Random Musings

This is raw from the page.  Unedited and uncensored!  Just thought I'd post a little of my writing here for your amusement.

---

Meric shifted his footing slightly in the dusty ground, giving him slightly more balance.  His opponent's last attack had nearly knocked him off his feet, opening him to a variety of dangerous attacks.  He had been somewhat shocked that the young woman in front of him had been able to muster up quite that much flame and throw a little wind into it at the same time.  The wind had accellerated the slightly uncontrolled attack, making it more chaotic, which was occassionally fine but led to considerable collatteral damage more often than not.  It was also more difficult to counter safely.  Dust flew into the air around over a five foot radius surrounding him as a sharp wind rose from the ground and pushed straight up.  A more minor effort protected his eyes with a much smaller bit of Aeromancy.
    The sudden gale drove the flames up into the air and caused them to billow more before dying, and the dust cloud had the benefit of obscuring him from view for a moment.  Still, his grandfather had taught him never to waste an opportunity.  Meric pushed his hand out sharpely, refocusing the Storm Magic he was Channelling from the Flow overhead.  The column of air shifted directions nearly ninety degrees and the cloud of dust and dirt flew toward where his attacker had been just a moment before.  If he was lucky, she'd still be there, a little tired from all the Fire she'd just Conjured.  He heard a shriek of surprise and grinned, as he made out her murky form in the cloud.
    Meric clenched his fist as he let the wind die off, at the same time reaching inside to his own resevoire of energy and Conjured a small amount of Earth Magic and sent it into the dust and dirt that surrounded his opponent.  Nearly instantly all the particles stopped drifting in the air and all moved as one, contracting on the suddenly clear form of a young woman.  She was average height, with short, now filthy, red hair.  She started coughing as she breathed in some dust and though her eyes were closed tightly some dirt had apparently already gotten in as a tear cut a clear path through the grime now embedded on her face.  Her hands worked desperately on her skinny limbs as she tried to work off the clinging filth. 
    "Ew! Gross!" she exclaimed loudly between coughs, hopping around, trying to dislodge the dirt from between her fingers.  With a slight wave of his hand Meric made the earth underneath her shift from under her feet and she landed on the ground with a muffled "Oof" as the impact stole the air from her lungs.  She undoubtedly would have pierced Meric with a killing stare if she'd been able to open her eyes and her coughing robbed her of the countless curses the young woman had at her disposal.  She continued her futile efforts to get the dirt off, her motions becoming more and more frantic.  Meric sighed and walked over next to her, and leaned down.
    "Calm down, Kir."  Meric said, using a bit of Life Magic to make sure her airway was clear.  It would have been simple for him to counter the spell he'd cast on the dirt, but it would defeat the purpose of what he was trying to teach her.  "You know more than enough Terramancy to handle this.  Clear your head.  Use it."  His tone was somewhat harsher than he'd intended but he was slightly angry, more at himself than her.  The spell wasn't actualy dangerous unless he'd actually tried to cover her mouth and nose, which, in a real fight was entirely possible.  One of the many things he had to teach her and his other two students was how to counter the schools of Magic they weren't very gifted at.  Kirna was very gifted with Fire and to a lesser extent with Storm Magic, but she only had the most rudimentary grasp of Terramancy, Earth Magic. 
    His words had the intended effect though and Kirna stopped struggling again the clinging dust and laid a shaking palm on the ground.  Meric felt a small movement of energy as she tapped the small Earth Flow that ran across the training yard.  A moment later, the particles simply dropped off her leaving only a light dusting.  She quickly reached up and wiped the rest from her eyelids and took a deep breath, without coughing.  Her eyes flashed, hard and angry as one of her hands blurred toward Meric's face.  He reacted without any sort of conscious thought, barely even aware of what he was seeing until her balled fist impacted his open hand and he redirected it roughly into the ground.

 

---

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think. Later, I'm out.

 

Greetings and salutations internets!  Fear me, for I return and distractions follow in my wake!  Today, I once again do something that I haven't done before and plug a webcomic that I recently discovered.  My apologies to Alina (can I call you Alina?) for putting your fantastic work on such a ... questionable location such as this, but its the best I have to offer.  Very well, pleasantries and courtesies paid, lets get down to the meat of this posting.

The venerable Alina Pete (one of my new heroes in creativity) crafts a comic titled Weregeek.  I'll admit it, I read a LOT of webcomics; to the point where I really have a hard time keeping track of them all but I think Weregeeks gets to be vaulted into my top 5, perhaps top 3.  Penny Arcadetakes the top spot because lets face it, they are the most consistently hilarious comic on the net.  They're the easy choice.  Assigning the #2 position just got a lot more difficult.  Previously it was a tie between Girl Genius and Order of the Stick, with Girl Genius winning only because of its amazing artwork.  Now, there's a third contender for the #2 place in my heart, threatening to dethrone both of them, and that's Weregeek.

Where Girl Genius captivates with a great storyline, fantastic steampunk art, and pretty good humor, and Order of the Stick keeps the attention with fun simplistic drawing and pure over the top nerdy hillarity, I think Weregeek may beat them both.  Alina manages to do something that I don't think has ever happened to me in a webcomic before by hooking me on not one, but upwards of 4 storylines all tied into one main story.  Truthfully, you have to read the comic from the beginning to get the true picture of what she does, but I'll try and give you a run down.

The main character is Mark, a normal guy, who suddenly finds himself thrust into the world of geekery with the rising of the "geek moon" and his transformation into a "weregeek".  The moon releases his geeky impulses one night and he finds himself at a gaming store where he's tricked into a Vampire LARPing session, though he mistakes it for reality at the time.  He meets several other geeks there who introduce him to many other forms of nerdery (LARP, several forms of RPG's, video and board games, etc.) and he realizes that he is, in fact, a geek.  That's the main story line.  Secondary story lines break off from the main one in the form of the RPG campaigns he gets involved in, each one, interesting and captivating by itself.  There's one for DND, Shadowrun, Star Wars, Vampire and one more I think.  I've only read it once through (though I expect that to change).  What's fun is how the stories blend into the main story line, and even the main story has some fantasy elements in it where I'm wondering how fantastic the 'real world' setting is going to get.

The other characters are fun and unique, covering the full geeky range and hitting the important nerd stereotypes while not letting those archetypes limit them.  Like in reality, there's more than meets the eye (see what I did there with the Transformers reference).  None of them (save the "Hunter") take themselves too seriously.  Since I'm not much of an artist, I can't really go into detail on that, but I like Alina's style.  

The oddly remarkable thing is that Weregeek kind of renews my hunger for all things nerdy and geeky.  I find myself wondering if I could find a game of Dungeons and Dragons at my local gaming store, more to the point find out where it is.   I'm kind of wondering what's going to happen to me the next time the "geek moon" rises.

Ok, I lied, there is no profit.  Unless that is you consider good taste in what you put in your brain profit ... and I suppose I do.  So, good news.  There is profit! 

Ok, long story short I need to update this again.  The big problem with that is that it takes too long to write my big, long, honking, posts when I have other things to do...like drive to and from Lincoln, cook delicious pizza and waste waaaaay too much time on my resurging WoW addiction.  So, instead of infrequent long posts, I'm going to go for more numerous short posts.

Today, I'm going to cover a few of the reasons that Edward is a pussy.  Yes, idol of billions of teenaged (and sadly older) girls doesn't really even get 1 point in the bad-ass arena.  Vampire bad-asses are nothing new.  Its not as if Stephanie Meyer didn't have a great long list of role models to choose from, whether Joss Whedon's Angel and Spike or Underworld's Viktor (with a 'K' damnit) and Selene.

No, he doesn't get points for hopping through the forest carrying Bella.  Spiderman and Superman both did it before, and they did it better.

Augh! Right, short post! Why Ed is a wimp part 1. As a method of killing himself in a fit of emo (Yes I know the circumstances, I just don't care) he choses to (drum role please) sparkle in public, angering the vampire overlords who would then kill him for ... sparkling in ... public.  Maybe I have to read the books for that to make proper sense...but a root cannal sounds much more fun.

If you are an immortal super-being bent on self-destruction, there are more manly ways to take yourself out of the picture and not draw your suffering (or the readers) out.  I'll list a few.

1.  Hurl yourself into a volcano.
2.  Lower yourself into a vat of molten metal (Arnold has more personality in T2 than Edward does in Twilight)
3. Woodchipper + forest fire = Dead vampire.  True...you'll probably lose the security deposit on the woodchipper, but you're dead.  Who cares?
4. Sneak yourself onto a bomb testing range.  A bunker buster will solve all your ills.

The volcano solution is the easiest to accomplish and I would have respected a whole lot more.  And this has been "Twilight Bashing for Fun and Profit".  Thanks for tuning in.

 

Captain America talking to Spiderman during the Civil War storyarche -

"Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world - 'No, you move.'"

     -Amazing Spider-Man #537

 

 

Goodness me, I've been ignoring my blog for the last several weeks.  This is ... criminal.  Unthinkable that I would ignore my ... huge internet audience who undoubtedly hangs on my every word and thought.  Now, my long absence doesn't have anything to do with me not having anything to say.  Far from it!  It has more to do with only having access to the internet through my laptop and its difficult to find time to write when hanging out with roommates (thanks to Mark and Jess for putting me up for these few weeks).

Well, to catch you all up, I am now securely employed with Pottawattamie County in Council Bluffs, IA.  My housing situation changes this weekend when I move into my new apartment in Omaha.  I'm very exited! Its much bigger than my old place and I'll have the option of getting a pet sometime in thenear future which is something that I'm seriously considering.  Maybe a cat...maybe a dog. We'll see.  I've been playing with both kittens and puppies and it's been affecting my mind.

But, with preparations for moving in finally made, I've got a little free time to catch up with the internet.  I suppose I could have updated before now, but I don't think that work would appreciate me taking 30 minutes off to write a blog entry that didn't have anything to do with programming, and even if it did I doubt they'd appreciate me advertising their projects.  Hence, I blog on my own time which has been at a premium of late.

So...what to actually talk about? I've got a lot of new music to tell you all about ... There's the new iPod software that came out this week that deserves a little ranting.  There's writing issues that I've wanted to blog about for a while but I think we'll cover a more serious topic.  Iran.

Twitter is aflood with tweets supporting the people of Iran, what with the recent election and the alleged shenanigans.  Well, I SAY shenanigans but lets be serious...there were shenanigans.  Freedom has never been a hallmark of the current government, and their current President shouldn't be trusted with anyone's wallet.  Given that government cut off campaigning a day before the actual vote, not to mention the sudden and ... convenient failure of mass communication such as Facebook and Twitter it would be a miracle of decent proportions if the election wasn't rigged.  And if some of the numbers we've heard are right, rigged impressively.  I mean, Ahmadinejad (I actually looked up how to spell that) could have come in as low as third, and then made it to look like he won in a landslide victory.  You almost have to admire the sheer bravado of that.  A lesser cheater would have only tried to make it look like they barely won, but he decided to go with the landslide.  Way to go dude.  

Of course, they don't come much crazier than Ahmadinejad what with all the "Death to the West" and "Kill the Jews" rhetoric while coming to America and speaking about how good of friends we are.  What with his recent actions in putting down the protesting people of his country there have to be some awful red faces in Washington and academia, from those who invited him to speak, trying to show how "open minded" and "accepting" they were.  Yes, I'm on my soap box right now and a lot of people get to point at Ahmadinejad and say "I TOLD YOU SO".  And it feels so good to say.

So, I have great hope that the people of Iran will manage to throw off this crazy...but we have to see if they'll get a sane man in his place.  And we can't hope for any real change until the countries "Supreme Leader" is gotten rid of and an actual democracy is set up.  Oh, I hear you guys saying some form of "You can't say that democracy would be any better" or something along those lines. Yes....yes I can.  Why, because democracy works. America is the best country in the world and I won't make any apologies for saying it.  If the people of Iran want to join the club, I'd be all for welcoming them with open arms.  The democracy club I should say.

A'ight.  I've spoken my peace, and wish the people of Iran luck.  Even though I don't have a green Twitter icon I'm with you all.  And now, I'm checking out because I've babbled on for long enough.  Latah and I'll try and keep up my once a week posting.

Greetings one and greetings all!  I write to you now in the happiest of times to announce that I'm no longer a shiftless bum with no source of employment! I'm now a shiftless bum with a job.  Ah ha ha...ha.  Shut up, I thought it was humorous.  Doubtless my parents are very relieved that my time back in their house will be shortlived, and I get to go through the big fun of finding a new place and then moving twice, for which I will be accepting help of all sorts.  Maybe I'll just save my friends the trouble and spring for a moving crew.  But, I've got a few favors to call in, so we'll see how things go.  I plan on doing most of the actual moving of things into storage next week (unless I luck out and find an apartment with a sweet move in deal).

But, none of that's really here or there. I have another week before my job starts up so I'm going to be taking the time to get a few things done, do some writing and play some serious games.  Pretend I've got a little vacation on my hands, in other words.  Which I intend to enjoy fully.  In the meantime, you all enjoy yourselves as well.  I'll be back in another week or so with a more meaningfull post.  Until then, ciao!

So, here I am, minding my own business, working on Author Board and writing to pass the time when Microsoft comes along and announces that you can try the release candidate for Windows 7 for nearly a year for free.  Now, some of you may not understand, but trust me: the computer nerd in me could not let this stand unanswered.  So, without much forethought as to what I would do if it didn't work, I backed up my important files, downloaded the ISO from Microsoft and set about trying to install it.

Thus begins the saga.  Long story short, there were complications but a total of 3 installation attempts later, and one reinstall of XP I had a working version of Windows 7 on my computer.  Let me tell you all, right off the bat, that it's pretty. Very pretty.  Its all smooth edges, shiney effects and nice colors.  All the menu bars have a sort of half transparancy about them that works out very well.  The future of windows is very easy on the eyes, where as everything before has been kinda harsh.  It has a much more organic feel to it and apparantly is already kitted out to work with multitouch...which I don't have, but I can feel that it would be right at home.

Which brings us right into functionality.  I hear it bandied about that Microsoft stole Apples toolbar for their own.  I'm not so sure that this is the case.  Granted, there's some similarities in look, but the functionality is completely different. Since I'm too lazy to include screen shots or link to any I'll try and explain it.  Basically Microsoft took the old taskbar of XP and combined it with the Quicklinks bit of it, kind of merging them into one.  In the past, it was a mild pain to get a program on the Quicklinks bar, and if you had a bunch of programs open your taskbar would fill up really fast too.  Now, getting a program you use a lot is as easy as right clicking, and selecting the "Pin to taskbar" option.  Bam, its done.  Now I have a nice convenient, largish icon to click on when I want to launch, say Firefox.  This also serves as the "programm running" bit on the taskbar, so when I've got Firefox actually running and minimized, I just have to click on the icon again to bring it back to the forefront.  Another neat thing about this is I can mouse over the icon and see a miniture version of all the different instances of Firefox I have running.  Its very fast, and very natural feeling.  Also, say one of my iTunes windows is playing video, you see the video playing in the mini-window on the taskbar.  

Now, I've only just started playing around with Win 7, so I still have a lot left to learn, and a lot left to find out.   I'm noticing some performance issues with doing basic stuff, like creating folders and other standard things having to do with the OS, but I think this has more to do with me having an older computer, specifically a processer (Win7 ranked it a 2.8 out of a possible 7.9) that is in serious need of upgrade, so I can't really hold it against Win 7.  On the flip side of the coin, I tried playing Defense Grid and it worked much better than it had in XP.  I was even playing in a bigger resolution, with no slow down, no crashes, and no random errors with the sound!  That really impressed me.  On the other, other hand I'm getting random blue screens of death, something that hasn't happened to me since Windows 2000. It's to be expected though since Microsoft is still working out the kinks.

All in all, I'm enjoying my little experiment here.  They've got a year to work the problems out and I'm pretty sure that when Microsoft is done they'll have something really nice to put out on the market.  Now, before you start wailing that I'm a Microsoft fanboy, I'd like to point out that I'm talking about Win 7 because I've had a chance to play around with it.  The same can't be said for OS X in any of it's flavors aside from limited exposure when I'm playing around on my Dad's computer.  One of the big reasons for this is I can't afford a Mac.  Now, when I round up a couple thousand extra dollars I plan on actually testing it out on a new Mac Book Air, because it looks like the ideal writing computer.  When that day comes, I'll compare the pros and cons of the two OS's and we'll see who comes out on top.  In the mean time I leave you with song of the week. Here is "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria, as heard on the trailer for the upcoming "9" movie.

Oops, looks like I missed updating last week.  Know what my problem is? Nothing to talk about.  Well, nothing interesting I suppose I should say.  Whether or not I have anything that is actually worthwhile now can be considered a matter of some debate but we'll give it a go.  It's been a really good Monday, which is something of a rarity.  I spent the majority of the day filling out an incredibly boring 'resume' on careerlink.com ... and then filling it out again because their site had an error and lost all my progress.  That fun fiasco accounts for nearly 60% of my entire day and completely derailed all my creative goals, which included putting up a couple more entries on CreativeWorlds.com I'll admit that another 20% of the day can be attributed to screwing around and watching TV and the rest to general personal maintanance (food and such).  Nothing particularly spectacular nor endearing, especially for a Monday.

No, what's made my day isn't didn't happen after I woke up but before.  Dreams will do that occassionally.  Affect my entire day that is.  Every now and again you get to do something in dreams that reality will never allow you.  In my case, it's flying.  Yes, go ahead and skip right to the nerdy "Like Superman" assumption because its exactly that.  And it may sound kinda corny but the dream experience is always vivid, and always leaves me feeling both ... exhilirated and slightly disappointed when I wake up.  Exhilirated because its a rush, losing all dear of gravity, playing in the clouds, speeding through turns and so on.  Disappointing because all I want to do when I wake up is walk out to the balcony and take off to continue the experience.  Gravity, as she has been so correctly classified, is a harsh mistress though and will have none of that.

So, here I've been sitting for most of the day, filling out work experience, wishing for nothing more than to be able to take off for Florida under my own power and remembering flying over a mountain valley and touching the clouds.  Not being able to I reflect on the nature of dreams.  Does it have meaning, or is flying just my subconscious' way of giving me a little reward every now and again.  Maybe its some sort of unexpressed desire for freedom, but I enjoy it far too much to really reflect on it too much.

It is a good thing to know that I'm as much of a nerd deep down as I am on the surface.  My subconscious likes to give me something fun at least once a week and it makes sleep completely worth it...beyond, you know, sleep.  So, for your amusement, here's a short list of my favorite dreams in no particular order.

1. I was a swashbuckling pirate with the ability to fly and breath underwater.  There were damsels in distress.
2. I was trapped in a Jurrasic Park type of place with some friends.  We all developed super-powers for some reason.  I got super-strength and discovered just how much fun that could be.  I beat a bad guy with a light pole I'd ripped from the ground. >:)
3. I was trapped in a housefull of vampires, except I was a master swordsman and it was much more of an action movie than horror situation.
4. Can't describe this one without a three page summary.  Suffice to say that it had a complete, complex storyline and is the basis for one of my stories.  Amazing is the word I most often use to describe it.
5. All of UNL had been taken over by terrorists/communists/nazis (whatever) and I was involved in the resistance.  Once again I wielded a sword like a master and there was powered armor involved.
6. Dreams where I get to be Spiderman or Ironman.  Yes, I'm a nerd.  Let it go.
7. Last night's spectacular flight.

There are more but I have a feeling that I'm doing myself a bit of damage by going into these.  Bah.

So, this week.  Be looking for another post, although I have no idea on what.  Maybe I'll review a game.  Also, look for updates to Creative Worlds because I've got new stuff to post.  And those of you who care may see another chapter in the near future! I leave you with this, because it's what I'm listening to right now. RANDOM!

One would imagine that there is a whole literary school devoted to reviewing and critisism of various subjects.  One could also reasonably imagine that one core tennant of the world is that the critic or reviewer must do so dispassionately so that some fair standard can be applied to whatever it is being examined, whether it be books, TV shows or food.  Bull hockey says I.  Any review or critisism is always going to be based on the opinions of the person doing the writing.  A "fair" system isn't going to be rated on how much the person actual enjoyed experiencing the subject in question, but rated on a number of qualities that they were trained to look for.  Thus, "good thing A" and "good thing B" are going to have a lot in common while "bad thing" is going to lack "random elements A, B and C" that someone first thought were important. 

When it comes to movies, TV shows and books, I imagine that the qualities are along the lines of "depth", "meaning", and "broad minded thought".  Thus, whether the reviewer had fun or not would naturally take a back seat if a film were significantly "important". (Oscars, I'm looking at you, passing up fantastic movies every year for pieces of phlem that are put at the front because they address some stupid social issue).  One of my core problems with Hollywood is that they've forgotten their lot in life.  They aren't politicians, they aren't there to educate the masses and bring enlightenment to us poor sods, not bright enough to observe the world around us.  What they are is entertainers.  Pure and simple, we pay them, to take us out of the day to day grind for a little while and let us forget about our problems.

You don't see that crap in video games.  There aren't "important" games to play that stretch you as a person and encourage growth.  You know why?  ... Because it isn't FUN!  I don't want to play Final Fantasy for 100 hours, all the time being preached at over the evils of meddling in third world politics.  I get plenty of that from purely random exposure.  Gamers wouldn't stand for it ... I don't know why other audiences do.

*Cough* *Cough* Ok...uhm ... ... Well that's kinda awkward.  What I wanted to do here was a little bit of review on Castle, but I seem to have wondered from my main points...or rather expounded on them too much without putting them into context.  Ok... first thing I wanted to get across is that if you see a review from me it is NOT tempered by some arbitrary guidlines assigned by some stuck up professors.  If you see a review from me, its either because I like it and think you might too, or because I didn't and think you should avoid it as you would an incontinent chihuahua.

That being said, I like Castle.  I really like Castle.  It is not an "important" show.  You will not be challenged in any significant way during any of the episodes.  What you will do is become attached to the characters, like them, and probably laugh several times.  I don't often bother to remember actors names, because the characters they portray are far more interesting to me than following them on Hollywood Insider.  Nathan Fillion on the other hand is one of my favorites and someone that I'd go out of my way to see and he makes Castle something that stands out above most other TV shows.  Granted I could do a  complete rant on the unbridled glory of Firefly, but that's probably been done to death on these here interwebs, so I'll spare you a repeat.

Alright, time for a quick synopsis of the show (just in case you weren't familiar).  Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) is a best-selling author of crime novels.  He's just released his latest book, in which he killed off his main character because he was lacking inspiration.  Enter Detective Kate Beckitt (Stana Katic) who is working on a double homicide case, where the murders were committed in the same fashion as in Castle's books.  She brings him in on the case looking for insight into the crimes and ends up with an attention seeking, trouble making pain in the ass, tagging along because he knows people in the mayors office.  I'll leave it to you to check out the first episode (which can be found on iTunes or Amazon probably) and thus will not spoil how the rest of things in the first episode unfolds.  Long story short though, is that Castle has found his new inspiration in Detective Beckitt, and needs to spend time with her on research, something that he gets to happen against her will.

As characters go, Castle is ... well, he's a big kid most of the time.  He's easy going, unconcernded with the consequences of his actions and very good with people.  About the only character who doesn't willingly put up with his various shenanigans is Det. Beckitt, and at times even she finds herself charmed by him (which is hillarious because it ticks her off to no end).  Beckitt, on the other hand, is the straight. A no-nonsense cop, forced to endure the childish antics of the author who has more or less adopted her.  Unfortunately she has to grudgingly accept that Castle can occassionally be useful to her, as spending years writing and researching crime has given him a decent understanding of the criminal mind, and his obsession with "finding a story that makes sense" has helped her more than once so far.  Yes, I know, its been done before but I don't care.  Its enjoyable, funny and interesting all at the same time.

The show is more about the characters than the crime, which is perfectly fine by me.  Its characters that interest me the most anyway.  One of the things that I like most though, is Castle's relationship with his daughter, Alexis (Molly C. Quinn).  You would think that an irresponsible character like Castle would be equally irresponsible with his daughter, ignoring her, causing disgust in his teen age girl and having the generally bad father/daughter relationship that is portrayed in a good portion of media.  Instead, Alexis is the one thing Castle doesn't take for granted.  Since his work usually allows him, he's something of a stay home dad, and thus their relationship is very close.  Now, it has to be said, but between the two of them, Alexis is the far more mature and responsible of them (even setting her own punishment when she confesses to her father a lie of omission).  Its nice though to see a non-dysfunctional relationship between parent and child...it's the most creative thing I've seen on TV in years, which is kind of sad.  Castle's mother on the other hand ... well, I'll leave her as a bit of a surprise because she's great fun in her own right.

So, there you have it.  A rant and a review all in the same blog post.  So, remember.  Watch Castle, buy it on iTunes, and make sure it lasts another season.  I'd feel really bad if Nathan Fillion lost another job when his show was excellent but the network wanted to make way for another season of American Idol or something stupid like that.

It occurs to me that having a blog is kinda like having a goldfish. Billions of other people have them, chances are your's is just about as interesting as every one else's, you have to feed it every now and again or else it dies, and even if your friends do notice it they'll likely lose interest in it unless you've trained it to do something special...which you CAN'T since its a stupid goldfish... blog.  I lost track about what I'm talking about with that metaphore...or is it a simile, I can never keep the two of those straight.

The long and the short of tonights little entry is that I'm bored, feel like writing, but in general I'm not feeling moved to do any sort of creative writing, at least nothing in my current stories.  So, I'm here, running my mouth, so to speak, sharing my bordom with the populace.

General status update, for any who were curious.  I'm still searching for a job...looking under rocks and in crevices and I'm starting to go places that aren't all that savory.  Anyone know how to get into the assassin gig, maybe gun running?  You know, high risk but high pay off.  No, I'm not interested in drug running ... my friend Jess the state trooper would murder me dead.  She might murder me dead for the others, but I'm pretty sure it would hurt more for running drugs.  Seriously though, I've got about 4-5 possibilities that I just kinda have to wait on.  This is one of the great things about job hunting.  The waiting.  There's always a system in place that you've got to break through, and you're always waiting for paperwork of some kind, or for them to go through the millions of other job candidates.  Tomorrow I'm going to be applying for yet another position that doesn't have jack to do with programming, but it'll pay what I'm used to making, so the apartment wouldn't have to go.

Aside from job hunting I'm not keeping as busy as I'd like to.  Writing is happening but no where near as much as I was hoping.  This is partly due to a lack of the muse, but mostly due to I'm much more concerned with finding a new job, plus my apartment doesn't have an official "writing spot".  The main computer is for working and gaming...the laptop is for working and staying online while I'm downstairs in front of the TV, watching Numb3rs or playing Wii, or job hunting.  I've discovered (and am kind of supported by evidence) that you need an actual place that is just for writing and being productive.  Normally, this place is the Coffee House, or somewhere downtown that provides heavily caffeinated beverages and is away from all the distractions at home, yet has a nice busy buzz of activity.  Sadly, these places require you to buy something to sit in their chairs and use their internet whilst you are creative.  There is the central problem ... because while I can justify the occassional Subway sandwich or my weekly episode of Castle (review coming soon) its really hard to justify a $5 cup o' joe (or rather my chocolatey preference of drink) or $2 cup of tea, when I've got tea of my own and my apartment is free to hang out in.  I am going just a little bit stir crazy.  To quote the Muppets, "I've got CABIN FEVER!" ... complete with musical number, dancing puppets and even a guest appearance by Tim Curry.

Still single.  Talkin' to you girls.  Yeah, I may be unemployed now...but I'll definately be working soon and I'm not officially pathetic until I'm living in my parents basement, memorizing episodes of Battlestar Galactica and hanging up Sara Michelle Gellar posters.   Right?  Right?!  Ok, panic attack over.  Enough said about that.

I'm tired of not being able to afford Kabudo and a gym membership.  Can you imagine how fit I'd be if I could spend two hours a day of my free time at a gym.  Maybe its time to find a cheap option.  Idea's?

And thus the update ends.  Look tomorrow for a couple new entries on the Creative Worlds wiki, and maybe I'll have a new short story soon.  My next update here should be a look at Castle, for those of you who haven't seen it.  Until then, hope you're all doing well.  Catch ya later.

Anyone who knows me know that I do like me my music.  People who know me well know that I enjoy metal of varying degrees (none of the growly doom metal stuff though).  Sadly, its much easier to find good secular metal than it is to find good Christian metal.  Today, we're just going to have a short simple post that contains samples from a couple bands that combine two things I love. God and rock!  First up, we have my newest band that I've discovered called Theocracy.  I think I stumbled upon them because of iTunes recommendation service.  Thanks iTunes!  Here's a bit from them:

That's good stuff, aye?  One of the good thing about their album is that they keep the metal going and don't feel the need to have the slower songs that most Christian bands feel they need to put in.  God can be praised through headbanging too!  Next up we have HB (yeah, that's the name HB), a symphonic metal band out of Europe.  So far, they've only got the one album, so I'm looking forward to new stuff from them.  I really like the voice of their singer.

And that was HB.  Good stuff, but they do have some slow songs that breaks up the pace of their album "Frozen Inside".  

As kind of a side note, being able to share this stuff on my blog is pretty fun.  I'm not very fun of reviewing stuff (although sometimes it needs to be done) but occassionally I think I'm just going to recommend things to the masses.  I know there's a readership in the single digits for this thing, but I'd like to see some of these smaller bands get bigger, and stick around longer.  You know, make more albums and give me more music.  So, you guys can look forward to more of this from me I think.  Maybe next time I'll plug one of the shows that I'm watching and post a few clips from there too.  

In conclusion, view this blog as a cautionary tale of what happens when you get too much spare time on your hands.

Wow .... I got my first hate comment with that last little story.  I'd almost have liked to keep it as a sort of internet keepsake if it wouldn't have stupided up my blog.  Basic summary is that we have a stereotypical very-angry-liberal-guy, who we shall call 'Mark' because that's what he signed his name as.  Mark is very angry that I am a conservative and would dare to have my own opinions that don't conform to his own ... as I have differing opinions from him, I must be wrong, and therefore he feels fully within his rights (which I suppose he is) to express this via heavy sarcasm. 

I have no problem with sarcasm as a means of humor, in fact, I'm pretty good at it if I do say so myself.  However, as a means of debate, it doesn't tend guide people to your way of seeing things, more to insulting them and encouraging them (as I am now) as pointing out all the ways you are wrong (and he probably smells funny ... I'm just sayin'). Further, it doesn't help that Mark basically called me a rascist ... and I find it funny that he'd jump straight to that ... a psycologist might have something to say about that but I'm going to leave it alone.  But here I am, foolisly thinking, that we weren't supposed to prejudge people any more, but Mark assumes that I'm a rascist, just because I'm a conservative.  Sadly Mark, you logic is more than a little flawed.  See, I'm perfectly free to use sarcasm because I'm not trying to debate anything with Mark, I'm just calling him an idiot.

Why would I do such a thing?  Simple.  It. Was. A. Joke. A humorous anecdote that my first real commenter blew WAY out of proportion and actually took offense.  It blows my mind.  Not only did he take offense, he decided to give offense back and amplify it by making a load of false assumptions about my character.  This qualifies Mark as a grade A, government stamped, card carrying moron.

Mark, for future reference, responses that wouldn't have gotten your comment deleted are: a similar joke about conservative, a reasoned, well thought out (but brief, please God brief) arguement or simply shut your damn trap and don't bring stupid onto my blog ... although I suppose some argue that its already here, as I'm the one writing it. Zing! ... ... ... Waitaminute...

Also for future reference, this site is devoted to my free speach.  Not yours.  Stupiding all over my blog won't get you anything but deleted.  This is my kingdom, and I rule with an iron fist.  So, yes.  I deleted the comment and then called Mark an idiot for putting it there.  

Well, that was more fun than I thought it would be.  Maybe I should do political stuff more often.  :)  But, I suppose I should get back to actually talking about writing ... maybe doing a couple more reviews.  Heavens knows that I've got the time for it.  Anyway, check y'all latah.  

Because we all get a little political from time to time.  :)  Originally linked from here.

---

I recently asked my friend’s little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up.. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her,

‘If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?’

She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

Her parents beamed.

‘Wow….what a worthy goal.’ I told her, ‘But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.’

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ‘Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?’

I said, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party.’

Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.

---

And a good laugh was had be all...well most.

 

 

Here's a little equation for you.  Math + Nerds + Solving crime = Win.  Granted, its nowhere near the level of Charlie Epps skills of mathematical genius, but its all I've got.  Well, not all I have, but I only minored in math, you can't expect too much out of me, especially on a blog.

So, intro done, lets cut to the chase.  Numb3rs is a show in which Charlie Epps, world famous mathematician, aids his brother Don, FBI agent, in solving crimes using (you guessed it) math.  That's the show in a nutshell.  Every episode, there's a different crime, ranging from murder, to kidnapping, to bank heists that Charlie lends his expertise on and that alone, probably wouldn't be enough to keep me coming back.  Thankfully, it isn't all the show is about ... heck, it might not be the main thing the show is about.

I'm really thinking that its about characters and relationships.  I love stories where you can see the characters grow, change and experience things as events happen in their lives, and Numb3rs is such a show.  Charlie, genius though he is, is somewhat socially challenged, and you get to see how his work with the FBI helps him grow.  There's an entire dynamic with the Epps family that changes as the show runs its course, as Don and Charlie start to become actual brothers.  I know, the way I'm describing it is a little wishy washy but, trust me, you'll like it.

And they aren't the only game in town either.  There's Don's FBI team, a grouping of A Type personalities who have their own issues that come into play.  Charlie's friend, Professor Fleinhart is a constant and amusing part of the show with his sometimes odd outlook on life and interesting, physics based view points.  Don and Charlie's father, who wants to see his boys happily married and settled down (not to mention his quest to keep the house running.  And of course Ameda, Charlie's love interest (also a huge nerd).

I think the shows real charm comes from that the writers don't feel the need to constantly flog their characters.  Truthfully, I get enough character abuse from Hollywood and other TV shows (*cough* *cough* Joss Whedon) so its nice to have a break from that.  Things get gritty and intense, and bad things happen sometimes, but it tends to work out in the end.  One might say like life.  Yeah, so in real life, things don't always work out which is fine.  You know, sometimes you have a good job and it goes away, life will, on the other hand go on, and maybe something better will come out of it.  Maybe not.  But still, its good to see a show where the glass is finally half full...if not maybe a little more than half.  Watch it.  You'll be interested, and maybe even feel a bit better about the world when the episode is done.

Ok ... I put up with a lot of stuff in the American culture.  Flagging family values, an increased dependence on government for stuff you should be doing your own damn self, an ever increasing tendency to be satisfied with less while paying more (I'm talking to you Coldstone and your replacement of Cake batter ice cream with a less tasty version) but I need to draw the line somewhere.  That line apparently is me finding out that there is a web-site whose sole purpose is to help people have extra-marital affairs. 

No, I'm not linking them, that gives them free publicity, even if it is negative and I don't intend to help them.  Quite the opposite actually.  I now intend to use my free time as an unemployed citizen to build a race of giant, warrior robots (with flame throwers) and take over the free world ... and maybe a bit of the third as well ... the nice vacation spots.  Then, once all is under my iron fist I will purge the earth (and cyberspace) of these low life, vermin, scum sucking, oxygen theives.  With fire.  ... And spikes.

Honestly, I don't know why I'm surprised.  It should have been common sense.  The internet already plays host to every manner of depravity imaginable, why not this?  I guess one of the problems is that the site portrays it as a legitmate service.  "Go ahead, cheat on your wife or husband, nothing wrong with it at all.  Sure, if the secret gets out it could destroy your family, but we'll have made some money, and hey, if your wife/husband wasn't failing in someway that you couldn't talk to them about you wouldn't be wanting to cheat on them anyway. Look at how many other people are doing it."

See, this is why I have twice turned down opportunities to work at Payday Advance.  I do not believe in making money off of other peoples bad decisions / suffering and make no mistake, that is what this site is doing.  Making it easier for people to mess up their lives and make money while doing it. Disgusting.

So... I just thought you guys should know.  I'm fed up, not gonna take it any more and I'm conquering the earth.  If you want in, please send me a convincing application, with past experience in robotics, management, or henchmanning and three professional references.  Knowledge of the Evil Overlord list a bonus.

• Main
• Archives
• Albums
• Links
• Admin

«	July 2010					»
Su	Mo	Tu	We	Th	Fr	Sa
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

• Writing Journal - First entry
• Weregeeks - A not new, but notable web-comic.
• Twilight bashing for fun and profit pt. 1
• You find wisdom where you can ... also bad ass quotes
• The Great Return
• Employment HO!
• Nerding it up, with Windows 7 RC
• Randomly Dreaming and MUSIC!
• Castle - Of Authors and Murder
• Bored at 1:30 AM

• General [21]
• Review [1]
• Writing [1]
• Nerdery [1]
• Music [0]

• RSS 0.90
• RSS 1.0
• RSS 2.0
• Atom