Delicious Victory

Hello everyone. I've finally worked up the nerve to try and get to Symposium on my own. After writing since around five A.M., I figured I just damned well wanted a good breakfast and a break. I've placed my order and am writing this blog entry while it's being prepared. I've essentially been waiting all summer to be able to do this. At last, I've succeeded in getting here on my own. There's still the getting back part. However, I made certain dad was around in case I screw up irretrievably there. I don't expect to though. It's pretty quiet here this morning. I just overheard a man essentially get hired. Who would have expected that given these hard times? Very nifty. I expect I'll find out his name eventually. It was also apparently some little kid's birthday but I couldn't tell whether it was a girl or guy.

It's damned nice to finally be able to get somewhere on my own like this. I hope to come here once a week. Not certain I could financially sustain coming much more often than that. Breakfast was absolutely scrumptious. Bacon, eggs, home fries and toast. Delicious! Service has been very quick also. I got here somewhere around nine and it's now just ten after ten. I'm enjoying an orange juice before I head home. They don't rush you here which is something I deeply appreciate.

It would have been infinitely better had there been a friend or two available to share this personal victory with. Eating here alone is comfortable enough but one does feel the absence of companionship. Even facing yet another personal victory by myself, I still feel like I'm on cloud nine. Making the podcast documentary of this isn't going to be easy but I ought to have enough source material. I'll look at that starting on Monday. it'll take a while before I feel completely competent with the route. In particular, the part going back. However, I've done it once now. That counts for quite a lot indeed. I'll finish my drink, pay my bill, and head back home.

I'm back safe and sound. It's approaching eleven thirty. Guess I was walking out there for around an hour. Going there was just so straight-forward and went so well that I guess I was a bit overconfident. There were a few little adventures on the way. I got confused and took some guidance from Al, a friendly man who saw me in a moment of confusion. He unfortunately took me to the right intersection but wrong corner. It took quite a bit for me to sort that out. I need to have a couple more lessons about the initial part of the route going home. However, all's well that ends well. Breakfast was awesome. I wouldn't dream of having lunch today.

The netbook didn't find any wifi signals within range. However, I can easily do without the Internet should I choose to go and do some writing there for an afternoon while enjoying a fruit smoothy. Now there's something to look forward to. Better yet would be to line up a few people near my age for an afternoon chat but one can't have it all I suppose.

I still have to find an offline encyclopedia somewhere which I can load onto the netbook. Haven't solved that problem yet. However, I did manage to round out my sound effects collection this week using some of the money my grandmother sent. I can now be absolutely confident that I have everything I need in the sound effects department courtesy of Sound Ideas. I got the XV MP3 collections since they have a 30-percent-off Summer promotion on. Guess that's almost over now. The only thing I'll eventually have to take care of in terms of assets for the game is a suitable opening and closing theme. None of the music I've already acquired quite works for that. Once I've developed more of the soundscape and audio presentation overall, I'll be better able to choose those pieces of music wisely. I have what I need for everything else. All that's such a very long way off. I don't kid myself that my current creative burst is going to last especially given current social circumstances. I need there to be more to life and there just isn't anything now.

I've started reading a book called Haulted State by Charles Stross. Hope I got his spelling right. It's about a poor hapless cop who finds herself called in to investigate a bank robbery which took place in an online fantasy game. I've barely scratched the serfice but it's pulling me along so far. I've also started listening to a series of documentaries I grabbed from the BBC Documentary podcast all about gold. There's also a nifty series of discussions they're doing called the Athiest and the Bishop which I have to make certain I catch the rest of. The first one was absolutely awesome. They're going at the harder questions and not pulling any punches. Other than that, there's not a whole lot else on the horizon. I've pretty much given up on hearing anything more from that teacher I was starting to have some slight hope for. There's certainly a degree of dark amusement at the thought of overwelming a teacher with too much information but it's still disappointing. Haven't heard from Sarah up in Niagara Falls either. She was going to be pretty busy until the Autumn though so I guess we might still actually get together eventually. God! This has been an extremely solitary Summer. There's no end to the status quo in sight either. I've picked up some more online penpals and found another chat community to join which is mainly populated with blind Christians although they hope this changes over time to be more inclusive of other Christians as well. They've survived for around four years so far. Not too shabby at all. It's certainly better than total isolation but when you've been praying for more time with friends and/or a special lady who's actually present in person, it just feels like putting a square peg into a round hole. There just aren't any alternatives within my reach. At least it passes the time a bit more pleasantly.