L is for Lance of Lancing

[over the course of the month of April, I shall be posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic this month? Magical weapons for a B/X campaign. All such weapons are +1 to attack and damage rolls unless, unless specifically noted otherwise. Each of these weapons should be considered unique items]

L is for Lance of Lancing.

This weapon is awesome. You should totally get one.

Sorry. I'm just really tired of doing these. Did you see Dae-Ho Lee's walk-off homer in the 10th inning yesterday to break the Mariner's five-game losing streak and record their first win at Safeco this season? It was great. I love that baseball players can look like any shlub on the barstool next to you, squeezed into an ill-fitting uniform, and still possess the hand-eye coordination to his at off-the-belt, 97mph fast ball, and just clock it straight into the cheap seats (where there were approximately a dozen fans). I watched this video half-a-dozen times which, after a train wreck of a game, is just a bit of much-needed catharsis...I mean...well, never mind. Living with the M's as your home team for forty years is an endurance test I wouldn't wish on any baseball fan. It's nice to see a little excitement in the team and the 62 fans that cared enough to show up for the game. Anyway, I can't actually watch games or anything, seeing as how Paraguay could give two shits about baseball, so highlight videos and (sloooow) running internet updates are about the only way I can suffer the season with other Seattle-ites.

I think I may be suffering from depression at the moment. That is, I may have been suffering from it for a while. Or something. My mind's not really in the blogging game. Yes, I still put out ridiculous, rambling posts, that are too long for folks to read, but...

Really, I just want to go away for a while.

I spent a lot of time reading old retrospective posts on Grognardia the last couple days. It's not a substitute for actual gaming. I spent a bunch of time reading my own posts the last couple days (1770 posted since 2009. Incredible). It's not a substitute for gaming. I considered purchasing and downloading a bunch of PDFs. Didn't...that's not a substitute for gaming either.

It's not the lack of gaming (or the lack of Mariners broadcasts, for that matter) that leads to depression. But even as I've written before that I have anxiety about the future, I've started to really, really dislike the present. This country...I keep finding myself thinking that I cannot wait till I can wipe my feet on the doormat of my final exit from this place. Over lunch today, my wife (who usually tells me I'm too negative...go figure), just unleashed a torrent on how much she hates this "upside-down land" (as she calls it). I just listened to her. When she first proposed the idea of us moving the family down here, I told her "sell me on Paraguay." She said, "they have great juices." I said, "anything else?" She said, "the people are really nice."

I think her opinions on both counts have changed since then.

And yet, this is The Happiest Country In The World. Though I'm not sure what they use as their criteria. Satisfaction with infrastructure can't be part of it. Incidence of child rape can't be part of the equation. Poverty level? Homelessness? Medical malpractice? There have been thousands of folks in downtown Asuncion protesting having to pay taxes the last two weeks (not an increase in taxes or an exorbitant tax rate...just the fact that they have to pay taxes at all)...they don't seem to be particularly happy.

Maybe the poll only reached people with land lines. They sure didn't ask me.

*sigh* I'm irritable again (one of the several signs of depression...I exhibit most if not all of them). I'm going to go eat some Indian food now. Spend some time with my family. Get away from the computer. I don't know if I'm going to keep doing this A-Z thing. I need a break.

Just...a break.