I really need to update this thing. Soon, soon.
In the meantime, for those that are gamer inclined, please go read the first installment of my monthly board game column, BOARD TO DEATH, over at the Games and Stuff website.

Board to Death: Why Do We Play Board Games?

(real post and life update thing coming soon, I promise...)

Futile meme! Hooray!

Leave me a comment saying "Resistance is Futile."

* I'll respond by asking you three to five questions so I can satisfy my curiosity.
* Update your journal with the answers to the questions.
* Include this explanation in the post and offer to ask other people questions

Here's my response to painkillerjane's questions:

1. Which of your tattoos is your personal favorite?
The heart on my chest has always been important to me, but given recent events it is even more so now. It is a statement about my views on love, how it is not a finite commodity and how I have a lot of it to give. The big crack in the heart has had different meanings at different times, all of which are valid, and now I've got yet another meaning for it. And it's a big one.

2. Still working on your novel? About how complete would you say it is?
In a word, no. The events of the past year have rocked me from my creative wagon, but I hope to get back on soon.

3. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
HAHAHAHAHA! I have no idea. Things change for me on a daily basis these days. I'd like to see myself making a sizable part of my income from art, whether that be from mask making or writing. I do, however, see myself as a single person for the rest of my life insomuch as I won't have a steady, primary partner. I know I will have been back to Bali.

4. Have you been able to keep in contact with any of your classmates from your Balinese maskmaking trip?
Yup. Most of them I connect with on facebook.

5. What personal habit in a person do you find most irritating?
Geez. As a general rule, I don't let stuff like that irritate me too much, though I guess I've got a few pet peeves. I suppose mainly it's when people who are clearly insecure in their own skin adopt an affected air or an exaggerated manner or like to go on and on about something that they're clearly pretty ignorant about. I don't like people pretending to be more than they are. Fake intellectuals make me want to break things sometimes.

that is all.

http://gamesandstuffonline.com/092909_board_game_night.html

Tags: gaming

Still puttering along here. I fucking hate the time that I spend in Jersey. Being in the same house with Sarah is just painful as all get out, and when she's not here, I'm unmotivated to do anything. And people wonder why I'm so quick to get down to Baltimore and get on with my life. Being sick doesn't help either.

I've only got a wee bit more to pack, but I've got some shit I need to grow through and clean out too (like the stuff that belongs to my dad, etc.) I'll be back in Baltimore from this Wednesday (8/19) to probably the following Wednesday (8/26). Looks like I'll be house-sitting for my aunt from Thursday to Sunday I think, and then house-sitting for Ed & Emily from Sunday to Wednesday.

I'm working this entire weekend, and will be quickly ramping up to full time at my new job in Baltimore. Yeah, I'm basically waiting tables. But they don't care that I've got tattooed arms/hands/forehead or blue dreadlocks, so yay. But man I'm not going to be making much money... with any luck the tips will make up the difference, but fuck me if I know where the hell I'm going to live. I need something that's relatively cheap, and yet will allow me to have my cat and small pile of snakes, plus enough room for my all my stuff (ie. art, books and board games) so something like a studio apartment is right out. I suppose a roommate is not completely out of the question, but fuck me if I'm gonna live with a stranger. Time will tell.

And finally... speaking of games, (*nerd alert*)
word out of GenCon has me simultaneously blessing and cursing Fantasy Flight Games. "Sea of Blood" for Descent looks absolutely amazing, but I will never forgive them for dumbing down and completely gutting the best fantasy roleplaying game of all time, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, with an absolutely dreadful new approach for a third edition.

Tags: crushing oblivion, gaming
Current Mood: apathetic

Sunday I got my book collection moved down to storage in Brian's house in West Virginia.
I still have tons more to pack/move: clothes, art, boardgames, furniture, aquariums.
Still not entirely sure what my living arrangements will be like. I imagine I'll be splitting time between a few different locations.
Not much luck yet with finding a job, (despite filling out a bunch of applications and sending TONS of resumes out electronically) although I have a few leads plus one interview on Monday, which I'm pretty optimistic about. I also have a few potential one-day-a-week things in the works. I need something soon. Like, yesterday. I am just about out of money, period.
The house... gah. What a wonderful way to squander $60,000. I don't even want to talk about it.

As for my mental state, I still kinda feel like this whole thing is a dream. I'm sleepwalking through my days rarely feeling anything. Although the Depeche Mode show was the first time I've really felt in the moment in a long time. And thankfully I'm blessed with amazing friends and at least a couple people whose mere presence makes me feel more alive.

And I actually feel kinda crappy today, so I'm gonna go lie down for a while.

So yeah.
In case it hasn't been made clear, Sarah and I have broken up.
I will be moving to Baltimore in the very near future. Basically, as soon as I get my crap packed up and stored away where ever I can stash it. The next few weeks will see me traveling up and down 95 a great deal, and I hope to be mostly living in Baltimore by the end of the month. Though that will include frequent trips back up to Jersey to get the house sale-ready.
There will be much sofa sleeping, though I will likely land at my Uncle's place in Towson for the temporary midterm. Basically until Sarah and I can sell the house and I'm financially stable and working steadily. I suppose somewhere in there we'll have to deal with all the necessary legal crap of actually getting divorced.

Once that happens, we'll see. I've got a few crazy options on the table that are appealing (moving to Atlanta, going back to Bali... for good), but I'm guessing I'll be planted back in my hometown once again.

Discuss.

There you have it.
It would appear that I'm for most intents and purposes, I am now single for the first time since 1997.

More importantly, I need money for my not-yet-hatched business and for my trip to Ohio in two weeks.
Buy my things on Ebay.
Not much up there yet, but it's a weird assortment of clothing and gaming stuff.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=95707542623&h=1O5p3&u=7lzGy&ref=mf

It's like my brain just writes its own fantasy novels in its spare time.

So.
The setting is a medieval city, with roads and alleyways dense and labyrinth-like. The people of the city believe that in order for them to remain safe from some unnamed evil or to keep the gods appeased, they must follow the very peculiar and elaborate protocol of some age old rituals. The exact meaning and workings of this ritual were lost to time.
The ritual necessitated a young woman being strapped into a mask (which looked like some crazy steampunk version of the mask from the Dumas novel) and locked into a massive vault-like structure via an elaborate system of chains. While imprisoned so, she was also magically kept alive by some means. The entire populace was invested in the ritual and it formed the core of their spiritual beliefs. And while they knew what the mask looked like, the didn't know the face or the actual identity of the person in the mask.
The young King of the city was secretly in love with the woman in the mask. I, being the King's adviser and personal assistant, was the only person who knew the truth of this. On a few occasions the King managed to devise a temporary method of fooling the vault's chain apparatus by replacing the woman with a masked corpse, allowing him to spend a few hours with her in the middle of the night. The King eventually started spending all his energy into researching the rituals in an effort to find a way to release his love. In the end, he wasn't able to really find a solution, but was able to discern that he could replace her with someone else. I volunteered. And so, masked and chained, I went into the vault to replaced the King's love without anyone knowing.
The King and his love fled the country to points unknown.
In the following weeks, I was able to somehow escape the vault and started living a hidden existence, being assisted by a young woman who was a priestess who had become disillusioned by the church taking control of the city in the King's absence. Though I had escaped the vault, I could not escape the mask, and I still had chains hanging from both wrists. I was in the process of starting an underground revolution to overthrow the church when I woke up.

Tags: dreams