Holiday Blues

Yup, it’s already started — the holiday blues.  But it is not what you think.  Oh, I am sure I will be feeling my lathergic self after Thanksgiving and completely depressed around Christmas — don’t we all?  I am talking about my roller coaster ride of emotions that takes me to my heights, when I am pumping out three podcasts a week or writing a full length novel in a couple of months, to the draining pits of desperation and complete boredom in the deep valleys.

You see, I have an acute case of Bipolar Disorder. No, I am not going to blame my mother or the school system or the government. It’s just the way God put me together.  My wife has told me several times that I could take medicine for my condition and even out the emotional swings. But you know what, I love the heights.  I am not too particular about the slumps in the valleys, but god I love it when I am running high. The days are not long enough and the nights are too short.  I love racing home from work, or getting up so early in the morning, to bang out another  6 pages of the story, or record another three hours of podcasts.  Hell, in the good ol’ days I used to write whole role-playing games in a weekend.

So, the holiday is coinciding with my ride down the long stretch into the bowels of my negative Bipolar.  So, right now I am a old curmudgeon, whining about getting screwed in Everquest II and hating the long days at work.

You know, soon though, I will be riding the cart up the exciting hill where from the top, everything is possible. Where I am only a phone call away from success, glory, and adulation of every kind.  Oh I look forward to coming up on that peak, seeing the world from a new perspective and looking around at all the possibilities.

As I look outside its snowing — gah! That means shoveling the driveway and slipping on the ice, but soon it will mean snow angels and the thought of Spring!!

Troy

I have Returned to Everquest II

Gah!  I have been dragged back down into the infernal cesspool of MMO gaming — OK, it’s not that bad, but there for three months I had a life — I could read books — I could write stories — I knew what the sky looked liked and actually saw the stars, moon, and sun again.

To no avail, however, I started up one box — and bought the worthless expansion — and then started my second box going again.

If I don’t weary on the game, I will proudly return with a Travels with Troy and a EQual Perspectives, no doubt soon.

As for what I did in the last three months?  I finished a young adult science fiction novel called Amish Johnson and the Pegasus Chamber. . . It is about a young boy going to school in the twenty-second century and finding a key to a machine called the Pegasus Chamber.  On a lark, he and his friends walk into it and find they have been whisked away, virtually, to a pristine beach.  They learn however that not all is well when the program fails to end, and they are left with a daunting quest to find the Unity Controls and escape the virtual world.  Along the way they encounter mysteries and surprises — a young woman who Aaron (thats Amish) falls in love with, carnivorous predators that the kids must combat, and an ancient ruin filled with headhunters. All very exciting.

Troy Christensen

November 25th, 2008