So the first part of my new Jenny Haniver story (working-titled "The Pagurus Game" for a number of reasons that seemed appropriate at the late hour I settled on it) went up on Fantasybits the other night, and nobody asked what the hell I was thinking writing that crap, so that's good. It marks the beginning of a new phase of working in this setting, namely one where I'm settling on the first-person voice I probably should have been using all along. And if the JH canon starts to feel a bit more "Vlad Taltos" for it, well, so much the better.

I'm taking Matt's story about finding his student reading my column the other day as a very good sign indeed, not only of the We-Are-Everywhere syndrome I'm starting to notice these days, but also of the possibilities of a future where the truly geeky are rising to positions of influence. I'm thinking that a tomorrow where people in government would rather be playing Mage or similar is probably an excellent alternative to the mess we've got now. (Incidentally, I never thought to ask if Matt found out what he'd written for the Wolf. I suppose Clanbook: Ventrue would be too great an irony to hope for from an up-and-coming student of diplomacy, but you never know.) [/gamerspeak]

Back in the mundane world, all and sundry should send warm and fuzzy thoughts to Spyder, who's having her wisdom teeth out tomorrow. The words "dry socket" will not be mentioned here. (Especially not when you can find out all you'd want to know, and more, elsewhere.) OTOH, I am just evil enough to regret that I'll be missing another round of amusing speech patterns courtesy of a friend in distress. Having ridden home on the post-dental-work Short Bus myself, it's hard not to take some small amount of schaudenfreude satisfaction in that sort of thing, in a loving sort of way. Or maybe I've just been friends with Jeff too long. But at least I'll have some good company in Hell.