Thingies

Stuff happens, every day. Sometimes, I watch it happen. Other times, I’m taking part in it. At the end of the day (or week, or month, or year, depending on the way my brain decides to go about it), I like to take stock. Here is my laundry list of the stuff:

• I got accepted to UNC-G, full time, no holds barred, all out! So, yeah. If I can somehow fit it into my 40+ hour work week (and I will), I’ll be taking classes in the fall.
• On the same day as (above), I got my first monthly paycheck. Can anyone say: bonanza? Okay, maybe not, but it was really nice to be able to pay the bills without fearing the dreaded overdraft. We made some serious headway in the Neverending Story that is my credit card debt, and Natania applied for a car loan, because…
• My sister is selling us her car. It’s a 1994 Honda Civic. Bessie, the 1990 Chrysler LeBaron who had around 30,000 miles when I got her in 2001, and now has 118,000, is dying. She has been a good car, but it’s time we put her away.
• At Elendor, which is a place where dorks like me pretend they are actually taking part in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, in a text-based fashion (I like to think of it as team-based literative entertainment!), I was made a Local Admin in the Bree culture. This is not very exciting to anyone who has an actual social life, but it is nice to me. I’ve been shunned at my previous culture (what we call the groups of folk who live in Middle-earth, which sounds so deliciously geeky that I’m getting chills writing it) for so long that it’s really splendid to see my efforts actually noticed in another. So, take that! And you know who you are! And if you’re reading this… well, jeez. Why are you reading this? It’s for my friends.
• I’m working on a short story. Here is a direct quote: “I tried the patio outside of a restaurant called Heaven?s Gate. My co-workers frequented the place only on the rarest of days. In all honestly, the place was too weird for your average diner. They had a drink called the Cyanide Curprise (their spelling), which was just grape Kool-aid. People ordered it, too, and laughed at their friends while they slugged it down. I moved on one day when I spotted the crew from the office heading down the sidewalk toward the place. Part of me was self-conscious, because they would question why I was sitting in a restaurant patio, eating my sack lunch alone?even though they didn?t like me and didn?t want me along, they would ask; I knew they would. Besides, the waitstaff had been giving me looks, and who wants to hang around a place where people drink faux poisoned beverages anyway?” It’s less boring than that, I think. There’s a dryad, and a river spirit, and even a blood sacrifice, but all of that is inside of my head at the moment, and if I were to try and show it to you right now, it might get messy.
• In addition to short fiction, I’ve got an idea for a comic book. How’s that for spending my time wisely? I may have to draw it myself, because I’d really like to see it out there. We’ll see how it develops. I have to write it first, and, well… that’s always the rub.
• I don’t know if I told you, but I’m getting married in November. So, yeah, we’ve got to plan for that, too. It’s up in Massachusetts, so over the summer months, we’ll be jetset to Hartford, getting things ready.
• I worked with the new Flash MX 2004 at work last week. I used it to do this lame-ass ActionScript menu thingy for a company CD-ROM, but I got to use the new embedded streaming video features. Needless to say, I really miss working in animation with Flash. It’s a great utility for people who want to do simple animation ala Power Puff girls and (to a less simple and more complex-as-freaking-hell) Samurai Jack. Maybe above comic book may end up more like…
• A Hellboy Online Comic, which is (be warned) hosted at Playboy.
• OverClocked ReMix is pretty sweet, too.

So, yeah. That’s a big laundry list there. I’m tired, so now I go to bed. A good even to you.