Bit of a break

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been a while since I last posted. Stuff has been going on, but I've been too busy at work to spend much time writing. I caught up a week's worth of work on Friday, though, so I've got all the time in the world now!

Let's start at the beginning. Or rather, the middle. Of last week. Well, Thursday, anyway. it was the first meeting of our new book club where we had actually read the book, so that was cool. I never quite understood the point of a book club before, as I didn't think there would be much to discuss with the books I tend to read. That still mostly holds true for Red Planet by Robert Heinlein, since it's very short and there isn't much worthy of debate. There are definitely strong libertarian themes in the book, but the opposition is presented as being completely lame and not even the most authoritarian reader can't really sympathize with them. It was a good book, but it wasn't something that will really raise a lot of questions about the nature of governance and whatnot. Now, we're reading Weaveworld by Clive Barker. I'm not very far into it yet, but I'm having mixed feelings. Some of it is really good and interesting and some is odd and strangely written. We'll see how it pans out.

Friday we got to leave early from work, which was awesome. I went home and Jenna and I played video games all night. Saturday, there were more video games, though this time I got to play a bit of Left 4 Dead with Steve, so that was really fun. Poor kid's stuck up in the frozen wasteland of the north (Big Piney, WY), so any time I get to talk with him or whatever, I do try to take advantage of it. We were a bit worried about getting to our game on Saturday afternoon, but the roads really weren't that bad. Our game was really fun. The whole thing actually focused on my character, which is sort of a first. I'm extremely curious about what Adj has come up with for me, now. There's some really interesting stuff happening that I'll need to think on rather al ot to figure out how best to proceed.

Something interesting that Adj came up with that I really like, is the association of Maslow's hierarchy of needs (Details) with role-playing games. It really fits well. When your character is dealing solely with staying alive on a day-to-day basis, there's no time to develop him or her as a person with a history and a future. Unfortunately, when you're stuck at the second level (Safety) you also can't really form bonds of friendship with those around you. That means your character may not really know much of anything about the other characters around him. It makes for a very simplistic game. It can still be fun, but you don't form the same connection to characters, and I think it actually makes the players feel less involved. Adj, having realized this, does an exceptional job of getting us opportunities to have our characters realize their place in a larger world, recognize and achieve goals, solve problems in a creative way and to grow and change in meaningful ways. This is only one of the many reasons I have told him on multiple occasions that he is the greatest GM of ever.

Sunday was another day of video games. This may sound very boring, but we're both playing games we absolutely love. I'm off Fable 2 for the moment and back onto Fallout 3. I'm working on achieving all there is to achieve, finishing all sidequests, discovering all possible areas, etc. It's a ridiculously huge game, which is awesome. I'm making full use of my strategy guide, too. I'm really enjoying it, and when I'm done, there are already two expansions! So you don't think that we're total lazy freaks, we did go and play racquetball for about an hour and a half on Sunday and I did spend a few hours in the garage, working on my joinery. I'm not having any luck at all with my finger joints with any method I've tried so far. I think I need to make myself a jog of some kind. The way I tried yesterday was closer than I've gotten before, but there's still way too much chance for slight variation, and the whole process takes for freaking ever. I'll keep thinking about it and trying things until something works.

Thanks for reading!