Catching Up on Things

  Event sign up for Gen Con went poorly. I tried to sign in about 2 minutes before sign up went live and failed to get on right away. I didn't get on until 5 minutes past 11. While that's not much time, it put me far enough back in line for every event on my wish list to fill up. I did find get signed up for some other events though.
  Some more of my Kickstarter rewards have arrived. The Tower of Holding, Dice Coins, Bonus  Tracking Dice, Randice and Cthulhu Coin set are here. All the others, except the Mobius strip, have received their funds but aren't ready to ship yet. The Mobius Strip is still in the funding phase.
  I purchased a refurbished Dell Latitude e6320 laptop on eBay a short while back. This blog entry is being typed out on said laptop. The laptop came with a power cable and battery. I've added a Logitech M305 wireless mouse, Targus notebook chill mat and privacy screen, a Wenger laptop bag and a 2 USB 3.0 port ExpressCard to the laptop. I have a CooSkin TPU keyboard protector guard and locking notebook security cable coming in the mail eventually. I've been following their progress through the mail system by their tracking number. And I've received 2 laptop batteries and a Logitech C270 webcam from Amazon today. The battery that came with the laptop works but I don't think it holds power as well as it should.
  I decided to get a laptop instead of an Android tablet because a laptop is more versatile than a tablet. All my character sheets and .PDF gaming books have been moved onto the laptop and I plan to put the E-Tools D&D character creation software on it as well. The laptop has an SD card slot and I want to get an SD card installed in it and move the character sheets and gaming books there to save on hard drive space. I'm going to take the laptop with me to Gen Con so I can post video updates both here and on YouTube. Some of the content will be recorded on my Galaxy S8 and transferred to the laptop.
  My a1c is at 7.9 so it's improved somewhat but my creatinine levels have been running on the high side (1.45mg/dL). A referral has been put in for me to see a nephrologist regarding my kidneys. Back on Dec. 31st, 2014, my elevated creatinine level sent me to the hospital. I'm going to have to contact my nephrologist and orthopedic surgeon regarding my kidneys and hip surgery.

Background Noise

  I feel like my life is little more than background noise in the grand scheme of things. It never gets noticed because of how mediocre it is and I am. It seems the only time I do get noticed is when I royally fuck up in some fashion. I always feel like the odd man out. Like I don't belong anywhere. For example, take the gaming group that I've gaming with for over a decade. Despite the fact that I've been with these people that long, I still can't shake the feeling that I'm not truly part of the group. It's the same way at work. It's this feeling that kept me from dating. I know, deep down inside, that any attempts I make at finding someone will only end in failure. Some years back I hooked up with a local BDSM group I found on AOL. I attended a few meetings but I could never get comfortable with them. I tried to stick it out going so far as to attend a BDSM gathering at a hotel in northern Illinois. I went into the bar area where everyone was hanging out and did... nothing. I didn't speak or try to get to know anyone there. My anxiety got to the point where I just left. As I was driving home, I realized that I'd forgotten my coat and actually considered just leaving it there and taking the loss.
  The reality is I'll never be physically, mentally, emotionally or financially ready for a relationship. For the women of the world, that's really great news. One less sub par idiot making a play for their affections. One less mediocre dipshit ruining their social lives. My erectile dysfunction seems to have gotten worse not that it matters. I'm not sure whether that's due to diabetic complications or a fucked up mental state. Probably both. I've been trying to get my a1c down to 7 or below with mixed results. While I've had some good days, I'm still screwing things up enough to potentially cause problems. I need to get my a1c down so I can get hip replacement surgery done to correct the avascular necrosis.

The Mundanity that is My Life

  My life, for the most part, as been dull normal with the emphasis on dull. On the plus side, dull normality means that nothing massively bad has happened. On the negative side, nothing really great has happened either.

  The avascular necrosis of my hips is bilateral and worse on the right. The orthopedic surgeon says that I'm going to need hip replacement surgery. The problem is my a1c is too high. I need to get it down from 8.5 to 7.0.

  I've backed several Kickstarter projects; the Tower of Holding, the Judge Dredd RPG, a set of zinc alloy gaming dice and a set of Randice random character creator dice. All the projects are fully funded and the first three have received their money and have started production. The Randice project still has 7 days to go. I'm hoping that they make their $13,641 goal so they'll throw in two extra dice. If nothing else, I hope the make their $7,105 goal so the dice will be engraved.

End of the Year Musings

  2017 is almost over. This past Tuesday, I was diagnosed with avascular necrosis of my right hip. My doctor said she was going to have an orthopedist look at the CT scan in order to determine what should be done. In all likelihood, I'll need to get the joint replaced.
  Republicans have passed their tax reform bill which Trump signed into law. This is another example of the GOP shitting down our collective throats and calling it chocolate pudding. Trump has lied repeatedly claiming that he and the wealthy won't benefit from the bill. The reality is the wealthy and corporations will benefit from tax cuts that are permanent while tax cuts for the middle class will eventually end. The bill will also likely increase the national debt and lead to cuts in Medicare and Social Security. This is just another example of trickle down economics.
  While we're on the subject of Trump, I came across a list of things authoritative regimes do in order to take away people's civil rights and freedoms. I'll post the lists here so you can see that Trump is pulling this shit right here in America.