---------------------------------------- Christmas break December 23rd, 2018 ---------------------------------------- I was leaning against the counter in my kitchen while typing in IRC and then started a coughingn fit. Why am I coughing, I wondered as I rubbed at the bruise forming on my solar plexus. Derp. I'm now sitting comfortably in the stool that was right beside me. I am very smart. :/ Anywho, I'm on break for Christmas this week and I hope to get a few fun side-things accomplished. For one, I'd like to write at least one substantial update for each of my ships in cosmic [0]. My original ship, Melchizedek, is in trouble with their botany systems, while Starbloom may be going to war. My two newest ships are Oleander, which is the story of a suicide mission sending their final messages before activation, and Melvin P Feltersnatch, a silly story with bad physics and quite a bit of nonsense. (DIR) [0] Cosmic Voyage I also dusted off a project idea I had called Ways. It's intended to be an open-source text-adventure engine and expandable world. Right now it's very much in "dream up the stuff" phase. I'm not bothering to even choose a programming language yet. I want to get all the concepts down in a README so I can go at it later for execution. This week should give me a decent start on that. In other news, Christmas is nearly upon us! I've been teaching my son about the Icelandic Yule Lads and Yule Cat and he's loving it. We've been leaving his shoe in the window each night and reading up on each of the lads. It's so cute. OMG, I haven't written since we sold the house! Um, yeah. We sold our house on the 10th of December. I'm renting a 2br apartment about a mile away from the house until the end of June when we intend to make the move to Iceland. I've given myself a break from any planning on that front until the new year, too. Self care? We had a 5 bedroom house with a massive basement and detached garage. Needless to say, we downsized quite a bit and are continuing to do so. My wife found an awesome charity that takes home goods and furniture for kids aging out of the foster system and moving out on their own. Most of the house goods went to them. My son gave up 2/3rds of his toys to Goodwill. I downsized my computers to a single laptop (which I'm replacing next Friday with a new one from System 76). We have a storage unit that is 10x20 and needs to get reduced down to 5x10 before June. The stuff remaining will go into long-term storage in Charlotte near my wife's family. The stuff in the apartment will get packed up and shipped to Iceland. Somehow we'll make it all work. --- There's been so many awesome discussions kicking around in gopherspace that I haven't been engaging with. Ugh, now I want to go back and write you all individual responses here. Instead, just know that I'm reading everything in great detail, from the stuff on the growing Zaibatsu adventure to the music generation scripts to the OTHER burrow to home-grown RPGs. You are all amazing people who keep me entertained and inspired. Especially you, Melton. Your life is incredible. Never stop writing.