Day 67 - spooky scary fun

 

Day 67 Halloween!

I really do not understand haters of this party day. Pagan holiday, really? Half the christian holidays are simply adapted pagan festivals. Let the kids have some fun.

This got me thinking - I can say that some people have heads stuck up their head and care too much about what others are doing. But that would be a lie, it's not just some people. There are assholes living on every street in every settlement on earth. People spew bullshit much more often than they shit. There are entitled dickheads everywhere you go. If there were two people left on earth, even if they were on opposite sides of the planet, one of them is likely to have strong opinions on what the other should or shouldn't do.

Day 66 - about things that happen in the dark

 

Day 66, death to all Jedi! 

 

Our new cats are growing well. They are constantly hungry, curious and playful. That's a good sign. Very good sign.

I bought a historical leather shoes, in a style from XIV century. For a special historic-themed fencing tournament. I bought it with hard cash, exchanged for boots in some half-forgotten parking lot behind heavy construction works. It felt like buying drugs to be honest.

My accountant-as-a-service got pissed at me for giving her negative review in anonymous questionnaire. Something doesn't add up.

Day 65 - when ideas collide and cooperate

 

Day 65

 

 Today I grabbed a book from a shelf in a shop. It contained quite a lot of things I already knew. Book was about magic, occult stuff. Big book in dark binding, surprisingly written upside down (or the cover was upside down, hard to say). I barely skimmed through it as I was short on time. It had tree of life (always a classic) and five elements with comparison between western and eastern philosophies.

I decided to download the book from internet and check it out. It it's worth the ink on it's pages, I will buy the physical copy.

Day 64 - a thesis on strength or toughness

 

Day 64, a round number!

 

I'm apparently quite tough and strong. Not my personal opinion, in fact I spent most of my life detesting concepts like bodybuilding and getting in shape. I considered it vain and smarts to be the main focus for me. I was also quite a weak and cowardly child so that may have been the reason.

Nowadays I'm training fencing. My wife says I'm stronger than average person, but she compares me to husbands of other horse-riding women, which may be skewing her "average" a little.

My physiotherapist seen my latest bruise today, the one that was a size of a plum (and a colour too) on the first day. She was quite surprised I was able to walk with this. Also commended my pain resistance. I simply replied with "I've been through some shit". I'd say I've lived through quite a lot of pain back in the day, so anime-level of bruises is nothing to me.

Day 63

 

Day 63

 

When designing a game for my RPG+Writing project I ended up just brainstorming with my wife on blackboard. Or black-wall, I guess. We put blackboard-like wallpaper on one of the walls. Kids love it and we use it frequently.

 

Basics are simple - you roll d12 for every action. Roll to hit, to use skill etc. You add any relevant modifiers and voila.

Day 62 - catty business

 

Day 62

 

Second day with new cats. For now they hide under the couch most of the time. They had some fun at night, I guess. We learned they prefer to shit and pee under the cover, so we covered litter boxes a bit. Cats seem to consider adults okay, dog acceptable and kids to be scary monsters. Can't blame them myself. As soon as emotions fade and kids get used to cats, cats should have more freedom. 

Day 61 - new cats and old foes

 

Day 61

 

Today my home grew bigger by two little kittens. Whether they will assimilate well or not remains to be seen, but I hope they will like their new place.

Today also someone called me a "dick" in the middle of the street, while passing by. An old fool who likes to pin on me his every problems without proof, who even resorted to threatening me once. I noticed too late to respond, as he wasn't really someone I have time for.

They say never to wish someone bad fate. However if something bad happened to him, I wouldn't be unhappy about it.

Day 60 - doing the same things, expecting different results

 

Day 60

 

Training hurts. Hurts like hell, but I've had worse. Is it strange that I find it fun both when I succeed and when others do? I like getting hit in cool moves just as much as hitting with them myself. 

 

 But muscles hurt afterwards. Hurt a lot. No matter if it's rapier or long-sword, I feel like my whole body just has enough of my stupid ideas. 

I wonder if there is something wrong with me sometimes. I get hit, I use various ointment against bruises, and then I come back for more. Despite the bruises, muscle pain and the fact that I usually have to spar against silver medalist of my country who is way over my skill level. It feels like Sisyphean Work.

 

And yet it brings me joy. 

Day 59 - but why did you do this?

 

Day 59

 

Today's training left me frustrated. I just can't seem to grasp it no matter what I try. I swing too slow, keep my guard too close, can't synchronise my footwork with strikes. Funny - I bet few years ago I would just give up.

I often feel like live out of obligation. Like I cannot give up because I'm already obliged to continue. For example I cannot just give up on fencing now, I'm already signed up for a fencing competition in January, not even counting that I still have four training left on my pass (lessons are sold in a set of ten). Same feeling with work - I would gladly take a week off but I'm currently in the middle of important task.

Is there really anything that I want, any goal or achievement I strive for? I rarely feel like anything is worth my time, I do stuff because others have told me to or I have a need for something specific. I kinda live like I do shopping - with a list of what is currently needed.

Day 58 - what you meet in the night

 

Day 58

 

The most interesting meeting happened to me today. My boss requested a generic 1on1 meeting, something that didn't happen for like a half a year now. Naturally I got nervous, full on "fight or flight" reaction. When the meeting happened I was surprised to learn it was a meeting to apologise to me for his earlier misdemeanour. 

This doesn't change my plan to leave in the slightest, but it was curious exchange for sure.

Driving at late evening I also met a fox and large group of wild boars. So interesting meetings all around!

Day 57 - a puzzle for the ages

 

Day 57

 

Some days I yearn for big spaces full of people. For apparent anonymity of shopping centres. I could walk through their long halls lost in thought, or mindlessly browse through shop after shop without buying anything. There is something relaxing in allowing yourself to be flooded with constant barrage of scents, sounds or images but without focusing on any single of them. Like swimming in a sea without focusing on water. 

Anyway I'm working on translating my second book. I'd say I'm a bit above 10% done. Damn, I wrote a big thing this time. Not as big as my in-D&D-game story though. That one was gargantuan.

Writing stories using game systems as a base feels amazing to me. I get to be both dungeon master that prepares the world and challenges within, and a player trying to optimise any chance of failure out of their character. With this writing becomes a bit of a puzzle game, as both author and characters are limited by the constraints of the world. D&D is amazing for this, as it has all the possible rules. You have information what characters can learn and how, you also have extensive bestiary showing what monsters can do.

I will probably try to create a fantasy world and RPG system for my next big writing project.

Day 56 - memories are me

 

Day 56

 

Reading through various SCP stories I found the ones that mess with human memories to be the scariest.

 

Memories are, in my opinion, half the person. If I lost my memories tomorrow it would be almost the same as if I died. Just imagine knowing not who you are, what skills or training you possess, who are your family or friends. Would skills even persist? Is knowledge part of memories or separate? Or perhaps you would know nothing, but had instant perfect intuition and a sense of de-ja-vu as soon as you start doing your old job or hobby?

 

The scariest part in my opinion is not about dying in non-physical sense, but in being unable to trust your mind. We are all used to the fact that memories get mudded and prone to error over time, but what if you suddenly forgot all about something more core to your person. Like forget where you live or who you love or forget your kids.

Scary. At least when you have alzheimer at old age you know your body and mind is failing, because you are old. Something like this being possible every day is scary as hell.

Day 55 - it's a kind of magic

 

Day 55

 

What the cards and runes said today? Blank expression, please stop asking questions. You already know enough.

 

Runes have blank rune, often associated with meaning "this is all we shall say, change topic or leave us be". There is no blank card in tarot though, only increasingly frustrated answers.

Cards can be arranged in 78! different orders. Math says this number is crazy big, like every person on earth could shuffle for every second our species existed and we would still not exhaust all orderings. Some thus believe that engine of reality aligns tarot ordering with the truth. That's pretty much all the logic on tarot divination. Runes are a bit different. There the idea is - when you reach to bag of runes and pull out some of them, you always pull exactly those that you were destined to pull, and can learn from them what you were destined to learn. There is no ordering, no meaning behind each rune in your hand. Just the fact that you pull out the answer, because you pull out the words. Runes in the end are words, and this is why blank rune exists - because silence is also a part of conversation. 

I wish to one day be better at this. At divination, rituals, spells, charms. At magic.

Day 54 - irreplaceable

 

Day 54

 

It wouldn't be far from truth to say I hate my current job. Work is fine, people are awful. A web of constant lies and misinformation is stressing me out. Every meeting I hear lower management tell lies to middle management, about everything being better than it really is. Middle management literally figures out what upper management wants to hear, and then filters and mangles the data and statistics until they fit. I hate it, it gets on my nerves.

I decided to quit. However I'm not gonna just fade away like my co-worker does. No. I'm gonna finish everything till the end of November, so that everything important runs on my passwords and my knowledge. Then I'm out. My co-worker is already easily forgotten and rarely included in meetings and knowledge sharing, replacing me will be a tough job.

Also my wife told me that, considering power of the words, I should stop saying I have to endure till end of November, instead calling it finishing everything up by the end of November. Sounds kinda sinister but I like it. Like mafia finishing the clean-up of witnesses...

Day 53 - I need a nekomancer

 

Day 53

 

Today we got visited by a person with a cat, wishing to give us this cat, and her daughter... quite clearly aiming to go back home with the cat. Of course she couldn't say that, her family already has eight cats, but it was quite apparent. Dunno if it was her or just new environment, but the "braves of the eight" hid under the bed unwilling to meet any new humans. In the end cat returned home with missy, and my wife agreed for a second chance next week.

 

I don't have high hopes for that. Part of me thinks there will never be another cat quite like my old Garfield. He was a bossy warrior who liked to cuddle on his own terms.

Day 52 - turn back time and redo

 

Day 52

 

I love fencing, I hate dealing with incompetent managers. Wish I could simply come to office with a sword and fight the boss. Sadly I work from home. 

There's a topic that sometimes returns to me and my wife when we have no better stuff to discuss - what would you change if you woke up suddenly ten years ago, remembering all that happened but being stuck in the past as your past self?

We both agree we would probably get together a year or two earlier, maybe even more if our current personality overwrote our past selves. I think I would start fencing earlier, probably a year or two earlier. Most likely right after I become fully independent financially, which happens around the end of my first degree studies.

I would probably not grab Credit Suisse as my first employer in contract office. That ship was sinking faster than a slab of granite. We would probably not buy plot of land after wedding, instead choosing to safeguard our money as gold or something. It was an option we considered back then.

We would not, for the sake of everything that's good and decent, go to Malta for our honeymoon. That place was a fucking disaster full of bugs, smelly trash and homeless beggars. Perhaps we would choose Vienna or Prague instead. In fact we would be glad to forget we ever went to Malta.

All those changes wouldn't change the trajectory of our life much. We would still get together, marry after a year, have two kids and buy our current house. I would still choose contract office instead of normal job when our kids are small, since it takes a lot of bureaucratic burdens off me. We would still have the same hobbies, the same lives. Just a small quality of life changes.

Day 51 - my job here is done

 

Day 51

 

I got an offer to join another project in my contract management company. Which means quite a surprise for my current job folks is on the way.

I've spent a year in this company. Slowly more work was pushed onto me, often stuff not relating to my job description. Management replaced one competent person above me with five idiots and situation started deteriorating even more. I'm currently working as manual tester, automation tester, test architect... but also managing cooperation between teams and escalation of issues arising from it. I coined it mostly as laziness of new guys, but after boss directly above them decided that instead of helping when problem is escalated to him, he will give me coaching tips on how to be better manager... yeah that was the tipping point. That same day I asked for reassignment.

And now the offer is here. Of course it will not be fast, my current company has a month-long notice time before im gone. I'm happy to leave. Yesterday one of managers lied to the boss above him about what other team did for us. They didn't do it, but he claimed we have it. Today morning I asked him to provide the stuff, since he apparently has a better source than me. I know he will not provide, it's not the first time he lied to upper management. 

On the same meeting they even pushed onto me more work, making me all-important to the new project. Cool. Cool... The other tests is so lazy and dismissive that they even questioned if having him work with me (a stealthy question from me, as I know I will have to offload knowledge onto him sooner or later) will add any value.

 

Well... soon they will learn. 

Day 50 - tedious

 

Day 50.

 

I haven't touched translation of my book in a while. Probably because it's a type of work that is dangerously similar to my job. I'm a tester, technically speaking an automation tester but we all know that given the chance employers will shove manual work onto automation tester instead of employing dedicated manual tester. Use a feature, check for errors, pass or fix. This is what I do when I translate my book, this is what I do for a living too. 

Probably this is why I don't have an easy time finding energy and will to do it...

Day 49 - of money and scrolls

 

Day 49 of this log.

Elder Scrolls Online is experiencing deflation, it's economy is crumbling and the whole case is fascinating!

 

let me start with a little background. Most of the MMORPG games experience a strong inflation, because having players literally print gold by doing gold-awarding activities is perfect way to have hyper-inflation. Money for those rewards comes from thin air and never runs out, kinda like government printing bills. This is why every MMO has some kind of gold sinks, places where money leave the economy vanishing back into thin air. 

 

Elder Scrolls Online has extremely strong gold sinks due to it's decentralised economy. In most MMOs players have access to centralised trading post where they can buy and sell goods between themselves. That's not the case for ESO. In this game every guild has it's own trading post and guilds can buy one NPC trader each via an auction, to serve as access point to their trading post for the players outside guild. Those auctions happen every two weeks and depending on location such NPC can go for few thousand to even over a million of gold coins. Every two weeks trading guilds together flush down the toilet literal mountains of gold.

But that's not all! When you want to sell something you have to pay 1% of it's listing price up front, and 7% os the listing price is split between game and guild when item is sold. This means every time you sell something you loose 8% of it's value/... though 3.5% goes to your guild so not all is lost. Guild will most likely use this money on NPC auctions. Aaaand! If your item doesn't sell within 15 days, it's returned to you and you have to list it again. 

What ESO lacks though is material sinks, game mechanics that consume vast amounts of materials. Crafting is one and done - once you have your dream set, you only repair it... with gold! Travelling consumes gold, upgrading your horse consumes gold, houses cost gold etc. Most resources are now vendor trash that nobody will ever buy and all the others loose around 8% of it's value monthly.

Resources a plenty, money scarce, deflation stalling any economic activity. Many traders stopped selling because prices are racing to the bottom, while many clients stopped buying because waiting just a week or two will lower the price for them. This attitude causes prices to drop even lower and gold to become even more powerful.

Fascinating!

Day 48 - what gets barked on in the night

 

Day 48

 

What gets barked on in the night? Seriously. My dog woke me up in the later part of the night, barking at something in the nearly pitch black darkness outside. Solar street lamps already ran out of power, and there was only a field of rape there.  I grabbed my glasses but couldn't see a thing. Other dogs in the neighbourhood also made noise. What the hell was it?

I moved my outside trash bins away from home, chained them up to the fence posts so wind won't topple them when empty. They look like a pair of chained mimics now. Perhaps I should decorate them somehow... 

In the meantime I'm trying to rest. My wife and kids ain't helping with that.

Day 47 - with a throw of the dice

 

Day 47

 

How much randomness is acceptable in an RPG? That's the question I've been thinking about recently, after my friend complained that in DnD the core 20-sided die holds more power than skills of the player character. On the other hand another system I know and like - Savage Worlds is getting frequent slag for being too easy. Rolling a 4 or higher on either of two dice, one of which is always a classic d6, is not hard. In fact even if the other die is the smallest (d4) it still gives players a 62% chance of success on a skill they are the worst in. 

So where is the middle ground? Well, certainly in D&D it's randomness is also a part of design philosophy. When deciding on Challenge Rating for a monster you are advised that players should be hitting the monster at least 60% of the time and vice versa. Because it's boring to roll the dice and hear "you miss" too often. And because of HP system it's tedious in D&D to have battles with many monsters. Players will never feel that their skills improved if their enemies improve with them (kinda like in Skyrim). You can't feel improvement of +5 to hit if all your enemies got +5 to defense at the same time. 

Philosophy in Savage Worlds is completely different. Important characters get to roll two dice and pick the higher results because story is about them doing stuff, not failing to do stuff. So you are expected to succeed at about everything as a hero, but your nemesis is supposed to do the same. Only minions, servants, mooks and goons don't get the second die. They fail and die easily, because story is not about them. When you put a tough monster in front of the party, all it takes is one wound to kill them. Sometimes though this boss monster poses a question - how to do that one wound? Savage Worlds doesn't care about balance, enemy might as well double the power of your biggest fighter. However non-combatants in Savage Worlds can help the warrior in many ways, giving them a chance to do that one decisive attack. And skewed towards success system means that this chance they all worked for will most likely succeed.

Still the question stands - should dice of character sheet determine success more? Should players feel stronger with levels, or should they always meet challenges equal to their strengths? I think it would be fun to have system, perhaps a simple one, that allows for both.

Day 46 - there was something about desks and minds, but mine is empty

 

Day 46

 

Fencing lessons today. I fought a champion in duel, she was clearly better. We fought till 10 points or 10 minutes.  Ended up loosing 3 to 8. My master still was proud, saying that some people fought her for much longer without scoring a single point.

I have some more inspiration for my stories. Tomorrow is writing day so perhaps I will be able to write something good.

I also have some world-building ideas, but no plot for them yet. Perhaps later, when I flesh it out enough.

Asian concepts like traditional chineese medicine and meditation really work for me. I'm trying to learn more about them since their effects are something I can attest to. Of course I don't expect them to work for everyone, my wife is a prime example. Nothing is absolute, except nothing.

Day 45 - this fucking life

 

Day 45.

Wednesday.

Sword training.

 

Also I'm mentally down. Too much of everything at once for me. They are making our changing room but what they found is that electric cables in this house are a gargantuan mess. Can you imagine all three cables in power source to be positive? I don't know how to better describe it in english, not my native language. And what's worse it seems two rooms now share a light switch. Because it wasn't fucked up enough already...

My master wants me to go to some more serious competition. Why?! I'm not ready! I'm a disaster with a sword, usually winning by doing stuff outside what fencers might expect. And to boost my confidence I'm supposed to do it in a history-themed clothes... Yeah because I didn't feel like I'm unfit enough.

Change of diet doesn't help to calm me down. Another salad please!

My wife said, with seriousness and conviction "this month we shall rest a bit, no big events". This conviction of her lasted for 10 hours, until she got invited to a horse riding event with several competitions, big campfire etc. Yeah, this is my life now I guess...

Day 44 - It's a kind of magic

 

Day 44 of NPC-like log.

 

Sometimes while writing fantasy I wonder what I would do having magic. My first thought is usually that I would murder someone. I'm prone to anger and impulsive under stress. My current solution is a training dummy in garden getting hit as hard as life hits me. Thus I'm pretty sure if I had magical powers I would probably kill someone who angers me unless either I get some real self-control or magic cannot do such thing.

 

Otherwise I would probably seek a job that uses my magic best or hide my magic depending on attitude of others towards it. I bet my wife would think up several ideas on what can be done with any power I might have.

 

Nevertheless - magic. Fun thing, usually does what people wish was easy and possible. But eventually most magic becomes easy and possible thanks to technology, or even new spells are developed because technology outshines magic in specific aspect. For example take notice that long distance communication magic was uncommon in books, comics and movies until mobile phones got invented. If technology can do it, magic can't be worse, right? 

I think such a concept would be extremely cool in fiction. A setting where magic is better than technology in some aspects of life, but much worse than tech in some others. It would be quite cool to see mages being able to stop bullets with a wave of their hand, but shooting back is still more efficient using actual gun.

Day 43 - minor change gives major effect... and vice versa

 

Day 43, joke is over for now... 

 

 Perhaps I should scale down my ambitions for my first serious game in a long time. 3D MMORPG would most likely be something I can do, but slow grind of making all the assets is bound to make me give up all too soon.

Perhaps some flappy-bird lookalike about flying for my daughter? She really likes flying mounts in Guild Wars 2. 

In the meantime I learned I need to dial down on cholesterol. My wife bought me some pills and we subscribed to lunch boxes. For now it's just replacing burgers and pizzas with salads. Not much of a change for me, food is food most of the time. 

The part I really like about Halloween is how many monster or witch related arts are being posted. I'm a hoarder, collecting cool pics from the internet. Currently over 2 GB os images saved, and it's just because I never carry them over from previous PCs.

Day 42 - life is like a...

 

Day 42! The answer to the most important question is here! (and if you don't get that joke - shame on you!)

 

I am certainly a person of success. After all, how many thirty-one-years-olds can boast to have a good job, own house, wife, two daughters and hobbies? I also have a plot of land, work from comfort of my own home and can train fencing in my garden.

As absurd as it sounds I decided on my job in elementary school... and stubbornly stuck to this choice for more than a decade of education! 

 

I found my wife on Tinder, though we dropped the platform faster than Russian ruble. On our first date I took her to an axe-throwing club because I was so cynical and disillusioned about love I decided that worst case scenario I should have fun. Few increasingly strange dates later we were officially a couple. 

 

My house was bought with a loan, like most people my age. However it's not the first attempt at having house I did. Previously I bought a plot of land, paid for project of my dream house... and proceeded to ditch the idea of living there. I spent a year living in the rural area with my family and decided those areas are not for us. So I bought house in a small town, plot of land will be sold later to pay off huge parts of house loan.

They say every man wants a son. I have two daughters and honestly that's enough. I'm not the type to shove kid into kindergarten and forget it exists for most of the day. Thus having kids is constant work and effort. Demanding and exhausting, but I'm proud of my little mavericks. They have strength, confidence, empathy, curiosity and smarts needed to survive in this world, no matter what they decide to do in the future. 

Between fencing and writing my hobbies work both body and mind. Writing is an old habit, practically and integral part of who I am. Fencing helps me work through my shortcomings. Like being hesitant and overthinking things.

My life is a best life there is! I need no money, no riches or excessive things. I only want more time to enjoy it, and to rest after doing so.

Day 41 - I always choose Triss in Witcher 3

 

Day 41 of NPC-like log.

 

What is really gnawing at me? Is it stress, exhaustion, bad diet or bad habits? Perhaps a bit of everything at once.

Life is tough, doesn't mean it's not worth living. My wife is a living definition of unpredictability, my daughters are embodiment of chaos. My job is way too much dealing with idiots and not enough doing what is specified in contract, while my hobbies are not enough. My diet is whatever is easiest to get, and my habits... ech...

And yet I live. I walk this path slowly but surely grinding my gears into finest dust. Perhaps I shall find balance, or burn out like a little star. What may help me? Chemistry, magic, change? Answer uncertain, try again at a later time.

You know I like the calmer days. A taste of smile, a smell of woods. Grape juice like wine, sun rays like gold, time when time is abundant itself. No hurry, no worry, no stress, no fuss. 

 

I wish those days would return.

Day 40 - every journey starts with an uppercase letter and ends with a dot

 

Day 40! Soon I will reach the answer to everything!

 

Today I decided to include a little homage to shamanic journey in my story. Another short tale from Blackmist Woods.

 

Shamanic journey is a meditation category concept. You enter a meditative state and journey through another world to learn more about yourself and the world surrounding you. My wife does it frequently, I've yet to try. I'm hyper-sensitive to everything that happens in my house so I cannot enter meditative state while kids are doing literally anything except for maybe sleeping, I'm also able to tell what each noisy machine (like washing or laundry) is doing within the house. I found no way to cut this off yet.

I like writing, I always liked it. I may not be necessarily good at it, but it's a hobby I picked up in elementary school and haven't ever stopped since. Back then it was just ink on paper, nowadays it takes digital form. I even managed to publish one of my books! The joy of creation, the feeling of making an entire world with nothing more than words and time. What started as a cheapest hobby for a young boy from poor family is now something I do despite having money to do more expensive things.

Day 39 - eight virtuous vices

 

Day 39 of NPC-like log.

Aaaaand it's good to be back! Fencing lessons are always a blast. Master says I should try to scream more while attacking. "Raaargh!" Well, I'm not the type to scream but maybe he has a point. Other trainees seemed to gain +20% more damage on their attacks, as long as they managed to properly align scream and hit in time. Misaligned seemed to incur debuff to their stability.

I should perhaps train a bit more at home, but the recent rains made my training area quite slippery and unpleasant. Excuses, excuses...

I tried to be alone with my thoughts. They didn't have much to say, instead opting to give me several new ideas for a story. Fun, but not very helpful. Like an idea for demonic society ruled by philosophy of eight virtuous vices - a twist on seven deadly sins, where each of them is turned into virtue by mis-explaining each. Like saying that gluttony means "proper demons keep themselves well sated at all times so that no hunger or thirst may ever inhibit their plans". 

What is love but greed, lust and pride?

Day 38 - leather beats rope

 

Day 38 of NPC-like log.

Kids are tiring, until they tire themselves.

Aftermath of yesterday. My throat is getting better but that wasabi attacked me good, or was that some bacteria/virus? Who knows, I'm not risking it getting any worse so I'm not going to fencing practice today.

Work is overwhelming. As always management knows their priorities only when it's the last moment to set them. Scratch that, they know their priorities only when they come out to bite them in the ass for stalling too long. 

I replaced rope on my scabbard with leather belt. It wasn't easy, especially sewing leather loops on each end. I had to widen holes in scabbard for leather strap to even fit. But now it should work much better.

Day 37 - steel tongues make for soothing sounds

 

Day 37... I guess. 36 got missing somewhere in the timeline.

 

It's curious how little can change the mood. How small things grow in the moment. Or how inconsequential decisions can be important in the context.

 

I took a day off for my daughter's birthday. Took whole family to the ZOO. I think they enjoyed it. I also bought a steel tongue drum for her, seems like a good fit and she really likes the kinda sounds this instrument makes. Very calming sounds.