Another Day of not Doing What I'm Supposed to be Doing

Okay, I admit it. I very often end up not doing what I've planned to do. Right now, I'm sitting in the computer lab in Reykjavík. I'm not at home in Vogar cleaning the house while everyone is at school as I should be. And why, you may ask, is this so? I came to lovely Reykjavík to apply for a new passport for Inga and pick up my plane ticket to THAILAND!!!!!!! Only half of my mission was accomplished, however, because of red tape with the passport. Now, I'm waitin' for the bus so I thought I would hop on the net and post a message because it's been a while.

I started cleaning the house yesterday and what I've done looks pretty good. It's nice to have a clean house. I walked around my room this morning in my bare feet enjoying the total lack of sand grains and dust. Then I stepped out onto the carpet in the hall and it felt wonderful! I guess that since the whole day is shot today I'll start cleaning when I get home but I will have to count on finishing the downstairs tomorrow. It would be great to be finished before Friday.

Now, Thailand...We go first to Chiang Mai. We'll stay in the north for a few days and then head south. We stay in Bangkok for a few days and then head to an island in the Gulf of Thailand. I'm so excited. Being in Costa Rica a few years ago was such a wonderful experience. For anyone who doesn't know, I have a real (but not perverse!) love of animals of all kinds and being surrounded by a rain forest or tropical forest is, for me, like being a kid in a candy store with mama's credit card! I could spend weeks, months or probably even years just sitting in a forest somewhere watching life go on around me and be perfectly happy. But the real world always manages to call me back. When I went with Ruth, her father and three other people to Wyoming for 8 days of hiking in the Wind River Mountains I was ready to go back out into the woods after a shower in the hotel on the way back. But I had a job to go back to and supplies cost money, and I would have been all alone. I'm reminded here of an e-mail I wrote recently in response to one that my mother sent to everyone in the family. Basically, I've realized that although I buy into the capitalist notion that I am a consumer and nothing more, I don't like it. I would like to be able to free myself from that kind of thinking. My dear wife is pretty good about keeping tight reigns on my spending and it's a good thing. Maybe I can learn a bit from her about freeing myself. The fact that I live surrounded by capitalism does not mean that I have to fall victim to its negatives, though. There is certainly a way to avoid the pit falls of credit cards, new technology and stuff I want but don't need. I just have to find it.

I think like this more when I am in a natural setting than when I'm sitting at home. You know how it is: waiting for the internet connection to function properly, or when I walk out the door and look at my still-broken car in the driveway. And then I think to myself almost instintively, "Well if I were to buy a..." and it's all downhill from there. I've been living with this in my head for so long that it's just second nature. I don't realize what I'm thinking until later and by then it's too late.

I do not, however, feel that the pots I bought fall into this category. I am still very happy with that particular expendiger of money. I feel that was something important and worth it and I still do. The food I make in those bad boys is much more flavorful and healthier. They are also easier to clean. So I don't feel that I spent a bunch of money on something that I would have been better off without. I know that at least one person I know disagrees with me, but I don't care. The things that bother me most about myself are the video games (of which I only own two), and the addiction to wasting time. I've greatly cut down my surfing of useless sites. I check three or so sites for updates, but I've switched to reading, cleaning or hacky sack as passtimes instead of sitting in front of the computer for hours on end. I still occasionally play Civilization III. But I've given up on trying to win Icewind Dale again. It's just not the same as gaming.

Speaking of gaming, I was thinking about that yesterday. It would be wonderful to get a decent campaign going again. I know some of you have no idea what I'm talking about so I'll sum it up in two words and a symbol: Dungeons & Dragons. This game is highly addictive and incredibly entertaining. It is only one of hundreds of such role-playing games where each player creates a character and then does his/her best to assume the identity of the character for the length of the gaming session. In this way, you get people really into the game. The game is a story created by a member of the group who is not playing a character but is running the game. He/she comes up with a reason for the adventure-which could be a rescue mission, thievery, war, or treasure hunt, for instance-and then as events occur the game master moulds the story to keep the excitement. Challenges are presented to the characters in the form of battles, riddles, games, puzzles, mysteries, etc. and they very often have to work together to get passed a certain obstacle and rely on talents or abilities of each character. Sometimes individual characters or small groups within the party have their own goals (either supplied by the game master or thought up by the player). In a way, such role-playing is similar to real life. You have to make split second descisions about what to do next, what to say or to keep secret and then you have to face the consequences of your actions. Your player can die almost as easily as a real person. Your charater can end up in jail, go crazy, develop addictions, make mortal enemies and life-long friends, become a hero, or fade quietly into history. Role-playing offers people the opportunity to become someone else for a short time and use their imagination to try out different modes of living without any damage to the real world. The team work that goes on during the typically long gaming sessions can lead to increased understanding of how to work with people and how to get one's ideas across in a clear way.

I love gaming and would love to have the chance to dust off Baid Waverider and play him again. Paul knows who I mean. "Long live the Lords of the Deep!"

I wonder how many of my regular audience (which consists of only a small handful of people) stopped reading a long time ago. But for thoes that didn't, thanks. I use this blog as a place to write my wandering thoughts. It feels good to let this stuff out somewhere. I hope you enjoy reading this crapola. Also, I want to encourage people, again, to respond in any manner they see fit.