I’ve already registered online and have most of my checklist under control:

• Access to a computer. It isn’t much of a computer, but it has the basics to get the job done. The way I figure it, the bare-bones-basics are a good way to stay focused.
• Writing music. Sometimes you just need a good song to keep you going. I also find certain music helps write certain moods, so I’m equipped with a diverse listening package.
• Prewriting. From character sketches, to outlines, to free-writes. All are considered “legal” as long as not directly used in the final product.
• Rewards. I need lots of encouragement and have small treats for reaching daily goals (mine is about 2,000 words), medium rewards for weekly achievements, and of course, a party upon completion.
• A buddy or two.  Friends are important. They provide support, and are available to bounce ideas off of… as well as being around for periodical rants and tantrums.
• Comfort items. Little things are also important, like a comfy chair, or your favorite snack and/or beverage. It is amazing what the little things can do.  Among my comfy items is a squishy stress ball in the shape of a brain.

I’ll be sure to have periodic updates now and then about my progress and if I have any major learning experiences along the way. Otherwise, don’t expect to hear much from me next month. My words are clearly needed elsewhere. =)

My reasons for blogging was both a selfish need to write quasi-regularly and my desire to share my thoughts, experiences, rants, and ravings with whoever wanted to pay attention. I did not expect it to last very long, nor to develop as much as it has. What started with a single book review, has grown to contain its own review station (if you haven’t seen it yet, check out the Simply Amazing Books link). Yes, this blog has done more than survive. Although, I can hardly claim any credit. I just write the stuff. The success of this blog is mostly due to you, my readers. Without you, this blog would be… pointless. Pointless and dead. So thank you.

Here’s to another year of bloggy memories! Cheers!

Any minuscule fragment of cloud in the sky triggers meteorologist to predict a chance of rain for at least a few days.

Any rain, regardless of the time of year, is classified as “monsoon” and can range from a few drops to an actual downpour.

Regardless of the amount, when a “monsoon” does occur, it is ALWAYS coupled with all the necessary storm/flood warnings.

While nature precipitates, most locals lose all ability to drive in a safe or even logical manner.

and…

The first day of major rain, everyone’s top priority is winterizing their car… which means heading to Auto Zone and replacing the windshield wipers.

Never before had I realized the dangers of a few drops of rain. I have learned to ignore the weather reports. They are spot on when it comes to hot and sunny, but always wrong when it comes to any actual weather. Flooding is always a risk around here, but I don’t see the adamant danger of a 10 minute sprinkle, most of which evaporates before it hits the ground. Roads that could barely be considered wet somehow trigger insanity in drivers,  forcing them to swerve madly, often directly into another vehicle. (I know some people say this is a fairly standard characteristic of these city drivers, whether it is raining or not.)  On a happy note, my car is already winterized and I didn’t need to spend a fortune on tires or chains. Whoot!

This weekend, I spent a few hours in the company of the Arizona Ghostbusters, a group of tried and true Ghostbusters fans who make costumed appearances to raise awareness for a variety of charities. Yesterday they made an appearance at the local Bookmans (a buy/sell/trade exchange store) where they chatted with customers and posed for pictures to benefit the Step Out to Fight Diabetes, a walk occurring next month in the Phoenix area.  There was a free raffle that I didn’t win, complete with fabulous Ghostbusters-related prizes (and a few dinner-for-twos thrown in).  Louis Tully and even the Scourge of Carpathia himself both made vocal appearances over the intercom throughout the afternoon. The turnout was amazing. Kids were buzzed on free Stay Puft marshmallows and Slimer Suckers.  People geeked out in their own Ghostbusters gear. What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

"... no human would stack books like this."

Okay, so it doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. That doesn’t change the fact that when it comes to privately organized creature handling, Monster Hunter International (MHI) perfectly compliments the Ghostbusters. While the Ghostbusters focus on spooks, specters, and strange pink mood-ooze, Monster Hunter International focuses on taking care of the more concrete monsters from myth, lore, legend, and fairy tales.

The novel follows the character Owen Zastava Pitt, the most abnormal man in the world whose sole purpose was to fit in as normally as possible. That was, of course, until he shoved his were-boss out a 14th story window and consequently lost his job… and nearly his life. Monster Hunter International is an epic quest of self-discovery as Owen reassesses his life and his purpose, all while doing what he does best: poppin’ a cap in the ass of evil.

This entire novel is over 700 pages of amazingly cinematic action/horror. The first chapter hits the ground running and the marathon doesn’t end until the very last page. Consider the fact that hundreds of undead, a handful of vampires, some gargoyles, a werewolf, and an armadillo were all somehow slaughtered in the making of this novel. And this is just the creature body count! The overall pacing was well done, with a few areas for the reader to breathe, and perhaps put down the book for a meal or bathroom break. To give you an idea of just what level of action to expect, let’s take a look at Owen’s reflection on his first real mission at MHI:

…I had been paralyzed, drowned, beaten, shot with my own gun, partially paralyzed and choked, and I was hungry, tired, and saddened by the loss of some of my favorite guns…

I am going to say this outright: I am not a gun person. I do not “speak" gun. I do not understand how they work. Just being near one makes me uneasy. This book is quite literally LOADED in every sense of the word. However, to the immense credit of the author, Larry Correia, my ignorance did not deter me in the least from reading and understanding the novel. The gun details were extensive (or at least seemed so to me), but not enough to actually pull me out of the story. However, I did sometimes wish such description was given in other areas of the novel. Most of the descriptions of people or places were kept rather basic, forcing the reader to imagine the finer tid-bits.

My only real annoyance with this novel was that the fantasy.. the magical monsters.. was never clearly established to the reader. We are told outright that what we know through pop culture is loosely based in fact, but are never told what references we are safe to assume. The characters themselves sit in the classes and learn about the creatures, but the reader only gets snippets of these lessons. This means the reader has to trust the not-so-magical human characters in order to fully immerse into the fantasy element. I played along with this trust and it got me through for awhile, but at one point, when a particular vampire turned to fog (something that went against the lessons) the characters doubted what they thought to be true. If I have to trust the characters knowledge, they better not doubt it themselves. At that point, I didn’t know who or what to really believe. As it is, since the fantasy was not clearly established, I took this novel to be more focused on the human, non-magical element (hence my claim on the novel being about Owen’s self-discovery) with the fantasy being a compliment or a side means of achieving this self discovery. If this was intended, it achieved its goal.

The plot, especially at first, was simple and straightforward with a few teasers to guide the reader, and it is clearly the intense action scenes that keep the reader going. Of course, as in any good novel, surprises pop up along the way and life for Owen gets complicated fast. This novel is not just about blowing stuff up, although such violence is hard to avoid. I collected many questions along the way, but by the end had all my answers. Despite the aforementioned shortcomings, this novel was quite a good read. Correia masterfully guides the reader through a cinematic style that zooms in on a moment, and then pans out the big picture. This is one novel that would take minimal effort to be made into a feature film, in fact, I’d probably pay to see it.

I discovered Writer while downloading the new Windows Live Messenger and thought I’d give it a try. From what my brief Google-based research dug up, Writer seems to be fairly popular and well-liked. It works with all your main blogging sites: WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, etc. I had to see it in action for myself and decided to drag you in on my experiment too… as a witness of sorts. So, put on your safety gear, back up a safe distance, and let’s see what this thing can do…

First impressions are very important. My first impression of Writer was that it was pretty much the same thing I can get out of the WordPress editor. Both Writer and WordPress can create new posts and pages, can manage multiple blogs, is able to insert links, images, videos, etc., has the standard spell check, and keeps track of word count. By linking Writer to an existing blog account, existing categories and tags are also available. Both are able to view posts in an edit mode, a preview mode, and an html mode. The blogger is also able to set the publish date in both. Writer even had my WordPress theme available in the editor. The similarities in standard features are overwhelming. Yet, upon closer inspection, Writer did start to prove itself as being above merely standard.

Are you still wearing that safety gear? Because it is time to tinker…

Clicking Some Buttons

OOOO! Wasn’t that header rather neat and mildly unexpected? What about this? Writer does allow the blogger more customization opportunities. It has several headings to choose from, all the standard FONTS, colors, and downloadable plug-ins which allow the blogger to insert other objects, like maps. Writer combines the WordPress editor with MS Word-like features, making the blog writing process a little more involved.

Even something as simple as adding images becomes a bit more complicated due to all the customization options. Images can have added borders of varying degree of thickness and shading. They can be converted into black and white, or even sepia. The blogger has full control over blur, contrast, and sharpness, and can crop, rotate, emboss, or even watermark the images. These features, when combined, allow you to take a simple image:

and create…

A Work of Blog-Art

All of these added options make creating a blog post or page more like creating a work of art. Consequently, this can make blogging more time consuming, and let’s face it… everyone’s time is precious. Writer compensates for this by offering a feature that allows you to save a draft of your page or post directly onto your computer (in addition to saving it to the online blog account). This allows bloggers to write and come back to it later, even when there is no internet available. Saving drafts and published versions has the added advantage of being able to easily print or keep an offline archive of the blog. Writer’s installation automatically creates “My Weblog Posts” under My Documents where drafts, pages, posts, etc. are all neatly stored for easy access.

WordPress has the advantage of being completely online, making it accessible from anywhere around the world, but the fact Writer works offline gives it a lot of advantages as well. My conclusion is that these two programs work beautifully together. For short, quick, to-the-point posts, the WordPress editor works fine and offers all the essentials to get the job done. For those who have the time, Writer gives bloggers the opportunity to express themselves in new and creative ways.

What happens when your entire world comes crashing down? When everything you knew and loved… everything you believed… everything that kept the world in balance for eons… is simply gone? Would you deny it? Would your life lose its meaning? Or would you celebrate change? Would you even ever fully understand?

Welcome to the world of Andreas Echbach, a world where the limitless Imperial Empire is full of utter mystery.  Rumors are spreading that the god-like Emperor Aleksandr is dead, that his power over the Empire has fallen to a group of rebels. Such rumors are heresy on many of the Empire’s worlds, including the world of Ostvan, a member of a long line of hair-carpet makers. Hair-carpet makers have a single duty… to spend their entire life creating a single carpet tied from the hair of his wives and daughters. This trade has been passed down from father to son since prehistory. The carpets are then sold to Imperial Traders who take them to the palace.

Yet the Empire as the characters know it is not what it seems. In fact, the reader soon discovers nothing is as it seems, and even the simplest things are constructions towards  some elaborate, illogical purpose. Each chapter is a snapshot of a single event in a different character’s life. Each snapshot provides important insight… a clue… to what is happening and more importantly WHY. The reader is left to actively piece together the big picture.

Overall, the read was completely engaging.  Andreas Eschbach strung me around masterfully, leading me on with false clues. He predicted my hesitations and assumptions and used those to drive my curiosity forward.  It was as if I was involved in an adventure/suspense/mystery rather than just reading one.  I will say that the novel does draw on stereotypical imperialism/dictatorships.  The planets are generally fairly primitive… either tribal or feudal… with the exception those few directly involved with the Imperial Palace or the Rebel Movement. Women, especially those on the primitive planets, are merely submissive property. Hair-carpet makers only want wives who fit special hair standards. The use of their hair in the carpet is not empowering, but simply duty.  Yet, the author balances this by allowing three chapters to follow a female’s perspective: that of a young run-away, a old peddler, and an imperial archivist, giving these women depth and a voice of their own.  The novel’s message does not seem to be on social commentary, but rather on political commentary. An overall theme involves the dangers of power, especially the political power of imperialism. Even by the end of the book, the reader is left wondering where the power truly ends… assuming it ever does.

I had not read contemporary German science fiction before (published originally in 1995), and probably wouldn’t have had the opportunity if it wasn’t for Orson Scott Card. He explains in the foreward his personal involvement in getting Adreas Eschbach’s novel translated into English (published translation in 2005) and adopted by his publisher, Tor.  The relationship between them is an interesting story, which is worthy of such an interesting novel.

Overall, The Carpet Makers is definitely the sort of plot that would reveal something new each time you read it.

I am excited by this new addition to my SNES collection, because it opens up my gaming world to new and exciting possibilities… I can explore worlds only Game Boy owners have seen. I can defeat monochromatic monsters on a full size television screen, unaffected by the variable light in the room! Yes, my classic gaming prowess shall truly reach its potential. Or not. But you got to admit, it is a great way to pass the time!

On an interesting  note, I realized that a Super Game Boy can only be as good as the Game Boy game… and of course, I didn’t have any. Before you criticize my apparent lack of thinking things through, I want you to think. Why would I have Game Boy games if I don’t have a Game Boy?!?! Duh! But that was then… now… yes…. now I have the means AND the opportunity! Thus I used the Super Game Boy as an excuse to by this:

I’ve heard from a reliable source that DuckTales is fun and worth the purchase. (Amusing when considering how much I actually paid for it…) Apparently it was even worthy of a sequel game. Not having played through it yet, I cannot confirm or deny the quality. However, I have played the beginning bit of the first level, and so far it seems to be pretty decent. I was a fervent believer in DuckTales as a child, so hopefully this experience won’t break the foundations of my being.

I found this photo several years ago from worth1000.com as an entry for one of their many digital photomanipulation contests.

I have spent my time mindlessly wandering… searching for something to satiate my needs… my hunger.  I see visions of those like me…  groaning and clawing…  drawn by some instinctive force that compels us to devour whatever opportunity allows.  I am in a frenzy. I cannot remember who I was… what I was.  The others… they do not like me… I do not like them either. We all hunger for the same thing, yet only one can feast… there is only one job… and apparently brains are often optional.

I leave in my wake a blood, sweat, and tear-soaked trail of applications, resumes, and annoying assessments. What is left to do but drudge on?  Drudging, one soon discovers, leads to an increase in free-time, which logically leads to an increase in discovering interesting novels, such as my most recent find:

Let me start by establishing the fact that I am a Jane Austen fan and I absolutely LOVE Pride and Prejudice. I have read the novel several times, and seen the BBC/A&E mini-series so many times, I can practically recite it by heart. (Please do not get me started on Universal Studio’s newer attempt… the Bollywood musical Bride and Prejudice was even better than that.) Anyway…

I expected to find this book funny, but was concerned as to how much damage was done to the classic. I soon discovered this novel was as true to the original storyline as could be possible. On these grounds, I found myself able to at least respect Seth Grahame-Smith. I will say, however, that this novel does assume you’ve read the original. While it is possible that this novel could stand alone; there are several instances where the author assumes you already know the characters’  personalities and their inter-relationships. A lot of the dialogue (and consequently the character development) from the original is summarized. Those who have never experienced the classic miss the opportunity to figure these things out on their own. An early example:  Pride and Prejudice and Zombies simply states which daughters are favored by each parent, omitting the somewhat obvious clues of the original.

It would be a concern that if the storyline is followed so closely, that the novel would soon become predictable and boring. But this was not the case. Despite knowing exactly what was going to happen next, I was anticipating how it was going to happen. The addition of these “unmentionables” adds interesting opportunities to a stroll to Meryton.  It also adds a new dimension to the characters. Suddenly it is not JUST about how much one makes a year; being desirable or accomplished also means owning a diverse number of fighting talents and being able to say you’ve killed so many of Satan’s army.  To me, this contribution was bittersweet. In allowing Elizabeth and her sisters to know martial arts, swordplay, and musketry (among others), it takes characters out of the social-constructs of the time period. Grant it, social constructs can change under circumstances such as a zombie holocaust or the like, I find these new-found freedoms take away from the whole point of the original novel… to satirize those social standards. The purpose of this novel has therefore changed, from being a satire (like the original) to being a comedy. This is not a bad thing; it is just something to keep in mind.

One thing I thought was lacking in this novel was some explanation as to how this zombie plague started, progressed, or was being dealt with. Several opportunities could have easily lent themselves to this purpose (the troops being in Meryton, Lady Catherine’s serum, etc.)  This would have deepened the additions that were made to the original novel.  Due to a lack of depth, zombies were more like an aspect of setting rather than characters. They were interacted with like objects in the room (only messier).  The threat of them being around did not really build suspense either, since most of the characters were more than able to deal with them easily.  The social conditions of fighting were never explained either. I was nearly done with the book before realizing that women weren’t allowed to fight after marriage, yet they were still able to train… to a point. There is a lot of gray area that probably should have been explained.

All-in-all, this was a great book. Parts were laugh-out-loud hilarious, while others seemed contemplatively serious. The pacing was comfortable and I felt satisfied after I turned the last page. The version I purchased contained a Discussion Guide that was nearly equally entertaining. The illustrations were a fun addition as well.  It was a good read and a good purchase.