When Cole met Jane, something special happened, and they found love.
He never expected Anthony to return…
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Hi guys,
Yes, it’s been a long while. But being a long while, I’ve had a sort-of
idea for the blog, which will work out into a longer format, but a wider range
of things to view.
So, where’ve I been since August 2021? Well, around…
I’ve been in a rut, bouncing around in exhaustion, stress, depression, getting
triggered, sleeping too much, letting myself go and eating too much, struggling
with the writing. No, I hadn’t been on holidays for two years, even when Covid
locked me down the second time. But throw in a holiday (except the sleepless
day-long layover in Qatar, and three weeks of eating a very rich diet), and
there’s perspective, rest, energy to do things…
And that admin at work that was driving me down, hard to deal with, is
suddenly “I can do this.” Life’s looking up, right?
Yeah, life’s looking up, except for the
fact writing The Ways Out is stagnating with blockage, and the blog I was going
to issue last week was a sullen, depressive mess. But it now lives with the
lost bits and bytes floating around in the ether, and I’m just pecking away
until the chapter ends or the block dies. I guess it’s all good, and there’s
drive to blog again. Hopefully I can keep this up.
And here comes the new stuff!
What’s in the World
Well, you can’t go far without running into the conflict in Ukraine.
Putes the total Dictator wants himself some new land, doesn’t want himself some
Europe on the doorstep (never mind he’s in the Europe side of Russia). I’d be
empathetic, but, well, a guy who’s been in power so long, using the excuse of
saving the eastern Ukrainian separatists to invade and bomb nuclear power
plants and maternity hospitals. What a guy!
Here in Oz, major flooding in Brisbane and Northern NSW, natural
disasters not labelled until the PM turns up, but will he talk to locals? Nope,
avoided the chance of rejected handshakes with some staged photo ops. Okay, the
dude had Covid the week before, couldn’t make it until this week… but we have a
Deputy PM, there’s Skype, and the excuse “The Army can’t mobilise at a moment’s
notice,” is a con versus the epic response to Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
What do you do for all of this? The leadership gone wrong, it’s kinda
hard, I’m just a lowly voter. But for the people? I feel S.H.I.T. that all I
have is a bit of charity, and thoughts and prayers.
The Last Two Weeks in Writing
As I mentioned, slow progress on The Ways Out. I mean, seriously, how
hard can this scene be? It’s a date scene (the only spoiler you’re getting), I
know exactly where things are heading, it’s ultimately happy time, and yet… I
can’t even word vomit. Is it because the context is against certain rules I
now follow? Am I remembering the past for these characters and stumbling? Am I
just not feeling it? Amen, I tell you, I don’t know. But I’m pecking. All I can
do.
And I had another idea. I’m definitely an author, I have ideas. And post
world building, this time I’ve gone some character planning, and I have a bunch
of characters with stories, motives, agency, and all manner of stuff. All that
remains is to write it. But I’m already sitting in my omnipotence thinking, “You
know some of them are gonna die, right?” Ahh, the writer life :D.
This Week in Gaming
I’ve consigned WoW to the Over It pile. Let’s be honest, I wasn’t
playing much after I hit the end of 9.1 content. I had my misgivings, and
didn’t feel that up to Eternity’s End, another new world where I can’t fly with
an off the bat jump quest, but with cute wombat cyborgs. But renewal was up
today, so, ta-ta Blizzard, see you for Diablo 4. Maybe Diablo 2 if I’m feeling
nostalgic, and Diablo 3 if I want to crack at it again.
Skyrim: Anniversary Edition, and I’m rocking survival mode again (and
yes, started the game again again). But, well, hanging out for The Elder
Scrolls 6 where I’ll upgrade to the X-Box X – and admittedly, checking back in
to Cyberpunk 2077 and its inevitable GOTY version, with all the hot mess fixes.
Life as a level three stealth-Nord with a hunter’s backpack is admittedly good
in Riverwood, but moving to Whiterun and getting a horse soon.
As for the mods I was running… Welp, the game kept crashing, so back to
vanilla. I’ll live with it, and maybe a companion because they’ll be able to
keep up with the horse (I had fast horses, because vanilla horses are, well,
slow). Maybe not, but I’ll eventually get hottie vampire girlfriend Serana. Yeah,
I’ll live.
And I say welcome to Trains Sim World 2020, and its already-evident
flaws. Starting Main-Spessart Bahn out of Aschaffenburg? Can’t unlock the train
doors at the start so have to get out the cab, run to the first door to open it,
to get passengers onboard; also, I keep losing power on a hill. And Long Island
Rail Road? Don’t set the M7’s brakes to emergency, or you have to charge the
brakes at level 10 again otherwise you ain’t going nowhere. It’s still fun.
Also want to record a Let’s Play, only the drinking game version. The
drinking will have to wait until after lent, and the recording to wait until I
get a screen recorder, so be prepared for some things on YouTube soon.
Today in Church
It’s the third Sunday of Lent, the 40 days (well, 46) leading up to
Easter, the preparation time for the Passion, the bit where Jesus gets nailed
to a cross at the end of a torturous 30 hours. And since it’s Sunday, three
readings from The Books.
First up from the OT is the burning bush, Moses meeting God in a
frightful, wondrous sight, and God answering Moses’ question of what to name Him
– curtailed these days from its original, cryptic “I am that I am, that I was,
and that I will be.” As things turned out, God was given a name, YHWH (Yahweh), kept by the priests with Lord used instead.
Next, from 1 Corinthians 10, St Paul speaks of the Christian spiritual
fathers (the Israelites) being baptised into Moses in the cloud that guided
them (God) and in the sea (the parted waters), drinking of the same spiritual
rock (Jesus), but most of them failed to please God. This is used as the
warning the early Christians not to follow wicked things, and ends with the ominous,
“The man who thinks he is safe must be careful that he does not fall.”
Onto the NT, and two tragedies – Pilate sends some troops in to massacre
templegoers in Galilee, and at Siloam, a tower collapses and 18 people die.
Jesus puts a conundrum to his followers, were the ones who died greater sinners
than anybody else, i.e., did they deserve their deaths for some reason? He says
no, but still says that unless his followers repent, they will surely perish,
or die to God as was the case with the fall.
Things end with the parable of a fig tree, it grows for three years
without giving fruit. The master wants to cut it down, but the gardener asks for
another year, time to dig round it and manure it, and if the tree bears no
fruit it can then be cut down. The priest’s take away? We have another chance
to tend our tree. But an interesting aside? Fruit trees had their fruit
discarded for three years, then sacrificed on the fourth year. Best be the best,
tended fruit.
The Weigh In
I mentioned a rich diet before. I had a very good reason for being in
accessible range of fast and fatty food (I’ve been introduced to a fried
chicken place with the tenderest fried chicken I’ve ever had – forget the
sauce, I’m not a fan, but that chicken is to die for). But guess who gained
weight.
Okay, I was already gaining weight. The stress, exhaustion, scoffing
large serves, and not exercising got to me, and weighing my bags for the trip
was an eye opener. But I’ve gone on a replacement shake a day diet (the powder
stuff at least tastes like I’m on a diet, so it must be good), turned into
somewhat of a snacker (okay, lived the dream with smashed avo brunch and pizza,
BBQ wings dinner Thursday).
And today, I’m 125 kilos, and down to the fourth belt hole on my work
belt, second on my jeans belt. Still early days, but the efforts have begun,
and it’s time to exercise this week while the rain has dispersed. Gonna try
that upper body workout again :D.
So, a mixed bag, but I am a mixed bag with more than one interest, and
largely less bleugh and meh. Better finish on the positive note. Have a good
one all, and I’ll catch you soon!
T.M.
Love your gospel recount. Seriously love your writing and can’t wait for ‘three ways’ to be finished!!
ReplyDeleteNawwwww thanks hun
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