I spent the last chunk of time doing some work that I’ve been neglecting for some time–partly because it’s really volunteer work, and partly because I had forgotten how time-consuming it can be.  I have read, or in most cases skimmed, all of the articles that were published on this site in January of 2000.  I have added tags to them, cleaned up a few bad links, and put reviews in the proper category.

None of them were mine, although one was an interview with me.  It was an interesting read, reminding me where we were back then.

So that’s how I spent the better part of my evening on my day off.  There were several other options, but none which appealed so much as getting that done.  I’m trying to work my way through to the end of 2001, so I can pick up the Game Ideas Unlimited series for the next volume to be printed.  I could, of course, just jump ahead and do those, but I want to help straighten out this site as much as I can, and someone’s got to do the articles.

–M. J. Young

I finally watched The Last Mimsy last night, a family film of sorts with a fantasy time travel element.  John Cross, who wrote the Temporal Anomalies page on The Final Countdown, had approached me about doing another page addressing the anomalies in this one, and has since been waiting somewhat anxiously for an opportunity to discuss the film with me.  I expect that I’ll find his notes in my mailbox on Friday.

I also put a bit more time into sorting through the Gaming Outpost archives, completing all articles through the end of 1999 (although that means that yesterday I did December).

I’ve an extra errand on tomorrow’s plate, so I’m hoping to get to bed on the early side tonight–although I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not.  We’ll see what transpires.

–M. J. Young

I was actually so far along as to be backing out of the drive last night, on my way to bring home a son when my wife rushed outside and relieved me of that task.  Thus I was granted a bit of extra time, during which I put some into the proofreading of the new Game Ideas Unlimited:  Volume I and some into updating the Gaming Outpost archives, which I consider to be in part precursor to working on the next volume in the series, although I am admittedly doing much more than I need to do for that.  (After all, Aaron and company have always done much more than they needed to do for us, and it’s good to be able to return the favor, even though friendships are not about balance sheets.)

We are all working frantically toward the completion of this book.  I’ve asked four people for input on the cover design (quite apart from having asked everyone here), and three of them have answered, but I’m thinking that the fourth will help settle matters to a significant degree.  We have a directors meeting Sunday, and we hope to know what the cost per copy to us will be by that time, so that we can have copies in hand at Ubercon X at the end of the month–the last weekend of the month, for anyone who is in the area and hadn’t caught the dates.

Thus it is promising that I’ve gotten a bit of an early start, as I might just get a chunk of stuff completed before the day ends.

It comes to mind that last Thursday I delayed pointing to the next article in the old series because I’d promised to do that on Friday, and then everything fell apart bouncing it into a very tight Sunday.  To avoid such a complication this week, I’m going to point to the next article in the series now, Game Ideas Unlimited:  Transmats, and set up a thread in the forum for comments and thoughts on it.  I’ll see you there.

–M. J. Young

I’m very late today because of a cyberdetour of sorts.

In my ordinary travels, as I do my e-mail, I pick up a few articles here and there that I read.  As I mention in one of the old Game Ideas Unlimited articles which I will link in a few weeks, learning about everything is part of my job.  In this particular case, though, there was a note indicating that a column I sometimes read is seeking a new writer–a part time gig writing for an Internet publication.  It seems right up my alley, and I decided it was worth a bit of time to drop a note inquiring about whether I might be considered.

That bit of the note, though, turned into something of a major project.  The person handling the hiring wanted all applicants to include in their letter a list of ten topics related to recent or current news items.  That sent me pouring over recent and current news posts, looking for those which would make interesting topics for the rather eclectic column.  After several hours, I had written up and linked seven.  Then I did something stupid:  I attempted to print a page from a Microsoft site using a Netscape browser.

I am persuaded that Microsoft intentionally codes its pages to cause Netscape browers to freeze when certain ordinary actions are taken, most notably trying to print the page.  It does not matter whether you route it through your own browser printer button or click the “Print” link on the page, either way it will freeze the browser–and the associated e-mail program.  I lost all the work I had done, and there was no way to get it back.

Mercifully, after rebooting, I was able to track down the seven stories I had already linked, and reproduce the letter I had written.  I might wind up once more being paid to write articles for someone else’s web site.  That would be a good move for a part time job.

I can report a little more than that.  I did a bit more updating in the Gaming Outpost article archives, and made some progress on my readthrough edit of the Game Ideas Unlimited book.  I could wish I’d done a lot more, but I might have wound up doing a lot less.  I did have to take my mother-in-law to both the store and the bank today, after all, and that put a spanner in the works.

Before I fall asleep at the keys, let me get to the forums.  Tomorrow is looking worse than today, but maybe I can get something done.

–M. J. Young