Hello? Is this thing on?

So it’s been a little quiet around here lately. I’ve done maybe 3 posts in the last two weeks. We’ve had workers here rebuilding our shower (and running out of tile) so that’s caused a bit of a distraction to my writing. In an effort to dive back in, I’ll give a brief run down on what’s been going on, and then, hopefully, keep things going for the rest of the week.

Weightloss

First, a quick update on my weightloss efforts. Things had been going pretty good with the Couch to 5k and tracking food on Myfitnesspal. I made it to week 5 with the program without missing a day and had lost 5-6 pounds. Last week proved to be a bit of a hick-up. I only made it to two runs and ended up indulging my sweet tooth way to much.

I’ll be redoing week 5 starting tonight and finishing it right. The overindulging in sweets, well….there’s a birthday cake that must be eaten as a sacrifice to the gods this week. I can not forsake them that tradition. But we’ll try to be good everywhere else.

Writing

Work on Aristeia 3 has been proceeding really slowly. The first part of the book I’m trying to write in a new approach, since I have such limited writing time. Instead of writing it in narrative order (like the last two, scene to scene) I’m writing each characters arc in one set and then plan to merge them later. Not sure how it will turn out.  Trying to keep everything in my head was proving difficult when switching characters but when just following one story arc to completion is easier.

I finished Solyss’ and the Gallant‘s adventure and moved on to Lahkaba. I really like some of the aspects of this one but have had trouble keeping it going and being interesting. Not sure if it’s the way I’m writing, the arc itself, or just the limited time to focus. I’m debating putting it aside and moving onto another arc or trying to power through it.

All told I’m currently at 27,000 words of what I assume will be between 110,000 and 120,000.

Geekery

What geekiness have I indulged in lately? Well, we finally finished watching Being Human season 2. We had put it aside at one point, and once that’s done, it’s hard to go back too. It’s one of those shows that you have to be in the right mood to start watching it but once you start you want to watch it all. It was a good second season.

We also finished Eureka. Sad to see the show end as it was great fun. But it ended well enough. And it ended before it crossed that line into stupid territory.

Also saw the Dark Knight Rises. While I enjoyed it for the most part, I didn’t instantly love it like most of the internet. I’m debating writing up my thoughts on it but haven’t decided.

Gaming

My gaming time has been pretty wacky the last few weeks. Still working on the starbase in STO. It’s coming along very slowly. We’re a small guild and have started to burn out on the missions for fleet marks. We’ve also passed tier 1 and run into the diminishing returns wall. Tier 2 projects give half the xp for 3-4 times the required inputs. This is a bit annoying.

I played another Civ game while the workers were here. They were to loud to allow for writing and I could take a turn while still playing with the baby. Upped the difficulty level and played as the Celts. Was trying for a cultural/diplomatic victory using religion. I took the spec that boosted the amount city-states would like you if they followed your religion. That combined with the social policy meant their resting point was 35, above the friend line. Any city-state that I could get my religion into would remain friends for free.

But then the Persians spread their religion like wildfire and declared war on me. They kicked my ass since I was so small. I cheated a little to keep the game going but it felt boring after that.

I also dipped back into SWTOR this weekend. Started a new Jedi Consular with a group of friends. We’re going to try leveling them together. Got to 13 through a flashpoint, a few Coruscant missions and some PVP. We’ll see if we keep it up. Already running into a scheduling conflict next weekend.

My sub is up in a few weeks for SWTOR. Need to decide if I’m going to renew. It’s still a fun game, just a lot of time investment to do anything at end game. Now that the baby is sleeping consistently, I could join the guild in the evening for some events though. I don’t have to squeeze gaming into 30min naps but can play in the evening and still get a good nights sleep. So we’ll see.