Halo, Old Friend

So, Halo 3 is about as fun as I could hope for. Which is to say, a lot. I'm really enjoying the single player game, the matchmaking is good, and online play is ridiculously fun. And I haven't even touched the video editor or the Forge yet.

Fortunately, that's not the only way I spend my time. School is continuing on (I can't believe it's almost a quarter over) and this year is busier in the sense that I have more classes, more students, and more grading, but easier in that I don't have to spend as much time finding or creating lesson ideas. The kids still make me laugh, so that's good. Sometimes when I look at my paycheck I wonder if I'm in the right job, but I really do enjoy it, and I'm bursting to get back to writing on a more regular basis, and teaching is one of the few jobs where that can happen (thank you, summer). I've been reading a lot of noir stuff lately that's really been churning the creative juices in my brain. I've got a good idea for a crime novel in my head, and I wrote about 40 pages in just a few weeks last summer. I just need some free time to get back to it.

And speaking of reading, that biography of Houdini I've been working on for the last few weeks (it's in my goodreads box at left)? Terrible. If Houdini wasn't so interesting I'd stop reading, because the writing is awful and the main idea--that Houdini may have been working as a secret agent for the Americans and British--is far-fetched and not very plausible, at least given the "evidence" they've used so far. I have this need to finish books I've started, however, so I'm sure I'll work through it.

Quick update on the car situation. Geico deemed it a total loss and is paying off the loan and sending us a check for three grand. Nice! I think we'll use it to pay off our other car, then when we buy a new one in a week or two, we'll only have one car payment. Of course, our savings will be shot, but--as they said about Steve Austin--we can rebuild it: better, stronger, faster (what?). So that's nice. Turns out good things can come from crap things. Who knew?