JoeOutside

Merry Christmas. I sit in the shambles of a room (backlash from a last-minute cleaning binge--why does cleaning only make it worse for me?) waiting either for the need to sleep or the sun to rise (on this day only, either is acceptable behavior with my family)and ponder.  And as I ponder, thought turn away from my aches and pains and problems and the world is still and I allow myself to actually wish the best for others. Throughout the year I am a jackass to other people—partly because of my Autism Spectrum issues, partly because it's required of me for various reasons, to various people.  I'm a jackass to my family because it's the only way to get them to acknowledge me as anything other than the 5-year-old kid they seem to think of me as.  I'm a jackass to my friends' family because, whether they ask for it or not, having a jackass enforcer uncle to the kids makes the parents' lives just a little smoother.  I'm a jackass to my friends because they wouldn't recognize me otherwise, besides which, it's needed in my role as GM.  I'm a jackass to strangers because, well, a lot of them deserve it.  But here at three-o-clock in the morning I think of the reasons I celebrate Christmas, of my love and gratitude for he whose birth I extol on this holiday, and just this once, I can say clearly and without guile that I wish the very best to all of those who are reading this and even those who aren't.
And then the moment passes.  I hope you enjoyed it, because you aren't likely to see it again anytime soon.
Please excuse me now.  I have knives to sharpen.

Infected by falingard

RULES
A. For each of the 20 first people answering this journal, I will put their avatar and the three deviations I like most from their gallery on the list!
B. If you answer, you have to do the same in your journal, putting the tagger on the first place. The idea of this is not to get a free feature, it is to spread art around for everyone!

1:  

Sooo many awesome characters! I've been in awe of Falingard's character designs for years, ever since my first discovery of Flaky Pastry.

Inside the head of a madman

Still rolling natural ones...

My life and times, such as they are

So, apparently, kidneys are considered something nice.

I went to a specialist about my high blood pressure, and he immediately ordered a couple batteries of tests.  Eleven vials of blood, two unmentionable cups and an ultrasound later, he tells me there's an excess of protein bleeding from my kidneys.  Like 360 time as much as there's supposed to be.  So now I'm getting ready for a kidney biopsy.  On the bright side, the biopsy should tell us exactly what's wrong and exactly how it needs to be treated (according to the Doc), with the added bonus of a very, very minor chance that this could be the key to my diabetes as well.  On the down side, I won't be able to lift anything heavy for a month--wait a second, I'm a lazy sot, that's not a downside at all!  Actually, the downside is that this is starting to strain my parents' finances, and I worry for them.  They're both retirees on a fixed income, and it's not like they don't have health issues of their own.  I've been praying that some of my siblings strike it rich and can help the folks out some--it's not like my employability issues are going to end soon.

So, I keep plugging on my writing projects.  The Whateley RPG I'm working on at www.crystalhall.org has been shaping up well, I think--at least, no-one's told me it sucks.  The other two RPGs I'm working on--Infinite Realms (my own homebrew modular RPG, made from scratch) and d20 Universal Saga Edition (Updating and Upgrading the d20 Modern system using concepts from the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG)--continue a little slower.  As I'm actively GMing Whateley, that's been occupying more of my thought processes.  My fanfic proceeds even slower.  Every time I pull the file up to write, I get an idea for another ruleset instead.  But hey--SOMETHING's progressing.

Artistic Projects
Two or three roleplaying systems and some fanfiction set in Whateley Acadamy.

Inside the head of a madman

I feel bad for the author stuck writing my story.

My life and times, such as they are

So I didn't get to last year's SDCC after all--everything was ready and my sponsor backed out with no hotel room, so I had no place to stay while I was there.  I was bummed, and didn't post anything.  Obviously.

Now, I'm paying for it, apparently. Within the last two months, both my computers have died (I got my laptop working again, but it's a linux box now, which I am not overly fond of.  My car has broken down 3 times, my 4th edition gaming group at the local comic shop all abandoned me on the same day (they all got new jobs that required them to work on game day), I started going blind in one eye and just now my glasses broke right in the middle of the noseguard.  I'd take out my frustrations via video games, but I'm afraid to turn on my playstation or gamecube--the way thing are going theyd probably blow up.  At least my creativity's at a high peak and pencils are cheap.

Artistic Projects
Two or three roleplaying systems and some fanfiction set in Whateley Acadamy.

Inside the head of a madman

Last night I dreamt that the entire world but me was made of lolcats.

My life and times, such as they are

I need to post more often.

When I started posting in this journal, it was with the intention that it would serve as a true journal of sorts, recording the less-unimportant points of my life.  I'm not very good at that.  I probably never will be.  But I'm not dead yet, at least.

I ran into a stroke of luck this year, as the son of an associate of mine wants to go to the San Diego Comicon, but she doesn't.  So that the kid's not alone, she has very kindly arranged to pay for my pass and hotel room.  This is a giant stroke of fortune for me, as I've been wanting to go to the SDCC ever since I was twelve, and this is likely to be the only chance I'll get.

4th edition of D&D is out.  Either you already know this, or you have no idea what I just said.  I had my core books pre-ordered, and have been deep in study ever since opening day.  I think what 4th does, it does REALLY WELL, and for the style of play that D&D is based on, it's clearly superior, but there are some campaigns I have that 3.5 is still the better option.

I recently started a podcast with my friend Calvin--the Long, Dark Podcast of the Soul, a 'cast about geeks, by geeks, for whoever's stuck listening to us.  If you're morbidly curious (or any other kind of curious), the 'cast can be found at longdark.podbean.com .  We're still trying to figure out exactly what we want out of the cast, so it's been pretty hit or miss.  I think the sketch comedy we've done has been pretty good so far, at least.

I did something silly and got attacked by the meme over at Zato's zato-2two.deviantart.com/ so here's the drill.
Comment and I will:
a- Tell you how I know you and a thing or two about whatever you have in your gallery.
b- Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc.
c- Tell you something I like about you.
d- Tell you a memory I have about you.
e- Ask something I've always wanted to know about you?
f- Tell you my favorite pic of yours.
g- In return, you must post this in your journal.
So there it is.

Artistic Projects
Hopefully something I can post soon.