In the past week, I've been dealing with a small mountain of end of the semester classwork. Seriously, it may be more work (or at least equal) than I had to do for all the rest of this semester. I like to think I'm making up for any slacking off, at least. (and perhaps then some). And really it's not going to be over until next Friday, when I'll have finished both finals as well. Though I'll defintely feel at least a little better once this last essay is done. I feel like I'm in the final stretch at least! Detailed 5-page outline with all the quotes I plan on using from... Well, two of seven or eight sources, but at least they're two of my primary sources. I think. I'm still a little worried about getting it done on time. Due in part to getting assignments late and thus being time crunched, I'm not sure I've ever had to do this much writing in so short a time.

One nice thing about it, though. I may be kind of stressed (though not as bad as I could be), and physically and mentally worn out, but I'm actually getting it all DONE. Even with picking up a bunch of box office hours, I've been steadily slogging through it all, and have already turned in two of three assignments on time. I've been spending easily the vast majority of my time, maybe 75-80% a day, just working on this stuff, and being really productive. For someone with a major history of motivational problems in regards to school work, especially when it piles up like this, it's been a huge accomplishment. I hope it shows in the quality of my work, to. In fact, other than that one quiz I did pretty awfully on (passed at least, but not by much), I think I've done pretty well on all my assignments this semester, and passed every one in on time. This is a notable improvement, and a trend I hope I can continue. :)

On a slightly more frivolous note, I recently got myelf an iPod touch (as a sort of early Christmas/birthday present to myself). I haven't regretted it for a minute - this thing is really awesome and really handy to have, and I've found it to be actively quite useful on multiple occasions. On top of that, it's by far the nicest mp3 player I've ever owned, and I like the organizational capabilities quite a lot.

It's possible other major things have occured in my life recently, but if so, i'm not remebering them. Which may be a sign that there haven't been, but can never be totally sure.

So, this past weekend was filled with larp fun! I myself replayed a game I've played before, Bard of Avalon, as a last minute replacement for an important character. Luckily I remembered little enough of the important plots that I didn't even have to keep myself from meta-gaming. I played a young William Shakespeare, having been dragged off to the world of the Fae and kinda shoved into stuff that was quite beyond him. But, funnily enough, he came away from the night with SO many great story ideas! ;)

I also played in Paranoia, where I was Glam-R-Us, communications and recording officer of trouble shooting team Gamma of Alpha complex. :) I was basically an complete ditz and whiny and attention seeking, which (perhaps sadly) wasn't actually a terribly drastic stretch for me - I just emphasized all those things in myself instead of trying to tone them down. It was amusing and generally a good time. And they gave me a camera! I ran out of pictures far too soon, though. Unfortunately, my own had run out of battery, or I could have used that. :)

Finally, and what to me was the most significant part of the weekend, I made my debut as a GM! :D I helped pezzonovante run his film noir game, Chateau Ennui. I've been helping a lot with rewrites since the first run, and I have to say, actually running a live game was invaluable to me in being able to get a clearer view of what I've actually been singing myself up for in helping him.

( Here I go into some analysis of the game and changes that need to be made, but vaguely enough there should be no spoilers )

More experienced larp writers and/or people who've played the game should please, please tell me or pezzonovante if you have any suggestions or comments about how we could improve the game at all. Please don't try to spare our feelings, the goal is to get this game working and working well, not to bolster egos.

Also, I'm thinking it would be fun to add an actual gambling mechanic to the game, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Any suggestions? It would be helpful if it allows some characters to cheat. I'm actually considering having the game be 21/Black Jack, and actually marking the cards semi-obviously but telling players they can't see the markings unless something tells them they can. I worry about people metagaming in that case, though. It would be so neat to have a simple card game mechanic to let people actually gamble in game. :)

So, I'm helping pezzonovante run his film noir style larp, Chateau Ennui, at WPI this next Saturday (Nov. 14) evening, and we had a last minute player drop...

So, I'm following the grand old tradition of polling LJ if there's anyone out there who might be able to fill this spot! The time slot is I believe 6pm to 10pm, and I may well be able to organize an individual ride there and back, even if you're only available that night for that slot.

The role is distinctly male, but we're willing to cross-cast if you're okay with that sort of thing. The one caveat is that if you think you may be interested, you may want to briefly fill out a questionnaire so we can make sure you wouldn't hate this character. The questionnaire sheet can be found here : http://www.journeysurveys.com/answer/prompt/136

Please let us know if you can help! It's a role we'd rather not have to NPC!

Aaaand now I feel pretty guilty about not doing an absentee ballot for Maine. Oh well. My one vote wouldn't have made a huge difference. =/ I mean, when people who say that add up, it becomes a problem, but in my defense, I'm so set in MA that I'd almost forgotten I could vote in Maine until too late to get an absentee ballot.

Anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, which isn't many of you, legalized gay marriage in Maine got turned down by citizen's veto in the polls yesterday, by about 53% to 47%.

Depressed and sad for my state of origin, and the loved ones I know who voted against equal rights for everyone.

I honestly just don't understand why people feel it's so wrong. What's wrong with two people who are in love? Why shouldn't they get the same rights and protections for their loved ones and family? Why should people I love and care about be treated like second class citizens, just because their love happens to be non-traditional?


(...yet they legalized medical marijuana. At least some people's causes are happy.)

It seems I have managed to survive most of October. It's not quite over yet, but I am officially done with all my midterms and essays, which is definitely nice. Although I'm now in that surreal phase of, wait, I don't have a ton of outstanding school obligations?" and associated weird-feeling-ness. I mean, it won't last for too long, but still.

Relevant social events since last update that have come and gone primarily consist of a fun housewarming party, and a particularly awesome larp written by hazliya. Larp = Martha Stewart's Guide to Inter-dimensional Summoning and Basting a Turkey. (at leats, I believe that's the proper full title). I went out of my way to try to dress up really fancy, although several mini-disasters pre-game almost completely prevented this. That being said, small disasters were overcome (and thanks to pezzonovante for putting up with me) and I had a pretty fantastic time. :)

In current news, there really isn't a whole lot. At least nothing I feel relevant or appropriate for a public entry. Speak of, I haven't been doing those as much recently. I'm still not willing to make my journal fully friends-only, but I've been defaulting slightly in that direction recently. Interesting trend to note.

( semi-long rant on my self-perceived social failings )

Also, I find it important to note that despite this mini-rant, in fact, I'm still otherwise quite happy with life and where I am in it at the moment.

Today was a pretty amazing day! pezzonovante got officially sworn in as an attorney of law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts! I was able to be there and watch the ceremony, and share the day with him, and that in and of itself was pretty amazing. I am so proud of him. ^_^

Other highlights of the day included finding an umbrella to beat the rain in Quincy Market for only $10 (which I felt was perfectly affordable, considering how much it was raining!), getting lots of nice pictures, going to a nice high end Italian place for a delicious dinner afterwards, and then spending the rest of the evening with pezzonovante and even making some cookies! All in all, one of the best days I've had recently.

I don't even remember when last I posted publicly about actual life stuff. I was pretty stressed through the end of May and beginning of June, surrounding my move from dorms to a summer sublet apartment and all the additional complications that went along with it.. Things have finally settled down, and I really feel moved in and settled (even finally got sheets for my borrowed futon!), and my roommates are mostly pretty great. I had started getting worried about my mental state for a bit, but now that things are more settled, I've been feeling happier and more settled, too. Things are mostly going pretty well in life. I like my job alright, I'm managing to scrape by somehow financially, I have a really nice apartment, my relationship is going really well and making me very happy, and my social life/close friendships seem to be doing well, too. It's nice when I can sit down and remember all that and just feel good about life. I'm trying to remember to really appreciate all the good things I have, and stay happy. ^_^

There have been a lot of other individual things - went to a family yesterday, have seen a couple awesome plays of late (In this month, Romance, a David Mamet play, at the A.R.T. and Pirates! at the Huntington), I recently got a DVD of the new and improved concert version release of Chess which surprised and impressed me with its improvements on the original story... Lots of things. Hard to get into all the details when I only post about actual life happenings every once in a while, but overall, despite stress or emotional problems I may have had in the past month, or even the past year so far, life continues to remain overall pretty good.

I am no longer homeless!! Hooray! witticaster, bleemoo and I have now moved into our unexpectedly nice summer apartment. I am pretty pleased with it, and will be a bit sad to move into the far more cramped dorm rooms come fall. We have a great big kitchen that multiple people can fit into at once! So exciting!

Many thanks to many people for their help in this endeavor - to ultimatepsi and pezzonovante for giving me places to sleep during the few weeks I was transient, to nyren for letting me (and witticaster) borrow his basement for storage for a few weeks. And especially super-thanks to londo and usernamenumber for helping us pack up a uhaul, and to _dragonwolf_ and Bernie (of the no LJ) for helping us to unload it.

The apartment is pretty large and roomy, and came with the living areas pretty much fully furnished (many chairs, a table in the dining room; couch, end tables, a coffee table and an older model but pretty large TV in the living room). There's also been a bunch of random stuff just lying around, like old (and unfortunately pretty dirty and gross, but some of it salvageable) cookware. there are some oddities about the place, but I think overall it is pretty awesome, and so far I rather like living with the people I am living with. :)

While writing a conclusion to an essay for school, I mentioned my excitement about the fact that we are living in an era of enormous change (specifically on account of increasing ease of access to information and changing forms of communication the internet has given rise to) to bleemoo, who linked me to this interesting lecture: http://blip.tv/file/1277460/ which got me so into the topic that I wrote basically a short essay about it at 2am in the morning. Also of note, once I'd written it, the first thing I thought to do was to post it to LJ. I highly recommend watching the lecture before reading my post, as early on, a lot of it is direct response to parts of the lecture. (though I think I did a decent job of explaining context, if you don't watch it). It's a little rambly, but that's because I was doing it really to string my thoughts together and clarify them, which is a dynamic process.


( How the internet is changing our world )

Edit: Based on some of the comments I've gotten, I'd like to add as a final thought. I do understand that technology can hinder just as much as help, and can be used as a crutch rather than a tool, and that can be a dangerous thing. However, I think one of the educational reforms that will be called for in coming times will be ways to address problems such as over-reliance on technology, and making sure that people fully learn basic skills before they're allowed to rely on these new technological tools, so they can hopefully use them in a more healthy and productive way.

So, I have some fairly important housing concerns, mainly regarding the summer.

First of all - witticaster and I are currently confirmed to rent a 3-bedroom apartment for the summer. This means we need a third person. We've vaguely spoken to a couple people, but if anyone at all needs summer housing, or knows someone they can vouch for who it might be useful for, could you please let me know? It will really suck if we cannot find a third person.

Secondly - this sublet begins June 1st. I don't know how early we can move it, but probably not much earlier than that. Residence halls at Brandeis close May 11th. Mac is fine, I believe, as she already lives in a house where the lease should be lasting until the end of May. I, however, do not have a convenient option and would really rather not go back to Maine for three weeks, as I have been having difficulties staying with my parents for more than a couple days at a time. (Not for any fault of theirs, really. it deals with some of my recent mental issues brought on by an bad relationship that make being in a situation where I feel even mildly like I am under the control of others sets me off badly) In other words, please help? Ideally, if anyone has any available sleeping space they are okay with me occupying for those three weeks. I may be able to pay some money towards it, but I am admittedly struggling very badly financially.

Also, I will very likely be very much in need of a place to store my stuff for that period, because bringing it to Maine and back would be a bitch, and I don't want to restrict my possible options of places to stay for this period by requiring them to put up all my belongings too. I am intending to try really hard to have everything neatly packed in tubs or boxes, but it will still likely take up a somewhat notable amount of space. Someone in Waltham area would be preferred, but anyone even vaguely in the area would be acceptable. (anyone have spare basement space?

I feel very strange today. I don't quite know how to describe it. As if I am not really me, just watching my life from afar, kind of.

Life is confusing, and silly, and stupid, and fascinating, and incredible, and everything in between.

I don't know where my place is in it, but maybe that doesn't matter. Who says there is a "place" to be in life?

I feel like I'm drifting in the air.

I think I'm ignoring my problems, though. If I so much as touch one of them, this fragile state will break.

I either feel really okay right now, or really not at all, and I'm not sure which.

My brain is strange, sometimes.