I'm still here!

Wow, this place is still here? It’s been an off couple of weeks for me, so this blog has kind of fallen by the wayside. After my 5-day blogging marathon, I think maybe I was a bit burned out. Of course, last week I had my first overnight trip for work, and all of the stuff that went along with that. But really, there just hasn’t been much to geek out about for me lately. At least, nothing I haven’t covered in spades before.

One thing did occur recently. A friend of mine invited me to become a founding member of a guild for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. So, that got me all jazzed up over Star Wars again. Still haven’t had the urge to watch the movies, but I know that will come soon. In the meantime, I’m thinking of the game, and what kind of character I’d like to play. Right now, I’ve settled on a Republic Trooper. Heirs to the Republic Grand Army from the Clones, these are highly trained “Special Forces” types of soldiers. I considered going with some kind of Jedi, but I think there will be a glut of those, and since we’re playing the “good” faction, the Trooper seemed like a great fit for me.

I’ve also taken my Stargate pastiche idea and began modifying it into an original setting and premise. Had a huge flash of inspiration the other night, and wrote a bunch of notes in my notebook. I think it could be cool, though it will take some tinkering to get it to work on its own, and to not be a blatant Stargate rip-off.

My brain has gotten pretty derailed from fantasy and S&S lately, and though I still have occasional thoughts about those (particularly about Orcs), nothing in those genres is really pulling on me lately. Mostly I’m thinking about Space Opera and military sci-fi. I think I need to write something in that vein, just to see where it could go.

My computer is still on the fritz. Basically, the NVIDIA drivers stopped working, and I can’t reload them. I’m not sure if it’s a software issue or a hardware issue. I’m leaning towards software, as some of the Windows (Vista Home) elements have malfunctioned as well,. In particular, the Windows Updater. I can’t get updates to download and install properly, and I have had to shut off the updater, since it kept locking up my system. So, basically my computer is using a standard VGA driver, which restricts me to 1024x768 resolution, thus negating me playing any of my games. The plan is, when I get my disbursement from student loans, I will be buying myself a new laptop, and making my old desktop a “family” computer for the kids to use. That should all happen late next month, I hope.

Other than that, life is ok. My wife has some exciting things coming up. More on that as time goes on, but right now it’s a bit hush-hush for legal and financial reasons. My daughter will only be here for the week after Christmas, thanks to my ex-wife being…well, she’s an EX-wife for a reason. Let’s just leave it at that. My stepdaughter is getting to be handful. Love her dearly, but sometimes I want to give her a brain-duster. And my nearly-3 year old is way too smart for his own good. We’ve discovered that if we don’t engage him intellectually in public, he turns in to Jack-Jack’s demon form. Guh!

Oh, and I want one of the new Kindles for Christmas.