I was talking with drummer John last night.  Actually, we were very nearly arguing about equipment for Collision, as I was trying to explain to him that if I could not find an eight inch four ohm fifty watt speaker to replace the one that burned out in the nice compact PA columns I wanted to use, this did not mean that I had to replace the entire sound system.  John is a drummer, and although Animal does not capture his personality, he is mildly technophobic and quite justly uninformed about amplifiers.  However, it proved to be a rather productive argu–er, discussion–as in making my point I was reminded that maybe a year ago my sound wizard Grey Vanaman of Audio-clear dropped off a pair of tall columns he had ripped out of a church where he was doing an install.  They had these weird mounting brackets on them and were painted white, and although I checked them briefly at the time to see if they worked I stuffed them in the attic pretty quickly.  But I figured with the compact boxes I really wanted to use out of commission, these four foot narrow columns would have to do.  Turns out they’re pretty decent speakers–Electrovoice Radiators–and so my PA system is now up and running.

I’ve also been loaned a solder iron, so assuming I also can find some solder I hope to repair the Hartke speaker tomorrow and get my instrument amplifier up and running.  Maybe if things go well I’ll put together the effects boxes I’ve intended to construct.

Today things did not go so well.  Fortunately, last week I made a decision to put an end to my participation in the Lutheran forum.  I kept inviting Lutheran friends of mine to participate there, and they never do; and some of the new members of that board weren’t really keen on having input from some weird multi-denominational Baptist when they were really hoping to have their own opinions confirmed by others who shared them.  More to the point, I needed to free up some time, and even though I was visiting them only once a week, it was tending to be a long visit that needed shortening.  I’ve now cleared some time on Tuesdays for other projects.

Today, though, did not go particularly well.  Most of the problems lay in the personal problems areas, and outside the purview of this blog; however, one thing that was a bit vexing is that I attempted to e-mail eight files (attached to separate letters) to the radio station to be four episodes of the Quick Word radio show on Faith and Gaming.  Since I still can’t convert to mp3, these are rather large files, and it seems that once seven were moving I was unable to connect to anything else on the Internet for several hours.  This definitely put me behind schedule, and I really ought in future to send fewer at a time and make sure to do so when I go to bed.

It’s getting late, but I’m not tired, so I’m going to attempt to get through a few forum posts at least.

–M. J. Young

It is evident to those who follow this column that I lost most of yesterday.  This was not entirely unanticipated; I knew that I would be driving someone’s girlfriend home, and visiting my still not healthy parents while up that way.  I also caught up with an old friend once again.  It was not entirely without any business purpose–one of those I saw bought a copy of the Multiverser rules, and another bought two of my self-published books, so there was some return for the investment.

However, it leaves me looking at Wednesday with the Tuesday workload still on my plate, and wondering in what sequence to do everything so as to get everything finished.  I am eager to check the e-mail, given that I am awaiting a reply to that job application I sent; I am not eager to put the Lutheran forum too late in the night.  Nor do I wish to delay those Gaming Outpost forum posters who have been waiting to learn what happens next in their adventures.  Thus everything seems a bit urgent, and yet it is not entirely clear what is most important.

Hopefully everything will be reached in time.

–M. J. Young

I lost a big chunk of yesterday to return a son’s girlfriend to her distant home. I was shorted on sleep for it, and am not certain I fully caught up today. I was also behind on the work, since I spent the bulk of this evening doing the major part of my Tuesday work, the Lutheran forum.

I seem to be losing a couple days a week this way, and my wife wants me to put time into some other projects that need my attention, but I don’t seem to have the time. At the moment, though, I am concerned about next Monday. In fairness, it is the girl’s birthday, and a girlfriend has the right to expect a doting boyfriend to pull out at least some of the stops for her birthday. However, I’m wondering if they expect too much from me. He is hoping that I will drive him up, which I understand; in fact, his notion that I visit my hospitalized father is excellent, and I am already entertaining the notion of killing part of the day chatting with drummer John. However, he wants to be there by ten in the morning–which means I’ll be leaving here pretty shortly after putting the last student on the bus, as it’s two and a half hours if there’s no traffic, and we’ll be hitting the Philadelphia and New York metro morning rushes (an oxymoronic name for the time when no one can get anywhere fast). He then plans to be there until rather late–late enough that I am going to have to drive back the ninety minutes and pay the three or four dollars in tolls to get back to take my mother-in-law shopping, because there is no way that he will be back in time for me to reach her in time to get her to the store if I wait for him. I would then have to drive back to him, another ninety minutes and several dollars in tolls (plus we are needing gas money) so that I can bring him home again.

By the time I would be home, I would have lost the entire day and shorted myself on sleep for it.

I guess I need to find out what he’s going to do to make this possible for me. Somehow, though, I’m not optimistic.

–M. J. Young

I did not finish yesterday’s work yesterday. I got called away for an errand while working on the Lutheran forum, and when I returned the computer decided to freeze. Since I had to make a delivery of Christmas dinner and a poinsettia (the decorated tree never arrived) to my mother-in-law, I did so at that moment–and found myself struggling to stay awake at the wheel on the return drive, falling asleep in the driveway until my wife awakened me upon her late return from work. It seemed fruitless to attempt to continue at that point, so Tuesday’s work was finished this afternoon. I had several false starts today, including struggling at one point to awaken because I dreamt it was seven at night and the alarm had never sounded, but it was not yet noon and there was no need to rise.

I am further along today than I anticipated, but still have some ground to cover before I can quit, so I don’t expect to achieve much beyond the norm. I am anticipating a busy day tomorrow, but I’ll tell you about it when it comes.

–M. J. Young

Yesterday’s predictions proved optimistic. I got home from freshman orientation just after nine, but one of my houseguests had needed help somewhat abruptly, and taken both my chef and my dishwasher away (I still do not know why, and probably never will). Thus I had thought I would be feeding the boy and sending him to bed while diving into the rest of my work, but instead had to tackle undone dishes and half-done dinner. Shortly before ten the chef returned, and helped me finish it but left me to serve. The boy got to bed late, and I to work later.

It was evident as eleven approached that I would have to interrupt the work on the Lutheran forum, and that being of the phpBB variety it does not work well interrupted. Thus I delayed starting it, and instead I was on time to pick up my wife–but she again was not, and I got a forty or fifty minute nap in the parking lot while waiting.

Upon my return home, I was handed laundry. I got it started eventually, and finished before I got to bed. I did a lot of other things before I got to bed as well–like help the boy get started for school and drive the houseguest to her class. I got dressed for bed and hit the pillow around eight forty-five this morning, and was up again three hours later to retrieve the houseguest. There was not enough time when I returned to do anything major before taking my wife to work, and since the new car has been delayed yet again (the wrong part came in and has to be reordered) and it was fairly certain that upon returning home the student would have to go purchase school supplies, I had to keep the truck. Since the schoolbus behind which I got stuck on my way back home was his, I gave him a lift.

While we were debating when to go to which store for supplies, I discovered that one of our houseguests missed the bus to work and needed a ride to have him there by five. That gave me my hour for my morning study and sent me to the stores near the mall (he works near the mall), which is where I preferred to shop.

The houseguests made dinner for me, but still left me to serve it. It was delicious, so I am going to express my gratitude on that. In the cracks I did a bit more updating to the new Multiverser.org website, including links to Legends of Alyria, which you might recall is the first game to include Multiverser interfacing rules so you can use it as part of a Multiverser campaign.

The night is drawing to an end, and I’ve still a few things to do and the strong desire to get to bed in time to get a few hours of sleep before the day starts anew tomorrow.

–M. J. Young

It is not my birthday today, but it is close; the birthday girl is out at the moment, and her birthday dinner is getting cold, but she is probably having dinner with friends anyway so there’s no point stressing.

After hours last night I started a new project. It was not quite an impulse, but it was rather sudden. I had previously considered whether to record my books as audiobooks–obviously not the Multiverser rules or world books, since audio reference books are not terribly practical, but the novel has been considered several times. This weekend the editor of the tiny paper for which I have occasionally written apologized that she has not had time in over a year to read my incredibly short book What Does God Expect?; as mother of two small children, the only reading she ever does is usually about silly animals. Then as I was visiting the Lutheran forum yesterday evening, there was a thread about listening to audiobooks, and I asked whether people would actually buy my book recorded for more than the same book in paperback. A couple of affirmative answers put me onto the idea, and then late last night I recorded about half the book, each chapter as a separate track. Once I have the other half finished, I’ll burn a copy (it will probably take two disks, but we’ll see) and listen to it, and then see whether it’s worth putting it up for sale.

I’ve still got some of the old radio voice, but the long stretches are challenging, and one is not certain just how much one is allowed to fumble before re-recording. However, progress has been made.

–M. J. Young