It’s done.

I’ve cancelled my Everquest accounts.

I realized this morning that I have not had the slightest desire to play since I installed City of Hereos, and to be honest I hadn’t really done so in the months leading up to that either. Alex hasn’t played on his account in months either, so I cancelled his too. If he asks for it back at any point I’ll get it for him, but I just can’t see the point in spending $26 a month for a game that neither of us is playing.

I feel kind of bad for “abandoning” my friends, some of whom came to the server I play on specifically to play with me, but it really is time to move on. City of Heroes is really more my speed, anyway. I love fantasy, but my love for comic books exceeds even that. Want proof? Go see a movie with me that has a trailer for a super hero movie I’m looking forward to. The words “vibrating” and “bouncy” come to mind.

And hey, let’s face it, it’s a better game. Period.

I’ve been looking back at my recent posts, and I’m starting to realize that there is very little content of consequence in my journal these days. No real drama. No political rants. No tirades against the world or long dissertations about my dreams and aspirations. It seems like I’ve just been using this thing to put out laundry lists of my life in paragraph format, which has to be horrribly boring reading.

I’m wondering why.

Have I become bored with Live Journal, or am I just boring? I keep saying I want to get out more, to do more, but something is always getting in the way. Money is the big one in that arena. As has been the case for a while now, I’m still doing the financial hunker down to get out of debt. It’s largely working. Just last week I sent in the final payment on a credit card in my Mother’s name that I had a balance on. In the same week, though, I ran up a lot on my Staples card. Some of it necessary, some of it not so much. I justified that with the “six months same as cash” excuse, but it’s still disheartening to see a balance go back up after I’ve worked so hard to get it down. I’ve made some large payments to my other cards recently, but I seem to keep finding that I need to dip into them almost immediately to pay for things. Gas. Food. Home repair stuff. Necessary things, all, or at the very least not largely frivolous, but still. I really want to see a large number of zero balances come January 1st, and part of me wonders if that is really going to happen. In the mean time, I’m putting every extra penny I have (and many pennies that I don’t have) into debt reduction, and feeling more and more like we are being cut off from the world as a result. Now the sad thing is that I’m feeling this way while I am leaving the house five times a week for rehearsals. It’s got to be ten times worse for netgoth.

Now I’m sure that some of you out there are thinking “Well, maybe you should spend less time playing City of Heroes!” Especially when you consider the fact that I started this post (and many posts recently) talking about it. I, however, contend that I don’t spend any more time during the week playing City of Heroes than the majority of people I know spend watching television. In fact, it’s probably less. I’m just sitting in front of a different kind of box. Yeah, I can tell you all about Paragon City and how I spent last night beating up zombies and nazis, but I couldn’t begin to tell you what the current hot sitcom is (or if there even is one). I know about a lot of the reality shows, but that is only because of what I read about them online or what people around me tell me. The last thing I specifically watched other than the news was the debate last week, and that was only in the background as I (wait for it) played City of Heroes.

Not only that, but I play it WITH my fiancee. It’s something we both enjoy that allows us to spend time together (and only makes us snap at each other when we are playing really badly). We get to hang out with cavalorn and lucybond. spud plays. My old friends Chris McGinnis and Chris Skivers play.

Good lord. I sound like I’m justifying the invasion of Crete here.

Maybe I’m just trying to justify it to myself.

Or maybe I just need to accept that, more often than not, I’d rather stay at home and play video games than go out. On the off chance that I have the chance to spend the night at home I prefer to do so.

I guess I’m finally “getting old.”

Or maybe this is all a result of my doing two consecutive plays in Tampa. I’ve been doing a LOT of driving lately. Between getting the boys to school, netgoth and myself to work, and going to Tampa almost every night for rehearsal I’m spending way too much time in the car (and every few weeks that becomes painfully obvious when I look at the sheer amount of crap that is on my floor board). Whenever I consider going out, the first thought that goes through my head is “Gah, that would involve driving.” Sometimes the plans for being out of the house end right then and there.

We’ll see. Another month and a half of rehearsals and performance, and then I get some time off. We’ll have the final Hunker Down, and then the yearly Christmas Eve party. Shortly after that the New Year will be here, and I’ll be creating a new budget. One that will, in all likelihood, be a bit more relaxed. With money put in there for going out and saving up for vacations (like our possible family trip to Gen Con in August).

Hrm. Speaking of our trip to Gen Con…I just did a little research out of curiosity. Flying the four of us out there is probably going to cost around 800 bucks. Driving would cost about 260 in gas, and another 80 or so for two hotel rooms (one up and one down). netgoth hates flying, and frith_lord is afraid of heights. It might make more sense to just drive up there. Two days up, arriving Thursday afternoon/evening. Con on Thursday night, Friday and Saturday, and Sunday Morning. Head out Sunday afternoon. Home Monday night. Rest up on Tuesday. Back to work on Wednesday.

Could work.

Seriously going to have to look at saving money if our bid for C11 falls through and it goes to San Diego. That’s not going to be cheap at all, but I really want to go.

Side observation while speaking of family stuff. Alex is getting to the point where he is shying away from kisses. When he goes to bed at night I get the forehead more often than not, and sometimes he tries to get out of that.

sigh

Was bound to happen eventually, of course. He’s going to be 9 in two months after all. Half way towards being an adult. He’s becoming more and more of his own person every day. Although I do have to admit that in many ways he’s acting more and more like me as time goes by as well. He’s silly. He’s damned silly. Irrationally so. He’s goofy for the sake of just being goofy.

Sound familiar?

Yeah, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree on that one.

Where was I?

Oh, I was rambling on and on about my life in what is surely a long post that many of the people on my friends list have long since skimmed over.

Right.

Missed out on both BBQ’s over the weekend. The one that tomakins was throwing because it started later than we had originally been told and I had to be at rehearsal by two, and the one that maladr1n was throwing because Alex wasn’t feeling well. We did manage to make it to our Sunday gaming group, though, and it was a blast. One of the best sessions we’ve ever had. Wanna know the funny thing? Not one bit of super villian combat. It was all role playing. My perso
nal favorite was when the two heroes in the group who came to the present from the 50’s (mine and Karens) got drunk together and reminiscied about the “good old days” when they would fight demons and not have to worry about filling out paperwork or being sued.

Good times.

Speaking of the group…HEY! etcet! Did you guys still want to join our Sunday group? There are openings!

Ok, time to get back to the grindstone. I’ll try to write something witty or inspiring soon. Promise.