Happy (belated) New Year!

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Written by: on Saturday, January 27th, 2018

Another year! And lacking posts! What else is new? I fixed the broken background that was hosted on photobucket so everything should look nice and dusty again. I have to say, it was a pain trying to figure it out because I completely forgot how everything works even though I did this theme from scratch via a tutorial (that doesn’t seem to exist anymore, sadly).

Here’s to another year of no posts! 😀

Photo by luizclas from Pexels

Last year was a pretty bad year so I guess some part of me wanted to participate in NNWM, to bring back the ‘old days’, I guess. I didn’t have an idea so I just pretty much started off with a typical ‘main character whisked away to fantasy world’, and it ended up with ‘girl and dragon egg’ story in my friend’s personal world.

It wasn’t too much of a struggle meeting my word goal of 1,667 words every day… though there were days where it pretty much lasted all day long of staring at Word. I did have the cheesy D&D movie running as background noise (as usual) to keep me in a storytelling mode.

It was fun hammering it out along the way, creating characters and plots and whatnot. I think I’ll be writing a sequel to this story for this year’s NNWM unless some other idea comes along but it seems to be getting harder and harder to be inspired to write anything.

My final word count was 51,671 words. Been a while for a personal win. I sure do miss the idea of getting a free book out of it. Ha!

 

Happy New Year!

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Written by: on Sunday, January 1st, 2017

I guess it shows how often I check this blog when a spambot manages to squirm in and post fake articles for a couple months without me noticing. I cleaned it up (I think) so hopefully everything should go back to normal with quietness. I never know what to post on this blog anymore.

Happy 2015!

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Written by: on Thursday, January 1st, 2015

Old year out, new year in. Failed resolutions. What else is new? Definitely this post! Bwahaha. Now enjoy a blast from the past.


2 Unlimited – No Limit

Happy 2014!

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Written by: on Wednesday, January 1st, 2014

Happy New Year!

Wow. Been quite a while since I updated this blog. I almost didn’t want to renew the .com for another year since the prices seem to slowly inch up every year. I miss the old days when 3 years were 20 bucks because having your own url was all the rage. Now who really owns one? Huh? A handful of people nowadays. So what have I been up to? Not much.

Writing:
I decided to skip NaNoWriMo 2013 because I didn’t have a single story idea in mind and I didn’t feel like kicking myself silly all month for something to happen if I didn’t even have an idea to start with or the passion to dwell upon said idea.

Books:
I haven’t read a book since the last one I posted about. I need to change that.

Games:
Well, let’s see… At some point I discovered a couple of streamers on Twitch. It led to co-oping quite a few games. The most memorable being Vindictus, Terraria, and starting just a few days ago; Starbound!

Vindictus

Terraria

Starbound

 

I also built a soda shop in the Winter world on Activeworlds for the Winter Holiday Village II event (Which is still ongoing until the 4th). There’s an EBTS (Extreme Builder Talent Show) coming up pretty soon in the America world so I might drop by and build something there, too.

 

ActiveWorlds goes ‘free2play’

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Written by: on Tuesday, June 18th, 2013

So Active Worlds finally makes the leap. All citizenships are now free. If you didn’t want to pay the $6.95 per month and never became a citizen, now’s your chance to jump in. If you’re an old citizen that let their cit lapse, now you can come right on back without a problem.

They went into detail about what “The Switch” would entail but it seems the prices aren’t really set yet a lot of things. A bit more waiting to see what the prices are going to be, especially when the ‘bonus’ is given out later at some point.

So what is ActiveWorlds? Some argue that it’s a game or not but I think it’s really pretty much a 3D chat that you build in. Give it a try. You might have fun. The main world to build in is AlphaWorld (which shows up as “AW” on the worlds list) but there’s other worlds you can build in with more objects to choose from.

Thoughts on Perfect World

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Written by: on Saturday, April 13th, 2013

I can’t believe how much the game has changed.

The one thing I hated about Perfect World was the requirement of being in a faction/squad in order to advance in the game at all. Dungeon runs required a group of people in order to defeat the boss at the end.

I’m not experienced at this game. Quite far from it, in fact. I’ve never spent a penny on this game and never got high level enough to run in big time dungeons to get rare items and lots of exp. The highest level, to date, is level 72, but it’s from all non-dungeon quests so all I can really speak about is the lower-level side of things.

Back in 2009, A friend convinced me to download PWI so that I could help him and his faction out because they needed a wizard and he knew I’d be interested in playing a wizard. I register and enter Dreamweaver server (and quickly learn what ‘wizards are squishy’ means). I remember it took forever to level up. Sometimes I’d complete all the quests that were available to me at that level and I’d have to grind to level up, which is where the ‘One Man Army’ quests came in. There used to be so many people all over the regions that I was often invited to join squads in the area because chances are that we were all trying to finish the same quest at the same time. “Got mine. How many more do you need? *kill kill kill* You’re welcome. Turning mine in. Good luck! *leaves squad*”.

The faction slowly died out over a period of several months and I lost interest in PWI, leaving my wizard to be level 50 or so. Come a year later, 2010, I discovered that another friend was playing the game. I told her about my wizard character. She got excited and told me to come in, that she was a member of a faction owned by her friends. Turns out they were on a different server, Heaven’s Tear, and I had to create a new wizard from scratch. Same situation. Lots of running around, leveling up, grinding, joining temporary squads to help each other, running FBs, etc.

Same story, the faction died out over a period of several months. Funny enough, this wizard was also in the 50’s when I lost interest.  When PW had an update to add Mystics and Seekers, I fell in love with my Mystic character and quickly leveled him up before I petered out of the game yet again. Sometimes I came back into the game to do a quest here and there. Then enter lucid chests and I started collecting those for the fruits to level up my characters. Over a long period of time and through the assistance of one person that popped online in the faction once in a while, this character eventually reached level 72 but then PWI had an update that rendered a lot of DQ items worthless and I lost interest… again.

But during that time period, I noticed fewer and fewer people come in anymore. Back in 2009/2010, when I entered with new characters, the welcome area was swamped with people who was trying to figure things out. 2011 and beyond, I don’t see a soul in those areas. About a week ago I decided to create a Mystic for the Dreamweaver server and possibly join a faction to see if I could get interested in the game again. In two days – just two days – my Mystic is already level 30+, and I have a long list of quests that are still waiting for me to complete them. It’s like the game is now geared towards getting us to a high level very quickly so that we’ll feel invested and spend money when things start to slow down. The only time I encounter other people is when I enter the cities. Out in the regions and small unknown villages, there’s no one around. I tried creating new characters on several PVE servers and it seems to be the same story everywhere.

All I ever hear about the game is stuff such as “Frostcovered City for quick leveling of new alts”, “R9 for weapons”, etc. It’s all high level stuff that I just don’t ever see myself experiencing. In fact, I’m still floored that I have one character that is level 72.

It’s strange to go from “There’s too many people around!” to “Hello?-lo?-lo?-lo? Anyone there?-ere?-ere?-ere?”

My bedroom never had a book

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Written by: on Thursday, March 21st, 2013

German American Kids BookshelfDaily Prompt: Bedtime Stories
What was your favorite book as a child? Did it influence the person you are now?

You know, I think I am one of those rare kids that never went near a book. My parents never read a book to me (that I can recall), I never went to the library of my own volition, and my bedroom never had a book. It’s strange because when I think about it now, every time I entered any one of my friends’ room during my childhood, there was always a small two-shelf bookcase filled with books that were in tattered condition, stepped on, colored in, etc. If you looked in my room at that time period, you’d see a huge bin full of Lego blocks. Man, oh, man, I loved playing with them Lego blocks…

Whenever a reading assignment came around, I rushed through the book. I was bored senseless. It wasn’t until I was older when others kept suggesting that I should start reading because I so enjoy writing.

So there was no influence from books during my childhood. How has it affected me as a person now? I don’t know. I relied heavily on my imagination during those years – most of which has bothered me big time when I find out that someone else has beaten me to the story idea first. I think I am so used to playing with my own stories that it’s really difficult for other stories to grasp me into their world.

While I type this, I believe the first book that I willingly read of my own volition was “Desert Eden” by J.M. Morgan. It was a book that my mother owned and she said it had that ‘end of the world’ stuff that I seem so fond of, and I gave it a whirl. Harry Potter followed after and I couldn’t put those books down at all!

I guess it’ll always feel like that I’m trying to play ‘catch up’ because everyone is constantly recalling their favorite books during their childhood and I’m like, “Well, that’s another book I’ll have to read…”

Peace, please.

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Written by: on Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

West Burton Waterfalls, (Cauldron Falls), Yorkshire, UK | Picturesque waterfalls in the Yorkshire Dales (7 of 10)Daily Prompt: INTJ
Do parties and crowds fill you with energy, or send you scurrying for peace and quiet?

Energy? Parties fill me with dread and anxiety. Heck, even holidays do the same. Any time people must gather together, I withdraw pretty quickly. I’ve never been big on parties except for birthday parties. I loved them as a kid since it meant more presents but nowadays, not so much.

It’s not that I prefer peace and quiet… It’s just that when there’s too many people around, I get antsy and need space. I used to be able to slip out of a room so well that people never noticed until I was long gone.

But, you know, I guess I do prefer peace and quiet afterall.

Concerning the “INTJ” at the Daily Prompt’s title, when I used to fill out online ‘personality tests’ over the years, the results have always, always returned INFP. I don’t ever remember getting another result for it.

This is the tale of two cats and three dogs

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Written by: on Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

Daily Prompt: Menagerie
Do you have animals in your life? If yes, what do they mean to you? If no, why have you opted not to?

I had no idea the Daily Post started posting daily prompts again. I’m going to have to start checking back to see if there’s any questions I could answer. The answer to this question is that I have two cats and three dogs.

I have to start with the cats as they have been around the longest. Before I adopted the kittens, we had three other cats and the last two passed away pretty quickly. Misty in November 1999 and Georgie in January of 2000. I grieved, decided I could never have cats again, and moved on – briefly. About six months down the road I decided I missed having cats around and wanted to adopt a kitten. At the last second I bumped it up to two kittens, preferably from the same litter so that they would have a bond.

October of 2000, I adopted these two. Gypsy on the left and Morpheus on the right. Morpheus’ original name was Cleopatra when he was supposedly a female but after a few days of having him, his boy parts came out so a name change was in order.

It was a shock because as the kittens got older, I didn’t feel a bond with them like I did with Misty. I guess I was getting older and it just wasn’t the same as bonding with a cat when you’re a child. Nonetheless, Gypsy is the one that is closest to me out of everyone else. She prefers to be around me, even though she frustrates the heck out of me. Morpheus is more frightened and hides. He prefers being around my brother.

The cats are now 12 years old.

And now on to the dogs!

The little brown minpin mix is Chrissy. We adopted her in February 2004 from a couple that kept her and a big dog locked in a trailer with no electricity or heat. The weathermen said February was going to be a very nasty and cold winter month and since she was small, she was taken in. She was four years old at the time, making her about the same age as the cats.

The black minpin, Duchess of York and Dale, was adopted in 2006 so that Chrissy would have a companion. Turns out Chrissy didn’t want a companion nor did she want to share attention. Duchess was 8 years old at the time. She came with papers, akc registered, spayed, etc. Her previous owner had passed away and the owner’s sister was giving Duchess away for free. Duchess was a rotten, vicious little dog that attacked people (must be why the sister was giving her away for free) but after she went blind, she has chilled out a lot. She will turn 16 in July of this year.

The most recent addition to the household is Koda, the big furry Keeshond back there. He was adopted from a Keeshond rescue last year. They estimated him to be nearly two years old. He was abused and neglected by his previous owner and when he first arrived, he was very aggressive. current time It was extremely frustrating because every time we thought we made progress, he would do something that makes us feel that we made no progress at all. By now, he’s adjusted a lot but sometimes there’s little quirks here and there that I’m hoping will go away in the years to come.

What’s an e-reader? Lull in writing.

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Written by: on Sunday, March 17th, 2013

So have you been reading on that newfangled thing?
I guess it was a good thing I got a Kindle Fire HD with a bright colorful screen instead of the e-ink versions. I have to admit that I’ve been treating it as a tablet instead of an e-book reader.

I downloaded a handful of free classics but it is a real struggle to stay interested. I’ve tried downloading free e-books from Amazon but all of the ones I found turned out to be self-published. The writing, typos, poor sentence structures kept making the story screech to a halt over and over so I gave up on that.

I still have a hard time with the idea of paying money for an e-book. The idea of shelling out a lot of money for a digital copy of the book makes me sort of step back and opt for a physical copy of the book instead. I have an awesome bookshelf for them.

So I’ve been using my KF as a tablet mostly. The apps in the amazon store are really, really lacking. Every time someone suggested a neat-looking app to use, I’d do a search and, of course, amazon would never have it. In order to get my hands on any of the apps, there’s a lot of talk about rooting it and changing it to something else? I don’t know. I didn’t want to go that far. I just wanted to be able to play the games on here. Someone told me to download “1mobile” for my KF and I would be able to download almost any app that could be found at Google Play.

One of the games I downloaded was “Puzzle and Dragons”. I absolutely love this game. I’ve been treating it more as a puzzle game but it seems you can collect monsters, raise them, make their attacks stronger when you make combos, etc. I’m slowly pacing myself and just stumbling around, basically. What I love about this game is that you can drag an orb anywhere you want, that way you can make several combos during one turn. Much more fun than the “swap only two pieces to make matches” games.

Hey, what about the writing?
Yeah, about that… I haven’t written anything new after I re-wrote Chapter 5 for “Caspar and the Lunar Magic”. I keep going back and forth, wondering if the entire story should be told from Caspar’s point of view or if I should include the villain’s point of view. I know stories should focus from one character’s point of view but it’s so difficult when there’s so much that needs to be said from the other side to fill the reader in.

Then, of course, warm temps rolled in, and now my mind is switched over to ‘gardening’ mode since plants are all trying to pop out. I have tons of seeds that are ready to meet the soil, but that’s a post for another blog.

I still plan to get back to the book, eventually. No! Seriously! :O

NaNoWriMo has camp sessions for April and July this year. Are you participating?
No. What I’ve noticed is that by participating in the camp sessions of NNWM, it was taking away the novelty of participating for NNWM during the big, special month of November. I don’t think I’ll do another camp session again. If you’re going for it, I wish you lots of wordy luck!

Books I’ve read!
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

Not sure whether to include this or not but one classic book (ebook) that I read to the end was: Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard.

I added four more books to my collection. The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling, and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

I saw The Hunger Games movie and decided to give the trilogy a try when I saw that someone posted the books on a local selling site. When I opened up the first book, I saw that it was in first person, present-tense. I’m not saying that’s bad, mind you! Just that I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like that. New experience on the horizon. I’ve read three chapters to get a taste and it’s good so far.