LOTRO, life, and life eternal

Finally, the non-disclosure agreement has been lifted, and I can tell you that I am in the beta program for Lord of the Rings Online. Yes, I'm a geek, and I admit it. Bear with me a minute here, while I meander on...

I am, by profession, a tinker. This means I make jewelry for other players. If I do it well, it's pretty rare elite purple jewelery. Some of this jewelry I sell on the auctions and make money. A good bit more of this jewelry I give away. I like helping people. I give away jewelry routinely to low-level characters who don't know what they're doing. I help them with quests, advice, money and anything else they happen to need. They appreciate it, I enjoy it, I figure we're even.

Jewelers, however, are like noses. Everyone has one. The competition is very stiff, and the accumulation of appropriate resources is the crux of that. Most jewelers try to sell their wares for as much as they can get away with. They are very tightfisted, and not very nice in their trying to get things.

Yesterday, I noticed a guy on the chat channel offer a large amount of hard to get jeweler resources "free to a good home." I figured hey, it was worth a try and sent a mildly witty reply about being able to provide a good home where they would be beaten soundly and made into purple jewelry for lovely ladies. About ten seconds later, apparently having been inundated with messages, he sent another message saying "Okay, okay, it's found a home already!" And then he gave it to me.

I had taken the time to reply amusingly, not quickly. However, neither would have made the difference for this guy. What did, however, was the fact that he remembered me. He said I had helped him when he was new, and had given him nice jewelry, and had chatted with him and been friendly. Honestly, his name seemed vaguely familiar, but since he was a level 50, it could as easily have been from him saying things in chat before. I didn't remember him, but he certainly remembered me. So we got to chatting, and he then mailed me 100 gold. Now... 100 gold is a LOT. A stack of 100 gold is like a million dollars. (I said I would not tell how he got it, but he got it legitimately, and was just sharing because he could not use all he had.) So now I am rich, and am giving it away to others.

Now I was telling this to another "friend" in game, and we got to discussing the idea of "pay-it-forward". He said what a shame it is real life doesn't work that way as well as LOTRO does. I almost said something about how I try to do the same in real life, but I have yet to have someone mail me a million dollars.

And then I realized.

I'm not doing a pay-it-forward in hopes of getting a million dollars at all. I mean, sure, a million dollars is great and all. But I'm not being nice to people in hopes they'll be nice to me back. A million dollars is nothing on the riches stored up in heaven. I'm not paying it forward in hopes of reaping an earthy reward at all. My million dollars is saved for after the earthly beta test.

Do you work out?

I have a playgroup that Munchkin and I are involved with. She has a wonderful time every so often, getting together with other pint-sized people, and wrecking havoc on all toys in sight. I enjoy getting together with people whose conversation does not consist of "Mommy, you help me, please?" We benefit all around.

Now my trouble with the playgroup is that while pretty much any two year old can sit and play with pretty much any other two year old, and there is very little difference, that is not necessarily true of moms. Some of the moms are really my type of people, but some of the moms are more the Mary Kay consultant type. Do you know what I mean? Not just the make up, although that is certainly part of it, but the "cute" brand-name clothing, the "I care more about my appearance than I do about anything else" approach, the... well whatever it is. It's something I have yet to be able to accurately pinpoint, but whatever it is, I don't have it. I like the women well enough, but they have very different priorities to me.

So we were sitting, talking over lunch a few weeks ago, and someone started a discussion of whether or not we all worked out. Everyone (except me) started bemoaning how hard it is to find time to work out, how they try to "tone" every day, and how they can spend a year "toning" and "working out" every day, and still not look as good as their husbands if they tone every day for a week. Then they got into a discussion of how their husbands all prefer to play sports and do active things instead of "work out", and they could not understand this at all. Finally, they touched briefly on whether or not pilates and yoga were good for making them look "toned" and how hard it was to find good programs that actually were effective.

In all this, my only comment was "I do karate." I care more about being strong than looking strong. My version of lifting weights is lifting my Munchkin, tossing her around, letting her "jungle gym" on me, and make me be the tree to her monkey. I can be a horsey, I can be a camel, I can be a doggie. I prefer to play sports, play games, have fun. I go to a martial arts class a few times a week. I spend time practicing, teaching, and usually once a week, wiping up the floor with everyone in my class usually without breaking a sweat. Only in my worst nightmares would I so much as dream of spending time every day "toning" or "working out".

So what? The trouble is, this is indicative of a much larger chasm between our approaches to life. What my upper arms look like only comes into consideration when someone else brings it up. Otherwise, I could go years without considering the state of my upper arms. Granted, I might notice if I started looking particularly flabby, but I don't, so I don't notice. Even if, for some reason, I REALLY cared what my upper arms looked like, considering pilates and yoga would not be my top choices for solutions. They wouldn't even be on my list. It would be a coincidence if they were in the same universe as my list. In fact, I probably wouldn't even have a list.

The same thing goes for my approach to clothing, makeup, general presentation of myself, my house, my child, and my life. Perhaps I am insufficiently vain. Perhaps I am insufficiently self-conscious. Perhaps I am insufficiently socially adept. Take your choice. But whichever it is, it seems to me that a good half hour discussion of "toning" represents a chasm the which I have no idea how to cross. If I had an idea, would I want to cross it? I doubt it.

Greetings earthlings

So. As always, I refuse to spend time introducing myself at length, only to get annoyed with it, and quit the entire project just because I had to introduce myself. However, a few "vital statistics" seem in order.

Age: 27
Gender: Female
Family: Married (Husband will be hereafter known as "B", with one daughter, who will be called "Munchkin")
Location: Delaware
Faith: Christian - OPC/PCA/reformed, presbyterian... Biblical.
Hobbies: Music (GOOD music, none of this popular trash), martial arts, geek things, baking (not cooking - baking.)

If there is anything major omitted here, feel free to ask.