Yes, I Saw A Ferrari

We had a good Christmas, as always. For Christmas dinner, we made a glazed stuffed ham and Au Gratin potatoes. Later in the day we had meat and cheese, and kielbasa sausages (I've made them before). It was all yummy.

I received many things that I was happy to get on Christmas day. Listing everything would be silly, but two of the happiest gifts (all the presents were happy) were MarioKart for the Wii, and The Dark Knight on DVD (which we watched on Christmas day).

In other news, Megan's nephew Tony has been here for a couple days. On Sunday, we went to the Mall of America, and sitting on the bottom floor was the most wonderful thing I've ever come across in a mall: a Ferrari. Yeah, that's right. The picture I have here is one I grabbed online, but that's what it looked like, only silver. I should have reached out and touched it. It was most definitely the closest I've ever been to such a car. (I've seen two others in my life, on the roads of Columbus.) According to my estimations and the help of Kelley Blue Book, that Ferrari is worth more than seventy-one 2000 Chevy Cavaliers.

(And I think the value it assigned to my Cavalier was a bit high...)

We are in the middle of the college football bowl season - a wonderful time. Each year, us Coopers pick the winners of each game and see who can do the best. Our picks and progress can be seen on the Cooper Bowl page. As of this posting, my mother and myself are winning with 9 correct picks (after 14 games).

LotD: Colorful Poodles. Some dog owners are really weird.

Music to My Ears

I really do love music, even though I haven't bought a CD for several years. Now, my main source of music is to listen online to Columbus' station RadioU, and also their music television station, TVU. My tastes have certainly gotten a little louder than when I was younger, and I currently have no band that stands out as an obvious #1. There are just so many that I thoroughly enjoy. Here are links to some of my more favorite songs, just in case you're at all curious. There are 20 songs here, listed alphabetically. These are mostly newer songs, and so I did not include my all-time favorite song on this list. Okay, well, here it is.

12 Stones: Far Away
Blindside: Pitiful
Demon Hunter: Carry Me Down
Family Force 5: Earthquake
Family Force 5: Replace Me
Fireflight: Unbreakable
Fireflight: You Decide
Flyleaf: All Around Me
Flyleaf: Cassie
Hawk Nelson: The One Thing I Have Left
House of Heroes: In The Valley of the Dying Sun
Krystal Meyers: Make Some Noise
Project 86: The Spy Hunter
Red: Already Over
Red: Breathe Into Me
Seabird: Rescue
Showbread: Mouth Like a Magazine
Since October: Disaster
Thousand Foot Krutch: Favorite Disease

And to go along with one of Gina's recent posts, my favorite Christmas song is Carol of the Bells.

LotD: What, the 24 links above aren't enough? Well, okay, here you go: The Viking Axe.

The Case for Death

I am considering trying to write some more serious entries, on different issues, starting with this one. I both think it will be interesting for me to put more thought into issues I haven't thought about much before, and I also think it would be wonderful it I could write something good and interesting enough that it could be submitted to some type of magazine. This comes from my thinking that my purpose includes writing. We'll see where this all goes.

So, first, if you have any suggestions for issues for me to write about, please let me know. And now, here's this. I have just written this within the last hour, and it is 606 words.

---
The Case for Death

One of the undeniable truths about our human lives is that, eventually, they end. Each of us was born of a woman, our bodies knitted together in her womb. Someday, each of our bodies will lose its vibrancy; blood will no longer flow through our veins, and life will no longer pour out from within our physical selves. Death is simply an inevitability that we must accept.

Even as we accept and understand that our future includes death, it is true that we often fear it, holding on to our lives and our remaining years with all our might. Humans fear their death like nothing else, and that fear stems from the fact that we simply do not fully comprehend the part that death plays in lives. We miss God’s plan for us; His plan for the end and the beginning of each human life. For all things, good or bad in the sight of men, work together for the goodness of God.

Just as a student’s graduation marks the end of a time of schooling, the death of a human marks the end of their time on this Earth. It is a transition; the end of one era, and the beginning of another. A student attends school to learn and ready him or herself for a future career. Those students who do not walk the path of learning will find themselves ill-equipped for a future. Humans who do not walk the path of Christ will find themselves at the end of their life without a savior.

The scriptures tell us not to fear. Once Jesus has become our lord, there is nothing to separate us from Him and the salvation that we now have. Nothing in this world, no powers in the spiritual realms, and not the eventual death that leads from this life into the next.

We must change the way we view death, for it is not the end, but merely a time of change. It is not something to be feared, but something to be understood. As strange a thought as this might be, death is something to look forward to. Not in any depressive or suicidal manner, but in such a way that we long to be with Christ in the world to come. For this world is not our home; we are as aliens in a foreign land, and Heaven is our true home. Our father waits there for us, and we should wait patiently and yet with excitement for the day when we walk those streets of gold. We will no longer be strapped with the problems of this world, but will have all of eternity to be with Christ.

Our time on this Earth is precious, and even while we are young and the years seem to stretch our before us, death is coming for each human, some long before they expect it. We know not what day will be our last, but that is not for us to choose. God has planned each day of our lives, and He knows what day He will call you away from your body and into His presence. Do not fear that hour, for a greater glory awaits us than we could ever experience in these bodies. Live each day as though death was around the corner, for it truly is, even if we do not see it.

God holds your life in His hands, and His timing is perfect. Trust in Him and do not fear the future, and do not fear death, for on the other side of our last day is the first day of a beautiful beginning.

A Diversion (They All Come Falling Down)

So, here's an entry in the not-really-that-important-but-amusing anyway type entries. I recently discovered the website Drawminos, where you can set up dominoes and then knock them all down. You can also save them and then send them to your friends so they can see your masterful creations. So, if you're bored, it's something to waste a little time. Also, if you're bored, here are links to a few of my Drawmino creations.

The First One
The Construction of Smiley
Coming Together
Snake Pole

The only other news of interest is that my wife and I are planning a weekend viewing of The Day the Earth Stood Still (which rumors have it will carry the trailer to the upcoming Wolverine movie). She also has interest in the movie Doubt.

LotD: Stealing the Empire State Building. Who knew it could be so easy?

Cooproductions

It has finally happened.

My updated website is now up and running. I know you've been excited for it for a while, of course. :) So, if you're bored, head over to www.cooproductions.com and check it out. I now have a bit more of my writing online - mainly a few other stories I have written (or only started), that I figured I'd post. I've also updated my top ten lists, though I only have 7 lists posted. More might be coming, I'm not sure yet. This blog is also now imbedded into a page on the site, so you can view it as normal, or on the website. Or on Facebook, of course. Whatever brings you joy.

While I have uploaded the site, I still have work to do on it, including adding a random link feature (whenever I see something online that I find interesting, or strange, or funny, I will add the link to my random link database). It'll be a diversion for if you're bored.

I'm happy to have it hosted on GoDaddy, where I can more freely use ASP, which will be helpful when working more on the Reclamation card game, and other such things.

Let me know if you see anything on the site that doesn't look right.

LotD: Cooproductions. Of course.

Insert Blog Title Here

I really need to keep up with my blogging better. The last few weeks haven't been all too exciting, but alas. Here's another bullet-point summary.

• I have started to read Eragon. I decided to read some more of the shorter books and series before tackling The Wheel of Time. My wife will soon be finishing up her second reading of The Lords of Sargoff before (probably) starting The Lightning Thief, which is the first book of the series Percy Jackson & The Olympians.
  
• My wife and I did see the movie Changeling, which wasn't too bad. My wife really liked it. A viewing of Twilight is scheduled for this weekend. We also watched the movie 13 Going on 30, which was on TV the other day, and was a little funnier and not as bad as I had thought.
  
• I bought a new pair of Nike sneakers yesterday. Isn't that the most exciting thing ever? Did you know that finding size 14 shoes is not the easiest thing in the world?
  
• We found out on Tuesday that my company is planning a company meeting in January. This one is more exciting though, as it is in Marco Island, Florida, right on the ocean (or, I suppose, right on the Gulf of Mexico). We will be there for 4 days and 3 nights, and will be staying at a Hilton.
• I really would like to drop some weight. I had lost about 30 pounds after moving back to Minnesota in 2005, but I have gained that back, plus a couple extra. I have wanted to for a while, but I have gotten more serious about it over the last couple months. I did actually lose 9 pounds in September, but then gained most of that back over the election season (lots of catered in meals). So I will be trying to cut down my meal portions, drink lots more water, and use the treadmill that we bought earlier this year on a regular basis. I think one of my bigger problems is overindulging on snacks, so I will have to stop doing that. :) All in all, I could stand losing a good 50 pounds, I would think.

LotD: The Nintendo Choir. Classic.

Return to Normal

Well, the election is over.

Hallelujah.

Here's some highlights and otherwise random information that you may or may not care to know. :)

• On the Thursday before the election, I started work at 10 in the morning and went home at midnight. I then continued to work until 6. That's pretty much a 20 hour shift with a small break for driving. So the next day, I worked about 14 hours (10 - midnight) on a little less than 3 hours sleep.
• My company has been mentioned in the national news on a couple different issues over the past few weeks, or more, even if the company name wasn't always said. It all culminates with the fact that my boss (part owner of the company) now has his very own Wikipedia entry.
• Over a 7 day period (ending with election day), I worked approximately 93 hours. This was down over 2006, where I worked about 102 hours over a 7 day period.
• Ending Friday, I will have worked 19 consecutive days. I am looking forward to Saturday and a day off.
• I am looking forward to getting back to some major work on The Lords of Sargoff. I also need to figure out what I am going to read next.
• This weekend, my wife and I will likely go to the movie Changeling, likely followed a couple weeks later by the movie Twilight. These are movies that Megan has interest in, that I am going to because I like my wife. :) Personally, I am hoping for a viewing of The Day the Earth Stood Still.

While I wish John McCain had pulled off some miracle victory (though I rather doubted it), there is fair hope that Republicans will not have fallen as far as some people thought, as some believed the Democrats would increase their Senate majority up to 60 seats. My company has a fair stake in the recounts that will occur between Norm Coleman and Al Franken, as we do a fair amount of business with Senator Coleman.

One thing, though, that while many congressional Republicans did lose to Democrats, those Republican candidates that we worked for did comparatively much better, which makes us look good as a company, and may help us bring in more business.

LotD: CSI New York: The GUI Interface. Who knows if any of you have seen this. It's only like 15 seconds long. This will make sense to the computer geeks out there. Basically, there is a criminal who is using his website either to commit crimes, or to record or discuss the crimes he is committing (I haven't actually seen the entire episode). So, the police need to try to track him through the Web. Listen to what the last woman will do in an attempt to do that, and wonder how in the world this made it onto a major TV show. (My apologies for the little "thought bubble" that might pop up on the video... I couldn't find the clip without it.)

The Lords of Querying

Yes, I am a database analyst, and my job includes a lot of querying (structurally), but that is not what I will be talking about here. I'm talking about a query letter for a manuscript. I am hoping, after the election is over, to spend a good chunk of my free time for a few weeks editing The Lords of Sargoff to get it into pristine submission condition. This will likely include at least 3 -4 thorough read-throughs. I still have hopes of submitting it somewhere before the end of the year. I have found 2 literary agents online, that both accept manuscript submissions and a have a blog that discusses helpful topics, such as writing a query letter. I have written the rough draft of such a letter, but will work more on that as well. Here is a snippet of it: a brief description of the book's plot.

For decades, the land of Sargoff has been blanketed by a fear of the unknown powers that once dropped the society into chaos. Dark forces are once more at work, renewing fears and threatening the country as it rebuilds. Then, deep in a cave, the orb of a forgotten lord is found, and the hands of evil once more glow with the powers of dark magic. The Lords of Sargoff is a 70,000 word adult fantasy novel that explores the effects of fear on a society, and questions whether the agents of evil are, in fact, as powerful than the very fear they create.

If anyone would like to read the full manuscript of The Lords of Sargoff (for the first or second time), please let me know and I will send you an (electronic) copy. I would love to have any type of comments or suggestions than anyone has.

LotD: Anatomy of a Good Query Letter. Written by a likely receiver of a future query letter from yours truly.

Til Death

So we have returned from the Green Mountain state of Vermont, where we were for my brother's wedding. It was a good time. Here's a quick recap.

Megan and I flew to Burlington, VT (with a connection in Detroit) on Wednesday night, which went fine. We had reserved a rental car at Avis. We had selected the standard car, which was described as a "Chevy Monte Carlo" or similar. What we ended up with was a Chevy Trailblazer, which seems to be very much non-similar to a Monte Carlo. Oh, those silly people at Avis. But anyway, we enjoyed driving it around.

We then went to our hotel, Quality Inn, which happened to be directly next to where my parents were staying at the Motel 6. We met them in the morning for breakfast at McDonald's (also right next door). Then some of us went up to Mount Philo, where the wedding was. It had a great view of the surrounding area (I have some pictures that are still on the camera). The ceremony went well. Other people were in the area during the ceremony (it was a public area), and at one point a dog ran through the front and urinated on a nearby tree. But, alas. Everything was nice and went well.

We then went to the Kitchen Table Bistro for the wedding dinner, which was very good. The next morning, we all met and toured the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory and, of course, had some ice cream (yum). After that, Megan and I went off on our own, and had a nice couple days together vacationing around Burlington. We went on a small tour of the Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory (more yum), with lots of free samples. We also walked around a pedestrian streek marketplace area, which was interesting. That night, we went to Junior's Italian restaurant.

On Saturday, we drove up close to Canada, and then down over some islands. The whole area is very pretty at this time of year, as the leaves are turning to their fall colors. We stopped at a couple places and took some pictures. We stopped at a little shop that had a large frog standing outside. We then went to one of my favorite places to get ice cream - Friendly's, and had lunch (mmm.... buffalo chicken...).

After lunch, we went back to Mount Philo, where the wedding was, and did some hiking down and up the sides of the mountain. It was good fun but rather tiring. After that, we went to a Chinese buffet for supper, and then flew back to Minnesota early Sunday morning. We continued our unhealthy eating by picking up Chipotle on the way home and going to Old Chicago for supper.

And now, it's back to work. Today is day 2 of 26 consecutive days in the office. Yehaw. :)

LotD: 36 World of Warcraft Accounts. Ack.

Manly Points

So, twelve years ago, at the age of fourteen, I sent my brother Erik an email about manly points, which was a little running joke at the time. I found his response to be great, and thus printed out the email and saved it. I have scanned it in and felt it worth posting here, because I still think it's rather funny. Also of note is the apparent low quality of my parent's printer, and the fact that, it seems, at this time I did not have my own email address. Ah, the dark times.

Time has been short, and blogging has suffered, very sadly of course! :) But, alas. Only 29 days to the election.

As the workload begins to ramp up even more, I will be able to be gone for two days this week, as my brother Dave is getting married on Thursday in Vermont. So my wife and I are flying out Wednesday night and will be returning Sunday. While there, we will also be driving around and enjoying a mini-vacation. This will (probably) include a tour of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory. We'll be sure to take pictures of our time out yonder, and I will certainly report on it here in a future blog entry.

LotD: Expensive Meow. That cat better grow gold instead of fur.

Blog Title of Some Sort

So I've gone two weeks without blogging. Ah, dear. And work hasn't even gotten that busy yet. We're still busy, but I'm expecting that October will bring more jumps in workload. Come and go quickly, Mr. Election Day!

Anyway, here are some projects that I'm working on, since I know that you really want to know. You do, don't you?

CCGTracker - An ASP site so my friends and I can track the games we play for our card games. It will also have the ability to randomly create games (which is useful, considering the number of decks that some of us have). We'll be able to see what decks we've played recently and what decks we haven't played in a while, and will see how our decks are doing, and how our decks are doing against certain other types of decks. It could be interesting, anyway. We'll see.

Reclamation Printout Page - Another ASP page. When it's finished, in theory, for playtesting, we'll be able to create a deck list and print out exactly the cards we need (with card design and iamge included). I've gotten some good work on this done, but there is more to do. I have been image searching lately for good images to use for the cards.

Cooproductions - All I really need to do is finish updating my top ten lists. There are several other things I'd like to do with it, but if I wait until everything to be done, it'll be forever. It's already been long enough. I'll get the lists done and then the site will continue to be a work in progress.

The Lords of Sargoff - While I am not currently working on this, I know there are at least a few people currently reading it. If you'd like to read it, please email me (or comment here) and I'll send you the file. (It's a 250 page fantasy novel, for those who may not know.) I am very much looking forward to hearing the response from the readings. I have written the rough draft for the first chapter in book two, and I think it's a pretty neat opening chapter.

In other news, I am now reading The Lost Colony, which is book five of the Artemis Fowl series. There are currently six books in the series. I have definitely enjoyed the series. I am not yet sure what I will be reading next, but I'm sure it will stay in the fantasy realm. Perhaps Eragon or The Chronicles of Narnia. I do plan on soon tackling The Wheel of Time, but that is a much bigger undertaking, and I may read a few of the small, faster series first.

I Am A Fan Of Food

Last Saturday, my wife and I had date night. We each made part of the meal, with the other not knowing what the other made. I was assigned the part of making the main dish and the appetizer, while my wife made dessert. For the appetizer, I made Kielbasa Appetizers, which were rather good, I'd say. I even included the beer, though at first I wasn't going to. The main course was Teriyaki Marinated Chicken, which I marinated in the teriyaki sauce for 48 hours. It was also rather good. My wife made chocolate candies which were delicious.

One of the unfortunate consequences of increased busyness at work is that I will be blogging less during the next couple months. Sad, isn't it? I know. But, alas. We are already feeling the increase in workload due to the election. We have been placed on a rotation for being on-call at night, and will be in the office on Saturday for the third weekend in the last month. Not for doing the work itself, but for preparing for the election cycle. It's very exciting. But... alas. One of the other unfortunate consequences of the increased workload and later hours means I get less time to read and write, and work on other things that I am excited to work on (Reclamation, and the decks for the card games I play).

I am happy that I have people reading Lords of Sargoff. While there is still more work to do on that book, I find myself often thinking about starting writing on the second book. I already have the opening scene in my head, and I've already taken notes on many of the key plot points throughout the book. At some point, I'll probably start working on it, but I have other things on my to-do list first.

LotD: Fences. I'd like the roller coaster fence, though it seems rather nonfunctional. :)

The King Has Returned

And Bill Ferny has been sent away.

This week, I finished reading Return of the King, thus finally completing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which I thoroughly enjoyed (of course). I order them differently than the movies, according to my preference. The movies I enjoyed in this order: Return of the King, The Fellowship of the Ring, and then The Two Towers. For the books however, it was ordered as Towers, RotK, then Fellowship. It was interesting to see some of the differences between the books and the movies. I knew some already though, like the Elves at Helm's Deep. I'm happy to finally have read them.

Moving forward, I have begun reading the Artemis Fowl series, which my wife very much enjoys. I read about half the first book yesterday. It is, of course, much faster reading than Lord of the Rings. Even though the first Artemis book is 390 pages, about the same page counts as the Rings books, its word count is less than half. Even The Lords of Sargoff has a higherword count. Anyway, I like the book so far. So far there are 6 books in the series, and I don't think it'll take me that long to get through the whole thing (though it will be slower as I head into election season - less free reading time).

On Sunday, I am going to the Minnesota State Fair. Lots of overpriced, unhealthy, but rather tasty food. They have deep friend candy bars (which are some of the most delicious things ever), and some other unique things, including chocolate covered bacon. I will probably be trying things at the fair that I can't usually get or make myself - like they have alligator, which I may try this year. It'll be interesting, at any rate.

I am currently happy with the state of The Lords of Sargoff, and am very interested to see what people say about it after reading. I may put my attention now to finishing off my website, and then maybe look more at Reclamation, for the time being.

LotD: Catwoman. I don't know if this is real news, but it's an interesting thought. If it really is the "absolute opposite," as described, it could work. If you've seen The Dark Knight, just click the link already.

The Lord of Blog Entries

As I have been counseled to do, and makes sense now that the novel is in its later stages, I have removed all downloadable files of The Lords of Sargoff from my online storage. It is best at this point to not allow the full text to be freely distributed online, as that is something publishers would likely frown upon. So, anyone who reads this blog can send me an email if they wish to read the full text. I will still likely post some of it on my website (maybe the first third, I'm not sure yet), but certainly not all of it.

Though I only recently posted the full version, I am already undergoing another read through and round of edits (it'll be a work in progress until a publisher hits the print button). I have continued to work on the dialog to make it more fantasy-like. I have also added another chapter to further develop one of the characters (Lord Arien). It is currently nearing 61,000 words (3,000 more words than when I posted the last version just a couple weeks ago), and I'd like to have it over 62,500 words, which shouldn't be a problem. That is the number at which, with 250 words per page, The Lords of Sargoff would be a 250 page novel, which I think is pretty good, even if it is on the shorter end of novels.

I am very excited to start sending it off to publishers, should the response from anyone who should read it tell me that they feel it to be ready. After this next round of edits is over with, I know my wife will be re-reading it and critiquing it for me. In addition to traditional publishers and literary agents, I have considered submitting it to Tate Publishing. They are a Christian publisher that will take care of pretty much the whole publishing process, but they require an investment (over $4,000, I believe). Authors who sell enough books through them (5,000 copies, I believe) get their investment back. While I am not currently in a position to drop four grand on a book investment, I may submit the manuscript to them anyway, just to get their feedback on whether they liked the story. I will only consider going through them if I am not able to find a traditional publisher or literary agent (who require no investment) to publish it. But any feedback I can get from Tate would most likely be helpful.

LotD: Death Star Over San Francisco. And you thought Star Wars was a myth. It was, of course, a documentary! I found this video while at work, and just watch a few moments of it, without the sound, assuming there is sound. So I have no idea what they're saying, but the video itself was pretty nifty.

My Jedi Training

On Friday night, I went to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars, since it would be crazy for there to be a Star Wars film in existence that I haven't seen. The reviews of it had been rather grim, so I went with rather low expectations. Which, in the end, meant that the movie was about as good as I was expecting. The animation was pretty good for the most part, but the story wasn't too impressive, as they rehashed old plot points, even lifting quotes from other Star Wars movies and seeming to duplicate scenes from the other movies, with different characters. Overall, I thought the movie to basically be a glorified Saturday morning cartoon, and not too much more.

To continue the Star Wars theme, on Saturday, a large group of us (10 adults, 2 children) went to the Star Wars exhibit, which was rather excellent. They had tons of original props from the movies, including ships, costumes and weapons that were actually used in the movies. The had a large model of the Millennium Falcon, probably a good six feet wide, maybe. That ship, along with several others, had amazing levels of detail. My other favorite parts were the original Yoda puppet, (of course) Darth Vader's costume, and the original lightsabers. They had costumes and models for just about all the main characters, minus a few. It was excellent.

LotD: Star Wars TV Series. I'd heard about this around the time Episode III came out, I think. It's live action, but who knows if it'll be any good once it comes out in 2009 or 2010.

Ah, Stuff

Welcome to another exciting edition of Chromiden's Chronicles. Last week, as I stated in a previous entry, I took my wife on a secret date. She had no idea where we were going. Everything ended up going well. We drove from the Twin Cities to Rochester (about an hour and a half drive) and ate at a place called The Canadian Honker, as recommended to me by the newly-blogging Mrs. Marlin. It was rather good. The appetizer we got - onion rings - were deemed by my wife to be the best onion rings she'd ever had. Pretty impressive. She had a burger for the main course, and I had (as is rather usual for me at almost any restaurant) chicken strips, which were rather yummy. It was a wonderful meal. We then went to the second surprise of the night, in Stewartville (about 10 minutes from Rochester) - where we were entertained by the Stewartville Community Theater's production of Beauty and the Beast. It was a pretty good show and, most importantly, my wife liked it. So it was a good day.

We are now planning something that we haven't done in a while, which is a fancy-type dinner at home where each of us makes part of the meal, but where we surprise each other with what we're making. Unlike the first two times we did this, it has been decided that I will be making the main course. I need to start figuring out what to make, though I do have some ideas. I have other a month to plan, but I better think about it, so I don't forget. Whoops.

Here, using the rapid-fire approach, are some other random updates from my life.

• I finished The Two Towers today, and will be beginning Return of the King very shortly. Unlike with the movies, I enjoyed this book more than Fellowship of the Ring. Who knows why. But I am amused that the orcs around Cirith Ungol said hello to each other by saying "Hola!" I didn't realize that Mordor was that close to Spain.
• On the secret date trip described previously, my car hit the fun number of 180,000 miles. Another year or so and it'll hit the sweet number of 200,000 miles. Who knows if it'll make it. But we're prepared to pay cash for a car once either one of our cars kicks the bucket (her car is around 150,000 miles; so both are nearing the end, most likely). While I will miss my car, I am rather looking forward to car (or truck) shopping.
  
• I have done a bit of work on my new Cooproductions website. As I've stated before, I'm most excited to have a better place to post Lords of Sargoff updates and images and other game information from Reclamation and Myridia.
• We are going to ValleyFair tomorrow. How sweet is that?
  

LotD: Stefan Didak's Home Office Desktop. I think he needs more monitors.

Fifty-Eight Thousand Words, Just For You

I have uploaded the newest version of The Lords of Sargoff. For those interested in reading it, you can download it in the following formats:

• PDF [one combined file]
• DOC [one combined file]
• DOC [chapters in separate files]

For those up to the challenge of reading it, I hope you will give me honest and brutal feedback on what you thought of it. I am looking for any and all such things:

• Grammar and spelling errors
• Plot holes (things don't make sense storywise - big or small)
• Sections that don't flow, or don't seem to fit - sections of bad writing :)
• People and places that have dumb names (or names that don't fit)
• Things that are not explained enough, or explained too much
• Words that are overused
• Parts of the story that are too similar to "fantasy cliches"
  
• Anything that you think may improve the story

If this it to be someday accepted for publication, it needs to be as without flaws as possible, so hold nothing back. :)

LotD: Periodic Table of Awesoments. I'm amused that #11 doesn't have an abbreviation.

Myridia

So, as some who read this know and also play, one of my favorite board games is Carcassonne. It is a strategy game where players place tiles on the table, creating a geographical area and score points based on parts of that area (cities, roads, fields, or forests, river, and meadows, depending on your version of the game, though there are other versions).

Within the last few months, I've had the idea pop into my head for creating a game with the similarity of tiles making up a geographical area, and yet, rather different. So, I have written up several pages worth of rules for this game - Myridia - which is (I think) a bit more complicated than Carcassonne.

One major difference is that the game is in space. So each tile can include one of (or a combination of) planets, moons, asteroids, black holes, wormholes, stars, and empty space, and other little things (like treasures, space merchants and space raiders).

In Carcassonne, you claim things (cities, roads, and so on), trying to score points off of them. In Myridia, the main part of the game is delivering goods from planet to planet. There will be 5 different types of resources, some scarcer, some more common. Planets usually only provide certain types of resources and only want to by others. So you must build outposts and ships in order to pick up and deliver goods from planet to planet, trying to maximize your earnings. The purpose of the game is to earn more credits than your opponents (this is what determines the winner at the end of the game). Credits are also how you buy things. You can also earn credits by completing missions (they will show up on certain tiles).

Oh, Myridia is the name of the central star ("the sun") in this little galaxy that gets created during the game, thus, the name of the game.

LotD: Christian the Lion. It's kind of a cheesy video, but funky nonetheless.

Goodness is Coming

It is true that I have seen The Dark Knight twice already, but is that nearly enough for such an amazing piece of cinema? Heck no. Thus, quite possibly, the third time's a charm tonight. I'm pretty excited. I do love this movie. It current sits at #10 on my list, just behind Gladiator and The Matrix, but it is threatening to move up and overtake at least one of them.

In other news, I am taking my wife on a secret date night on Saturday night. I'll tell you more what it consists of in an entry next week, but I think she'll like it.

I have been increasing my work on The Lords of Sargoff, and have nearly read through the whole thing in the last few days. I then have a list of changes or additions to make. I have also made quite a bit of notes concerning plot lines for the second book, which I have preliminarily titled The Second War, though who knows what the heck it'll be in the end. I have a bit of work left on book one. I should be posting a new version of it within the next two weeks, for anyone who feels up to rereading it. I am then hoping to start sending it to literary agents and publishers by the end of the year. I feel, at 60,000 words (approximately 250 pages), that the story is mostly complete; most of the work on it now is minor tweaking.

LotD: Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Teaser Trailer. About time, huh?

The Top Fifty

Here is the top fifty of my newly-redone movies list (which currently has a total of 402 movies). This is by far the longest of the lists that I will be redoing for my website. Numbers 10, 16, 17, and 19 are all brand new to my top 20. Originally, when I had first gone to see #17 and had reported it in this blog, I had thought I would place it below the series that started with #20 on this list. But then I saw it again, and it moved up. Good job Mr. Stark.

1 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
2 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
3 Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
4 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
5 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
6 Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith
7 Star Wars: A New Hope
8 Matrix, The
9 Gladiator
10 Dark Knight, The
11 Serenity
12 Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
13 Chronicles of Narnia: Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, The
14 Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
15 Braveheart
16 Batman Begins
17 Iron Man
18 Terminator II: Judgment Day
19 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
20 X-Men
21 Shrek
22 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace
23 Minority Report
24 Juno
25 300 (2007)
26 King Kong (2005)
27 Princess Bride, The
28 Signs
29 Se7en
30 Matrix: Reloaded, The
31 Fight Club
32 V For Vendetta
33 Cars
34 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
35 Toy Story II
36 X-Men: The Last Stand
37 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
38 I, Robot
39 I Am Legend
40 Office Space
41 Bourne Ultimatum, The
42 Saving Private Ryan
43 Shawshank Redemption, The
44 Bourne Supremacy, The
45 Toy Story
46 Terminator III: Rise of the Machines
47 X2: X-Men United
48 Terminator
49 Transformers
50 Troy

LotD: Tilted Twister. It's a Lego robot that solves a Rubik's Cube.

I'm Illiterate

Well, not really. However, the amount of books I've read is relatively low. How many, you ask? Since I know you really want to know, I shall tell you. As far as I can recall, the number of novels I have thus far read in my life is 25. This includes 12 Left Behind books and 7 Harry Potter books. The other six are: The Hobbit; The Fellowship of the Ring (I'm currently halfway through The Two Towers); The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; To Kill a Mockingbird; Jaws; and Sounder. This list does not include my reading of my own novel-in-progress. :)

My mother urged me to read more as a child, but I rebelliously declined. This was the time she managed to make me get through Jaws. Well, better late than never to start reading a lot.

But, alas. This shall be increasing more in the future. If anyone has any recommendations for me, let me know. Here's a quick recap of my current to-be-read list: Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, Eragon, Chronicles of Narnia, and Artemis Fowl.

LotD: Terminator Salvation Teaser Trailer. Now, you would have seen this already had you gone to see The Dark Knight. Tisk-tisk. Christian Bale's involvement in the new Terminator movies has me more interested in them.

Kill The Bat Man

Batman Begins was an excellently entertaining, dark, very well done reboot to the Batman franchise. I have memory of only seeing Batman Forever - with Val Kilmer - which I thought was pretty good, but that - and any pieces of the other movies I've seen - can't hold a candle to what director Christopher Nolan did with Batman Begins. Christian Bale was the perfect choice to play Batman, and all the other pieces of the film fit together nearly perfectly. This was the movie that the franchise deserved.

And then came the sequel, The Dark Knight.

Which, by nearly every aspect, is one of the very best sequels that has ever been produced. It is not only better than its predecessor, and the best film of the year, but to me, it is the best film to hit theaters since Return of the King in December 2003. I am currently in the process of redoing my top movies list, and it debuted at #10. Not too bad. There were only 2 movies that were not from Star Wars or Lord of the Rings that ranked higher. Twenty points goes to anyone who can guess what those are.

[Just to clarify; while I think it is the best movie of the last 5 years, that does not mean it is my favorite - that title goes to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. What I find the most entertaining and what I find to be the best movie are not necessarily the same thing.]

The story was dark - darker than the first - and the action was great, but The Dark Knight's greatest asset is the late Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker. This Joker is unlike any movie villain to I can remember, and one of the best. He is not a happy Joker, but a dark and menacing figure that steals each scene. There is talk of Ledger's performance earning him a posthumous Oscar nomination, which I most definitely think this performance is worthy of.

So, in short: go see this movie. If you haven't seen Batman Begins, borrow it or rent it, and then go see this movie. There is a definite chance that my wife and I will be making a return viewing.

LotD: Star Trek Images. Just some little teaser poster images from the next Star Trek movie.

The Thickening Dark

Sounds like a good chapter title for The Lords of Sargoff. Anyway, I've gotten some good work done on the story over the last week or so. It's now sitting at about 54,000 words (216+ pages) and growing. I'm adding in some new adventures and stories. Hopefully for the better. :)

Through my own thinking and reading The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy, I'm going to be making a couple changes to how the story is written. First off, I'm trying to use language that is more fantasy-like; this goes both with my narration and the dialog. I'm also working on making the language darker, especially as the story moves forward.

Next involves the narrator. The way I'd be writing so far is that the narrator basically only tells what he sees, but doesn't necessarily know a lot himself. Another way to do it is to have an all-knowing, who can explain anything in the universe (I see Tolkien's work as being mostly like this). I'm going to shoot for something in the middle; a narration that knows more than I've written it as so far, but doesn't know everything. Hopefully that didn't completely not make sense. :)

LotD: History of Bad Keyboards. Yikes.

Sixteen Days

Crazy. It has been sixteen days since I last blogged. That's just crazy. What have I been up to? Uhh.. not too much. Just work and the usual.

I have been to two movies in the last five days. First off, on Saturday, the wife and I went to go see Wall-E, which I would definitely recommend to anyone else who pretty much loves everything put out by Disney and Pixar. I would put it squarely in the middle in my rankings of Pixar films, not as high as Cars and Toy Story II, but higher than Monsters, Inc. It was pretty fun and very enjoyable.

Then, last night, Megan and I went to see Hancock, which I also liked. It was a funny and interesting story, and I am a fan of Will Smith's acting. It's certainly not a perfect movie, but it was still entertaining.

At both movies, we saw previews for the movie Bolt, which I think could be really rather funny - an animated movie about a dog that comes out around Thanksgiving. However, the next movie on the radar for us is The Dark Knight - a guaranteed see-it-as-soon-as-it-comes-out type movie, with the added bonus of possibly starting off with a trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. But we'll see.

I've been working more on Lords of Sargoff, adding some more plotlines and possibly changing some other things about how I'm writing the story. But more on that on a future blog entry, which will be much sooner than sixteen days.

LotD: Fantasy Fine Art Gallery. Good place to look for pictures of dragons and other such fantasy images. Also is a decent place for me to find Reclamation images.

Home Sweet Home

Most people reading this already know about my switch at work, but here's a recap for those who don't. For the past few months, I have been doing ASP.NET (website programming), learning a lot. However, last week, I was moved back to "Data Requests", which is what I was doing at FLS before I left to go work at Priority Publications. It is a very database oriented job, which I am liking more and more in comparison with web stuff. That being said, all of our database stuff is in Visual FoxPro - a Microsoft product (that Microsoft purchased from another company) that they are no longer supporting, and is "behind the times." We are now in the process of transitioning everything over to Microsoft SQL Server - a much more up-to-date, and powerful database system, and a technology that experience with is much more valuable than FoxPro. So this will both be good for the company - things will run faster - and good for me, as a bit of good SQL experience will look good on the resume.

So, I am now in the process of taking the programming we had in Fox Pro and rewriting it in SQL Server, so we can fully move into that and away from Fox Pro. The whole transition will take quite a while (at least weeks).

On another home-sweet-home note, I have been accepted to work the next TEC weekend, back on the Support team. I am very excited! Meetings start the last weekend in June.

And now for a small update on my personal projects.

For Reclamation, I have decided to look ahead, making lists of possible card titles for the next couple sets. Some books of the Bible are full of things to use; others... not so much. Leviticus especially will not have a lot (in such cases, multiple books will be combined into one set).

For Lords of Sargoff, I am doing deeper character definitions, following the Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy's suggestion. This includes developing timelines, deeper back stories, and character profiles for each character (more detailed for the more "main" characters). I have about 20-25 characters that I want to develop deeper.

LotD: Beautiful Cloud Image Gallery. The first one looks like a nuclear blast. Neato.

Cooproductions and Reclamation

My GoDaddy account has been setup! I am excited, and look forward to getting a chance to work on the site. For now, I have a graphic sitting there at cooproductions.com, as a place holder. I still have to figure out how I'm going to design it, and how I'm going to store the top ten lists (database driven vs. plain text).

I have also been working on a new design for the Reclamation cards. I have done a lot of work on the Hell design; see the Satan card image, and let me know what you think. I went with more of a fire theme. The Heaven cards will probably have a lot of light, like sunlight. And I may do something with parchments or scrolls for the neutral cards. But we shall see. Oh, and the image is bigger than I have previously had for cards. I picked a new font that I thought worked better. The sword icon in the upper right also now designates of that character is a fighter (a non-fighter has a book), so that is no longer written out.

On a side note, after grabbing the image I used for the Satan card, I began to think that it was, in fact, the Balrog from Lord of the Rings. But alas, it looks cool and works (though its supposed to be Satan as a serpent - so the actual card would have a different image, but it works for now).

LotD: The Dangers of a Transformers T-Shirt. Evidently, if a t-shirt represents something that could be dangerous, then it, itself, is too dangerous for the air.

New Chapter, New Site

I have added a segment to the beginning of the first chapter of Lords of Sargoff and shortened the rest of the chapter. You can find the updated version here. I will be making more edits to the rest of the story shortly, as this change affects other things. But I wanted to post the first chapter, to see if anyone thinks it is a better or worse way to start off the book.

I get to have some web design fun shortly. :) I am transferring (from Microsoft Office Live, which I didn't particularly like) the domain name cooproductions.com to GoDaddy, and will then set up hosting there. This is the same name I have used for previous sites, and other things I have created. I am looking forward to having a much more reliable host than I have now, and will be integrating the Lords of Sargoff page and a Reclamation page along with updated top ten lists and whatever else I feel like putting up there. It'll be interesting. :)

On a side note, here's an interesting story. I went to the high school graduation for my niece Ashley, who graduated from NRHEG. [New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, for those not in "the know"]. It was a fine graduation. The odd thing was this: a man sitting a couple rows ahead of us had an iguana sitting on his shoulder. It was very much alive and he had it on a leash. What's with that? :)

LotD: 30 Sequels You Didn't Know About. Plus a link to 28 more.

Indiana Caspian's Ghost

Thus explains the last week or so of my life, cinematically speaking.

My wife and I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian last week. There was more action, and (after the beginning setup) was rather fast paced, bringing the end credits faster than I expected. While it was rather entertaining, I would have to put it a little below The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, though it's been a couple years since I've seen that one. I felt the ending battle wasn't as grand or epic as it should have been. That being said, if you liked the first one, you should like the second one.

The day after that, we went to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. I am not sure where it ranks among the first three, but it certainly would not be far behind. [Ranking may be decided shortly, when I redo my top movies list.] I left the theater thinking that I had enjoyed this movie more than Prince Caspian.

Then, we watched a movie that Megan had borrowed from a coworker - Ghost Rider, which was an impressive step down from the previously mentioned two movies. The graphics were good - the whole flaming motorcycle and rider - but I felt the storyline, writing, and acting were off. Nicolas Cage did an okay job, but some of the rest weren't so good. When it comes to comic book / superhero movies, this will battle for my least favorite, along with Daredevil.

LotD: More Terminator Movies. The addition of Christian Bale increases my interest in Arnold-less Terminator movies. Looks like they're already doing some serious planning: three sequels.

Writing About Reading and Reading About Writing

Both my body and my brain need exercise. So, I am going to start biking and reading on a regular basis.

I had been reading Angels and Demons, but found it rather uninteresting, and thus am stopping halfway through. I was then told the details of how it ended by my wife. Now, I will be picking up The Lord of the Rings, finally. About five years ago, I had read The Fellowship of the Ring and about half of The Two Towers, but never finished the series. And, considering I am a big geek and a huge LotR fan, this will soon be rectified. (I will probably read The Hobbit again before the movie comes out in a couple years.) I also might throw in a second reading of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince before that movie comes out in November.

After Lord of the Rings, I will have a few options, including re-reading Chronicles of Narnia. A few other books on my reading list include Eragon, Wheel of Time, Artemis Fowl, the prequel books for the Left Behind series, and other Lord of the Rings readings (including Children of Hurin, The Silmarillion, among others).

While reading such books, I will continue to go through my Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy and working on Lords of Sargoff. Reading will both be entertaining, and helpful for me when it comes to my own writing.

I will also be biking. I have put on a few extra pounds, and wouldn't mind losing them and then quite a few more. The combination of regular exercise and eating less and healthier should help with that. There is a little trail through the woods near our apartment that I will be biking through. I am hoping to bike a few miles, a few times a week. That's where I'm starting anyway. I also am probably going to combine these two activities (sort of... this does not mean I will be biking and reading at the same time.) :) I can bike the 1.5 or so miles of a loop and end up at a park next to a lake, where I can sit and read for a while, and then take the loop backwards and head home. I think it will be fun. I also know that part of the reason I've been reading less is that I am easily distracted by my computer. :)

LotD: Record Road Trip. Forty-eight states in five days. Impressive.

Adventures in Buckeyeland: Part Two

My trip to Ohio was good fun. It is always good to see the family, and to eat Graeter's ice cream. :) The best ice cream in the world.

While I was there, I celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday. My mother and sister-in-law made a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake which was absolutely delicious. And of course, I got presents. :) This included Transformers on DVD (which we then watched about 20 minutes of on my brother's projector screen), and a couple of writing-related books: Christian Writers' Market Guide, which will be more useful when I get closer to looking for a publisher for Lords of Sargoff, and a book which I think will be rather useful right now - The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy (or some title close to that). It talks about developing fantasy worlds and characters, and magic, and all sorts of other things. I've read the first chapter - a quick history of fantasy, with a list of recommended readings - and will soon be entering the chapter on characters. It should be rather handy.

And, here's some more big birthday news: when I returned from Ohio, my wife gave me my birthday gift, which was actually a birthday + anniversary gift (our two year anniversary is today). And... it was a Nintendo Wii! We'd talked about getting one later in the summer, but I was most pleased to get it now. We don't yet have any games for it (outside of Wii Sports, which is wonderful), but shortly we will be each getting a game we want (for her - Dance Dance Revolution; for me - MarioKart). It's tons of fun! :)

On an anniversary-related note, we are going to the most wonderful restaurant in the world tonight to celebrate: The Cheesecake Factory. And before that, Megan will get her present from me, which, while much less exciting than a Wii, I think she will rather like it - it's a good stack of books (8 of them I think) that she wants to read. (Her favorite genre of novel is becoming fantasy. Ah, geekdom is expanding.)

LotD: The Best of Google Street View. Street View allows you to see street-level images of roads in major cities. It's pretty sweet. This is a small collection of unique images that people have found on it, including a car fire and an airplane flying above the road.

Adventures in Buckeyeland: Part One

Well, I am back to Minnesota after an excellent 5 day stay at Erik and Gina's house in Columbus. The only thing that didn't go well was one of the very first things that happened - and ended up being rather humorous. Well, here we go.

My wife dropped me off at the airport in Minneapolis, then headed down to her mom's house for the weekend. After I was dropped off, I started to go through the security checkpoint with my bag and my laptop. The man at the x-ray had another security personnel take my bag and look through it. She opened it up and I saw something I did not expect - shall we say... "feminine products." Yes, I was about to trek halfway across the country, and I had grabbed my wife's bag out of the car, leaving her with mine. (The reason they wanted to look through it was because of the bottles of shampoo and conditioner, which they then threw away.)

I tried desperately to call my wife, hoping she could turn around and swap the bags, but she did not answer her cell phone. So, with a certain amount of self-annoyance, I boarded the plane with a bag full of female clothing, thus leaving me with only the clothes on my back for things to wear for the next five days. Whoops.

The clothes thing didn't bother me too much, but my bag swap meant I did not have my Lord of the Rings cards with me, which was too bad, nor did I have the CD's of my wedding pictures which I was bringing for my parents and brothers (those cds will, instead, be mailed out shortly). I also did not bring the decks I had made for playtesting of my Reclamation card game. However, we printed some out there (I was able to connect from my laptop to my work computer at FLS, which conveniently, had my flash drive, where the game files were stored). We played a game of it and came up with some more good improvements (in theory).

Anyway, shortly after arriving in Columbus, I went shopping at Meijer [like a Super Target] and picked up a pair of jeans and other necessities, and borrowed shirts from Erik during the week. So it was just a minor annoyance in the end, but still rather funny.

More to come on the trip.

LotD: 107 Years and Counting. This light bulb has been shining for 107 years.

Iron Man

I went to the earliest possible showing of the movie Iron Man - last Thursday at 8:00 p.m. I rather enjoyed the movie, though for superhero movies, I'd put it just below X-Men and Batman Begins, but a good step up from most other series, including Spider-Man. The Iron Man series has a lot going for it and has the potential to become much better. The action scenes were great and the there were some very funny moments to it. The special effects were done perfectly and fit in just right. It's very smart for an superhero movie. So go see it. :)

Next on the list: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I'm pumped.

In really much more important information, I attended a little party over the weekend. Oh, yeah, it was a wedding of the Mac Man, Mr. Anderson: my sixth time as a groomsman. Oh, how my feet hurt. :) But everything seemed to go off without a hitch, and the newlywed couple is now in Florida. Lucky! :)

LotD: Real Life Iron Man. Well, not exactly, but it seems this company is trying to get some cheap big-time publicity for their "exoskeleton robotic suit."

A Look Back

December 26, 2007, was one of the hardest days I've ever had. The day before had been a wonderful Christmas day at home with my wife. I got up in the morning and went to work at Priority Publications, where I had been employed as a Web Programmer since September, after leaving my 2 1/2 year job at FLS Connect as a Database Analyst.

After arriving to my desk, my boss asked me to follow him into the office of the company's HR person. As soon as she said "These types of meetings are never easy," I knew what was coming. They had decided to terminate employment with me, effective immediately.

I sat there and listened while my boss listed the reasons why I was let go. I wasn't the right fit. Perhaps there were some things that I wasn't doing properly. I wasn't proactive enough. I then went back to my desk, put my belongings in a box, and left.

From the moment I knew I was getting let go, I felt my emotions rising up inside of me. I held them in until I got in my car, then proceeded to sit there and cry for several minutes. I even cried a bit of the drive home. Which is rather odd for me, as those people who know me well know that I don't cry often or easily. But this hit me hard - not because I would not be making money. It wasn't merely the fact that I would no longer have a job, but it was how I lost it.

I felt like I had failed. I was in a position that I felt comfortable in, right where I thought God wanted me to be at this point in my career, and I failed. And yet, at the same time, I know that none of those things that my boss had brought up as reasons for my termination had been previously brought to my attention. I didn't see the point in God bringing me to this company, only to have me let go after 3 1/2 months, before I was really able to further develop my skills.

Priority had just bought a new company that included four web developers - each of which had much more experience than I did. It seems to me that they simply decided that they didn't need me anymore. They had a lot more experience now. Which brings me quickly to the concept of company loyalty. I am a loyal employee, even after being at a place a relatively short time. After about 2 or 2 1/2 months at Priority, a former FLS coworker of mine told me about a job at his company. I went to the interview, but was very hesitant about it - because I had only been at Priority a couple months and didn't feel right leaving so soon, and this came across in the interview. I was merely there to see the opportunity, but I didn't really feel right about it, because I had a good job at a company. A company that I felt a part of and felt at home with. I was not offered the job - one of the main reasons being, basically, that they didn't think my heart was in it, which it wasn't.

So within a few days of losing my job at Priority, I started my job search, which mostly returned no results from potential employers. The job at my former coworker's new company had already been filled. After about a month, I started a temporary stint back at FLS Connect, doing the same type of Database Analyst thing I was doing before, but it was only for a week, as it was a busier time and they needed the help. On my last day, I was brought into my boss' office and he asked if I was interested in coming back to FLS full time, but in a different position, which brings me to my current state of employment. I am a Junior .NET Programmer - I do programming for their web site and web applications. Which is rather similar to the job I had at Priority Publications.

Maybe it's just something about this company. FLS was my first job right out of college, and the way that all game together was right from God. Within the last few months before graduating from college, I had my resume online and had had practically no bites on it. Then, about two weeks before, I got a call from FLS, and we set up an interview. I graduated from DeVry (in Columbus, Ohio) on a Sunday, drove up to Minnesota on a Monday, had the interview on Tuesday, and was called and offered the job on Wednesday. It was perfect.

But I had to leave the company, get let go, and be unemployed for a month in order to get the job I really wanted at my original company. It's weird how things work out sometimes. I am so thankful that I left FLS on excellent terms. I had even come back one other time for about 2 weeks in October/November to help them out prior to election time. If I didn't have that great relationship with this company, I may still be out of a job.

That being said, I still don't like to think about Priority. If I let myself think about it too much, it brings back those same feelings of failure. I know everything always works out the way it should through the will of God, but this hurt. It made me question my quality as an employee, as well as my choice of a career path.

Oddly enough, not having a job for a month did give me a significant amount of time to work on writing my novel, which is what I'd rather be doing anyway. I don't know exactly what God's ultimate plan is in all of this, but I know that He has one, and I'm trusting Him in every step.

Undebtification Part One

My wife and I hit a good financial milestone over the weekend when it comes to my student loans. I had both private and federal loans; the federal loans made up about 20% of the total. And we managed to pay it off, which is most excellent. We had only starting paying up on it in the fall, and before then had mostly been doing the minimum payments. We estimate that, should we be able to continue paying up on the private loans at the same rate (which shouldn't be a problem), that we will be out of debt in less than two years, which is very exciting. Then, of course, soon after would come the much bigger debt of a mortgage, but first things first. And hopefully we can get a house before the housing market improves. :)

I found out a little bit of sad news last week at work. Jay, my boss, is leaving the company in early May. He hired me back in 2005, and was mainly responsible for rehiring me in January after I left and was subsequently let go from Priority Publications after a few months. He has been an excellent boss to work for, and he will be missed around here. I can only hope that his replacement (I believe they're hiring from outside the company) is as good, and doesn't have a completely different management style. Jay is rather laid back, and maintains the type of work environment that I feel comfortable with. But alas, we'll see.

LotD: R2D2 Projector. I may have linked to such a product before, but this link is for a video that really shows it off. It is pretty sweet. :)

Yes, I Am A Nerd

I have gone a couple weeks without working on The Lords of Sargoff. But this will be changing soon. I posted the first chapter on an online fiction critique message board and got some good comments on passive voice versus active voice, which I will be able to apply throughout the story.

In the meantime, I have been doing some thinking about my card game, Reclamation, partially because I am looking forward to some playtesting while in Columbus in May. There have been several changes to gameplay since I last playtested with the Columbus Coopers, and more changes may be in order. Here are some thoughts I have been considering. Those who care not about this game may skip to the bottom for the LotD, which is a double, since I missed yesterday. :)

1. Multiplayer. One of the advantages of having each deck have both Heaven and Hell cards is that having any number of players (even or odd) shouldn't be a problem. At the same time, I see the advantages of designing the game so each player either has a Heaven or a Hell deck. This, however, creates some problems when it comes to odd-numbered multiplayer games.

2. Wounds. I currently have wounds represented by cards placed under the character. I also have the characters arranged in a grid. The problem starts out when the grid is empty, and being able to determine exactly what spot in the grid a character is played to. I have considered having cards under a character to act as placeholders and help define the grid, by it would be messy for the placeholder and wound cards to coexist.

3. I have considering restructuring how the grid works. I designed the grid to emulate a battle formation. However, in the game, non-warriors and animals are in the grid. In theory, I could change it from a grid to a battle line, and have one line of warriors who actually do the fighting, and behind them (in the 'trench', where order or placement doesn't matter). In theory, I could then both do placeholder cards and wound cards for the warriors (wounds underneath, placeholders behind them on the playing surface).

If I do this, then each conflict will be between two characters, instead of a whole row. I see advantages and disadvantages to doing it this way. An advantage is that it makes it harder for an army to be mercilessly better than an opponent's, forcing that opponent to rebuild for a long time (less warriors). A disadvantages is that battle conflicts become limited to one character per side, taking away the fun of full column vs. column. That being said, there may still be other ways to initiate conflicts between larger groups. So, maybe it's not so bad.

It would simplify things, so characters are now simply 'adjacent' to each other, as opposed to also being 'surrounding,' not to mention diagonally, vertically, and horizontally adjacent. If I did this, I would also quite possibly raise the numbers when it comes to might (when most characters are might 2 or 3, a +2 might bonus is massive; if they are usually between 6 and 10, a +2 bonus is not as overpowerful).

That being said, the battle line and numbers change do cause similarities to Lord of the Rings, which I am trying to prevent.

LotD: Programatical Proposal. This guy tweaked a game to propose to his girlfriend.

LotD2: Geekiest Pants Ever. Yeah, that's a keyboard on his pants.

Sarah Marshall, Forgotten

I haven't really had a post about movies in a little while. So, here goes - a recap of some recent movies I've seen and a look forward to this year's cinematic offerings. Over the weekend, my wife and I went to see the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It was good and funny, though a step below the much funnier and more interesting Knocked Up. That being said, by far, the best new movie I've seen within the past six months, at least, is Juno - while not as uproariously funny as Knocked Up, is still very humorous, more genuine, and better written and acted. It is also quite a bit cleaner, as Knocked Up is one of the biggest fans of the f-word that I've ever seen; Juno is also the only one of these three that does not include someone removing their clothing.

Looking forward, here are nine of the movies that I have interest in that are coming out in 2008, ranked in order (from highest to lowest) of my interest in them. Includes the release date. It is practically guaranteed that I will be seeing at least the first five of these in the theater.

Harry Potter And The Half-blood Prince (11/21)
- Each one has gotten better so far, in my opinion. This will only the third time ever (after Order of the Phoenix and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe) that I read the book prior to seeing the movie.
The Dark Knight (7/18)
- Batman Begins was an excellent reboot to the Batman franchise (that being said, I believe I've only seen one other Batman movie - Batman Forever). I am very excited to see this one, especially for the Joker.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (5/16)
- While not up to the same level in fantasy as Lord of the Rings, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe was an excellently entertaining film, and has me wanting to go back and reread the books.
Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (5/22)
- More Indiana. How can this be a bad thing?
Iron Man (5/2)
- I had never heard of the character of Iron Man before a year or two ago. But the trailers look good.
Wall-E (6/27)
- More from Pixar = Good.
Get Smart (6/20)
- I watched the series a good bit when I was younger.
The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (8/1)
- While I haven't really seen all of The Mummy Returns, the first movie was great.
The Incredible Hulk (6/13)
- I thought the first Hulk from a few years ago was rather good, but this is a completely fresh and new reboot of the series. Could be better, could be worse.

Ye Olde Rustbucket

First off, I have submitted my application for TEC 72, and I ordered the teams as Support, Wheat, and Kitchen. I am already excited, though the application deadline isn't for over a month. :)

My automobile is getting old. For those not in "the know" of my car, it is a 2000 Chevy Cavalier that is coming dangerously close to 175,000 miles. While it is still running just fine, at that mileage, who knows how much it has left in it. And a big repair would finish it off, because the car is simply not worth putting any fair amount of money into.

The newest sign of the car's age is a growing rust spot on the side underneath the passenger door (see image), which had me a little concerned, as I didn't know if that was all of the rust. I looked underneath and I didn't see any other big rusting, so that's good. Next time I take it in for an oil change, I may request that they take a quick look and tell me if there's any serious rust anywhere on the undercarriage. Cause that'd be a bummer. It's been a good car (I've had it for 5 1/2 years and thus far put nearly 127,000 miles on it), and it shall be sad when it goes away. But then again, I (we) get to buy another one then. :)

Double LotD: Warcraft Movie, and rumors concerning a possible Everquest movie. Ah, crazy times we live in. :)

Wheated

Well, here I am, back from the wonderful weekend that was TEC 71. Working on the Wheat team was definitely a different experience that working Support, but both are amazing. It was rather interesting, being at a TEC weekend, and yet not doing the normal Support things. This is the part of the blog entry where I make fun of the Kitchen team for not providing plates for Thursday night's meal. And here are a few highlights (of which there were many).

Talks - It was interesting to actually watch the talks, as opposed to only hearing them during the team meetings. I noticed as the weekenders become more and more interested in the talks as the weekend went on. The talks were all very good; the most powerful being (in my opinion) one that described in detail the crucifixion of Christ. It was similar in effect to watching The Passion of the Christ.

The Champion - It had been nine years since I'd seen it last, and being there during practice and the actual performance was amazing. The weekenders cheered and booed as the battle happened. It was perfect.

Table Commissioning - First experience with table commissioning since I was a candidate ten years ago. It was rather interesting to see the differences in the tables, and watch the tables do a little guessing on YTL.

And of course, I always enjoy the activities of Saturday night.

Now, the main question is: What am I going to apply for for the next TEC? Whatever it is, they should have my application by the end of the week.

LotD: Star Wars Urban Photography. Star Wars characters in modern day urban locations. Pretty well done too, but click on the image to get one that's bigger for best results.

The Art of Bowling Badly

Last night, my wife and I went out to eat at The Hunan Restaurant in Bloomington. It was a new place, and we had a coupon. :) It was pretty good, and I did enjoy my shrimp in lobster sauce. Neither of us finished our meals, and took some home as leftovers. From there, we went bowling, which was the first time I'd gone bowling in nearly two years, since the night before the wedding. So, how did I do bowling for the first time as a married man? Not so good. :) We bowled three games, and my scores were 90, 90, and 72 respectively. I started off the first game with four straight gutter balls. Yeah, that's right. I then switched to a different ball - one that was lighter - and went with the spin-the-ball approach, which worked better. But, alas. We both love to bowl, and it is a pity that it has been so long (though Megan beat me in 2 of the games. She has bowled a few times with her crazy kids at work.) :) Good fun anyway. I shall do better next time, assuming we don't wait until 2010. :)

Anywho, I brought my leftover shrimp in lobster sauce to work for lunch. As I was getting out of the car this morning, I evidently tipped the box a little, and proceeded to pour lobster sauce onto my pant leg. It was a good way to start off the morning. :) Ah, well.

Well, here we are. The TEC weekend starts tomorrow, and I am very excited, and of course, a little nervous. We seem to have a great Wheat team, and I look forward to working with them and getting to know them better. And of course, most importantly, to be part of making a difference in the lives of the candidates (errr.... weekenders).

LotD: Robot Sommelier. Can "taste" wines (without opening the bottle) to determine its ingredients and what would go well with it. Since I don't drink, this would be of no use to me, but I think the technology is impressive.

The Big Two-O-O

This is my 200th blog entry. Very exciting. I suppose this should be accompanied by some big celebration, but then again, that would just be silly.

Anyways, my big excitement for the day is all food-related. First off, I get to eat ice cream cake here shortly (thank goodness for other peoples' birthdays). And tomorrow, I'm ordering myself a pizza and, in doing so, am being rather adventurous - the pizza will be half anchovies. I may not like that half, but we shall see. I've never had anchovies before, so this will be interesting.

The second and last TEC meeting is on Sunday, and I am pretty excited. Then I will be off to the weekend itself next Thursday - six days from today. Holy cow. Where does the time fly to? I am excited for the weekend and being a Wheatie. On a side note, I bought some Wheaties the other day in preparation. Yeah, I'm good to go now. :)

And, just to clarify a previous post, I have not lost my job a second time. :)

LotD: Massive 20 Sided Die. In memory of Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, who died in March. This tribute is on the campus of MIT, no less.

Fifty Grand

So, The Lords of Sargoff hit 50,000 words today, which I find to be rather exciting. Through extras and chapter splitting, it now has 20 chapters. And yet, I need more. :) Like, 20-30,000 more words. I need more description, detail, characters, and events. One thing I've noticed (I think this is right, anyway), is that the story is pretty tight, as in, the characters zip around from place to place and there's little room to add other events. But alas, I will see what I can do. :)

LotD: The Star Destroyer Project. I want one.

Version 2

I have uploaded to the LoS site the newest version of The Lords of Sargoff. This version is just over 48,000 words, by my count making it approximately 200 novel pages in length. I would still like to add more. I have fixed several wording errors (thanks to everyone who has given input!), as well as plot holes. This doesn't, of course, mean there are no more errors or plot holes (or that the plot holes I've tried to fix are 100% perfectly fixed). If you happen to read it again (or for the first time, depending on who you are), please feel free to send me any comments or suggestions, or criticisms. I'd love to hear them.

Skip the next paragraph if you don't care about the names of characters in the book. :)

There are some names that will likely be changed. This includes the names Inevidens and Vidricks. I have considered renaming Lord Hamrin and/or Lord Arien, as I'm not sure they are "dark" enough names for dark lords. I had been considering renaming Jothan, but that name has grown on me. His father, Nothan, will certainly be renamed. Then I have the issue of having a character named Vylon and one named Vython; the names are rather close, and one of them will likely be changed. Finally is Cymor, who I like the name, but may change the spelling (Symor, Psymor; can also add an e to the end - Cymore, Symore, Psymore). I kind of like Psymore, maybe.

I have accumulated quite a list of link of the days. You get an extra one today because I didn't include one in my last post.

LotD: Flying Saucer House. It's certainly unique.

LotD2: Starfleet Bridge Illustrations. See into the bridge of a wide variety of ships from the Star Trek universe.

Verbally Speaking

I just got home from the first full-team meeting for TEC 71, and it went just fine. I am rather looking forward to the next meeting and the weekend itself, but today's meeting reminded me of one of my major weaknesses that I deal with on almost a daily basis.

I am incredibly bad at talking. It's amazing that I can still get rather nervous over simple conversation. While meeting as a Wheat team, the youth leadership would ask questions, and despite the fact that I usually think of perfectly good and interesting things to say, my shyness and nervousness kicks in, and I have a hard time transferring that from my brain to my mouth. I often end up dismissing my thoughts and instead saying something stupidly sarcastic (see my old blog entry - written two years ago today, oddly enough - The Shell, for more insight on that).

It's really rather obnoxious. I'm actually pretty good with words. I rather enjoy them. I am writing a novel that currently has nearly 50,000 words. I've been writing stories and poetry for nearly 15 years. And yet, a simple verbal sentence is often difficult, depending on the situation. If I'm with people I don't know very well, or in a situation I am otherwise uncomfortable with, I clam up and can barely spout anything meaningful. It's silly, but most of my deeper and more serious conversations have occurred online over email or chat. On a similar note, in high school and college, I would always rather write a five page paper than give a very short speech. Goofy.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I know this little issue of mine keeps me from getting as close to people as I'd like to, since it's hard for me to have real discussions with people. I know my mind is full of good things to share, but getting them from point A to point B in a verbal form is the trick. That being said, I am better at it than I used to be (sounds crazy), and this is one of the (many) reasons I'm looking forward to the rest of the TEC 71 experience. I think it will be good for me as I continue to grow as a person, into the man that God made me to be.

I may have another semi-serious entry in another few days, about that whole losing-my-job thing.