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And This Is It, Part 3
This is it. 2010.
Two roleplaying games dominated my life this decade. In the early half of the decade it was the old World of Darkness setting, specifically Hunter: the Reckoning. I wrote some bloody good stuff for that setting, with the lead character of Libra.
I'm still Libra here and there across the web. I have a multiplicity of identities, like little safe houses of personality - little islands of instability, as it were, little pockets of chaos in the midst of order.
Anyway, the old World of Darkness went and died in 2004, and White Wolf replaced it with a brand new one in August that year - I almost lost one old friend over ideological differences. I did lose another one.
I got writing for Hunter: the Vigil, put in a good effort and managed to put content into three books. Then I thought I'd end up facing a dry spell.
Until I walked into Fan Boy Three in Manchester (another new friend I discovered this decade, BTW) and saw something I never thought I'd see.
Traveller.
The resurgence of my old favourite, my first roleplaying game, was a surprise and a delight. This led to Mongoose, and to my current situation.
There is also Facebook, which I have joined under two separate identities, finding the delights of Farm Town and SuperPoke Pets among other addictions. I have new friends, expanding the definition to "friend" to cover f'list friends - a lot of whom I have met in person, by the way - and two virtual pets to look after, namely Napoleon the Penguin and Barnardo theWalking Bacon Roll In Waiting Pig.
I've had romances. I've had laughs, and scares, and loves, and joys, and shed tears.
But you know what really marked the last part of this decade above everything else?
I allowed my geek cred to shine, realising that nobody could strike me down again.
It began with matters mathematical, when I demonstrated my ability to solve the Rubik's Cube in the Deli Express. Thing is, I found that most "speed cubing" comprised memorising the moves one made to get to the scrambled state, then reversing them.
I solved cubes without seeing how they got scrambled. I even solved the 4 x 4 x 4 Rubik's Revenge for the first time, ever.
But that was the beginning. I (re)discovered Vedic Mathematics - I learned that I'd been using some of the principles of VM for thirty years already without ever knowing it.
I went back to learning languages. Klingon. Japanese.
Welsh.
I acquired a brand new friend earlier this year, who has a consuming interest in learning Welsh. This has kept me on my toes, making sure that my own knowledge is current and correct - I really do not want to let her down.
@that friend - Cadw darllen Cymraeg, cariad.
So, as I said, this is it. It's the New Year now, and I'm going to eat something tasty and join in with the toasting. Non alcoholic, of course.
I had no idea where I was going to be in 2010 when the Millennium dawned on me, ten years ago. I still remember those days, emerging online as Fiat Knox and Libra, working in the folks' shed before finally moving out to my own place, first in Hightown Road and later up by the Barracks. I remember coming home from Manchester crying one time, vowing never to let anyone do that to me again. And I've stuck to that vow. Now I break people before they break me.
I remember the day I fell hard in love with Laura, and making the mistake of falling even harder for Nai. I'm not making that mistake now. Trust me on this.
I mourned Flavia ten years on, updating the website with her memorial page - only to mourn the loss of that page when GeoCities died. Not long later, ITV's Teletext died - a boon companion and my main newspaper for thirty years.
I really did not have any kind of an idea what was going to happen, back then. I mean, by 2000 I'd no idea that in 2007 I'd be bumping into a dozen people in Chester who'd become the regulars on this very blog.
I'd no idea, in 2000, that before the end of the decade I'd be taking trains to Bristol to talk Klingon. Or that I'd be cribbing Japanese hiragana and kanji from the web, courtesy of the Arial Unicode font.
I have no idea what 2020 will be like. I dearly hope it won't be the tenth year of Fundamentalist Xtianity Triumphant and the Big Brother State Eternal. I hope it won't be War Everlasting, a la the Federation of Starship Troopers.
I hope I will still be breathing and ambulatory and cogent and functioning in 2020, along with everybody I know and love today.
I love you all, especially the newcomers. We've just seen the Teens in. Let's see this decade out together now.
O-medeto gozaimasu. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i chi i gyd.
Happy New Year to you all.
Two roleplaying games dominated my life this decade. In the early half of the decade it was the old World of Darkness setting, specifically Hunter: the Reckoning. I wrote some bloody good stuff for that setting, with the lead character of Libra.
I'm still Libra here and there across the web. I have a multiplicity of identities, like little safe houses of personality - little islands of instability, as it were, little pockets of chaos in the midst of order.
Anyway, the old World of Darkness went and died in 2004, and White Wolf replaced it with a brand new one in August that year - I almost lost one old friend over ideological differences. I did lose another one.
I got writing for Hunter: the Vigil, put in a good effort and managed to put content into three books. Then I thought I'd end up facing a dry spell.
Until I walked into Fan Boy Three in Manchester (another new friend I discovered this decade, BTW) and saw something I never thought I'd see.
Traveller.
The resurgence of my old favourite, my first roleplaying game, was a surprise and a delight. This led to Mongoose, and to my current situation.
There is also Facebook, which I have joined under two separate identities, finding the delights of Farm Town and SuperPoke Pets among other addictions. I have new friends, expanding the definition to "friend" to cover f'list friends - a lot of whom I have met in person, by the way - and two virtual pets to look after, namely Napoleon the Penguin and Barnardo the
I've had romances. I've had laughs, and scares, and loves, and joys, and shed tears.
But you know what really marked the last part of this decade above everything else?
I allowed my geek cred to shine, realising that nobody could strike me down again.
It began with matters mathematical, when I demonstrated my ability to solve the Rubik's Cube in the Deli Express. Thing is, I found that most "speed cubing" comprised memorising the moves one made to get to the scrambled state, then reversing them.
I solved cubes without seeing how they got scrambled. I even solved the 4 x 4 x 4 Rubik's Revenge for the first time, ever.
But that was the beginning. I (re)discovered Vedic Mathematics - I learned that I'd been using some of the principles of VM for thirty years already without ever knowing it.
I went back to learning languages. Klingon. Japanese.
Welsh.
I acquired a brand new friend earlier this year, who has a consuming interest in learning Welsh. This has kept me on my toes, making sure that my own knowledge is current and correct - I really do not want to let her down.
@that friend - Cadw darllen Cymraeg, cariad.
So, as I said, this is it. It's the New Year now, and I'm going to eat something tasty and join in with the toasting. Non alcoholic, of course.
I had no idea where I was going to be in 2010 when the Millennium dawned on me, ten years ago. I still remember those days, emerging online as Fiat Knox and Libra, working in the folks' shed before finally moving out to my own place, first in Hightown Road and later up by the Barracks. I remember coming home from Manchester crying one time, vowing never to let anyone do that to me again. And I've stuck to that vow. Now I break people before they break me.
I remember the day I fell hard in love with Laura, and making the mistake of falling even harder for Nai. I'm not making that mistake now. Trust me on this.
I mourned Flavia ten years on, updating the website with her memorial page - only to mourn the loss of that page when GeoCities died. Not long later, ITV's Teletext died - a boon companion and my main newspaper for thirty years.
I really did not have any kind of an idea what was going to happen, back then. I mean, by 2000 I'd no idea that in 2007 I'd be bumping into a dozen people in Chester who'd become the regulars on this very blog.
I'd no idea, in 2000, that before the end of the decade I'd be taking trains to Bristol to talk Klingon. Or that I'd be cribbing Japanese hiragana and kanji from the web, courtesy of the Arial Unicode font.
I have no idea what 2020 will be like. I dearly hope it won't be the tenth year of Fundamentalist Xtianity Triumphant and the Big Brother State Eternal. I hope it won't be War Everlasting, a la the Federation of Starship Troopers.
I hope I will still be breathing and ambulatory and cogent and functioning in 2020, along with everybody I know and love today.
I love you all, especially the newcomers. We've just seen the Teens in. Let's see this decade out together now.
O-medeto gozaimasu. Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i chi i gyd.
Happy New Year to you all.
Don't forget that...