It seems no sooner did the holidays come around that they're gone again.  I blame moving in December, and the snow coming late.  And now it's the last day of 2012.  What a year.

Christmas time I always look forward to.  There's a kind of warmth to the season even though it's winter that you can only feel in this time of the year.  Seeing all the houses decorated with Christmas lights and decorations - there's honestly nothing more fun than living in or near a neighbourhood where a majority of houses are decked out with lights.  I wonder how many nights I can go walking around and enjoy it before they all get taken down.  This was also the time of year when I got to see most of my relatives, especially those who I didn't see any other time of the year.  Those were always such great times and memories.  Sometimes I look back and miss them but not with any kind of regret that they're over.  I'm happy that they're there for me to look back on, now that the family's grown on and apart.

Now with year's end here my focus is on the new year ahead.  This year there are no resolutions for me, I'm not going for that perspective.  There are plans and goals to be sure, I plan on being very busy in the new year.  Instead I'm starting my year with something that's been floating around Facebook.  An empty jar, which you fill throughout the year with notes about good things that have happened throughout the year and at the end you open it and look back on the great year you have.  I like the idea in being open to whatever good comes your way and not just what you plan to accomplish in the year.  After all:
The road to success is a journey; it twists and turns, sometimes things are unexpected.  It may not be the path you expect, but if your eyes are always down on the road you'll miss all the unexpected blessings that tend to come along.

Today I'll be doing some prep and planning while I continue to try and heal this back.  I strained it badly last week and it's been pain central ever since, though I've made sure to keep any length of bed rest to a very bare minimum.  The pain at least has started to subside and the more I do the quicker the swelling goes down, so hopefully a week?  Or two?  My New Year's Eve will be pretty quiet, just my mom and I.  Some of my friends will be ringing in the year playing video games, I'll likely follow suit.  I got Diablo III and a World of Warcraft time card for Christmas as well as a brand spanking new laptop all my own, but that can wait for another entry.  Because I can ramble on about those all day long!

Enjoy your New Year's (safely!), and here's to a brilliant 2013!

My whole November and the first couple weeks of December can be basically summed up like this:

• - start NaNo
• - get two days ahead
• - put in moving notice
• - house hunt
• - struggle with word count
• - find house, start packing
• - more struggle with word count
• - lots of packing
• - pack and send out NaNo swap packages
• - finalize new house
• - packing?  Yep still that
• - word count finally caught up
• - NaNo ends
• - call utilities
• - packing done

Yes I'm moving again.  The place we're heading to is a really nice place and I'm way excited.  I'm more excited about where we're moving to than when we moved here.  Don't get me wrong, this house is a nice house and it's in a nice area, there's just something about this new place we're heading to.  I'm hopefully going to take pictures, providing I can get a camera.  My goal this time around is to have a less stressful move than the last one - so far about 95% achieved.  The truck is booked, we have friends to do the heavy lifting (some of this furniture is pretty freaking heavy, no lie) and the place is for-sure.  And we have a move-in date, we'll be able to celebrate Christmas there.

NaNo so far can be easily summed up like this: I got ahead a few days, fell one day behind, caught up, fell behind some more, lost a couple days' of writing and managed to just make it on the 29th.  Rewarded myself for managing it, Magnum ice cream is the most amazing thing ever.  I had a hard time about week 2 with this story, I started hating it.  And it wasn't even like it was work-through-it-fix-later kind of hate, it was I-don't-want-to-be-here hate.  Normally I'd take a break to something else but I wasn't going to allow that during November.  I ended up rewriting chapters 2-4 until I got them going in a way that made me like the story again, and I created a dump file for everything I've written but decided is not going to go into the story.  That way I hadn't lost words I fair and square wrote and managed to preserve my chapters.  In eight chapters my two M.C.s had three bad spats and a new character materialized around chapter 4 with some timely conversation.

Well I needed the word boost.  Dialogue is good for that.  Besides, it's not the first time a new character has shown up out of nowhere, and won't be the last either.  We'll see how he shapes up as the story progresses.

I realized what a tricky main character I've designed here, though.  She had some of her memories locked away and starts the story that way, but along with those memories she's forgotten two significant things: the man she loves and the reason for the whole thing in the first place.  She's reunited with said love interest in chapter 2 and has to deal with emotions her heart remembers to a man her mind can't recall.  Pinning down what that would make one say, do, feel and think is interesting, although difficult because it's something I'm having a hard time connecting to.  I've never been in such a situation so what would be a realistic reaction?  When would you follow your heart and when would you follow your head?

It's a challenge.  And I love it.

I'm going for a story with some didn't-see-that-coming kind of twists near the end, and the whole truth of the situation comes out.  Everyone has their piece of the story, or what they think is the story, and with my M.C. acting as sort of a catalyst for the truth it's going to come together nicely.  Plus her mother's going to get into some serious battle action.  It was a topic in the Fantasy forum on the NaNo boards, I think the pet peeve topic, and one commenter's peeve was about how older women never seem to do any of the 'fun' stuff (fight, have adventures, love story, etc).  I didn't add it with a specific goal of bringing that to light, but the point kind of stuck in my head.  Because you know what?  It would be rather fun to see the 'mother' figure kick some butt here and there.  And I was kind of taken by Rene's role in Thor and the scene when she picks up the sword to defend her husband.  I was a little disappointed that she only got one strike off before being knocked aside; I mean come on, this is Lethal Weapon's Lorna Cole and the character comes from the Norse mythology and gods.  Let the lady kick some ass!

Goodness, what a mess I'm surrounded with.  Guess break time is over, I should get to cleaning house.  Again.

What is it?
Syncplicity is a cloud-based file storage system designed to back up, store and sync your files.  Syncplicity LLC has both personal and business solutions with an eye toward security, flexibility and seamless ease.

How it works?
Install Syncplicity onto your computer by signing up on the website and going through the process.  When the program is installed it stays active on your computer, and the chosen files will sync between the devices you register on Syncplicity.

The Basics:
For the personal edition there are two editions: free and personal.  The Free Edition is actually a pretty good deal with:

• 2 GB of storage
• syncs between up to 2 computers and mobile devices
• unlimited files and folders
• works with PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Google Docs
• community support forums

The Personal of course is a better deal and well worth the money especially if you've got a lot to store:

• $15 per month
• 50 GB of storage
• syncs between up to 5 computers and mobile devices
• unlimited files and folders of any file size
• works with PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Android and Google Docs
• priority support

The Business Edition is a free 30-day trial with various options after the trial, depending on what suits your business needs.  You can see the full comparison here.

The Pros:
Syncplicity is really easy to use and really seamless.  It's very easy to switch it to a new computer if you're upgrading, add or subtract a device.  The 2GB of space is plenty for backing up writings and Syncplicity automatically re-syncs when a file in the designated folder changes.  Once it's installed there really isn't any kind of further user effort to keep your stuff updated or to make sure the program does its' job.  It works quite well on its own, it's very seamless.

The Cons:
I can't really think of any cons.  The business edition looks pretty customizable, the personal edition looks plentiful enough for the average user, it doesn't even take up much memory in the background.  If you have memory issues where you can't have too many programs running in the background at once you may have to manually turn it on and off to back up your files.  It's not one of those programs where the free version makes you wish it was a little jucier while not making the paid version worthless.

My Thoughts:
I love it.  I love that it's so seamless, I love that I don't have to fuss with it much and I love how easy it is to use.  When I got my new computer and had to bring Syncplicity onto my new machine I had no issues.  Everything syncs, well seamlessly just like it's supposed to.  Plus I like that if it has a hard time connecting to the server or if I go offline and a file changes it keeps the updates and immediately sends the update to the server as soon as connection is re-established.  I can't recommend it enough, it's a great addition to your back-up plan.

Well tea house has left the building.  I'm making a note to go visit the store for more very soon.  But I'm uber excited to see what my swap partners are going to send my way!

Today NaNoWriMo has finally begun!  I had originally intended to start my writing at midnight but instead I'm 'clearing my schedule', as it were.  I've cleaned my office several times now this past week.  When I get into creative crafty stuff there is no such things as "organized" or "clean", haha.  I have a bunch of half-finished projects floating around this desk right now, and that just won't do.  So my plan right now is to finish them off like they're supposed to be, head to bed, wake up and do some writing.  I plan to break this late-night habit this month though; I don't sleep well when I'm crawling into bed at like 3am, and I don't dream very clearly either.  And I very much enjoy my dreams as well as not oversleeping like I'm wont to do when I hit the pillow late.

I'm being kept company right now by Jesse and Crendor's live stream.  Right now they're playing around in Guild Wars 2 on the craziest jumping puzzle I've ever seen.  That probably sounds incredibly boring if you're not a gamer, but I'm watching more for the convo between them than actual gameplay.  I have a couple more things to put together for my swap partner's package for the big ship-out on Friday, some things I decided to handmake.  I got her package today and I love it!  She sent me:

• a copy of the CD she did for the NaNo CD swap, can't wait to check that out
• 3 Orange Blossom Thyme lolipops from the Groovy Baker
• a sticky notepad
• a little Cactus Pups toy, who's currently keeping me company sitting on my keyboard
• a Mini Plush Labbit
• Hot Buttered Rum powder
• 4 World Market hot chocolates: Salted Caramel, Dark Chocolate, Mexicocoa and Dulce De Leche

I'll try to get pics when I can.  I hope my tea swaps come soon.

I have a few more notes to work out for my NaNo story as well, Street Team posts to write and queue and some Review Mondays and Fangirl Times to write and schedule ahead of time.  I purposefully chose not to do more Review Mondays in October so I could do some writer-focused ones in November.  There are a few new sites and such I came upon, so I want to do those in spirit of NaNo.  I also have my NaNo Advent box to prep up.  I saw it on the forums for years and never really looked at it until this year out of curiousity.  If you remember those chocolate advent calendars you buy at Christmas, this is more or less the same idea.  You make or buy thirty boxes or seven or even one, however you wish to do it, and you put a treat in it for every day of November.  You hit your word goal for the day, you get to open a box.  I got my Mom in on the fun, she went out and bought a bunch of snacks that she divided into small bags and labeled and stick in the box for the small word goals.  I'm also going to do a bit of my own for the bigger word goals and for bonus ones (anything I hit over 50k).  LoL time, PS2 time, whatever I can think of.  I'm curious to see how well this form of motivation works.

Or maybe I should call it the Tea House, since it smells like one!

Went out with my mom Friday night for some shopping and dinner.  I picked up all sorts of goodies which I can't keep (they're for my swap buddies) and dinner was...well ended up kind of being an achievement for me more than anything.  Anxiety made it very difficult for me to go out that I just got into a habit of avoiding doing something like go out to dinner.  We don't often get the chance to do this as it is, and mom and I had a lot of fun.  It was worth the jitters.  Right now my desk is a mess of goodies all strewn about - padded envelopes, pens, glitter, lots of teas.  And a snack called Dragon's Lair for my swap buddy.  I seriously can't stop smelling the loose teas - they're so fruity and sweet!  I almost want to replace the rose potpourii on my desk with loose leaf tea, but I love the rose too much.  I hope my swap partners enjoy them; I know I'm definitely going back for some for my own personal stash.  I can't wait to see what they send me!

Goodness this desk is such a mess...

NaNo is almost here.  I still have so much planning to do, and still much catching up to do on my pre-NaNo story.  How time flies.  No word yet on where we're having our Kick-Off this year, or our "official" write-ins but I know I'm going to hit up the Starbuck's a lot this November.  And the Second Cup down the road - I miss that place so much.  I used to go to the one in the west end all the time in high school, it has such a great vibe.  Nice and warm, good music and wonderful hot chocolate.  And with Tim Horton's now having wi-fi I'm certainly not going to be at a loss for writing locations throughout the month.  I need to get out of this house more.  My brain is itching to work on this story.  It seems the closer we get to the start of November the more the more scenes flash in my brain, dialogue I can't write out yet.  It's ten more days, right?  Think all this great dialogue will stick around that long?  I stand hopeful - or sit, rather.

I'm off to be crafty for a little bit before bed, later today the Mum Show!  Pics of that to come soon hopefully.

Movie night was so much fun!  Except for the stomach ache afterwards haha.  Too many rich foods all at once but damn if it wasn't a good night.  We watched Paranormal Activity 2 and Halloween H20, neither of which were scary per se.  Paranormal Activity 2 had some great jump scares once the movie really got going, but it was kind of drawn out in the beginning.  H20 was...shorter than I remembered.  It was like here's Jamie Lee, here's her new life, here's Michael, here's some dead kids, here's Jamie killing Michael.  The end.  Well it never did compare to the first few originals (Halloween got crappy from four onward).  This weekend we're going to hopefully watch the first Halloween movie and Nightmare on Elm street.  On the menu we're sticking to a simpler layout - pizza, veggies and dip and some sweets from Bulk Barn.  I'm not planning on a repeat of last week thank you, worst night I've had in a long time.  But homemade bruschetta is the most amazing thing ever I got to admit.

Thanksgiving as always was good.  Mom actually cooked instead, but we both did the cheesecake.  OMG the cheesecake...there are no words.  It was beyond amazing.  I can't really stand the taste of pumpkin but in cheesecake it's sweet enough to really enjoy.  It really must be tried even if you hate pumpkin pie.

Of course, all that food means a serious detox is in order.  I need to flush all that out of my system before it decides to hang around, so it's been mostly soups and salads and apples all week.  And twice the water intake.  I might start double-walking Dalila too, although that's hardly inviting right now.  It's so cold out holy geez!  There's been a giant wind for the past couple days which usually means something is on its way (a storm in most cases) but aside from some rain yesterday morning there's been nothing.  Wasn't the best day to do yard work but it had to be done and the front lawn looks so much better now.  Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow, we're still wanting to take Dalila to the falls (not Niagara Falls, these are more local) but tomorrow's too busy a day.  My fingers are crossed for Sunday though!

Time to get my butt moving on writing.  Still about 8k behind.  I'm having flashbacks of my first NaNo experience!

Yes, that time of the year is definitely coming once again.  A month sometimes isn't long enough to prepare, or it's an agonizing wait.  Sometimes it's both.

It's almost kind of strange how much it's a part of my life now.  I can't imagine not doing it even though I no longer am an ML for my region.  That's still kind of strange to me as well.  I've been doing this for twelve years now and I was ML for a good majority of those years.  I'm used to it now but there's a little part of me that still misses commiserating with fellow MLs about things, sharing ideas, going through that frantic-but-fun planning stage of trying to organize events AND my own NaNo.  I have happy memories though, and that's enough for me.

This year's novel is fantasy, as usual.  I just can't deviate from the genre - and really, why should I?  I love the genre, I read the genre, my imagination spends about 95% of its time in the genre.  I don't really have the mind for something like sci-fi or mystery or anything like that, and that doesn't bother me at all.  Although I've contemplatedy YA a few times.  I may try that one day, we'll have to see.  This year's story had a bit of influence from the movie Thor, the newer one with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston that everyone's fawning over.  At least a couple of the characters.  And the idea of different realms/worlds, which also kind of reminded me a bit of the realm idea Dennis L. McKiernan used in his series.  Traveling between them won't be as complicated or even similar to either story though.  I'm still ironing out the details, this story is proving to be tricky - took me three days just to pin down the general arc and where to start the story alone.  I like where this one's going through.  The main character starts out in the realm her mother comes from with some of her memories surrounding an event back home purposefully hidden away.  The only problem is the only other person there who knew what she had hidden away and helped her do it is now gone, and with the same dream haunting her every night for the past ten years she decides to head home.  What will follow is a whole number of truths from all sides of the debate, no one's completely innocent in this story but the severity of those choices will vary from one character to the next.  No one knows the whole scenario but it will be discovered.  The main character will also get her full memory back in the midst of all this.  I've never done the whole grand discovery angle before.  Perhaps it's all the Murder, She Wrote re-runs I've been watching, haha!  That show is amazing.

You can find me here, if you're on the site as well.  Shoot me a NaNomail sometime.

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth

Storyline: Snow White, imprisoned daughter of the late king, escapes just as the Magic Mirror declares her the source of the Evil Queen's immortality. The Queen sends her men, led by a local huntsman, to bring her back. But upon her capture, the huntsman finds he's being played and turns against the Queen's men, saving Snow White in the process. Meanwhile, Snow's childhood friend, William, learns that she is alive and sets off to save her.Written by G.C. Bendixen  at IMDB

Pros: This was a great and refreshing take on the Snow White story.  It was nice to see that Snow White's beauty was more about her heart than her looks as opposed to other versions.  It wasn't poor little princess, prince come save her.  She was a fighter in a determined-to-stay-alive but she wasn't that sort of unrealistic fighter.  Having the Huntsman as more prominent character was well-balanced; he assisted Snow White without carrying her.  And Queen Ravenna was a spectacular evil queen.  Scheming, devious, sly and yet not wholly evil.  She is a woman who's been shaped by her circumstances but has also given in to the lust for power, who probably would never attempt to redeem herself and yet a small part of you could sympathize with her.  The dwarves were not Disney's tribe, and yet they were still able to provide some comic relief without stupid cheesy elements (I'm looking at you Mirror Mirror).  And the best part - seeing Snow White take the throne.  Without having to marry a prince to do it.

Cons: Prince William was kind of useless.  With a little bit of tweaking you could have told the same story without him.  Characters like that kind of annoy me.  I was kind of disappointed by Kristen's acting.  I was really excited for this movie partly because I wanted to see what she was capable of doing outside that Twilight role and she fell kind of flat for me.  Some parts of the story felt...lacking in some sense.  I can't quite explain it, but it just felt like there should have been more of something.

My Thoughts: it's worth a checking out, especially if you're a Charlize fan because she really doesn't go wrong in this movie.  And Chris Hemsworth was okay, and looked really good.  Avoid if you were hoping this would be a break-out role for Kristen, because she doesn't quite pull it off.  But it's worth seeing at least once.

Just a little post to say I'm off for a legit reason, moving day is today and not sure when I'll regain internet access.  But when I do, posts aplenty!  See you then!

This is something new I've decided to do, a place for me to fangirl my little heart out once a week.  I like the idea of having a kind of 'series' sort of thing and my blog can stay mostly writing otherwise.  And it might give me some discipline too, hehe

So my first entry goes to Jesse Cox of OMFGCata on YouTube.  I first found his channel just after WoW: Cataclysm came out, and I was searching for game cinematics and game content.  My account was frozen at the time (I needed a new time card) and I was going nuts waiting for both a time card and my copy.  There were pre-release events going on (as they always do before a WoW release) and since it was obvious I wasn't going to get back into the game in time to see them I was hoping someone was posting them.  I didn't end up finding it, but I came across Jesse's channel where he had late beta content and was posting the new changes to the game.  Playthroughs of entire zones and their questlines (Silverpine Forest is still my fave).  I've been subscribed ever since.  I like watching his stuff for a variety of reasons, the biggest being he's interesting to watch.  When he films an episode of a game he's not critiquing the game or trying to be an epic player.  He makes jokes and comments, he makes mistakes but bottom line he has fun.  He isn't playing what's popular for views, he plays what he enjoys for the pure enjoyment of the game.  It makes him fun to watch!  But don't just take my word for it, watch some of his stuff yourself:

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy), Saint's Row the Third (with Crendor), Star Wars: The Old Republic, Silverpine Questline, Terraria (with TotalBiscuit)

And here you can find Jesse's YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.

Well first thing's first, I finally have a move date.  Next week!  I'm quite excited, I'll have my own computer space again instead of being tucked into a corner between a t.v. and the kitchen.  I hate using excuses with a passion however I do think it affected my writing.  I'll fix that in the new place.  It's nice not to have to look for places anymore and knowing the whole chaos of having furniture and boxes piled up all over the place won't last much longer.  And a backyard, there'll be a real backyard!  My inner gardener is so happy you have no idea, I miss having plants so much.  A few flower boxes just isn't doing it for me (plus this heat killed off all my pansies).  I'll probably take some pictures once we're all settled in.  I have plans for this new space.

So my "dates" haha.  Well I went back to Chasing Dreams.  I was six and some chapters into it before I dropped off, now I'm back with it.  I love this story, I want it to see the light of day and if that's ever going to happen I had to get over a few things for that to happen.  The biggest of those things was posting samples up for critique.  That's such a huge fear for any writer I think when they start taking those first serious steps to publishing.  You want the constructive criticism, you want those opportunities to develop your shell but at the same time you don't want to hear your story absolutely stinks beyond any sort of redemption.  Not so much the technical aspects, which can be fixed with time and practice, but the very idea itself.  I'm sure there are some writers out there who don't have that fear or were able to easily get past it, but it was difficult for me.  There's only one thing for it though; deep breath and face the music.  Gather your bravery and set forth.  So I did - and was pleasantly surprised!  The overall verdict is that I have a great deal of work to go, however I was given a lot of good ideas of how I can restart the first chapter and get more action going and the critiques were helpful.  No ripping apart of the story itself, one person even said the writing was good.  Everyone likes to think they can tell a good story but when a random person online who has no reason to butter you up compliments your writing it's a nice feeling.  So the rewrite continues, it's still not polished but (to me at least) it's starting to read a little better.  I'm using it as a chance to attempt at more showing and less telling but without going right into editing mode.  Getting the story out is top priority, however I've also been looking up resources for when I get a whole draft finished.  There's much reading to be done for me.

Speaking of reading, I borrowed a copy of "50 Shades" for a date with Christian Grey.  Which probably sounds weird to people who know me because I actually don't like what I've heard and read of these books.  It isn't the so-called BDSM and sex, I've read fanfics and original novels with more sex than "50 Shades" has.  For one, you can't really have an opinion about something you haven't actually read/watched/listened to.  Two, I want to see for myself just what it is about Christian Grey that others are swooning over.  What I've read has honestly creeped me out, but I've promised myself to give it a fair shot before coming to a final thought about it.  Though honestly, not entirely looking forward to this.

This new format keeps making my eyes glaze over.  I liked the old version better.  What can I say, I'm stubborn with my technology :)

Anyway, hi again!  Life has been...well yeah.  When are things going to calm down, I'd like to know.  I think maybe life just doesn't like my attempts at making a schedule lol  Life's just going to have to get over that.  Each time brings some interesting struggles though; for example, I have no dedicated writing space for the sheer fact that there is none in this apartment.  Currently I'm tucked in a corner between the open kitchen counter and the t.v. stand.  I kind of had no choice, I wasn't here when they installed the internet or I would have had them hook up the modem elsewhere.  It makes it very hard to focus a good part of the time, but at least it eliminated the t.v. as a source of distraction.  Now if I could only do that with YouTube...

I've managed to start writing again!  It's not wholly ideal, I stay up way too late but it's only temporary.  We're in the process of looking to move into a new place with more space which will definitely help, in the meantime I'm working on keeping up with the blogging and writing.  It keeps me sane.  So yes there will be regular content.  Some reviews, some thoughts, and lots of progress.

What is it?
Liquid Story Binder XE is a writing program created by Black Obelisk Software solely for Windows. It's a writing program designed to have the capability of a commercial text editor with a great deal of features and flexibility.

How it works?
Liquid Story Binder XE is software that must be purchased and downloaded. You can download Liquid Story Binder XE for free for 30 days, and have access to all of the program's features. After 30 days the program will stop working, and you have the choice of either uninstalling the program or purchasing a code to continue using the program indefinitely. Both the downloading and code purchase can be done directly from Black Obelisk's site, and the code is $45.95.

The Basics:
As stated above Liquid Story Binder only works on Windows machines. Its interface can be as full or as empty as you like; all the features can be used or left off. The workspace is not only completely customizable, but can be saved as well. This way when you restart the program you don't have to restructure your workspace every time. The menu can show up to 15 different stories, as well the program creates a seperate folder for each. The program has a bunch of great preferences such as 20 second Auto Save, automatic save on close, snap windows and others which allow you to customize the program to suit your use. There are even a list of preset different colour schemes under the Display tab, as well you can also customize a colour scheme of your own. Black Obelisk often updates the program and the updates are downloadable directly from their site.

The Pros:
The program's download is small for a program, which is great. I love that the interface is as customizable as it is and can suit my various needs and desires. I'm often moving my windows around and I like that the program remembers my set up for every story I have a file for. It actually really helps me remember where I was in my mind the last time I wrote, if that makes any sense. Also I'm one of those writers who makes a ton of notes on back story, characters etc. and it's great that I can do it all in the program and have it present or not when it suits me. The master File list is multi-functional in that I can see every file for the story, or I can simply focus on Dossiers, or Chapters, or what have you. Save features are good and you have pretty good protection from losing your work.

The Cons:
It does have a bit of a learning curve. So many features can be a hinderance as well as a blessing. Also my version of the program does not have a retrieve function like Microsoft Word has, where if the computer is suddenly shot off for a reason (i.e. sudden power outage) your work is often restored. If this program doesn't have such a feature, I'd like to see it.

My Thoughts:
All in all I love this program, and use it frequently for my work. If you can get your hands on this and you like having a single place for your work and notes you'll love this program. If you like a simple bare bones kind of workspace you'll still love this program. So download it, give it a try and don't be surprised if you stick to it. It's well worth the price.

You know those moments when you read something, or hear someone say something that just strikes something deep down in you and it changes your perspective? And suddenly something you struggled with all falls into place?

I love those moments. They don't happen often enough for me.

My favourite one hit during this past NaNoWriMo which actually not only really helped me (just barely) get over the finish line, but finally gave me something to help keep at the story in the off-season. During NaNo, there's just something about that competition that can help you really get your butt in gear, but the challenge a lot of us face is how to keep it up after NaNo's done. I recall someone asking about how to silence the inner editor or how to not sort of edit yourself as you're writing, and someone responded with a brilliant (IMO) reply: how can you properly edit something that doesn't exist?

Often even a writer can't really see where the story's going to go, though you have the idea in your head. So much can happen between the first words and the last. Characters come and go, events change, things and people that weren't important suddenly are. Editing before the story's written I feel just hampers the story itself. Let it grow. Let it breathe. Let it become whatever it's going to become, and then shape it into perfection. Nevermind if it doesn't sound great now. It will in time. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I wish I could remember who said that.

I've been seeing this term being bandied around quite a lot lately. Well, it seems to flare up every now and again. But is this advice about building platforms being spread in a helpful manner? How and when does "building a platform" apply?

Firstly, I define "platform" seperately from networking. The definition of platform I'm accustomed to applies to non-fiction writers. A platform establishes them as an expert in their field, essentially what they "stand on". It's not limited to keeping a blog or website or any other form of social media but also tours, workshops, etc. In essence not just being able to say "I'm an expert" but being recognized as an expert. So what use is a platform then to fiction writers? There's no requirement that says we have to establish ourselves as a fantasy writer, sci-fi writer, crime writer, etc in the same sense as a non-fiction writer. At least not via social media. Of course it's great if you've gained many followers or readers on your blog, many being actual readers and not just fellow writers, that would certainly only work in your favour. If people are that interested in your blog they're certainly going to be interested in your book. But it's not going to make or break your chances of being published. A publisher is not going to look at a work that's really caught their interest, check out the writer's blog and reject it because said writer has a low number of readers. That isn't how publishing works. Publishers buy stories because they believe they can sell them, and they have all the tools and know-how to market the book to readers. It is not our job to market ourselves and our work unless we're self-publishing. Promote? Naturally. Network? Sure. But market? Not our job. If a publisher can't sell our work, we're not supposed to step in and do it for them (micro publishing exempted, as that works quite differently from large, medium and small publishing). So what's an aspiring writer to do?

Best advice I've received for aspiring authors is to write something worth selling. All promotion and blogs and twitters and such aside, we're writers first and foremost. That shouldn't be forgotten or put to the wayside in favour of creating a "brand" or "platform" or whathaveyou. Because even the greatest platform or largest reader base isn't going to mean a darn thing if you're not producing something worth buying. It certainly doesn't hurt to network, work on your blog or reach out in the meantime, but don't let it become your main focus. After all, when was the last time you heard about someone getting rejected on the basis of their blog readers and not their novel? ;)

I've had this week to myself, no obligations that require my time, so I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as possible. This sort of feels like the final lap, I have to get done the things that have been sitting around needing to get done that have been bothering me. Since my personality doesn't let me just ignore them and push them aside (though I think they've been pushed aside long enough) then I need to get them done. So far, so good. Monday Review will be back on Monday, I'll be reviewing Liquid Story Binder and there'll be regular activity from here on in. Since I'm kind of out of helpful writerly stuff to review now, I'll probably hit my bookshelf and review some of my favourite authors. I'll have to get back one of my books that I want to review, it's out on loan. Come to think of it, it's been out on loan awhile now...

Finish line, here I come.

Just thought I'd share some inspirational quotes and sayings that I enjoy and keep handy.

-To be successful, you must decide exactly what you want to accomplish, then resolve to pay the price to get it. -Unknown

-Friendship with oneself is all important because without it one cannot be friends with anybody else in the world. -Eleanor Roosevelt

-Brick Walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something. -Randy Pausch

-When I let go of what's not meant to be, I clear a path for good stuff to find me! -Unknown

-I learned the value of hard work by working hard. -Margaret M. Fitzpatrick

-When I thought I couldn't go on, I forced myself to keep going. My success is based on persistence, not luck. -Estee Lauder

-Champions aren´t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision. -Muhammad Ali

-The reputation of a thousand years may be determined by the conduct of one hour. -Japanese proverb

-Control your attitude toward what happens to you, & in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you. -Brian Tracy

-We have all been placed on this earth to discover our own path, & we will never be happy if we live someone else's idea of life. -J. Van Praagh

-Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results. - Willie Nelson

-One of the secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others. -Levi Strauss

-I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. -Michael Jordan

-Repeat after me. If you want to keep on getting what you're getting then keep on doing what you're doing. -Les Brown

-Be happy with what you have. Be excited about what you want. -Alan Cohen

-Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

-The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. -Chinese proverb

-Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. -Brian Tracy

-Courage is about doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared -Eddie Rickenbacker

-Go further than you planned. Ask for the moon: you will be surprised how often you get it. -Paulo Coelho

-Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. -Howard Thurman

-Don't cheat the world of your contribution. Give it what you've got. -Steven Pressfield

-Do not waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Don't wait. The time will never be just right. -Napoleon Hill

-Nobody will think you're somebody if you don't think so yourself. -African proverb

-Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible. -Francis of Assisi

-You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, & expect to win. -Zig Ziglar

-Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -T.S. Eliot

-Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know. -Pema Chodron

-Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Discipline is making the choice between what you want now and what you want most. -Unknown

-Heat is required to forge anything. Every great accomplishment is the story of a flaming heart. -Mary Lou Retton

Okay stopping there, otherwise this'll go on forever! Haha. Maybe I'll do another next Friday ♥

I think we've all come across at least one series that looked promising but somehow disappointed along the way. It's not something a writer intends to do but it happens. There's always that question of why. Is it because the reader anticipated something else? Did the writer stop listening to their own voice and try to please the masses? How does a series go wrong?

I've had two series go a little south on me, as a reader. The first was a series of books called The Dragon Quartet by Marjorie B. Kellogg. I missed The Book of Earth but I read The Book of Water and The Book of Fire. Both great books, and like all great series you didn't need to read Earth to follow the overall story (still mean to get it though). I remember being so excited when I discovered the final book, The Book of Air was released and tucked into it as soon as I bought it. But there was something...unsatisfying about it. At one point one of the characters started to change unexplicably and the whole ending just felt like he just threw up his hands and went with things with no real explanation as to how this change came about. And this was a character who was raging against saving the world when he was supposed to be helping. I love character shifts as much as the next person, but there was something missing from this character's transition. It almost felt like the author lost touch with the story, at least to me. It was really hard to pinpoint, but it was disappointing.

The second was the Tairen Soul series by C.L. Wilson. I fell in LOVE with the first book, Lord of the Fading Lands as well as Lady of Light and Shadows. C.L. Wilson is a great writer and the whole series was well-written. What kind of killed it for me (and I guess this would be a case of reader expectation) was the change in the main female character Ellysetta. I'm going to try not to spoil it too much, my mom adores this series and she re-reads them which is something she doesn't often do with books. In the first book Ellysetta is a very ordinary girl, and it's the first book I've read where there was an emphasis on this. When I say she was ordinary I mean that in every sense of the word; she's not a girl with low self-esteem who doesn't think much of herself, or a beauty everyone but her recognizes. She truly is ordinary and she has absolutely no problem with being plain. I loved this! I loved this so much I can't even explain! Especially since the male main character is described as being utterly gorgeous and romance blossoms between the two. It was a nice refreshing twist. So when she stopped being ordinary and plain it kind of made me lose some love for the story. I would have liked to have seen that continue throughout the whole books, despite the fact that the reason for her change makes sense and is very well explained. Also, I felt that some of the conflict between them and the antagonists in the book got really drawn out at times. Like I said, probably personal preference and I have yet to finish the series because of it. But my mom gives it two thumbs up, haha.

Something I've long avoided asking myself, because I already know the answer. And it's one I hate giving because it's really not so much an answer as it is an excuse. That big ol' "no time" excuse. Some people might consider it a reason and with few examples it could be - big life change, sudden illness, serious family issues. Those certainly are not excuses and certainly should be at the forefront. But right now there are no big life changes, no sudden illness and no serious family issues standing in my way. It's me standing in my way, because as twisted as it sounds I chose to let things be more important than my writing. It's all the stuff I feel I need to do that I just can't brush off aside, but stuff I'm not getting around to either. My Year of No Excuses is not starting off so well. Can't have that.

When you have not, you create. So in that vein I must create the time space I want in order to do my writing. A lot of writers advise (and rightly so) that scheduling time for writing helps you to buckle down and write. But for some (like me) it's incomplete advice. I can't just schedule writing time, I have to schedule time for the non-writing stuff I have to do. Maybe that makes me a little nuts, but for me writing these kinds of things out takes an enormous pressure off my mind and it's a lot easier to just relax and get things done. It's too easy to get caught up in the stress of life, and when you have downtime all you want to do is be down (as in relaxed, not depressed). Motivation is that elusive gift that you can't really define nor can you really give directions to; ultimately you have to go out and find it yourself. Once you know what motivation feels like for you, then nothing's impossible. You can always find it again, easily retrieve it and take on life.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some hunting to do...

This was supposed to go up yesterday, my apologies. This week I'm reviewing Yarny, another web-based writing software I've been looking at.


What is it?
According to their website, Yarny is "A simple to use online writing environment for the high-production, creative writer." It's as I said web-based writing software created by Blue Burro, Inc. Blue Burro is a process design and web application company based in Florida.


How It Works?
You have to register for Yarny before you can start using the site. All your writing is done online so you can pretty much write from anywhere, at any time. Everything is saved in the browser automatically so you never have to worry about losing your work.


The Basics:
Yarny only works in Firefox and possibly Chrome (I don't have Chrome so I can't verify this). The Yarny interface is very well-organized and very clean. Upon logging in the screen brings up bubbles explaining each feature of the program. Simply clicking anywhere on the screen makes them disappear and you have your work screen ready to go. If at any time you need them back simply click on the question mark at the top right of the screen, select Quick Help and the bubbles return. Yarny automatically creates versions of your writing and saves them; you can scroll through them by clicking on the clock at the bottom of the central box where you write your story. Beside that is the Tag button, where you can give snippets or chapters tags with which to easily locate them later. Your left side bar is where you can find all your snippets/chapters as well as their individual word counts, a Search box where you can search your tags and create new snippets and groups. On your right side bar, you have sections for notes divided into People, Places and Things. It's a space for notes not part of your story itself, but important for you as the writer. At the bottom you have your word count, and at the top where you enter your title for your work. You can change this title at any time. With their new updates, you can have unlimited titles even with a free account. Premium naturally gives you access to other features.


The Pros:
The saving is very seamless and I like the distraction-free setup. Everything is easily accessible without having to turn things on and off. The ease of being able to access my story on multiple computers as well as all my notes is great, and I love that Yarny gives free members a great deal of features to enjoy. It gives me a little more incentive to upgrade to Premium because for me it shows an appreciation to all users. Yarny is in beta, but it's relatively bug-free and they are constantly improving the software with features. They do listen to their user base and I appreciate that very much. They have a comprehensive Support section which is always a plus in my books. FAQs are an absolute must. And their website is very nice and professional.


The Cons:
I honestly can't really think of any cons to Yarny, except for the fact that it's untested in IE. It does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of the interface it's fine.


My Thoughts:
Yarny is a really great web-based writing software to use. I don't know of any others, but for me it's right up there with PangurPad and in some features it surpasses PangurPad. The fact that I can have unlimited stories just thrills me to no end.

Actually probably better if they DON'T try again.

This post felt more important than the other I was going to post today, so I'll save it for tomorrow. Much of the 'net is 'shutting down' in protest of these bills. Granted they didn't make much sense to me at first, but when you think about it it can work. And hopefully it is. By shutting down, with only a small explanation and links pointing to the information about SOPA and PIPA, it's getting people talking and thinking.

No one's debating that piracy is bad. We all know it's bad, even those who have been guilty of sharing movies or music. But these bills aren't the answer. They are a blatant overreach of control and power that quite frankly, government doesn't deserve to have. When the White House says it's not going to back it, you have to wonder why. And if Congress and the House are going through with it anyway, one has to wonder why. The answer's simple; because it's not about eliminating piracy. It's not about protecting creative works (and believe me I'm all for protecting creative works). It's about a bunch of guys wanting to be the ones to decide what gets out there and what doesn't. This is not the Communist Party in China. Thanks to sites like YouTube, Google, Facebook, etc I've discovered things and artists I would have never heard about otherwise. I would never have discovered have the artwork I have now and who painted it. My networking would be significantly diminished. I never would have been introduced to folks like TotalBiscuit, Jesse Cox, Toby Turner, iJustine and the Yogscast had it not been for YouTube. Watching other peoples' videos of computer and console games has inspired me to pick up more than a few that I might not have heard of otherwise because indie developers don't get the same spotlight the big guys do. These bills have to die. And stay dead.

And here, I shall share probably the best and informative video about this ridiculous nonsense bill: WTF is SOPA? aka The American Government trying to ruin the internet

I think this will become a regular feature on the blog. I'll review all sorts of stuff, but for now I think I'll start with writing programs. I got the idea a few weeks ago to use NaNo as a time to test drive some new ones I found, and see how they shape up to what I use now (Liquid Story Binder, which I'll also be reviewing). If you have any suggestions for future reviews, feel free to let me know in the comments. So this week, I'll start with PangurPad.

What is it?
PangurPad is web-based writing software created by Pangur Pty, Ltd., so you don't have to download anything to your computer. Built on open source software it's a writing program designed to be sleek and clean with functional tools and an uncluttered interface. But PangurPad isn't just writing software; there is also a large community where you can find writers who share your genre and it also acts as a self-publishing platform.

How It Works?
All your writing is done in the browser. PangurPad backs up all your work on their servers as you write, so you will always have the most current version of your work everytime you log in. There is a feature that allows you to go back through all the versions that have been saved, so if there was something you wrote three days ago, deleted but decided you wanted to bring it back, it's retrievable. There is a word count feature, a timeline feature and a notes feature. The notes have their own subsections for characters, places, things and general. You can also download your work to your computer, and there is an offline mode which allows you to continue writing if for whatever reason you're unable to connect to the internet and PangurPad's servers. At the top right of the interface is a button with an eye on it, and this button hides all the features so all you have is your writing space. Pressing it again brings up all your tools.

The Basics:
It should be noted that PangurPad ONLY works in Firefox or Chrome. It does not work in Internet Explorer whatsoever, so if you're stubborn like me and still use IE as your primary browser you will have to download either of the others. I personally like Firefox. When you sign up you're given a free trial account, with space for 1 work with a 10k word limit. All the features are avaliable to you including the secure online backup. Right now, if you are a NaNoWriMo participant you can sign up and get a trial account with a 1 work, 100k word limit by proving you're a participant. All that really involves is showing them the link to your NaNo profile. The third account is the paid account. This gives you unlimited works and unlimited word count. There are many features and details about Communities, Publishing etc, but that would be pretty lengthy to go through so please visit here to see the rest. The paid account has two options: $20.00AUD yearly subscription or a once off payment of $45.00AUD.

The Pros:
So far I'm really enjoying this site and program. The backup is pretty seamless, it doesn't give my computer any hiccups or issues while saving. I like that since it is online as opposed to a downloaded program I can bounce between computers and just pick up where I left off writing. The word count feature seems quite accurate, only a hundred or so words off from Microsoft Word. The interface is very clean, and I enjoy having the option of having the tools all easily displayed or hidden as I feel the need. It has a very small learning curve, if any, so if you're taking the plunge from Word you'll have little trouble getting accustomed to the format. Anyone who uses different writing programs should have no trouble at all with this. The site itself is very clean, very easy to nagivate and appealing. No crazy animations, nothing to slow the computer down, enough graphics to make it interesting but without the overkill. Nothing puts me off more than a website that looks like it was created in five minutes in a web editor.

The Cons:
There is no FAQ, which I would have liked to see. They're sort of a prerequisite in my books. There's also next to no information on the people behind PangurPad - not that that's a con per se, but it would be nice to at least know something, what brought about the idea. There does seem to be a few bugs, I can't seem to get the word count goals to stay when I log off, but it's unclear whether they're meant to only be present during your session or permanent until they're deleted. Again, a FAQ would have helped here, the small note they give you when you first start with PangurPad is not as informative as I would have liked it to be. I can't seem to get the section break or page break to work properly so I don't use them. With regard to the publishing, there's little info on that as well. You have to actually click on the publishing link beside your story to find anything out with that. It does bother me some that there is no information on the publishing experience of the people behind this format, and as of right now the epublishing option and the print publishing options are not avaliable. You can publish on the web, but it also kind of bothers me how they don't stipulate that should you choose to post most or all of your story this way, you lose your first publish rights. Though this only matters if you plan on going the regular publishing route, but if the idea is to be helpful to writers this info would help. At least those newer writers who may not know this, I know I sure didn't at first.

My Thoughts:
As a writing program, I really enjoy it. Despite the cons this is still a program worth checking out, at the very least. This year they're sponsoring NaNoWriMo and donating part of the proceeds from paid accounts to NaNo. I do like that they give you all of the program features and some of the access to the community, that for me gives me more incentive to want to buy a full account. It's a very fine line you got to walk to offer people enough of a preview to get their interest, but not so much that there's no incentive to upgrade to paid account. I feel PangurPad gives a nice even balance. Even being in beta it's pretty bug-free for the most part, and it's such a huge bonus that you can access your story anywhere you go, on any computer. For someone like me who bounces between two comps, this is fantastic for me.As a publishing platform, I'm undecided. It could show lots of promise, depending on the experience of the folks behind it. It's not the first site I've seen that claims it'll be a place for authors to expose their work to a large scale audience, and as of right now the community is all writers. If the site is promoted well, it could in fact become a good platform. Simply making a website thinking that it'll expose you/its members to the global audience is not one that's panned out so far as I've seen, and I hope PangurPad doesn't fall into that pitfall. Though new it does have potential, only time will tell how it pans out for self-published writers, and it is still in its early development. I'll be watching it.

I read a great blog entry by Chuck Wendig yesterday about self-publishing, which you can also read right here. It gave a great side to the whole self-publishing venture and touches on points I've tried to blog about in the past. He's done a much better job and made a very good point: they aren't serving readers. The biggest problem I find with a lot of these sites and services designed to "help promote your book" that self-pubbed authors join and even create miss one thing - readers. The only people on those sites are other writers. But there are other ways, as mentioned in the article. I don't want to sum it up too much because you really should check it out, but from a reader point of view I can say a lot of its points really do apply:

Bad cover art: You don't have to be a graphic artist to spot a hasty photoshopped cover when you see it. Like it or not, a fair amount of readers do judge by cover. Admittedly, I'm one of them. If the cover art is obviously a cheap job, I'm done. I can overlook an okay cover, but bad cheap covers are a deal breaker. Yes some readers may look past cover art; many won't. But if you want to attract as many readers as possible you have to appeal to them in as many ways as possible.

Poor/no editing: yes, you do need it. I need it. J.K. Rowling needs it. All your favourite published authors need it. Anne Rice needs it. We all need it! Needing editing is not an implication of whether you suck or not, or whether your book sucks or not. Needing editing is needing that unbiased critical set of eyes going through your story and picking out errors and inconsistances you may miss because you're just too close to the story. And if you're going to be a writer, you have to buck up to someone saying "this doesn't work". No one's perfect. Editing is a valuable tool that ever writer should have. Utilize beta readers (and not family or friends, unless they're the type who will be 100% honest), get a good editor. Sometimes you can find a freelancer who's either just starting their own practice or a student just graduated who'll either charge a discount rate or do it for free in exchange for references. But please don't think that because pro books have errors on occassion it means you don't have to worry about editing, or think that the story will shine through the errors, or that your words are so perfect that you don't need editing.

*The argument that published books have errors is completely redundant. Just because they might doesn't give you a pass to make the same mistakes.*

A couple other things that turn me off as a writer: Overpromotion. If you're taking every opportunity to talk about your book, you're going to kill my interest. Don't be a pushy salesperson and constantly mention it every time, or always try to drive the conversation back to your book. I understand that you've got to promote your book, but there is such a thing as promoting too much. If people are interested, they'll ask more about your book. If they're not, take the hint. Push too much and you'll just push readers away. Another thing are fluffy reviews. You know the type, praise for a book that the reviewer clearly hasn't read. Don't get your friends, family or other writers to post reviews of your book as a favour. I personally don't put much stock in reviews because tastes are subjective. But if I do read a review, I want to know why the reviewer thought it was a good book. I don't want to read mindless praise.

Bottom line, to quote Chuck: give us the whole ass.

This focuses on Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and while I've not played the game I'm a big enough Rings fan still and researched as much as I could. Even enjoyed a few let's plays on YouTube.


This game made me excited - at first. Then my inner fangirl started to rage pretty hard. Essentially, War in the North (not to be confused by the MMO Lord of the Rings: Online) is an original story set along the same time as the storyline told in the movies and books. The references to the story as well as some familiar characters like Gandalf, Arwen, Elrond and Aragorn are some of its good points. The graphics are very good, co-op mode looks very good, but it has a lot of cons for me:


-first, this is a FICTIONAL story, none of it actually occurs in canon. Kind of bugs me. There's a lot to play with in these books that I don't feel they had to go and make up a fictional story with fictional heroes and a fictional bad guy.


-we have a human, an elf and a dwarf traveling together. If you read the first book or saw the first movie, you would realize just how UNLIKELY this setup is. Not so much between the human and elf, the human character is one of the Dunedain and familiar with the elves, but an elf and a dwarf? Considering all the bad blood between dwarves and elves that's on display both in LotR and The Hobbit? I'm sorry but I don't buy this setup. This story starts pre-Council, so it's not like you can use Gimli as a fall-back arguement either. In the world of Tolkien, the odds of this happening would have been smaller than a hobbit child. Not to mention, there is no ingame setup as to how these three even met and became traveling companions. Complete lack of believability here.


-One review I read commented how the characters came across as kind of bland. I have to agree, they are pretty boring. The elf Andriel is very proper in her dealings with the characters but unemotional and very robotic. I haven't found let's plays from any other character's point of view, so I can't comment on that. But the interaction in the cut scenes is tolerable at best I found. It's very hard to get attached to these characters in the same way we were rooting for Tolkien's.


-I didn't like the idea of a new bad guy, instead of using something already in the books.


All in all, this story feels more like commercialized fanfiction, and I don't have much of a desire to go much further to check it out than I have aside from watching Jesse Cox's let's play of it. Usually watching someone's Let's Play of a game has inspired me to want to get the game itself (Skyrim, Terarria, Amnesia: The Dark Descent are just a few on my to-buy list). This, I think my interest is more due to the players. There is SO MUCH to explore in this universe, that making up a fictional story with non-existant heroes just seemed silly. Compare it to the Star Wars franchise, which pulls from a great amount of the overall history in their games. If companies are going to do more LotR games, I'd like to see them explore more than just the Third Age. Heck, do one that ends with the big and last war of the Second Age! This felt a lot more like pre-The Hobbit hype.

Entry's a little late today, ended up sleeping longer than usual. My energy levels are so out of whack as I go through this health shift.

Yesterday was a REALLY good day for the most part, nothing huge for the most part but it was one of those days that was full of a stream of lots of little nice surprises. What made the highlight of it all was reading a press release for fade, one of my new favourite bands. A little backstory, I heard about them last year via GACKT's new project YFC, where he brought in singer Jon Underdown. Jon's also the lead singer for fade. As a joke one of my friends started Free Jon fanpage (you'd have to see the "press conference" YFC did last year to get the name) and asked me to be a mod so I jumped on board. It's been a lot of fun to be a part of, and we have a lot planned for the new year. Our "30 Days of fade" was especially fun. It's purely for love of supporting the artist and the music, but reading this from the article:

"YFC toured throughout Asia and Europe, gathering fans along the way. These fans spawned a grass roots group known as the Free Jon Campaign that have loyally supported not just Jon Underdown but fade as well."

HOLY HANNAH that was a shock. A nice shock, but still! You don't expect that kind of thing when you get involved with a fanpage, you just want to spread the love and share the music. But that, that was really cool. Can't wait for March!

This is going to be a little World of Warcraft-centric, only because it's the only game I have extensive history with. Hopefully my points apply to most if not all MMOs in general.

This was a little inspired by WoW's patch 4.3 content, in which Deathwing is finally brought to an end as well as the powers of the four Dragon Aspects. You don't really need to know much of the backstory to keep up with me, by the way. Anyhow. This storyline...well it was rushed. There's really no other way to say it. Deathwing (being the current main antagonist) was really hyped as being nearly unstoppable, he spend a good part of the game randomly flying about the world and scorching entire areas and for a long time all our major characters lamented how they were going to stop him before he destroyed the world. There really wasn't a very large gap between that and his end. I have a feeling part of it probably had to do with the upcoming expansion, but I digress. My problem was I really liked this storyline! All throughout the game, the Dragon Aspects are hinted to or referred to in some shape or form, and it didn't really start picking up until the Lich King expansion when they began appearing ingame. Still though, their roles and true nature was never really talked about in any detail and you basically had to look up the game history to know who they are and how they came about. From a story perspective, they just weren't touched on enough for how this story eventually ended. Nozdormu didn't even get a unique model until the 4.3 patch! With Deathwing's re-emergence into the world, I think a lot of us players (especially us veterans) expected to see and experience a lot more of the Dragon Aspects before Deathwing was finally brought down. Needless to say, I think we really got the short end of the stick. And it seems a lot of players feel that way too.

But in a way, I can kind of understand how something like this could happen. Writing a story for an MMO really appears and is probably similar to a long, unending first draft. And you seldom get it right on the first go. Trying to create interesting storylines in a confining format like an MMO is probably even more of a challenge than a novel or short story. You can't go back and change lore unless you get super creative. In a way, I can kind of let the bad setup slide. Stories often take time and planning, and really how many times have you sat down to write a story and find things change along the way? New ideas, characters, and settings, ideas shift and change. And that's with a tale that has an ENDING! Unless the writers at Blizz and every other MMO company are planning the entire lifetime of their games, it's very difficult to see where your game story is going to be a year, two years, etc. down the road. Sometimes it's not until you get to that pivotal moment in a story when you realize the role a character has to play. Sometimes old heros fade away, new ones take their place, sometimes the gods take a bigger or smaller role than anticipated. So really, as much as the end to Deathwing felt incredibly anti-climatic to the players who were looking forward to more Aspect fun, I don't think we can really 100% blame it all on the writers for the ending. The format makes it difficult, especially for lore that seemed to often be in progress as the overall game story developed. They would have had to have set that up LONG before Cata, and that probably wasn't realistic by any means. Still, I think they could have inched it out a bit more, maybe give us a bit of history somehow and fully define what their ancient powers were for and what role they were to play before taking it away from them.

I felt the need to start new. Sometimes you need a whole new setting to move forward and get back in the game. If it doesn't work...well at least this blog is pretty, haha. I'll keep the old one up for awhile, but if you're a follower from that blog please refollow this one. I'm going to repost some stuff from the old one, but not everything. Just the really good bits :)

I'm enjoying a bit of chocolate and caffeine and listening to some let's play series on YouTube. I'm actually working on bringing back my health without shocking my body. My mom quit smoking a few years ago cold turkey and while I admire the gutsy move...not exactly for me. I tried quitting caffeine cold turkey last week and was sick for a few days. It hit me just a little too hard, so gradual cut-off it is. Cutting caffeine is brutal, but I managed to cut my consumption down by half so far. I'm going to dice up some veggies tonight for snack/lunch tomorrow, and one of those ginormous pomegranates in the fridge for breakfast. I'm sure that'll help, veggies helped me bypass a cold. They did stuff cortisone medicines weren't doing. Next time you get a cold, forget the vitamins and medicines. Stock up on your veggies.

I read an article (don't remember where, because my memory is great like that but I'm sure I'll find it again) that was titled something like "2012 - The Year of No Excuses" and it stuck with me. I really like the idea. There's no reason to put up excuses in your way of the things you really want most, no matter what it is. The excuses may not even be directly related to it, but still contribute to preventing you from achieving it. So this year, year of 2012, No Excuses. And no giving up, because only then do you really lose. My 2011 was full of a lot of failed attempts at various things, but I knew if I gave up trying I wouldn't get anywhere. There were some successes though too, which I'll all save for another entry, but I know I wouldn't have had those either if I had given up. So no excuses, and no giving up!

Maybe I'll do a year recap entry sometime...