Contrary to popular belief, California does have seasons. They are Tourist, Fire, Holiday, and Flood. I find myself strangely homesick, because I can smell ash in the air. Not that I can escape out of the city if I wanted to, all the places I would run to has a fire blocking access. I wonder how the people at my old job are coping. At my current job, hair is being pulled and feet are being stomped, and I got to gently tell customers that it sucks to be them that the fires cut off major shipping routes.

I'm trying to think of a way to approach the next anthology, but I'm having trouble. I think my intention to do a more humorous version of Khayyam may not will out, due to the heavy tinge of regret the theme seems to lend itself towards. Now I don't in general regret, so that in and of itself is unfamiliar to me, but the idealized and simplified personalities that I use for my characters never regret. That's a flaw I have as a writer, I know, but you will never hear me state that I'm any kind of great novelist. Also, I have already pretty much summed up my feelings on "the Road Not Taken" right here¹. Anything even close to that would only be a sloppier rehashing of that poem, of which I am quite proud. The opposite view, relief of a danger avoided rather than wist, might work, but I need to think about it.

Edit: I accomplished something this past week, I finally beat Final Fantasy XII. This isn't a major accomplishment, but one nonetheless. As usual, it was the story that I played for, though the gameplay was a thousand leagues ahead of the previous incarnation. What I liked this time around was that they deliberately f--ked with everyone's expectations. There was the usual band of misfit heroes: the mercenary, the witch, the thief, the princess, the sidekick, the knight, etc., and I'll bet money that everyone who followed the games expected the story to fall into a certain pattern and to revolve around a tormented love between the princess and the main character. Except it didn't happen. In fact, the main character didn't get any action at all, which I cannot recall ever happening since the first game. Hell, in seven, eight, and ten the main characters got a couple beauties to choose from (in nine the main character was hit on by just about everyone, including a male villain and a six-year-old girl). I kept waiting for them to pair off, sure that, even though she was clearly still in love with her deceased spouse and he was more interested in a big brother than a girlfriend, they would get their minds untangled and knock boots. I waited until about two thirds of the way through, when I realized that it wasn't going to happen, and that the game was subtly mocking that expectation. Usually, that kind of behavior irritates me, but it only made me smile this time. It wasn't mean spirited after all, just a joke.

¹Whoa. 700 reads. Crazy.