I’m still playing around with my new laptop that I got for Christmas (when I’m not playing WoW *shifty eyes*).  I was just getting used to Windows 7, now I have a whole new OS to get used to.  Windows 8 is quite a trip with its layout but I’m also having quite a bit of fun playing around and customizing it.  The battery life is fantastic, lasting about three and a half hours or so.  And the laptop doesn’t burn my lap after five minutes like the old one.  IE 10 still crashes like IE 8 though, sorry IE.  However I’m having a hard time getting to the firewall settings to allow League of Legends finish installing.  App fever has hit Windows, haha.  I still have to transfer all my files and photos and such, as well as Liquid Story Binder.  It took me a couple of days to find something that will replace the free version of Office on the other laptop, since this one didn’t come with it.  Which I found odd, really.  ZenWriter is fabulous, but is too simple for what I used Word for.  Kingsoft Writer seems to be a hit, if it works out I’ll blog about it.

I’ve been back in Warcraft for about a week now, I believe, and I’m having way too much fun with the new pet battle system.  It was implemented in 5.0 I believe, with the Mists of Pandaria expansion (which I still have to get).  Fortunately you don’t need Pandaria to use the system.  In a matter of days I went from 50-something pets to now 153 since pet collection has gotten ridiculously simple.  This is so bad for my collecting tendency!  Battling, leveling and collecting rare pets is pretty much all I’ve been doing.  It does feel good to be back in though.  I know a lot of players, usually older players, now are dropping out saying the game isn’t worth paying for any longer.  I don’t think they’re wrong.  With games like this, it’s always a personal choice whether you continue playing with the game as it goes through its growth or whether it’s time to go.  For me, as long as I can find enough elements that I enjoy about WoW that make it worth the subscription I’ll stay.  Yes there are things I miss, changes I don’t agree with and a slowly growing number of players too lazy to do things themselves, but the things I still enjoy about this game outweighs all that.  I still enjoy my favourite races and classes, the storylines, flying mounts, the different zones and the community interaction.  I’ve met some fun people over the years, guilds are a good way to do that but even through groups I’ve met them as well.  The beauty of a game like this is it’s so dynamic and it really appeals to a wide variety of players – raiders, PVPers, casual players, dedicated players, those who like to play solo and those who prefer groups.  It doesn’t matter which way you prefer to play, you can enjoy yourself in this game.  Sometimes I think certain players forget that.  My favourite is seeing players come onto the servers I’m on (primarily RP servers, one is normal) and complaining about the lack of PVP.  Congratulations, you stated the obvious!  It’s not that PVP never happens on non-PVP servers, it’s just not a focus.  PVP servers are labeled as such for a reason, and if you don’t want to constantly be looking over your shoulder for a member of the opposite faction then you play on a different type of server.  Some players have too much time on their hands.

I am glad though that Blizzard has finally recognized that many players have multiple characters.  Now pets and mounts are available to all characters, certain achievements count for all characters, and the ease at which you level now compared to vanilla makes it easier to get low level characters up.  Now if they could just make a similar mechanic to Diablo III’s stash, perhaps one large bank stash per server so I don’t have to constantly try and mail things between characters.  I like the instant mail, but sometimes it’s a pain in the arse.  Just being able to empty my bags and then continue questing is far more convenient than spending ten minutes playing the mail shuffle.  Then again, my banks could all probably use a good clean-out.

Speaking of Diablo III it’s actually as good as I thought it would be, gameplay-wise.  Leah is still a bit of a twit, but well can’t do much about that.  Getting through Act II was insane.  Belial, the Act’s final boss was a b*tch to finish off.  It’s a three phase fight; phase one you fight his guards, phase two you fight him and his guards (annoying as hell, even with a companion) and finally phase three is full-sized Belial.  I failed that fight about five or six times before I finally beat him.  The Enchantress was a far more valuable companion in that fight than the Scoundrel was, I haven’t yet tried the Templar but because of the nature of the fight ranged seemed a better idea than melee.  But to get through the fight I had to stop trying to keep both the companion and my own health up since the companion respawns after a few seconds.  The fight is enough without worrying about them.  Attempt two was most annoying; I got Belial down to a sliver of health, probably a good shot or two away from death and I just couldn’t get to a health globe before he gave me a smackdown.  I cursed badly (I ordinarily don’t anymore, mostly because I now have a very young nephew with very perceptive hearing) and my mom gave me that oh-so-familiar ‘and you wanted this game because why?’ look.  She’s so tolerant of my vices and I do enjoy them.  Even when I’m cursing at them.

I’ve finished Hand of Isis, and I’m going to go do a Monday Review now for it.  It was really quite good, and I’ll tell you why in that entry.  Later I’ll have to crack open the box with all my books and pick a new read.

That unpacking thing?  Yeah still haven’t finished it.

Now that my back is healed I feel more at ease about carrying boxes upstairs than I was before.  So glad that fiasco is over.  Today I’m diving back into my exercise routine so this never happens again.  Not that I needed a reason, but this gives me that added motivation to just do it and stop waiting for a perfect moment.

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.

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.