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I finally gave in and bought a couple of shows from TMBG’s online store. Choosing was difficult. I’ve been afraid to even start buying these at all, because once the seal is broken it’s hard to tell where I’ll stop. But since they don’t seem very keen on actually performing in North Carolina lately, I figure the money can come from the tickets I’m not getting a chance to buy.

Speaking of willpower, I flew through Peasant’s Quest yesterday. Now I kind of wish I’d dragged it out to last longer. But I ended the game with 14 points left to earn, so I’ll have to go back and find what I missed. Anyway, it made me wax nostalgic for Hero’s Quest.

Speaking of hero games (I’m on quite the segue roll today, aren’t I), City of Heroes refuses to play nicely with my graphics card. Curses! Must… justify… upgrade…!

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Just today I caught the preview of the upcoming Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series. Holy Zarquon’s Singing Fish, I am physically incapable of waiting 52 days for this. My higher brane functions will be totally consumed with anticimpatience in, oh, three minutes ago.

In other news… My fencing class is now on break for the rest of the summer. Beth, our coach, applied for a job in Pennsylvania, and if she gets it I really hope the class continues to be as much fun. We all got together for dinner on Tuesday, and Beth had printed out a little award certificate for each of us. Mine was “most improved.” I’m not sure that’s true, but it made me feel good.

Work promises to be much more meetingful for the next month. Our only other technical writer will be away on his sabbatical, so I’ll be attending meetings in his stead in addition to my own normal meeting load. Thankfully, our actual projects are at kind of an ebb, so the timing is pretty good.

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I have a longstanding moratorium on MMORPGs, mostly driven by the knowledge that they would be something of a black hole for my free time. Star Wars Galaxies has been a temptation since its debut last year, but I think if anything’s going to send me over the edge, it’ll be City of Heroes. I’ve always had great fondness for comic book superhero stuff, the kind of adoration that forgives grievous crimes against logic and sometimes good taste. This is the genre that fuels most of my occasional nostalgia for tabletop RPGs, as well.

But if I’m going to spend the time (and subscription money) on this, I think I’d enjoy it more playing in a group with people I already know. So, dear readers, do any of you play either of these games already, or are you interested in starting?

haiku time

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Know what today is?
Just in case you weren’t aware:
World Blog Haiku Day

Not doing that much
Just sitting, barely moving
Still sticky with sweat

They Might Be Giants
New album eight days away
They’ll pass too slowly

Next Maryland trip
May now be delayed one week
If colleagues consent

This week Laura takes
Step three of medical boards.
I don’t envy her.

Perfectionist’s fear
Growing moment by moment
Yet unjustified

Precision, balance,
Economy of language:
Haiku teaches these.

First Annual Bryceland Wild Plum Festival

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Harvest time is winding down for the wild plum tree that is the centerpiece of our front yard. You can’t take a step under the tree without crushing at least six plums underfoot. We’ve had a bumper crop this year. It peaked over a week ago, when I collected this many plums from it in two sessions of halfhearted gathering:

There are still loads on the tree that continue to ripen, but the majority of plums were pretty concurrent. I wish they were more evenly distributed; it’s basically impossible to use them all before they spoil. So I made some jam with them, which turned out great. I hadn’t done any home canning before, it’s kind of fun. Dicing the plums was pretty time-consuming, but other than that it was easy. We’re also contemplating a wild plum sauce for pork, which will be more of an improvisation. We’ll see how that goes.