So Much Complication...

I left my taxes until the last minute again this year, they've only just been filed. It took me almost an entire day to get them in, once I combine my time spent on it. It took a good few hours trying to file at my house because the internet kept dying, and if it cut out in the middle of me filling in my W-2 forms online, they automatically logged me out and I had to start over. It was very trying on my patience.
Then I realized I was missing a W-2 from Borders (I had three coming to me this year) and that it was a pain in the ass. So I called them, got put on hold for a while, was given another phone number, called them, was put on hold for a while, was asked a lot of questions, and then was told that they'd reset my pin and I could access it online.
What pin? I don't know either, but it worked and I managed to get an online copy of my W-2 so I could finish filing.
I did finish, too, at Patrick's because his internet won't kill me.

We were running errands today and I saw some silly things out on Rt. 70, one of the major roads in the area. First, there was a person in a gecko costume out on the side of the road waving to everyone. Yes, they were the Geico Gecko. And then, coming back the other way, there was a giant inflatable mutant demon plague rat. It was large, angry looking, red-eyed and it seemed to have ring-worm or something on its stomach. I don't know, it was out front of a health center, but I couldn't read the sign as we passed. I think it's just international Black Plague month or something. Eh.

I found out from Bob today that Dave Arneson, co-creator with Gary Gygax of Dungeons and Dragons, died last Thursday. It made me a little sad at first because that means that Wizards of the Coast is firmly ensconced as the owners of D&D, but then I found out that Arneson abandoned D&D after its creation and went off to teach graphic design or something. Psha.
But it also made me think that games have come so far in such a short amount of time. My mom was telling me about playing D&D with some of her college friends (one of them apparently made some really awesome dungeons). Nowadays, we have all these high-tech and graphics-intensive games like Grand Theft Auto, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy. And yet, half a dozen of my friends and I still get together on Monday nights to sit around a table, roll dice, listen to someone narrate our adventures, and best and most fun of all, role play.
There's something unexpectedly appealing about creating a character to play. It's a brainchild that you grow more attached to than you expect, and it's a wonderful feeling. Not only that, there's just something about strapping on a new, temporary personality and interacting with your friends who are suddenly saying and doing things they normally wouldn't. Bob is a narcoleptic warlord human, Patrick is an apathetic dragonborn paladin (lizard-man, holy warrior), Caryn is a Tiefling rogue (demon-like humanoid, thief-type) with some blunt head trauma, Dan is a drunkard human fighter with a love of, ah, "herbs", Ty is a Drow (dark elf) ranger with an obsession for shiny things, and Corey is a water-soul Genassi sword mage (water-elemental humanoid, magic-using swordsman). Me? I'm a half-elf with a split personality.
It's fun. It really is. And the math involved doesn't even bother me.

Have a wonderful week everyone! Hope your monday ends well.


Daffadowndilly
Has come into town,
In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown.
~Mother Goose