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Entry tags:
- mario,
- oz,
- sims,
- video games,
- writing
So Little to Do, and So Much Time
The temp job I've been doing since the beginning of March ends this week. I'm not sure what I'll be doing after that, although I do have plans to do some volunteer/internship work and can hopefully go back to the freelance data entry stuff. The job is eight hours plus an hour lunch, and I have to commute to Manhattan and back, so I'm sure it will be nice to save that time. Still, money is also important. I have to admit I feel rather incompetent for being thirty-eight and never really having worked full-time.
I've been playing The Sims 4 recently, since it was on sale and I can't get Sims 3 to load anymore. The newest installment runs much more smoothly, but that's partially because it doesn't have the open world that the previous game did. I wrote a little about how it differs from earlier versions, and mentioned how I like to make Sims of characters I've made up but haven't really done much of anything with. I have drafts of Oz stories that involve a dimensional traveler named Xornom and a witch named Myrena (daughter of Medea from Greek mythology), and while I have details of their backgrounds planned out, I haven't actually written them yet. It seems to be a thing on the Internet for people to come up with their own characters, even if there isn't actually a story for them yet. I was just thinking that it's kind of weird, because interactions between characters are often my favorite parts of a story to write, but I'm a socially awkward shut-in who has no idea how real people generally interact. In fact, I suspect quite a few writers are. So does it come across as phony, or is it one of those cases where nobody expects fiction to be totally realistic? Maybe I'm just writing versions of myself, although I don't buy that because I'd never do most of what characters in my stories do. L. Frank Baum allegedly once complained that his characters wouldn't do what he wanted them to, but I can't recall ever feeling that way. That said, I DO sometimes have trouble figuring out how a character would ever get into a certain situation, but that's not to say they really take control.
I've been working a bit on a follow-up to "Prince Pompadore in Oz," which was published in the most recent issue of Oziana. I already had the main idea, about Evered's father Asha (who is mentioned in passing in The Hungry Tiger of Oz as having retired from ruling Rash to study radio) returning to his homeland and finding his missing wife, but I've expanded it a bit and introduced other plotlines. It's probably going to be pretty short overall, but much longer than my original take. I'm also probably going to take another crack at The Giant Rabbit of Oz soon, but while there's a lot I like about that one, I really can't work out an ending that makes sense to me. I also tend to disappoint myself because I'm always coming up with ideas when I'm in a situation where writing them down is pretty much impossible, then when I actually do have the ability to write I'm too tired or just not in the mood. And how many people read Oz stories, anyway? I also have a bunch of Web browser tabs open that I have to look at, and some games that I want to try out. It's sad when you feel like you have to force yourself into doing something that's only for fun anyway.
Speaking of Oz, the convention in Portland, Oregon is coming up soon, and I might be participating in a panel. I haven't been to one of these in sixteen years, so I'm pretty excited, although I haven't been thinking that much about it because there's so much else going on. I've participated in costume contests at earlier conventions, but didn't have any ideas for this one, or at least none that seemed realistic. I'm not going to have time to do anything else in the area while I'm there, which is kind of a shame, as I wouldn't mind visiting Powell's Books again. I bought a pretty cheap paperback of Grampa in Oz when I was there before.
Today, Beth and I went to the Pride March in Manhattan, and stayed about an hour and fifteen minutes before she started feeling crappy from the heat and lack of sleep, and had to go sit down. What we saw included commemoration of the Orlando shooting, but also some fun costumes.
I'd never seen so many rainbow socks in my life. Honestly, I don't think I knew what I was missing.
And while I don't like being in a crowd, I'm glad it draws a lot of people. After leaving, we ate lunch at the Heartland Brewery at the Empire State Building, then stopped by Nintendo World.
We didn't buy anything, but there were stuffed Boom-Booms that I thought were cool. His female counterpart Pom-Pom was also there, and while I'm not really familiar with the game she was in (Super Mario 3D Land, I believe), I like the idea.
I've been playing The Sims 4 recently, since it was on sale and I can't get Sims 3 to load anymore. The newest installment runs much more smoothly, but that's partially because it doesn't have the open world that the previous game did. I wrote a little about how it differs from earlier versions, and mentioned how I like to make Sims of characters I've made up but haven't really done much of anything with. I have drafts of Oz stories that involve a dimensional traveler named Xornom and a witch named Myrena (daughter of Medea from Greek mythology), and while I have details of their backgrounds planned out, I haven't actually written them yet. It seems to be a thing on the Internet for people to come up with their own characters, even if there isn't actually a story for them yet. I was just thinking that it's kind of weird, because interactions between characters are often my favorite parts of a story to write, but I'm a socially awkward shut-in who has no idea how real people generally interact. In fact, I suspect quite a few writers are. So does it come across as phony, or is it one of those cases where nobody expects fiction to be totally realistic? Maybe I'm just writing versions of myself, although I don't buy that because I'd never do most of what characters in my stories do. L. Frank Baum allegedly once complained that his characters wouldn't do what he wanted them to, but I can't recall ever feeling that way. That said, I DO sometimes have trouble figuring out how a character would ever get into a certain situation, but that's not to say they really take control.
I've been working a bit on a follow-up to "Prince Pompadore in Oz," which was published in the most recent issue of Oziana. I already had the main idea, about Evered's father Asha (who is mentioned in passing in The Hungry Tiger of Oz as having retired from ruling Rash to study radio) returning to his homeland and finding his missing wife, but I've expanded it a bit and introduced other plotlines. It's probably going to be pretty short overall, but much longer than my original take. I'm also probably going to take another crack at The Giant Rabbit of Oz soon, but while there's a lot I like about that one, I really can't work out an ending that makes sense to me. I also tend to disappoint myself because I'm always coming up with ideas when I'm in a situation where writing them down is pretty much impossible, then when I actually do have the ability to write I'm too tired or just not in the mood. And how many people read Oz stories, anyway? I also have a bunch of Web browser tabs open that I have to look at, and some games that I want to try out. It's sad when you feel like you have to force yourself into doing something that's only for fun anyway.
Speaking of Oz, the convention in Portland, Oregon is coming up soon, and I might be participating in a panel. I haven't been to one of these in sixteen years, so I'm pretty excited, although I haven't been thinking that much about it because there's so much else going on. I've participated in costume contests at earlier conventions, but didn't have any ideas for this one, or at least none that seemed realistic. I'm not going to have time to do anything else in the area while I'm there, which is kind of a shame, as I wouldn't mind visiting Powell's Books again. I bought a pretty cheap paperback of Grampa in Oz when I was there before.
Today, Beth and I went to the Pride March in Manhattan, and stayed about an hour and fifteen minutes before she started feeling crappy from the heat and lack of sleep, and had to go sit down. What we saw included commemoration of the Orlando shooting, but also some fun costumes.
I'd never seen so many rainbow socks in my life. Honestly, I don't think I knew what I was missing.
And while I don't like being in a crowd, I'm glad it draws a lot of people. After leaving, we ate lunch at the Heartland Brewery at the Empire State Building, then stopped by Nintendo World.
We didn't buy anything, but there were stuffed Boom-Booms that I thought were cool. His female counterpart Pom-Pom was also there, and while I'm not really familiar with the game she was in (Super Mario 3D Land, I believe), I like the idea.