I think it's best to just be blunt, here: as of this month, Rain and I are legally divorced. We moved on from the relationship sometime ago, but the Virginia legal system (specifically, the law firm we were paying to handle this) was in no hurry whatsoever to recognize the situation.

Rain's doing pretty good right now with her work, and what I know of her personal life seems smooth too. I hope the future goes very very well for her.

Definitely a traditional Christmas for me... History and Science channels on the tube, wrapping presents for others while being unable to wait to unwrap ours :)

My Munchkin collection is looking healthier! Starr gave me Munchkin Impossible and Munchkin Cthulhu I & II... now we have to invite someone over to play them with us. 2-handed Munchkin is much less fun.

Back in my Decipher days, Justin taught me how to play Carcassonne, and I've been wanting a copy for the years since. Never managed to pick it up, but I knew it was fun to play, so I picked up a set as a Christmas present for raininva when I heard she was gaming again. Well, guess what other game I got yesterday :) Already broken it in, too. Fun!

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I had a little trouble with some of the older movies I haven't seen yet...

Another round of the hair saga today.

Back when I started paying for my own haircuts, I decided to grow my hair long. It was pretty straight and stringy back then. (First pic) After the car accident, I cut it a little bit shorter, but it didn't get far from my collar line, and it filled out a lot. (Second pic).

raininva liked short hair on me, so I kept it pretty trim while we were together. (Third pic) This year, though, I figured I'd enjoy growing it back out to its two-decades-ago length. (Fourth pic, though I have put the beard back on since then)

Reviews have been mixed. Some of my BCT co-workers were unimpressed, but the new hair went over great at Invisifest. It's cool at NASA, though with all the military there I think I've got the longest hair on base.

This weekend, an acquaintance told me that it looked terrible on me - it bummed me out a bit. But just today, one of my coworkers told me she loved it, and it was a big improvement over April's length.

I'm going to keep it long for now, but there certainly seems to be very little middle ground here!

1988	1997	2003	2007

Thank you for indulging my little narcisissm moment.

Got back last night from Salem / Roanoke. rhaps and shrewlet let us stay overnight at their place with no notice, and Rhaps even came down to the service on Friday. I'm really glad, too because it was one more familiar face for raininva, and I think that meant much to her.

Dad thought highly of both Rain and Starr, and I felt they should both be there. The family proved their great class by welcoming and supporting them both; I don't know if I've even been prouder to be an O'Brien. Beth, Cathy, Benny and Jamie (old-guard Batron Starfleeters) showed up for the public reception on Thursday too. Interestingly, time_shark's name came up a few times, as it turns out that my dad and my dad's dad knew Nelson Bond's family pretty well, and I got to reminiscing with some of the Bonds and their friends about the Showtimers and the southwest Virginian fiction community.

My father was involved in fascinating stuff I never even heard about, stuff I can't even talk about here. There was a long stretch of my life where I wasn't close to the man, but I thought I had a pretty good idea who he was and what he got up to. I was right in some ways, and completely wrong in others. I wonder what else I missed?

My sister Whitney, of whom you've heard me talk almost nothing here because we too have been somewhat out-of-touch, asked me to be a pallbearer. I was honored, and I'm not sure I could have been talked out of at least trying... but this may have been the stupidest testosterone-induced promise I've ever made. I'm not supposed to lift over 25 pounds since the hip surgery; to be fair, I violate this on occasion, but usually with discretion. I strained several muscles, and nearly fell over once. Thank goodness no one said anything. At least I did no actual damage to myself.

Whitney's one-year-old daughter Kennedy was with her for the two Thursday receptions. Baby singing and the throw-the-toy-on-the-floor game was exactly what I needed that day. Everytime the walls started to close in, I'd just look at Kennedy's innocently quizzical expression, and things got a tiny bit better.

Friday on the way home, I stopped by my Mom's, and she and Starr and I grabbed some lunch. While trying to dig up some Tintin comics I wanted to re-read, I found my old I.P.M.S. award for the Ether Flyer Thunderchild model, as well as some Pathfinder group shots and another portion of my dice collection. I can't believe how much of my life is still at Kentland. I despair of fully sorting through it.

This too, is a bit rambly, but I'm getting closer to my center again. Tried to do a little fiction today, but the headspace isn't there, and I'm determined to write something. I don't have the luxury that a Conan Doyle character would of six months of "brain fever". Bills gotta be paid, chores gotta be done, and life goes on.

And on a crass note, Dad was going to take care of my Dragon*Con travel for me. This isn't an entitlement whine, but a note that I don't have a Plan B yet. We'll have to see what I can work out.

Guitar Hero II arrived in my house this week, thanks to the lovely raininva's observance of my birthday. Now, I haven't had a lot of free time on my hands, and even my gaming is scheduled by priority these days, but ya gotta take some time out of the day to hold a plastic guitar in your hands and rock out to Cheap Trick, The Pretenders, and David Bowie. (I think some of our guests approved more of the Motley Crue and Danzig tracks, though.)

The game's got a bit more realism than I'd like, though - Rain and I are developing blisters on our fret and strumming fingers.

The book - very little going on. I worked out some background changes to my universe which will allow for more sensible plotting and better conflict, but I'm still not real sure what the ending's going to be. Clearly, this isn't going to be done by the end of the month, but then I'm not that worried; I never expected it to. (The base universe is one I created round about 6th grade. It's weird making changes to something that's been mostly static in my head for 20-odd years.)

I have several episodes of Torchwood in my hands, but I haven't finished watching the 2006 Doctor Who season - in fact, as of last night, I'm behind the SciFi Channel's broadcast (it's sitting on the DVR). Since I'm reliably informed that the series opener of Torchwood spoils much of the end of the Doctor Who season, this means I'll have to wait a while longer to get my Captain Jack fix.

Apparently, Rising Star went extremely well this year. Kudos to Cathy and all how worked so hard to pull it off. I think many excellent decisions were made this year, and it bodes well for the future of the con.

I'm burning DVD data discs tonight in a desperate attempt to find clear space on my hard drives.

Some cool things about Technicon 23:

Giving rattrap his combined holiday present for the next several years.
Playing the WoW board game with jsciv, meiran, and candidevoltaire; then buying a copy.
A copy of The Heroic Trio from kittykatya.
Opening the wrong door and accidentally joining this year's Vile Skit.
Being practically the only character in vileone's LARP that was exactly what he said he was: no more, no less.
Friday dinner seated between Dwight, raininva, and Christy.
Friday night panels that went Most Excellently. (Some details soon in a filtered post, heh heh.)
A Vile Script that forced me to wrestle with rainbowsaber. (Oh, shucks.)
Helping southernsinger perform "The Dragon & The Lady" for Holly Lisle.
Late Saturday dinner and great conversation with meiran.
Thanks to trenn, chown -R us:us yourbase.
Frequent backrubby morale- and energy-boosts from shrewlet.
Two boxes full of new reading material from the Auction.
Cool artwork from kittenchan and ranchonmars.
It's my 20th Technicon.

-----

Some less-cool things about Technicon 23:

It's my 20th Technicon.
Not enough time to be in Whose Con Is It?
Long drives from and to Norfolk.
Not enough quality time with many friends.
My lousy Simon Cowell imitation.
A body that gave out too early on Saturday night. (For once, stomach issues rather than exhaustion.)
Our air mattress developing a hole.
Not enough time for after-con dinner in Blacksburg. (But a good one with Bert & Meche in Salem.)

-----

I'd call TCon 23 a success, for my part. Well done, nius, and thanks for the good weekend!

Been away for a while, again. December was a rough month for me; one of the high points was the sinus infection that kept me feverish, nauseated, and flat on my back for all of Christmas weekend. On the other hand, raininva trumped her Valentine's Day gift to me with an even more geeky present: a 30GB iPod video. Dang, but that thing is small. It's full of anime and British SF right now, but even with video-on-the-go I never have time to watch anything right now.

Back in April, I barely resisted a rant about SF fans and reviewers. However, this review of the "Starship Troopers" novel pushed the rant to the surface again.

( Rant follows... )

Busy life these days... I haven't been taking time to slow down and write lately. I'm hoping to do more of that this weekend.

Went to Rising Star last weekend, and had lots of fun. I showed off the new Utilikilt on Saturday, and it went over quite well, though I have to think more carefully about the process of sitting down while I wear it. raininva and I scored over 20 PS2 games for around $100 or so at the auction - of course, lord knows when I'll play any of them. With WoW on the computer, I have to poke myself to make time for my new copy of We (Heart) Katamari.

I missed meiran, ranchonmars, and madwriter... maybe I'll see some of you at Marscon, and if not, there's always T-Con.

We listened to the audiobook of "So You Want to Be A Wizard" on the way up and back. The narrator does good work with the voices, I'd recommend it. We bought it from iTunes, and while I understand this is not Apple's idea, the process of getting the audiobook onto an MP3 CD for my car player was unpleasant. I hate the freaking music industry.

Three movies I want to see soon... Serenity, Mirrormask, and Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I haven't been to see a movie in a while - no idea if I'll make it to any of these.

I've been offered a ride to VTSFFC Halloween, and heard about another H'ween party in Richmond I'd like to go to, but either way, Rain can't go because of her work schedule. This bites in great measure. OTOH, Trans-Siberian Orchestra is coming to Newport News in November, and that I might be able to see! There's something about "Xmas Eve / Sarajevo" that makes me tingle when I hear it for the first time every season... it's so angry and beautiful at the same time. Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend" is the same way.

Tried "Second Life" last night. Lousy framerate and poor responsiveness were my first impressions... and this is on a Mac that does WoW quite tolerably. We'll see if I go back.

More on my mind, but I gotta go to work.

Happy seventh anniversary to my beloved wife raininva!

I don't know what the traditional seventh anniversary gift is, but it probably has nothing to do with the gifts Rain and I got for each other (both of which can likely be viewed at Rising Star).

I love you, Rain!

I've always liked Niven's Laws. I don't slavishly agree with them, but they are an excellent source of topics to ponder.

This leads to the fact that I've just deleted a lengthy rant about SF/fantasy fans who, despite entreaties from their favorite authors that they start thinking for themselves, are still want to be told what to think and what to believe. The only thing we humans got that the rest of the animal kindgom didn't is a more complex brain. It's way past time that we as a race consider trying out some of its higher gears, just to see what happens, you know?

( Ok, wow, Technicon report, cool. )