Full body condom

Welcome to more crap you can read while you pretend to work.





I have decided to say "fuck it".

Just because I've got a return ticket to the USA does not in any way force me to use it. Sure, people say "oh - but you'd be out the money you spent on it!" These folks obviously have no clue that buying a round trip ticket was significantly cheaper than buying a single one way ticket.

Unless I have significant unforeseen problems while overseas, I'm just going to stay over there after the normal vacation portion has ended. Places to go and all that.

Good news for the readers of this blog - assuming I am able to get on the internet, the blog should get much more interesting. Well, hopefully.



DWELLING AND STUFF DISPOSITION

As I'd already paid my rent ahead through the month of April which I will not be using, I inquired if I'd be able to get that months rent back. My landlord was skeptical saying he wasn't sure. He didn't think he'd be able to get anyone in to rent the place immediately and this would put him into a bind. I've never heard about a rent situation where the renter had to worry about whether the landlord would be put into a bind by their leaving before but - on the other hand - I am not griping too much because I didn't have a deposit nor lease. This is a good illustration of 'no good deed goes unpunished.

Whether I get back the rent or not, I have no desire to mess with the guy who took me in when I needed a place to stay - nor screw over a friend of Bert's. He will just get a more 'furnished' apartment if I don't get it back. Heck, maybe it will make him more money. By 'furnished' I mean that I am not going to break my back (already broken) trying to lug my bed out and the shelving will be here either way - unless looted already. [Let's be honest for a minute - I don't know if I could get the bed out of here even if I was highly motivated to do so.]

Even if I don't spend any time cleaning it, the room will still cleaner than when I got it. I know that doesn't sound lovely but when you are trying to live in the USA on not much money, you have to take what you can get often.

I know that Travis hasn't expressed much of a desire for things I've accumulated. He is pretty minimalistic. Bert might take a few things to help furnish his 'man cave'. I hope he does - it would feel a bit wasteful if everything just got trashed.

Pretty much the only gear I've got left that I think will be of interest to someone is a couple of good sized 'gamer' tables, two chairs and the computer.

I've told TJ that he can have my Cthulhu books if he picks them up before March 1st - otherwise, they're Berts. Unless Bert doesn't get them before I leave - then they're whoever wants to come in and offer the land lord cleaning services in exchange for looting services.



OTHER INTERESTING PLACES

One thing my landlord did mention was that he heard a lot of expats moved to Thailand. They apparently welcome them there though he did warn about getting any sort of exotic disease. I told him not to worry - I used the full body condom. You were wondering when that would come up, weren't you? From what I'm seeing on the internet, living there (well, life there - to be honest) is cheap. I've got to admit, Asia seems much more interesting to me than Central America. For those wondering, yes, I've lived in Asia before but not Central America. More good news - I would be closer to Oz and New Zealand if I eventually retired there. No, I'm not saying "and that's where I'll end up" but it is something to keep in mind. I think I'd like to live there for awhile to see if I like it.



GROWING INSANITY AND BOREDOM

In between my ever increasing bouts of madness, I have been feeling bored out of my mind. I'm thinking that even if I end up coming back to the USA for some unforeseen reason I'm done with Blacksburg, VA. It's a nice town with friendly people, aside from occasional bursts of extreme violence. A nice place to raise a family. [Disclaimer, none of those children is mine.] So - even if I do come back to the USA, I'm not envisioning Blacksburg, VA. Maybe somewhere else, possibly even in Virginia - Travis did pain a nice picture of Virginia Beach - but the amount of snow they had this year has put a couple cracks in it. I'd like to try escaping the snow and cold for awhile.

What has been keeping me closer to sane (I make no claims to sanity) is writing the modules (see below), researching places I'd like to see, studying German, sticking way too many links on this blog and... Oh crap - I don't have a lot that is keeping me sane. Actually I've been feeling a lot like the first minute (only) of this. I've just been feeling like I've been waiting. Now, gentle readers, I don't want you to get the feeling that I've been sitting around feeling angst like I'm some sort of messed up emo fat kid. I'm just really, really impatient to get underway.




SILHOUETTE - THE SERENITY THEMED RPG

I'm not sure how this or if this will affect any of the last ten sessions of the RPG I run over skype (see here if you have no clue what I'm talking about) but hopefully it won't much. Bert has said that he has several microphones suitable for traveling with and he's going to get me one. After the 'netbook' arrives and Bert upgrades the memory in it, I'm going to try using that in tandem with my normal equipment to see if it has the memory to do recordings. If it does, the next session I'll try using that instead of my normal desktop computer. If all goes well, the netbook can take over.

I do enjoy writing the modules a couple hours every day and even more so GM'ing them. I'm curious as to whether it will continue to work out when I'm overseas. I think keeping track of 'what time is it for Logan so I know when the game starts' will be more interesting. For players in Europe and Oz (I can't spell Australia) the time should be more convenient. Not sure about the players in the states. Like Travis. Actually, come to think of it, he is the only player that is in the USA.

On the game - for those who haven't looked at a calendar - I am NOT going to be GM'ing on March 31st as I will be on a plane and they tend to frown upon that sort of thing.




OTHER DETAILS I NEED TO SEE TO

I've got to see my banker to try to get a new debit card - this one expires this year. I'm also going to tell him to make mine accessible to a wider zone (ie 'world') for a longer time (ie till I say so) and find out about what I can do in case of emergencies (lost or stolen card) while overseas. Find out if they can wire me money and such.

In the tiny hamlet of Blacksburg, they have no coin collection stores. I've got a couple coins of marginal value (a good $4 over face value, hurray) and two ounces of silver in coin form. I'm going to have to see if I can swing by there. If I can't, I'll just take the two ounces of silver with me and sell the rest of the coins at face value. They are Eisenhower silver dollars - not worth much but the coin shop did tell me on the phone they were worth $1.10 instead of just a $1. Probably not worth going to the shop and I am sure I can cash in my silver in Munich. Yes, I've a good idea where to go for that sort of thing. Yes, it would be legal. Don't look at me like that - it's only two ounces of silver, for gods sake. It will come out to about €40 or so for both ounces. Not a huge amount. In writing this, I think I've come to the conclusion to say 'screw the Eisenhowers' and just sell the silver overseas'. Well, that saves me a trip.

Medicine. My one and only 'well, crap' in all of this travel mojo. I'm going to have the doctor write up my prescriptions and send them to me. We'll see if I get them in time. I will try to specify he write them so someone who barely speaks English can read them. I'm curious to see if I will get them in time or at all.

Forwarding address. During my last couple months in the states, I'm going to try to figure out who all is trying to send mail to me and get them 'change of address' forms. Not sure which of my friends wants to be the lucky recipient of my mail yet. I'll have to talk to them about it. That's a pretty big concern. I'm thinking that I'll leave some money with them so that they can forward off anything they deem important to me. I'll check with US embassies and consulates in whichever country I intend to remain for a bit and see if I can get them to accept a package for me. Failing in that, I'll try for the 1920's trick of 'general delivery' at the local post office. Or rent a post box for a month. I'll figure something out. It's mainly to get my meds for as long as I can. If my 'grand experiment' works well, I should be able to return once a year to the US for a check up and reissue of medication at a minimum. If it doesn't work, I'll have to punt.


Any way it goes down, it should be an adventure!

[Note on the preceding photograph. As a fat man, I have fought - sometimes unsuccessfully - against gravity all of my life. It is my enemy and I have no intention of giving it a huge advantage by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. That is merely a suitably an exciting enough photograph to attempt to capture the spirit of adventure.]