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So.
I'm still here, as you've probably surmised from the fact that I'm talking, and it's been a busy few months. Doesn't look like it's going to get any better any time soon either, so while this is an update, it's not a return to the old frequency of posting, at least not yet. Sorry about that, if it bothers you.
Hell, some of you may be enjoying the break.
Anyway, yes. I'm currently writing my thesis, and it's draining pretty much any reserves I have of cope, happy and other useful things, so I'm ... well, not so much fun to be around at the moment. For that I'm sorry. I hope people will put up with me leeching sanity from them for a little while.
In my Copious Free Time, I am still gaming. Maelstrom event 1 was a few weeks back, and was a fair bit of fun - the wind and rain and mud weren't great, but the rest of the event made up for it, and next event promises to be better for a variety of reasons. Here's hoping.
Also, a group of friends (Firecat Masquerade) have started running a fest-larp system based loosely on Kenneth Graham's Wind in the Willows. Because I am mad, but also because they needed the help and it's a great way to burn off stress, I've volunteered to crew it. Event 1 was an astounding success by all accounts, and hopefully event 2 will be at least as good. Since E2 is set a little over a month after my thesis handin deadline, I may be slightly crazed at that point. But it'll be fiiiiiine.
Fencing ... is not going so well. Despite being on the committee, due to noone else standing for armourer and the club needing one, I've not made it to the great majority of training sessions this year. Feel quite crap about this, as they do rely on me to some extent, but there are people there who can repair most things, and two full evenings a week is simply more than I can spare at the moment. I managed to get along tonight, and they were only slightly pissed off, which is comforting. So it goes. Will persevere there, and might even fence again at some point.
To sum up, life is hard, real damn hard right now, but I'm still cracking on with it. I'm doing some slightly crazy stuff in an effort to stay sane, and trying not to neglect my obligations, tricky though that is in turn. I aim to write some more here soon, so stay tuned. Distinct risk of pseudophilosophical bullshit, but I guess we'll see what happens.
It's got to be better than total radio silence, right?
At the moment, I'm doing some work in brass sheet for the New Year Eve's Thing. It's very much like playing with Meccano: form the net of an object, drill it out at the points where it needs to be fastened, bend it up into shape and screw it all together. The item in question is taking shape, slowly but surely (I've done the most complicated bit, so now it's just a case of fitting the other three sides and wiring the workings together). Good clean fun. Except the metal shavings, which get everywhere. Wish I had a workshop, not just a second bench in my bedroom...
So it goes. Not everything is metalwork at the moment, I'm also looking at refurring my character mask for maelstrom over the holiday. To that end, I wandered to FabricLand on Western Road today, who have the most amazing selection of esoteric fabrics ever. After dithering over which of about five white fur fabrics I was going to use, I ended up taking a roll of a nice deep-pile fake fur to the counter, where the woman running the store cut me a suitable length of it. If you've ever worked with fur fabric before, you'll know what's coming next: it immediately shed an immense amount of fur where the scissors had cut through the strands. In her words, it looked like we'd whacked a muppet. :)
Oh well. Christmas shopping is done, presents are wrapped, and now I'm heading home, to Worthing, to be with my family for a few days. As the wise man said, we are in the heart of midwinter, and festivals abound. Whatever you celebrate, have a good one.
(It's the same day if you haven't gone to sleep yet, right? Right? This is totally the 13th's entry.)
So, continuing the tradition of my Writing About Weird Shit for NaBloPoMo (I'm kinda worried about what I'll decide's a good idea to write about for day 30, now...), I've decided to scribble a quick note about LARP before I go to bed. Although that was before I helped my housemate fix his computer, and watched him play Flash games for rather too long... Hmm.
Anyway. Briefly, the point of LARP is that it's role-play: you create a character and then play them. If it's going really well, and you're really into that character, then you can be in their mindset for upwards of twelve hours a day - it's very liberating, and quite interesting, to take on a different perspective, a different setting, hell, just a different job for a while. And then you come back, back to what you've known, back to what you've always been. Most of us roleplayers are more or less happy with who we are, but we relish the opportunity not to be every so often. A bit of escapism's healthy enough.
But now it's the winter season, and apart from a few player events (essentially, parties or gatherings being held at the in-character homes of some characters, rather than the huge festivals of normal events), there won't be any more escapism until April 2010. Sure, I'll be spending a fair bit of time doing in-character stuff like writing letters, building props and so on, but it's not quite the same.
C'est la vie. As in so many things, without the shadow, how can we appreciate the light?
I'm going back to the University archery club for the first time in ages on Saturday. If I shoot another arrow into the wall, I shall not be best pleased. Let's see who's fared worse over these few years, me or my bow and arrows...