Randomocity

I keep meaning to do an extended post or two, to show that I'm back and taking this whole blogging thing seriously. But time keeps getting in the way. Well, fine. Here's a list of nonsequitors that I hope to develop into posts some time soon:
--I put effort into making a Halloween costume for basically the first time ever. Lesson: creativity is expensive. We'll see how it pans out tomorrow.
--I joined a tabletop RPG group. We're playing Old School Hack, which seems to be loosely based on D&D, but with more emphasis on roleplay over character maximization. I play the cleric Meh, who worships the God of Pessimism. So far, I've tried to convert three different people to my faith. The starting pitch: "Have you heard the bad news?" (Which I still say is funny, despite what everyone else seems to think.)
--Ramping up the dissertation research again. Here there be dragons.
--I finished Tales of Maj'Eyal. And by finished, I mean accidentally stumbled into an exploit. So maybe a post on the appeal of rougelike games some day?
--In comics, Battle of the Atom wrapped up. It was one of Bendis' better crossovers, but in the last chapter it suffers from his usual faults, that the resolution seems more about setting up the next storyline than being a natural conclusion of what's come so far.
--Researching crowdsourcing. The general consensus seems to be only slightly more sophisticated than "build it and they will come."
--Currently, the dissertation work has been ferrying together everything I know about DOOM. It's led to some ruminations on stories in games, which we may get to at some point.
--Speaking of stories and games, the visual novel Cinders that I just played through has interesting ideas about destiny and choice, always interesting issues in the visual novel genre, which is essentially a sophisticated Choose Your Own Adventure book.
--Trying to set up a more faithful running schedule. These efforts have run afoul of the dissertation goal. But it's run much more afoul of the weather (pre-winter) and my own laziness.
--Right, the stolen bike thing. Yes, my bike was stolen. But against all odds, the police recovered it two days later. This could be expanded.
--Something's still off, all in all. Has been since I came back from my bro's wedding at the beginning of the month. Person of Consequence still needs to get his groove back. I'll probably watch Stella Gets Her Groove Back for inspiration, because I think my life and the protagonist's are basically the same.
--Read through all seven (so far) of the October Daye urban fantasy series. Want to write something larger about the appeal of urban fantasy.
--Finished a book on kink while I was at the wedding. The sexy kind, not the hair kind. ...And I'm referring to the kink type, not the wedding type. Not that it was an unsexy wedding, it's more that... I think I'll stop there.
--Still haven't come up with a great way to take notes while playing games. My method for books is too time-consuming to apply to a game. Maybe some sort of dictaphone thing?

All right, with much typing, I could've just done one regular post. Live and learn, I guess.

Later Days.