Time Taken: January 2013

Yesterday was my birthday, the 27th one I’ve had (not counting the very first, of course, as is the standard for such things.)

There was much celebrating and rejoicing.

By which I mean a few people wishing me “Happy Birthday” and not much else.

I didn’t have a party. I’m an introvert, you know. We don’t really care for parties. About the closest I come is getting together to play games with a few friends, but I didn’t do that really.

I didn’t have a cake. I don’t like cake. It’s just a mass of carbs and sugar and usually too dry for my tastes. And there’s not enough nutrients in it to counteract the sugar dumping into my system all at once, which makes me feel slightly icky. I don’t care for sweets in general, actually. I’d rather eat Brussels sprouts than cake. Though it helps that I’ve got a really good Brussels sprouts recipe…

I didn’t go out to eat, or out to drink, or anything of that sort. I’ve frequently gone out to a favorite restaurant on my birthday in the past, but I really wasn’t in the mood for those yesterday, so I just cooked something for myself, a pizza that, as my Mom put it, a garden exploded onto. Kale is an excellent pizza topping, by the way. And I don’t drink alcohol. Never found one I liked enough to pick up the habit, and it’s a bit too expensive for my tastes anyway.

I didn’t unwrap any presents, even. I got three cards with money in them, two of which were given to me at Christmas to save those relatives the postage. Having a birthday so close to Christmas is a bit odd, since most people are all celebrated out by the time it rolls around. And my parents didn’t give me a present, since we’re solidly using the “if it’s not an item they want or use, it’s not worth giving as a present” rules that seem to set in once you’re an adult. And well, there really aren’t that many cheap items I want these days, and the ones I’d thought of I got for Christmas.

So, since I didn’t do any of the standard birthday thing-a-ma-bobbers, what did I do?

Well, I got my 100% World Completion for my main character in Guild Wars 2. Took a screenshot too. For those who don’t play that game, that means I explored every nook and cranny of their rather large world, from the jungles of Maguuma to the iceberg ships of Frostgorge Sound to the undead-infested ruins of Orr. I love games that reward exploration like this.

I also played a bunch of Minecraft. I’m trying out Feed the Beast, which is a mod pack with all sorts of interesting things added to the game for me to do. Yesterday I finally found a diamond in the caves deep in the earth (they’re quite rare, and highly useful). So I set up a portal to The Twilight Forest, an alternate dimension full of massive trees and ruins and all sorts of fun stuff. Like the Hollow Hill I came right out next to. That’s a massive hollow hill (go figure) with the ceiling studded with all sorts of treasure, from coal to diamonds, plus chests scattered through the stalagmite-studded floor. Oh, and a large quantity of monster spawners, which release an unending swarm of enemies until you get close enough to break it. It’s one of those high risk, high reward things. I lasted until I saw the creeper spawner (those monsters sneak up on you and explode, destroying you and a lot of your loot), and decided enough was enough. I “cheated” and set the difficulty to Peaceful and poof, no more monsters. Now I have a whole horde of diamonds to use!

And there was my normal Thursday Pathfinder game. I’m playing a gnome barbarian named Muffin, whose primary goal is to keep my Mom’s character, a halfling sorcerer named Wealday, from killing us or herself with the chaos she causes. Let’s just say we started the game with my character trying to convince Wealday not to burn down the city we’re in, which required some rather illogical leaps of logic…

So all in all, it was a rather pleasant birthday. Even without a candle-filled cake and a heap of presents.

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