Paris Harriss - Sept. 23, 2006 to Dec. 5, 2011

After a six-month battle with cancer, he's gone. We spent yesterday saying goodbye, and then he was put to sleep this morning.
Best guess places the first signs in January of 2010 - first diagnosis came in early June. Complications included a brown recluse bite directly onto the cancer lump, causing an open wound for the remaining months.

He was big. About 26 inches from nose to butt, with another 13 inches of tail, and normally weighed around 16 pounds. And was the archetypal scaredy-cat; he ran away from footsteps, bumps in the night, thunder, and once I saw him run away from his own tail bumping a lamp. The veterinary staff dreaded his arrival, and all-but drew lots for who had to deal with him - an animal that big and that scared is going to cause some injuries (especially with his needle-sharp claws). But he was sweet, and loving, and loyal - he brought me peace, comfort, companionship, and much joy, no matter how much terror he brought to others.

Paris was my cat, and he was named after the Paris of myth and legend, the prince of Troy. And he died this morning at about 9:58. I knew it was coming and I am glad that it was peaceful, and I will always be grateful for everything he brought to my life. But I will miss him.

And there he goes.

My uncle Gordon died about 20 minutes ago. He was my favorite uncle, my mother's brother-in-law. He used to be a spy, for the CIA before it was the CIA and after. He turned 70 a few weeks ago. And he died 20 minutes ago.

I loved him dearly. I haven't shed a tear. That's a bit strange, I think.

He'd been in the hospital for almost two weeks, due to an injury when his blood pressure and blood sugar dropped and he fell down. It seems that a chunk of his intestine died while he was in there, and the necrosis caused an infection that made him terribly ill. He wasn't really conscious for the last week. Earlier today they discovered the intestinal problem, and said that immediate surgery was his only chance. Of course, the surgery could have killed him by itself (he was in bad shape).

Some other time I'll talk about who he was. For now, I just wanted to talk to the abyss, because it rarely talks back.

Here it comes ....

Well, it's the end of another semester and I've still got to take my exams. I'm a bit worried, as two of them are in subjects I've been doing relatively poorly in. On the other hand, I'm a moderately smart fellow and have a decent grasp of the underlying concepts if not all the details. Hopefully, I'll be okay.

In other news, I've got a part-time job starting tomorrow at the campus bookstore. It's only two weeks of work but it's two weeks of paid work. Nice as it is to be a published RPG product author, it's not paying well.
My players have said that they'd like to play a Weird West game this summer so I've had to scramble to learn the rules, read up on the setting and think up adventures while studying for exams and giving enough information to my players to let them build appropriate characters.
I'm working on a plan for my Fall campaign as well, but that's less certain. I know I want to run another Iron Heroes game (those are fun) but I'm not sure about setting, adventures, development or anything else. Still, I'm getting a couple resources that may help with that; we'll see how it all works out.

Okay, I need to wrap this up and get back to studying. Lots to study, still.

Relevance

So, I'm kind of busy right now. I've got tests, quizzes, homework, study session and classes. And all of it's fairly secondary. Instead, my mind is filled with thoughts of my games: my supers are growing and changing in ways that make me proud and satisfied, despite our inability to save a few blocks from super-powered racists; my Iron Heroes are about to save the world or die trying and it makes me warm to know that they've got a good chance; I've just become alpha of my pack and I'm contemplating our next moves, how we'll make them and who I'll rely upon to make sure things get done. Additionally, my spirit is feeling the call to religious investigation. I'm feeling the urge to research and explore the mysteries of the divine and how people perceive them.

It's odd, how what an outsider may consider to be the most important and relevant of my activities (school) is seeming to come up as secondary to my soul. I've got a tentative arrangement with my creator, I'm passing my classes and getting the work done, so my mind and heart feel free to soar in the realms of adventure, fantasy and socialization. It's ... odd but very satisfying.

Staying Ahead

Miraculously, I find myself ahead in my work. It happened sometime last week and has continued putting me in the possible position of being ahead by the time spring break rolls around. Which is awesome.

Woooooooooooo Hooooooooooo!

In other news, my cousin is getting married on April first. Why they've chosen April Fool's Day as their wedding day, I don't know but they seem happy with it.
I need to figure out when I'm going a-visiting again.

Hmm. Less than I thought.

There is too much, let me summarize.

It snowed this morning. Now it is just very cold rain but earlier it was very attractive white snow.
This canceled all my classes today. I'm quite distraught. ;)

The rest of December went well. I passed all of my classes (even managed to drag my GPA up a few points), enjoyed my non-traveling Christmas, and was generally happy with the universe. January rolled around and school eventually restarted. It's a mixed bag, this semester, with one outstanding professor, one excellent prof, one satisfactory professor and one unsatisfactory professor. All of my classes are CE (Civil Engineering), so they have math, science, difficult concepts, and challenging word problems. The ones with acceptable professors are easy to moderate; the one with a bad prof is Fluid Mechanics (which is as horrible as it sounds). That wouldn't be too bad except the book is just as bad, if not worse than, the prof. So we, myself and those of my classmates that I study and collaborate with, are displeased and troubled by the unnecessary difficulty.
Bah, too much whining.

Games are going well, except my modern game which seems to simply be on hold for a while. My players have become unavailable for the time being, so I don't expect that to get restarted until March or so. C'est la vie.

Holy Cow!

Um ... Wow.
It looks like I may be doing some gaming-design stuff and getting paid for it. Which is pretty danged sweet.

Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to talk about it, I don't think I should. No NDA's have been mentioned, presented or signed but it still seems like something that should be kept quiet. I am very excited, though.