Music Video: Dark Lotus by A’Tris

As some of you are aware, I have been spending a bit of time over at the Playlist 7 section of the ReverbNation website. One of the tracks on offer was a song called Dark Lotus by A’Tris, an alternative / rock band hailing from South Hadley, Massachusetts. After finding the video clip of this dark and beautiful song, I discovered that the animators did a great job of telling of an imprisoned man, with manga-esque qualities fro telling the story. Here it is:

Music Video: Oliver by Gemma Hayes

As a result of time spent listening to some of the participants in Microsoft’s Playlist 7 promotion, I have discovered a bunch of very talented artists, and today I am posting a video clip from one of those artists, the very talented Gemma Hayes. This Irish singer produces some beautiful acoustic tracks and I am sure that you’ll like her music as much as I have. For a limited time you can download her track Won’t You Stop Looking At Me in the Audio Library section of the Playlist 7 of ReverbNation. For now though, I offer you her newest music video, Oliver:

World of Keiko 12/17/2009

Image via Wikipedia

(I forgot to post the following blog entry a few days ago.)

Life has been abuzz with activity of late. I have spent a lot of time writing, offering feedback for a twitter buddy’s novel, playing Dragon Age: Origins (a kick-ass RPG) and the start of a new exercise routine. Goals have been set and I seem to be going at a sustainable pace.

As some of you are already aware, I have thrown myself into the deep-end with the 1000 words a day writing challenge. For the first week and a half I was sick, and missed my quota on multiple occasions. However, now that I have jumped that hurdle, I believe I am beginning to gain momentum, on one day hitting twice that wordcount. It not just the quantity of the words that has me stoked, but the quality. Characters are a lot more real to me and I am beginning to make sense of the plot-lines running through my head. Along with working on the first book in the Warden series for the Oracle Universe and an origins story based on one of the main characters; I have also spent a bit of time in recent days working on a couple of short stories for Love & Machina, one of which is an origins story based on a character one of my online buddies conceived of. I have spent a bit of time on other book ideas as well, making sure that I don’t get bogged down for any length of time.

During the span of a week and a half, I offered one of my twitter buddies some feedback for a novel they were working on. For me, this has been a pure pleasure and it offered insight into various aspects of my own writing. Writing method is pretty much the same no matter the genre, and this manuscript was no exception. The more that I offer feedback and query others about their writing, the more I am able to learn to address my own issues as a writer, as you have to analyze various elements therein. It teaches you to give constructive criticism and to offer real opinion based on your own experiences and background. By getting feedback from everyday people, we are essentially getting feedback from

Dragon Age: Origins – the entertaining new RPG release from Electronic Arts.  I have tried to ration the amount of time I spend playing the game, but it seems that even when I intend to spend maybe an hour playing, it ends up more in the area of six. The character I am currently playing is a goody-two-shoes, female common dwarf rogue that is currently courting the main party member, Alister, the bastard son of the previous king whose half-brother, King Cailan, was recently murdered after his father-in-law betrayed him. I love the romantic options for your party members, which requires you to interact with them, choose a selection of various actions to win them over, and utilize bribery to get on their good side. You also have the option to be a bad guy, though each choice that you make has ramifications that might bite you on the ass later.  After I finish playing through the common dwarf storyline, I will be playing my honorable male Dalish Elf Warrior, but I am not sure whether where I will venture with this character romantically. I still want this character to be a good guy, but am wondering when to play a morally questionable character, or what class / race combo they will be.

As for exercise, I have started running again. This time around, I am starting on the shorter distance of 4 kilometers, keeping a log of the track type, length, start time and duration for each day in a calendar month. For those days that I don’t run, I just put DNR in the start time section. My goal for this is to work towards my health goals starting out on shorter distances so as not to injure myself or become intimidated. Given that it is now the middle of the Queensland Summer, it is probably best to start on the shorter distances anymore, so that I can build up fitness without keeling over in exhaustion.

That is it for now. Best of wishes for your own endeavors

Playlist 7 Picks: 12/22/2009

Image via CrunchBase

I love music, and with Microsoft’s recent promotion on ReverbNation, Playlist 7, I now have a chance to discover and vote on some great new music. Each week, you can vote on seven songs from a list of about 50. These get added to the Featured list for the next week and give some well-deserved exposure for some great artist. Aside from website glitches and bugs, you can also download a compilation at the end of each voting period, compiling the top 7 votes for the previous week. That being said, it is seven out of fifty high quality tracks, so some folks are going to miss out. To have your say though, join up and start voting.

My picks for this week are as follows:

1. Down this Road Before by Mike Vitale
2. Give it All Back by The Material
3. Give it all up to us by The Shoreline
4. 16 by Fly Upright Kite
5. Summer State of Mind by Dave Homyk (featuring John Homyk)
6. The Liars by Amy Courts
7. Up Up Up by Please Do Not Fight

Below is a list of songs that would have made the list if there had been more votes available:

1. What’s After This by Troy Castellano
2. Blame it on the DJ by A Living Daylight
3. Free by Phil Marshall
4. Snowy White River by Sofia Talvik
5. Message to You by Gavin Mart
6. Heroes in Modern Times by Matt Romero
7. All in My Head by South Atlantic

I loved all 14 of these songs, but I do recall that Blame it on the DJ is getting a lot of airplay on the local radio stations. The others are new ground and no less a pleasure to listen to for their composition and quality. That being said, these lists are based on my particular musical tastes. Unlike last week, I didn’t vote on any hip-hop or electronic tracks

Music Video: She by TenPenny Joke

It is that time again, when I feel the need to post another obscure yet delicious, music video. This time it is for little known indie rock group, TenPenny Joke. I remember hearing a few tracks of their music on the radio a few years back, but in spite of how talented these guys are, they never gained the level of recognition that they deserved. I found the first song from their demo album, Ambush on All Sides, on YouTube today, and felt the need to share it with you guys. If you enjoy it, then why need visit the Jamendo page for the album and download it free and legal. You can also pick up a physical copy of the release by following the links on the same page as well.

Online Fiction Part 2

Given the proximity of Christmas, it is time to post the next installment of online fiction titles. This should give you guys something to read over the holidays.

1. Hazy Days And Cloudy Nights: – Hazy Days And Cloudy Nights is the ongoing serial fiction project by Matthew Wayne Selznick author of Brave Men Run. It is a drama about a group of friends during the mid-eighties.
2. Lost Gods: – Lost Gods is an Urban Fantasy Adventure by Canadian writer/podcaster/teacher Drew Beatty, telling the story of a deity who must stop the apocalypse. You can download the podcast episodes and/or read the PDF editions of each chapter.
3. Universal Warrior: – Universal Warrior is the fantasy action/adventure by Avery K. Tingle, telling the tale of a war between the residents of Heaven and Hell.
4. Ghost of the Black: A ‘Verse Full of Scum: – A “Verse Full of Scum is the serialized sci-fi action story by Aussie horror writer Alan Baxter. You can download in various formats of the first story of Ghost from the Smashwords website (linked in the title) or in html on Alan’s website.
5. Street: – Street is the sci-fi action/adventure by Ryan A. Span.

I hope that you enjoy checking out these titles and look forward to offering more installments in future.

World of Keiko 12/09/2009

Image via Wikipedia

The past week and a half has been pretty rough for yours truly. At the beginning of last week, I began to start suffering from nausea, occasional muscle soreness and headaches, which all seemed to alternate between each other over the next four days. It wasn’t really the best start to my 1k a day challenge, with only 3 of the first 7 days reaching the target wordcount.

On Friday, a couple of our roleplaying buddies came over and spent the next two nights (one day only) hanging out in our  lounge room. The night they came over, hubbs introduced them to new levels of filth, in this case the movie Bruno. Yep, it is funny as, but when you’re trying to sleep in the other room, the hysterical laughter really does interrupt your rest period. The following day we played hubbs’ bizarre Palladium system multiverse thingy. Although I did enjoy playing, I can’t help shake the feeling that the game only has one or two more sessions left before it crashes and burns.

After the game finished, hubbs and one of the lads stayed up talking about TV shows and movies. I stayed up with them for a little while, and just before I went to bed, I noticed two dogs that I’ve never seen before, milling around in our front yard – a small terrier (I think it might have been at least) and some sort of Blue Cattle Dog crossbreed. It is in my nature to chase after dogs with puffy tails, but in this case, I called the dynamic duo over and began to give them some attention, which they seemed quite happy with. Whenever I bent down to pat the bigger dog, the small dog would grab my long hair in its mouth to get my attention. I don’t have enough discipline to care for a pet, well anything, but I can honestly say that those two canines would probably make great family pets, if they aren’t already.

I ended up going to bed at 5 AM, which made the following days challenging as the weekend had taken a serious toll on the body. Then, on Monday, hubbs gets sick with more intense symptoms than I suffered the previous week. Poor thing started to recover slightly around 7 PM that night, but became sick again around 10 AM the following day, meaning that he missed two days of work. Luckily, he had a few sick days left, so we didn’t lose any money. I had to practice being the voice of reason the past few days though, which is something that I am not exactly the best at, but he seemed to accept my advice to stay at home yesterday. Thankfully, he was healthy enough to go to work today, but I doubt he’ll like working at the counter, the bane of his profession.

On the good note, over the past week I have gone back to working on the first book on my Fox and Wolf novels. I had half-written the first four chapters, and the first draft of the prologue, rough as it is, was posted on my fiction blog the other day. The past two days have led to headway on the first draft of the others, with special emphasis on chapter 1 which, incidentally, has at least 1.5k words left before it is finished. All going well, that should be complete and live tomorrow.

I also did a bit of research on wolves for the novel, as one of the main characters has one as an animal companion. There is a heck of a lot of cool looking canines out there, and this research has given me some perspective on how big they get compared to cats. Let’s just face it, the average cat is much smaller than the average dog, but the bigger species of cat dwarf the larger canine species. However, canines and felines have an important place within the ecosystem and society can benefit from preserving each species and subspecies. The research has also led to me learning about crossbreeding between canine and lupine species as well, the Sarloos Wolfhound is a great case where deliberate breeding by man has created a new species. The reading itself, has reestablished my appreciation for dingoes as well, which as most of you know already, are native to this part of the world, and for foxes, animals that were introduced to Australia by Europeans and are now considered a pest in spite of how amazing they are.

I have to go back to work on this current chapter now, but I’d love it if you guys could drop by my fiction blog and leave me some feedback on the fiction posted there. I can’t express how much these comments have helped me grow as a writer.

Book Review: The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book of Fate is a great conspiracy novel about the figures on either side of an attempt to control and manipulate information for monetary gain. I bought this book after enjoying The First Counsel, and wasn’t disappointed. Brad Meltzer weaves an amazing story, a rollercoaster ride that is heavily influenced by his research into the politics and procedures of the Oval Office.

Each Brad Meltzer experience is awe-inspiring, ranging from the tele-drama of Jack and Bobby, or the various thrillers he’s had published over the years. The main character is somewhat different for each story though, and is often destined for greatness or an act of brilliance that will inevitably lead to the uncovering of a crime. Though the general structure is standard, the writing is always top-notch, and well worth reading, whether you are a layman or a seasoned veteran.

View all my reviews >>

World of Keiko 12-01-2009

Image by Khalifa A Al-Matawaa via Flickr

On the 19th of November, I spent a few hours editing the freewrites I discussed in the World of Keiko 11-18-2009 post. Both were posted on my fiction blog if you don’t mind leaving some feedback. The first piece that I posted, is the second draft of Drake and Mallone book 1 chapter 1, as told in first person POV by Kayla Mallone. I won’t give too much away, but suffice it to say, that our main character and her companion will have to fight a lot of bad guys. The second piece is the second draft of Paradigm Shift book 1 chapter 1, the story of a man whose life is turned upside down when his wife is murdered.

I don’t know what it is, but lately my writing has been heavily centered around shapeshifters. I don’t know if there is some subconscious reason for this, but I don’t mind the quality of work I have been writing in recent time. It has been nice cranking out prose that isn’t complete crap, but with all early drafts, the chapters still need work. I don’t mind putting in some extra time to draft these chapters.

The following day after posting those manuscripts, I worked on a couple of other pieces of writing, the more interesting of the two being the first chapter of Cruze book 1. I really like our embattled hero, who is suddenly thrown into a future that is so different from the world he came from. However, Vincent Cruze will be given a second chance to redeem himself, and learn more about his destiny along the way. Or at least, that is how I currently see the story so far. Some of the characters are already formed in my mind, though there is always room for more development as I work on the story. Such is life! Anyway, if you’d like to read the first draft of  Cruze book 1 chapter 1, I have posted it on my fiction blog as well.

Since then, I have been fairly quiet online, spending time collaborating on a project with a buddy from South Africa, Ralph Viktor; blogging about my involvement in the 1000 words a Day Challenge starting in December; and posting a newly completed prologue from my 2005 NaNoWriMo novel on my fiction blog. I have also spent some time giving feedback and support to several other writer buddies in need. I might have spent some time walking as well, but the weather has been all over the place of late. I have taken some time out to consider our lawn situation now that Summer is here, and I have started planning how to reduce water consumption as well as make the front yard look appealing. This is likely going to cost some money to achieve, but it should be much better in the long run.

Looking back on the past fortnight, it has probably seemed less busy than it has actually been, but I am quite happy with what I have achieved during this time as it has set me up for the next few months.

And now, on the first day of December, I will begin my 1000 words a day challenge with plenty of enthusiasm, a willingness to test my mettle and try new things as well as look back on my previous writing endeavors. It is also a time to be considering new years resolutions as 2010 quickly approaches us. It is a time a reflect on what we have achieved as individuals and to re-evaluate the path that our life is taking and to consider what this means for the future. For me, this involves what I’d like to learn academically, though the purse-strings are going to restrict some choices, but I’ve discovered in recent months that podcasting and iTunes U are great resources for education, as are Youtube videos for that matter. So, I now how to create a list of priorities for the next few months and re-evaluate it again later down the track. I’ll keep you posted on what I decide when new years draws closer. Until then, I wish you the best with your own endeavors.

Happy hunting!

1000 Words a Day Writing Challenge

Image by Piedad Bartolomé via Flickr

Recently, I had the pleasure of connecting with author / artist / musician Debbie Ridpath  Ohi on twitter.  She is a really cool chicky who recently started a couple of group writing challenges. The first is a 500 words a day writing challenge, and the second is a 1000 words a day version for the more hardcore writers. The general gist is that you write at least the allocated number of words 5 to 6 times a week.

Now that I am at the end of my 2009 NaNoWriMo attempt (a failure again this year), I am hyped up enough to jump in head-first to the 1000 words a day writing challenge. I know I can do this if I knuckle down and take at least an hour a day out of my incredibly empty daily schedule to write, whether that be freewrites or focused on specific writing projects.

I invite you to join me and many other writers involved in these challenges. If you do join in, then let me know and we can IM or email encouragement back and forth. Just drop me a line!

World of Keiko 11-18-2009

Image by ecstaticist via Flickr

It has been a little while since I last posted, so I figured it was time to let you know what I’ve been up to. A week into November, I suddenly decided to put in some time on a novel for NaNoWriMo. I figured that even if I didn’t achieve the end goal of finishing the sucker, then I would have at least put in some words alongside many of my online friends. It was a dramatic change of heart from a post I wrote more than 6 weeks ago, whereby I said I wasn’t going to participate this year.

I haven’t done a lot of work on the original project, but I have on others, including some chapters written yesterday as freewrites and posted on my fiction blog. If you are willing to leave some feedback on freewrite 1 or freewrite 2, I would greatly appreciate it, but as always, no pressure. I will keep writing regardless, but the feedback helps me to address issues sooner rather than later. I am also looking for suggestions for the collective name of each of those starting chapters produced by the freewrites and welcome your assistance with it. I’ll credit the person with the best name as well.

I will after recent success with those freewrites, be doing some more of them as a way to write under pressure, something that I believe helps me produce usable prose. If you haven’t done one before, it is very simple and quite effective. It is a simple timed writing exercise, whereby you use some sort of stimuli to produce a piece of writing. I’ve blogged about it before, but I’ll go into more detail on the writing blog sometime soon.

I also spent some time walking about the neighborhood recently, and found a nice piece of beach a few kilometers away. I posted some snapshots of the place that I dubbed The Cove and posted some of them on my photo blog. I realized, after some mishaps, that I needed to reload the images, but I think it is all sorted out now. I will, however, have to post on the photo blog a lot more. In this way, I get to show others the wonderful scenes of the local area.

 

Music Video: Alien Battle by UTAH

A few years ago, I came across some tunes by Danish band UTAH on Garageband. I loved the sound and has to listen to some more more of their music. UTAH has an earthy rock sound with great lyrics that capture the imagination as these guys weave their stories. I hope that you enjoy the following song, Alien Battle by UTAH:

Music Video: Changes by Base Ball Bear

On this, my third NaNoWriMo day, I ‘d like to offer a J-Pop video for your viewing and listening pleasure, by the always entertaining Base Ball Bear. Base Ball Bear not only produces some nice music, but also has a cool name. And without further ado, Changes by Base Ball Bear:

Music Video: So Wonderful by Bonnie Pink

I heard the song, So Wonderful, by talented Japanese Pop icon, Bonnie Pink, a while back and it always makes me smile. Her music clips are always strange, but her songs never fail to lift my spirits. Without further ado, here is the song :

Music Video: Aurora by Adam Fielding

Adam Fielding is a guy that has been on musical fringe for years now, making music that he is proud of without losing a sense of self in the process. With the release of the album Distant Activity last year, he got my attention in a big way, making me an immediate fan. So, with the discovery of the strange but cool video clip of Aurora on Youtube, I figured it was time to share and post to this blog ASAP.

World of Keiko 10/21/2009

Image by 96dpi via Flickr

The past few weeks have been amazing. For the first time since my hubby went into academy, we actually spent quality vacation time with each other. During that time we learned about computer hardware, software, hung out with friends, traveled back forth between our home and Brisbane  in the process of making my husband’s gaming rig, I wrote a lot, we exercised together, and got in plenty of gaming time, all of which was spent together as a couple. We both learned a lot and were grinning most of the time because we had a heck of a lot of fun in the process. It was great, and I know that when he goes back to work tomorrow night, I’ll be pining after him.

But the vacation time is over now, and I’ll need to find ways to amuse myself while hubbs is back at work. It won’t be difficult, mind you, as I’ve found some great tools that will help with my various fiction works-in-progress. Such tools include PBWorks wiki and Zoho’s online office tools. Now I’m ready to do some major expansion of my creation, which is going to make my writing that much easier. I’ve heard it said many times before, that you should work smart, and I believe that this move to collation of my work is going to be exactly that. There is no sense in making things difficult for yourself when you have lots of cool tools and services available, most of which are free of charge.

Product Review: PBWorks Wiki

For a while now, I have looked around for various services that might assist with organizing my writing notes, and I found a couple that I believe will help the process. The one that I will be talking about in this review is PBWorks, a Wiki provider that used to be called pbwiki once upon a time. Once upon a time I decided to sign up for pbwiki, but never really used it, but due to recent changes in my writing habits, I decided to test it out to see how useful it is. I decided to make a Basic account to get a feel for the service nowadays. What I have discovered so far has made it more than worthy of attention and heavy use by yours truly.

PBWorks is a lot more attractive and user friendly than many of the other wiki services available these days, providing some color templates with full CSS customization, plenty of features to make your site presentable. Got a color scheme in mind? Then go into Settings, and go into Basic Settings. click Custom in the Color section. You are able to customize colors and CSS even further, but I wasn’t able to test these features in the Basic service, but if the other features are anything to go by, then it’s going to rock.

Gone are the days of needing to learn wiki code, PBWorks takes the programming requirements out of the equation, reducing the level of annoyance and allowing the user to spend more time inputting information into their wiki pages. You’ll have at your disposal a neat and tidy interface for creating and editing your pages, which also allows you to add a bunch of different plugins.

You can also choose to revert to source code if you prefer to kick it old skool.

There is a bunch of pre-made pages, such as the To-do List, which should help show you how to use various features and then test them out yourself.

With the free account, you get 2 GB of space per wiki with a few minor restrictions, but if your project is primarily text-based, this service should offer more than enough features to work on your content. Need more? Then upgrade and take advantage of the other nifty features available. It will cost you by the user though, so be prepared to pay at least $8/user/month for the Standard plan and $20/user/month for the Project plan. These upgrades will buy you unlimited space, backups for your wiki, full customization of workspace’s appearance, and security options, as well as other cool stuff.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a great stand-alone wiki service to organize your project, then PBWorks is worth trying out. Even the Basic plan offers lots of great features for anyone wanting to collate and store information online.The service is great for seasoned wiki users and newcomers alike, and is going to free up time that users can spend on something more important, such as creating your content.

Stay tuned for a review of the Zoho service.

Games to Play: Perfect World Online

Image by Brooklyn Museum via Flickr

After playing Ether Saga Online on my new computer and Jade Dynasty on my old computer, I have finally started downloading the Perfect World International MMORPG. Based on the other two releases by the same  company, I expect a similar interface. I figure that if the organization used the same setup for Jade Dynasty and Ether Saga Online then it is the most likely scenario that they tested it out on Perfect World International first.

Perfect World International is the oldest of the releases from Perfect World China, and the game has had a lot of major updates since its release a few years back. Imported after major translations after amazing success in China, this game has taken some time to gain an audience amongst English speaking gamers. It is the first of a series of games translated into English by a company with a long list of MMOs with strong Asian themes. The graphics of each of the studio’s are all rendered with lots of Chinese=style architecture as well as an Oriental appearance for each of the characters, even if it is in Anime style for the likes of Ether Saga Online.

Why do I want to play the game? Good question. In my case the big draw card is how developed the game is. Unlike the other two releases from the company, Perfect World International has a couple more years worth of updates. Through those years the company has no doubt evolved in big ways. One of those major updates is a recent add-on, which from what I’ve read online seems to have opened up a lot of new options for players. Time has a way of allowing develop new features and to correct issues that a game may be having.There are rare cases where this isn’t the case, leading to losses of players such as in the case of a few MMOs that have died over the past few years.

The other reason I am interested in this game is the amount of buzz there is about it. Given that Ether Saga Online and Jade Dynasty are so good, there is no doubt in my mind that their predecessor is going to be awesome as well. It is the game that really put the game company on the map, so there has to be something that draws people to it. It has to be more than the heavily detailed website and support as well. There has to more to the game than the long list of features and uber-cute graphics. There has to be more to it than the price tag as well. No MMORPG lasts this long within having soul. something that I anticipate for Perfect World International.

I will let you know what I think of it in a week or so though after a decent amount of play time on the new computer.

Exercise, Dieting and Computers

Image by radix999 via Flickr

For those that are unaware, I have been trying to lose weight to become fitter and healthier. This has taken concerted effort on my path and there was more than a few times that I feel off the wagon. However, I have finally managed to get to my first weight goal of 63 kilograms, which has resulted in me gaining my husband’s fifteen-month old Dell XPS gaming machine.

This doesn’t mean that I have given up my exercise and dieting though, as I still have the motivation to move towards my second weight goal of 60 kilograms, the third of 55 kilograms and the end goal of 50 kilograms. It is going to be a long and tiring road ahead of me, and I have no delusions of grandeur. I have lost my way in the past, but I have lost a lot of weight before to get down to the same end target weight and I know I can do it again.

You might be asking what sort of computer I have at my disposal and the following are some stats for those interested:

Operating System		System Model
Windows 7 Ultimate (build 7100)		Dell Inc. Dell XPS720 System Service Tag: 398BV1S (support for this PC) Chassis Serial Number: 398BV1S Enclosure Type: Tower
Processor a		Main Circuit Board b
2.40 gigahertz Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 (4 installed) 64 kilobyte primary memory cache 4096 kilobyte secondary memory cache		Board: Dell Inc. 0P611C A00 Serial Number: ..CN1374081J00EB. Bus Clock: 1066 megahertz BIOS: Dell Inc. A04 12/04/2007
Drives		Memory Modules c,d
1500.15 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity 1353.15 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space HL-DT-ST DVDRWBD GBC-H20N SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive] TSSTcorp DVD-ROM TS-H353B SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive] Hitachi HDS721075KLA SCSI Disk Device (750.15 GB) — drive 1 Hitachi HDS721075KLA SCSI Disk Device (750.15 GB) — drive 0		3070 Megabytes Installed Memory Slot ‘DIMM_1′ has 1024 MB (serial number 00001009) Slot ‘DIMM_3′ has 1024 MB (serial number 00002009) Slot ‘DIMM_2′ has 1024 MB (serial number 00001010) Slot ‘DIMM_4′ has 1024 MB (serial number 00002011)
		Local Drive Volumes
		c: (NTFS on drive 0) 739.26 GB 701.38 GB free d: (NTFS on drive 1) 750.15 GB 645.93 GB free

It is the most powerful computer I have ever owned and I find myself continually sitting back in my desk chair just admiring my new baby.I think of my computer as a female, oddly enough. I don’t know why, but it seems to fit. She has a clean slate now that all of the old data has been replaced by the new, and I think of her as a child having to learn things for the first time (installing new software). Yep, it might some strange, but I love my new computer.

I have a few aims now that I have a powerful enough computer. They are as follows:

1. Use the machine to finally throw myself into gaming.
2. Learn and practice 3D rendering on the XPS. e.g. Blender 3D and poser software
3. Use the machine for podcasting and audiobook production.
4. Use Linux in a virtual environment.

I am still a little sluggish with my gaming controls, but hopefully the new computer will enable me to become faster. My current machine has a Razer gaming keyboard and mouse which will help a lot as I have access to macro quick keys and mouse sensitivity manipulation. These are probably considered minor uses by some of you, but I know that when I finally throw myself into learning Blender 3D it will be a steep learning curve because my previous experiences with similar software has been limited at best. In the case of audio production, I have at least used Audacity, Podcast Studio andAdobe Audition before, which will help a lot. That being said, I still need to learn more about audio manipulation and voice acting.  As for Linux, well I have never tried the software before and would like to try out one of the distros, such as Ubuntu or Edubuntu.

Pretty soon I will be updating to a 64-bit version of Windows 7 when the new operating system is released. I am quite happy with the Release Candidate, but I don’t want to have to deal with 2-hour periodic restrts when the version expires in April. Having a 64-bit version will also allow me to utilize all of the RAM installed as well, of which there is 3 GB out of 4 being seen by the 32-bit operating system.

In conclusion, I will be posting about my experiences a lot more now that I have a reliable, and most definitely kick-ass, computer. I won’t guarantee that it will be educational or entertaining, but it will be about my life. I will have to learn a lot about specific software and dig deep to make real headway. It will be an amazing journey as I get fit, healthy and throw myself into hardware and software use, but I know that I am up for the challenge!

Reading, wRiting and aRithmatic

Image via Wikipedia

Over the past fortnight I have spent most of my spare time writing or thinking about story ideas while doing other things. I have even cut down on playing MMORPGs just so I can write. It has been exhausting but I feel that I have enough solid ideas formed to finally start work on a webserial or two. I still have editing to go, but I have a direction now, which is something I was lacking before.

Life is funny like that.

A few years back I used to write at least 1k a day. It was mostly crap, but I found myself enjoying the experience. Then I discovered World of Warcraft and I became addicted. For just on nine months I didn’t write a thing. During that time I stayed with my brother and his family for about 6 months. He used to think I was weird because I spent a lot of time playing computer games, but I don’t regret the experience. I had fun playing my characters on the Nagrand server, but when my husband and I moved back to the farm, we didn’t have suitable internet to play.

So, we stopped buying game cards.

I have experienced many different things during the past three years and I can’t help but consider the ramifications of avoiding your creative side. By not practicing your craft for an extended period of time you risk having to start all over again, which is something I had to do. That being said, I identified numerous areas of weakness that I would have otherwise missed if I hadn’t spent all of that time off. That period also gave me some insight into the gaming community.

Nowadays, I play DDO: Eberron Unlimited, Runes of Magic and Jade Dynasty, three free-to-play MMORPGs with differing styles and a good grasp on storytelling. DDO, for instance, is based off of one of the campaigns settings for the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 roleplaying system, and is a great example of how to offer drama. Runes of Magic has its own style of storytelling, as does Jade Dynasty, but at the core is the need to tell a story that will appeal to a large audience. It isn’t just hack and slash, but finding clues that will offer hours of entertainment to the participants in the adventure – the players.

A good MMO should read like a good book, offering elements that will bring out an emotional response to the reader that will encourage them to read on. You want your reader to keep going by offering them the right amount of drama and characters that they can appreciate on some level. The interface has to be easy to handle as well, the in-story dialogue should be believable and go through the range of different emotions, such as joy and rage.That is just the beginning of what a good MMO/book should offer.

That being said, a writer shouldn’t always look at the world in a analytical way. You have to exist beyond the manuscript because you are a real person, not a two-dimensional character. You have to interact with the world around you otherwise you might as well lock yourself in the basement and have some public service provider bring you your meals. If that doesn’t inspire you to experience more of what life has to offer, I don’t know what will.

In conclusion, practice your craft but don’t forget to live life. Take a day off on occasion. Read a book. Go to a gallery and experience some art. Play computer games. Don’t forget to exercise as well. Round out your life with a range of different experiences so that you gain a unique perspectives, that will inevitably lead to you making more sense of that world around you, and this will have a help you become a more mature writer, painter, or whatever art that you practice.