Reflections on the Past Several Months and Looking Forward



While my blog has avoided going into hiatus, it has gone from double-digit posts per month to just a few. Suffice to say, the past few months have not been boring.

Last September and October weren't too bad for the blog - a little bit of a slowdown but not too bad. Then on October 31st my younger daughter was hospitalized. As any parent no doubt knows, there's nothing so horrible as a threat to one of your kids. 

I've also been busy with grad school. I've been pursuing my master's degree in strategic analytics since September 2005. It's been a long slog - while the material hasn't gotten more difficult, I've found keeping at it more and more difficult as time goes on. I've managed to do so though and have just begun my 10th and final class. If all goes well, I will finish the program in the end of September. 

My professional life was upended this summer, as I was laid off from my job in mid-June. I'd first joined EMC all the way back in 2002 after the startup I'd been worked out went under a little over a month after the birth of my first child. I'd not planned on staying so long but I had the opportunity to wear a few gazillion hats and further my career and skills in many ways. The silver lining is my job search went extremely well and I'll be starting a new job next week - one I'm really looking forward to. 

I had to miss some convention opportunities as a result of all this - I was unsure I'd be able to make it even when I was employed due to school - once I knew I was losing my job, I couldn't justify such expenses.

With all of this, time for hobbies has been greatly reduced. I managed to keep gaming fairly regularly, though I do appreciate the opportunity to have played instead of GM-ed when I felt my creative energies at a nadir. 

I imagine the next two months will be a bit tight as well as I begin my new job and work my way through this final class. Hopefully not quite as tight as the past two have been. I'd really like to bring the frequency of updates to this blog back up. 

There have been some good things going on in life. We've been teaching our eldest daughter how to drive and she's started her first part-time job. Our youngest has joined in gaming - she loves Call of Cthulhu. She'll be traveling to Japan for two weeks in October as part of a cultural exchange program (and her parents will do their best to avoid being constantly worried during those two weeks).

There's been a number of games coming out of late that I'd love to get the change to play - so many games, so little time. I've not had time to digest it fully yet, but the new RuneQuest looks wonderful. I've received the backer previews of Goodman Games' Lankhmar and I don't think I've ever seen the setting handled better. While it's not new, I recently received the Fantasy Flight Games' reprint of the West End Games 1st edition Star Wars RPG.

I am hoping that life get a little more boring going forward.  Or that it be exciting in good ways. 

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