So I've had a lot of late nights recently, hence why I skipped journalling. Only going over the important parts (that I remember).
So the big things I did on Thursday were review the grant proposal and host DnD. Five people showed up and we spent the first hour or so building characters. Then we got to the actual adventure and man was that a lot of ad-libbing. I had actually prepared some encounters and a general idea of what should happen and of course we immediately went off the rails. The party was much more interested in the psychological condition of the barkeep than I expected, so instead of having the adventurer guild be pre-established we took a detour to make it before going on the real adventure (also now the barkeep is racist towards goblins). They also captured the goblin ambush (which went hilariously poorly on the goblins' side) instead of killing them, which I decided will cause problems down the line. Thanks to a series of extremely poor rolls, it took forever for the party to discover what was supposed to be a pretty easy mystery. And then we accidentally recreated Thanksgiving (which was not my intention at all) because the players got really into negotiating peace between the pixies and the cultists utopianists. Also everyone seems convinced that I'm trying to kill them while I play every NPC very sincerely (and never even considered trapping the bridge). Overall though (and despite running late) people seemed to like it and I'm getting a lot of praise for my DMing, probably because I'm loose, fun and good at improv.
Friday was a grant writing day. I had a good meeting with my advisor about moving forward and assembled my committee (but will probably push back my defense date). I went home and did a 5 mile run in the evening (pace was a bit faster than 10:00, which is good since that includes stopping for cars and getting distracted by a deer. I was sprinting at the end though). Then I got back to grant writing and finished the sections I'd say I'd do at like 2 in the morning. At least I don't feel terrible doing the writing like I did back in March. Yeah (temporarily?) not being depressed.
Saturday I got up early to go to the Renaissance Faire. I didn't get around to making a costume, so I just threw on a sarung and a blangkon. It was really fun, probably the best RF I've been to. Some highlights include all the carnival rides being completely human powered, a famous glassblower doing demos and of course the drama that is the joust (3/4 competitors were "dead" by the end). On the car ride there and backed I worked on different travel routes for my October trip. I'm thinking about leaving Jakarta a day earlier (since I have all of Saturday to shop, Sunday to meet with people/shop/etc and Monday to potentially meet with co-authors, I don't really need another flex day) to give me just a bit more time in Sulawesi (pending this guy actually wanting me, but I think he will). I discovered this one park in Central Sulawesi I really want to go to (it has megaliths and birds so it was basically designed for me) but it's a bit out of the way so I've been thinking up a couple of routes. I think in the end it really depends on 2 things: Can I get to Kendari from Sorowako and how easy is it to get to Sorowako from Tanah Toraja (or really Palepo). That determines when I go to Tanah Toraja, either on the way to Sorowako or on the way back towards Makassar. But there's no way I'm going to South Sulawesi without visiting Tanah Toraja (I might skip Makassar though because it's easy to hit on another trip). I have some flex time, I don't think I need to spend more than 4 days in Surabaya. Then I have a day or two in Jakarta to recouperate and buy more swag (and possibly a trip to Bandung on Monday riding the new HSR if that's an option) before going home (and doing a shopping trip in Tokyo for my sister maybe). It's going to be a very busy month.
Tagged this one for music because a couple new albums came out this week. There's The Front Bottoms' You Are Who You Hang Out With which has "Punching Bag" (a song I really like). I haven; listened to it yet but I'm excited. I just finished Chris Farren's Doom Singer (I got introduced to him by the music video for one of the singles on this album, "Cosmic Leash". Awesome song). It's pretty good. The song "Screensaver" got to me, even if it is less relevant to my life now post-answer.
Oh and I ordered a new (cheap) computer today. So that's exciting I guess. Anyway, time to go to bed, I'm running in the morning tomorrow (and then probably again in the evening; gotta train).
No comments:
Post a Comment