A Glitch in the Matrix

 

 As my friends are aware, I have perhaps the worst luck of any living person. 

The day after I finished writing the rules for the bot, on my classroom computer at work (I wrote during my spare moments between classes, during lunch, and before school) the entire thing vanished. It was (and remains) simply not on the harddrive.

The only thing that remains is the introduction, which I had finished the day before and sent to myself via email. Had it not been for a long-winded meeting after work, I would have remembered to send the rules to myself, also.

As a result, I've been fairly well gutted since about the 11th. 

The way I approach writing is that I compose the entirety of the piece in my head and then when finished, I write it down in one go. I use notes to refer to for specifics and particulars, but the verbiage is all in my head.

This worked for me very well in college. I'd sit down the morning a paper was due and type the thing out, only to receive top marks when graded. A buddy of mine, who would write-rewrite-rewrite (up to nine times or more on a four-page paper) couldn't believe it, especially as he was usually nearby when I was typing.

However, when I type something out, it is completely out of my head, not to be recalled. And thus, I now find myself trying to re-type the rules from the very beginning. It is much slower going as I'd been doing the mental composing for about two months previous to my typing them out.

And so, my radio silence over the past couple of weeks is mainly due to that...

But not completely, unfortunately.

Fortuna has excreted on my month, to this point, with one disaster after another. Anyone fancy going days without water because the water main in front of your house sprung a leak...a 40 foot tall leak? No worries, I got that little gem in your stead.

How about needing to get your vehicle worked on, nearly 100 miles from home, only to find that the appointment you made was not actually "made" and  then had to wait five hours extra to get the work done?  Yep, I took that one upon myself, too.

There are a number of others, but life has contrived to humble me a bit...not that I was in a particular need of humility, it seems that the Eternal Judge has deemed otherwise.

So, I am re-working the rules, and typing them out as I mentally compose each section. Sadly, now that we've students in the classroom again, my mental free-time is much less than what it was. Alas, now actual work must be done as it was pre-Covid. No, I am not really sad about that, but I had gotten used to the extra time for things I wanted to think about.

I am hoping to have most of the rules re-written at some point this week. 

On a much brighter note, as the weather has been a continuing block for my priming of figures, I purchased an airbrush, just so that I can prime figures indoors. I got one of the less expensive kits (meaning something cheap on Amazon) so that I can learn the how-tos on something that is not terribly expensive to ruin and replace.

I am expecting it, and the cleaning kit for it,  to arrive on Monday. I also did a bit more retail therapy, but the books I purchased were so poorly packed by the Amazon folks that I had to send them back and get replacements sent to me. I am not a fan of hardcover books having their covers separated from the pages. 

Games Workshop's Warcry, Necromunda, 40K, and Age of Sigmar all called to my wallet, which responded far too freely, and some of those models and boxed sets have started to arrive. While I may not play them as others do, lacking a face-to-face opponent (even without COVID), I love painting GW models and I am working on solitaire versions of those rules (borrowing heavily from TwoHourWargame's solo rules) so that I can play against myself...unless friends come for a visit and some games.

 

So, while I have been very unlucky in a number of areas, I am blessed to have a good job that allows me to make some purchases that would otherwise be difficult to rationalize to myself. 

 

Now, if I had a local opponent against whom my armies could frequently face, life would be...perfect.