Pathways

New York and The Mosque

2010-08-31T19:13:00.000-07:00

Watch out, people. The controversy surrounding the Ground Zero mosque in New York is about to get worse - a mosque site in Tennessee had burned equipment, which was probably arson. This is bad news. As the general populace begins to react violently against Islam in America, it will begin to affect our 1st Amendment rights. Already they want to keep the Muslims from building a mosque a couple blocks from Ground Zero (which they are well within their 1st Amendment rights to do). What happens when they decide that it's not just Islam, but all religions/speech/assemblies that need to be censored?

Take a stand, support the building through the 1st Amendment!

2010-01-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

Gone

2009-10-30T15:19:00.001-07:00

Currently we (the two authors/moderators of this blog) are on sabbatical - from the blog, that is. We do not know when we will return.

-Matt
-Jason

What. A. Mess.

2009-09-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Crazy times.

I'm serious. My week hasn't started off the greatest. Usually my bad times start on Monday, though - usually.

I wish they had.

Sunday started off with some unexpected sickness - nothing I couldn't cope with, but still not leaving me in the best of spirits. I was feeling better by the time we were headed to church, though - that is, until we turned onto the road our church is on and saw six cop cars. Turns out they had a fugitive in the woods - with an accomplice. Oh goody. That means that a couple of us guys had to stand next to the door to keep the little kids in. Great. Not only do I miss the sermon, but I can't take a nap earlier. So by the afternoon, I'm feeling sick again. Figure that getting some exercise is a good idea, get the ol' lymph moving, and so I play some soccer. It does help me feel better, but by the time we get home I'm feeling even more tired. Then I learn that the Pats lost, to the Jets of all people. That didn't help my mood.

Yeah, okay, so that's not really so bad. But still. I am a Pats fan.

Okay, and now I have homework. I had a presentation to give for my engineering class at college today (today being Monday), so I was preparing my notes Sunday (no, I didn't procrastinate, I had done all my research already, it just needed organization). Well, to cut a long story short, I started feeling more energy - right around 9 pm. Brilliant. Not getting much sleep that night. At least I had something to watch - I'm a Giants fan too (but Pats first) - and then I was finally in bed.

Well, I slept horribly. So now, what I have to do is survive a five-class day on three hours of sleep. The sickness went away, thank goodness, so I don't have to deal with that; of course, for every good there must be an evil (well, not really, but it's an interesting premise), so it ended up that I fell asleep in math class, right while we were covering a really important subject. I woke up just in time for the teacher to say "Any questions?"

My one highlight of the day was becoming a quote from my philosophy teacher. "Like (Jason) said..." So that was pretty cool - not often a freshman does something like that, I don't think. But then - following the premise from above - someone who a couple of years ago I would have called my friend sent me an email trying to jerk me around...

Well, you get the idea. Thanks for listening to my personal pity-party. Now you'll have to pardon me - I'm stuck waiting for a lot longer than usual 'cause Dad had to stay late at work.

The Glory Of Our King

2009-09-07T05:43:00.001-07:00

The rocks are gonna cry out if we don't
Now's the time to raise a song
Hear creation shout loud
We will join our voices to that sound

Stand up, stand up
The time has come!

Sing it out
Sing an anthem to His name
A generation worshiping unashamed
Give it all for the glory of our King!
We will run
We will run after Your heart
We believe
You are all that You say You are
Give it all for the glory of our King!

The church is waking up now
To be Your hands and feet upon this earth
Send us in Your power
As we take heaven to a broken world

Stand up, stand up
The time has come!

Sing it out
Sing an anthem to His name
A generation worshiping unashamed
Give it all for the glory of our King!
We will run
We will run after Your heart
We believe
You are all that You say You are
Give it all for the glory of our King!
The glory of our King!
The glory of our King!

We are, we are
A chosen people
We are, we are
Called to follow
We are, we are
Your generation
You are, You are
The God who saves us
You are, You are
The God who sends us
You are, You are
The God who's with us!

Sing it out
Sing an anthem to His name
A generation worshiping unashamed
Give it all for the glory of our King!
We will run
We will run after Your heart
We believe
You are all that You say You are
Give it all for the glory of our King!
The glory of our King!
It's all for
The glory of our King!
The glory of our King!
It's all for
The glory of our King!

song is 'The Glory Of Our King' by Matt Redman, from his latest CD 'We Shall Not Be Shaken'

You Do The Math - Mac vs. PC

2009-08-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

You do the math.

On a MacBook Pro, 15-inch:
- Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 - 2.80GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz front-side bus
- 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
- 500GB 5400rpm HDD
- nVidia GeForce 9400M + 256MB shared video memory
- 15-in widescreen display
- slot-load DVD/RW 8x
- backlit keyboard
- Mac OS X 10.5

Price total for the configuration comes to a whopping $2100*. That's before tax and shipping - which are not trivial.

On a Toshiba A500, 16-inch:
- Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 - 2.80GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz front-side bus
- 6GB DDR2 SDRAM
- 500GB 5400rpm HDD
- ATI Mobility Radeon H4650 + 1GB DDR3 dedicated video memory
- 16-in antiglare widescreen display
- slot-load DVD/RW 8x
- backlit keyboard
- high-capacity 12-cell lithium-ion battery
- Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

The price for this config? $1800**. Including tax and shipping. Oh and did I mention you get a free upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate if you buy it before 7 comes out on October 22nd?

Again, you do the math. If Mac was so much better than Windows (as they claim), I think more people would be willing to shell out for a Mac. As it is, Mac fails...miserably...in the war of prices. Not to mention that Windows 7 is a better minimalist operating system than OS X. I mean, look at it - minimum specs for running 7 are 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, and 4GB of hard drive space? That's better than XP Pro, people - and with more features.

Of course, the machines up top aren't what I want. I want these specs:

- Intel Core 2 Duo T9600 - 2.80GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz front-side bus
- 3GB DDR2 SDRAM
- 320GB 5400rpm HDD
- ATI Mobility Radeon H4650 + 1GB DDR3 dedicated video memory
- backlit keyboard
- slot-load DVD/RW drive
- Vista Ultimate 64-bit (with free upgrade to 7, of course)

Comes to about $1300** on an A500. Plus, the bigger the screen, the better - I'm used to a 15.6" widescreen, so 16" is about right.

Y'know, I really wouldn't mind using a Mac all that much if they weren't so freakin' expensive. Really. If someone gave me one - a GOOD one - I'd use it. It's not financially feasible otherwise. C'mon - I'm a college student with limited funds. REALLY limited funds. This is for Apple: either make what you've got less expensive, or make your stuff a lot better than it is. 'Cause the way it is right now, the only people who want to buy Macs are the fanboys(and girls) and the people who want to do the geeky, cool 'in-thing'.

*insert roll of eyes here*

Here's another YouTube vid - by me - for all y'all who like MercyMe.

-JAce (the double caps is intentional)

*Price after student discount.
**Price after standard 'savings' (not student discount). Theoretically, I could get more off with a student discount, but I haven't tried.

R.E.S.T. so I can be F.I.N.E.

2009-07-18T09:30:00.001-07:00

Y’know, f’r once in my life I’d like some more rest and a lot less R.E.S.T. You all know what F.I.N.E. means, right? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. Well, R.E.S.T. is sort of the same way – rushed, emotional, sleep-deprived, and testy.

But, however it works out, I’m still churnin’ along on Jack: Chronicles and Tal: Journeys. Tal is like Jack, only he’s more fun-loving, upbeat, and less easily depressed – like Den from my Lands of the Sun project. He’s also more skilled and more powerful than Jack – and older, did I mention older? He’s something of an older brother to Jack – when they meet, that is. The Pathways is a big place, after all – they only meet once or twice (or, if they’re lucky, three times) a millenium.

So the complete list of Wanderers books (planned) is:

-Jack: Carolae Chronicles

-Jack: Darkfall Chronicles

-Jack: Terran Chronicles

-Jack: Rhahnak Chronicles

-Jack: Reymai Chronicles

-Tal: Candlelit Journeys

-Tal: Blazelit Journeys

-Tal: Starlit Journeys

Those of you who know about Wizard’s Way can probably guess that since Jack is a Stormwatcher, that would make Tal – yup, you did guess it – a Fireshaper. Makes it all sorts of fun to write.

I made a mistake, though. (Yeah, shocking, isn’t it?) I allowed another author to use Jack in her story – without closely circumscribing what she could do with him. You might not think that such a big deal, but then she started misusing him – big-time. And now, of course, she claims that Jack’s her character now, not mine…it’s a big mess. Part of the mess was that I had created him previously to moving down here to North Carolina, and when adding him to her story had used him as a side character – small role. But she changed the role to a central character! If I told her she couldn’t use him any more, it would destroy her story – she’d hafta start writing all over again. I’m not that evil.

So I need a quick and satisfactory resolution to that…we’ll see what happens. In the meantime, if anyone out there is using the Windows 7 RC (build 7100), I have a little something for you, if you want it.

Mysterie Themepack @ DeviantART

Have fun, and see ya later!

-JWest

Elven

2009-07-01T08:59:00.001-07:00

What would you think if you woke up at 1:00 AM and found an elf lying half-dead next to your trashbin? A lot of people would freak.

Not Ethan Rivers.

Ethan’s the kind of guy who can go places. Completed high school at age 10. Completed college by fourteen. Finished med school by eighteen. Certified Ph.D. in surgical pathology. Second-degree black belt in judo. Has a world of opportunity.

And yet he chooses to go to Brooklyn – Brooklyn, of all places – and work with others less gifted than himself. He works long, often thankless hours in a clinic, providing emergency surgery for all types of victims. He makes just enough money to rent a decent-sized apartment and buy a gray 2005 Ford Fusion stickshift.

And then, at 1:00 in the morning, he finds a half-dead girl next to his trashbin.

Her hair’s covering her ears, so he doesn’t see those. What he does see is that there’s a blue-green shard of something eating its way steadily through her left shoulder. He’s a surgeon, so he pulls it out – and then she wakes up.

Over the next few days, Ethan finds out that the girl’s name is Corii, there are men trying to find her and kill her, and that she has both the camouflage tendencies of a chameleon and the killer instinct of a rattlesnake.

The encounter opens up a world of intrigue for Ethan as he begins to discover elves, dragons, and a secret society called the Knights of Avalon – all here on this earth.

Yeah, it sounds a little cliché, I know – but it’s a fun little story to write. Especially when you use fantastical means to describe real-world occurrences.

By the way, here’s a fun little something I wanted to share…

Falling To Pieces

Terran Chronicles

2009-06-22T05:29:00.001-07:00

Yup, you guessed it – it’s Jack, back again in another Chronicles book. Only this time, he’s not going to just any other world – he’s going to ours. And what he finds is not the world we know.

China and North Korea made an alliance, threatening the world unless certain demands were met. When the rest of the world refused to give in, they fired nuclear missiles at countries’ capitals and major cities all over the world. Some failed to get through. Most did.

The U.S. and Russia – hardest hit by the nuclear strike - retaliated, aiming for important population centers in China and North Korea. It was only through the efforts of two highly regarded neutral diplomats that complete nuclear holocaust was averted. Not that it mattered – no one could have predicted the chaos to come.

With global temperatures dropping fast because of the nuclear explosions, most of the world’s governments were in disarray. Many were decapitated in the wake of the nuclear strikes, leaving massive upheaval in their wake. Many people struggled to take control, resulting in wars all over the globe.

And then the Plague struck.

Given the destruction and madness of the circumstances they were living in, most people were trying their best only to survive another day. Unsanitary conditions and overuse of medicines, especially antibiotics, gave rise to a super-bacteria that ate its way through first millions, then billions of people all over the globe.

Jack enter the world in the third generation after the disaster. These children know nothing about Earth as it once was – all they know is the bunkers that they grew up in, the weapons they grew up sleeping with, and the terror that everyone feels. It’s up to Jack to change that – and together with a brother and a sister from what was once the United States, he has to embark on a mission around the globe, to rebuild civilization itself.

Win Seven

2009-05-13T21:41:00.001-07:00

I definitely did not see this one coming. But boy, am I loving it.

I’m a computer geek, right? Meaning I have Ubuntu, I know most OS’s backwards and forwards, and I can troubleshoot problems with just about anything. So when I saw the Windows 7 Release Candidate, I was curious. I like Vista, mind you – get a machine that has a good processor and plenty of RAM, and it shouldn’t give you any problem. But the Win 7 RC?

(So we’re clear, I’m using Windows Live Writer on my Windows 7 RC to write this blog entry.)

It blows me AWAY how fast this thing is. I installed some programs on my Vista machine earlier this morning, and I installed the same programs on the 7RC this evening. The difference? On Vista – and my machine is no slowpoke – the programs took me thirty minutes to install (all five of ‘em). On the 7RC, it took me less than ten to install those, go the ‘Net, grab OpenOffice, and install that, too. I’m tellin’ you, I’ve just fallen in love. Watch out Mac – Windows 7 is on the loose.

I so know what I want for my birthday. Windows 7 Ultimate. Ya mon.

Darkfall

2009-04-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

Darkfall.

The name of a city, an evil race, a plague...and despair.

Or so it is when Jonathan Adan Gutierrez, or 'Jack', as he prefers to be called, steps onto the planet Ymeyeran. City-states - like Athens/Sparta - are the predominant governmental centers. Eight city-states are in existence - there used to be twelve, but they were destroyed.

By what, Jack doesn't know. But he's going to find out - in a bad way.

Now that I've teased you with that, let me tell you about Jack.

If you've read my other blog posts, you'll recall I mentioned something called the Pathways. It is a box - a gigantic, closed-in box with portals all over its base. Portals to all the science and fantasy-fiction stories ever created - and one, really BIG portal, right smack-dab in the middle. The portal to Earth.
Jack is known in the Pathways as 'the Wanderer' - a strange boy with no real past, present, or definable future. He just is - living day to day in his own, Spartan, dark way. He makes up pasts for himself based on worlds he's visited, often using myths and legends from those worlds to make up his history. No one knows where he really began, and where his story will end. It is enough that he is there, and that he knows he has one task to perform. His task produces an endless, relentless drive in him - pushing him onward when he would rather stay, holding him back when he would rather go. His task is to help heroes in stories to succeed - and then erase any mention of himself from those stories.

Jack does know one thing - he's twelve millenia old, give or take a hundred years. Along his lonely road he has picked up a great many abilities and insights into life and war - which he shares in his typical, undiplomatic manner. He doesn't care what other people think of him - he's just going to move on eventually, anyway. He eats raw meat and licks the blood off himself afterwards. He doesn't love, doesn't cry, and doesn't feel pain of any sort.

That changes when he reaches Ymeyeran.

Almost immediately after arriving on-planet, he fights and kills some 200-odd bandits, killing them all before being seriously wounded himself. He is found and cared for by a nearby healer, whom he repays by escorting her daughter to the city so that she can stay with her uncle. While there, he goes on to do a great many things - including defend the city from attack, save the king's childrens' lives, and find out about Darkfall.

Turns out, Darkfall was once the greatest of the city-states, powerful and tyrannical, dominating the other city-states with a powerful force of deadly creatures that inspired awe and terror. Finally, however, they all rose as one, putting aside their differences to destroy Darkfall. They made it all the way to the inner city before the plague was unleashed.

The Darkfall plague spread on the air, wiping out the three closest cities to it, as well as the collected armies inside it. However, it also wiped out Darkfall itself, turning it into a black, foreboding ruin.

But when Jack comes, Darkfall awakes, with an evil greater than before. An evil so great, that even the Wanderer might not be able to defeat it.

This isn't your standard 'kill the badguy, save the world, get the girl' story. There's something far more sinister at work than just what's on the outside. And Jack has to make one terrible choice before it can all be over.

- JWest

P.S: I still need readers for 'Lands of the Sun'! If you're interested, please email me at...'jacen.solo' at 'ymail.com'. Thanks!

The Enemy's Been Defeated

2009-04-06T05:10:00.001-07:00

"When darkness is all that comes, where d' you find a light?"

That's the question asked by Penna Lastar of my series In the Shadow of Death. It might as well be the end of the world for them - surrounded by enemies, cut off from all escape, and all is dark and hopeless. But Tansar has one reply for her.

"I've walked all this time in the shadow of death. You think a little dark bothers me?"

Later, after they've successfully gotten away, Tansar tells her that "there's always a light. He can be found if you look outside yourself, to Someone who's more powerful than you could ever dream of." Penna remembers this later, and goes on to do something that is beyond any power she has herself - she's given power by the 'Someone' that Tansar speaks of. In the books, He's known as 'the Sun'. In my Wizard's Way series, He's known as Adonar. In Reymai! (v3) He's known as Ansun. In Twosun He's known as the Starmaker. In Pathways and Those That Stand, He's known more simply as 'God'.

He's far more powerful than anything we can imagine - after all, he created a universe that we can't see to the end of. And though everything might seem to be falling apart around our ears, He's always in control. He always has a light for us.

Now isn't that a comforting thought?

To get the light, however, there's still a darkness to be destroyed. So hold your light high - the shadow will flee from it. And just remember the end of the Book: we win.

So the Enemy's already been defeated.

The Enemy's been defeated/And death couldn't hold You down/We're gonna lift our voice in victory/We're gonna make Your praises loud/Shout unto God with a voice of triumph/Shout unto God with a voice of praise/We lift Your name up/We lift Your name up

Lyrics by Michael W. Smith on his CD 'A New Hallelujah', from the song 'Shout Unto God'.

- JWest

Recce Rangers

2009-03-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well, it's officially March now. Nice things is, March in Carolina de Norte is a lot warmer than in good ol' Vermont or Pennsylvania. Huh, it hit 83 degrees F on Sunday - and then a scorching 87 on Monday. It's already about as hot as I can handle - and it's March.

The school year's cooking right along, tho'. I managed to push forward in physics - YAY! - and I've got a death grip on that 'A' in Spanish...I hope. We'll see where that goes. And English is going well. There's something liberating about an English course where all you do is discuss Shakespeare. And that I can definitely handle.

As for the stories, it's been...interesting. Got another two chapters of LotS - that's Lands of the Sun to you - done, and I'm plugging right along at chapter 10. Hopefully I'll get it done by the end of this week. If not...oh well. I'm also working on Ranger Cadet, the first of my Rangers series. It was interesting, 'cause I finally got a chance to talk about it with someone - my older sister, in fact. I told her - and I'll tell you - about the main theme of Rangers.

You have the Pathways - a dark, barren plain with portals all over it. Then there's Ranger Fortress - base/headquarters for the Recce Rangers. Add in Guardian Fortress - base/headquarters for the Guardians - and the Elemental Guardians, and you have an interesting starting point, right?

Well, Rangers is meant to be an informed commentary on all types of modern fantasy/science fiction stories. All the big ones are there - Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Star Wars...you get the idea. Well, there is one that is conspicuously absent: Rowling's Harry Potter. I'm not going to use that one.

So the portals all over the Pathways are portals to all these worlds - every fantasy/sci-fi ever created. There's also one big portal to Earth. Now, all of these portals are dynamic - meaning they shift locations at random times - except for Earth, which is completely static.

There are problems, though. Every story has a certain measure of evil in it - evil as measured by a standard different from the author's. I'm not a proponent of moral relativism - in fact, I take the opposite view. But that's another discussion entirely.

This evil spills over from the world in which it was first 'spawned', into the Pathways - once there, it congeals into creatures named after an Irish legend of a creature whose terrifying wail was said to herald a death. The name - you might've heard of it - is called a banshee. Both banshees - the legends and my own - have two things in common. One is the cry - I like to think of it as worse than one of the infamous 'Nazgul screams' - and the other is that they herald death. Banshees (mine) are, after all, pure evil.

That's where the Rangers come in. They patrol the Pathways, controlling the evil, destroying banshees whereever they can. In essence, then, they are protecting Earth from the evil that she herself created. This is important, because if the banshees make it to Earth, they will begin to destroy her. And the Rangers have no power on Earth, so they cannot destroy the banshees there.

What I'm getting at is that fictional stories - both good and bad - have a massive influence on Earth. A story with good morals, philosophy, and theology will have a beneficial influence - no 'banshees'. Those with the opposite - destructive morals, theology, and philosophy - will have a detrimental effect on Earth, possibly even to the point of sending us into a war, creating a pervasive thought that lasts for generations - I can think of a few, namely 'abortion' and 'evolution' - destroying Earth's morals and lifestyle.

You may not necessarily agree with me on those, but the point of the books is to teach you to think, not how to think. I don't hold with brainwashing people - I'll leave that to the public schools (which I approve of getting rid of, by the way. What a drain on resources those are!).

So now that I've gotten out my rant for the day, I'll be seeing you all later!

śalïŕ μlśàŋ ąŋśilïé ŧýrŋïŋą

2009-02-08T06:03:00.001-08:00

Well, this school year's cooking right along.

No, really. January is just all one big blur. Physics killed me, though. Give me biology, for crying out loud! I'll even take chemistry. Anything to get away from physics. I just can't comprehend some of it.

Wah.

However, I did manage to keep doing some more stuff - namely, keep writing Wizard's Way, In the Shadow of Death, Twosun, and create some maps for Battle For Middle-Earth II: Rise of the Witchking. I'm addicted to that game; especially the Create-A-Hero section. I built a map specifically to boost the stats of my favorite Create-A-Hero, Trey (whom you will meet in person if I ever get Twosun published) and my second favorite, Tansar (who is the central - notice, I don't say 'main' - character of In the Shadow of Death).

Well, I'm having fun now. Still not sleeping, of course...but you all know about that. Well, off to church now. See ya later.

By the way, the title means 'find rest at the end of your road'. I figured it'd be a nice goodbye for my tsilkri race in Twosun because I don't get much rest myself.

Sílaye Pélsírían (or, Tongues Speak)

2009-01-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

Would you believe it actually snowed today?

Now, I'm from Vermont, so snow is nothing new to me...but I didn't even know that it COULD snow in North Carolina. Well, with the exception of the mountains. It's always cooler in the mountains, virtue of them being so high up.

But, all that aside, we actually got three inches of snow. In Vermont, that's a dusting. In North Carolina, it's a blizzard. Shuts everything down. Which I'm glad for, because it meant that I didn't have college classes today - always a nice bonus. Still have homework to do, tho' - it's this wonderful thing called the World Wide Web, and it allows teachers to reach out across many miles to deliver homework straight to our houses.

I love the Web and all, but I could do without that.

Still, it is nice to just be sitting here, waiting for the snow to melt - they don't have an infrastructure to deal with snow down here because it snows once a decade down here - and then it'll be off to classes again.

Stinkin' wunnerful.

Well, gotta go. See ya later.

Eate, Drinke, and Be Ye Merrye

2009-01-06T06:24:00.000-08:00

It wouldn't be so bad if I had a computer class.

But, alas, I do not. And so, tomorrow, college starts up yet again, and I will be smack in the middle of it. Added to that, I had another spell of depression yesterday. Maybe it had to do with college starting back up; maybe it had to do with the fact that I spent 5 hours rototilling the garden. Either way...

And I'm tired. Yikes, I'm tired. More tired than usual, that is. I got less sleep than normal (normal works out to about 3-4 hrs of sleep per night), and I'm feeling it.

Sheesh, I'm too tired to write a coherent blog - and classes start tomorrow! I'm gonna take a nap this afternoon. Unless the America's Army dev team gets v3.0 up - in that case, I'll hafta try it out. Either way, to day will be spent lazing around, and tomorrow?

TOMORROW I DIE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

Concert of the Age

2009-01-02T17:00:00.000-08:00

Give me a guitar and I'll join in, our first hour in heaven.

Hey!

The stars become as lasers
And all the world's alight
Horizon to horizon
A rainbow begins to rise!

Sudden sounds like thunder
Come from everywhere
As the angel Michael
Gives the countdown on the snare

Across the sea of faces
Shouts of praise begin to roll
As we see the silhouette
Of the King of heart and soul!

At the concert of the Age
The Great I AM takes center stage
The generations stand amazed
At the concert of the Age

Then a voice like a trumpet
Blows through me like a wind
Gabriel cries, "Welcome home
"We're ready to begin!"

"We know you heard Beethoven
"And the king of rock'n'roll
"But on behalf of the Father
"We give you the King of heart and soul!"

At the concert of the Age
The Great I AM takes center stage
The generations stand amazed
At the concert of the Age...

You can listen to the song here.

Ah yes...

2009-01-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

And of course, there's always a new idea.

This one began with a conversation in the car. My dad and I were going to buy food for the chickens we keep at our house, and we got to talking about the stories we liked. One thing led to another, and before long we were talking about how uncreative most authors were. After all, almost every fantasy world is the same. Earth-like.

Well, think about it. Can you name me five different fantasy stories that DON'T have one sun that rises in the east and sets in the west, a planet the size of earth, and physics that are exactly like or very close to the physics of this earth?

Well, consider a planet with two suns, one at each pole, with a ring of ice around what would be the equator. A planet where some beings have an organ that can cancel out the earth's gravitic field, making them almost weightless and allowing them to perform insane aerobatics. A planet where living creatures breath nitrogen or carbon dioxide instead of oxygen.

Oughta be interesting, right?

I give you project 'Starsun'.

2008-12-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

Project 'Starkindler' went off the beaten path for many different reasons. For one, it was inspired by an object, instead of just an idea of mine. It actually began with a silver-covered pewter ring I found somewhere. It began the idea of the rings wielded by royalty to heal and, when necessary, to use against the forces of darkness. Specifically, it followed the path of one such ring that would propel a girl to the position of High Queen while her country was under the jurisdiction of a completely evil dictator, and her eternal guardian. This girl's name was Penna, and her guardian - a boy cursed 3700 years before the story with eternal life - was named Tansar. It followed their trek through many lands to survive, escape, resist, and evade this evil king - yes, I got the previous stuff from the Green Berets' SERE - and eventually Tansar and the king fight to the death. The outcome of the battle is rather...different...than you might think.

This was interesting because another story, called 'Lands of the Sun' (recognize it?) fit in very neatly 7000 years after the legend of Tansar Deathhand. If you don't recognize it, Lands of the Sun is mentioned elsewhere in my blog as a sort of 'episodic' story, where it never really coagulates into a book. So I decided to combine them (it was a really just a way to make sure I didn't have to create different country and people names for both books. Some people call it lazy; I prefer to think of it as 'let it never be said that I didn't do the LEAST that I could do').

Story History

2008-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

For those of you who know me - and even those of you who don't - this oughta be interesting.

I am working on a major story project, codename 'Sparkle' - this project is a super-epic series of sixteen books, comprised of four different sets of books. The overall 'Sparkle' series name is 'Wizard`s Way' (the actual title, not a 'working title'), with the four subseries being 'The Chosen' (set of five), 'Friendship`s Way' (set of three), 'Children of the Chosen' (set of five), and 'End of Time' (set of three).

The books for 'The Chosen' are (in order) 'Stonecrafter', 'Stormwatcher', 'Earthweaver', 'Fireshaper', and 'Lightmaker'.
The books for 'Friendship`s Way' are (in order) 'Grondohan', 'Ocean of Sand', and 'Barvazhan'.
The books for 'Children of the Chosen' are (in order) 'Traveler', 'Prophetess', 'Wizard', 'Land of the Elves', and 'Land of Death'.
The books for 'End of Time' are (in order) 'Time of Trouble(working title)', 'The Final War', and 'End of Days'.

Now that you've seen the absolute monstrosity of it all, let's see how it all began.

In 2002 I came up with the idea for a boy from our world, by the name of Ryan, who was thrown (by the power of a stone with a flame inscribed on it) into another world filled with nymphs, centaurs, talking beasts, and vicious men who were out to destroy said creatures. A prophecy told the animals that four companions with powers would join together to destroy the evil and restore the land to its previous peacefulness. Ryan was the fourth, and the most powerful, with the power of fire (the others had plants/healing, water/storm, and stone/earth). He had to go on a quest to retrieve the Sword of Ages, with which he could defeat the enemy's most powerful fighter, a mage by the name of Romayin. This series was named (working title) Firestone: Ages, project name 'Starstone'.

Although certain philosophical problems could not work out, a great many elements worked their way into another story idea which followed. The project was codenamed 'Startrip', and the series was named 'Reymai'. The idea was fairly complicated, with a great many philosophical issues and theological analogies. It revolved around a boy named Martin, who was destined to free his country from an evil king, his wizard friend, and their mercenary army. With the help of the Three, three prophetesses destined to wield the Fireswords, Martin was able to overcome the enemy and throw them out, but died in the process. Since I couldn't abide leaving the story right there, he came back to life, married one of the Prophetesses, and they went off in search of new lands, and new injustices to conquer. Reymai got away from the original central characters, but it kept a great many names - Romayin the evil mage became Romayin the evil wizard, and so on and so forth. The thing that was dropped entirely from any plotline was having someone from our world go to another - it's been done, to perfection, by C.S. Lewis, and no one else will ever be able to come close.
Reymai was really quite impressive, considering my age at the time (11-12-early 13), but it fell short on really capturing the feeling of the story. Sadly, it, too, died, only to be resurrected later for a friend to read. But it's dead forever now - it will never even be considered for finishing.

However, I gleaned a great deal out of Reymai (most of which was in the way of experience), and I put that to use in a new project, codenamed 'Starfriend' - the name of the series was 'Friendship`s Way', and it followed the travels of a boy named Myran, the son of an innkeeper, to the Temple Academy where he trained as a wizard, made friends by the names of Garin, Kyra, and Rosy, and made enemies, by the names of Brant and Xendar. Romayin, the one name that had stayed from the original Starstone project, became Myran's mentor, a good wizard, instead of an evil one. Brant was a rival from the Temple Academy, and Xendar was an evil wizard from the south. This story combined elements from both Starstone and Startrip - it was a single-country story, focusing on internal difficulties, but it had four elemental power sets: the first, Earthweavers, focused on plants/healing; Stonecrafters dealt with earth and stone; Stormwatchers, with the elements of weather; Fireshapers, with fire of all types. Like Startrip, the enemies were mostly from their own country, but, like Starstone, their was a quest involved to defeat those enemies.

I'll post again soon, continuing the saga with project 'Starkindler'. Reference this to your friends; maybe one day you'll actually get the books and be able to say you know all the history behind 'em!

Work, Work, Work

2008-12-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

I've got a Spanish test tomorrow - just great. Taking the blasted subject at Wake Tech. Fortunately, I've got a great teacher who really knows what she's doing. Hopefully I won't blow my end of it. *grin*

Well, it's been an ugly week. All I can say is that I will be ever so glad come December 16th. It will signal the end of Spanish 1 and (hopefully) my graduation to Spanish 2, which I'll be taking next semester.

Add all that on top to the fact that I'm doing physics (albeit slowly), English, an apprenticeship, and trying to write a 400+ page book into the bargain. Wait - don't forget the chores at home, either! I'm starting to feel 'like butter, spread over too much bread', as Bilbo so succinctly put it.

Oh, if you're wondering, the song that plays here on the site is Michael Card's 'Maranatha'. Maranatha means 'LORD, come' in Greek, referring to the imminent return of our LORD Jesus Christ.

Insanity...All Is Insanity

2008-12-06T05:55:00.000-08:00

I'm insane. *fake grin*

No really! Or...maybe I'm only half-insane. Whatever. But how many people that you know have four distinct personalities, and those four personalities have about eight of their own personas? It's confusing, believe me. Like the time two of my personalities had a war between them. It involved not just them, but their personas as well. I was walking around talking in my Obi-Wan accent one moment, and the next quoting Count Dooku.

Told you I was insane.

But their are factors that contribute to my insanity. Like my friends. There's one that's just as insane as me, 'cept he doesn't have 32 personas like me - he's only got two. Him I get along with - but there's another one of my friends who I'm quite positive is mimicking me a lot of the time, and she's beginning to freak me out.

She's a funny kid, tho'. Great pianist - best I've ever seen. Right - she's not the best I've ever heard, but that's not what I said. We did church worship with her dad, brother, sister, and my sister, and everyone sounded great - except yours truly. Yup, they were stellar. I heard a recording someone made afterwards and cringed.

Yeah, everything else aside, I did a really bang-up job. *sigh*

Can't help it, I guess - the moment I'm up in front of people I freeze up, tense up, lock up - everything you wanna use to describe it, that's me. You probably wouldn't guess by looking at me - I've always been good at covering things up - but it's there.

Well, enough reminiscing. I have work that needs doing. See ya later!

- Jace

Imagination

2008-12-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

Imagination is such a curse. Isn't it? Ever catch yourself just drifting off into dreamworld at the worst possible time, like on a Spanish test?

But then, it's also quite useful. How else did we get computers, or the Internet (upon which I am posting this blog)? Someone had an imagination.

O' course, my own imagination is geared more towards creating stories than anything else. I've created some 30+ worlds all to my own, with their own creatures, species, languages, physics, terrain...everything. The unfortunate thing is that I pick very inconvenient times to imagine things. Like during a Spanish test.

Yeah, great. Good job.

However, I'm pleased to announce that I finally got a good start on Wizard's Way, my one major project that I've ever had. I've had a bunch of smaller projects, things to disguise what I'm really working or to satisfy some people who are actually eager to read my writing (an idea that I cannot fathom).

My current 'shadow' work (the work I use to keep Wizard's Way hidden) is LOTS: Lands of the Sun. If you want to read some wacko's idea of a fun story, email me at jacen.solo@ymail.com, and tell your friends to do the same. Once I get enough people, I'll start sending out episodes (in PDF format).

Now that you're fully convinced I'm crazy, why don't you find a friend like me and tell them to read my blog?

Vista to Mac Transformation

2008-12-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

Ah! For all you Vista users, here's something really cool. If you ever liked to look at Apple's 'Aqua' interface, this is perfect for you. This is a little mini-tutorial on how to make your Vista...look like a Mac. Right, let's get started.
First things first. There's gonna be a lot of modding your machine, and you'd better have some good knowledge of how Vista works. You need Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1, for all you noobs), and you need to go into User Accounts (which you'll find in the Control Panel). Once you're there, type 'uac' into the search bar at the upper right. User Account Control will pop up, and you're going to want to turn it off. Once you've done that, restart your machine and pull this page back up.
On to the next step. We definitely need a dock for this, so head on over to RocketDock and download it. Install the software, put it on the bottom, customize it to your liking, then grab the Leopard skin for RocketDock.
Now, you may like the default icons for RocketDock, but, personally, I hate 'em. So I cheated - I went over and grabbed RK Launcher. After installing it, I went into the RK Launcher folder (in C:\Program Files\RK Launcher). I copied the 'icons' folder into RocketDock's own icons folder, and went from there.
Great and all, but that doesn't give you two things: first, it doesn't make Windows Explorer look like Aqua; second, it doesn't give the dock the 'Stack Docklets' ability.
To solve the second problem, grab Stack Docklets, download 'em, and install.
OK, that solves the second problem. But what about the first?

This one involves a few more steps. First, you need two mod tools - don't worry, you don't have to do anything REALLY serious with 'em. Download VistaGlazz. After installing, run the program and apply BOTH PATCHES. Apply the patch that requires you to restart FIRST.
Once you've done that, find Vista DeskHack. At the bottom of the page are three downloads, select the one that says 'VistaDeskHack1.1'. Extract it to 'C:\Program Files'. You'll find its install file in 'C:\Program Files\VistaDeskHackv1.1\Working Theme Names\App\VistaDeskHack_1.1'. After installing, you'll get a Command Prompt telling you that one file was copied, or something like that. Hit any key to continue.
Now you can get to the fun step. Grab Mac OS X cursors here, and the Mac OS default Wallpaper here. Zoom in on the pic, right-click and save as 'macoswallpaper' or something like that. Drop the picture in your 'pictures' folder, go to 'personalize' again, and set it as your wallpaper.

P.S: Once you've done all this, you may want to burn all your settings and such to a CD. Not to mention you should always create a system restore point before attempting system changes. Doing so saved my skin once.

Rambling On...As Usual

2008-12-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

Have you ever done any introspection? I did some.

And I wonder why I'm depressed.

I have a rather distressing habit of over-analyzing a situation. Sometimes that's good - I can use that tendency to correct a train of thought, or to think of something that most other people wouldn't. Most of the time, however, it just means that I kill myself over any and every mistake I make.

Being a perfectionist is never easy.

But it's worse when I run into situations that I've already thought out, but I STILL make the wrong decision. How bad is that? Pretty bad, if you have an overactive imagination, like myself.

Ah, enough of that. Let me introduce you to a few somethings...specifically, my favorite places on the WorldWide Web.

My Yahoo - The best web-based mail service on earth.
Pandora - No, it's not Pandora's box, but it is the best streaming radio on da web. And did I mention it's free?
FaceBook - Great even of you only use it to poke your friends.
PureTracks - Be prepared to deal with DRM.
Harris Poll - With a mere 800 HiPoints from Harris Poll, you can grab yourself five free songs from PureTracks.

Oh, and another thing - if you're anything like me, and you want un-DRM'ed copies of those songs, just buy some blank CD's, burn the songs to them, then re-rip them as MP3's using Windows Media Player 11 (which is far better than iTunes).

Last but not least, for all you Vista users - hang tight! I made some really cool mods to my Vista machine, and I'll be sharing 'em with you!

Writer's Depression

2008-12-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

I wonder...do you hafta be manic-depressive to be a writer? Just kidding...although, now that I think of it, I DO suffer from depression. Perhaps it's brought on by the fact that although Yahoo! Mail is far superior, I still have to use Google for search, and even email (that last is so that I can communicate with my coworkers, who refuse to be sensible and go get a Yahoo! Mail address).
No, it's not that. Is it that I am overworked, rushing my - I'll try to be as polite as possible - nether end off doing work, school, and home chores?
Hmm...don't think so.

Y' know what I think it is? I think it's that my books, which I am frantically trying to keep afloat, are slowly sinking into the mire that my life has become.

Waaaaaah.

Ah well. It's back to Spanish for me, and some good ol' Hayley Westenra! Have fun, and see ya later.

- Jason West