(this led to further links like Everything I Know I’ve Learnt (sic) From D&D and Object-Oriented Programming Concepts in Java, Explained with D&D – of which that latter one will prove VERY useful in about a month when I start my Java class!!!!)

I really enjoyed this article, and made a pretty substantial comment, but you’d have to dig through, and they might not have approved me yet, so here’s what I learned about business (and life) from D&D (and other tabletop RPG’s)

1. If you’re feeling insecure, find a place to thrive where there’s little competition, build a support group, and build your self-esteem from there.
2. If you don’t like something about yourself, spend XP to change it – don’t like that flaw that you have of sending emails without thinking (for example)? You have to work to fix it.
3. Learn to appreciate creativity in others, and look for it everywhere – these will be the people that will build the future.  Learn from them, and learn to work with them.
4. You are not the smartest person in the room.  If you consistently feel that you are, you are not challenging yourself. Time to find a new group (or job) or you will NEVER be happy.  (This one goes out the window if you have a personality disorder)
5. It takes all kinds – bring different skill sets into your group, and nurture those who are building their skill set. Everyone laughs at the bard until the rest of the party is disabled by the sonic attack.  IRL, Everyone ignores the file clerk until they need something RIGHT NOW;  kindness and support sown now will always bear fruit for you later.
6. Always have a backup concept and/or character and/or skill and/or job ready as we are ALL dependent on a roll of the dice.
7. Never underestimate the value of an entertaining tale. I can’t tell you how many times this has saved my bacon. I use this skill regularly whenever my boss gets stressed; if I can make her laugh, everything will be ok.

Finally, I want to expand on one the author brought up: Feed the GM.  That’s a bit narrow minded for my taste.  I firmly believe that you never really know someone until you have  a meal with them.  If you have made that meal with your own hands, it’s even more special. So, feed all the people that you work and play with, whenever you have the luxury to do so.

Thank you! CM

Last year, before a major surgery, I sat down and wrote eighteen things that I had learned with the idea of posting it on my blog.  I just found the piece of paper last week.  Here’s what I wrote:

1. Time does not heal all wounds, or doesn’t heal them in a timely manner.  Just let it go, and move on
2. Failures are lessons. Experience is not my best teacher, falling on my face is.
3. Your friends are not your friends for life.  As an extension, just because someone’s born your kin doesn’t mean that they have your best interests at heart.  Learn when and how to cut ties and walk away if needed.
4. Learn when to say “no”. It’s that simple.
5. What’s right for you is not right for the next person. Quit trying to fix him/her
6. You’re just as annoying as the next person.  Cut him/her some slack.
7. You waste more time getting out of work than you do by just rolling up your sleeves and digging in.
8. Be nice to everyone that you can – the way karma works, that person that you just screamed at in front of everyone will be your boss next week.
9. Family (born or made), education, integrity and morality are the four things that will always show true under fire.  Even if they’re taken away, the impressions that they’ve left on you are indelible.
10. Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative.  Latch on to the affirmative.  Perry Como had it right.
11. If a song makes you feel good, buy it.  If a food makes you feel good, work around the calories. If a person is enjoyable to be around, make an effort to keep in touch.
12. You know all those feel-good songs? Make a disc of them, and play them whenever you’re in traffic.
13. Late is ok, but lack of communication is not.
14. The only person that you’re responsible for is yourself.  The only people that you have to make an effort for are those that love you.  This should order your priorities for you.
15. Life is full of patterns, discover yours and utilize them.
16. Those tools you were given? Clue: USE THEM!!!!
17. That road less traveled? It’s a lot more work, but it’s more rewarding, and a hell of a lot more fun.
18. What are you afraid of? What’s the worst that could happen?  It’s only life – no one makes it out alive.

Current Music: “Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways

While I have been jokingly chafing at the bit about this requirement, I have really enjoyed sharing my thoughts with all of you, and have loved the reactions and support that y’all have given me.  I’ll try to keep up a steady update schedule, better than I have been, certainly.  I think that if I’ve learned anything, it’s that I should put my thoughts to paper rather than waiting for something to come up first.

That being said, I didn’t do much today.  I got up late, chatted for a bit with folks before our out of town guests had to leave.  we had some birthday cake (sugar free pineapple upside down cake from Mr. Natural) and then took the birthday boy to Comp USA and wandered around in there for a while. I had to get a micro SD card for my BlackBerry, and I ended up getting a bluetooth headset for the same.  The card slots in the BB are tricky, so it took me a while to get the bloody thing to seat correctly, and, in the process, I knocked the SIM card out twice.

Now I’m just chilling out and watching 24. The bluetooth is set up,  the micro-SD card is in, my tummy is full, and all is well with the world.  I think I’m going to curl up with the kitty for a while and then probably fall asleep again for a long while.  I actually have the day off tomorrow, and I really don’t need the sleep, but it’ll be so dreamy to snooze the day away….

Lets flashback to the year 1983…

My Mom had just found out that she was pregnant, and my world suddenly became a very exciting place. I was staying for a few days with my Grandmother, completely underfoot, and a little peeved that my parents were paying all this attention to my little sibling, and he wasn’t even born yet! My Gram was getting fed up with my fidgeting and incessant talking, and my uncle was a senior in high school, so he didn’t have the time or the inclination to play with me! I was totally annoyed by all of this, and was determined to blame it all on the impending intruder. All the adults had said that this was a glorious thing, but I was unconvinced.

One day, I came to my Gram with a pillow. There were a few of them on the couch in the front room, all with different patterns on a grid, all with different initials and years embroidered in them. I must have been playing in there with the piano or the light brite, because that room was usually reserved for holidays. I asked her about it, and she told me that my Uncle Colin had made it on his very own using a kind of sewing called needlepoint. I had fifty questions about this (and everything else), and she showed me how it was done, and the different patterns and textures that you could make with it. Next thing I knew, we were buying yarn. I started to make a pillow for my new sibling-to-be, but we didn’t know the sex yet, so color choices were difficult.

I remember digging through the bins of Red Hart yarn, picking mint green, and yellow and pink. I remember wanting cream instead of pink, but I don’t know why I didn’t use it. I remember her picking the stitch that I would be using out of a book, and showing me how to do it. I remember her showing me the wicker chest to put it in when I was done sewing, and how to pack it all together so that nothing would get lost. I remember that I was rubbish at threading my needles, as big as they were, so she patiently threaded each one for me. I remember her showing me how to roll my yarn so that there were no snags, and when – inevitably – I did get snags, she showed me how to undo them. I remember her teaching me how the back of the embroidery is just as important as the front, and how to care for the little scissors that she used.

I still use every one of these lessons weekly, if not daily. Later, I would learn cross stitch from my Aunt Sandy, and move on to a giant cat piece. My cousin Patricia spilled a coke on it while we were on vacation in New Braunfels, and I cut a small hole in it the very next day. I cried a good deal and took it to Gram, and she showed me how to patch it, and helped me to pick out a background color to cover all that weekend’s flubs…It’s STILL not finished; maybe I’ll do that next year….

September, 2005…

My little brother is all grown up, and I finally stopped blaming him for everything right about the time that he turned 15. He had moved to San Francisco, and I live near Austin, but Gram still lived in the exact same house. She had gotten diagnosed with cancer the month before, and I started driving to Houston every other weekend to see her. I had told her that I was her cheerleader, and she told me that I had the sweetest heart of them all.

I remember sitting at her kitchen table at one of the rare moments that I got alone with her after she got sick, and we had split the newspaper. She asked me to go and get a bag out of the wicker chest behind the couch, because she had found some owls that she had made, and she wanted me to have them. As I was digging through the wicker chest, I found the canvas that I had made. I brought it back into the kitchen, and showed it to her.

“Look at that,” she said, “we were supposed to make this into a pillow. I completely forgot about this. This was your first project.” There was a small unidentifiable stain on it, and I joked that maybe Trish had gotten coke on it too. We remembered the tantrum I threw a decade ago, and had a good laugh.

We packed everything carefully into a Whole Foods bag, and I took it home. In the turmoil of the following months, I forgot all about it.

October 2007…

I was organizing all of my closets to get ready for winter, and to make some room. I pulled out a quilt that I’d washed to tatters, and packed it to take to my friend, Janie the SuperSeamstress, for repairs. I ran across a Whole Foods bag, tucked into a corner behind my luggage, and pull it out. There was the pillow, tucked among the needlepoint owls. It still smelled like Gram’s house. I didn’t want to let it go, but I packed it with the quilt.

Janie loved the pillow, and the story that went with it. She said that she would be happy to make it into a pillow, and even managed to get the unknown stain out (a bug, by the way – Trish’s reputation is saved )

I gave the pillow to my Mom – 23 years late – for a baby gift, and she loved it. I don’t even think that Matt has gotten to see it, so here it is: