Life has been interesting in the last week or so. Somewhere around the middle of the week, they dragged up my entire department into a "private meeting". That is never a good sign, more so when it is a hush-hush type of gathering with no formal announcement or something put the calendar. I have a job still, which is a good thing, but I don't have a job for next week. Basically, I'm laid off a week to help reduce the costs of the company. It would be two weeks, but I'm considered "critical" to the operation of my department which confused the hell out of me. I didn't think I was that important yet.

While this is bad news, it really isn't that bad. Just... stressful. I'm not talking about it publicly, since I don't want to get in trouble, but it will put a crimp in my original GenCon plans. I'm going, just won't have as much to play with since I'm going to be having a very light paycheck right before my trip. But, at least my tickets are already paid for and sitting in my cute little purple folder. So, I'm right on track for actually getting to GenCon. I just won't be able to wallow in the obsessive consumerism for four days. Well, I don't do that anyways, but I do use GenCon as a chance to gather up new books for the year, new RPG's to read when I'm bored, and board games to play with Fluffy.

In many ways, GenCon is the "new year" for my game life. Last year, I stopped my comic right after the last one and things kind of went downhill. But, I also get inspired by what I see at the convention. I get to meet people and play author's groupie, which is just fun. The convention makes me want to game, to write, to program, all good things.

Had to insert another large bill between me and GenCon though. My license plates are about to expire, so I'm working on getting them migrated over to Iowa. Apparently, two cars will run me just... over $600 to get new plates for them.

Ouch.

I'm not really depressed about this, but just wary about what is coming. It makes me want to work harder, which my normal response to stress, but this coming week of doing "nothing" is a killer. I'm planning on writing, programming, and basically doing things I keep whining about not getting done and treat those tasks as my normal nine hour work day. Maybe I can actually get some things done.