An episode of Good Geek, Bad Geek

I am a geek... of sorts. I'm not the hard-core geek who can tell someone all the different gaming systems and munchkin their characters to be obscene at level 3, nor can I beat anyone at chess, nor do I rack up the hours power-leveling MMORPG characters online and I have never hacked anything without an physical saw or axe. Yet, clearly, I am geek enough to speak of such things. After stating these truths, I will confess that I am a little excited about the 4th edition of D&D.

One of my beloved GM's (Geek Master) spent Saturday night guiding us through what the new D&D system might be like. We played a mini-game based on these speculations and I think I like it. I am not happy about liking it, but I am actually looking forward to the June release. I recognize that Wizards of the Coast are practicing sound business practices by periodically releasing new editions that we are all expected to spend money upon to update to the latest and greatest. I know exactly what they are doing. I understand it as a money making scheme and I feel I should be exempt from giving them more because I'm totally onto them, yet... let's just say, I'm not excited about D&D the system. I'm completely loyal to my D&D group because of the people and the wonderful stories and friendships I've gained through them. If this new system makes the game play easier for me so I can spend more time actually playing with my friends, then not only will I buy the new PHP, I'll pitch in to ease the expense for my GM to buy the new books he needs.

Now for the bad geek part.

Remember when I commented how my iTunes player crashed, burned, spurned me and completely wiped all its contents from me and my progeny? Well, I have my two iPods and this iPod Rip program that is supposed to port the contents of my iPod and its playlists back into iTunes. I tried it first on my kitchen iPod (the one with no earphone capability) rather than accidentally wipe the iPod I use regularly. Well, it didn't work. I lost all the playlists from the iPod without actually porting any music into iTunes. Now I'm too scared to place my new iPod at risk. I guess this means I'm either mis-using iPod Rip or I just have horrible computer fu. Either way, it sounds like I'm going to have to spend a whole lot of hours re-importing and organizing all my music from scratch again.

Have I mentioned how tenuous my relationship with technology is? I'm perilously close to finding a cave in the woods.

Nostalgia: it shouldn’t always be wistful and positive.

Or, perhaps I need a new vocabulary word.

I am entering data and receipts for the taxes on a failed business attempt. Twenty/twenty hindsight being what it is, I’m faced with much cringing and a wee bit of anger as I enter this evidence of money and time spent in good faith that was so obviously (now) poorly weighed. *sigh* It was all done with the highest of intent and based on the best assessment possible in the moment… mostly. Regardless of the past being the past and me being better (supposedly) for having the experiences, I am still feeling a tinge of regret as I recall the circumstances for each of these receipts. That wasn’t the case with entering our other business that is doing all that it should.

I am an interesting creature full of the weird little quirks, yes? Love me, love my foibles.

Onward. I have maybe another day or so of entering remaining for this business and I am greatly anticipating the simple reward of not having it looming menacingly over my head.