Resolutions
Jun. 3rd, 2009 01:49 pmTerrycloth made a comment about one of my resolutions recently, which reminded me that I'd never posted a resolutions update for April. And hadn't done one for May yet either. So, double-month update this time.
Write:
April
* GM'd an RP session on Sinai for one of
brennabat's PCs.
* Played in an RP session on Sinai with
kagetsume,
minor_architect,
tuftears and
boingdragon
* Still playing in the X-Men game.
* 10 flash-fiction "word of the indefinite time period" pieces.
* 15 regular entries
* MUCKed once or twice with
terrycloth
May
* GM'd a couple of RP sessions on Sinai for one of
brennabat's PCs.
* Still playing in the X-Men game.
* 1 flash-fiction "word of the indefinite time period" piece.
* 3 regular entries
May was a serious drop-off month for writing. Possibly because I started playing three different new games that month. Or possibly it’s less that it was a drop-off than that April was a spike. Maybe I’ll review the whole year at the end to look for patterns.
Draw:
No art points at all for April or May. I haven't felt like drawing lately. Closest I've come to drawing is buying another artist's anatomy book.
Play:
Lots of playing!
* Still playing CoH for several hours a week with
terrycloth and occasionally with Lut. We started a new set of characters in April, an all-melee team of delinquent angels. They're not actually rebellious, per se, they're just bored from waiting for the Apocalypse and decided to get some practice in by playing in the Architect Entertainment missions. They're not playing hooky! Really, it's important studying. Yeah. In May, we also participated in a few task forces run by the Repeat Offenders group, and did a Rikti mothership raid. I was disappointed by the mothership raid, which didn't have a good "climax" point. I didn't even see the endboss, and the raid continued for a random period of time after the endboss went down, until the game finally kicked us off the ship because enough time had passed for the shields to come back up.
* Puzzle Pirates: I've been doing more group activities -- sea monster hunts and pillages -- especially in April. A new ship-duty puzzle came out as an alternative to sailing: rigging. I like rigging quite a bit and have played a lot of it. Which is a little sad, because I like and am good at sailing too, so it'd be more useful to improve at a game that didn't take sailing's place. But I enjoy just doing the puzzle in Puzzle Pirates a lot, so I don't care that much.
* Left 4 Dead: This was on half-price sale for one weekend in late April, and I picked up a copy. Lut and I played several games together against the computer, but we never got to the point of me doing PvP. I’m not a fan of FPS games but this one is better than most, from my perspective.
* Free Realms: Started playing in May, I think. I've been playing it mostly instead of Puzzle Pirates, owing to group play sucking. But I like the mining/harvesting games, and the three-dimensional world and quests add a certain undefinable something to the experience. Sometimes something annoying, mind, like the endless walk-up-and-down-the-switchbacks for the CCG quest chain at one point. But still ... something. Played some card games in it with Terry, but I've basically decided against investing any money in the card game, and even all the free cards together don't really give enough variety to make it a game I'd play week after week. Still don't know how lone I'll stick with Free Realms.
* Demigod: I started playing this game after Lut had been playing it for a month, on the theory that we could play it together. Which we've done twice so far, if you count both games we tried to play against the computer with
terrycloth, where the idle tiemout kicked Terry both times and we quit out. I've actually played it more with Terry, who picked it up at the same time I did. Terry and I haven't had the timeout problem when it's the two of us against the computer or against other players. We've done a total of two PvP games: in the first one we trashed the other team, and in the second one the other team (different players) trashed us. I'm doing single-player games against the computer in an effort to improve at the game, but at some point I'll have to go against human players again. Or quit playing. I don't think the computer is going to offer enough challenge, or enough useful challenge, in the long term. Lut hasn't been playing it lately; he's been playing Battleforge instead, a freemium RTS/cardgame hybrid that, to my eye, looks like it has all the weaknesses of both. O_o Lut likes it, though.
* The RP items under writing also count as play.
Eat:
* Um. I've been eating? I stopped tracking calories because it was too tedious, and I haven't been particularly eating less, or eating healthier, or even eating only things I like. o.o;; Yeah, not scoring well here by any criteria.
Exercise:
April: 19 sessions
May: 18 sessions
So the average has been closer to 4 sessions a week than 5. I've noticed that "normal" weeks, where I don't have any special activities planned during the weekend or on the weeknights, tend to get me 5, but when if I plan to go anywhere, that torpedos my exercise schedule. A four day weekend away from home can result in the weeks bracketing it having only 3 sessions each.
I think I'm just okay with that. Trips are a bit stressful to me, but I'm not going to stop doing them or add to the stress by insisting on exercising while I'm away, or on nights that I have to pack, or whatnot.
Also, on the up side, most sessions have been 30+ minutes instead of the minimum 20. 4x30 equals more than 5 x 20, so it's not all bad news.
Visit:
* In April, I flew to Seattle to visit
terrycloth. Did a fair bit of gaming, too. Even won a game of Agricola! And lost a whole bunch of games of Race for the Galaxy to Terry. >:) Which I didn't mind at all. I wish I knew why it is that losing a PvP game of Demigod annoyed me, but losing PvP in the Free Realms CCG or at Race for the Galaxy didn't.
* In May, I went to ConQuest, a local sf con. I also visited with a couple of friends from NY who were in the area for a trip unrelated to me or the con. RoomCon was a blast as always, and I spent a couple of hours hanging out with
skyflame.
Live:
* I got a new garage door! Now if I can get a working remote for the garage door opener, I can even scratch an item off my to-do list of things around the house.
* I’ve been doing a lot more yardwork, and hating it rather less, for the last month. Partly this is by dint of counting yardwork as exercise (it’s generally less physically demanding than jogging, but I usually do it for longer, too, and it’s usually more effort than just walking). Mostly it’s because, at Lut’s instigation, I bought a new weedwhacker.
Rowyn: “Do you have any weedwhackers that are battery powered?”
Lowe’s employee: “I don’t think so … oh, this one is. It’s the most expensive model we have and costs three times what the cheapest does.”
Rowyn: “I’ll take it!”
This was a good decision. The thing I hate most about power tools is fussing with either gasoline engines (which make them heavier as well as messier and more annoying in general) or power cords, which inevitably tangle. The battery-powered weedwhacker is a pleasure to use by comparison. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the “on” trigger has to be held down and is mindbogglingly stiff. Even with a teeny bungee cord wrapped around it to keep it most of the way depressed, three days later my hand is still sore whenever I grip anything, because it took so much pressure to keep the trigger depressed.
Lut also bought me a lopper, a clever thing like hedge trimmers except with enormous handles and a small blade. It’s great for cutting off branches and lopping down junk trees, so I’ve been lopping down various little trees that have sprung up too close to the house in the last few years.
I still kinda hate yardwork, though, because I still end up covered in itchy rash spots, no matter how much bug repellent I use, or clothing I wear, or how I take it off, or how quickly I take a shower afterwards. Oy. Hope springs eternal. Maybe I can buy weedkiller that works on poison ivy/oak/sumac. I did tear out some of the poison ivy, but there’s more around and I’m not that good at identifying it. Or pulling out weeds in general.
Anyway, I actually don’t feel horrible about home maintenance lately, even though there’s still a huge scary long list of things-I-haven’t-done waiting for me to get to them.
*checks list*
Well, there’re only 10 items on the huge scary long list now, some of which aren’t that scary. Maybe they’ll get done some day. I should add some other things to the huge scary long list, though.
Love:
<3
Be happy:
D:
Write:
April
* GM'd an RP session on Sinai for one of
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* Played in an RP session on Sinai with
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* Still playing in the X-Men game.
* 10 flash-fiction "word of the indefinite time period" pieces.
* 15 regular entries
* MUCKed once or twice with
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
May
* GM'd a couple of RP sessions on Sinai for one of
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* Still playing in the X-Men game.
* 1 flash-fiction "word of the indefinite time period" piece.
* 3 regular entries
May was a serious drop-off month for writing. Possibly because I started playing three different new games that month. Or possibly it’s less that it was a drop-off than that April was a spike. Maybe I’ll review the whole year at the end to look for patterns.
Draw:
No art points at all for April or May. I haven't felt like drawing lately. Closest I've come to drawing is buying another artist's anatomy book.
Play:
Lots of playing!
* Still playing CoH for several hours a week with
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* Puzzle Pirates: I've been doing more group activities -- sea monster hunts and pillages -- especially in April. A new ship-duty puzzle came out as an alternative to sailing: rigging. I like rigging quite a bit and have played a lot of it. Which is a little sad, because I like and am good at sailing too, so it'd be more useful to improve at a game that didn't take sailing's place. But I enjoy just doing the puzzle in Puzzle Pirates a lot, so I don't care that much.
* Left 4 Dead: This was on half-price sale for one weekend in late April, and I picked up a copy. Lut and I played several games together against the computer, but we never got to the point of me doing PvP. I’m not a fan of FPS games but this one is better than most, from my perspective.
* Free Realms: Started playing in May, I think. I've been playing it mostly instead of Puzzle Pirates, owing to group play sucking. But I like the mining/harvesting games, and the three-dimensional world and quests add a certain undefinable something to the experience. Sometimes something annoying, mind, like the endless walk-up-and-down-the-switchbacks for the CCG quest chain at one point. But still ... something. Played some card games in it with Terry, but I've basically decided against investing any money in the card game, and even all the free cards together don't really give enough variety to make it a game I'd play week after week. Still don't know how lone I'll stick with Free Realms.
* Demigod: I started playing this game after Lut had been playing it for a month, on the theory that we could play it together. Which we've done twice so far, if you count both games we tried to play against the computer with
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* The RP items under writing also count as play.
Eat:
* Um. I've been eating? I stopped tracking calories because it was too tedious, and I haven't been particularly eating less, or eating healthier, or even eating only things I like. o.o;; Yeah, not scoring well here by any criteria.
Exercise:
April: 19 sessions
May: 18 sessions
So the average has been closer to 4 sessions a week than 5. I've noticed that "normal" weeks, where I don't have any special activities planned during the weekend or on the weeknights, tend to get me 5, but when if I plan to go anywhere, that torpedos my exercise schedule. A four day weekend away from home can result in the weeks bracketing it having only 3 sessions each.
I think I'm just okay with that. Trips are a bit stressful to me, but I'm not going to stop doing them or add to the stress by insisting on exercising while I'm away, or on nights that I have to pack, or whatnot.
Also, on the up side, most sessions have been 30+ minutes instead of the minimum 20. 4x30 equals more than 5 x 20, so it's not all bad news.
Visit:
* In April, I flew to Seattle to visit
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
* In May, I went to ConQuest, a local sf con. I also visited with a couple of friends from NY who were in the area for a trip unrelated to me or the con. RoomCon was a blast as always, and I spent a couple of hours hanging out with
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Live:
* I got a new garage door! Now if I can get a working remote for the garage door opener, I can even scratch an item off my to-do list of things around the house.
* I’ve been doing a lot more yardwork, and hating it rather less, for the last month. Partly this is by dint of counting yardwork as exercise (it’s generally less physically demanding than jogging, but I usually do it for longer, too, and it’s usually more effort than just walking). Mostly it’s because, at Lut’s instigation, I bought a new weedwhacker.
Rowyn: “Do you have any weedwhackers that are battery powered?”
Lowe’s employee: “I don’t think so … oh, this one is. It’s the most expensive model we have and costs three times what the cheapest does.”
Rowyn: “I’ll take it!”
This was a good decision. The thing I hate most about power tools is fussing with either gasoline engines (which make them heavier as well as messier and more annoying in general) or power cords, which inevitably tangle. The battery-powered weedwhacker is a pleasure to use by comparison. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the “on” trigger has to be held down and is mindbogglingly stiff. Even with a teeny bungee cord wrapped around it to keep it most of the way depressed, three days later my hand is still sore whenever I grip anything, because it took so much pressure to keep the trigger depressed.
Lut also bought me a lopper, a clever thing like hedge trimmers except with enormous handles and a small blade. It’s great for cutting off branches and lopping down junk trees, so I’ve been lopping down various little trees that have sprung up too close to the house in the last few years.
I still kinda hate yardwork, though, because I still end up covered in itchy rash spots, no matter how much bug repellent I use, or clothing I wear, or how I take it off, or how quickly I take a shower afterwards. Oy. Hope springs eternal. Maybe I can buy weedkiller that works on poison ivy/oak/sumac. I did tear out some of the poison ivy, but there’s more around and I’m not that good at identifying it. Or pulling out weeds in general.
Anyway, I actually don’t feel horrible about home maintenance lately, even though there’s still a huge scary long list of things-I-haven’t-done waiting for me to get to them.
*checks list*
Well, there’re only 10 items on the huge scary long list now, some of which aren’t that scary. Maybe they’ll get done some day. I should add some other things to the huge scary long list, though.
Love:
<3
Be happy:
D: