Student "edition" found at {thoughts dot com slash typed no space out no space loud slash blog}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

It's not surprising that in wakes, people will be on the alert for any kind of drama going on. Is the widow crying her eyes out?

There will be those who will be hovering and trying to listen for some interesting tidbit about the lives of others.

I guess it's the lure of television and how we can easily forget that we can be seen as we observe others.

Now take that up another notch by all these internet write ups by anyone on any subject they want.

I'm not saying I'm immune to that. It is also as much for the benefit of my own memory as readers that I want to write about what happened during the weekend in the presence of grieving relatives.

Since I was talking about the room I used to rent in the student accessible version, I'll start there.

Apparently the house I used to stay in has been sold already. It had a new brick fence and grills, even on the second story windows.

This was the street I grew up in, and I don't think it's just because of the street being raised due to the floods before, but the houses, both the insides and the outsides seem smaller and more cramped.

My uncle's house, which used to be our apartment, was much more so. The garage had been converted into a roofed foyer area.

The window of my former room on the second floor looked lower now than it used to be. I don't think I'd grown that much in the eight or so years since I was there, but could it have been larger in my memory?

@@ Remember the game I was talking about last time? There's something I forgot to mention.

It's possible to "die" in the game, or as the pocket monsters used to say, "faint" and get back to life.

But when this happens, all the cash you had at hand is gone, and worse you lose twenty percent of your experience.

That is the annoying part, because at least the cash you can deposit in the back before going into battle.

To level up you also have to challenge a master, and that is best done with a lot of stamina and no exhaustion, and if needed, also with the best possible weapon and armor you can buy.

When you've fainted, there's also this underworld type battle you have to play, to gain favor with the Watcher.

I used to play only up to a hundred favor, which is enough to get me back to the real world, but lately, I've been using up all my credits of ten fights per visit. And apparently, there's a lot more you could buy with favor than just returning to the real game, but also tuning up armor and weapons for five hundred points each. And I won't find out until I get that many points, because the list only displays what you can afford.

Session 2767 finds it a welcome distraction for a short time in the middle of the day. Class dismissed.