Been Out of it for a While

I had to replace my antiquated laptop, then took a week to visit family out of state. Catching up with the real world takes time... catching up with multiple worlds takes even more time.

Trying to Rekindle a Work Ethic...

Between work, brower sluggishness (effin' Firefox- how does it work? Honestly, I love the search engine, but my laptop hates it- I've been uninstalling and reinstalling the damn thing on a serial basis). I have also fallen into the Wesnoth trap- for fans of fantasy and strategy gaming, this free download is more addictive than opiates. The gameplay is simple, yet sophisticated, the plots of the campaigns form an interesting narrative which clearly partakes of the traditions of fantasy literature while avoiding some of the more egregious cliches, and the game is beautiful... the unit icons are well animated, the maps are colorful and nicely detailed, and the illustrations of unit types are among the most beautiful fantasy illustrations I've ever seen. The art is classy too- no chainmail bikinis, or oiled steroidal types. I cannot say enough about the art- it's incredible (I am especially impressed by the renderings of that rarest of creatures in fantasy art, a fully clothed, accomplished, middle aged woman). I cannot recommend this game highly enough, though, being fun, it is a timekiller.

That Time of the Year

This is the time of the year that, to put it bluntly, kicks my ass. When the movie Thirty Days of Night came out, I joked about how it described a typical October for me, which is the busy season on the job. On a typical Saturday, I leave the house at 8AM for a volunteer gig, then hotfoot it to work, typically coming home after 1AM on Sunday. I'm not complaining, though- overwork beats no work at all.

Never Did Work on the Blogroll...

I was too busy having- if you must know- adventures.

Living in a part of the country which still has evidence of centuries of human occupation is a wonderful thing because we have (duh duh dununuh) ruins to explore.

The Old Croton Aqueduct, which used to supply water to New York City (the aqueduct terminated in the reservoir which served as the setting of ***SPOILER ALERT*** Caleb Carr's The Alienist), now underlies a trail, which leads from Croton-on-Hudson to Manhattan. The weather being fantastic, a hike was in order- I started at the Lenoir Preserve, a nature sanctuary on the site of two old estates, and hiked down to the aqueduct trail.


A view from a terraced garden to an archway, through which one must walk to access a wooded, precipitous path to the trailway, doesn't this just scream "Here be adventure?":





A closer view reveals crossed branches, seeming to ward off the curious:





A scramble downhill to the Aqueduct Trail, which abuts the site of ruined estates:





Here can be found evidence of a bygone era, a time before the oceans drank Depression pauperized Atlantis now-forgotten tycoons:





Actually, I believe that the "ruins" are part of the original Untermyer Estate, part of which was transformed into Untermyer Park, which gained infamy through a connection with the notorious Son of Sam case. The park itself, rumored to be the site of unhallowed rituals, is definitely worthy of a future post.