Birthday Rundown

So my birthday was on the 21st. That's right, I'm a Solstice baby. Not really a great day.. I got to sleep in, but I think that was the high point for the day. Presents were all given prior to my birthday, and we spent the day trying to figure out what to do. Now normally, it is tradition in my family to have "Birthday Pancakes" in the morning. These tend to be pancakes served in the way the lucky person likes, with a candle.

No such luck. Diets suck.

So instead, a small bit of cereal, cup and a half of milk, and an apple. Yeah. Living wild. I did manage to sneak out with three pieces of Turkey Bacon. Total scorage. Shortly after breakfast, as I was getting ready to shower... BAM! We loose electricity. So much for that.

So we spent most of the day, figuring out what to do. At one point the Drama llama took over, and I decided to break for the day, and get away. I found a nice park, grabbed my cross-stitch, and chilled out and got some work done in the car listening to the summer rain. It was fairly threrapudic to just relax, and get into the rhythm of the needle work, listening to the quiet environment while sensing the pattering of the rain.

We ended up going out to mexican for lunch, and I gorged myself out on tortilla chips. So long diet. I was actually hoping to hit Fire and Ice in Boston, but no such luck with the crew, no one else wanted to go that far.

No birthday cake, but was going to go to get ice cream, but the Drama Llama struck again. I swear I need llama repellent.


All in all though, my birthday gifts were very nice and very thoughtfull. From the OH, I scored the following Transformers: The fallen, ROTF Soundwave, and the entire Classics Robot Heroes line. I was very surprised by this. From the Drama Llama himself, I ended up getting the entire DVD series of Fushigi Yuugi, which was a good 8 DVDs. I can't wait to break into it, but we have sooo many anime and TV series that we're still trying to get through, I expect to get to it in a few years. From the would-be sister-in-law and the neices and nephew, I got three much needed new shirts, a Transformers Bag, and a Transformers: Return of the Fallen: Sideways. SQUEE! Best of all, an attempt at a bairthday cake the week before. It was a great attempt at a cake, and I don't hold it against my young niece for not making sure it was totally done... I was a good uncle and choked it down like a vaccum cleaner.

The big surprise though, was actually on Tuesday. I was in a huge rush to get to our home for some prospective future plans, that I fell for a trick. I was told that we were stopping to get a copy of "Batman Arkham Asylum" for the PS3, and stayed in the car.

To my surprise, the bad tossed at me as the OH got in the car was not a PS3 case, but was a small box. In the box, was a brand new 32 Gig iPod Touch. Seemed someone was holding out on me, and wanted to make me cry. It worked. Big baby tears.

WoW, I have an addiction, take 2

So here's the run down for the World of Warcraft in the past week....

Almost nothing. I am still cruising with my shaman, and it's only level 36, but in the chaos of the past few days, I've been distracted from the game. I managed to jump in however to enjoy some of the missions from the Mid-Summer event.

Not doing too much, but hoping to get some f the achievement points out of playing this year. Not sure if I can, but might get at least SOMETHING with the help of my guild and my friends.

Speaking of which, my good friend RainyK is in game marrying her boyfriend. She called me today to make sure I still had my account, and that I should be prepaired for it. I missed out on the ceremony of her first marriage, and I'm hoping I don't miss out on this one as well.

Working Out is hard to do...

So worked out last night, hitting some good goals. Back up to my bench press weights from before I lost my job, and that makes me feel pretty good. I'm Benching 90lbs for 10 reps, which is more than I was doing before. I think it has a lot to do with the push up drills I was doing prior to hitting the weights in the past few weeks.

I know that 90lbs is a generally low weight for bench pressing, but for now it's all I can fit on our rinky dinky weight bench. I can't wait to get a real job again so that I can afford to go to a real gym again. Ahhh.. those were the good old days.

Yesterday's work out was split, as I got a phone call from the OH and things spiraled out from there. I managed to get a set of warm up Bench Presses and 15 minutes of Cardio in then. Later on in the night I had managed to get a full work out of 3 more sets of Bench Presses, 3 sets of Standing Bicep Curls, 3 Sets of Dumbbell Presses, and 3 sets of Hammer Curls. I am really starting to miss the old Preacher Curl Deck we had at Golds. I also hit up some Rorator twists with my old therabands, and 50 push ups and 60 Sit ups, with 30 Leg ups in for good measure. Pretty light in the core exercises, but it's still in there. Tonight I'm hoping to toss in some more yoga poses and hit the abs and legs as best I can considering the sparse equipment we have.



So the big event for the day... moving the room. Now the OH always has this cumpulsion to rearrange furnature once a month. It's like clockwork. Today seems to be the day. I'll have before and after pics up later.

Book Review for Personal Effects: Dark Arts

I got this book on the release date, and finished it in quick succession. I've been trying to figure out how best to pimp this book out, and let people know. Why not write a review for Amazon? Well I guess that might further than just the guerrilla warfare I've been waging in the book stores.



Buy this Book. Simply put. Oh, you want more? Well since this is a review, I suppose I'll give it to you.

Personal Effects: Dark Arts is the new book by Author JC Hutchins and Jordan Weisman, and published by St. Martin's Griffin Press. I wouldn't say that this is a book, as it's more of a huge interactive experience, and a giant leap for literary works. I'll explain on that later.

The story follows an overly passionate, (read as: borders on obsessive) Art Therapist Zachary Taylor as he works in what could be considered the pits of New York hell, Brinkvale Psychiatric Hospital. AKA: The Brink, a hospital built into the depths of an old abandoned Brownstone Quarry. It is the place where the worst of the worst, the lost cases, go to be forgotten. One such case that is driven home to him from his superiors is one, a Mr. Martin Grace, Accused Serial Killer of 12. The twist, Grace is afflicted with psychosomatic Blindness. This case, a high profile one to say the least has a potential conflict of interest. His father, the DA is gunning hard for a conviction. Zach's mission is to find if the "Blind Killer" is fit for trial, or if he really is insane. Grace is blaming all 12 of the murders on a "Dark Man" who teases him with images and visions of who would die next, and how they will die. With not only work putting pressure on him, but family members with secretive vendettas that have been revealed, the pressure is on our main protagonist, and we're along for the ride.

Through the book, we meet various well written and believable characters including Zachary's family and friends. Many of these have been originally introduced in the prequel, Personal Effects: Sword of Blood, but they are still easy not only to come back to, but also be introduced to for the first time. One to note of is Zach's girlfriend Rachel aka: "PixelVixen707", who is based off of a real blogger. His younger brother Lucas, the "parkour" cinematographer with pixi-stix for a blood stream, is very believable regardless of the vernacular that he spouts. While this could be a slight issue with some older readers, it does make him seem more of a realistic kid in today's modern urban setting. I have a problem even now trying not to say some of his catch phrases, and not feeling connected to him with a bit of adoration.

Fans of Mr. Hutchins will note that the prequel to this novel, Personal Effect: Sword of Blood is currently being released on his website in audio form at the time of this review. This was my first introduction to this as a finished work, as I had been a part of the energetic scramble that was the early time of twitter and Mr. Hutchins's "Solidarity" campaign. He had been given a very short deadline to produce this book, and many of us would-be writers offered our support and offered to match his word count in our own works. With that in mind, this wonderful book does not at all feel rough, rushed, or unpolished in any way. This truly is a masterpiece of ingenuity when you take also into account that this is not just a book at all.

Of the writing style, I do have to say it has the fingerprints of JC Hutchins all over it. It has the chaotic style best shown in his audio book 7th Son in parts. This comes across well in the book, especially when you are reading the viewpoints of Zachary when he is having an attack of his Nictophobia, or dealing with his own mental demons. You can almost hear JC's own voice speaking if you have listened to his prior works.

Inside the book itself, in the inside cover envelope is a package involving realistic looking materials, the "Personal Effects" of the case in question. The items are believable, even down to the old photos and plastic State IDs and credit cards. The materials seemed like a jumbled mess to me at first, but that's half the fun. You have to figure out along with the characters, or even before the characters what it all means. This is only part of what makes it so riveting of a read. Many of the materials, as well as the book is littered with phone numbers, websites, and notes that are all real, viable resources for information that makes the book, and the entire world seem plausible. So plausible is it, that while during the book, we have to continually question if Zachary is being infected the with psychosis of his patient, and his Nictophobia is acting up, or if there really is an evil spirit that is terrorizing both him and his patient Grace.

Now for the really nit-picky notes. Fans might find it disconcerting that when you hear Zach's voice on his voicemail, it is not in JC Hutchins' own voice, which one becomes acclimated to when listening to the prequel. I found this to throw me sadly, but it didn't hold me back from enjoying the novel. It was a bit of a curve ball, but that doesn't take much away from the experience. Also, I found myself truly wanting more. The novel's story was complete, but it made me want to pick up the next book and dive in. While this might not necessarily be a bad thing for the authors and the publisher, this is frustrating, as all good books that resonate with readers do.

All in all, this is an excellent book, and a great launching point for the characters and the series. I can't wait to read or hear the next installment.

If this interests you at all, please, go to Amazon.com by clicking on the link, and scope this out. It's well worth the money. And for show and tell of this, check out the cross stitch I made for Mr. Hutchins to help promote the book. JC Hutchins can be found at his website. The Brink's website, where you can "Commit" yourself, can be found here. Personal Effect: Sword of Blood is a free to listen audio book that can be played on your computer or any portable audio device. PixelVixen707, and her blog is here.

Quick Daily Thoughts....

So it's the 16th, and I'm in need of content. So here's a quick rambling.

I'm trying to get some links for the sites I dig, or are podcasters and writers I esteem and like.


I've realized, that this blog is more about me, than anything. I'm not going to apologize for anything I put up here, and not going to ask for what people want to see. Oh well. That said, my friend Artoni gave me this Hi-Frick'n-Larious link. Vader Singing.


So anyway, everyone in our house has been on this diet from Gym America. While I'm not too excited about it, it is great to see the house mates all actually doing something and getting excited about it. Since I've been unemployed, I had to cancel my gym memberships, and sadly, have been fighting with weight gains. Not in a good way either. I blame Food Network, making me want to eat more and better foods. I guess I'm the only one to complain since everyone loved the improved cooking. No more cracks on my cheesecakes.


So now, we're on this diet and exercise regimen, trying to loose as much weight as we can. We cut our caloric intake from over 3000 Cal, to 1750, and working out almost every day. I'll admit, sadly, it's working out. I'm craving chocolate like mad, but I'm sticking with it mostly. The exercise regimen is what stumps me right now. We lack a lot of the equipment, and my roomies don't always keep up in that department, so I try to push as much as I can with that.

So far, I've lost 6 lbs, and still going down. I think though that the more I push in the weights, the more I'm going to be gaining as well. Final goal, go get rid of my "cub" belly, and get back to being fit, and gaining towards my dad. for those that don't know, my dad was a stacked mo-fo, but he did it with steroids for a while. I plan on going all natural. I've got a long way to go. I'll post my progress as I go along.

Day one of my WoW Addiction Blog

So I figured I'd pepper a lot of things in this blog, and the first thing I'll toss in is my major time sink right now.

WoW, also known as the World of Warcraft, is an online MMORPG, or Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game.

So Today, I got onto the trusty computer, and pulled up my level 35 Draenei Shaman on Bloodhoof, Dahlrien.

Now I love my shamans. They seem like the perfect mix of offensive spell caster, and Melee tank when they are strong enough with the self-heals. Note the self-heals. I do a lot of solo-ing. I really not the most social person usually. I hate getting random invites to group with them. Do I know you? Do I know if you are going to leave me high and dry? Are you going to choke me with Aggro and sit back to enjoy the show?


Can you tell I've helped a lot of rude low-level kids before, that don't have a lot of experience?

Yes, I'm letting my geek flag fly tonight with this first blog post. Read it and weep. I swear there will be better stuff later.

So today wasn't a majorly productive game day, mostly because I had real life things to deal with. You know, looking for a job, giving the roomies rides, eating, cleaning... Then again, I also died. A lot.

So I made a cool 40 Gold on the auction house circuit today, mostly selling some randomly dropped loot items and fabric. I was stuck questing in the Stranglethrom Area of the Eastern Kingdoms. My real life friend RainyK had warned me about the place, but stubborn guido that I am, I didn't listen. Dear gods that is a hard place to solo through. There's tigers and panthers, and trolls, OH MY! Let's also not forget the waters filled with Piranha like fight and gators.

I died a total of eight times, completing only a hand full of missions. I do have to say, that after today I not only hate grinding, Murlocks, and rogues, but I can now add to the list a dislike of Goblins and Trolls.

And speaking of hatred, who in their right minds programed the Shadowmaw Panthers? They're beasts that have stealth moves! It took me a while to hunt down the needed quantities for one of the missions.

All in all though, I did manage to level once today, which put me at level 36, and I quickly hearthed my way back to the Exodar as fast as my hooves could carry me.

I might play a bit tomorrow.. not sure. WoW for me is an addiction. I play for a month or two, then stop, and then get right back on it. Man I need help.