Tragedy

January 2nd, 2005

My mother passed away during the night last night. She was 77. The EMTs determined the cause of death as congestive heart failure.

After I got married, she fell in the kitchen, breaking her shoulder. She spent months in and out of hospitals. Her first operation got infected, so they had to excise a large portion of her upper arm bone and replace it with a piece of titanium, which never quite fit right and then IT got infected. She spent a lot of time in the past two or three years on antibiotics which upset her stomach and made it hard to sleep. Over the past couple of weeks, she wasn’t sleeping much if at all, eating very little, and then her feet and ankles started swelling. I had to hound her to call the doctor and make an appointment. She was going to do that first thing tomorrow morning, since her doctor was out of town for the New Year until then. I should have taken her to the emergency room, as we were all worried about her, but she constantly assured me that she was feeling marginally better all the time. I knew she didn’t want me to worry, so I took her at her word.

My mom was always such a huge part of my life that it’s difficult to imagine a world where she’s not right on the other side of the phone or a short drive down the street. She was the only parent I ever knew, since my father died when I was too young to know about it. I love her more than she could ever know. I’ve only ever met one woman as amazing, and she’s sitting behind me ready to jump in and help at an instant’s notice for anything I’d ever want. I hope I can be the kind of husband that warrants a wife this incredible.

The next few weeks will be hard for many reasons, but I know the pain will dull if not fade completely. The hope for a better future lifts the heart out of the utter blackness of despair. Not all the way, but enough. Just enough.

I love you, Mom. I always will. Tell Dad we all say hi.

One of the beautiful people

January 1st, 2005

Do you know what happens when you start developing Web sites? The next thing you know, you have seven or eight vanity sites cluttering up the Internet.

Yes, I just made yet another Web site for myself. I must have a brain problem. In my defense, I did put it on some free Web space that I just picked up … it’s a shame to have something free and not use it, y’know?

So anyway … now I have a blog related to System DL. I’m sure it’ll pall after a few weeks and eventually get deleted. Before that inevitable time, however, you can trot on over to the System DL Developer (NOTE: not anymore, me bucko!) and have a gander around.

Don’t worry, this site isn’t going anywhere. I wouldn’t want to disappoint the three or four of you that come here by accident while searching Google for “game crackz warez” or “gay horse porn bondage role play” or “Jay Cronley”. This means I probably won’t update this site as often. As if that’s even humanly possible. It’s also possible that the synergy of having another site will spur me to update this place more often. Ha! I crack myself up.

Now I just have to sit back and watch my page views soar now that I’ve included the words “porn” and “warez” on it.

Take two tablets, and other bad jokes

September 11th, 2004

Today being “Never Forget” day, I decided to remember to update my Web site. So, um, here we are. How you guys been? Good, good. I’m fine, thanks for asking. Nothing really new. I’m still in the same place, working the same job. Ho hum.

Well, there are two differences: I just got a tablet PC, which is really REALLY cool. And on the other end of the spectrum, my newly divorced brother-in-law is living with us, which is really REALLY lame. We took him in because he literally had no place to go. Now we kinda wish he would find someplace pretty quick. I didn’t realize how much I’d gotten used to walking around in my underwear until he moved in and stopped me from doing it.

Anyway, the tablet’s neat. I use it to sketch and draw as I dream of freedom. Someday. Someday.

And I just can’t hide it

August 12th, 2003

Edge-On Gaming Ltd. is on the air! Now at last you have a one-stop shop for all your System DL needs, and if I want to publish something totally different, or even a computer game, I have a place to shill it.

That site again is Edge-On Gaming Ltd. Ask for it by name at the 7-11 or Shakey’s Pizza of your choice. I’m so excited I could pound holes in concrete. I don’t know what the heck I’m talking about either.

BlitzBasic Football RULES!

May 18th, 2002

This is only a small update, since nothing of any great import has happened to me or to the site over the past month. Work is fine, wife is fine, dog is fine, house is fine, mother was sick recently but is now fine. How are you?

I’ve discovered an amazing games programming language called BlitzBasic which has occupied far too much of my time recently. Besides the link above, there are a couple of other new links to B3D sites on the Links page. I’m also doing a crash course in Milkshape so I can toss out an actual downloadable game one of these days. Blitz may be consuming a large portion of my creative personal time, but it’ll be worth it someday. You’ll see.

I have every intention to work some more on 2100: The New World, as well as putting together the final, final draft of the payware System DL (I now want to publish the player’s guide and GM’s book at the same time, which sets me pretty far back on my plans … sorry) and a pretty big update on MetaHuman DL which I just thought of tonight. All in among the Star Exterminator Movie Project and the two or three different computer games I’m fiddling with. Nothing on this site is ever truly abandoned, even the things I haven’t changed in four years. If I weren’t so lazy, I’d be really really busy.

Wherein we enter THE FUTURE

January 28th, 2002

Well, hello there! We seem to finally be all the way up. I’ll be doing some maintenance work in here, you know, cleaning up my “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!” messages from the old site and so on. I’m also just about ready to redesign the whole place over again. A new face for a new URL, don’t’cha know.

If nothing else, all this moving-the-site stuff has forced me to update, so that’s a good thing. Right?

But anyway … if you’re new here, howdy; if you’re an old-timer, thanks for finding me.

I’m super, thanks for asking

March 29th, 2001

An update … and a minor change. You may gasp now.

A few weeks ago, I got some inspiration from a column someone wrote on rpg.net and flung together an entirely new set of roleplaying rules.
I’ve you’ve ever wanted to play a LARP without having to wear those tacky black leather trenchcoats, now’s your chance. Give MetaHuman DL a look, and maybe, just maybe … it will change your life forever. Or at least give you something to do in between downloading Internet porn.

Ping-pong match!

March 12th, 2000

You know that disorder where people get distracted by pretty much anything which comes along? I think I have it. That’s why System DL still isn’t finished (but will be soon, honest). That’s why the brave new design for this site is still in the planning stages. That’s why I’ve been frittering my time away with computer animation tests instead of doing real work. I’m bad and I know it.

Sixteen Tons

February 15th, 2000

What have I been doing instead of churning out System DL books? Churning out a big new CGI-powered Web site for my employer. Sorry, but they pay my bills. I know what side my bread’s buttered on. And other money-related homilies.

On the home front, System DL has become something of a monster, hence its slowness. I’m suffering from TMJ disorder … there’s Too Much Junk I wanna put in the three game settings. But never mind, the Players’ Manual is almost ready to go. Really. First week of March is looking pretty firm. I’m serious. Put down those machetes. Thank you.

Jurassic Post

December 21st, 1998

Boy, this being married stuff sure is time-consuming. It wasn’t quite my site-negligence record of year and a half, but it has been a sodding long time since the last time I’ve updated anything on this site, I’ll give you that. I’m not going to be one of those people who start something and then let it slide, though, so if you were looking/waiting/hoping for updates, they will get done. I will write more 2100. I will update the MKTE pages to include all the new characters from the new games. I will add vehicle rules to System DL. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow … but in the meantime, we’ll always have Paris.