@!#?@! I’m bored.
My mobility restrictions and the nature of my injury mean I’ve spent most of the last few days in bed. I’m allowed to shuffle around the upstairs, mainly to the bathroom, but I’m also allowed to sit upright at my desk as long as I can keep pressure off the sutures. What I’m not allowed to do at the moment is climb the stairs except for doctor’s appointments, so I can’t cook or go outside. I’m hoping I get cleared for non-medically necessary stairs use on Monday at my follow-up. Once they do that I can at least have Stacie move my deck chair up on the deck and sit outside.
And forget about going anywhere near the pool. Not only am I absolutely not to get my foot or arm wet (infection risk in the IV they installed Tuesday), but the back yard is pretty bumpy so there’s no way I’ll be able to walk across it and keep from accidentally stepping right on the wound. At which point the cops would get called to investigate just who is beating a little girl at my place.
Did I mention I accidentally smacked the left side of my foot right on the corner of my hostibule bed’s footboard? I am amazed the nurses or security didn’t come see who was torturing children in my room. Yeah, I did that twice. Don’t do that. It isn’t anywhere near as fun as I’m making it sound.
This all translates to either lying in bed or sitting at my desk with my feet up on a pillow. The problem there is that the blood flowing down to my feet starts making my wound hurt after a while. Granted, I have a brand new bottle of Vicodin if it starts to hurt too bad, but I’m down to one a day as opposed to the one every four hours I was taking in the hostibule. That’s a Good Thing – I’m not a dope addict and have no plans to become one anytime soon. I’ve known a few opioid addicts and it isn’t pretty. Being addicted also ends up causing you to build up a tolerance, and I like being able to keep a few Vicodin around in case something really hurts. I certainly don’t need to have to not only figure out how to keep getting a steady supply of Vicodin, but also oxy to replace it as my backup. So that’s a hard Foxtrot November from me.
If only I had a hobby…
Oh, wait.
Looks like I need to examine my interests and talent stack for what I can and enjoy doing that overlaps with “in bed” or “at desk.” I was going to say I should start by looking at my talent stack, but then I did exactly that and wound up rewriting it.
OK, let’s take a look at it section by section.
Robotics Tech
This is easy – nothing. I can work on none of this right now except maybe the PLC code or G code, and I have no real need to do either.
Game Design
Well, I do run a wee little indie game studio. Maybe I should work on that. Just a thought.
- 3D Art: if there’s any part of this where I need major work, this is it. I’ll definitely be doing classes while I’m laid up.
- Asset, Character, and World Design: this is ongoing at Devil Monkey. If anything, too much of it goes on instead of more directly productive work. This is especially true of world design – the Monkeyverse currently consists of three semi-active worlds and a couple more on the back burner, and doesn’t need any more unless I have a concrete game idea and project in a new world. So despite my best efforts I’ll probably end up working on more of this than I should.
- Horror Writing/Design: I have one hypothetical project in the backlog where this would be applicable.
- Level and Quest/Scenario Design: no project currently in the works is at the point of needing any real level design. The test sandbox needs a bit, but it doen’t need to be professional.
- Unity: I can always use more practice here, and it’s a vital skill for video game design. Classes and actual coding it is.
Code
It never hurts to be better at coding. And if I get good enough I can turn it into a nice freelancing sideline or quit my job at the robot factory and do it full-time.
- C#: see Unity.
- Java, Python, Visual Basic, Web Design: while I could use some practice with all of these, there’s no pressing need at the moment. They are, however, in some demand in the freelancing community (especially Java, Python, and web stuff) so I can’t dismiss them entirely.
Other
This one is easy too since I’m not allowed into the kitchen.
- Cooking: since I’m not allowed in the kitchen and can’t even boil water in my office, I won’t be doing anything here.
- Project Management: Elvis knows I could use help here. And since my project management classes are online, they’re something I can do in bed with my phone.
- Writing: I’ll have to break out the writing prompts books and Story Engine deck and get to it.
OK, that was certainly enlightening. So then I looked at my project backlog since I have literally nothing else to do with my time.
After careful review I figured out I have one major video game project and two I can work on as a diversion. So I’ll be pounding away on Mercenaire du Projet and tweaking both Projet de Fusée and Projet Aéroglisseur as time permits. If I get bored enough, I can always work on Projet Satan too.
For other gaming, I’ve been thinking about writing a series of adventures and other content for the Monkeyverse. It might be a fun way to expand on the various backgrounds without having to invest as much time and resources as doing a full video game. Off the top of my head, the Alliance and Cyberpunk parts of the Monkeyverse are the two that really jump out for this treatment. I’ve done some background work on the cyberpunk universe and found a fun way to link it to ‘Murica, and the Alliance has always been Devil Monkey’s core world – that’s where the devil monkeys come from. Which would mean restarting the Devil Monkey Games blog.
Then there’s the pile of web work I need to get on top of. I’m in the middle of a redesign of Devil Monkey, basically converting it from the hybrid design I’ve been using to a full WP version. There are some tweaks and updates the FOTL site needs before next summer, and I have plenty of time on my hands right now. Eventually I should actually build the gorram MTS site so I can start directing potential clients to it. And then there’s the Rock Solid Mamas site. It needs some work, mostly a proper theme, but that work is largely dependent upon input from Stacie and Cindy. Since they’re both pretty busy with shows and production for said shows, not to mention the extra work that was just dumped on Stacie thanks to my surgery and Mama hurting herself a few weeks ago, this one is low-priority until they have more free time.
Hey, would you look at that. I have a whole pile of stuff to do over the next few weeks.