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	Christmas break
	December 23rd, 2018
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	I was leaning against the counter in my kitchen while typing in
	IRC and then started a coughingn fit. Why am I coughing,
	I wondered as I rubbed at the bruise forming on my solar plexus.
	Derp.

	I'm now sitting comfortably in the stool that was right beside me.
	I am very smart. :/

	Anywho, I'm on break for Christmas this week and I hope to get
	a few fun side-things accomplished. For one, I'd like to write at
	least one substantial update for each of my ships in cosmic [0].
	My original ship, Melchizedek, is in trouble with their botany
	systems, while Starbloom may be going to war. My two newest ships
	are Oleander, which is the story of a suicide mission sending
	their final messages before activation, and Melvin P Feltersnatch,
	a silly story with bad physics and quite a bit of nonsense.

	[0] Cosmic Voyage

	I also dusted off a project idea I had called Ways. It's intended
	to be an open-source text-adventure engine and expandable world.
	Right now it's very much in "dream up the stuff" phase. I'm not
	bothering to even choose a programming language yet. I want to get
	all the concepts down in a README so I can go at it later for
	execution. This week should give me a decent start on that.

	In other news, Christmas is nearly upon us! I've been teaching my
	son about the Icelandic Yule Lads and Yule Cat and he's loving it.
	We've been leaving his shoe in the window each night and reading
	up on each of the lads. It's so cute.

	OMG, I haven't written since we sold the house! Um, yeah. We sold
	our house on the 10th of December. I'm renting a 2br apartment
	about a mile away from the house until the end of June when we
	intend to make the move to Iceland. I've given myself a break from
	any planning on that front until the new year, too. Self care?

	We had a 5 bedroom house with a massive basement and detached
	garage. Needless to say, we downsized quite a bit and are
	continuing to do so. My wife found an awesome charity that takes
	home goods and furniture for kids aging out of the foster system
	and moving out on their own. Most of the house goods went to them.
	My son gave up 2/3rds of his toys to Goodwill. I downsized my
	computers to a single laptop (which I'm replacing next Friday with
	a new one from System 76). We have a storage unit that is 10x20
	and needs to get reduced down to 5x10 before June. The stuff
	remaining will go into long-term storage in Charlotte near my
	wife's family. The stuff in the apartment will get packed up and
	shipped to Iceland. Somehow we'll make it all work.

	---

	There's been so many awesome discussions kicking around in
	gopherspace that I haven't been engaging with. Ugh, now I want to
	go back and write you all individual responses here. Instead, just
	know that I'm reading everything in great detail, from the stuff
	on the growing Zaibatsu adventure to the music generation scripts
	to the OTHER burrow to home-grown RPGs. You are all amazing people
	who keep me entertained and inspired. Especially you, Melton. Your
	life is incredible. Never stop writing.