The Art of (Self-)Distraction
Urgh. Been wrestling with a general bad mood and melancholy since late last week. I had a talk that needed to happen, would have happened soon, and wasn't so bad in and of itself, but it got me introspective. And that's where my own problems lie. Too much thinking about myself and my life leads to dissatisfaction issues. Life's better when I can distract myself with something...
Saturday, I sunk myself into scouring through Magic cards comparing to the Star City Games buy list. Grading cards... mrrf... I try not to be biased by a desire for them to be sell-worthy, but we'll see how they judge my efforts as I've got a selection I'm shipping off to them soon. Part of the irony - which I fully appreciate - is that I bought cards from that site when I was playing. If the process goes well, I may actually look at selling my half-dozen or so much rarer cards. Of course, even so I'm left with two concerns. One, I fear a little "windfall" of money will simple vanish over the near future without any real good coming of it. Two, this does almost nothing to whittle down the collection of thousands of other cards that aren't really worth sorting and shipping somewhere, but take up a lot more space. Ah well. It's something.
Saturday night's WoW went alright. We were still missing one of our recently-considered-to-be normal healers. We faltered a couple times, but make it up through Blackhorn without serious issue, giving me hope that I might get a new shield at some point. People were a bit too tired to get more than a couple attempts in on Spine, though, and we didn't have another miraculous win there even though our roster was close to what it was when we made it through. Not a bad run. The coming weekend is more in question, though, with our guild/raid leader apparently away that night, so... we'll see.
I finished Phoenix Rising, a steampunk secret agent novel by the author who did Geist and Spectre, though also co-written. I'm not sure if it's the different setting or the dual authorship, but I think I like this book better than the others. Compared to the Parasol Protectorate series, it flip-flops the levels of steampunkery (much higher) with the levels of supernatural (lower, but still seems to be there). And the main characters are agents of England's 'Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences,' so they're each a little bit extraordinary in their own ways. I enjoyed it, and may well follow this series as it continues.
And while I started off my day frustrated at the feeling of having my hands tied being unable to finish installs on nine new computers, I got some additional information and help, and ended up making some steady progress through the pile. Very busy day, but mostly the good kind of busy.
Saturday, I sunk myself into scouring through Magic cards comparing to the Star City Games buy list. Grading cards... mrrf... I try not to be biased by a desire for them to be sell-worthy, but we'll see how they judge my efforts as I've got a selection I'm shipping off to them soon. Part of the irony - which I fully appreciate - is that I bought cards from that site when I was playing. If the process goes well, I may actually look at selling my half-dozen or so much rarer cards. Of course, even so I'm left with two concerns. One, I fear a little "windfall" of money will simple vanish over the near future without any real good coming of it. Two, this does almost nothing to whittle down the collection of thousands of other cards that aren't really worth sorting and shipping somewhere, but take up a lot more space. Ah well. It's something.
Saturday night's WoW went alright. We were still missing one of our recently-considered-to-be normal healers. We faltered a couple times, but make it up through Blackhorn without serious issue, giving me hope that I might get a new shield at some point. People were a bit too tired to get more than a couple attempts in on Spine, though, and we didn't have another miraculous win there even though our roster was close to what it was when we made it through. Not a bad run. The coming weekend is more in question, though, with our guild/raid leader apparently away that night, so... we'll see.
I finished Phoenix Rising, a steampunk secret agent novel by the author who did Geist and Spectre, though also co-written. I'm not sure if it's the different setting or the dual authorship, but I think I like this book better than the others. Compared to the Parasol Protectorate series, it flip-flops the levels of steampunkery (much higher) with the levels of supernatural (lower, but still seems to be there). And the main characters are agents of England's 'Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences,' so they're each a little bit extraordinary in their own ways. I enjoyed it, and may well follow this series as it continues.
And while I started off my day frustrated at the feeling of having my hands tied being unable to finish installs on nine new computers, I got some additional information and help, and ended up making some steady progress through the pile. Very busy day, but mostly the good kind of busy.
Spending money on good things: Car payment/repairs Computer upgrades. Handling any home fix-it things, replace things that are old and not working properly. A home gym. Spending money on more frivolous things: Take a vacation. Buy a bunch of games. Buy a bunch of books. Treat yourself to some cuisine you do not normally partake in. Go 'ale sampling' at the local eateries. (Note to self, do this at next visit <.<)
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