| Monday
December 18, 2000
Close to the end for nominations for the Orchids and Onions
Parade. I'll write that first week of January.
Spent the weekend throwing stuff away. Including a rat's
nest of cables. So half an hour ago Roberta needed a Mac serial cable to
attach to her printer. Why not? But I am not going to climb in that
dumpster to find one. Tomorrow we will but a new one.
It's amazing how much STUFF I managed to get rid of. With
the help of a neighbor boy we borrowed. I found him a pile of old Star
Trek tech manuals and art books, and a stack of Magic The Gathering cards
I had and no longer have any interest in. As well as money. So he came out
pretty well. And I have filled the dumpster, and there is much more to go.
Plus there is a huge stack of boxes of books that I will give to the new
branch library opening up in a few weeks. And another couple of boxes of
STUFF to go to the local science fiction club. And that's for starters.
Was recovering from my cold. The dust has managed to stop
up my head again, not a surprise. No way to clean up and go through old
book shelves without encountering dust. And dust, and dust.
Long hike today. And there are actually some empty shelves
around my desk. Of course the desk is under 6 feet of paper. I have
started in the far corners and I am working inwards. And the back room,
making room back there for stuff that can age, by throwing out the stuff
that has been aging for years. If I haven't looked at it in a year, it
goes, with exception of a few books and some installation software disks.
And STILL the place is full of clutter. And STILL. Sigh.
I see Jessie Jackson intends to celebrate the inauguration
by demonstrating over the illegitimacy of the new President. Why not? But
whose legitimacy he will bring into question may not be as clear to me as
it seems to be to him.
There is much mail on the public school issue and I will
try to get it up with comments shortly. And it sure is nice to see some
empty shelf space. And I haven't got started good, either...
That Everquest game can generate some
pretty strong feelings. A young friend of mine was reduced to tears when
some older man (halfway across the country, actually; and of course she
never will know his actual name) caused her to be killed and lose about a
week of experience (he pulled a Hill Giant to her location and being a
Monk was able to feign death and cause it to lose interest in him so it
attacked, well, actually me, and my little friend tried to rescue me. She
did, too, but that got her killed, which cost her a lot because she'd been
killed at that level before. But the player was really after her, because
of some misunderstanding they had. Pure bad luck he dumped it on me
because she could have got away if she hadn't tried to save me.)
Actually, that says quite a bit, that a high school girl
could get a war veteran angry enough at her to cost her about a week's
experience -- and that she'd take that loss to help me. It does make one
wonder about these games and the emotions they generate. Some generous,
some not so much so. I suppose my little friend was at fault (with respect
to this man) although she didn't know it at the time; she thought she was
being imposed on. Now her mother is going to make her apologize assuming
she can locate the chap, because she used fairly strong language when he
laughed at her distress at being killed and losing all the time she'd put
in.
Things mean more to the young, I think. Experience is more
intense, and they don't have the control over their emotions and behavior
that they ought to have. Of course that is a part of growing up, to learn
self control, and perhaps it is better that these lessons be learned in a
virtual world, where she can't REALLY be killed by someone who lost his
temper. Sure managed to spoil her evening, though. And I had some
conversation with the chap who caused it, and he's sorry too. A wasted
evening all around for everyone except me: novelists never find such
experiences a waste of time...
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