I’ve been learning archery with my mum.  For her, it has gotten her out of the house since my dad passed.  For me … it’s actually kind of fun.

For those who have never tried it, it’s a little like patting your head while rubbing your stomach: both arms are doing something different, but you must be precise with each.  And only after you’ve learned how to do everything very consistently can you focus on aiming.

As the pandemic restrictions relax, I’ve also gotten back into running RPGs.  I’m using the new (or not so new) 5.1 version of Traveller.  My players are being very accommodating as I learn what house rules I need to make the system work for my table, and with key areas of my creativity/social skills being shut down by the trauma of the past couple of years.  But if I can get to a point where I’m satisfied with the game flow, maybe I can get my writing back on track.  Talking of which, Core Values (the sequel to Frozen Watch) is currently stalled a third of the way in.

Finally, two of the websites I run (including this one) have been targeted by hackers.  As far as I’m aware, they haven’t been able to get in, but their constant probing consumes resources and creates problems for my hosting company.  I’ve had to deploy a double firewall (one off-server), create a honeypot for ‘bad’ robots, and take other steps to harden my sites.  So far, it seems to be working … albeit time-consuming to set up and configure.