...but the time off was much-needed and well-spent. Felt like I got to actually get to know my family again. Strange process, novel writing: it is, in many ways, like living two lives at once. I move through the necessities of my day, I do all I need to do, I answer promptly and properly to the questions that come my way. I do all the things I should normally be doing.

But at the same time, I'm perpetually living someplace else, in this world that doesn't exist, with people who don't exist except in my mind. It's a writer's cliche, it's been said a thousand times before, but it's true. The number of times Jen and I have been having a conversation where I will blurt out, "oh, you know what Atticus has to do next? He has to go back to Turkey, that's what he has to do!" and she'll blink at me and then ask if I've heard a thing that she's said. And I have, and I can tell her that, yes, I will take Elliot to gymnastics after I pick up Dashiell from art camp, or whatnot. Hopefully, this is the closest I'll ever come to having MPD.

Andrew and I drove back from the coast yesterday, and while normally we spend the most of these drives in an elaborate post-mortem of the holiday's gaming and toss around ideas for future stories-slash-complications-slash-rewards (the game of the moment is AEG's defunct 7th Sea, as opposed to its open-license d20 conversion Swashbuckling Adventures; the campaign is about a year old at this point, with perhaps a handful of actual sessions under its belt, and it's as fine and rewarding a game as we've played for many a year, now. Just finishing up a visit to Avalon, and everyone had a good moment or four.), this time we started talking about the state of baseball.

I'm not a huge sports fan. When I was younger, growing up, I liked football, as in the American game. I have always -- to this day -- loved football, as in the game the rest of the world follows. I was not, growing up, a fan of baseball, due in no small part to an altercation between myself and the game's namesake that resulted in my teeth punching their way through my lower lip (most people would call this "an accident" or "bad luck"; me, I called it aversion therapy (and no, I don't know what's up with all the psych references in this post). Andrew, with his love of the game, worked patiently on me for many years, beginning in college, and about the time we were both at USC, he succeeded in turning me into a fan. When Jen was at the U of O, I was a devoted fan of the Mariners, as well as of the Eugene Emeralds.

I have since soured considerably on baseball. And I see no signs of this changing, frankly. Talking about Barry Bonds a year back with a colleague of my father's, the point was hammered home. The gentleman said, "do you really think it's ever been any different than it is now? That this is new?" As if that explains, or justifies, or excuses the inexcusable. Try applying that attitude to, say, segregation, see if it holds water, asshole. Just because you can't see another way doesn't mean it's not 1) wrong, and 2) that a better way shouldn't be pursued.

Andrew put up a post on his and Christie's blog that, in many ways, expresses my frustrations and disgust with the sport better than I. When Andrew gets angry, he writes very well. Speaking from personal experience, when the man argues, he takes no prisoners. I'm glad he wrote the post, and while it is quite literally screaming into the intervoid, it's worth a read.

Syncronicity is a wonderful thing. jonlaw posted about his long dark night of gaming, or lack thereof, and on this end -- yet again -- it's become impossible to get our group to actually, y'know, meet for a regular session.

Then I see this over at the Wired blog, and am amused. Fair warning, this is gamer-geek speak at its mightiest.

For those wondering about the prolonged radio-silence, I'll be posting in the next week or so a longer explanation as to where I've been, why it's been quiet, and why it'll continue to be so for the next four weeks or so.

Cheers!

...can you walk the walk?

The inanity surrounding nookie in Mass Effect has well played out by now, but I'm slow, and only just encountered this.

( Adam Sessler Soapbox from January 28th, video beneath the cut. )

I'm liking G4 more and more these days, and Sessler and Morgan Webb are just two of the many reasons. I like G4's exuberant, gleeful immaturity (and I really do mean that as a wonderful thing -- there's a reason my 8-year old son believes that "butt" is the funniest word in the world. He's right. It is. Just say it aloud. Go on, say it. Say it six times in a row.) and I like their ability to take seriously those things that I'd like to see given their fair shake. C'mon, they've got Blair Butler regularly reviewing comics.

And while Unbeatable Banzuke isn't Ninja Warrior (suffering, as it does, from the lack of All Things Nagano), it is thoroughly entertaining in much the same "how do they DO that?" way.

Back to Mass Effect. G4 also has this little tidbit about the new DLC for the game. I'd be very interested in seeing BiowWare continue providing this kind of downloadable content as a bridge between this first game and the sequel.

Back home from the land of Disney. A good time was had by all, but most importantly, by my sister, for whom the trip was both a celebration and a well-earned reward. My sister is 40, had hip replacement a couple months back, and has Down's Syndrome. Disneyland was good for her.

As I said a couple posts back, I finished playing through Mass Effect, and I quite liked the game, with a handful of reservations. Spent a lot of time thinking about it over the last week or so. What follows is a somewhat disjointed, and probably poorly-considered, evaluation of the game as held to my admittedly ridiculously high standards. There be spoilers for the game ahead, fair warning, though I did try to keep them to the minimum.

( Long version here. )

Quick version:

Good game. A step in the right direction. I highly recommend it.

Family's down with a cold, which is another example of bad timing, as we're supposed to head to Anaheim (and fair warning, you follow this link, you'll need a) insulin, and b) to turn down the volume) on Thursday for a Family Get-Together to celebrate my sister's 40th birthday. Hopefully, all bugs will pass before we have to travel.

Finished one script today -- can't talk about it -- and working on squaring away the last of Checkmate 24 tomorrow, so mercuryeric and I can get started on #25 ASAP.

And in other news, I finished my first play-through of Mass Effect this evening. Very good, if flawed, game. I suspect I'll indulge in a long-winded review at some point in the next week or so.

I'm doing an online chat tonight at 5pm PST, ostensibly to talk about Logan's Shadow, but I suspect comics-related subjects will inevitably arise, as well. And, as I'd hate to do a chat where nobody came (mall bookstore signings, anyone?), if any of y'all is free and wants to chime in, your participations would be most welcome.

If you're interested, you should go here to register for the chat. I'll be doing my own typing, so you'll get unfiltered Rucka (well, somewhat filtered, I think there's a profanity prohibition).

Went on vacation. Ten days. Lincoln City, Oregon. Beach. Kites. Crappy fascist miniature golf. Great bowling alley. Friends. Sleep. Sand. Gaming.

All in all, very pleasant, and definitely required. Think I might be able to survive this, now.

Oh. And I finished a script that I'm very happy with. Which tells you I don't really know how to go on vacation, after all.

Bethesda is hit-and-miss for me. When they're on (Morrowind, Oblivion), they're fucking on, and when they're off (Star Trek: Legacy) they make me want to tear out my own eyes and eat them.

But this, this makes my little computer RPG geek-brain start firing off endorphins like Pop Rocks in soda pop.

Seriously happy about this.

I know I owe an entry about the Whiteout set visit. It's coming. The trip to Montreal allowed me to fall behind in a variety of areas, and I've been trying to regain ground without sacrificing the ground already taken (if that makes sense, and I'm frankly not certain it does).

The CheckOut arc is all but completed -- only Outsiders #49 remains to be written; Judd and I are set to break that down tomorrow. I'm also scheduled to have three separate conference calls with three separate editors. And supposedly will have time to do some writing, too.

Yeah...we'll see about that.

However, amidst all this, I had some Xbox 360 time, and at a friend's urging, finished playing the latest adventure of Lara Croft.

And damn if it didn't do that rarest of things, elicit an emotional reaction.

The list of games that can do that to me are sadly short. Namely this one, it's sequel (brilliant until the last act, where the story falls apart because the story is abandoned in favor of making shipping in time for Christmas), and a short list of others. (Anyone remember Planescape: Torment?)

Worth checking the Tomb Raider one out, for those of you interested in that kind of thing.

And now, for the first time in almost six damn months, I'm going to run some D&D for my gaming group!