Ok, it’s not really a holiday, but I’m making it one. Short form, I’m taking the week off, and will resume blogging next Monday.

Longer form has nothing to do with gaming, so feel free to skip over this and come back next week, but I feel a little explanation is warranted.

As some of you may know, this has been the year I decided to really tackle my health. My physique is what one might best describe as “internet-like”, so I need to lose weight and generally get in better shape. I’ve tried before, of course, and that’s gone as you might expect. Of all things, I think writing this blog is a big reason this time has been different. I started this blog to make myself write every day, and after a certain point, I could look back on what I’d done and it was pretty amazing to see the results of that kind of extended effort. Getting healthy is a similar process, and I took some inspiration from that.

I’ve actually been at it since January, and it’s going well. I’m going to the gym, I have a trainer, I’m eating better and I’m down somewhere over 40 pounds. All in all, I’m really pleased. However, the past few weeks have been iffy – pretty much since PAX. The combination of getting very sick (PAX Plague!), my wife starting a new job (which is great, but changed our schedules) and my trainer changing gyms has been very disruptive. I haven’t fallen off the wagon, but I’ve been kind of half-assing things: exercising a little less hard, being more lax about food, all the things that point to a downhill slide. This became pretty clear this past weekend, and it became equally clear that I need to focus on getting back on track.

Now, it would be wonderful if I could disappear on some monastic retreat or movie-montage boot camp, but life doesn’t work that way. I still need to work, and I still need to honor my commitments, but I simply need a little more bandwidth this week, and the reality is that while I write for me, I’m getting healthy for me and the people I love. From that perspective, it’s pretty easy to prioritize.

Anyway, I actually will be shocked if I don’t end up writing some posts this week anyway, but if I’m smart, I’ll put them in queue and get ahead of things. I like writing, and it’s hard for me not to do it, but it is useful to absolve myself of the responsibility to write for a week. That commitment is, in some ways, harder than the writing itself.

So, that’s the story. As usual, when I return you will be spared this sort of personal jibber jabber in favors of cool dice tricks, but I figure the occaisional detour won’t hurt anyone.

See you on Monday!