Merry Christmas!

Enjoy, Celebrate and think well of your fellow man.

A new year has begun and I'm behind

The truth is I'm going to enjoy my last couple of days as a free man and get back to work monday.

I can say that despite my many complaints about overwork, food experiences and the effects of age, I am thankful for the friends and fellow gamers that I have. I'm damn glad to be alive and to know all of you. I wish there were an easy way for all of us to see each other more.

I have been spending some cuddle time with Sue, Mocha and Mac, and enjoying the hell out of it.

I have also started putting information on Susan's new 2d6 role-playing system. Actually it is a tweaking of the DS system. The blog is here. I will get it on the main links page soon.

Christmas Eve is over

Sue and I spend the Christmas Eve day together. It is our holiday. Christmas Day is the family day. It gives us one private holiday and one public holiday.

We started the morning with the purchase of a new Nero Wolfe book to listen to and a wonderful french toast breakfast. The french toast had butter and confectioners sugar. It is amazing how good the food is when Sue cooks it and we eat it together. I know she and I have been together a long time, but I find myself fascinated by her. The book we got was Death of a Doxy and it is really a good one. The Nero Wolfe audio books are better than either the radio shows or the TV shows that show up. The TV shows are very pale imitations at best. Michael Prichard does the audio and he is true to the original Rex Stout stories.

As the day went on we spent a lot of the day simply relaxing together with our eyes closed listening to the audiobook. There is something special about spending quiet time with one you love. I think that because we spend so much time talking about projects, politics and plans that being able to share silence is romantic, but I think its best to leave that part out of the days pleasures.

We got an organic chicken to share and filled it with stuffing. The flavor of old fashioned chicken baked slowly is astounding. We will be eating chicken happily for the next couple of days. Mocha and Mac, our pack members/pets got a good portion of the leavings. Boy were they excited. Afterwards they both laid down on either side of us and slept. Fun stuff. A pack relaxes.

For desert we had home cooked brownies with vanilla ice cream and chocolate. The whole thing just melted in the mouth. It is the first time we tried this as a desert, and it will go on our regular menu as a food.

We spent most of the evening in quiet meditation together and I feel rested this morning, which is probably a good thing because soon we will be dashing madly from family house to family house today. We will be stopping at home to eat between trips. I'm afraid that we will be skipping the family meals and eating our food instead. I hope no ones feelings get too hurt, but the modern foods just don't measure up.

Well, off to the days activities.

It was the Sunday before Christmas...

As it happens we are now on the Winter Solstice. During the previous week and next week I will be honoring this venerable holiday. It works out nicely that the modern Christmas celebration happens to match up with the old Winter Solstice. I am guessing this is not an accident.

I have always had the desire to tie the Stormlands Holy days to the four Solstices and Equinoxes of our own calendar. Since DS is a social game it would be fun to be able, both as players and GM to know know the general world happenings going on behind the characters adventures. I am doing some thinking out loud here, so don't quote me.

Winter Solstice Dec. 21st, celebrations Dec. 14th to 28th.

Jan 30th to Feb 8th Mid Winter celebrations.

Spring Equinox Mar 20th, celebrations Mar. 16th to 27th.

May 1st to May 9th, Mid Spring celebrations.

Summer Solstice June 20th, celebrations June 14th to 27th.

August 2nd to August 10th, Mid Summer celebrations.

Fall Equinox Sept. 22nd, celebrations Sept. 15th to 29th.

Nov. 2nd to Nov. 10th, Mid Fall celebrations.

There, I have eight Stormlands celebration periods with earthly dates. Now I am going to have to go back and search Sue's notes for the historical celebrations that I can put into these. My first thought is that each of these times would have several special days within them. Some still ongoing and some historical.

These would represent the eight times of the year that the clans would collect tribute and offerings.

I know that each of the Dragon Clans had a "dawning" celebration that celebrated the first dawning, or creation, of their clan.

Jikadell, Elethay and the local cults each have an "emergence" holiday commemorating the emergence of their diety. Elethay's emergence would be during the Spring Equinox. (Elethay, charity focus) Jikadell's emergence would be during the Fall Equinox. (Jikadell, Sin offerings focus)

The Valarian Deathday Massacre Mourning and the Jikadell Freedom day would be during the Summer Solstice.

Sue has just shown me a negotiation she is in for Character cards and Sponsored cards. Looks like it is time for me to get to work on those sections on the web. So I will post this and get to work.

You should comment on the "celebration/calendar" ideas.

Just Working

I am distracting myself from Troubles death by getting some work done that needs doing.

I have gotten our e-bay store rebuilt, now I need to get the Magic Art Proofs up there. The Link to the e-bay store is here.

I am also planning to get the next few pages of the Gatekeeper comic up today. Hopefully the Template will allow this to be fairly easy. I will stick the comic link in right about here. I need to get a site map built for the site so you can go to particular pages.

Sue is still up north and we are using her iphone and e-mailing to stay in touch. I am surprised at how comforting it is to me to have contact with her. I am also keeping my AIM open (markharmon@mac.com) when I am up and while she is up there, so I am available by that one too.

My Online contacts:
Skype: markeharmon
AIM: markharmon@mac.com
Google Talk: marksmysteries@gmail.com
Jabber: meharmon@livejournal.com
twitter: markellisharmon