Yet again I return after a long absence. I truly intend to post to this thing, and then things come up. Lately it’s been work which has been busy, and other things, which I may go into at a later point.

Work, however, has been a bit of a shock to the system after taking it easy for a few months.

One of the most frustrating things, however, has been the return to Microsoft Windows. I’ve been a Mac user at home for years now, and I suppose I’ve become used to them. They still freeze up from time to time, and I have application difficulties, of course, but they are generally infrequent.

My work computer, however, is a Windows machine. And it’s fair to say that I have issues on a daily basis. Issues with web pages, issues with applications freezing, issues with the OS not loading right on startup. I realize that some of this may result from the way work set up my computer, but it’s incredibly frustrating.

I recently installed Windows on my Mac, so it will be interesting to see how that stacks up against my experience with the work machine. I mostly use it for single programs that don’t work on the Mac. Or for old games I have, so it won’t get a workout, but I wonder what the comparison will be.

*

I seem to be going through a nostalgia period. Because of a conversation that I had on the writing retreat, I dug out my Dragonlance Chronicles books and I’m reading through them. It’s a bit tedious – there are chapters that I end up skimming because there’s nothing really there to draw me in, but I’m determined to go through the whole thing. I think I read them originally when I was 11 or 12, and while my adult eye finds a lot wrong with the writing, the worldbuilding and the story still has a certain something for me, despite the fact that it was based on D&D adventures and is hopelessly derivative of Tolkien and other works.

I’m also playing older games. After installing Windows, as mentioned above, I found my old PC games – stuff like Baldur’s Gate. A lot of the older games don’t work with the new, update operating system, but some do, and I’m enjoying going back and playing them.

I’ve realized that while I enjoy games in general, it’s the story behind the games that draw me in. I seem to be happiest when the button smashing is kept to a minimum and I am responsible for higher level decisions. That’s one of the things I appreciated about the Knights of the Old Republic series. I could direct the characters to do certain things, but then they did them on their own.

On the other hand, I don’t like strategy games that much. I guess I’m full of contradictions.

Of course I rarely play just one game all the way through. Over the last couple of weeks, I have played Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Super Metroid, Gears of War, Jade Empire, Baldur’s Gate and possibly one or two others.

It’s a great distraction.

*

Writing-wise, I haven’t done much lately. Just can’t get my head into it. Aside from some future novel scribblings and some revision, I haven’t really submerged myself into any stories. Hopefully I’ll get over that hump this weekend.

*

For various reasons, I’m going (and I know I’ve said this before) to try to post more regularly. I want to get into the habit of posting more often, if I can.

So – more to come later…