I've been going through and cleaning out my rather extensive collection of files. Today it was all of my old RPG files. Hidden amongst those files was an e-mail I sent out to the players of my old RPG around the time that I officially retired from the game. It was basically a retrospective of my time playing the game and the various times I didn't play it safe. I found it rather amusing. Perhaps I should add in a discussion on some of the fun I've had playing M&M where I didn't play it safe and how it turned out all the more awesome. Anyway, this might mean very little unless you played the game.. and even then it might be funny only to me. Oh yeah, its also a semi-parody on Mary Schmich's 1997 Article: "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" (AKA: The Sunscreen Speach).

To Our Friends & Family:

One of the best things about writing this letter each year is that it gives me the chance to pick my head up out of the trenches long enough to examine the past year. Sometimes it just seems to zoom by in a blur of shapes and colors. I do something similar at work and dread it as I never quite feel like I've accomplished enough. On the other hand, I only hope I have room for it all in this letter.

Being relatively new parents, the urge is strong to just go on and on about our son. The format for this year's letter (with a very nice family picture - I hope you enjoy it) does limit things a bit more so I'll do my best to strike something of a balance. Caleb has really grown up over the past year, moving from being our little baby to a little man in his own right. These days he has a handful of words and signs that he uses to communicate with us, but he has no desire to be a performing monkey and will often clam up shyly if he catches us trying to make him perform. His first word was 'Squirrel' (SKRL) but that was quickly supplanted by the much more useful (and masculine) words of 'Ball' (BAH!) and 'Car' (CAH!). No (or Nah) is also starting to make an appearance. Beside's that, he's eager and enthusiastic when it comes to helping out around the house - doing the laundry or insisting on dragging that heavy bag of trash down the hallway to the garbage shoot. He doesn't have to, but he knows that you're supposed to grunt when carrying heavy things so he does it just to keep up appearances.

Of course, Alyson and I do have lives outside of our son. I started out the year having surgery - my first (and hopefully last) kidney stone. Somewhere in the midst of everything we even found time for travel. There were two trips up to Massachusettes in the spring and summer when we were able to introduce Caleb to my side of the family and on the second trip we had the opportunity to say goodbye to Babci before she mercifully passed on. She will be well missed this holiday season. More happily, there was the trip to Florida for Alyson's cousin's wedding in July. Caleb wasted no time in charming the Papianni clan.

In September and October, Alyson participated in an event hosted the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The idea was to reach out to more and varied artists in the community. Alyson submitted a number of sewn pieces in response to 'prompts' (short fictional writings) that painted a Washington Irving-esque mood of American history. The results can be seen online (http://ghostsofachance.com/). I unfortunately missed the in person showing as I was off on my own adventure. In April, I applied for a short term assignment in Afghanistan. The timing and the assignment shifted a little but in the end (6 months later) I spent a week there in October learning about the project and creating a database to track the projects' accomplishments for reporting. Afghanistan itself was an interesting place. The people I met were quite friendly though at times I felt a little trapped in my hotel room.

Just the other day at work, I was informed that the plan for the coming year is to focus on making existing projects run more smoothly. In other words, stop for a moment and try to make sense of the shapes and colors as they whirl by. In a season where things seem to be going faster and faster, we wish you a moment to stop, take a breath, and catch up on some of the many beautiful things as they whirl past you.

Happy Holidays,
Alyson, Bill, and Caleb

So it seems as though I haven't made a post in quite a while. I'm not sure what's been keeping me from posting. Been busy and distracted with work and life and whatnot. Right now I'm at my parents new house. Well, its my grandparents old house but they've been making modifications to make it their own.

Caleb survived the trip up to MA without much issue. We got up to New Jersey on Sat and then drove the rest of the was up to MA on Monday. We managed to get the travel times to match more or less with the little guy's nap times so it wasn't bad.

It has been a couple of days now since the election, giving me a chance to collect my thoughts on the past election. First, to Obama, congratulations on winning the heart of the country. I myself voted for him with the understanding that he has promised a lot and I don't believe that he is going to accomplish half of what he says. That said, if he manages to accomplish half of what he says then I'll be happy.

As for McCain, that's a longer story.

For Halloween we took Caleb out Trick or Treating. The original plan had been to head out to the mall for whatever they were doing, do a little bit around my mother-in-laws, and then visit a friend with an extra-little one over by the Rockville Town Center. Plans didn't work out quite that way but were close and I'll get to that later.

I am posting this on Halloween as I'm not sure that I'll get the chance to do so on the actual day. Tomorrow Alyson and I celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary. Presents for 5 years are either wood or silverwear. I don't think I'll be getting her either of those things. What DO you get for the woman whose very existence has reshaped your life? Will anything really express what you're feeling?

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone who is reading my 'On the Subject of RPGs' series that the ultimate goal is the creation of some sort of RPG framework. You have to look at what has come before if you are going to look ahead. I don't really have an illusions that anyone but me will want to play it but there is certainly a sense of satisfaction that I imagine coming from such an endevor.

Today is the morning of my last day here in Kabul. I arrived in the city Monday evening and will be picked up from my hotel to head for the airport Sat morning(in aboout 6 hours). IT has been an interesting trip yet one I haven't really spoken about yet. I'd like to get some thoughts out before I'm too far from the experience.

It has been a little over a week now since we declared Caleb's first word. He's said a number of 'words' just to say them or to mimic us. His first word where he knew what it was and was able to say it? Squirrel. (Or as he says it SKRL) So the first thing a good Mommy and Daddy do is make sure he has a little toy squirrel to carry around. In this video Caleb spends a little time trying to see the video screen of the camera before we switch it around so he can see himself. I think Alyson did a fabulous job keeping him in the frame. We then let him show off his first word. For the record he knows 'Go' and 'Car' now and is getting better at mimicing our words but with meaning.