Friday, January 20, 2006

 

General Update

I haven't posted on Skaldheim in a while, so I thought I would give a general rundown of what I've been up to.

I haven't had a lot to say about the Giants, at least not here. Today I bought tickets for seven games, and I'm really looking forward to going. We didn't go very often last year, but this year that will change.

I've been commenting and posting a bit on McCovey Chronicles. I'm considering directing most of my slim baseball wisdom to those pages, for no other reason than that's where everyone is these days. (You can see my most recent diary here.) I don't really consider myself a baseball analyst. I'm a fan, and I have the kinds of insights a fan would have. I mean, do you really need me to tell you that the whole season depends on how well Bonds and Schmidt hold up? Or that the odds of those guys holding up the whole year are pretty small? I'm willing to talk about it, but I wouldn't look to me for magical wisdom.

Though I did pick the White Sox to win the Series. Go figure.

In miniatures news, I have finally, after a billion years, finished painting a balrog. It's by far the biggest single piece I've ever painted. I've been pecking away at it for three years. Can you imagine how long it would have taken if it wasn't mostly black? This marks the end of my Lord of the Rings projects for a little while. My new obsession is historical miniatures. I have an army of Vikings, sculpted by Old Glory, that I am just beginning. I have about 170 of them, so I'll be at them for a while.

This is leading me to doing a bit of research into the period and the times. I'd like to get my hands on some copies of some of the Icelandic sagas, which are one of the almost-primary sources for warfare of the Viking Age. Also, I'm watching as many Capital One commercials as I possibly can.

I've also been writing more, mostly in my private journal. I also have a couple of short stories going, plus that second novel I've been struggling with for the last decade. I'm trying to unlearn some horrible writing habits, most of which I picked up chatting online in Final Fantasy XI.

I do still play that game, though not enough to be considered a serious player. I concentrate on solo pursuits such as crafting, doing simple quests, and playing with my "NPC fellow." I got really tired of the leveling treadmill. I haven't tried to level my black mage in at least six months. I might almost be ready to resume--but I think I would be just as happy not to.

Anyway, I'm also exercising my writing muscles by reading. I spent the last half of 2005 plowing through the five thousand pages of Churchill's memoirs of World War II. The man had a definite prose style; eloquent, didactic and officious all at once. It fit him, his position, and his time. It does not fit me, but I found myself imitating him. This will not do, so I am washing the Churchill flavor out of my mind with the crisp, clean prose of Roger Zelazny. I'm in the middle of Trumps of Doom right now. I've read the Amber novels many times. I remember now where I found the spark for this novel I'm working on. I liked the ideas of the trio of Merlin, Luke and Julia, of her search for the occult after a metaphysical experience, of heroes and villains with hidden dimensions and open friendships. Ten years of chewing on my novel, and my trio of Mark, Sean and Breanna are now quite a bit different from Zelazny's. Nonetheless, without Roger to serve as an inspiration, I'm certain my writing would be entirely different.

Roger died ten years ago. I still miss him very much.

Talk to you again next time.

Jefferson 8:26 PM

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