amazingadrian

It's funny how things work out. Not only have I gotten back into World of Warcraft after a two year absence, but I've also gotten back into Southern Cross after about as long. Even though everything has changed, I started up a new character there. Seems my old one has been purged. In any case, it's no big deal. I'm having more fun with it now than I ever did with it back then. Anyhow, the reason for my getting back into the game is that I recently read the book written by the game's creator, as background for his rp. I poked around in the game to contact him about writing a review for it...Unfortunately, site policy at FireFox news won't allow me to write reviews for independently published works based off of other franchises (fanfiction). I have yet to learn if I can write reviews for independently published books based on original material though, so we'll see.

In any case, since I can't post the review on FFN, I'm going to be putting it up here for now until I can find some other place for it.
( Southern Cross by David Silver )


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Now playing: RTZ - Until Your Love Comes Back Around
via FoxyTunes

ShamWow! Everyone's seen the video, but is it really all that great? Watch as they put the product up against consumer review.

Could we be heading for another financial crises? After Wall Street's financial meltdown and the ensuing Great Recession, some economists are saying that the devaluation of the US dollar is next.

The switch from analog television signals to digital channels left an estimated 1 million homes stranded without T.V. It's a classic example of why it isn't such a good idea to suddenly change a technology that's been used for years and years, even for something better. A more gradual phase-out would have better served our nation.

( What's been going on with me... )
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Now playing: Alan Silvestri - Theme From "Flight of the Navigator"
via FoxyTunes    

An economist claims that the recession is now over based on statistical data.

The economics of automobile colors. What is trendy today, and how does that compare with trends in the past?

Supposedly, there is a way to practice divination and develop your ESP skills based on your astrological sign.

Here's a meme from skunktaur :

Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...

The Gadgeteer

36% Elegant, 52% Technological, 33% Historical, 24% Adventurous and 40% Playful!

In other news, Journey has reached another milestone in their illustrius careers. The song "Don't Stop Beleiving" has just become the most downloaded song in the history of the Internet, reaching a grand total of 2 million in sales and counting! The ironic thing is that the song wasn't even a #1 hit for the band when it charted, although it certainly did chart high for the band at #8. And now, after being ITune's top seller for nearly a decade, it has essentially become a permanent #1 hit for the band. Congratulations to the guys on making rock history...again!

There's also a movement to get them into the Hall of Fame, and their "Escape" album has been chosen as #1 of the top 600 albums by Rock Report.

While the subject is on music, I wrote an official review to spread the word about Coldplay's free album. You can find it here.

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Now playing: Journey - When You Love a Woman
via FoxyTunes   

Facebook has restructured recently, making a blatant greedy grab for all of their user's content. A new clause in their rules basically state that everything you post on Facebook essentially becomes their property for commercial use.

A 47 million year old primate fossil is being hailed as the long saught "missing link" in human evolution. Could this really be the final proof that humans evolved? Will it have as much of an impact on paleontology as people say it will? That much remains to be seen.

The same blog carries a blurb about a new book that someone wrote: "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became A Virtue In The Land Of A Free". This is deeply releiving for me, because for a while I was afraid that maybe I was the only one who noticed. I think maybe I'll try to track it down. It looks like an excellent and accurate discussion on the social state of America in today's world.

 

( Books and music and more )
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Now playing: Bad English - Price of Love
via FoxyTunes    

Medicine has grown and evolved throughout the years, and by now alternative childbirths are not a new thing. But a growing number of women claim to have discovered a breakthrough alternative in which childbirth is not only painless, but actually orgasmic. I suppose it could be possible.

And now, straight from the President of Nintendo Of America: Wii games are not profitable. They estimate that in order to earn profits, a game needs to sell one million copies; a sell rate that only 16 Wii titles have successfully acheived.  Could this be part of the reason why third-party developers have abandoned Nintendo?

A woman divorced her husband recently for cleaning too much.

Starting back in December when I was forced to move into an empty room (aside from all the boxes) with no access to any of my usual entertainment, I took up reading a few books that my parents were wanting to get rid of. Since work started, I've been reading during my breaks, so I finally managed to finish the thing. The book I was reading was "Audrey Rose" by Frank De Felitta. For being written in 1975, it has some oddly weird moments where you can't tell whether or not the setting is modern or dated. It's clear that the author did serious research in some areas while neglecting others.

What would you do if someone you had never met before approached you one day and claimed to have proof of something you didn't believe in? What if that something was vital to the well being of your daughter? Such is the scenerio proposed by this book, in which Bill and Janice Templeton are approched by a man by the name of Elliot Hoover who believes their daughter to be the reincarnation of his own daughter, Auderey Rose, who died in a firey car crash. To make matters worse, the nature of young Auderey Rose's demise has a persistant effect on the Templeton daughter which she isn't aware of, an effect that only seems to escalate as time goes on. The book is written strangely-The first half of the book reads like a thriller, with various events rushing forward and tying everything together until a seeming climax....which then turns into a drawn out court drama. Points of foreshadowing are done bluntly and at the expense of the fourth wall, but somehow remain effective, especially as subtle twists seem to make them into "gotchyas" only to be realized in a later chapter. The characters are all strongly written, as the book deals heavily with how each of their beliefs cause each of them to approach the situation from a certain way- from the initial incounter between the Templetons and Mr. Hoover to the lawyer's dance of Prosecuter VS Defendet that happens later in the book. As an overall suspense/drama tale steeped in the supernatural, this book holds its own. People expecting it to be a straight-up thriller are likely to be dissapointed by the book's latter half. People who are into law might find the book to be very interesting from the standpoint of a fictional court case in the latter half of the book, which the first half does tie into.

All in all, I'd say this is a good book. Not phenominal, but the characters are memorable and the plot device is unique. I hear tell that there was a movie made based on this book in the 80's that is wrongly classified as a horror film, and there also appears to be a sequel.

Speaking of books, I found out last night that a friend of mine from Second Life has gotten published with a book of her own! I might have to check that out sometime, assuming I can ever earn the money for such purchases.

Speaking of being published, I'm trying out that FireFox News thing. I've already gotten my first article approved; It can be found here.

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Now playing: Journey - Intro: Red 13 / State of Grace
via FoxyTunes

( Random links and video below the cut )

Jeeze...

It's weird. Times are tough, and there isn't any place that reflects that more than the small town. We used to live in Iva, an old railroad depot that is now more of a retirement zone. When I was living there, businesses seemed to change hands very quickly, and the mayor was angsting about not being able to keep new businesses in town for longer than a year. Now it seems that even mainstays such as the barber shop and the pawn shop are closed. This means there is literally no other businesses in town aside from restaurants and thrift stores.

I wonder what happens to towns like this when they finally become unsustainable. Does everyone just leave and let the buildings rot away in abandonment? We have plenty of houses like that in Anderson and around the Upstate area...The town of Iva used to be a railroad depot and then it was a textile plant town, but that was before the US let all of it's textiles go in favor of cheaply made imports from overseas. The town even has its own festival and is listed on the South Carolina historic places list.

Back when we where actually living in Iva, I hated it. The only place of interest the town had was the pawn shop, and there where literally no jobs. Some places wouldn't hire you if you where an out-of-towner. My brother went a little nuts while we where there, dabbling in things like vandalism and becoming a goth...but there was nothing else for young people to do.

While the computer was down, I read a book that showed me how other people see these small towns; what makes them so special. It made me realize just how much I had been taking America for granted. Because there isn't anywhere America exists more than in these small towns. The book was called "Spirit Of America" by Thomas Kinkade, and though it was part picture book to showcase "the painter of light", it was accompanied by a biography written by a man who had immigrated to America at the turn of the 19th Century and managed by the grace of God to live to see the turn of the 20th.

It's interesting. And I know that once the small towns are all gone, America will still be soldiering on. It won't be the same America though.
And I still need a haircut.

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Now playing: ???? - At the End of Time
via FoxyTunes

Meet Bob Munden, the world's fastest gunman with over 18 world records:


The 90's saw the rise of comic-book licensed video games, though which one was the best? Here is a list of the top 10.

A teen in California managed to send fourteen thousand text messages in a single month. Judging by how often my brother's on the phone, I can believe it. That averages out to one text message of every two minutes of every waking hour. How many cell-phone texts do you think is your average?

Well, it's final exam week here at the college, and my three years of higher learning are drawing to a close. Over the next few days, I will be posting my reflections on the experience, as well as my plans for the future. It means a lot of things for me, including the possibility that I might become scarcer online for a while as I move back home and begin to search for work.

These next few weeks I need to go about separating myself from my apartment, transferring utilities to my roommate's name and pulling my housewares out of communal use. It's going to be stressful for a while, and I may have to go a few days to a week without Internet access. We'll see.

One thing I forgot to mention in my holiday post was that I managed to read another book during Thanksgiving break. "Porn Nation: Student Edition" by Michael Leahy. It is a book about sex addiction, written by a recovering sex addict. I know some of you on my friends list think this is a joke, but the truth is it is no laughing matter. Since the book was given to me by Campus Crusade For Christ, I was expecting a book full of abstinence-only proselytizing, but what I got instead was a wittily written biography that is at once both a gripping read and an honest look at the state of sex-education in the United States. Particularly, Michael explains that without a proper grasp of what a real relationship is like, people can fall into the trap of beleiving that sex is the relationship, and he worries for the generations of today who are receiving inadiquate education regarding sex and relationships (a total break from mainstream Christian thinking, which seems to be that telling a kid to abstain is enough). He goes on to explain how the prevalence of pornography in mainstream culture excaberates the problem, with it's addictive qualities and failure to take real relationships into account. He carries us through his descent into perversion and explains how he got back out again, providing insights gleaned along the way in a story that is very real-this is probably one of the better biographies I've ever read. In short, I've been completely surprised by this book, and I think it should be required reading for folks who are coming of age.

Oh yeah. For a school project, I scanned some old as dirt family photographs (from the 40's, 50's, and 60's). Would anyone be interested in seeing them? My Father actually has a book from his side of the family including photographs compiled from back during the Old West. I'm not sure if those would scan very well though, not to mention the book is still packed away somewhere. My parents are finally getting around to unpacking their stuff, motivated by my imminent return (they're currently keeping all their stuff in the room allocated for me). It's interesting what old stuff we're finding and what my parents are getting rid of (stuff I never thought they'd part with, honestly). I think I inherited my Mom's tendency to collect things. She's got at least three boxes of unfinished crafts, including stuff that's never been opened. Anyhow, I think the old photographs are really neat, because they offer a look into times that don't exist any more. Strange how different things are now; not just technologically, but in the way we see things.
( Extra links behind the cut... )

I finally completed the Items Of Enchantment Anthology, printed for the Gathering Of The Gargoyles 2008. I must say, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the stories, and impressing me with fanfiction is not very easy to do. However, each and every one of those stories were excellent, to the point that I could concievably take them all as canon. The collection is a bunch of stories about the histories behind certain magical artifacts from the Gargoyles cartoon series. Some of the items, such as the Grimorum Arcanum, the Cauldron of Life, and Puck's Flute are featured in the series, while others are only mentioned in passing or seen very briefly. Canon characters are used adeptly when they appear throughout the book, but since most of the stories take place in the distant past, there are a lot of original characters, all of which are beleivable, of course. There wasn't a story in here that I did not enjoy on some level, and there is a variety of moods throughout this book.

It makes me want to hunt down the previous Anthologies! A lot of the contributors put their e-mail addresses in the acknowledgements, and I want to let them know that I enjoyed their works, even as a casual fan. Seeing their fanfiction published is truly inspiring. You don't think that'd be tacky do you?

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Not too long ago, a picture surfaced of a cat with four ears that became pretty famous. The cat, named Yoda, lives in Chicago with an adoptive family who rescued him from a freak-show display in a sports bar. Every time I see it, it reminds me of Wirrit. xD

Have you had any good French wines lately? Here's an article about how bureaucratics are destroying some great French wines.

Here's a video about a man with one of the largest video game collections I have ever seen.

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Now playing: Faster Pussycat - House of Pain
via FoxyTunes

Surgeons in Germany have successfully transplanted two arms onto a double amputee, a surgery believed to be the first of its kind. The man lost his original limbs in a farming accident six years ago. Doctors hope he'll regenerate enough nerves to form connections and be able to manipulate both arms in around two years.

How knowledgeable are you about Nintendo? The company has a storied history that is sometimes looked upon as a fandom by company admirers.

And here's a list of the Top 25 Most Bizarre Fighting Game Characters.

I'm back at the apartment now. Would have stayed another day if it weren't for my having school on Memorial Day. Oh well, I did manage to get done the things I had wanted to. Parents had me help chop down two trees on the property, something which I had never done before. Dad handled the chainsaw, and I used a rope to help pull the tree over in my direction. Then it was just cutting up lots of walnut wood and depositing it around back. Turns out I'm allergic to the tree's oils, which is strange, since I don't have any problems from eating walnuts.

I'm going to be cutting the Gathering trip close to the wire it seems. All I'm waiting for now is for my check containing the leftover funds from financial aid to arrive, and I can get that in the bank. That is what will be funding my trip. This week, I'm going to go up to see about purchasing my bus tickets. I'm leaving myself a reminder note here that I need to set the return trip back as late as I can on the last day of the con and from Madison, Wisconsin. scltspider  is planning on taking me back with him to explore his city that afternoon; it will be the farthest north I've ever been.

Got some things I need to do here at home in the meantime. A general cleaning up of stuff. Avery's friends have been continuing to eat my food when I'm not around. I'm going to have a talk with him about that.

Oh yeah, and finished reading the book I was working on on the side. "The Dracula Tape" by Fred Saberhagen. It is a clever retelling of Bram Stoker's legendary tale, from the point of view of the vampire himself. He actually succeeds in making the Victorian tale a little more creepy by introducing hidden motives behind all the characters, including some which were quite squicky for those times.  Dracula himself is portrayed as an ancient pillar of strength in his homeland, working by outdated virtues of honor while being somewhat Machiavellian in his dealings with his enemies and friends. It's an entertaining read, and Saberhagen has apparently worked with Zelazney in the past.

Check out these guys, who made a fully functional NES controller the size of a coffee table.

A while back I think I mentioned an article about the forthcoming DragonBall Z MMO game in development overseas. Here's the first trailer I've come across for the game:

Today I underwent the first of the Graduation ceremonies. This one was for the school Spartanburg Community College, and was a nice, simple affair of the usual order, walking in line with the other graduates when your names are called. It was held at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium, which is the building Spartanburg stages most of it's plays from (though it seems concerts are held there occasionally). The morning was very hectic getting ready, and since my hearing had taken a turn for the worse, I couldn't understand a thing my ride was telling me over the phone. For a moment I worried that I had missed my ride, but it turned out that I hadn't, and she was there to pick me up. It was even harder trying to find my parents over the cell phone, though thank God for text messaging. My hearing is a little better now, but is still not as good as it was just a few weeks ago. It seems to have deteriorated at the onset of my allergies, so I hope that had something to do with it. I'd like my hearing to improve before June, which is the month Journey releases their new album and when I go to the Gathering Of The Gargoyles. I'd be kind of nice to be able to hear. I can be a real burden, I think, when I can't.

Anyhow, after the ceremony, my parents and I met up. Grandma K came down, wonderful woman. Straight out of the 60's. She gave me $100 bucks and tagged along with the family. She's only here for two days or so; I really wish I could have stayed to visit her, but since she's sleeping in my room back at the house, there wouldn't be any place for me to crash back home, so I opted to stay here. They have a couch, but it's on it's way out, and thus, surrounded by junk in the living room. My parents really need to finish moving into that house they bought, yeah.

Umm..what else? Oh yeah, we went to the Spring Fling down here in Spartanburg; just walked around and saw what all they had. Had some nice old cars on display, some live bands (none recognizable, just local folks playing songs made famous by other people)...There was a handful of children and their teacher playing makeshift drums on the street corner. Never realized how good banging on garbage cans can sound, but they were well synced and it sounded very pleasant. I also got the opportunity to meet Margaret Hoffman, who was promoting her book "Blackbeard: A Tale Of Villainy and Murder In Colonial America". It looked interesting, and I would have bought a copy if I weren't trying to save up for the upcoming trip to Chicago. Oh well.

Even though I was allowed to walk with the class today, I still have two semesters left to take until I can get my actual diploma. I should officially be done with school in the Fall. Here's hoping I don't run into any problems with my remaining classes. :/

Yesterday, I used some of my newfound free time to watch Lemony Snickett's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, a movie based off of some books that rode the wave of popularity Harry Potter gave to the genre. I went into the movie thinking it'd be rather bland; I've never read any of the books in the series, so this was really my first exposure to the Beldevere children.

Let me just say that the movie turned out to be pretty good! The story is really a chronicle detailing the hardships faced by the Beldevere children; heirs to a great fortune after a mysterious fire kills their parents. With no immediate godparents, the three orphans bounce from next-of-kin to next-of-kin, taken to live with uncles and aunts they never even met. The unfortunate part of the story comes from their nefarious Uncle, Count Olaf (Jim Carey); who will stop at nothing to seize their fortune as his own. Jim Carey is excellent cast as the over-the-top Count; I think this is one of his best roles yet as far as non-original characters go. Though you know anyone who can play the Grinch can do evil well.
The children have to rely on their own resourcefulness to get themselves out of the danger they seem to be in constantly, but it works out because they each know their strengths and work together when they need to.

The film's visual style is glum and Gothic; very Tim Burton-ish, and what you would expect of film based on Lemony Snickett. Despite seeming to take place in the 1950's/60's, there are a lot of modern references in there, which served well for making you sit up and pay attention.
Overall, I'd say this is a film I'd recommend; you could see a lot worse on a lazy day, and Jim Carey really shines here, though all of the acting is good.

On an unrelated topic, it has come to my attention recently that a social networking site has been opened just for furries. It's called FurreSpace, and it's likeness to MySpace runs deep; it has all the trappings, and seems to be excellently programmed and designed. Currently it's affiliated with Furcadia more than anything else, but I have the feeling that will change as the website takes off. aerozaine  told me about it; she's the one who did the art for the website. Go check it out!

I'm debating about making an account for myself there, but I'm not sure. I suppose it depends on how many of my friends and acquaintances try it out, and what sorts of things people use it for. What do you all think? I'm happy with livejournal as far as blogging goes, but FurreSpace has a lot of damn good features, and none of the funk that comes from MySpace (yet).

Normally I don't like to post so quickly, but I have since heard some some devastating news: Robert Jordan, author of the ongoing Wheel of Time series, is no longer with us. He subcame to his rare form of cancer earlier today (I think.) 

I admit that I only ever had a passing interest in his books. The first few books were good reads, but after that the series kind of struggles to hold your interest because of the manner in which it is drawn out from book to book. He wrote 11 volumes and was working on his 12th, after about a decade or two of writing, making this ongoing one of the longest as far as fantasy novels are concerned.  What really gets me about his passing is the principle.

Imagine if you will, that you have a certain life goal. Something you always wanted to do. You get the opportunity to do it and take it, but before you're finished, you learn that you have a terminal illness. You work your butt off to clean things up so you can acheive your goal, only to finally die when you are working on the last phase of your project.  Such is the story of Robert Jordan.


I don't know if his final book will ever be completed or not. From what I heard, he had been dictating notes into an audiorecording, and outside of that, the only people who he ever told the story to were his neice and his wife.  I heard a rumor somewhere saying that he mentioned enlisting an 'army of writers' to clean up his notes for the final book, but that doesn't sound like him at all.  I remember back when he first learned of his terminal illness, and told the public that he wasn't going to worry about it, and would write his volumes as normal "however many that would take".    So close, yet so far.

Wouldn't wish that on anyone.

hSo I got around to watching that other movie today, and by pure coincidence, it was War Of The Worlds (Tom Cruise).

The book took me two sittings to read. I first picked it up long ago when I was in grade school and read about half of it before dropping it. I came across it again as part of a master volume (which, by the way, I only got because it contained The Time Machine). I rather enjoyed it the second time around. Not quite sure why.

So the movie is a fairly good rendition of the story. It's more of a modernization than a flat out retelling, which is a good thing.  I don't know if it's just me, but you can't really watch this as an action movie. It's more of a drama/suspense film, which suits it fine. Steven Speilburg knew what he was doing (then again, when doesn't he?). I think the movie actually painted a better picture of the effects of an alien invasion than the book did.

Also, I've noticed a trend lately. Whenever some $plotstrong characters want to exterminate mankind in modern films, what's the first thing they do? They cut off the internet.*  This is truly telling of something, but I'm not sure what.

*War of the Worlds and Terminator 3 (hell, it turned out that Skynet was the internet). Any other films do this?

Theme of the movie: Oh the humanity!

Wow, what a day today has been. I managed to get my apartment clean, with the help of my Mom. My roomie could do a better job cleaning up after himself, but he tends to miss a lot of spot, since he's hardly able to see. Have to put forth an effort to help him clean better.

But enough of that. I got something in the mail today. My order from Lulu.com came in.

What did I order you ask?

Something very special to me.

You see I belong to a roleplaying community called The Gaming Guardians. It's one of the best communities for roleplay that I've ever found. The rp is based off of the webcomic of the same name, written by none other than graveyardgreg and drawn by a Wilson Trull. Well, after some trials and tribalations, Greg finally got his flagship comic published! The package is really great for a webcomic-to-print deal. It looks very attractive (yes, even though the print format is black and white), and captures the spirit of the webcomic very well. Greg was nice enough to list all of us in the community in the credits, for helping build the community at The Nice Forums.

So what can I say, other that I will continue to help make the place (which has become something of a haven for me) a great one. Kudos to you Greg.

The other book I got is "Southern Cross" by David Silver. It's the book about the history of Southern Cross, a Final Fantasy based Muck.  The same one a certain skunktaur hails from. (He takes the blame for getting me into it). From what I understand, he wrote it for NaNoWriMo a few years back and managed to get it published. I haven't read it yet, but as a player in the Muck (which is very cannily done and run), I can appreciate it just that much more. Plus I'm glad to support him in keeping it running smoothly.

So, I think that's enough shamelessly plugging for these guys. (hint, you can find them both at Lulu.com) But dammit, they deserve it. Anyone who can build up a whole community around their ideas (and one where the rpers don't suck no less) deserves it. Go give them a look.

If'n y'all have questions about either community, ask in the comments. I'll answer the best as I can.