random assorted life stuff

Went over to Rew's yesterday and he taught me how to play Arkham Horror. _Sooo_ much fun. It's incredibly complex (as, indeed, it would have to be in order to do its genre justice), but not that difficult to learn. Rew handed me the rulebook to read while he set the board up, and the more I read I was like, "OMG this is so complicated! I'm going to fail and get eaten by an Elder God," but like most games, all was made clear to me once I was actually _playing_. And while with only two players it's easier for the Ancient one to wake up (in our case it was Yig), since there are fewer of us to run around and seal the gates which open on just about every turn; it's also easier to defeat him once he _does_ wake up, as it requires a number of combat roll successes equal to the number of players in order to knock him down each level of health/power/etc. Of course, "defeating" the Elder God only means that it goes back to sleep. There is no killing them and the world is a safe place again, it's just a matter of putting off the inevitable. Mmmm, yummy Lovecraft.

***

I am a much happier Sierra now that I've been speaking with Alan regularly the past few days. Three days of no communication and not knowing where he was or what was happening was just driving me crazy. Our conversation today was short because the library closes early on Saturdays, and it isn't open at all on Sundays so I won't be able to talk to him tomorrow, and on Monday his great-aunt and -uncle are driving him to Edinburgh, where who knows what kind of phone/internet access he'll have access to; so it looks like another few days without communication, but at least this time I have a better idea of where he'll be when, so it should be easier.

***

I'm once again trying to stop biting my nails. This time I've given up on the "exercise willpower and JUST DON'T DO IT" idea and last night I put on the yicky-tasting polish stuff (which, unlike the yicky-tasting oil Grandma tried when I was young, does not come off when I wash my hands. No loophole for me this time). The bad thing there is that my cuticles are still a mess and I'm constantly trying to fix them - which is why I bite my nails: I'm trying to "fix" the rough edges and whatnot, which results in me taking them all the way down to the quick. So hopefully between the "Bite Free" polish and the cuticle cream, my fingertips will be unpalatable enough that I'll stop using my teeth instead of files and clippers.

***

The other day I realized that the brain is a muscle and, just like any other in the human body, needs to be exercised. This could explain my recent frustration in trying to make it do what I know it once could; it hasn't had anything to really work on lately, and has thus gone soft (heh, like the rest of me). So I've decided to start reading again, this time forsaking my beloved sci-fi/fantasy for (hopefully) more stimulating nonfiction. I'm starting with The Origin of Language by Merritt Ruhlen, which is short and has the added benefit of being something I've read before. I was so fascinated the first time I read it. I'd never read anything on linguistic theory before, so it was wonderful that the book is written in layman's terms even a n00b like me could understand, and I was pleased to find that my nebulous idea of language evolution is an actual field of study (historical/anthropological linguistics), and nearly jumped out of my chair squeeing when I realized the path Ruhlen was leading the reader down was illustrating and explaining the theory that all languages have a common origin; that there are, in fact, languages families other - and older - than Indo-European. That's a theory I had slowly been building in my own mind for years, but any time I had asked anyone, their opinion was that similarities between languages outside the Indo-European family were pure coincidence, and the general feeling was that other languages were like bastard offspring and only the Indo-European languages were civilized enough to be able to trace their origins. Like peasants and nobility or something.

Anyway, I was so fascinated and excited the first time I read this book, that I think I read it a little fast and thus might have missed some of the more thought-provoking opportunities it presents. So I'm going back and will take my time this time. The purpose is, after all, to give my brain something to work on so it can get back into shape and start being useful again.

random assorted life stuff

Went over to Rew's yesterday and he taught me how to play Arkham Horror. _Sooo_ much fun. It's incredibly complex (as, indeed, it would have to be in order to do its genre justice), but not that difficult to learn. Rew handed me the rulebook to read while he set the board up, and the more I read I was like, "OMG this is so complicated! I'm going to fail and get eaten by an Elder God," but like most games, all was made clear to me once I was actually _playing_. And while with only two players it's easier for the Ancient one to wake up (in our case it was Yig), since there are fewer of us to run around and seal the gates which open on just about every turn; it's also easier to defeat him once he _does_ wake up, as it requires a number of combat roll successes equal to the number of players in order to knock him down each level of health/power/etc. Of course, "defeating" the Elder God only means that it goes back to sleep. There is no killing them and the world is a safe place again, it's just a matter of putting off the inevitable. Mmmm, yummy Lovecraft.

***

I am a much happier Sierra now that I've been speaking with Alan regularly the past few days. Three days of no communication and not knowing where he was or what was happening was just driving me crazy. Our conversation today was short because the library closes early on Saturdays, and it isn't open at all on Sundays so I won't be able to talk to him tomorrow, and on Monday his great-aunt and -uncle are driving him to Edinburgh, where who knows what kind of phone/internet access he'll have access to; so it looks like another few days without communication, but at least this time I have a better idea of where he'll be when, so it should be easier.

***

I'm once again trying to stop biting my nails. This time I've given up on the "exercise willpower and JUST DON'T DO IT" idea and last night I put on the yicky-tasting polish stuff (which, unlike the yicky-tasting oil Grandma tried when I was young, does not come off when I wash my hands. No loophole for me this time). The bad thing there is that my cuticles are still a mess and I'm constantly trying to fix them - which is why I bite my nails: I'm trying to "fix" the rough edges and whatnot, which results in me taking them all the way down to the quick. So hopefully between the "Bite Free" polish and the cuticle cream, my fingertips will be unpalatable enough that I'll stop using my teeth instead of files and clippers.

***

The other day I realized that the brain is a muscle and, just like any other in the human body, needs to be exercised. This could explain my recent frustration in trying to make it do what I know it once could; it hasn't had anything to really work on lately, and has thus gone soft (heh, like the rest of me). So I've decided to start reading again, this time forsaking my beloved sci-fi/fantasy for (hopefully) more stimulating nonfiction. I'm starting with The Origin of Language by Merritt Ruhlen, which is short and has the added benefit of being something I've read before. I was so fascinated the first time I read it. I'd never read anything on linguistic theory before, so it was wonderful that the book is written in layman's terms even a n00b like me could understand, and I was pleased to find that my nebulous idea of language evolution is an actual field of study (historical/anthropological linguistics), and nearly jumped out of my chair squeeing when I realized the path Ruhlen was leading the reader down was illustrating and explaining the theory that all languages have a common origin; that there are, in fact, languages families other - and older - than Indo-European. That's a theory I had slowly been building in my own mind for years, but any time I had asked anyone, their opinion was that similarities between languages outside the Indo-European family were pure coincidence, and the general feeling was that other languages were like bastard offspring and only the Indo-European languages were civilized enough to be able to trace their origins. Like peasants and nobility or something.

Anyway, I was so fascinated and excited the first time I read this book, that I think I read it a little fast and thus might have missed some of the more thought-provoking opportunities it presents. So I'm going back and will take my time this time. The purpose is, after all, to give my brain something to work on so it can get back into shape and start being useful again.