I would say that I'm surprised that it has been more than a week since my last post, but if I really want to lay claim to total honesty here on this blog, I won't. I've just been so busy doing all the pertinent tasks required to be considered a productive father/son/man/friend/buddy/writer/gamer/geek/nei...oh fuck, you get the point. In other words, I've been busy. But, as I sit here at 12:30 on a Friday night (or Saturday morning, if you really want to get fucking technical), listening to the pitter-patter of nature's life blood as it hits the ground (that's just a fancy way of saying it's raining) in an otherwise completely silent house, the thought occurred to me that I should probably make words. And since I'm all alone (as I spend every Friday night; don't judge me), I figured those words should probably be of the written variety. I already know I'm half out of my mind on a regular basis anyway, so there's no need to further cement that image by talking out loud to myself. Although, Pea seems to do that a lot, so maybe there's some merit to it. Maybe she knows something I don't.
Anyway, where the hell was I? Oh yeah, word making. Wait, written word making. Yeah, so here I am, late at night (yes, late. I'm old, so again, don't judge) with all the electronic gadgets and gizmos shut off (except my laptop of course), enjoying the silence. Just me and the raindrops. I figured I would bring the world up to speed in the happenings of all-things Ogre. Unfortunately, there's really not a lot to tell, which is terribly sad. In fact, I'm not sure which is more sad, the fact that there isn't much to tell or the fact that I'm actually admitting it. I'm still on the job hunt. The market is pure shit, plain and simple. Don't get me wrong, there's work out there. But there's also a fuck-ton of unemployed schmoes like myself, all vying for these jobs. And most of them don't roll as a single parent, as I do, so they have a little more flexibility in terms of their availability. Regardless, I'm still in search mode, dropping resumes and filling out applications daily.
Hmmm...the rain has stopped. Now it's almost too quiet. Maybe time for a quick song??
Ok, that's better...
Where was I? Oh yeah, my week. Anyway, my Mom came home for abit. For those unaware, she drives truck for a living, cross-country, all 48 states, so typically she's on the road for 8-12 weeks at a shot. Given how many creature comforts she has to forgo while she's out there, I turn the house over to her when she's home. So a lot of my "normal" activities are put on hiatus for the duration of her off time. It can be a bit of a pain, depending on what's on my plate, but she's been doing this for awhile, so I've become accustomed to the last minute juggling of plans.
Then Halloween arrived, which actually stretched out for us as my ex wanted to take Pea Trick-or-Treating on the day of, so Pea & I did our Halloween on the Saturday prior. We went to what was essentially a big field with a few vendors, a small haunted house, a decent sized kids zone with more bouncy houses than I have ever seen in a single place, and probably two dozen hot air balloons. Now, first, let me just say that bouncy houses are pure fucking evil and should never be allowed to exist. Or, at least until they make it standard that all of them must be able to accommodate Ogres and children. "We're sorry sir, but you are too big to go play and have fun." Fuck you. So we walked away (ok, so she walked, while I sulked) from the obviously prejudiced bouncy town and headed toward the haunted house. Keep in mind that it is still daylight at this point, and really, you don't go inside haunted houses during the day. That's a rule. I think it was on Moses tablets or something. Anyway, we bought our tickets and after about 10 minutes of cajoling (read: pulling the "I'm the Dad and I'm telling you how it is" card), I managed to convince Pea to pass on it until dark. To kill a little time, we watched the ballooners (Balloonees? Balloon operators? Guys who have mastered the art of hot air??) fill up the hot air balloons (which Pea got a kick out of. She had no idea how big they are) and then headed back to the haunted house. During this whole time, the haunted house was in full view, and some folks did go in, so she had the experience spoiled a little as the standard maniacal-chainsaw-guy-who-chases-you-out-at-the-end made his appearance many times. She said that she could tell it was all fake and that he wasn't scary. There's no way she would run from him like everyone else was. She will just walk away like normal. I believed her too, mostly because, as I said, she had been watching this for awhile before we went in. Then the sun decided it was time to make night-night, and we headed into the dark maze of fear (muahahahahaha!). Pea was great until about halfway through, when all of a sudden she grabbed my hand and squeezed until my fingernails popped off (ok, not really, but she did squeeze pretty hard). Then, as we neared the end, she asked me to go first (while still holding my hand, mind you). As we exited, chainsaw guy popped out and all of a sudden, Pea's hand was missing! No, he didn't cut it off. She just let go of me and did this magical transformation from an average 8 year old girl to a red blur streak. I looked in front of me and all I see is her hauling ass to get as far away from that guy as quickly as she could. Final analysis? The haunted house was a Grade A success! That and if there is any real danger near by, I'm on my own.
Short of all of that, my editing and review duties have been in overdrive. That's not unexpected though. The gaming industry still feels it's prudent to release about 10 games between January and September and roughly 3,485,978,602 games between October and December. It's the annual holiday push, so the reviewers are slammed. In my case, because I review and I edit every other review, I end up being a little busier than most.
And that's about it. Sort of. I still have my daily Dad duties and all my other normal responsibilities. I just have had a little more on my plate than I normally do. Although, I do have a few topics lined up that I want to spew all over your monitors soon. I just haven't decided exactly when I plan to do it. Especially now as one of them was a topic of a podcast I guested on tonight. So it feels a little odd to tackle it here right after discussing it there. I'm thinking I may try and post that podcast here when it goes live, just so the few of you who do come here can check it out. We'll see. Plus, I could have totally gone all emo in this post. I've been stuck in this melancholy mood for the last week that I can't quite shake, no matter what I do. Podcasting, gaming, cooking, spending time with my mini-me, listening to music, watching TV, reading...yeah, not a fucking thing helps. Holiday blues? Loneliness? Sadness? Still grieving the loss of the love of my life? Who knows. I just hope it fades out soon cause to be honest, it's crimping my style. It's tiring putting on the happy face all the time when you aren't quite feeling it. I don't want to end this on a shitty note though, so I will wrap up this post with this:
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