Already I am two hours behind my original unreasonably optimistic schedule for today; I should long ago have left to take my mother-in-law shopping, and in fact be preparing for the next leg of that journey, to return a certain young lady to her northern home.  I’ve planned to have dessert and coffee with a friend while up that way, who is interested in seeing the new books.

Speaking of the new books, the Faith and Gaming copies arrived today.  I didn’t order many, but we’ll see how they sell.  I’ve already promised one to the church library, and mentioned to a young high school senior at the church that I would give it to him to peruse before it gets that far, and it’s possible I could sell out on these quickly if things go well–but that’s partly because I did not put much money into stocking copies for myself.

I also managed to make my hotel reservation for Ubercon.  I’m at a nice comfortable inexpensive motel six in the next town; I stayed there last time, and it’s probably less than ten minutes’ drive (I kept finding shorter ways to make the trip, but it will take a couple tries to get it all back in my head).  I’ll be paying a bit less for two nights than convention guests at the select hotels will pay for each night, but I won’t have a shuttle so I’ll have to drive myself between the two points.

I’ve also received an updated analysis of The Last Mimzy, and sent a cursory response; it will require more attention from me, but that probably won’t happen this week, if I can avoid it.

Things are piling up, so I’d better unpile them.

–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

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

Some are no doubt wondering what became of me on Friday.  On Thursday evening I was asked whether I might pick up the girlfriend of a certain son Friday night, and although I recognized that this would mean at least five to six hours on the road, I also recognized that there is value in making the lives of my sons a bit brighter.  Then late Thursday night I mentioned this to my wife, his mother, by way of discussing vehicle arrangements–and she cut the discussion short by saying no, I was not to make the trip.  Her reasons are not relevant here, really; I passed them to the boy the next afternoon when I saw him, and he did what he ought to have done initially, which was discuss it with her.

The joke of it, really, is that they came to an agreement that I would pick her up, but neither of them mentioned it to me until late in the afternoon when mother called home and was surprised that I answered the phone.  I would have been there anyway, since pickup was not to be until between eleven and twelve, after the girl got home from work but before her parents would be disturbed by people arriving (even people who sit at the curb and never see them); I left shortly after church.

Along the way, I got a call from the other son who often calls upon us for transportation.  It seems he was chatting with his brother’s girlfriend, and she discovered that he had a stretch of days off from work (which he had created so that he could weekend with some friends), and insisted that he call us and arrange for us to grab him on the way home.  It’s not far out of the way, although what with getting off the highway and stopping and all it probably adds half an hour to the trip.  His plan was to change his transportation arrangements such that the person taking him to the weekend gathering Saturday would pick him up at home instead of at his work address.  So that was added.

Returning home around two, I knew that I could not address the work awaiting, so I did the posting to the Corinthians list and went to bed, so as to get at least a few hours of sleep before church in the morning.

I was fairly tired by late afternoon Saturday, but someone offered to make supper so that I could finish the unfinished Friday work, and my wife asked if I would make a quick run to Wal-mart with her to see whether they accepted a certain insurance coverage for eye exams and glasses.  They did not, but as long as we were there she thought it would be good to spend a lot of money on some things she felt we needed (in fairness, perhaps five to ten percent of the expenditures were for car care products I thought we needed–motor oil and brake fluid).  Between three and four hours later we returned home to discover that dinner had not been made, and it was too late for me to undertake making it, so I spent the next hour or so obtaining and serving Kentucky Fried Chicken (a task extended by the fact that they neglected to include two of the items in the bag, so I had to drive back for these).

At the end of that time, I was entirely exhausted.  I went to my bed, put on that movie I promised to watch, The Last Mimzy, and after getting a very vague feel for what was happening at the beginning, fell completely asleep.

I’m up now.  I can’t really catch up on what I missed–there were too many “extra” things I should have done.  However, I will do today’s work and see where it gets me.  Already the week ahead is looking overbooked, but we’ll manage.  I’ve got to be in North Jersey again on Tuesday, to return said girlfriend and to visit my parents, who have something for me and something for my son, and for whom I also have something.  That’s going to be difficult, because we have a shortage of help on Tuesday, but we’ll manage.

I did get a bit done on a read-through edit of the new Game Ideas Unlimited book; I’ve also been pressuring a few people for feedback on the cover, but without result.

That reminds me:  I was supposed to post on Friday to call your attention to the second article in the archived series, Game Ideas Unlimited:  An Amusing Dungeon.  It describes the juxtapostion of two unrelated ideas into a fascinating adventure.  As always, comments in the forum are invited.

–M. J. Young