ohayocon

In about 6 hours we will be on the road to columbus for Ohayocon.

Reading too much may not be so good

First I should let everyone know that Sue had a great convention in CA. However, she is one tired lady. I will be picking her up in Detroit at about 10:30 tonight.

I have been reading a lot of news with Sue gone and it has made me think about subtle changes in the world over the last 50 years. When I was a kid the news was local and short. I would not find out about pollution in Brooklyn, Cannabalism in liberia, that sitting shuts down your metabolism, cutting calorie use severely, that workers today have a lower standard of living than in the past, and on and on.

Today we are bombarded with bad news. That is not the problem, the problem is how we deal with it. Of course people are not as happy today, they know too much and seem unable to do anything about it. What we are missing is training in how to keep that news seperate from our emotional world. All of this information is just facts. I need to be able to deal with them without being angry, scared and even terrified. It wastes time and energy. I may well be able to acquire the knowledge and do something with it, not just sit (slowing my metabolism) and whine.

Strangely enough it helps my mood just writing about this. I am not going to spend time trying to "craft" a discussion, I have a lot of work facing me, so this ramble will have to do.

To do what I want, or what I must?

Every day we face that question. Do we do the things we want to or do we do these things we must.

Life is a compromise, and it always has been. Right now there is a pile of work in front of me that I have to do. I could fill my days with work that must be done, but is that really living? Is the difference between an intelligent being and a rock that the rock always does what it must and the being does at least some of what it wants?

I am not going to be a rock, but there are some duties that I must get done before I can be myself.

Sue has arrived!

She was able to get a flight out of Phoenix this morning, after spending the night in the airport.

I am betting that Sue will be exhausted at the Con. And we have a con next weekend in Columbus. An anime con.

Stuck in Pheonix

Sue is stuck in Phoenix Arizona. Due to heavy winds etc. they have shut the airport down with Sue in it. She is checking to see what her options are...

At the Airport

I set out to take Sue to the airport at 5:30 this morning. I have done so. Now it is 9:40, Mocha Dog has been walked and reassured, now I will lie down and get some more sleep.

I hope the weather will be good out there in San Jose, or, I should hope so, since I am back here in Michigan...

Working Steadily, it is still all uphill.

The only thing I dislike about pushing rocks up hill is that a few always roll right back down the hill. The positive part is that most of the rocks stay on top of the hill. I like to remember the positives.

Sue and I made progress on our internal organization and our ambitious plans for the future. Prioritizing tasks is not straight forward. It has to be balanced between the tasks with immediate results, those with long term value and those that are risky/uncertain.

We are going to arrange for two week periods of seclusion about four times a year so we can consider what has happened, is happening and will happen. It also gives us a chance to enjoy each other. What can I say, I really like my "Sue" time. I think t is the single most important thing in my life.

Here at the Clanhold our kitchen water pipes have finally burst. They have been freezing off and on for 20 years. It was just a matter of time. Right now I am running pans of water downstairs to do cooking etc. We are going to reconsider the kitchen carefully. The pipes go through an unheated, unprotected area currently. We would have to move the sinks to change that, but it is not a simple decision, so we will not be rushed into a bad choice.

Off to help my Mom. Pre-Order DS Standard Sets?

My Mom needs a vehicle for traveling to the Doctors Offices today. That is what I will be doing. Just routine check-ups for her Dialysis etc.

I have started putting together 9 card sets of Universal cards. We have a lot of Universal cards to do. I am hoping to finish setting them up late today and tomorrow. My plan is to make a PDF for each set like the Witchcraft Set, where one page has notes and the second page has the sample cards. It should make it a lot easier for people to decide how many of which sets you want.

We are really hoping that the printing costs of these can be covered by Pre-Orders. We already have a nice Pre-Order for the Witchcraft card set.

I am not sure how fast to release the sets. I have ten Universal sets done so far. How many should I list at a time? How many per month would be reasonable? At $12.00 per four sets on Pre-Order can we do four per month? That would be $48.00 per month to keep up with the Pre-Orders. How many of you would be willing to do that?

I am also wondering about setting up a list of people that would want to "subscribe" to the Pre-Orders. I could send out PayPal Invoices to you that could be paid on-line or by mailing in a check. It would help our cash flow to know what we were doing, and what you would be willing to do.

Thanks, Mark

2010, I am looking forward to it.

This is going to be a good year. I can feel it in the old bones, even if they do act up.

OK, Here is a link to a comment on Fear Mongering. I just thought this was both true and humorous. Take a read.