Last week I got the Spring Thing entry in. This week I got my research submitted to another journal. Next week I’m presenting some other research at a conference in Wisconsin. Progress!
Now hopefully it won’t take seven months to get a decision back this time…I have three other papers building off this one and I need to cite this one for them to make sense!
More nest news:
The baby wrens now do that alien-pod-opening thing if you look in the nest. Like their beaks are the pod petals and they just turn into gaping mouths and you expect a spidery thing to jump out and attach to your face. Man, are baby birds uglycute.
And a pair of great blue herons built a gigantic nest way up high in a tree by the creek. Big birds. Big nest. No way we’ll be peeking at those babies.
And there are hummers nesting in a live oak tree in the backyard, but it’s hard to tell the nest from all the ball moss in the tree. We’re sure there’s a nest because we keep seeing them zip up to a specific branch every 5 minutes and they’re driving everyone else away from it, but we can’t see exactly where they’re going. Those nests are only about 2" wide. Binoculars are no help because they move too fast.
Woke up in an apartment with a roof terrace in Hoeilaart near Brussels. We’re going to visit the Africa museum later. It started as a place for Belgian colonials to show off all the trophies and artefacts they stole from Congo. Later, and especially the past decade, it’s also become a museum about its own past and biases. It had a huge reorganisation just before covid, so today is the first time I’m going to see it in its new coat. Very excited!
I’ve cleared up enough cobwebs in my brain from the last traumatic year that yesterday I could sit down and write a game outline from start to finish. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s something. After our workout today I’m going to open Inform and get going on it. And that’s pretty positive.
Yay! Really good to hear you’re feeling better! 
Congratulations! This is half the battle won! (The other half is writing it…)
Attended a virtual funeral via webcast today. This was of course a sad thing but also an opportunity to be thankful for somebody having been in the world. They tend to be called ‘celebrations’ nowadays, and today I understood why.
Finally got to try a Tarot deck I bought a while back, and my first go trying a reading. Approaching this as a way of reflecting more on my life / circumstances / what I want to do. Also I have a soft spot for playing cards. The Tarot deck I’m using is designed by Night Circus author (and artist) Erin Morgenstern.
Very nice! I’m undecided if I want to start tarot deck collection, but I’m considering this one:
The sky outside is a bright white, and I took a satisfyingly long, hot shower. Feel scrubbed clean and in a comfortable set of pyjamas.
I’m going back to grad school for a master’s in “Games for Learning” - a sort of combo in education tech and game design. Quite excited. Especially because I work at the university and will get tuition remission for this. Really hoping to rely on my IF experience to propel me.
That is very good to hear.
Hi Groggydog,
Which university are you with? That sounds like a wonderful course. I have a Master’s degree in Instructional Technology from Texas Tech. It would be right up my alley. Any chance it is available online?
Thanks
It’s NYU! But in person only I’m afraid. That’s awesome though, instructional design is super under appreciated
That sounds amazing groggydog!
I’m wearing a new cardigan today. I got some new ones as warm layers to throw over t-shirts in the spring/summer (i.e. the part of the year that is just ‘chilly’ here as opposed to bitingly cold like the winter). The cardigan is much softer than I expected and feels like a constant, warm hug 
Today’s afternoon is a poetry and coffee sort of afternoon, and today the one that resonates the most with me is To The Young Who Want To Die, by Gwendolyn Brooks (1986).
Sit down. Inhale. Exhale.
The gun will wait. The lake will wait.
The tall gall in the small seductive vial
will wait will wait:
will wait a week: will wait through April.
You do not have to die this certain day.
Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.
I assure you death will wait. Death has
a lot of time. Death can
attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is
just down the street; is most obliging neighbor;
can meet you any moment.You need not die today.
Stay here–through pout or pain or peskyness.
Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow.Graves grow no green that you can use.
Remember, green’s your color. You are Spring.
Gorgeous. I’ve had this sort of thing on my mind an awful lot, as of late- and the gentleness with which death is presented as an option: one you should not take, but that is available for you all the same- for one day, just not today: it really resonated with my own feelings surrounding suicide and recovery.
Growing up with the sort of pain that makes it seem like an urgent, inevitable thing hems in the boundaries of your life. Your life convoluting, and complicating, and growing beyond those grief pinned edges is what recovery has felt like: that there is more to this than just pain, wrought by your hand or others. That perhaps there is something worth living for- even if it feels temporary, or insubstantial, or not meaningful enough: if it keeps you alive, then it’s enough, then it’s everything.
That you have those feelings is sad. But I can understand them because I once felt a bit similar. But yes, death can wait, no need to hurry things up.
Positive today for me: It was summer weather, people walking in t-shirts and eating ice cream. Only one day (forecast says so) but a fine day. Also I had the impression that I got some thoughts sorted well in my brain.
What a beautiful poem! Thank you for sharing it. I can also relate, sadly – though I am doing much better nowadays, in great part thanks to the support of loved ones (especially my wonderful partner). If anyone ever needs to get something off their chest or talk through a problem, my inbox is always open and I’d love to hear from you 
Today I had a blast at the San Francisco Bay Area meetup! They kindly let me attend virtually even though I live far away, and we put our heads together to play through some Spring Thing entries. I met lots of cool cats (both authors and players) and I’m already excited to see them again at any other hybrid events!
The group also played my game, which was nerve-racking to watch but so much fun! It was awesome to see them work through the puzzles (they did great) and find all the endings, and they gave me some really interesting feedback.
Went for a lovely long run this morning with my social running group. The company made the miles fly by despite the strong winds brought about by Storm Kathleen. Final long run before next week’s marathon!
Not happened yet but a bonus positive: should have some time to play videogames later, which has been hard to find recently.
A friend will be back from their trip away soon, and I’m having a really lovely quinoa salad for lunch. Yum! I think dessert will either be a muffin or one of the cookie crumble pots from the fridge…
