Hard Start...

The last couple of days have been a hard start. Getting up after about a four-hour nap each night is not the way to live, but I think that is what is going to happen until I get used to the new schedule. S'okay though... I've done long-term endurance-taxing stuff like that before. I'm a professional... =P

Today was a Gopher Minis Day at the store today, but nothing really happened in that regard. Three of our hardcore miniatures players were in St. Louis, and there is a big yearly festival going on across town this weekend. It makes for a pretty slow day. Normally I'm okay with a slow day tossed into the mix, but with M13 and Warhammer 40K (6th Edition) looking on the VERY immediate horizon, slow days scare me a bit right now. We should make it, but it might be tighter than I'd like.

Beyond business concerns, tonight is another run of Shady's Terracide game. Tonight, we will deal with a major conflict and get to a point where we can make a break in the story. Then, we are apparently looking at converting the game from HERO System to Savage Worlds. I'm not exactly certain how that is going to go, as they are two *INCREDIBLY* different animals mechanically. We'll see. I like Savage Worlds, but the idea of converting the current Terracide game to it is not exactly thrilling me. I don't know why...

Like all things... We shall see...

-- GopherDave

Slowly...

Third day of working out happened, and it seems I am going backwards-ish. Did less distance on the stationary bike than I did either of two previous days, but when I weighed myself at the end, it turns out that I have lost one pound. That brings me to 303 pounds. At this rate, I should see 300 by the end of next week. It'll only get easier from there.

Not much work has been done on the game system, lately, but I'm not worried. Knowing what I have to do makes things easier to get them done. I should have some time in the next week or so to crank out some more material. I'm looking at having the main rulebook done by the end of August, then working on the genre/setting modules over the next couple months after that. That leaves me about three months to work on the adventures.

Sounds like a plan to me...

Disconnected...

Particpated in the "online" table-top game last night. We are playing D&D4E using a combination of MapTools and Ventrilo voice chat. It's been interesting, but odd. I find it great because I now get to game once again with a friend of mine I haven't gamed with in ages due to real-life distance. I also feel oddly disconnected, though. So much so that it approaches the feeling of playing a very clunky version of those old D&D computer games (think Pool of Radiance) with some human intelligence thrown in.

Also, I trule love immersive role-playing, and I am finding a difficult time with that with no body language and limited voice inetraction on my part. Limited voice? How can this be, you say? How does one of the most talkative people at a role-playing table have "limited voice interaction"? Simple. Much of my role-playing is spontaneous and is cued off of body language from the other players. We're all in separate places, thus, no body language. Second, the voice chat software we are using is sort of a "walkie-talkie" push-to-talk sort of thing. When you are pushing the button, the sound from the other players is cut off to prevent feedback. Being limited of hearing in the first place, I am hesistant to use the "talk feature" for fear of missing an important clue or piece of information. The whole set up really has shut me down and made me kind of uncomfortable.

I will probably give it one r two more decisions before I make a final one, but as much as I am enjoying "playing" with my long-lost friend, and I appreciate the opportunity to do so, I'm kind of leaning toward ducking out of this one. It's not a bad set-up... It just doesn't seem like it is conducive to the type of role-play gaming I like to do...

My $0.02... Your milage may vary...

-- GopherDave

119 And Counting...

Okay... I've been away for a bit, but not much has happened. Loq and I started our workout program, which isn't much of an actual program. We get up around 5:30AM, head to the gym do what we can without pushing ourselves too terribly much and go home. Most of our workouts last about 30 minutes each.

At this point all I am doing is stationary bike work just to get myself active and build up some endurance. It did not help when I jumped on the scale and it read 304 pounds. Ugh. To reach my ultimate goal, I need to shed about 119 pounds, which is a lot. Looking at that number seems pretty daunting, but I am a quietly competitive guy. I will look at things and people and try to "beat" them in self-imagined competitions that only I know are going on. So, when I see 304 on the scale, I quietly say to "myself/the scale"... "Race ya to 300..."

Working in that paradigm, I can just keep dropping the goal by five pounds at each milestone and keep myself motivated. As it goes, I am trying to enact a few lifestyle changes, the least of which is kicking the (diet) soda habit once again. Regular soda just packs on the pounds, and diet soda helps me maintain a weight, but doesn't actually help me lose it. So back to water, juice, and milk for me. On top of that, I am trying to be more aware of what I am eating. I know that's a big part of why I am as large as I am. I just have to find things that don't taste like cardboard that fill me up and don't pack on the weight...

Should be easy, right?

Says you...

-- GopherDave

Losing Myself...

It's late as I write this, but at least I'm writing something. Today was Father's Day, and it was a fairly mellow one at Casa de Gopher. Slept in, watched TV, bought workout shoes (more on that in a moment), and just enjoyed the day until I had to come to work.

Being Father's Day, the day was slow at the store. Things were mellow, but I did not get that much accomplished for various reasons. Tomorrow is Monday, which means it is order day. Beyond orders I don't have much to do at the store.

Tomorrow also happens to be the day the Loq and I start working out in an effort to shed weight. We're both large people, and in my case, I am only getting larger. This is bad for my heart, which already as issues. So, Loq and I joined a gym. She asked the other day if I wanted to start today, and I realized I didn't not have the shoes for it. I looked at my shoe assortment (all five pairs) and it came down to a pair of sandals, a pair of leather "business" shoes, a pair of hand-me-down basketball high-tops that are WELL past their prime, a pair of oxford wingtips that don't quite fit my feet anymore (too narrow), and a pair of boat shows (also too narrow). Loq pretty much had the same predicament. So we bought shoes. I guess that means we are full in.

Right now, at this moment, I am 45 years old, about 100 pounds overweight, and have a bad heart, knee, and spine. The weight is a problem, and has been for longer than care to admit. Now, here is my fear. I am slow to realize problems about myself, but when I do, I tend to employ overkill in an effort to fix it. For example, I did so with the "comic-book guy" image I gave off at the store. No one expected me to swing to this shirt-tie-vest extreme as a result, but I did. I overkilled the problem. Now, I am expecting that I will walk into the gym tomorrow, try to do too much at once, and, as a result, possibly send myself to the hospital.

The weight loss has to happen, though, and I have to start somewhere. I just have to be careful about it all...

I hope I can...

-- GopherDave