canadiandiamond (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
canadiandiamond) wrote2012-11-22 12:16 pm
canadiandiamond) wrote2012-11-22 12:16 pm
update!
So, it's been awhile since I wrote in here. Nothing too exciting to report, but I'll put it behind a cut because I have a feeling I may get ramble-y just the same.
Writing
I've officially given up on NaNo, which I suppose I should've done earlier but I was both wildly optimistic and not working on writing at all because of other reasons (see below!), so I didn't really have a good grip on whether I could do it or not. I still think that if I wrote all out every night and all weekend I could still do it but mreh. It would be a LOT of work and I'm not in love with the idea I went with (which I only came up with the night before, an hour before NaNo started; serves me right for not planning properly), so why put myself through the unnecessary stress and strain? I've got nothing to prove, as I've won NaNo multiple times before, though it would've been nice to have three in a row with this year's win. No biggie, though, and there's always next year.
More importantly, I still have several other commitments to keep up with, including finishing a big bang that's due to be posted in less than two weeks, another smaller Christmas exchange fic, and Yuletide, which I really want to nail this year and not just meet the minimum requirements. Last year I had ~1,800 words so it's not like I just scraped by then or anything but I'd like to do more this year. So yes, any writing I do is better off focusing on those things.
The downside is that I was counting on 50k from NaNo towards the Get Your Words Out challenge I took on this year, and as a result of dropping the ball there I'll almost certainly fail that too. Which, well, mreh. You can't force it, really, at least I can't, and as it's a hobby then forcing it and making it painful / not fun goes completely against the point of it, after all. Lesson learned, don't write cheques I can't cash, move on with life, etc.
Gaming
I did get out to a tabletop gaming social near the end of October, which was awesome. Met a lot of nice people and got to play some neat games that I otherwise would never have done. They meet fairly regularly but it's in the city so I can't really commit to anything, but knowing that there's a group out there that meets now and then and I could potentially make some of those gatherings makes me happy.
I also bought a copy of Pandemic, which is an awesome co-operative board game, and hard as all get out. Sara, my sister, my aunt, and I all tried it a few weeks ago and it kicked our asses but good, even at the easiest setting. It was fun though, and I really want to play it again, though that probably won't happen until closer to Christmas time. There's still a bunch of games I want to play but having the release of that social and owning / playing Pandemic has sated that desire for now, heh. Games like that are hella expensive, too, which sucks, but at least now I know I have a place and people to play them with, if infrequently, and I've got to try a bunch of them out without having to purchase them, so it's all good. Still want to get a copy of Elder Sign, maybe for Christmas, but we'll see.
Guild Wars 2
This gets its own heading because I've been enjoying it so much. They did things so very, very right with this game, it's kind of amazing. I've played so many games over the years, starting back with vanilla WoW and SWG, just about everything that was out there for awhile until the last several years where there's been 23849023809 MMOs released, heh, but this has the potential to become my favourite.
I had stopped playing for awhile but a recent chance to invite a friend to play got me back into it, and he loved it so much he bought his own copy the day after the invite expired, haha. This buddy of mine is pretty much the reason I started playing MMOs, so we could play games together and communicate even though he's on the other side of the country. So to have a game to play with him again, it rocks. And the way the scaling works, my 30+ character got to follow his new toon around the newbie areas yet I still gained xp commensurate to my level and went from like 30 to 42 during the trial, just by helping him out and exploring, haha. Such a great system, I can't praise it enough, and with achievements and exploration goals it has me pretty hooked, heh. The best part is as it's free to play it doesn't matter if I put it down for awhile, no big deal at all, which is nice. Too many times I felt either forced to play an MMO because I was paying for it, or felt guilty that I wasn't playing it, but not here.
So yeah, really loving it, and it's also one of the reasons why I haven't been writing much lately. Last week was the beginning of the friend's trial period and my buddy and I played every night and pretty much all weekend, which meant no writing for me but I didn't care because it was a ton of fun. That was a big part of why I decided to give up the ghost on NaNo, but it's all good.
Work
I don't want to jinx myself, so I'll keep this brief and kinda vague, haha, but a new potential employment opportunity opened up recently and I've thrown my hat in the ring. It'd be the perfect job for me, as perfect as you can get out here anyway, and a vast improvement in pretty much every facet compared to what I have now. Applications closed at the end of last Thursday so it's been nearly a week and I'm hoping to be contacted soon about it, but we'll see. Everyone out here has been very supportive: my current employer, the potential new co-workers, references, etc. It really would work out so well for everyone, so fingers crossed anyway and we'll see what happens. Expect a lot more to be posted on things if/when they do pan out, but for now that's all I'll say about that.
Hockey
Won't spend much time on this either because damn, getting very fed up with this. Things looked like they'd be settled several times, but the wheels have always fallen off the wagon when the opposite side responds to whatever offer is made. This applies to both the owners and the players, by the way. I'm not siding with either of them, as the failure to resolve things rests with both sides in my opinion. It's ridiculous to be this far into negotiations and with so little progress up until recently. I was pretty worried about not seeing hockey once the season was supposed to start but now I honestly don't miss it. I'll watch it if/when it comes back, I reckon, but it won't be anything like the last several years, when I paid for the satellite package and watched one if not several games each night when I could.
Also, Happy Thanksgiving to my American family and friends, hope you have a great holiday! :)
Writing
I've officially given up on NaNo, which I suppose I should've done earlier but I was both wildly optimistic and not working on writing at all because of other reasons (see below!), so I didn't really have a good grip on whether I could do it or not. I still think that if I wrote all out every night and all weekend I could still do it but mreh. It would be a LOT of work and I'm not in love with the idea I went with (which I only came up with the night before, an hour before NaNo started; serves me right for not planning properly), so why put myself through the unnecessary stress and strain? I've got nothing to prove, as I've won NaNo multiple times before, though it would've been nice to have three in a row with this year's win. No biggie, though, and there's always next year.
More importantly, I still have several other commitments to keep up with, including finishing a big bang that's due to be posted in less than two weeks, another smaller Christmas exchange fic, and Yuletide, which I really want to nail this year and not just meet the minimum requirements. Last year I had ~1,800 words so it's not like I just scraped by then or anything but I'd like to do more this year. So yes, any writing I do is better off focusing on those things.
The downside is that I was counting on 50k from NaNo towards the Get Your Words Out challenge I took on this year, and as a result of dropping the ball there I'll almost certainly fail that too. Which, well, mreh. You can't force it, really, at least I can't, and as it's a hobby then forcing it and making it painful / not fun goes completely against the point of it, after all. Lesson learned, don't write cheques I can't cash, move on with life, etc.
Gaming
I did get out to a tabletop gaming social near the end of October, which was awesome. Met a lot of nice people and got to play some neat games that I otherwise would never have done. They meet fairly regularly but it's in the city so I can't really commit to anything, but knowing that there's a group out there that meets now and then and I could potentially make some of those gatherings makes me happy.
I also bought a copy of Pandemic, which is an awesome co-operative board game, and hard as all get out. Sara, my sister, my aunt, and I all tried it a few weeks ago and it kicked our asses but good, even at the easiest setting. It was fun though, and I really want to play it again, though that probably won't happen until closer to Christmas time. There's still a bunch of games I want to play but having the release of that social and owning / playing Pandemic has sated that desire for now, heh. Games like that are hella expensive, too, which sucks, but at least now I know I have a place and people to play them with, if infrequently, and I've got to try a bunch of them out without having to purchase them, so it's all good. Still want to get a copy of Elder Sign, maybe for Christmas, but we'll see.
Guild Wars 2
This gets its own heading because I've been enjoying it so much. They did things so very, very right with this game, it's kind of amazing. I've played so many games over the years, starting back with vanilla WoW and SWG, just about everything that was out there for awhile until the last several years where there's been 23849023809 MMOs released, heh, but this has the potential to become my favourite.
I had stopped playing for awhile but a recent chance to invite a friend to play got me back into it, and he loved it so much he bought his own copy the day after the invite expired, haha. This buddy of mine is pretty much the reason I started playing MMOs, so we could play games together and communicate even though he's on the other side of the country. So to have a game to play with him again, it rocks. And the way the scaling works, my 30+ character got to follow his new toon around the newbie areas yet I still gained xp commensurate to my level and went from like 30 to 42 during the trial, just by helping him out and exploring, haha. Such a great system, I can't praise it enough, and with achievements and exploration goals it has me pretty hooked, heh. The best part is as it's free to play it doesn't matter if I put it down for awhile, no big deal at all, which is nice. Too many times I felt either forced to play an MMO because I was paying for it, or felt guilty that I wasn't playing it, but not here.
So yeah, really loving it, and it's also one of the reasons why I haven't been writing much lately. Last week was the beginning of the friend's trial period and my buddy and I played every night and pretty much all weekend, which meant no writing for me but I didn't care because it was a ton of fun. That was a big part of why I decided to give up the ghost on NaNo, but it's all good.
Work
I don't want to jinx myself, so I'll keep this brief and kinda vague, haha, but a new potential employment opportunity opened up recently and I've thrown my hat in the ring. It'd be the perfect job for me, as perfect as you can get out here anyway, and a vast improvement in pretty much every facet compared to what I have now. Applications closed at the end of last Thursday so it's been nearly a week and I'm hoping to be contacted soon about it, but we'll see. Everyone out here has been very supportive: my current employer, the potential new co-workers, references, etc. It really would work out so well for everyone, so fingers crossed anyway and we'll see what happens. Expect a lot more to be posted on things if/when they do pan out, but for now that's all I'll say about that.
Hockey
Won't spend much time on this either because damn, getting very fed up with this. Things looked like they'd be settled several times, but the wheels have always fallen off the wagon when the opposite side responds to whatever offer is made. This applies to both the owners and the players, by the way. I'm not siding with either of them, as the failure to resolve things rests with both sides in my opinion. It's ridiculous to be this far into negotiations and with so little progress up until recently. I was pretty worried about not seeing hockey once the season was supposed to start but now I honestly don't miss it. I'll watch it if/when it comes back, I reckon, but it won't be anything like the last several years, when I paid for the satellite package and watched one if not several games each night when I could.
Also, Happy Thanksgiving to my American family and friends, hope you have a great holiday! :)