Dragonchasers

Ack, it’s been a week since my last confes.. last update. Better bring things up to date.

I was sick last Friday and over the weekend, so not much happened worth talking about. At the same time, we were moving our servers from one data center to another, and since I was home sick when the move happened, things did not go well. I came in to work on Monday to find that one site had been down all weekend, search wasn’t working on the other, and two servers hadn’t been reconfigured.

Suffice to say, work’s been fairly hellish this week. 🙂

But, next week, I’m on vacation! Not going anywhere special, but still, a chance to chill out is very welcome.

Game-wise, I’ve been renting a bunch of games from Blockbuster, though none worth noting. I became obsessed with Warcraft III and played through the campaign of that. It’s a tribute to the game that when I was done, I still wanted more. And now, this week, I’ve started a new character in Dark Age of Camelot… a highlander mercenary on the Nimue server.

Suddenly, I’m enchanted again.

So that brings us up to date. Oh, I’ve gone back to reading that D&D book, The Ice Crystal or The Enchanted Crystal or The Enchanted Ice or whatever it is… I needed something to read that wouldn’t keep me up at night, and this is doing the trick quite nicely. Got Parke Goodwin’s Robin and the King on deck, though!

Why do so many people look forward to summer? What the hell is pleasant about this weather? It’s like you need a knife and fork to cut chunks out of the air to breath in. I just don’t get the appeal at all.

“OK, so where are all the fascinating posts?” you ask. I know, I know… you all live vicariously through me, don’t you?

Well, summer is here, and I’m trying not to be such an A/C whore this summer. Last summer, I don’t think I ever left the house, except to go to (air conditioned) work. So far, that means basically walks in the park.. heh, I have to ramp up to such radical things as *gulp* going somewhere.

Haven’t been doing any neat tech stuff, and the books I’ve been reading have all been shite, so no use in reporting on those.

I bought the g/f a new inkle loom for her birthday, and I bought myself a small one. Yes, I do have a penis. Yes, I do like doing textile stuff now and then. Actually, it’d probably only be US citizens that would even raise an eyebrow.

So anyway, I’ve been doing a bit of weaving, which I find incredibly soothing. Inkle looms have no moving parts and are only good for doing straps, which is both limiting, and sorta freeing. I don’t have to fret about taking on some huge project because the little inkle loom I’m using can’t do big projects.

But what was most fun about this, is that its spun off some satelite projects. There are some small wooden hand tools that make this kind of weaving easier. The g/f has a few she bought, but really they are *very* simple and it seemed silly to buy more, so she went out and bought a few thin-stock ebony and cocobolo (spelling?) boards and asked me to make more tools.

So yesterday, I dragged out all my tools and tried to remember what I used to know about woodworking. And found that dealing with these small items (the stock is only 1/8 inch thick) means that all my old knowledge is damned near useless. And living in an apartment doesn’t help… it ain’t like I got a table saw in here. 🙂

In the end, I went out and sat in the park with some roughed out stock, a carving knife, and some sandpapger, and made something at least in the ballpark of what we need. I gotta check it againt her originals before I put the finishing touches on.

But I tell ya, after all the time I’ve spent doing everything I do in cyberspace, sitting out in the park, the sun shining down, carving a piece of ebony into a tool… man, it was a damned near religious experience for me.

Been pretty quiet around here, eh? Well, I’ve been busy doing a lot of mundane things, but with a goal. A wise woman once told me that in order to create, I needed to welcome my muse. If that’s a bit too touchy feely for you, another way of looking at it is, if you’re struggling with your environment, it’s hard to be creative. So, I’ve been spending some time carving out bits of sanity in the chaos that is my apartment. I started with my bed, oddly enough. I cleaned up the heaps and piles of scattered books and magazines that used to surround it, and got a nice bookshelf within easy reach where I can put the things I’m actively reading, plus room for a notepad and my iBook. And I’ve made a pledge to myself to make my bed every morning. Simple enough changes, but I find I’m reading a lot more now. I can flop down on the bed and grab a book without a second thought. It’s an inviting area to me now.

Yesterday, I rearranged my computer desk. I broke down a few systems I really don’t use (how often does one really *need* to use a Sun Ultra-5?) and cleared the desk of extraneous debris. I left the PC ready for gaming, but what I was really going for was easy access to the Mac (OS X being my preferred computing platform). I’m still getting things squared away (progs upgraded, stuff installed that wasn’t) but already I’m starting to mess with Real Basic which is something I’ve been meaning to do for a year. (Yeah, I know, I should be doing something more ‘serious’ than Real Basic, but right now my goal is fun and quick results.)

I’m not done with the mundane stuff… there’s the whole living room area, plus I wouldn’t mind getting the kitchen to where I don’t hate the idea of making food… but it’s really funny how doing these seemingly very simple things can really clear your head and motivate you.

I’m blogging all these thoughts for myself, really. When I’m down if I read through my archives, maybe this post will be the kick in the ass I need to pull myself out of a funk.