The Lesson

Back in the day, I was moderately-dedicated to karate. My instructors taught me a lot of neat stuff. I wasn't a particularly good student, but I wasn't particularly bad.

One thing that martial arts teaches really well is humility.

There's always someone better than you at something. It's a fact of life. When you start walking around thinking that 'cause you can throw a kick as high as your face that you're the next Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris, you meet someone who can put you on your ass (or your face) so fast that you never know what hit you.

(Re-reading that sentence, I am learning humility about my crappy-ass writing... heh.)

It's a never-ending lesson, really. It translates to most things in life. I've found that I'm not nearly as good as I think I am at the things I think are strengths.

All those karate skills I had certainly are on the list. Oh, I don't seriously think I was ever all that good, but I sure thought I was better. I learned last night that I'm much worse than I thought. Glad I learned this in a class and not in a real-life situation.

That could have hurt.

I also learned that my social skills and insights could use a little work as well. I'm going to need to spend a little time in the next couple of weeks correcting a few bad assumptions I made.

Should be a hoot.

It's all good. There's always room for improvement. I think that's one of the meanings to life, really. Improving one's self and one's surroundings is an integral part of life and all that.

Wish it was a bit easier. It would cater well to my laziness.

I'd like winning Lotto numbers, too.

iGod

I love Mythtickle.

Stormy Weather

The wind howled much of last night and sent rain against my bedroom window to simulate machine-gun sounds.

It's weird that I found that soothing.

A confluence of nerd

I'd intended to hit Wondercon, at least for part of the weekend.

I really had.

Then I did the math. I'd planned on my family visit and that took priority. After I was done with that, I still could have made Wondercon, but I'd have been shelling out... what? Forty bucks for a few hours on Saturday?

Pass.

Besides, I was really only interested in the dealer room, which meant more money out of my pocket.

I guess I could have gone Sunday, but I really wanted to attend class and that was good, clean fun.

I think.

Forgot everything I learned yesterday. Every damn thing.

Bwah.

Sandwiches

Aaah... CAD. You rock.

The BSG Report

I keep forgetting to rant about my TV shows. I wonder if it's because I find them so boring lately?

I'd comment on "Burn Notice", but this season's been too lackluster for me to really care about the individual episodes.

I screwed up in taping "Dollhouse" and only got the last half. Seemed kind of a yawner, so I'm not inclined to watch the balance on Hulu.

"Battlestar Galactica" was one I managed to watch and record.

In summary:

Blah-blah. Attempt at a touching moment between two characters I don't care about. Blah-blah. Lots of whining about existential ennui. Blah-blah. Dream sequences. Blah-blah. Predictable twist with a "bad" character and a "good" character who look exactly alike.

The return of a really stupid song.

A kidnapping that was no great shocker.

Inexplicable moment demonstrating that the nigh-invincible Battlestar Galactica is really vulnerable to love-taps for a really contrived reason.

Yawn.

BSG's ending episodes, save for Gaeta's rebellion, have been an unbelievable disappointment. I can't believe I'm watching the same show that had me hooked over a year ago.

I'm hard-pressed to care enough to bother recording the final episodes at this point.

Rain drops are fallin'...

It's sprinkly today. I hesitate to call it "rain", but the ground is wet. Good times.

Not that I've roused myself to go outside. Oh no. I have been the very picture of lazy and I'm enjoying every moment of it. Later I'll hit my class and get hit in return (and worked and abused and...).

Until then, I'm pretty much diving into the deep end of the geek pool and working on game stuff.

I have a game in a couple of weeks and I'm working on the plot prep in email with those of my players who have the bandwidth to respond.

It's a hoot.

I met with the two busier of my group on Friday over Irish pub food and delicious Guinness (pausing to bask in the memory of sweet Guinness... okay, I'm done). I ironed out character details... more-or-less. The guys will mail me what I need later this week and we're good to go.

What are you looking at?

This is no different than a poker night. Just takes more preparation and imagination.

Oh, and dice.

Hang on... the electrical tape is falling off of my glasses.