Sins Meme: Day One

Stolen from LIKE, EVERYBODY ON MY FRIENDS LIST.

Day One: Pride - Seven great things about yourself
Day Two: Envy - Seven things you lack and covet
Day Three: Wrath - Seven things that piss you off
Day Four: Sloth - Seven things you neglect to do
Day Five: Greed - Seven worldly material desires
Day Six: Gluttony - Seven guilty pleasures
Day Seven: Lust - Seven love secrets

1. I have excellent taste. I have a great eye for when something is done right, or for what the best possible option is.

2. I get things done and make things happen. I am organized, have a work ethic, and a good head for practicalities and logistics.

3. I’m a good writer. Larps, plays, stories, comics, you name it, I have managed to generate material in it that is pretty darn decent and has been enjoyed by others.

4. I am socially graceful. I have good manners, the ability to pick up on subtle behavioral cues, and the flexibility to adapt to respond appropriately to a given situation.

5. I do a lot of things, and a lot of things well. I like having activities and projects, so I take on many and actually do them. I also am pretty good a a fair number of things, though one of those things is not letting people see the things I don't do well.

6. I command a fair bit of respect. You may love me or you may hate me, but nobody discounts me.

7. I am very pretty. Not going to beat around the bush with that one, it's something I'm lucky to have and enjoy very much.

THE STAND IS DONE YAAAAAAAY

Guess who finished writing their cowboy larp this weekend? And guess who's cowboy larp is going to be SO AWESOME I CAN'T STAND IT?

Did you guess yet? :-)

Yes, I got all the character sheets written and sent out this past weekend. And I am pretty damn happy with this game. It's got a lot of good plot and interesting characters and even a neat mechanic or two. The map my mom made for me came in this weekend as well, and of course it is beautiful. Y'all should enjoy it, partners.

As much as I'd love to relax, since my brain is so burnt out from all that writing, now I need to switch gears to making all the stuff for the game-- packets, items, abilities, recognition envelopes, location packets, and all the rest. That at least is all just labor and doesn't require the brainpower, which is fortunate seeing as at the moment I have none left.

So, I wrote my sixth larp, my third one all by myself. Congratulations to me. :-)

DREAM PLOT

I had a dream about running The Stand last night. Only, as it always is when I dream about running larps, it wasn't exactly The Stand as it was supposed to be. I must have conflated it with Resonance in my subconscious, because I remember natbudin* was helping me run it, and I was being worried that certain characters didn't have enough to do because other characters they needed to interact with weren't among the fifteen that ended up in the game, which would only happen if you mixed the two game formats.

I remember Dream-Nat having to NPC a giant, and run an expedition into a dungeon. Don't know where that stuff came from. Also, laurion* was there, and though he was playing the character he is in fact cast as for the upcoming run, it... wasn't the character as written, so much. If I recall, Dream-Chad had gathered together a secret society and was trying to summon a demon. I don't believe it spoils anything to tell you that sort of thing just doesn't happen in this game. I mean, I guess anybody could TRY to gather a secret society and summon a demon in The Stand, but... ain't nothing going happen, partners. Ain't no vampires, aliens, superheroes, or time travelers in this here larp.

But what was interesting is that not all the dream-Stand was totally whacked. In fact, it contained at least one thing that wasn't in the game but actually was totally useable in it. The moment I woke up I knew the answer to something I hadn't quite figured out for a certain character. A plot came to me through the dream and I AM TOTALLY USING IT. That's pretty awesome. :-)

Stand blah

So in The Stand, a lot of the plot in the game is driven by what dead people or distant characters or otherwise NPCs did in the past that has had strong consequences on the PCs. There's this one NPC who I knew when I originally conceived of it would be the author of some troubles in game due to some personal issues. But as the game developed, I discovered that this character could create even more plot if I made it have even worse issues. I keep making the character more and more twisted because it develops more storyline with every twist. But it's really funny to me how screwed up this person has become given my original plan, and especially given the outward persona the character had. Twisted for my convenience!

Why is that I write a larp, then don't write a larp for a year, then write TWO LARPS AT ONCE GAH DYING OF WRITING... then I write a larp, then don't write a larp for a year, then write TWO LARPS AT ONCE GAH DYING OF WRITING again? I am not sure this is the healthiest pattern. It does mean, however, that by Intercon K I will have been an author for six games-- Alice, Oz, Paranoia, Labor Wars, Resonance, and The Stand. Four four-hours, one six-hour, one weekend-long. Three alone, three in groups.

One kind of game I've been wondering about lately is the conversation game-- the sort of game where there isn't really plot, but the whole point is to just roleplay out interpersonal relationships. Generally I perfer games with more narrative than this kind, but I have had fun in them in the past. I wonder if I could write one that was sufficiently engaging to be fun even without much plot. It feels like not having to worry about plot so much would be a welcome break, but probably creating enough substance to just make the interpersonal relationships interesting enough to carry the conversation would be just as hard. It would be an interesting challenge for me. Maybe at some point I'll try to write one. Something short, like two hours, just to see if I could do it.

Costuming arrived!

My costume for Clockwork Cafe came in yesterday! I am very pleased with it. It's a gray knee-length Asian-style dress with a lavendar floral pattern over it that fits just perfectly. The dress was actually made by a Chinese company, so I am glad I thought to check the sizing before ordering. I went for the medium instead of the small or extra small I wear in American sizing, and thank God for it. (Damn, they must be little in China.) It clings a little tightly to my boxy ribcage (probably my least favorite physical feature, grumble, grumble) but otherwise looks good. With its arrival, it means I am totally ready with costuming for Intercon.

It also occurs to me that since my only other game as a player is in the morning on Saturday, and my costume is regular street clothes, I will be able to get dressed to go to the con and not have to worry about changing for the rest of the day. That is convenient. It might be fun to dress cowboy to run The Stand, but I don't think I'm going to worry about it. Well, maybe I'll wear a hat. I like cowboy hats.

Finished the rule sheet yesterday and sent it out this morning. Now all that remain are the last few sheets. Gotta buckle down and get 'er done.

Just nine to go

I have only nine sheets left to write for The Stand. I'm finally down into single digits, which is encouraging, but that's still a lot to do by the time I wanted to have them done. I may be a day or two late, but I'm going to try my damnedest. And I still need to write up the rule sheet. It's pretty much standard Breaking Light system stuff, so it shouldn't be too complicated, except for the Horse Wrangling and Cattle Rustling minigames I'm still working the kinks out of. Also, I should probably give a rundown of how the map works. As for Resonance, I believe as of this weekend I have completed all my responsibilities for the game outside of packet stuffing and runtime GMing.

This past weekend was a full one, packed with writing, costume shopping, recording, and cooking. Went to the Garment District with a nice friendly contingent containing ninja_report*, laurion*, lightgamer*, and kamianya* in visiting on break from New York. I didn't need anything really, but there was a storewide fifty-percent-off sale and I had a Groupon, so I thought it might be fun. I hate to say it, but I am never as impressed with the thrift store section of the place as I expect to be. If you're looking for something from a recent decade (like the eighties, for example) with really iconic styling you're set, but if you're just a shopper there's a bit too much that looks just plain dated. It's way better for targeted costume shopping, in my experience. Still, I found a nice navy pinstripe blazer from Kenneth Cole that fit well, though I wish it didn't have the four close-set buttons down the front that make it seem every so slightly passe. I also picked up a printed gold- and rust-tone silk Brooks Brothers pocket square. I love the color and the old fashioned patterned, though I'm not exactly sure how to wear a square scarf of this size. Today I decided to try rolling it into a band and tying it around my neck in a plain knot. I think I like it, but I'm not totally sure it doesn't look affected. You be the judge.

Does it work, or do I look like Fred from Scooby Doo? Also not sure the blouse collar doesn't interfere with it too much.

Thanks for the Hebrew translation

I would just like to take a moment thank Jonathan Plesser for being a good friend, an obliging Hebrew translator, and a talented actor. He just very kindly recorded a piece that will be one of the finishing touches on Resonance, and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. And I know he is just going to be the best damn Steamthello and most hard-core steam-powered master carp Hold Thy Peace could ask for.

Writing stuff

Officially hit the halfway point with sheets in The Stand. Not bad, but given how little time I've got left, I've really got to ramp up production. I like what I have so far-- I like really plot heavy games, and so far I have yet to write a sheet that I am concerned will not give a character enough to do. This weekend I am basically installing myself at my desk with the goal of getting more than one sheet a day finished. I will accept no fewer than four sheets accomplished at the end of that period, though I will be shooting more for six. That will give my schedule a bit of a boost. I also should probably write up a rules sheet to send out sooner rather than later. The rules aren't complicated for the game, but they still should have some explanation beforehand.

Resonance is so very, very close to being done. We really are down to the loose ends at this point, and some finishing touches that will give the game that little extra something. I just wrote two pieces of my final assignment, have two more pieces to do, one of which is arranging with a certain Jonathan Plesser to contribute a voice. I am enlisting his acting (and language) talents to record a little piece for the project. :-)

In neat news, I got my first paycheck from Examiner.com! I am ridiculously pleased. On a per-article basis, it's a pretty small payout, but still! I made money off writing something! That's kind of a thrill. Not as cool as the time I was paid to run Alice in Chicago, but really cool all the same.

Why I get to cheat on my own style rules

In writing articles for my style column on Examiner.com, I break my own style rules all the time. For example, in one Examiner article about camisoles I warned against wearing them alone. But I wear only a camisole all the damn time. In another article I tell people to never wear leggings as pants, and they probably shouldn't wear low-vamped shoes with them either. I do the latter regularly, and sometimes I even do the former.

It's not because I don't really believe my rules. It's because in some cases I don't think they apply to me. And I hate it admit it, but I get away with it because I'm skinny.

One of the challenges I face when I write those articles is I know I can give effective style advice to skinny women more easily than I can to curvy women. Partially because I am most familiar with how to flatter the body I've been working to flatter all this time. Partially because the current retail fashion industry is designed with the lean form as the ideal. (Though I personally think that's bad business. Pardon my cynicism, but I think they'd sell more clothes if they aimed at flattering the heavier figures, which the majority of women in this country have, and trying to help them meet the ideal, as that's probably what most of them want.)

And it's not that the lean figure is inherently more attractive. It's that the things we've decided we don't want to look like regardless of size-- let's face it, your weight doesn't matter either way if you're not lumpy, disproportionate, or saggy --don't happen to thin people with most clothing styles as frequently as they do to heavier people. Leggings don't make great pants because they cling, and the more lumps and creases you have, the less flattering or appropriate they are. As a lean person, I don't have a lot of these things, so I can get away with it. Camisoles shouldn't be worn along because they don't support the bosom and cling to your bulges. I have a small bust that is pretty perky on its own, and a flat tummy without love handles, so I can still look good in them. And because of it, I don't get tagged with the label of "unstylish" because of it the way that heavier women would if they did the same thing. It's pretty unfair, but there it is.

But I don't want to write The Genetically Lucky Thin Girl's Guide to Gilding the Lily. I want to write about things that everybody can relate to, regardless of build. I really do believe that every figure can be flatteringly and attractively dressed, and that nobody has to resign themselves to not looking as nice as they'd like just because they don't have a certain body type. I am working really hard to give advice that can reach a varied audience, and stuff that never makes anyone feel like they have the wrong figure. I won't say it isn't a challenge at times, but I am endeavoring to keep "unless of course you're skinny, in which case do whatever you want" from the articles I write.

Larp con stuff

Got my second Intercon casting, which means I have all my characters and sheets for the con. This second casting is for Snaf U, which is a Brandeis classic I have been wanting to play for a long time. I see that I got the "tough cast" character, which Nat talked to me about beforehand. That always makes me smile. The role seems to have a pretty difficult job ahead, so we'll see how I do. I enjoy a challenge. :-) Costuming for the role is just going to be regular clothes from my closet, which is nice because it means I don't have to buy anything more. Still, this Sunday at 1PM ninja_report* and I are going to be going to the Garment District to try and take advantage of the sale. If anyone wants to join us there, it could be fun to meet up and shop together. I don't need anything more for Intercon, but I have a Groupon worth twenty dollars, so I'm planning on looking for stuff I like anyway. Can always get stuff for later, and God knows I love thrifting.

In other Intercon news, laurion*, the con chair for Intercon L, recently asked if I would like to be part of bidcom for next year, to which I have happily said yes. I've never participated in anything in the production of an Intercon beyond running games before but I'm interesting in becoming more involved in larp event organization, so that's kind of exciting.

Speaking of work for larp community events, I just sent out a reminder e-mail to all Festival attendees that they should sign up for the dead dog if they're coming, and if they're still on waitlists to consider filling the gaps in the handful of still-open games. Get on that, folks. That reminds me, one thing I need to do in the near future is figure out who to ask to be Festival con chair for next year. Again, I've been trying to get things done as far ahead of time as possible, so I should be looking for someone and have a choice in mind before we get to April. Next year's chair is traditionally announced at the dead dog, after all.

Scripts I could write

One nice thing about getting into a stage and screen program is that I might just be able to write all the scripts I've been wanting to write for ages but never could justify committing the time to.

You all know I love the classics, particuarly Shakespeare. I've always wanted to attempt a full-length five-act play in the style of Shakespeare, shooting for the poetic blank verse dialogue in iambic pentameter and telling a suitably epic story. Not that I think I am a poet on that level by any stretch of the imagination, but I love the style and would love to try to see if I could make something decent. Though To Think of Nothing was not written in verse, it was an exercise in writing poetic dialogue, and I have always been pretty pleased with how it came out. It is pleasing to the ear, suitably old-sounding, and yet not excessively difficult or unnatural to say. In fact, I found it easier to write good dialogue in that style than I do in modern style. So maybe if I worked hard enough, I could produce something in blank verse iambic pentameter that wasn't half bad. I was thinking of using the story of the Byzantine rulers Justinian and Theodora as the subject. I always liked them and their romance, set against the backdrop of the Byzantine political struggles. I don't know, maybe that's final thesis material.

At the other end of the spectrum, my distaste and dissatisfaction with the Vagina Monologues has made me want to write my own version. Not exactly women talking about their vaginas, but women talking about life, sex, gender, relationships, friends, work, family, motherhood, and other aspects of how living as women intersects with feminism. But, as I see it, more genuinely feminist than the VMs. I haven't thought it out much, but I thought it might be interesting.

There's also some of my previous work, like the screenplay I wrote the first part of for class at Brandeis, or Paschal Moon, the other one act I wrote for Playwrighting. Maybe I could submit it for credit, and work on completing, improving, and revising. I never really was happy with the screenplay, which was inspired by the childhood of my grandfather and I would really like to be good. Who knows? Maybe my teachers will want specific things, or maybe I'll have the freedom to use what I want.

Accepted

Earlier this week I received notice that I was accepted into the Writing for Stage and Screen MFA program at Lesley University. :-)

I am really pleased by this. I have been ready to move forward professionally for a while now, and getting into this program will give me a chance to develop my writing as well as work towards an advanced degree. It's a two-year low-residency program, which means I will generate several significant pieces of writing and critical analysis over the course of four semesters and be in correspondance with a professor who will give me feedback and guide a process of revision.

I got in on the strength of To Think of Nothing, since that was the piece I used to apply. All four professors who made the decision liked it a lot, which makes me feel really good. The program also gives opportunities for plays to be staged, and entrances into competitions to have work more widely recognized. That's pretty exciting.

It doesn't start until June, so I have some time to kill before then. I still need to figure out the finances of this, so I'm glad for the breathing room. The amorphous structure of the program means I'll still be able to work part-time, which is good. And thankfully all the larp writing will be finished by then.

So this is a really nice thing. It's nice to have something positive happen, after being so rough for so long. :-)

On discernment

I have often said that I respect people with discernment. I really admire people who have enough knowhow and good taste to have a good sense of the qualities of things. It's not only a matter of evaluating something for high quality, good performance, good execution, or some other sort of value. It's also being able to size something up and see it clearly in its entirety-- not being fooled by tricks, not being mislead, not misreading signals, but being capable of an accurate view of the complete sense.

I try very hard to be discerning. It helps you talk more intelligently about all manner of subjects from science to politics to love to art, because you can grasp the true sum total of a thing and have the right foundations for discussion. It helps you spend money better, because you can see whether something is worth the investment or not. I also think it can help you figure out how best to behave in a given situation, because you have the ability to size it up correctly. I also simply aspire to be a person of good taste, for the good impressions and the positive quality of life impact I believe it makes.

Sometimes I think it comes off to people as snobbishness. Like, it means you're always on the lookout for what's not good enough and always ready to dismiss things on the grounds that they are not up to your unreasonably high standards. But that's not what I mean by it, I see discernment and snobbery as two different things. Discernment is when you have the taste and knowledge to evaluate something for what it really is. Snobbery is when you use those determinations to condemn things as unworthy.

I confess that I sometimes do descend into snobbish behavior, particularly when I'm not feeling good about something else. It is a cheap and easy way to make me feel better about myself if I can run down something else. I should work to stop doing it at all costs, though. What I want to be is truly discerning, which is having a clear view but never losing humility just because you have it.

State of the body

I am still sick, and getting really tired of it. I can't remember ever having a cold that lasted longer than four or five days, but this one's been lingering for over a week now. Tenacious little bastard of a bug. I guess one long cold is preferable to the five or so little colds I got last winter, but still, I'd like to not be packed up with green slime anymore. Even Jared's pre-discontinue psuedoephedrine Sudafed has not brought much relief. In fact, I felt so lousy last night I went to bed at ten and didn't get anything done. I am kicking myself for that, I have too much writing left to waste time even when I'm not feeling so great.

On the plus side, my sore legs seem to have recovered. This pleases me, not only because I feel better moving again, but also because I wanted to practice the dance steps that put me there in the first place. They are fun to do, and I want to get good at them. I even believe I have lost a little bit of weight. I pulled on a pair of jeans that was growing uncomfortably tight just a month or two ago, and now they fit properly again. Hooray! I guess getting exercise like shoveling snow and dancing on top of cutting out junk food was a good plan. The difference is very small and not at all visible, but it means a lot to me that my clothes don't fit me like sausage casings.

Current status regarding Intercon things

The drop in The Stand was filled! Yay, that's a weight off my mind. I am pleased to report that this new player even likes the character she will be stepping into. So the game is full again, and I can only hope there will be no more drops between now and the time of the con.

Writing is coming well to varying degrees on both games I will be running. We are in the last round of writing assignments for Resonance, which means by the next meeting all written content for the game should be generated. Yay us! I am so excited to see how that game, with is highly unusual structure, will play out. As for The Stand, writing is coming a little more slowly. The character sheets are not short, there are a lot of them, and I am the only writer for the game. I have put myself on a strict schedule that I am confident will allow me to get things done in reasonable time, it's going to be a lot of work and ask a lot of discipline of me. I will be very, very pleased with myself when it's finished.

Of the two games I am playing, I still have only my character for Clockwork Cafe. Unfortunately upon getting my costume hint my entire plan for costuming was forced to change; apparently the color I am wearing is extremely important, and what I had planned wasn't it. Fortunately I have already found something nice and not terribly expensive to use instead. I bought it off of eBay yesterday and it should be in within the next week or two. Haven't gotten my Snaf U character yet, but I know and trust the GMs so I'm not bothered. I also don't think I'll need a ton of time to figure out costuming for that one, since I believe it takes place in the modern era.

So, lot of work ahead, but I'm not in a bad place. Wish me luck getting this writing for The Stand done so the game is as good as I know it has the potential to be!

The Stand at Intercon K drop!

To my frustration, I have just been informed that a player will be dropping The Stand at Intercon. That means I will need a female player to replace her that doesn't mind accepting a character without a questionnaire because the game has already been cast. The game really needs everyone in order to run properly, so I would really appreciate if some fine lady might step up.

EDIT: The player has dropped, the spot is officially open.

Go here if you'd like to do me this favor and take this role in my game. Please and thank you!

EDIT 2: The spot has filled! Hooray!

First dance rehearsal

Saturday was the first rehearsal for nennivian*'s Magic at Midsummer piece. I'd been excited to get going for a while, and on Saturday I had a blast. I was a bit nervous for my own performance; I'm not a bad dancer once I memorize my steps, but it takes me a while to learn the choreography to get to the point where I can go through it smoothly and fast enough. But I feel like I followed along really well, and I didn't even confuse right and left that often (which has been a lifelong problem of mine.) Charlotte's choreography is really great-- it's fun to do, it tells the story really well, and it has neat moments where one phrase will have similar but not the same elements of a different phrase that connect them and contrast them at the same time. It's very clever. She also did a great job of teaching it to us; I think the clear way she could describe it and then demonstrate it really helped me get through my typical difficulties absorbing the movements for the first time.

There are several cast members from HTP's Midsummer in this show, and I like the fact that all of us are playing different roles in this show than we did in the other one. I am Titania where I used to be Puck, Plesser is Bottom where he used to be Lysander, and Zanna is Puck when she used to be Hermia. Heck, we even have some Midsummer crew members who now took on roles-- Marissa the costume designer is Hermia, and Jenna helped with makeup and now is Helena.

It felt like a great workout, fun to do and actually physically demanding. I am lucky, I think, that my partner for a lot of the movements will be Plesser, who is strong enough to help me out with some of the paired ones like the dips. The only downside is that I am now very sore. Scratch that-- most of my body is just fine, but my thighs are pretty ripped up. Charlotte incorporated this one move that I was flattered to hear was inspired by my performance as Puck, the movement that was kind of Puck's signature, crouched down on the ground with one leg bent and one leg fully extended.

Once we started doing that, it came back to me just how rough moving like that was on a body that isn't used to it. I'm walking kind of gingerly now, and getting up and down stairs is a real pain. I had lofty ideas of practicing the steps a little every night between rehearsals, to get them more solidly in my mind, but I think I'll have to just stick to spending some time visualizing them until I'm moving better. But I think I'll be okay soon. As it was during Midsummer, I expect I will be uncomfy at the very beginning of the process while it's new to me and at the very end of the process when I'm doing it every night for the week leading up to the performance. :-)

Five sheets plus bluesheet

Five sheet done for The Stand, wheeeee! I even managed to write the bluesheet. That I want to get out very soon to the lovely players, but it still needs a little tweaking, so I will hold off a bit longer yet. I have a litte bit of a space in some of the character sheets referring to THAT THING WHAT THIS GUY DID WHAT I AIN'T FIGURED OUT YET that I need to figure out and fill in, and the bluesheet has a spot like that as well. I think that will be my focus for now-- not move on until I crack an angle for that.

Still sick, but surviving. Only real problem is I have a sinus headache. It's making it tough for me to concentrate. I also have a bunch of things to get done this afternoon-- grocery shopping, showering, helping Jared dig out his car, and writing another characte sheet --before he and I go out to have dinner with acousticshadow2* this evening, so I can't afford to screw around.

Congratulations to Jared!

Jared had some excellent news the other day when he was offered a job with a mediation firm in Watertown! It's a small operation that he noticed a few weeks ago and decided to stop by and give them his resume in hopes that they'd think of him if they needed any help. Lo and behold, they gave him a call! He's going to be assisting there a few days a week. It's only part-time, and he doesn't know how long it will last, but it's exactly in the field he wants to get into and learn more about, not to mention a great resume-builder. And it's only a few blocks away from his house, so he can walk in even on snowy days like this. So congratulations to him! I am incredibly proud.

No work for me today due to the snow. I'm glad, I'm not feeling well and I want to get things done around here. I have already shoveled out half of the driveway, even that accursed bump churned up by the snow plow pushing aside the snow on the road. I hate that stuff, it's slushy and grimey and much heavier than regular snow. The one thing I'm pleased about is that it forces me to get some exercise, I can really feel it in my abs. I'm not that sore afterward from it, though, which I guess means I'm not as out of shape as I thought, and it's probably not going to have a huge effect. But whatever, at least I'm working my abs.

Finished my third character sheet last night. Today I aim to get another one done, and either a second one or the bluesheet. The bluesheet actually might be a good idea, so that I can get it out to everyone sooner rather than later.

Sick and snowed in

Bah. More goddamn snow. I am so tired of being cold, sliding on the roads, and shoveling. There's no where left to put the damn stuff. I don't know why I bothered coming in to work today; there's nobody here and I probably could have done everything I needed to today over e-mail from home. :-P To top it all off, last night my throat abrubtly started to hurt, as suddenly as if someone flipped a switch from fine to sore. I don't recall that ever happening before; usually my throat will just gradually start to feel a little dry beforehand, then the next day I'll wake up with it sore. Very strange. I also feel like I have a slight fever, but two turns of the thermometer say I'm not only not feverish, but a little on the cold side at 97.1. Wonder if the thing's not working right.

Being sick and snowed in was not part of my plan. I need to focus on writing, which will be tougher if I'm not feeling well, and I really didn't want to have to waste a ton of time shoveling that I should be using to work on character sheets. I got one more done last night, bringing my total of completed sheets up to a staggering two. *Sigh* I need some discipline on this. Only about a month remaining.