22 February 2008

Dredging up the Past

Is virtually never a good idea. Yet that's precisely what is happening over at RPGnet - where the off-topic forums are being purged of a lot of old content, but not before current users have a chance (1 week per year of content) to post to, and thus save, conversations of interest to them.

Whilst a lot of memories - good and bad alike - will be waded through, some classic humour re-visited, grand old arguments re-examined and so forth, mostly the past belongs in the past. So far it's not too bad for me; I didn't join those forums until August 2003 and so only 4 months of old contributions come to light so far. The worst is to come, sometimes in graphic and personal detail, as pretty much throughout the whole of '04 I used it to blow off steam from the vast array of crap that was going on in my life (now life is crap but at least it's because nothing is going on, not all kinds of Very Bad Things). Worse, I suspect some of it is the type of gawp-fodder that some folks might - on a bad day - save for shits and giggles. Arguments make for good reading do they not?

I'm hoping not; the idea of the content being deleted appeals, a shedding of a self-made burden in a way. It almost irks that the other denizens of that place might get in the way of this purge.

It's worth pointing out that gods was I an arsehole; injudicious, quick to anger, shit-stirring, prolific, profane and pointless and yet almost censure-free*. Only rarely did I contribute anything of worth - witty, funny, insightful were all in the minority - yet it's also the period when camaraderie and friendships were formed that I do now sometimes miss. Only sometimes. And some continue, which is nice.

*A bit like now, really - except for the prolific part.

17 February 2008

I am getting so fed up...

...with the postal service in Britain.

I am currently having to chase up a missing 'net-ordered item for the second time in less than two months thanks to something going wrong between retailer and consumer. The first order, through Amazon, eventually turned up over a month after it was sent - and 2 weeks or more after the replacement items Amazon sent arrived.

This time the order that has gone missing is the first one I've placed through Abebooks.co.uk - and its for an item that is only getting harder to acquire (at reasonable prices, anyway): The Tome of Salvation for WRFP 2nd edition, which is now out of print. The order was placed and processed 2 weeks ago and I've just had a credit card statement through bearing the charge for this order, yet the book itself is nowhere to be seen.

Hopefully the seller and the site will be able to help track it down, but if they cannot, even if I am granted a refund, I cannot see myself finding the book at a similarly reasonable price again. Gah!

Fucking Royal useless bastards Mail!

16 February 2008

A Guy I Used to Work With (Might Have) Made Music I (Might) Like

This group was just one of the little oddities that my return to using LastFM threw up last week.

Bizarrely although we talked about music more than a few times he never mentioned it and it was sufficiently obscure (which isn't saying much, really, given how far from the ground my ear is) that I had no inkling of it beforehand. It's a pity, 'cause he left a while back and I can't confirm, inquire or otherwise follow this up.

Oh well.

15 February 2008

Silence...

Gods I hate that I never feel awake enough to write here of late. There's been good stuff, bad stuff, worse stuff and more - music, TV and film (albeit on DVD and long after it was new) as well as the good, bad and ugly of recent gaming - that could all have spawned dross to fill this page.

And a whole lot of boring life in between. I am the man to whom nothing happens, and who has not the energy, inclination or disposition to go out and make the interesting occur. I've not had a good few weeks one way or another. I'm going to bed earlier and earlier as a general rule but still sleeping less and less from one week to the next (or so it feels, whether this is true or not).

I'm spending money I don't have again; rediscovering LastFM was not good for my bank balance but has been good for my music library and wellbeing. I haven't been doing much with myself; backsliding into old, unappreciated habits, losing evenings to idling and not entertainment. Yet I have also been reading more than I had been - albeit that my current intake is really low quality throwaway writing; the promise of better crafted words in the near future is there too. I've not heard from people; I've not contacted many.

Mostly I just want to sleep, and bemoan the perceived lack of options beyond these four walls. Well, I don't want to do the latter, but end up doing it anyway. More sleep would be very good though: perhaps if I got enough then things might look brighter. I'm rambling for something to do... I can't bring myself to care to much about anything lest I just get fed up with how things are portrayed in media, how stupid talking heads can be or other such. My patience is thinner than ever, and my self loathing (what a great word loathing is, by the way) is not quite at an all-time high, but not far off.

It's time for bed.