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.