State of the Blog

I started this blog way back when, intending to use it for research. A few years later, this is my first actual post. So, obviously that failed. I'm taking a second go at it this year, for some unknown reason.

I intend to be very specific about which topics I cover in this blog. Therefore, I am going to touch on each topic and give a rough sketch of where I am and what I have done in 2009 on each front.

Reading:

One thing I hope to use this blog for is book reviews. I haven't read as many books as I usually do in the past year, but I've read a couple good ones. I'll probably post some first thoughts on some of the more recent books later. I'm currently in the middle of The Magicians by Lev Grossman. It has a rather interesting, if complicated, plot so far, so I am really enjoying it. More to come later.

Writing:

One of the things I set out to do last year was write a few novels. I finished 2, plus a short story for class. I am hoping to do some editing, but I haven't started yet, for this year. Current state: My first piece, Dragonmage, is at least salvageable. The second piece, Phoenixfire, has to mostly be thrown out. What I've gained from writing that draft is a few ideas, but they're small objects that will have to come together differently. In tandem with the reading, I'm hoping to post some small thoughts on what I might have learned about writing from each book I review.

Research:

I thought (and am still thinking) about sketching some thoughts on my current research as I do it in this blog. I'm not sure this is such a good idea because I don't know if any of it is covered by NDA's or anything like that. I'll update once I think more on it.

Hobbies:

I don't really have any hobbies. One of the things I've been hoping to do lately is find one. There are a couple ideas I've bounced back and forth over for the past couple of months, but I can't seem to sit myself down and do any of them. I've thought about wood and leatherworking, chainmail, even knitting. At the moment, I don't have hte skills, funding, or knowledge to really get my foot in the door on any of them, but the ideas are churning around in the back of my mind. Possibly more to come on this front. Robotics interests may occasionally make it onto the blog, since it's the one area that I keep wanting to get into.

Gaming:

The one hobby I do have is that, especially in the last year, I have become an avid tabletop gamer. Since I have mostly departed from D&D, and have been exploring many other game systems. I will be playing in 3 games, and running 2 others. I will be posting some information here, and maintaining a Wiki which I'll probably link to occasionally.

I think that's good enough to get started on for now, don't you think?