Goodbye, old computer...

I'm writing this post from my old computer. It's the first time I've really used this computer in, oh, probably some time in August. I used it then to check websites while my laptop was otherwise occupied (I was playing Oblivion). Now it's been so long that even the keyboard feels strange. I can't believe I'm saying that. I used to hate laptop keyboards. It was my reason for thinking that I would never want to own a laptop. And then when I finally did buy one, I sort of assumed that I'd still be using this computer for word processing and such. Now I'm so used to the laptop keyboard that my old keyboard is uncomfortable. I suppose I should have expected as much, but I didn't.

My series of posts on the drama associated with my laptop really aren't that far back. It all seemed so uncertain then. I was glad that I had this machine to fall back on. Now that the laptop is working and I'm acclimated to it, this thing is looking as obsolete as, well, as it really is. The laptop takes up a fraction of the space and does everything better. Everything. Well, close enough, anyway. I probably can't run Lords of Magic on the new computer without some sort of emulation or adjustment. The same goes for a few other old games, including Diablo. If anyone knows of a good way to play old computer games on new computers without paying money for it, please let me know.

So I had already copied almost all of the files on this computer to my laptop (pretty sure I posted about that). One of my reasons for doing that was so that I could actually use those files without having to get on my old computer. Another reason was to preserve them if this computer were to die. At the time, there was no indication that it would. Well, with that out of the way, this became an auxiliary computer. And I had it running all the time. Not the monitor or the speakers, but the computer itself. I think that's the only reason I can write this post from this computer now. If I had shut this thing down every night, component stress would have killed it. Probably.

Since I didn't need the computer, and since it would be off for five weeks while I was on vacation, I shut it down early. I forget when. And I stuck to using my laptop only for September. And then I went on vacation. Well, when I came back, one of the things that had happened in my absence was that my parents painted my room. My mother kept saying she was going to while I was gone, that it would be the perfect opportunity to or whatever. I asked her not to. I forbade her from doing it. She wouldn't listen. So they moved all of my stuff out, boxed it, and painted the room. They did more than that, actually. They also removed a shelf and changed the closet. Oh, and they put new blinds in, which really was pretty necessary: the old ones were hideous.

Well, I had to finish uploading photos to Facebook and do other things, all with my laptop. None of it involved this computer. When I did get around to booting this one up, I left the room a short time later, and the thing crashed on me. Then I spent several hours trying to get it to boot up again. I kept getting messages about the boot record being unavailable and I had to go into the BIOS screen a few times. I was pretty sure that the old computer was finally dead. Maybe my parents had busted it when they'd moved it. Or maybe it was finally worn out. It didn't really matter. The only things I would miss would be one story I'd barely started writing that had never been transferred over (not sure if I like it anyway) and some gaming things, mostly my Diablo II characters.

I was giving up because it wasn't worth the trouble when the computer finally booted up. But then after a few hours, while I wasn't in the room again, it crashed. Fortunately, it didn't refuse to boot up again. I tried to figure out why it crashed, but eventually decided that the computer was still probably dying. I used it for a while and went to bed. When I woke up, I saw a blue screen, which had probably been sitting there for several hours. I restarted the computer, then shut it down again. I gave up. I figured I would try to boot it up again long enough to save my Diablo II characters, then abandon the computer entirely. But I never got around to it.

Well, now it's December. And for the month of December, there are two things I must attend to. Or rather, two categories of things. Oh, and I'm excluding work, I suppose. Firstly, there's getting ready for school. If I were a more self-disciplined person than I am, I would totally be brushing up on integral calculus or something right now. Yes, right now. Two in the morning. A perfect time for calculus, yes? I like how my fantasy version of myself is so unrealistic that actually saying these things forces me to sneer over it. I'm weird. Secondly, there's getting ready to live in Seattle. Well, dealing with this old computer thing and figuring out what I'm finally going to do about this machine is part of that second issue.

Instead of doing things that have anything to do with either school or moving, I've been playing Oblivion. So I decided that it was time to finally address this one thing. I still have a lot to do as far as moving goes. But, in principle, figuring out what to do with the old computer shouldn't be a big deal. One thing I wanted to do was remove the case and clean out any dust, just in case that was having any effect on the components. I ended up not even doing that. I just moved it back to the spot on the floor it used to occupy, fixed the speakers (my parents had put the computer up against the desk for some reason and had made everything backwards with the speakers), and turned on the power. The computer booted up just like it always used to. And it hasn't crashed yet. Maybe it will after I fall asleep. We'll see.

So yeah, apparently this computer still works perfectly (or as well as it was earlier this year). But now I'm moving. I don't really see any reason to bring it with me, and I don't think I want the computer to be where it is now if other people in my family will be using this room at all (two people have expressed interest in that). So I think now the plan is to keep this computer running for most of this month. I'll shut it down and move it into storage right before permanently occupying the apartment in Seattle. And maybe someday I'll have an opportunity to use it again. But maybe not. I don't know.

Agleridon

A while back, I posted that one of my qualms with Oblivion, which I was playing a lot, was that the leveling system forced me, completist that I am, to do the things necessary to have a character that can do anything. When I did Runswithsnails IV, I waited until I was higher in level to do the quests with leveled items. I started out spamming illusion spells so that I could take advantage of invisibility as soon as possible, then exploited that alongside ever-improving magic skills all-around and the ability to slug things out with a big sword and heavy armor. Eventually, I was switching to blunt weapons and light armor, not because they were better, but because I had maxed out my heavy armor and blade skills. Toward the end, he was invincible, although I could probably have made him invincible even earlier if I'd tried.

I said that I would like for the game to be more "choose your weapons." Well, I finally broke down and started another character, determined not to go all crazy like I did with the first one. Runswithsnails IV will always be my super-powerful character in that game. He's the only one I'll have done all of the quests with. But I figured I'd do some specialist characters that would explore aspects of the game I neglected at earlier levels and emphasize them, getting some replay value out of this game, I guess.

Agleridon is my first attempt at a real specialist character. He's already quite accomplished. His primary specialty is alchemy. He's an evil character that loves poisoning everything. As such, his next favorite skill is marksmanship, giving him a vehicle for delivering all those wonderful poisons. But if that doesn't work, he can fall back on chameleon potions and sneak attacks with powerful magic daggers. Right now he's using light armor, but that's really just a means for me to keep increasing his strength. Once his strength is maxed out, I'll probably switch to no armor. I just realized that I totally had that wrong. Light armor skill increases improve speed, not strength. And his speed is already maxed out. But I'm keeping light armor with this character because I want to and because armor rating is good. So there.

I should probably cut back on playing this game so that I don't have to go cold turkey in January when I'm in school and busy. Or maybe I should rush to do everything I can with Agleridon beforehand? No, that's probably a bad idea. So far, his accomplishments include restoring Deepscorn Hollow (the base of operations I had in mind for this character before I even started him), restoring Frostcrag Spire (even more useful for alchemy than Deepscorn Hollow), completing everything for Dunburrow Cove, completing the thieves guild questline, acquiring Mehrune's Razor, mastering alchemy (but he still needs the equipment to take advantage of this), taking down the Gatekeeper, finding tons of nirnroots, and murdering lots of people, some of them deservedly. But he still needs to complete the dark brotherhood questline at least. Maybe some more beyond that. I'm not sure yet.

Some other ideas for Oblivion characters I might do...

• One that uses blunt as a primary combat skill. So far I've always done blade-wielders.
• A mage character that doesn't use armor or weapons much. I could also rely on alchemy a lot again. Now that I've gotten some experience with alchemy, I like it.
• A good character. Agleridon is pure evil. Runswithsnails IV started out evil, but redeemed himself and used the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal to lead a double life. I should have an actual, honorable character.
• A character that uses the atronach birthsign (it sounds fun and is totally different).
• Playing a different game. Seriously, I'm playing this game way too much.
  

Seattle

I got in, just in case you didn't already know, which you did. One of the things that happened in the month I've been away from this blog is that I was accepted into the University of Washington. I received a letter informing me of this two days before my birthday. I suppose my birthday was another thing that happened during the period of time I've been away, but it was rather uneventful other than the electricity being out. Anyway, I guess finding out for sure that I would finally be transferring to a university was sort of an early birthday present. It was a birthday present from me to myself, because I am awesome.

Come January, I'll probably be super busy with school. But that's not the only news. I'm also moving. Being closer to school will be convenient, but it's also a bit intimidating because I need to secure a job of some sort. Actually, I don't just need to secure a job of some sort: I need to secure a job that fits my school schedule. I've been sort of nervous about this and I still am. Fortunately, I can still work as a substitute for the library system. So there's that. It doesn't eliminate my concern, but it helps.

Agitatingly, I still have to wait like almost two weeks before I get my orientation. I have no idea what my schedule will be or what classes I'll get to take. I have to wait.

But most importantly, better living through chemistry, oh yeah!

NaNoWriMo

I see that, since returning from vacation, I wrote one post here, then left again for a month. I'd be embarrassed, but I did have my reasons. Well, one reason, anyway. I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. So for the entire month of November, I was writing a novel instead of doing the things I would normally be doing. Well, not all of the things I'd normally be doing. I'll post more about that later. In fact, missing a month has left me with a whole lot to tell you. And I do plan on catching up. So there will be several new posts here about what's been going on while I was away. But those ones can wait for a moment. This post is about my novel.

The title is Adventures of Xad Volume One: Worldweaver. It's an extremely cheesy science fiction book with spaceships and laser guns. I described it a couple of times as verging on "Flash Gordon" levels of cheesiness. In the end, I don't think that's quite true. But it really is a silly book. It's not the sort of thing I'd always wanted to write. But I had a month to write 50,000 words. I didn't want to get caught up in trying to go back and change things. I didn't want to worry that my project, my baby, was turning out awfully. I didn't want to say, "This is completely wrong. Why am I even doing this?" I wanted something that I wouldn't be too attached to, that I wouldn't have to take seriously. I didn't take any of my old ideas or abandoned projects. I didn't try to make it awesome. I just tried to meet the goal, and in the end, I did: it wasn't even close. By November 30th, the novel was 60,000 words.

Now, I know you're wondering when you'll have a chance to read it. Well, I'll try to make that happen, but it might take a while. NaNoWriMo isn't about getting to a completely polished, publishable work in one month. It's about writing a rough draft in a month. My novel needs some heavy editing. I made everything up as I went along. I don't think there are any major continuity errors, but some sections definitely need revising. I need to move events around and add to some portions that I feel are incomplete. If I find the time to do this, and I hope that I do, I won't be at all surprised if the final product is a lot longer. How much longer, I won't say. But for now, it's 60,000 words.

I recommend NaNoWriMo. I don't know if I'll do it again because I see now just how big of a commitment it is to actually finish. It's not the effort: it's the time. I mean, presumably you have to work. A project like this could suck up all your free time for a month. But it's also educational. I learned much about my own writing habits along the way. I sort of always thought of myself as a competent writer. I've read plenty of things, even by professionals, and thought, "I can write better than this." I don't think it's pure delusion. I have written things. Some of them really are better than what I've seen from certain purported professionals. But I've never written anything on the scale of a novel. Short stories, yes. Essays, of course. But a novel is an entirely different animal.

I thought I might get lost in it and not be able to continue the story. That I'd get stuck. It didn't happen. I thought I would probably be energetic about this in the first week, drop off and fail to write in the second week, try to play catch-up in the third week, and go for broke in the fourth week. That didn't happen either. In a way, I don't believe it. I always procrastinate. Or I used to. I practically planned to procrastinate. And instead, I wrote 2,000 words a day. There were a few busy days where I wasn't at my computer and caught up over the next day or so. But generally, it was a constant pace. This is the first time in my life that I can recall ever properly pacing myself in anything at all. It's sort of amazing.

I think I wrote good characters and a more-or-less coherent plot. The biggest deficiency in my rough draft is with the setting. In my mind, as I was coming up with things to write, I could envision the characters and the circumstances they found themselves in. But scenery was either not there until I needed it for the plot, or not important enough to write down. It's not that everything in my head happened on some blank, empty field. But I was thinking so much about the characters and the dialogue and the action that what a place looked like didn't seem important. Maybe it's me. One place is much the same as any other place to me. So that's something that needs work. But I know I can fix that with editing. I just wasn't focused on it while writing the rough draft.

So yeah, I've written a 60,000-word novel, by far the longest thing I've written so far. And that's why I haven't been updating this blog for a month. But I've been busy with some other things too. I'd tell you about them right now, but I have to go to work. So you'll just have to wait for my next post, whenever that is.