Author: Gareth

Done for a while

I’ve pretty much decided that I’m done with RPGnet, at least for the time being.

The tone of the place has just gotten too hostile. A small number of posters are pretty much doing their damndest to define the discussions, fill the threads with their in-jokes, and generally flame the crap out of anyone who isn’t “in”–and the point at which some undereducated riotgrrrl demands that the powers-that-be appoint a female moderator and the usual suspects jump in to laud her idea is the point where I realize that these folks are no longer interested in just being gamers and talking about things of interest to gamers. It’s all about the agendas.

Fuck it. I don’t have time to deal with the aggravation. I want to write, and the time that I spend on that site is time that I could spend writing. I suppose I could post a farewell thread on the site, but that’s usually criticized (often rightly so) as being overly-dramatic, and I figure that most of the folks who give a damn most likely will read it here anyway.

GMS

Happy New Year

…such as it is. I worked yesterday, and about half-way through the day, I started to feel like shit. Could’ve been a bunch of reasons: My daughter came down with something last week. Various members of my family fell ill after a holiday party on Saturday. Laura hasn’t felt too great on and off for a week or so. I also found out that the woman in the cube next to mine has been coming in this week with a Flu (“I took some antibiotics, but I’m still feeling worn down…” she says. “Thanks for spreading it around.” sez I. Blank stare of the congenitally stupid is what I get in return).

So, instead of going to a New Year’s party last night, I went home, changed into sweats, curled up on the couch, watched a couple of movies, and crashed out soon after Midnight. Wah-bloody-hoo.

I slept until Noon, and have done absolutely sod-all today.

I did, however, make a New Year’s Resolution. It is my intention to finish, and if possible, sell, at least one novel this year. I’ve decided that I need to wean myself from my addiction to my own extremely minor celebrity status, which I’ve recognized is really the only reason why I’m hanging around the RPG industry at this point. It’s just not healthy. Time to move into what I really want to be doing, and not cling to this stuff just because I like the attention that I get. Enough is enough.

We’ll see if I can stick to it.

GMS

Skarka, with the assist….

Back at the end of November, John Tynes posted a link to part one of a fascinating article about bizarre happenings on a Nevada ranch.

As I was wandering around the corners of my laptop today, I found a note to myself to remember to hunt down the second installment. Tynes never posted a follow-up link, so, for those who were interested, here is the second and final part of that story. Bizarre stuff.

Christmas was good. We got about a foot of snow, which made for a pretty day, perfect for staying inside and drinking home-made mead (go, me). We head out to Long Island this weekend to make a brief round of the extended family, and then it’s back to work.

I love this holiday. Folks often ask me why, given the fact that I am not remotely Christian. I usually respond with the following quote from Dickens, which I find sums it up for me nicely:

“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,” returned the nephew: “Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

Merry Christmas.

GMS