One of those days. It was one of those days. I should have realized I was in for it when my boss asked me to do something right at the beginning of the titular track, a song by Morton Lauridsen so beautiful that it almost never fails to bring me that nice, centering comfort, that general “at ease” feeling that can so often be important. It is one of the few songs I have on a physical disk these days for that reason.

So yeah, pushed myself too hard the first half of the month it seems. The compounding goals are tough, especially when you have things to do too. Taking a few days off from writing it to rejuvenate, then going to push through the story as I can. No worries about the 50,000 words in November - too far behind to get that this year. Well, I suppose I could, but that’s like 5,000 words just to catch up and yeah, pushing for that deadline is stressful enough that it’s hurting the creative process.

Well, that just happened. Need I say more? Of course I do. I spent four years of my life studying political science at Wash U, one of the top universities in the country, in an attempt to understand this stuff. I admit now what I think the entire political establishment is faced with: we have no goddamned clue what is actually going on. I’m torn, y’all. I want to give my thoughts on things now that the anxiety and shock of last night has subsided to a degree.

Well, kinda. Most of y’all are probably used to random journal entries by now, but to those of y’all who are new here from and for A Game Called Murder, welcome! I do a bunch of different things on this blog and all that. A lot of candid talk, and this post is one of those. Honestly, the writing bit is new for NaNoWriMo, but I think I’m going to keep it.

Timestamp: Monday 31 October 2016 at 13:19 Whoa. It’s been a month since I started this journey. Interesting. It has gone so much smoother than it has in the past. I thank grad school for keeping me busy. Really, I do. Get me out of the apartment and on campus with something that can’t really play games, and, well, there’s not much of a choice in the matter. I’ve been focused on this one thing as a goal, and it seems to be working so far.

Good afternoon y’all, Sitting out on campus writing this on a beautiful day. Saw Elmo (and dad) earlier, so it can’t get much better than this. Set out today with the goal of not letting my weekly day off slip away, and it seems to be more or less on track with that (even though I failed to get up early today as I had wanted to). And yet, I’m late on this post.

Sports are dumb. I love them all the same. Stupid Osweiler - $72 million and he can’t complete even a checkdown to one of the top 5 receivers in the league. Come on now. And yet I’ll watch again next week. Don’t even get me started on the Cubs. Seriously, that was ridiculous and I still haven’t gotten over it. Anyway, right, I’ve actually made some progress this week (unlike my dear Texans).

Something has been bothering me since yesterday morning, y’all, and I’m not (just) talking about the flu-like symptoms from getting my shot for the year on Friday. I went to church again yesterday, but this time I went to that one that I felt was calling out to me the other week. I’m glad I went, but I don’t think I’ll be heading back. It’s just… not quite what I have in mind as my personal approach to the faith.

Timestamp: Sunday, 23rd October at 22:46 How do weeks work? The Reddit bot tells me I’m at 24 days though, so I’ll take it. What a week, and where to begin…? I’m still game-free, thanks grad school! Seriously, being on campus until 9:30 or 10 every night is probably the number one factor in my success thus far. The urge to play a game is still there, lurking, waiting for me to lower my guard.

A rare second post on the same day appears! I just have to get this one out there while the spark of inspiration is there. In addition to maintaining this space, I keep a journal of sorts on a support group forum for folks trying to get past gaming as I have recommitted myself to doing lately. It’s not perfect by far, but the resources and community are a great resource.