Streets of Rage series: Part 3

Now I’m going to review the last game in the Streets of Rage series. Personally, I think this game is the worst of all 3. Sega didn’t add anything new in this game. Also, the graphics are the same as the 2nd game and the sound hasn’t improved, but even got worse. Sometimes I hear a scratching sound that certainly doesn’t belong in the game. This occurs mostly when going up on an elevator. The game was released in 1994 so I really did expect some improvements, but there weren’t any. It was later released for the Japanese version of Sonic Gems Collection for the GameCube and PlayStation 2, and for the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. The game also appeared in Sonic's Ultimate Mega Drive/Genesis Collection for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This time they did put in a sort of a story line, by showing a short comic book-style cut-scene. They better left it out, because everyone will skip the cut-scene and start fighting again. The game also has an intro, and if there is one thing you can say about video game bad guys, it’s that they’re persistent: Even after two defeats at the fists of a few vigilantes, the crime lord, Mr. X, has returned with his most diabolical plan yet to take over the city. Having started a robotic corporation, the enigmatic Mr. X has recruited the brilliant Dr. Dahm to create robot doubles of the city’s officials. In addition to controlling the government with his mechanized doppelgängers, Mr. X’s syndicate has placed bombs throughout the city. It isn’t long before our heroes learn about these new developments and once again take to the streets to stop X’s plan. Returning fighters Axel, Blaze and Eddie are joined by elderly cyborg Dr Zan.

Besides the 4 characters you can also unlock 2 bonus characters to fight as: Shiva, a boss character from SoR 2 and also in this game and Roo, a boxing kangaroo. (I’m serious) In the Japanese version, Bare Knuckle 3, there is also a bonus character, Ash, that isn’t added in the western versions of the game. Reason for this is that Ash is a gay character and I think this wasn’t allowed by the conservative Christian community at the time.

There are more differences between the original Japanese version of SoR 3 and the U.S and European versions, like recoloured character sprites. This means that you’ll encounter some enemies with pink, green or even orange hair... Also, the Japanese version featured a different plot that didn’t include robotic doubles of government workers. (I think the original game was a lot better than the version I played)

Oh, sure, the developers did add some new things, like a dodging roll and you can also perform running attacks now, so that is nice, but the stupidest thing the developers have added is a lifebar for your weapons. This means you can only hit an enemy a couple of times and then the weapon will be discarded. Of course this doesn’t work when an enemy hits you so they will smack you to death with a weapon that doesn’t get damaged, which is bullshit.

I think the most annoying part of the game is when you’re in stage 3, when you’re attacked by a guy in a bulldozer. In order to defeat him you have to smash through some brick walls. The bulldozer will splatter you between him and the wall every time when you’re too late, and that means you lose a lot of your health. In this part of the game you will lose many of your lives + your interest in the game.

These are the rounds:

--Round 1: Harbor - the coastal harbour where the search begins.Mini-Boss: Ash (Japan version only), a stereotypically effeminate man.Boss: Shiva.
--Round 2: Night Club - the task force fights their way through Syndicate-controlled streets and invades a crime-filled nightclub.Mini-Bosses: Bruce and Roo ("Danch" and "Victy" in Japan), if Bruce is defeated first Roo escapes and becomes a playable character.Boss: Twin acrobats Mona and Lisa ("Onihime" and "Yasha" in Japan).
--Round 3: Construction Site - the task force follows the Syndicate's trail through the construction site of the new city hall.Mini-Boss: a Donovan enemy operating a bulldozer.Boss: Robot Axel ("Break" in Japan).
--Round 4: Subway - a hidden subway tunnel which is being used for illegal cargo hauling and training site for an army of dangerous ninjas.Mini-Boss: none.Boss: Ninja Lord Yamato.
--Round 5: Syndicate Hideout - the task force battles their way to the top level; however, Mr. X is no longer there.Mini-Boss: none.Boss: Robot X.
--Round 6: Save the Chief of Police - the task force races against time to save the Chief of Police, who is being held hostage and will be killed by toxic gas.Mini-Boss: none.Boss: Super Jet.
--Round 7A: Syndicate Robot Factory - if the Chief of Police is rescued in time, the task force then arrives at the Syndicate's true stronghold. Here, the team enters the laboratory and fends off Mr. X's robots before taking on the evil mastermind himself.Mini-Boss: Dr. Dahm ("Dr. Zero" in Japan), a stereotypical mad scientist operating a mechanic claw.Boss: Robot Y ("Neo X" in Japan), a robotic exo-suit operated by Mr. X himself.
--Round 7B: City Hall - if the task force fails saving the Chief of Police, this leaves the way for an imposter to take his place at a press conference in the City Hall.Mini-Boss: none.Boss: Shiva.(Stronger than the Shiva fought in stage 1.)

Good Ending -- The true ending of the game is the hardest to achieve. The player(s) must rescue the Chief of Police (General Petrov in Japanese version) in Round 6. Then during the boss encounter in round 7A, they must defeat Robot Y within 3 minutes.

Bad Ending -- This is the alternate scenario to the situation above. The player(s) must rescue the Chief of Police/General Petrov in Round 6. Then at the end of Round 7A, the timer must expire before Robot Y is defeated.

Alternate Ending -- If the players fail to rescue the Chief of Police in Round 6, the game will continue with Round 7B. Shiva, who is now an imposter posing as the Chief of Police, is about to hold a press conference that will bring the city to the mercy of Mr. X (in the Japan version he is trying to create a war in a country). The task force must defeat him.

Incomplete Ending -- if the game is played on the easy difficulty, it will finish after Round 5.

My overall opinion: this game shouldn’t have existed, the series should've stopped at the second game, because this game doesn’t add anything special. The sound is bad, the graphics are the same as the second game, while they should've been improved in 2 years time. And the gameplay is bad, some bosses from the first and second game have been reused. Conclusion: Don’t try this game, you'll have much more fun with the second game.

Daily Thoughts 9/30/2009

Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic al limbii române (DOOM).
L. Kenzel, March 8, 2009, Gnu Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Daily Thoughts 9/30/2009

Today has been another quiet day. I spent time removing the older books from the new arrivals section this morning, did some weeding in the 800s, and had a bookmark printed up.

It was nice, quiet and relaxed. We also printed some tear sheets from Westlaw Patron Access. Tomorrow, I will hand in the monthly report. It is going smoothly.

"Little People, Big World" is back!!!!!!

I am so excited!!!!! One of my favorite shows is coming back. The new season of "Little People, Big World" premieres Monday, October 12th @ 8pm on TLC. If you haven't seen this show...WATCH IT!

The show follows the daily lives of the Roloff family — parents Matt and Amy, and their four children: Zach, Jeremy, Molly and Jacob. Matt, Amy and Zach are little people, while Jeremy, Molly and Jacob are of average height. Teenagers Zach and Jeremy are fraternal twins; although Zach is not of average height, his brother Jeremy is.

The family lives on the 36-acre Roloff Farms, located north of Hillsboro in Helvetia, Oregon. Although crops of pumpkins are grown and sold by the family, much of the farm has been converted into a series of playground set pieces for the Roloff children. They were designed by Matt, who spent most of his childhood in the hospital. He has tried to make his children's lives the best possible.

Here are a few pics from their farm...





I want to move in...Seriously! I'll take the bedroom that's in the loft of the barn. Roloff's, if you read this...CALL ME! I'm a hard worker. Pumpkin Patch here I come!

"Green Acres is the place for me, Farm living is the life for me"

Bob Out

Breakfast Around the World

I'm sure I'm probably missing some great writing opportunity in not exploring breakfast types and rituals in my fiction, but I always seem to write those types of details similar to the ones I know. I guess when it comes down to it, I'm really not that much of a 'foodie' (even though I do like my desserts), and in my fiction, I find other plot devices to be much more exciting than eating...

Really, out of all the works I've written (17 published, some ebook and some with ezines; and countless others unpublished), only a handful of them include food:

• There was my flash piece, "A Simple Need to Eat," but do vampire meals really count?
• Frog makes -- or rather, tries to make -- himself a cup of tea in "A Slip of Wormwood," but then again, that's not really a meal.
• In "Prophet's Choice," Lyra stays in an Inn for a while, with lots of eating going on, but on second thought, I don't think she actually eats...
• "Collecting Dreams" has a lot of eating in it, supernatural and natural alike! :)
• And in my upcoming release from Quake, "Requiem," there's a scene of your typical teen breakfast of cereal & milk.

I hear "Requiem" will be coming out very soon -- sometime in October, so you'll have to watch for that. And just because I'm cool ;-), I'll let you read the blurb early:

Hattie Locke has a gift: when she sings, the dead dig themselves from their graves to listen. As a death-siren, her life has always been this way.

Then the dead begin to show up in numbers far beyond expected. With each song she sings, they grow pushy and demanding, rushing the stage to reach her. Trapped in a place where her dreams of music become her nightmares, Hattie is left with nowhere to turn.

But then she meets a boy, who promises freedom from her curse.

Now Hattie wonders: is ridding herself of her voice worth losing the music she’s lived to create?

And I promise: the rest of the story is going to be a whole lot more interesting when Hattie isn't eating her breakfast. ;)

So with that, I'll leave you; the rest of this month I'm going to be traveling around the web for my Rise of Gothic Blog Tour. It should be fun! :) Next week, I'll be blogging at Echelon Shorts, so don't be shy -- c'mon over and say 'Hi.'

And Then There's This How Stories Live And Die In A Viral Culture by Bill Wasik

Bill Wasik

And Then There's This How Stories Live And Die In A Viral Culture

This book is by the inventor of internet "flash mobs" or groups of people who spontaneously formed when suggested to by internet messages. Bill Wasik is what might be called a memetic engineer or a person who creates quickly spreading ideas. This book is pure infotainment at its best.

Some of the different categories of idea he writes about are in politics, advertising, corporate culture, and indie rock. The writing is both critical and ironic in content.

There is a very hip, left wing slant to the politics in the book. It is genuine reminder that we don't have to buy into advertising or spin, we have the right to choose what we view on the internet.

Bill Wasik visits some of the "digerati"-- the digital elite to look at how they create spin with new media. He mentions The Huffington Post, Bzzagent, KEXP Online Radio, Youtube, and many other internet sites.

In his view we have started surveiling ourselves to create a kind of giant popularity contest where the most views win. People are absorbed into the public consumption of blogs and other social networks.

This is a fun book to read by a very erudite and funny author. It is a mix of geeky avant garde, new media and social engineering. Bill Wasik is a senior editor at Harper's and has written for Salon magazine. This shows with very smooth prose that sounds like he is talking to you personally.

Dead Space

Dead Space is a game developed by Visceral Games and published by EA games, released in 2008. Visceral Games is known for the Godfather series and is a relatively new company. EA games is probably the most well-known publisher, both hated and loved by many gamers. Even though this game’s really great, it never got the attention/sales it deserves. Dead Space could be best described as a horror third person shooter with RPG elements.

In Dead Space you play as an engineer who’s sent to a ship that’s having certain technical problems, you’re accompanied by a crew consisting of a total of 5 people, Isaac Clarke(which is you), Kendra Daniels(a technologist), Zach Hammond(a senior security officer, who starts out as the leader of the group) and 2 other crewmembers who die at the beginning and weren’t given any names. When you first arrive at the ship, you’re expecting to repair the malfunctions, but as soon as you enter you realize that something bad has happened. With every mission, a piece of the background story unravels. Throughout the entire game you’ll feel claustrophobic and continuously being cautious. The constant awareness of the situation is required, since the alien life forms can strike at any time in any place. I’ve chosen to remain about vague about the storyline, since I didn’t want to spoil it for people that are considering buying it. But throughout the 12 missions(which are like stages, not just a series of objectives you have to complete), you’ll have to fight off bosses, make many discoveries and be sucked into the story almost immediately. It’s one of the few games that have managed that in a LONG time. Another fun thing I can mention, is the fact that the game creators have created a code for the scribbles that you see scattered around the map, which are quite a lot, and in the first few missions you’ll find a few alphabets translating the code to normal English, so there are a lot of hidden messages in this game, some that’ll lead you to certain cheats and others that’ll point you in the direction of Easter eggs.

The graphics in this game are just amazing, the unsettling surroundings really suck you right into the game and that feeling gets stronger by the sounds you hear, you’ll continuously feel that there are enemies waiting to pop out when you least expect it. I just love what they did with the HUD, or well what they didn’t do with it, since in this game the HUD has been left out, everything you need to know is incorporated in the suit or the guns, in case you need to browse through your inventory and such, your character projects the screen in front of him, making the experience even better, since you’ll feel more and more part of that world. And of course, the gore makes this game so much more fun, because it’s always fun to mutilate an alien with a chainsaw or in this game shooting operating saw blades or hovering them in front of you, the sound that comes along with killing enemies or dismembering just feels so nice, and gives that brutal touch to finishing of an enemy. The constant background sounds make you jumpy as well, there are places on the ship(usually toilets for some reason) where you hear constant whispering, which gives a daunting feeling about the place. And besides the whispering you can hear things move around, some of those things you’ll never encounter, but there are some you will.

The controls in this game are smooth, never have I experienced any trouble playing this game, but the fact that you don’t have a HUD, so the fact that you have no pause when you’re selecting a different gun, because your ammo for example has run out, could take a little while to get used to, since in most games your game pauses itself when you go to your inventory meaning that you can go to the menu even whilst you’re in the middle of a firefight. The game also has quick-time events when an enemy does a grab-attack where they try to eat you or at least harm you without you being able to shoot them. Another thing I liked is the fact that they didn’t use the PS3’s Sixaxis or at least not in a way that it bothered me, because usually it seems that those parts in which you have to use Sixaxis are rushed or aren’t working properly making it a nuisance.

Throughout the game, you’ll collect credits, ammunition, power nodes and various other objects except for guns. Power nodes are items that you use for upgrading your equipment and abilities. Weapons are bought in the store using credits, that you obtain throughout your missions or by selling items that you no longer need. As mentioned before, your character has certain abilities such as telekinesis and statis (a “spell” that puts your enemies in slowmotion). Throughout the game you’ll have to solve various puzzles which are by no means hard, but it keeps the game from getting repetitive and boring by mixing action with some other elements. You’ll also encounter a few minigames along the way such as a shooting range, a basketball minigame and there’s a point in the game where you have to take control of a gun turret to shoot incoming asteroirds(it is required for you to complete this minigame in order to make progress, so technically it’s not a minigame). But of course the game’s core element remains to be shooting alien life forms, preferably by dismembering them since that does the most damage. But there will be some times in the game where simple firepower isn’t enough to stop certain aliens and require a more intelligent approach.

So is this game worth your money? Yes, it’s totally worth every penny. There’s not a single reason you shouldn’t buy this game if you’re judging by the quality of it. But if you don’t enjoy violent games you might get offended by Dead Space. I’d even recommend this game if you’re not very fond of shooters, since this game is so much more than a simple shooter, it offers a big variety of elements from different genres.

No stranger to these sounds. Review: Organist, Scott Dettra at the Washington National Cathedral.

The afternoon was stunningly beautiful, with clouds rolling across the skies in front of us as we made the trek from Richmond up I95 to DC.  It is a long, unpredictable road but our plans to hear Scott play had been interrupted so many times in the past few years... today was the day.  We loaded up all 4 children in the van and headed out right after church to try and make it to the National Cathedral for evensong at 4 and the organ recital of celebrated, principal organist Scott Dettra at 5:15.  

As you might expect, things didn't go as planned and the occasional storms wreaked havoc with traffic patterns.  Arriving at 4:40 we were able to walk into the cathedral just in time to hear the end of the Evensong service with the glorious "Like as a Hart" by Howells soaring into the highest reaches of the cathedral.  The sounds immediately transported me back in time and for just a minute, I could feel myself as a member of the Westminster Choir recording this same piece with Dr. Flummerfelt in command for our CD of the same title.

The Prillaman clan, made our way to the front of the massive cathedral and were surprised to realize that Scott had played the evensong. As a singer, I can't imagine the stamina it takes to perform back to back as Mr Dettra was demonstrating.  I was reminded that organists are indeed some of the hardest working musicians in the world. Kudos were already flying in my mind and the recital had yet to even begin.  

We took our seats in the front row of the choir, only a few feet from the organ console, but we could see it perfectly through the massive mirrors on the opposite wall.  The incense was was strong, the chandeliers lit the space elegantly, and the afternoon sun beamed through the rose window reminding us that this place did not belong only to man.  And so, the scene was set for the sounds of reverence and majesty to begin. 

Mr Dettra began his concert with the Sonata III in A Op.65 No.3 by Mendelssohn.  The flowing lines and overlapping sonorities became the prelude to an exploration of aural, and acoustic polarity.  Thierry Escaich's Evocation II presented the audience with a stunning battlefield of sonic scenery. Wave after wave, regiment after regiment, skirmishs and retreats,  pounded and immersed us in what seemed an epic battle appropriate for the most expansive screen or field.  

The Chant de Paix, contrasted this experience with a sublime exploration of the air and the echoes within the cathedral itself.  The melodies soared like an eagle, rising on unseen currents, seemingly outside of even time and space.  The experience left this listener wishing that I could physically hear more frequencies, wondering what the overtones and echoes must sound like to a God who can see and hear all. 

The first half of the program was closed with the popular and well known Prelude and Fugue sur le nom d'Alain Op. 7 by Maurice Duruflé.  I was entranced by the prelude with its cascading streams, reminiscent of Smetana and the Moldau.  The sounds, as water,  rose and fell as though beginning a treacherous journey through a canyon of life. The end of the prelude evoked images of climbing, perhaps a barren hillside or even a rock wall with streams of sunlight breaking over the top, beckoning the listening to continue upward.  When the fugue began, I felt a sense of order restored to the experience.  It was as if the form and elegance of its structure transcended the reality and limitations of the physical world.  Time and time again, uncertainty returned to the scenes, only to be trumped by the song itself, manifest in form and counterpoint.

During the brief intermission, the plate was literally passed and Mr Dettra again expertly provided  commentary and context on his works.  His speaking style was clear, confident, and present and genuinely reached out to embrace the audience encouraging them to more knowledge and interest in organ repertoire.  He provided a foundation of information which even my middle school daughters appreciated.

The main attraction for the evening, occupying the second half and finale of the program,  was the Organ Sonata on the 94th Psalm by Julius Reubke.  This was my first hearing of this monumental work and I hope that it will not be my last.  My senses were overwhelmed at times by the expansive nature of the themes, bridging emotions and passions so expertly. Mr. Dettra utilized the instrument masterfully, moving the themes through the room with an almost infinite display of colors.  The very nature of this piece is operatic, even symphonic.  It seemed to explore the depths and breadth of aural texture at the same time, in much the same way as a Liszt sonata, or a Wagner's overture to Tristan. Interestingly,  this expansive style seemed to be tempered frequently with reserve which reminded me of Brahms' symphonic works and even some of his choral and chamber works.   The power of the organ was brought to full use in the virtuostic playing of Mr. Dettra, and left no doubt as to the omnipotence of God, evoked here in immense walls of sound.  In particular, one phrase of the Psalm stood out to me "But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God, the rock of my trust."  In the Piu mosso, the trumpets exploded from one section of the cathedral, seemingly shouting to the world.  This call emanated from within the walls of sound. It provided the foundation for this listeners view of the stronghold of Christ, the foundation of the rock of trust, physically manifested in the tremors traveling through my body only to be stilled and secured within my heart and soul. 

I was blessed to be in the room for this concert on Sunday.  My family was provided an experience, which was special and unique.  Perhaps it was the day, perhaps it was the consumate artistry of Mr. Dettra, perhaps it was the elegance of the instrument and the room, perhaps... just maybe, God was with us, among us, flowing through us as the waves of sound traveled through the room in perfect order.  I pray that each of you reading, would have a similar experience someday.

Daily Thoughts 9/29/2009

This is an advertising image from 1916 for Brentano's books. There used to be a Brentano's Bookstore near Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, New York.

Daily Thoughts 9/29/2009

Today has been kind of interesting. We moved some furniture. We have an octagonal display table which we moved near the "new arrivals" section this morning. This adds to two small display tables which are there now. We now have a lot of display area.

I did some more weeding of the 800s. It is moving along slowly.

We also had a salesperson from Sentry Technology Corporation come to visit us. He demonstrated a self-checkout machine for libraries. The design was kind of interesting. It was based on automatic teller machine technology. You could see the words up close, but not from very far away. It also did renewals for books and if we wanted returns. I would imagine having automatically generated fines would be interesting for us. The system is called QuickChek Kiosk. http://www.sentrytechnology.com/librselfcheck.htm A number of local libraries already have the system. Most only use it for checkout and renewing books. They had three handouts which they gave away.

Another book came in for me to read, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Sometimes, I like to just browse through images in books. If you want to look at gadgets, Design Revolution 100 Products that Empower People by Emily Pilloton is kind of interesting. It includes images of things like a one handed tourniquet, a mobile water purification truck, spider boots for anti-mining, and zipcars. It is rather interesting.

Web Bits

This is a very interesting article from The Guardian in the UK. It is a plan for a national library card which links all libraries in the United Kingdom together. This is a major step forward for them. In the United States, it is hard to even get interlibrary loan from outside our county. We have a countywide library system. In Manhattan, New York there are three library systems, New York Public Library, Queens Library, and Brooklyn Public Library. Imagine if you could go to any library in the United States and check out a book using your library card. It would be a tremendous step forward. It would open up learning a lot.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/28/every-library-a-local-library

A new term from John Clute for fantasy and science fiction. A little turgid but interesting. I have a signed copy of the Science Fiction The Illustrated Encyclopedia by John Clute at home. I like looking through it for the signatures of many different authors as well as pictures of book covers. http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2009/09/john-clute-fantastika.html

Maybe I Should Get a Dog Named Snoopy

I love hats and admire anyone who can wear one with panache. This is because hats do not love me. I don't have an especially round face, but once I put on a hat, I look like Charlie Brown. Style does not matter. I can try anything from a cowboy hat to a Fedora, a stylish beret to the All-American baseball cap, and the result is the same. All I need is the yellow shirt with the zig-zag stripe along the bottom.

Hats seem to come in and out of fashion, and after looking at this year's threads-to-be-seen-in, especially at the junior high and high school level (because isn't that what everyone emulates in the end, anyhow?) I'm not sure hats are in this year. Nevertheless, I know that right now, except while in the classroom where I have a feeling all headwear is banned, someone out there has something for his or her head to be clapped on when the dismissal bell rings. And it will make him or her look positively dashing. I would have been green with envy in high school and still am now.

Come winter, because my ears freeze and my head hurts if I don't, I will be wearing something on my head when the temperatures drop below freezing and the wind-driven snow takes my breath away. A few years ago, my nephew (the one who does works in the video gaming industry) was sporting a knit cap with a bill on it and I fell in love with it. His mother (my sister) gave me an identical cap for my birthday. My nephew promptly stopped wearing his. I guess skater caps aren't as cool when your aunt puts one on to shovel snow.

At any event, I haven't given up on hats. I just ordered one from my wonderful Avon lady (no kidding) and a picture of it is at the top. It looks comfortable, it looks fairly warm at least for autumn, and it matches nothing I own. Although I suppose it would go just great with a yellow shirt that has a zig-zag stripe on the bottom.

Here's a quarter...

What's up?!?!?! It's my 25th post...woo hoo!

What better way to celebrate than a cute baby dancing along to Beyonce's "Single Ladies" video. Check this out...hilarious! This kids got moves :)


To all of you reading my blog...THANKS!

Bob Out

Daily Thoughts 9/28/2009

Herman Wouk in Jerusalem, 1955

Daily Thoughts 9/28/2009

This morning I started reading The Cost of Bad Behavior How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What To Do About It by Chris Pearson and Christine Porath. So far the book is about how being civil reduces performance, lowers concentration, and decreases employee retention. It even gives statistics on the specific effect that incivility has on work performance. Want to lose 12% of your workforce due to attrition, create an uncivil workplace.

I started writing my monthly report today. It is due in a few days. It is mainly about creating displays, putting in the new cd racks, adding display tables, updating bookmarks and marketing materials, and similar things. Displays have a large impact on circulation in my opinion. They are very important. This is also true of patron requests. This makes a lot of difference to people. We are ordering a lot more books that patrons request.

Today, I printed out a flyer that lets people know that requests to order material are available. It is on the circulation desk and near the "new arrivals" section. Hopefully, it will be noticed.

I also did some more weeding in the 800s which is moving along every single day. It is an incremental process. I try to do it every single day for an hour. It is like me spending time every day on making sure the displays are up to date as well.

One of the displays that we do is a current events display. I try and find books about topics that are in the news. I generally go to Yahoo news, pick out the headlines and search for a few of the subjects in the headlines. I do this regularly to refresh the display. My main aim is to display newer books that are in the news as well. It is more than books, I also try to display audio and video with the current events display. I have to create a sign for the current events display. This is something I will do tomorrow. A little self reflection sometimes gives you new ideas.

Today went pretty well.

Tomorrow is the day the Banned Books Week displays go up. All of my displays are going to be cleared out and we are going to put in displays of banned books. Think hard of what it would be like to live in a society where books were banned. Imagine if the world of Fahrenheit 451 were real. There is so much which is said in that book which is so close to what is happening now.

Daily Thoughts 9/27/09 Resting

I am taking a break. Maybe I will daydream of Ceylon.

Daily Thoughts 9/27/2009

I was going to write a bad review of The Whuffie Factor Using The Power of Social Networks To Build Your Business by Tara Hunt. I thought it was mediocre. There are better books to read on this subject, but I decided to rest instead. Find another book to read on the subject. There are plenty of books on social media.

I also finished reading And Then There's This How Stories Live and Die In A Viral Culture by Bill Wasik. This was a very entertaining and interesting book. He made a few comments on the philosophy of Epicureanism versus Stoicism at the end of the book which caught my attention.

Anyways back to resting.

The blah blog

BLAH!
That's all I've got today...
blah
blah
blah
It's just been one of those days. I didn't even take a shower until 6pm and that was just because I wanted something to eat and didn't want to go pick it up with bed head.

On a brighter note...
The new season of "Desperate Housewives" premieres tonight. I'm so exited. Who did Mike marry? I love this show. I am super excited because Drea De Matteo joins the cast. I love her too...She was on one of my favorite shows, "The Sopranos" and then "Joey". Ok, so I am probably the only person who ever watched "Joey" but I had too...I always support my F*R*I*E*N*D*S!

I gotta go...it's coming on...and OH...I just saw it...Mike married Susan...YAY!

Bob Out

Supreme Commander

Supreme Commander is a product made by THQ and Gas Powered Games. THQ is known for the games Saints Row and the Dawn of War series and Gas Powered Games (GPG) for Dungeon Siege and demigod.

The game has been the idea of Chris Taylor, who was also the developer of the first RTS game that used 3D environments and units, Total Annihilation. He also is the founder of GPG.

The game came out on PC and Xbox 360. This is the PC review

The history of the game goes back to the 21st century, when man discovered a new technology, The Quantum Gate. Using this Gate, great amounts of people and goods could be moved over huge distances in a short amount of time. Eventually man, build its first Quantum Gate in space and a time of exploration and colonization started. Man descended into a Golden Age of prosperity and wealth and the Earth Empire was born.

During that Golden Age a doctor named Brackman, successfully connected an AI to a human brain. Seeing great opportunity, the Earth Empire began using the symbions, as they are called, to process large amounts of data. And behind the back of Brackman, they developed a secret loyalty program, so they wont betray them or join forces with other groups. Eventually Dr. brackman found out and fled with his most loyal symbions to far away systems and founded the Cybran Nation.

Next to the discovery of Dr. Brackman, an alien race was discovered on an alien planet called the Seraphim. They wanted to introduce the humans to The Way, a spiritual movement the alien race followed. But the humans destroyed the alien race on the planet and only a handful of human followers remained. After the destruction the Earth Empire sent multiple exploration teams to the surface of the planet. But because the teams never reported back and were gone missing the EE made a quarantine zone.
After a good amount of time, the EE started to lose contact with a number of systems around in and around the quarantine zone. Every day the EE lost more and more systems. It became clear to the EE that a new faction was attacking them, the Aeon Illuminate. At the same time the EE was attacked by the Cybran Nation too. Eventually the EE collapsed. But out of the ashes rised a new faction, the United Earth Federation or UEF.
The Infinite War had begun.

The factions in SC are the UEF, the Cybrans and the Aeon, and have they’re own agenda. The UEF’s goal is to restore the Earth Empire to it’s former glory, the Cybrans want to liberate all symbions that are ’imprisoned’ by the UEF and the Aeon want to spread The Way through the entire universe.

They each have there own campaign, but with the end on Earth.
The UEF campaign is nothing else but to hold the enemy back until their super weapon, Project Black Sun, is completed.
The Cybrans want to liberate their brothers, with the use of the UEF super weapon.
The Aeon want to defeat the UEF and spread The Way through out the universe, again with the UEF super weapon.
Quick tech info why they all want to use Black Sun. Black Sun can not only fire of charged particles, but can also fire particles that contain data and someone’s conscience ( don’t ask me how, but it can).

The missions in SC are BIG. It’s not a game that you can complete in a few minutes, it can take you up to an hour to only complete 1 mission ( there are 7 missions per factions) so expect long hours of playing.

You have 2 resources that you will have to gather, mass and energy. Mass is gathered by building mass extractors on top of mass deposits. Another way of getting mass is the use of mass fabricators, which turn energy into mass. Energy is obtained by building energy generators/power plants.

In the start if a match the only unit you have is your APU, the Armoured Personal Unit. This is a big mech, which can build, repair, capture, salvage and attack buildings and units. The APU can be upgraded by upgrading the mech’s hard points. This can vary from a rocket/nuclear missle launcher to a tech upgrade.
It’s always advised to keep your APU alive as it’s a good builder and can be very powerful in the offensive. But most disturbingly is when your APU dies, as it causes a big meltdown. Not good when its right in the middle of your base.

You have 3 kinds of factories to pump out units, land, air and naval factories. These buildings are upgradable too a max of lvl 3, each lvl granting you units that are more expensive but also more powerful.
The different techs are lvl 1 to 4. The only difference between lvl 3 and 4 is the fact that only your APU, engineers (buildable in the factories that can build, repair, capture and salvage) and support commanders can build lvl 4 units, the experimental units.
Next to factories, you can build defences, that’s seems pretty obvious. As with the units, defences have different tech lvl’s (1 to 3).

The units in SC are pretty standard and most unit types can be found in all the factions. So you have anti-air, tanks artillery, fighter-bombers, bombers, fighters, frigates, subs, cruisers, battleships, carriers and destroyers . Now the most awesome units are, of course, the experimental units. These units are massive and not all of them are units, the UEF has an experimental cannon, that can fire rounds from a huge distance.
These experimental’s can tear a whole army apart if used correctly.
However these units are extremely expensive and you will have to make sure that you have a good economy.

The gameplay of the game is very good. The AI of the game is pretty good. depending on how you set the AI, it will keep on rushing, getting his tech lvl up before attacking or it will use a mix of those two. Also on easy and normal the AI doesn’t use air units, what’s kinda lame. One thing that’s special in SC, is that every shot that’s fired from let’s say artillery is all calculated, so every shot is different, and will never land in the same place. That also counts for planes. If you shoot down a fighter, there may be one a crash you’ll never see again.
The maps in SC are absolutely huge. You have the ability to zoom out so you can see the entire map. Of course you can’t see your units from that distance so icons are used so you can identify your units and types and the enemies. However sometimes when you try to zoom in to a major battle the game, you get some lag or huge lag. But overall the zooming works well.

The multiplayer in SC is almost the same in the campaign and skirmish. You can play with up to 7 other people that you can battle in free for all or in teams ( I suggest the last option). All in all it comes to this, build a base, construct lots and lots of units, and rush your enemy with experimental and normal units. But like the singleplayer be sure to reserve some hours of your day.

The overall graphics of SC are good, but it needs a big, strong CPU to run smoothly. The biggest thing in SC that sucks the performance out of your PC is the ground. Really, if you put your fidelity high, be sure to prepare yourself for optimal lag in a big ground-battle. But even if you put the graphics down at its lowest, the game still looks good.
So overall score, pretty good. Way lot better than Stormrise. Good gameplay, huge maps and massive battles. However not everything in the game is good, all factories and structures may look different but at the end they all do the same, with little variations in unit types and abilities. Still a very solid game.

Being Right When Nobody Will Listen

Modern history is strewn with the carcasses of women who died for their cause.

This is not their story.

This is the story of a man whose life was also laid down to advance the lot of women. His name was Ignaz Semmelweis, and his name should be better known than it is, because women out there, everywhere, owe him big time.

Incidentally, "strewn with carcasses" is a good way to start this story, because Semmelweis was a doctor in a time when medicine wasn't too advanced. In the 1830s, a time before antisepsis, anaesthetics, germ-theory, or any of today's medical trimmings and trappings, Ignaz made his way from his native Hungary to study medicine in Vienna. By 1846, he was the head of Vienna's General Obstetric Hospital, where, incidentally, maternal deaths averaged at about 10% of admissions. They all seemed to display the same symptoms; a high fever, abdominal swelling, and skin pustules. Semmelweis wrote that he was perplexed by the death rate - even women delivering in the streets were dying less often than women in the clinic. But by 1847, he had discovered something brilliant - and unprecedented.

A colleague of old Ignaz had cut his hand whilst conducting an autopsy, and within a few days died with the same presenting symptoms as the mothers in the clinic. So Ignaz Semmelweis concluded that "cadaverous particles" carried on the hands might actually be causing the deaths. He instituted a policy which was to see him hounded out of the medical profession: compulsory hand-washing in a chlorine solution.

Within a few months of his policy's implementation, two things had occurred in a noticeable fashion. Firstly, women were dying at radically lower rates - the death rate had dropped from 10% to less than 2%. Secondly, Ignaz's popularity and credibility had plummeted. Many doctors considered the idea that they carried disease-causing particles on their hands to be both nonsensical and the highest form of insult. Semmelweis was dismissed from his post at the hospital in 1848 on the spurious accusation of political activism, and openly ridiculed by the medical profession to the point where he returned to Budapest.

As his credibility wore through, so did his sanity. Semmelweis began writing angry letters to anyone who would read them, and eventually published in 1961 a book of "Open Letters" lambasting the entire medical profession as well as many famous individuals. In the last decades of his life, he became a man obsessed. All conversations were turned to childbed fever. He began stopping unknown couples in the street and tearfully begging them to ensure, should they ever have children, that the doctor washed his hands. He began drinking heavily and visiting prostitutes. Some believed that his brain may have been succumbing to syphilis.

Eventually, in 1865, he was sold out. A colleague persuaded his wife to allow Semmelweis to be committed to a mental institution, where he was subjected to beatings, placed in a straitjacket, and administered laxatives and enemas in the customary style of the day. A slight wound sustained in a beating from the guards turned gangrenous, and in an ironic twist which would be glorious were it not so terrible, Semmelweis died from precisely the disease he had spent his lifetime attempting to beat; septicaemia.

Had he only lived a little longer, Semmelweis would have seem himself vindicated by history. With the work of Pasteur and Lister, germ-theory became accepted and the sensible policy of handwashing made compulsory practice. Semmelweis' name now graces a university, a museum, and several medical facilities, whilst his visage has graced European coins and postage stamps. In Hungary he is known as "the saviour of mothers". Oddly enough, the psychological catchphrase "the Semmelweis Reflex" is sometimes used to denote the kind of knee-jerk reaction people take to things that fall outside their accepted frame of reference.

I guess the take home lesson here is that it's hard to be right when nobody will listen. Ignaz Semmelweis was by no means the first person to find that out (just ask Socrates), but his story is particularly ironic and painful because he wasn't actually asking that much. The man lost his life and his sanity because people didn't want to wash their hands.

So, like I said, we owe him big time.

Second round

Last night I watched Twilight for the second time. I simply had to because to be honest, I was a bit disappointed after the first time. After finishing the book I somehow expected the movie to outstand the book, on the basis of what everyone around me has told me. Nevertheless, it didn’t. At first I didn’t even think that Edward (or Robert Pattinson) was hot, and I seriously couldn’t get my head around how every girl fell head over heels after their first glance at him…

There was so much more I wanted to see in the movie. The scenes they “deleted”, the jump in between them, and the words that (mostly Edward‘s) were unsaid made me rather disappointed. It would have been even more romantic if some scenes would have been there that weren’t, but that would have made the movie too long I guess…

I don’t want to say that the book ruined my perception of the movie, but it somehow did. That was why I had to watch it again so I could make up my mind (and this is not the same as being obsessed, okay, haha…). Anyhow, with my mind focused on the positive things, like that there for instance is a Twilight movie at all, I found myself drooling for Edward before I went to bed - and that made everything much better. Haha, geez…

I still don’t know whether or not I should read New Moon before I watch the movie, though. What if it will disappoint me like the first time I watched Twilight? Or maybe…maybe I just have to watch it twice! Haha…

Tiggy and Selection Day

This is a painting done for a friend whose little dog, Tiggy is very special.

She's quite elderly but I am greeted with such enthusiasm by both her and her 'sister' Abby.

I just love Tiggy's whiskers and the way she looks so poised, almost as if she was deliberately posing for the photograph.

Yesterday (Saturday - it is now early Sunday morning here in SA) was a hectic day. We had our society selection day for our Annual Exhibition which is held at the Sanlam Hall in the beautiful Kirstenbosch Gardens. I am on the South African Society of Artists (SASA) committee and besides running around from one end of the hall to the other, was responsible for the computer work! Me, who's not that fantastic with computers, is deemed to be the computer expert! Oh dear.

It all went very well even though it was a long day and we had just short of 600 paintings submitted, a record. The judges were put through their paces, and it was a fascinating experience watching their marks. There are three judges and each judge gives his or her own mark without knowing what the others are doing. Apparently this works in England and we have adopted it here.

I was lucky enough to have one painting submitted, my still life, but the other two didn't make the cut. Maybe next year.

Civilization: Revolution

Civilization Revolution is a game produced by Firaxis, known for games like Pirates, Civilization series and Railroads. The game was published by 2K Games in July 2008. It’s released for the iPhone OS, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

The Civilization-series can best be described as an enhanced chess game, you play on a board and make moves with your units, select what researches you want to do and which buildings you want to build.

In Civilization: Revolution the player can win by 4 methods:

• --By conquering the enemy
• --By researching and developing a spacecraft and sending it off to Alpha-Centauri to colonize that planet
• --By creating 20 Great People, Monuments and converted cities and building the United Nations
• --By accumulating 20.000 gold and building the World Bank

The graphics in this game are nice, the creators have chosen a cartoony style. And of course, just like in previous games, the scale is way off, making it easier to spot your units. One of the new features in this game is that you now have advisors, which talk in a style similar to the Sims-series, which means that they just talk gibberish, in for example Civilization 4, when you selected a unit it would greet you in its native language, in Civilization: Revolution, they don’t speak at all, aside from the screaming in battles.

One of my complaints with this game is that it has been oversimplified when comparing it to Civilization 4, in order to make matches less time-consuming and the game less overwhelming. I personally was disappointed by it, since quite a lot of features had been stripped or had been made easier. For example, now there are treasures/bandit camps scattered around, which your computer opponents often don’t even touch, automatically giving you an advantage. Also, the bandit camps no longer hold a thread to you, whilst in Civ 4 they could really mess up your plans and those of your enemies, they also were very opportunistic since they would attack you when you were waging a war and your troops had left home, in Civilization Revolution, they simple remain in their cities, they haven’t even got a territory, unlike in Civilization 4. Another complaint about Civ 5, is that the amount of leaders you can pick from has been reduced to 16, whilst Civ 4 had 26, not even counting the ones that came in expansion packs. Although they did put a few new ones in, like a Zulu king(don’t ask me why, since I don’t really think that they’ve contributed anything to world history), they left some of the better ones out, like for example the Dutch or any European nation for that matter, except for England, Germany, France, Spain, Greece and the Roman Empire. Even though, there are many other European countries that have taken their role in world history as well, and have had their great leaders as well.

Another thing that has been changed when comparing to previous games in the series, is the scenarios, in previous games you played various great and well-known battles whilst in this game, you just play following a set of extra rules in order to win and those battles are all fictional. This takes away a bit of the learning concept which was present in the past games, I actually find this a bit disappointing , since I always loved playing great historical battles and changing the outcome of them. Not everything holding historical information has been ripped out, though, the Civilopedia is still present if you want to read up on certain great leaders or monuments.

Another thing that bothered me is that the game shifted to a more combat oriented gameplay, whereas in the previous games you’d only use war as one of the last means to expand, in this game you can’t go 5 rounds without either starting a war, getting one declared on you, getting threatened or making peace after obliterating a good amount of units of the enemy. The communication between you and the computer opponents have been simplified as well, a lot of options have been removed, in past games you were able to build a very positive relation with a nation and make it your ally, which was very fruitful. You can still buy and sell technologies but whereas you used to be able to use a very deep trading system, now you only use currency to buy certain technologies. In previous games you could also trade cities, sign contracts and pacts, and many other things. All that has been ripped out.

As far as sound and music go, the game scores average, the sounds you hear from tiles, like the sound of the sea when you’re hovering above a beach and so on. The music sadly doesn’t have any background music, so the only music you’ll hear is the one in the menu and when somebody declares war on you.

Now it seems that I’ve drilled this title into the ground, but this isn’t the case. Whilst there have been things left out and some complaints, the gameplay remains to be classic and addictive. It certainly isn’t a waste of money buying this game, if you like strategy games. But if you’re a fan of the series and liked the depth of the game, you might get disappointed, but it’ll still keep you occupied for quite some time.

On this date in history...61 years ago

The year was 1948 and the world was blessed with the birth of a future superstar...OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN!

Y'all I can't express how much I LOVE her. I love her so much I can remember getting into the car to go see "Grease" when it was released. I remember sitting in the movie theatre so excited when the opening credits came on. I had all of her albums...still do. Every time she released an album I bought it the day it came out. Her music just takes me to another time and place and always makes me feel good inside. SHUT UP! Don't make fun of me! :)
That was then...

This is now...

Still Beautiful! Still Fabulous! Still a Superstar!
Happy Birthday, Olivia!
Love You,

Bob Out

Daily Thoughts 9/26/2009

The economist James K. Galbraith who has written many books.

Daily Thoughts 9/26/2009

Here I am today. I have The Cost of Bad Behavior, How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What To Do About It by Christine Pearson and Christine Porath in front of me. There is an introduction by Warren Bennis. I also put another book on hold, The Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It is the first book in a trilogy.

Today is rather quiet. I ordered some promotional material from Westlaw Patron Access yesterday so we can market the database as well as had some bookmarks which we designed printed. The display on graphic novels is doing quite well. A lot of books are being taken out.

I am looking at a novel by Maggie Estep, Alice Fantastic. I usually think of Maggie Estep as a slam poet, but there it was. A novel set in Queens, New York.

I read some more of And Then There's This at lunch time. I had a greek omelette for lunch and my usual two cups of coffee. I am on the third chapter. The author is writing about memes. He writes that one of the common factors that determine if a meme is successfully viral is if it is social in nature and people can relate to to it on a personal level. I was talking to one of our patrons about the book and he commented that this may be due to people being lonely and a bit disconnected.

Where The Wild Things Are

Childrens classic, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963), has been turned into an amazing feature-length film to be released OCT 16. Considering the cast, Chris Cooper (love him!), James Gandolfini (quite different from Tony Soprano!), Catherine O'Hara (one of my personal faves) and Forest Whitaker (Super actor!) and a real Max (Max Records), how can this be anything but a hit?

I'm sure there will be skeptics. Can a film come close to the quality of a Caldecott Medal (1964) book? I have four words for you: Lord of the Rings. I still remember the anxiety I had sitting in the theater waiting for the first installment, The Fellowship of the Ring, to begin. As soon as Gandalf appeared on screen, maneuvering his wagon along the road to Hobbiton, I knew the movie would be superb.

In this digital age, I can only imagine the fun of bringing Sendak's illustrations to life. Here's the trailer for a sneak peek.

Some would argue that Sendak's books are too dark for children. Do you agree, or disagree?

What favorite book of yours has been adapted to the big screen? Were you disappointed or ecstatic with the results?

Mary Cunningham

I'm proud to announce the release of Book Four in the award-winning series, "Cynthia's Attic" will be released by Quake (Echelon Imprint) DEC 2009! Buy the first three books on Amazon and pre-order "The Magician's Castle." Echelon Press

Hunk of the day

Thought I would give you all a little "pick me up". This is Kellan Lutz from the "Twilight" movie series...YUMMY! He could pick me up anytime!



Have a great weekend!

Bob Out

Streets of Rage series: Part 2

The next game I'm going to review is the second game in the Streets of Rage series. The second game was released in 1992, a year after the first game. The game was also released on the Sega Game Gear and Master System, but those graphics are worse than the Genesis/Mega Drive version.The Game Gear and Master System versions also have different stages and lack the character Max Thunder, so I don’t recommend playing those versions of the game.

The genre is the same as the first game: A sidescrolling beat-em-up. Sega has put in an intro which states the following: One year has passed since Adam, Axel and Blaze took back the streets on the anniversary of their previous victory, the three heroes got together to celebrate, but their happiness was short lived. Adam's younger brother Eddie 'Skate' Hunter contacted Axel shortly afterwards with news that Adam had been kidnapped by a gang of thugs. A photo left in Adam's ransacked house showed a chained Adam at the compound of the crime lord Mr. X. With Mr. X back in town, crime quickly escalated and citizens once again began to fear for their lives. Axel and Blaze must team up once more to defeat Mr. X and rescue Adam. Joining them in the fight is Eddie and Axel's friend, the muscle-bound Max Thunder.

Streets of Rage 2 features much longer levels than the first one, each with multiple settings. It also has weather effects, like rain and mist.
These are the 8 rounds in the game:
--Round 1: Downtown: You start your search in the streets. Trailing them into Barbon's bar, you'll eventually meet Barbon in a back alley, behind the bar.
--Round 2: Bridge Under Construction: Moving across a bridge full of thugs and bikers, you continue your search. The boss Jet, is equipped with a jet-pack and has a few nasty moves up his sleeve.
--Round 3: Amusement Park: Strolling through the park grounds, arcades and the Alien House, where the props explode, and real danger lurks in the fake fog.
--Round 4: Baseball Stadium: You make your way into the baseball stadium, where you find a secret elevator hidden on the baseball pitch which then takes you to an underground fighting ring.
--Round 5: The Ship: Mr X seems to have got himself a private island this time, so you have to take a ship out to it. You fight your way through some cargo decks before emerging on deck to deal with the bikers.
--Round 6: Mr. X's Island: You've landed on Mr. X's island, so you now have to make your way across a beach and then through a jungle with nasty surprises waiting for you that's lurking through the darkness along the way.
--Round 7: Munitions Plant: You make your way across the factory floor, contending with conveyor belts. You then arrive at an elevator, where you make your way up to the roof.
--Round 8: Syndicate Stronghold: As in Streets of Rage, you face all the bosses in the game here. You begin downstairs, then grab an elevator up to Mr. X and then begin the final battle against him.

Just like in the first game, you can play on Easy, Normal and Hard + Hardest. You can also change the amount of lives you have from 1 to 5, so you can make it even harder for yourself.

This time there are 4 characters you can choose from: Alex, Blaze, Max and Eddie, and they all have different specialities except Blaze, because she’s an all-rounder and has 2 of 3 stars on every skill , so she’s average on every skill. There are 5 skills: Power, Speed, Technique, Jump and Stamina. Stamina means how much punishment your character can take.

There are a couple of things that have been changed in this game. First example of this are the graphics, which have been greatly improved compared with the first game. As stated before, rain and mist is added in some stages. Besides that, there are more and better sound effects than in the first game. The soundtracks are edited, though. When you listen carefully you recognise the soundtracks from the first game. But this isn't bad, because they improved the sound so it all sounds nicer than the first game. In this sequel, you even have more weapons at your disposal than in the first game, like a katana or bomb. If you've played the first game, you'll also recognise your enemies. There are some new enemies too, like bikers, kickboxers and robots. Your enemies have names now and there is a health bar added, so you know when they're almost dead. Some enemies got funny names, for example a fat guy who's called Hamburger. What parents would call their son Hamburger? Only when they're pure evil they would do such a thing.

Just like in the first game, you have a special ability. But Sega changed it from the police car to a stronger attack. You can use this ability as much as you like, until the point where your health is almost depleted. Yes, this is the goofiest part of the game. When you use your ability, you lose a little bit of health. I prefer the police car, it's cooler too.

This game just plays like the first one, so if you liked that game, you'll definitely like this one too. Besides the last complaint, I like this game more than the first one. It would've been almost perfect if the police car was still in the game.

Culture in Writing

Using different cultures in stories is one of my favorite parts about writing. As a writer, it makes the story exciting for me and therefore I hope you as well.

In my first novel, "Thomas Riley", the countries of West Canvia and Lemuria are at war. As you get into the story, and if you've ever visited Europe, you might notice that West Canvia bares a striking resemblance to The Netherlands and that Lemuria shares some traits with Germany. If you read the story, note what characters are drinking, what the buildings look like, their clothing, armaments and flags... There are little clues about the different cultures spread throughout the story.

To me, creating a mythos in writing is crucial to the story line. Being a huge fan of the TV series Lost has been inspirational in the deep and sometimes cryptic plot devises that I use. Who says you can't learn from television? I love the idea that a reader can look up a name, a place or a character and get additional hints on what the real meaning might be. This is of course geared toward the more hard core fans of anything, but to me it completes the story as well as gives the story limitless options and depth.

What inspires you to add other cultures in your writing? I want to hear what inspires you.

Nick Valentino wrote a Steampunk novel called Thomas Riley, which will be out on Echelon Press in October.
Check out the blog here.
Click here to enlist as a Canvian Sky Pirate and get free stuff.

"Oh my God, it's Sarah Palin"

Have I told you guys how much I love Sarah Jessica Parker? If not, let me tell you...I LOVE HER! She is in a new movie with Hugh Grant(YUMMY). It opens December 18, 2009. It's called "Did you hear about the Morgans?" Check out this preview for the film and watch for the "Oh my God, it's Sarah Palin" line...TOO FUNNY! I HAVE TO SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Atlas doesn't shrug in my mind even after weeks.

These quotes continue to come back to me over and over in these past weeks as I reflect on my recent journey through Atlas Shrugged.  Many of these ideas present contradictions to my subconcious ideals about the world as I know it(as I learned it in school and church),  yet they are so blatantly obvious and simple.  When I couple these concepts of accountability with my deep seated desire to love and encourage others to succeed I think I begin to make just a little sense of my world.  I don't know all of the answers, but I know for sure that I indeed want to live.  What an awesome book, for anyone who wants to seriously reflect on himself, and our world today.

"Who is John Galt?"

“For if there is more tragic a fool than the businessman who doesn’t know that he is an exponent of man’s highest creative spirit, it is the artist who thinks that the businessman is his enemy.“ Composer Richard Halley

"Who is the public? What does it hold as its good? There was a time when men believed that 'the good' was a concept to be defined by a code of moral values and that no man had the right to seek his good through the violation of the rights of another. If it is now believed that men may sacrifice me in any manner they please for the sake of whatever they deem to be their own good, if they believe that they may seize my property simply because they need it - well, so does any burglar." Hank Reardon


"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." THE OATH

"Existence is Identity,  Consciousness is Identification" John Galt

"My morality, the morality of reason, is contained in a single axiom: existence exists----and in a single  choice: to live. The rest proceeds from these.  To live, man must hold three things as the supreme and ruling values of his life:  Reason----Purpose----Self-Esteem." John Galt

"The only man who desires to be moral is the man who desires to live.  No, you do not have to live; it is your basic act of choice; but if you choose to live, you must live as a man---by the work and the judgement of your mind." John Galt

Talk about a baby BOOM ^^

Geez, I just read an article about a giant baby boy that was born in Indonesia, weighing 8.7 kg! They assumed that the cause of this was that the mother had diabetes. For a long time I’ve been trying to avoid sugar as much as possible for health reasons, but now I think I am going to cut it out completely because hell no I want to end up giving birth to a giant baby!

Daily Thoughts 9/25/2009

Engraving of Captain Nemo viewing a giant squid from a porthole of the Nautilus submarine, from 20000 Lieues Sous les Mers by Jules Verne.

Daily Thoughts 9/25/2009

Right now, I am sitting at my local library. I have the day off and am working tomorrow. I am using their computer to type away. I found one book that looks very interesting; And Then There's This How Stories Live And Die In A Viral Culture by Bill Wasik. I am fascinated with social networking and the internet. I am reading a lot about it lately. It is relaxing to be anonymous sometimes.

Bill Wasik is the inventor of flash mobs, creating instantaneous crowds using the internet. It makes the book quite interesting. The book is quite eclectic. Right now, I am reading about the indie rock music scene on the internet.

Tenor to get a Händel on Bruton Parish

You are invited!  Organist Charles Lindsey and Tenor Jeff Prillaman of Da Capo Va will be presenting a concert of historic music in a beautiful historic space on Saturday Evening 8pm,  Sept 26, 2009.

The Candlelight concert series is a favorite of tourists and locals alike.
 Don't miss your opportunity to Kick off Fall in VA in fine fashion.

Bruton Parish, Candlelight Concerts

Parking is permitted on Duke of Gloucester in front of the church on Sundays and for weddings, funerals, concerts, the Wednesday Eucharist and Healing Service, and other special occasions. We ask that the parking spaces close to the front or side of the Church be saved for those who are handicapped or those who have difficulty with walking a distance.

================== 

CAN YOU HANDEL IT?

Jeffrey Prillaman, Tenor

Charles Lindsey, Jr., Organ

 All Music is by George Frederick Handel (1685–1759) except Pietà Signore, which is by Alessandro Stradella (1639–82).  The Trumpet Tune on Siröe is an arrangement by Charles Lindsey of a melody of Handel’s.  The Aria in F is arranged from Handel and played in the style of Virgil Fox.

 

Recitative and Air from the Oratorio Judas Maccabaeus

Thanks to My Brethren!

How Vain Is Man

Pietà Signore                                           

ORGAN SOLO:

Trumpet Tune on Siröe                       

Aria in F                                                         

Where’er You Walk (from the Opera Semele)

Recitative and Air from the Opera Serse

Frondi tenere 

Ombra mai fù 

All Selections from the Oratorio Messiah

Recitative:  Comfort Ye My People

Air:  Every Valley Shall Be Exalted

ORGAN SOLO:  Pastoral Symphony

Recitative:  Thy Rebuke Hath Broken His Heart

Air:  Behold, and See if There Be Any Sorrow

Recitative:  He Was Cut Off from the Land of the Living

Air:  But Thou Didst Not Leave His Soul in Hell

Recitative:  He That Dwelleth in Heaven

Air:  Thou Shalt Break Them