to be lost in a forest, to be cut adrift

This has been an interesting week.

As mentioned previously, I called in sick to work on Monday, and then accomplished absolutely nothing save perhaps the recharging of my mental and physical batteries. I came in to work on Tuesday to discover that, unexpectedly, the training class was taking a field trip the following day to the LM Research Center in Hopkinton. So the next morning rather than board the train I was picked up by my coworker Marie and we headed West on the Mass Pike.

The format of the day was supposed to be classes in the morning, a tour of the facility, break for lunch, and then classes in the afternoon. The morning stuff was a breeze; the classes were just of the general overview type, and the tour was fairly uninspiring. They have some neat stuff out there, including a skid track used to teach truck drivers how to control a truck-tractor when its spinning out of control. Unfortunately none of it was operational while we were there. And then due to a death in the family our trainer is out this week, and so the afternoon classes were cancelled. I was out of work Wednesday at about 12:45.

Last night I ran Exalted again, which continues to be a tremendously enjoyable experience for me. The players seem to be getting back into it after our hiatus. Their characters are still doing a bit of rattling around the landscape aimlessly, which I suppose is a common problem for Exalted games in their early stages. I'm unhappy with the thought of giving them defined "quests" rather than having them pursue their own interests, so its nice to see the beginning glimmers of them deciding on their own agendas and getting their acts together.

And now tonight it looks like I'm going to another Prophet's Fall event after all. I was dragging my feet a little -- OK, a lot -- but not for any particular reason. Really the truth of the matter is that I just feel tired lately, and while PF is tons of fun its also exhausting. Its a question of priorities, really. I can use the weekend to recharge by being leisurely, or by having a lot of unorthodox fun. But I like PF, and I like the people I know there, so if I'm being honest with myself the choice is clear.

if you've got an impulse let it out

I'm continuing to enjoy HBO's Rome, because like many of the things I enjoy its basically a soap opera for geeks. I find myself having increasingly complicated analytical thoughts on it, a sure sign that I like it a lot and also am completely out of my mind.

For example: one of the things I enjoy in the show most is Octavian, Atia's son, the somewhat effeminate mama's boy who pouts his way from one uncomfortable scene to the next. And it occurred to me that, while he's clearly intended to be a relatively major character, a large part of my enjoyment of him comes from knowing who Octavian is. I suppose I should post a spoiler warning, but really this is all ancient history (literally, and I apologize for the terrible pun), so I won't.

For those non-Classics geeks in the audience, Octavian grows up to be Caesar Augustus, an emperor of such staggering success that they renamed a month in his honor. He initiated the Pax Romana, a policy that's devastating to Rome in the long term but politically quite advanced, and generally he's a much bigger deal as actual emperors go than Julius Caesar could ever hope for. Julius Caesar, after all, was brutally stabbed to death relatively early in his imperial career.

And so the question arises, does the average viewer of Rome know who Octavian is and will be? I suppose its possible. After all, the average person actually bothering to watch and enjoy this show is quite likely a geek. But for me its positively fascinating to see the historical character in this light. I had never considered, for example, how psychologically damaging it must have been having Atia for a mother. Augustus is clearly a pretty screwed up adult; volumes of both fiction and non-fiction have been written about that. But its neat to see him as an adolescent, before he was anybody except Caesar's nephew.

This whole line of thinking arose because for the past couple of episodes there's been no Octavian goodness. He got sent off to boarding school by his mama, and hasn't been onscreen the whole time. The show keeps lurching forward in time unevenly. In the last episode we went from Caesar's arrival in Egypt all the way up to the birth of his son by Cleopatra (another character they've done a really fascinating take on). The scene cut was a little jarring, and made it seem like within 5 minutes of sleeping with her Caesar had an infant in his hands.

I'm really worried, therefore, that when and if they decide to bring Octavian back into play they'll have recast him with an older actor, since all this time has passed. That would make me very sad. The fellow playing him now (who is basically a slash fic writer's dream come true) is one of the reasons I like HBO's take on the character so much, and I'm not happy with the idea of someone else mucking him up. So I'm simultaneously hoping for and dreading Octavian's return.

don't be offended if I seem absent-minded, I get tongue-tied

So at some point it occurred to me that I ought to make fun of rollick for posting the most emo pair of Friday Fill-in-the-blanks ever. And then in the same breath to denounce her for doing it when I was out of town, and not on my computer, and therefore unable to answer her.

(Just as an aside, if I get to one of rollick's Fill-in-the-blanks and there are already 30-50 comments on it, I'm unlikely to add one unless I have a really good answer. There's no logic behind that whatsoever; my guess is that rollick gets around to reading most if not absolutely all of the answers. That seems like her. Its just the irrational way I am.)

Then this week she outdid herself.