Outside, it's 21˚F, though it feels like 10˚F if you factor in windchill. Inside, it's a little bit warmer.

I wouldn't mind comments. I promise not to bite. Probably.

I am so, so fucking sick of winter.

Yesterday, I wrote another 1,132 words on "The Road of Needles." This story keeps slipping between my fingers. I have to make an end to it.

I'm so weary of self-promotion, which is eating up huge fucking amounts of my time. I'm not a sales person. But if I don't do this shit, this shit don't get done.

The last time I left the house to travel farther than Eastside Market (2.57 miles away), that would be December 31st. In the last twenty-four days, the total time I've spent outside probably adds up to less than four hours. Which makes this one of my worst "shut-in" episodes ever. Truthfully, I hardly noticed it was happening. But it makes me sick, thinking about so much wasted life. I can't even recall the last time I saw the sea.

My thanks to everyone taking part in the current auctions. The "very bizarre turn of events" that I have yet to explain, because it has, inexplicably, yet to be settled (though, in a sense, it was settled immediately), is going to make the income from eBay very helpful over the next couple of months or so.

I believe we're setting The Secret World aside again. I'll come back to it, but I need a break, I think. There's so much right about this game. I love the world it's created, and it's smart, and funny in the right ways, sometimes even displaying a wry wit essentially unknown to gaming. But the game itself, the mechanics, are a mess, a poorly conceived muddle that seems to have resulted from an attempt to fashion an MMO/console hybrid and a blind desire to fashion something different for the sake of fashioning something different. Levels are there for a reason, Funcom. Like squares on a chessboard. The game's graphics are hit and miss, and the animation is atrocious. Spooky had already cancelled her subscription, and she cancelled mine this morning. Of course, it's free to play (or, rather, buy to play), which means we can still come and go as we please (just won't get the spectacularly silly perks). Oh, and that's another thing. Since pulling mandatory subscriptions, "activity" in the game has increased an astounding 400%...in ONE month. The six servers are straining under the traffic, and the ass clowns abound. Suddenly, the sort of idiocy I expect from WoW players is swamping TSW. Griefing. Offensive crap on general chat. Inconsiderate players. Etc. Funcom, the cure might be worse than the disease. We'll probably be playing again by next week (if I don't break down and return this weekend), but my addictions and compulsive behaviors do not, in any way, mitigate the validity of these observations. Crystal meth is also addictive.

I just can't help but feel the move to epidemic of free-to-play is a tactic born of desperation. The market boomed, and now it's crashing. No one yet knows if free to play will actually increase revenue. It will certainly, I think, lead to poorer maintenance and may ultimately end expansions. I'd rather pay a monthly subscription fee for better service.

I should be writing. I should always, always be writing...

As the Blood Runs Red,
Aunt Beast