As my NaNoWriMo 2016 trainwreck ends, I can only look back and shake my head. Honestly, I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Maybe I'll do both; the question then is which to do first. I started the month so pumped that I was going to dive in and start the hardcore work on Project Frying Pan. Then November 8 turned around and whacked me upside the head with said Frying Pan.
With the exception of my early days of battling depression, I have never before experienced such a poisonous month. Depression and anxiety basically dug a hole, threw me in, and then did their business on me. Fortunately, I've had the support and love of my wife, friends, and family to buoy me and I'm going for a medication check up in mid-December.
This past month we also saw a number of people try to turn the gaming hobby and industry into their personal bully pulpits, pushing their agendas through misguided (and futile) petitions and creating "orangelists" of people who offend them. This has further fueled my exile from local fandom and gaming, which started earlier this year. During this time I've done some thinking; I've come to the conclusion that the situation is not entirely one person or group's fault. In a sense, I gave a group of narrow-minded, petty individuals what they wanted by leaving the convention scene. I'm sure my initial griping about the matter was just the icing on the cake for them, and I've spent the past two months - November in particular as things have built up - keeping silent on the matter while trying to get the bile and poison out of my system.
I was personally torn as to whether or not I should address those subjects here in more livid detail. Instead, I sat on my hands and looked at both situations as lessons on why you shouldn't engage monkeys in shit-flinging contests.
Oh, and then, to cap off the gloom of the month, we lost our favorite Shepherd, Ron Glass, and the Grandmaster of the Kai Lords, Joe Dever.
It's December now. I want very much to look at and experience the last month of this year as a season of light in the darkness of winter. I'm entering the month with multiple objectives I intend to complete most or all of before the year is out, in no particular order:
- Complete Project Jasper as I promised Benoist Poire.
- Complete revision work on my GM's reference pack for Beyond the Wall.
- Work with a co-worker and fellow gamer on a project to engage, entertain, and maybe even educate our shelter clients through RPGs.
- Further define the universe and characters of Project Frying Pan via a mix of the Cepheus Engine, Traveller, and D6 systems.
- Complete the necessary research for Project Frying Pan's plotline.
- Make more friends - gaming and non-gaming - and have more fun.
- Pursue River City Shadows in particular and gaming in general with renewed vigor.
In case anybody is wondering, 大象爆炸式的拉肚子 is Mandarin for "the explosive diarrhea of an elephant". Oh, 2016, you're so ironic...
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