Maybe there’s hope for people yet, if they can see past the depth of their wallets?

Since I do like to leave on a high note now and then with my blog, I'll leave you with this little gem I discovered today: a five-year-old girl expresses her opinion of Leia’s outfit while held in Jabba’s Palace in Return Of The Jedi… set to animation! It’s incredibly cute and may surprise you:

All right, it's only a few days until Christmas and I'm more relaxed than I've ever been at this time of year; it's a good feeling! Also, I apologize( a first for this blog! )for not including the Colbert-Smaug link in last week's entry: it's there now for you to enjoy. With that, have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or however else you intend to celebrate the season!