An automotive accident this morning disrupted life a bit.

No, I am fine, and the family is fine.  None of us were in the accident, and it did not involve our vehicles.  However, just as the last kid got on the bus an e-mail was received by a member of our household alerting us to the fact that someone nearly family, someone to whom all versers owe some gratitude for his part in our game, was a passenger in an accident in the next state.

Information is sketchy.  Among the casualties is his cell phone, so he is cut off from the simplest forms of communication; his e-mails tell us by virtue of their existence that he is able to type, but have omitted detailed answers to questions.  We have learned that he received twenty-three stitches, but not the anatomical location of this repair.  We attempted to determine where to go to see him, or even if he would be awake for visitors, but this information did not come back to us.  We are concerned, but uncertain what we can do.

It was this concern that caused me first to get dressed instead of going to bed.  It was this uncertainty that caused me then to go back to bed fully dressed, to be awakened several times by a telephone brought into the bedroom so we would know if he, or anyone near the scene, called.  That call was not one of those which disrupted our sleep.

Speaking of calls, I am aware that another friend has been trying to reach me by phone.  I am aware of this because I see his number on my caller ID at those odd times when I have opportunity to check it.  I probably told him what I tell everyone, that the most reliable means of contacting me is e-mail, which will be answered thrice a week, or in a more serious emergency via post on the Gaming Outpost Forum (”Please call me at one in the morning at home” is sufficient to alert me to the need). Telephone contact is extremely unreliable, because my schedule is constantly in flux, I am always trying to steal an extra bit of sleep sometime, and I come and go without warning.  I almost wound up driving a son back to work in the wee hours of this morning, but someone else took that errand; I also learned late last night that I was invited to attend a choir concert for another son, who had to reschedule his visit to the doctor because his absence from school today would mean his exclusion from the concert, and his failure to be in the concert would mean his failure of the course.  I have not yet made the new appointment.

Let me then work on what needs to be done for today.  You never know when something is going to derail the plans yet again.

–M. J. Young

Yesterday got buried in errands, and I never completed my day’s work.  It was near three in the morning when I posted to the Corinthians list, and I at that time still cherished hopes of making it to church this morning.

For what it’s worth, I did not; I did not awaken until too late, and even then I was not terribly functional, and went back to sleep for a few more hours.

I did drop a copy of Faith and Gaming into the church library last night after Bible Study, which was eagerly snatched by one of the two teen boys who had expressed interest in it at the coffeehouse concert two weeks back.  He promised to pass it to the other after perusing it.

All this means that here it is Saturday afternoon and I’m breaking my rule about not working on Saturday in order to finish what I failed to complete on Friday.  However, it’s going to be rather slow going–I still have errands on my plate which cannot be pushed into tomorrow, so I’d better see to them, too.

–M. J. Young

The Collision concert went reasonably well last night.  Baxter brought his new amp, which looks really good, but because we’d not worked with it I suggested we use the old one for this concert.  Adam got crossed communication wires and went to the wrong coffeehouse location, and since Brittany had to be out early we got a short delay and then did the first song without him, tuned up the bass while Brittany introduced the second, and finished our two songs to audience approval.  I got some compliments on Adam’s playing, but he ducked out early.  Baxter and I did an encore near the end of the night, which also went well, although not as well as the opening songs.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to get nervous about the week ahead.  I’ve got Ubercon on Friday, and Kyler has indicated that he will not be going this time, and I’m not certain what John’s situation is.  I can probably handle it alone–but there are still many preparations to make, including getting my hotel reservation (I don’t know anyone close enough to Edison to stay with them, despite having attended elementary school within half an hour of there).  I have to do inventory of everything that has to go with me, probably printing copies of forms used, and make sure that I have everything packed.  Complicating this, my Monday Workload has been increased because when I take my mother-in-law shopping I will also have to go about ninety minutes further to return a certain young lady to her home.  Then my overbooked Tuesday has been further overbooked by the need to help an old friend move.  I’ve also realized that our youngest guest’s medicine will run out next weekend, and that his doctor cannot refill it without seeing him, so I’m going to have to twist arms to get him an appointment midweek on top of everything else.

It’s not looking good; and I have been alerted that there is a substantial amount of work awaiting me in the form of an analysis of The Last Mimzy that will add a significant chunk of time to Monday’s work.

Conventions always mean crazy weeks; unfortunately, crazy weeks don’t always wait until they are convenient.

–M. J. Young

Sometimes it feels to me as if I have not accomplished much–particularly when I wind up collapsing early, then going on late-night errands, then sleeping well into the next afternoon only to commit to long errands on behalf of others.  However, review of the facts suggests otherwise.

At some time within the last twenty-four hours I finished reading a book I have promised to review.  It was an allegorical science fantasy illustrated novel by a writer I know somewhat personally (never met but have corresponded), whose work I have reviewed before.  I’m not certain when I’ll get to the review, as I’ve a lot on my plate at the moment, but I will get to it.

I also returned my attention to the Multiverser Triple Play:  Horror supplement.  What I did was copy all the notes from the development forum to a document on my hard drive.  I was fighting a headache yesterday which is attributable to the fact that the disruptions of the day prevented me ever from getting a cup of coffee, and so I did not feel up to making all the checks as to what still had to be done with those notes.  However, it’s a step in the right direction, and as things appear now sometime after Ubercon I may be able to make progress on it.

I also provided an extensive response to questions about a developing temporal anomalies analysis of The Last Mimzy, which took probably an hour or so from today’s precious time but will mean a new page on the Temporal Anomalies site which might garner some traffic and interest in turn in the Multiverser books.

I’ve agreed to pick up the girlfriend of one of my sons tonight; he has agreed to help keep the dishes under control all weekend.  If he hasn’t got them under control before nine I guess I’m not going, and I’ll have more time to work, but I am hoping that he is sufficiently motivated by the desire to have her visit that he will get to them in time.

I’m also committed to a Collision concert tomorrow night, sans drums or major amplifiers, at the church coffeehouse.  They do this once or twice a year.  Brittany has a school assignment that requires her to be at another location fairly early, so we’re going to have to ask to be at the beginning of the night, but I think they’ll accommodate us.  Last night’s rehearsal went quite well, thank you, and I’m comfortable with our ability to do these two songs at a performance quality level.

I’m not as confident in my ability to finish everything else that must be done, however, so I’d better get to it.

–M. J. Young

You probably have to be a geek to laugh at the title of this blog entry; that’s all right, because I had to be a geek to think it was clever.

As of last night, the PDF (Portable Document Format) files for the new books, Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1 and Faith and Gaming, were completed and uploaded to their respective printers.  That means that the first of those is complete, but that we the directors, meeting this weekend, will have to agree on the price.  As to the latter, I’ve agreed on the price, but do not yet have the cover art; this has been promised for early next week, so I might just have these ready for Ubercon, as hoped.

On another front, the Collision concert has been postponed a week.  This was a decision made by the organizers, who apparently had overlooked a conflict with a local high school play.  Fortunately, we’re all good with that date, and pleased to have the extra rehearsal time–we might even be able to do three songs instead of just two.

I’ve much to do tonight, so I’d better move to doing it.

–M. J. Young

Although I cannot claim much progress yesterday, I can mention that there is progress happening.  The cover for the first Game Ideas Unlimited book has already been uploaded, apart from the spine which I am assured will be simple once the text is uploaded.  I’ve received some rather promising drafts of a cover for the Faith and Gaming book, as well, produced by a young lady (transactions mediated by her father)–although they are having technical difficulties getting her hand-drawn artwork to scan right.  So the books are moving closer to completion despite the fact that I’m not making much progress on them.

Meanwhile, I was invited to sing at a church coffeehouse, a sort of talent show setting where they have many different sorts of performers sharing the stage.  I in turn passed the invitation along to Collision, and tonight’s rehearsal will be preparatory for a two-song first gig.  I was concerned that I had not heard back from Brittany, our vocalist/rhythm guitarist, but lead guitarist Baxter tells me that she’s very excited about this.  Bass guitarist Adam, meanwhile, is rather nervous–it will be his first public performance, and although he quite well knows the two songs we’ll be doing, he’s still worried about making mistakes.  I suppose it will be after Saturday night’s show that he will decide whether he really does want to be in a band or not, as it will be his first experience of the real point of it all.

Our youngest houseguest has an appointment this afternoon, and almost as soon as he arrives home from school I’ll be leaving to take him there.  Meanwhile, with dinner to prepare and a rehearsal slated, I’m doing my best to complete as much as I can in the gaps.

–M. J. Young