tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87887851202183890832024-03-08T10:32:58.078-08:00My Little Corner of the InterwebAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-76924500236608878042016-10-01T12:15:00.003-07:002016-10-13T01:16:16.580-07:00Guest Blogging<div lang="en-GB" style="margin-bottom: 0.07in; margin-top: 0.02in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Hi, I’m Steven Moynier author of Alize in Wonderland and I’m your host for this stop in the Hunt.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">If you would like to find out more about the Hunt, please click here - </span><a href="http://vfcscavengerhunt.weebly.com/" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: white; color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" target="_blank">http://vfcscavengerhunt.weebly.com/</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Somewhere on this page is a hidden number. Collect all the numbers from all the authors’ posts, and then add them up. Once you’ve added all the numbers, and if I am your last author, please head to the official website and click on the ENTER HERE page to find the entry form. Only entries will the correct number will qualify to win.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">The author I’m pleased to be hosting for Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt today is E.C. Jarvis, author of both Steampunk and Erotic Fantasy.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #111111;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">E.C. Jarvis is a British author working mainly in speculative and fantasy fiction genres. For the last thirteen years, Jarvis has been working her way through the ranks of the accountancy profession in various industries. During ten of those years she has also been writing.<br /><br />Since two thousand and fifteen, she has independently published five books spanning two different genres and series. The Machine, The Pirate, and The War in The Blood and Destiny series - a steampunk adventure. Desire and Duty, and Lust and Lies in The Consort's Chronicles series - an erotic fantasy.<br /><br />She was born in Surrey, England in 1982. She now resides in Hampshire, England with her daughter and husband.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Check out her work here</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/E.C.-Jarvis/e/B0154YOIGI"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">http://www.amazon.com/E.C.-Jarvis/e/B0154YOIGI</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Machine (Book one in The Blood and Destiny series)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Larissa Markus is a humble clerk in a clothing shop with a hidden past when she is swept off her feet by the charismatic Professor. Their whirlwind romance explodes in her face and leads her down a tumultuous path of adventure, intrigue, love and violence. Airships, pirates, corsets, torture, murder, and more a wait in the first novel of the Blood and Destiny Series from E.C. Jarvis. The Machine is an adult steampunk fantasy book. Possible triggers are present within the book including but not limited to sex, murder, torture, and violence.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The Pirate (Book two in The Blood and Destiny series)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Larissa’s new role as Captain of a pirate airship was never going to be simple. The mess of events that lead to her change of career don’t seem to be abating. Can she convince her crew to stick around through all the unusual and dangerous events? Or will she succumb to the mounting pressure and grief that others impose on her at every turn? The unravelling mysteries from her past mingle perilously with airships, fights, and explosions galore.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />The Pirate is book two of the Blood and Destiny Series, following on directly from the events of The Machine.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>The War (Book two in The Blood and Destiny series)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">When your day begins with an escape from a volcanic eruption and a plane crash leaving you stranded in the desert, you’d be forgiven for giving up all hope. Larissa and Cid have survived the journey to the hostile land of Eptora, having experienced an incredible number of bizarre events. Can their luck hold out on the journey home? Larissa and Holt both believe each other dead, and with good reason.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />As she learns more unsettling details of her father’s past, and his devious plans for the future, Larissa once again finds herself in the middle of a mess. With two nations on the verge of a war fabricated for one reason, it’s up to the unlikely crew under Larissa’s command to put a stop to the inevitable.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />Fights, airships and explosions keep readers of this fast paced action adventure on their toes once more.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />The War is book three of the Blood and Destiny Series.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />Book One, The Machine,</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Book Two, The Pirate,</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Book Three, The War,</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br />Book Four, The Destiny (future release)</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">**25**</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Desire and Duty (Book one in The Consort’s Chronicles series)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Set in a fantasy world, Desire and Duty is the first erotic romance in The Consort’s Chronicles series. The Emperor of Kienia is expecting his wife to provide him with a son. After twelve months of waiting, he’s growing impatient and Lenora realises her life may be forfeit if she can’t make good on her purpose. What follows is a tale of passion, intrigue, and sexual awakening.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />In a world dominated by men, where a woman has only her body and her wits to rely on, Lenora will risk everything to protect her position and survive.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">(This book features M/M scenes)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Lust and Lies (Book two in The Consort’s Chronicles series)</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Set in a fantasy world, Lust and Lies is the second book in The Consort’s Chronicles series.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />Lenora is standing on thin ice. Her illegitimate child is obviously not the Emperor’s daughter. Her dangerous affair with the handsome assassin is both her greatest joy and deadliest game. No matter how much she longs for a simple life, things just keep getting more complicated. To top it all off, the Emperor still wants a son.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><br /><br />Lenora finds herself in a position of power and begins to uncover a mess of deception at the heart of the throne. Lenora will do whatever it takes to survive once more. This tale of passion, intrigue and sexual awakening continues leading into the third and final book in the series.</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Connect with E.C. Jarvis</b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.ecjarvis.com/"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Website</b></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/E.C.-Jarvis/e/B0154YOIGI"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Amazon Author Page</b></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/photo/author/14441226.E_C_Jarvis"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Goodreads Author Page</b></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/E.C.JarvisAuthor"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Facebook Page</b></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://twitter.com/EC_Jarvis"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Twitter</b></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">Did you find the number? If you did, then click </span></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><b>E.C. Jarvis’ </b></span></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">link – </span></span><a href="http://www.ecjarvis.com/blog"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">www.ecjarvis.com/blog</span></a><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif;">to continue Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt.</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-41434572513113346732016-08-06T23:39:00.003-07:002016-08-06T23:39:50.318-07:00On politics and voting in the 2016 electionI try fairly hard to leave politics at the door, but lately all I see is how Trump is amazing, no he's not he's a loudmouth, nuh uh he's going to build a wall, no he's going to tear this country apart! Well, that and Hillary is a crook, I mean the only main party candidate qualified to be president, I mean a brainless idiot who left classified emails on a private server, I mean the first female president you misogynist! As you can imagine, I am more or less thoroughly<i> fed up</i> with Republicans and Democrats alike. Look folks, I have been a registered Republican since I hit the big one eight and became eligible to vote. I didn't know what a Libertarian was at that time and, I have come to learn, how much closer I am to just right of center on the political spectrum than not. So I'm going to talk about my views on politics. I'm also going to talk to you about voting. Feel free to listen, or don't, that's on you.<br />
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Before I give you lot a brief overview on my political beliefs, as well as my basic reasoning, I want to address my biggest complaint with both main party candidates. At the beginning of their town hall meetings, the very first thing both mainstream candidates started doing was trashing the other mainstream candidate. Now we expect Trump to open his mouth and spew garbage, but even my Democratic friends are disappointed in Hillary bad mouthing Trump's kids. Hey, if you hate each other, that's fine, but leave the families out of it. Only, here's the thing... Neither side has figured that out. Trump has talked trash about Bill, Hillary has talked trash about Trump's wife and children. I expect the mud slinging to escalate even further. This isn't politics anymore: this is a really shitty soap opera, or even Reality TV: the Washingtonian edition.<br />
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So what do I believe? Wow, so many ways to answer this. Bearing in mind that I'm not about to cover everything, not to mention the fact that my ideas actually evolve as I research the facts for myself, let's look at some big issues on both side. First, LGBT rights: I believe everyone has the right to marry whom they will under the law and that ALL American citizens deserve the right to pursue happiness in any way they choose, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of other citizens in their pursuit. This is far more than just the LGBT community in that blanket belief, but it is the start. Religious groups tell us that gay marriage is wrong, yet they cannot actually tell us it is illegal. Why not? Religious groups claim that marriage is a spiritual affair and thus dictated by the church. However, the government defines marriage as a civil union between two adults. In fact, were we to change the name from gay <i>marriage</i> to a gay <i>civil union</i>, or even <i>hand-fasting</i>, I expect there would be less outrage from religious sorts. Disagree? Well how about you love your neighbor and try not to judge other people you sanctimonious p...person, you.<br />
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Or how about Abortion? Capital A on that on because it's a Big Button Issue. O.o There are people who say that Abortion is wrong, it is murder, regardless of the circumstances. My question for you is straight forward. If a woman is raped, who are you to tell that woman she should be forced to have that child? If carrying the child(ren) to term will more than likely result in the death of the mother or both the mother <i>and</i> the child, how should she not abort the fetus? What about a teenager who is the victim of statutory rape, or who succumbs to peer pressure, and ends up pregnant? What about those who cannot look after themselves, let alone a child? I grew up so poor that me and my family lived in a van. We lost everything shortly after my kid sister was born. Would I wish she'd never come about? No. I love her, glad she's with us. But having lived in a situation where we could only flush the toilet once a day because we couldn't afford gas to get to town to pump water into a tank just to flush it, where showers were a one a week thing, where kids were raped by adults and their parents were given that money they needed to survive... No, my kids will never know a life like that. Oh, and no... My parents never took money for me. Did stuff happen to me? I won't talk about it, don't even like thinking about it, and that's that. So yeah, on Abortion I stand pro-choice.<br />
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How about the Right, then? Let's start with guns. Look folks, do not let the media tell pull the wool over your eyes on this one. The guns that politicians are most desperately trying to ban are the ones used in the least number of crimes. In fact, statistically, hand guns are used to commit more violent crimes than all other gun types combined. This is true even <i>after</i> you eliminate criminal on criminal gun violence, which is the vast majority of crime committed with a gun present. Do the research, then the math, somebody has lied to you. So let's go further into it. The AR-15, or rather the Armalite model 15, was designed as a civilian use weapon. The talk you hear about this being a 'military' weapon is pure and utter rubbish. In point of fact, there are pistols with more stopping power than this particular weapon. If you convert one of those particular pistols into a rifle, which is actually quite doable, the get a rifle that is more deadly than the antiquated AR-15. It's amusing that there are pistols with higher capacity magazines than this rifle the media hates so much, not to mention that fact that almost every gun on the planet is semi-automatic. The president made a point of telling us about 'military grade semi-automatic' rifles available on the market. Wow, the lie in that! The military uses selective fire, which means either semi, three round, or fully automatic firing. The military uses one semi-auto rifle... and that's for snipers. But President Obama didn't get on the television to tell us the horrors of the fifty-cal Barrett stealth rifle with it's terrible semi-automatic evilness and it's ten round magazine. It's hilarious to me since this particular rifle has a confirmed kill at over a mile and a half (and that's when I looked at it two <i>years</i> ago)!<br />
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Here's a big one: The Death Penalty. I find it amusing that the Left tends to vilify the Right, stating that all they want to do is make money off of imprisoning criminals, yet they are opposed to killing off the worst criminal elements. Look, if we kill off the worst elements after a set amount of time is up for appeals then we will reduce the crimes. For some criminals, it's better to live in prison than out, as at least in prison they get three meals a day and the opportunity for an education. Some people quite literally kill to get into prison. However, if prisoners are going to have to face tougher punishment for their crimes, will it not help deter the crime itself? I know that there will be innocents who are caught in the cracks, but the more people who are sentenced to death as opposed to life in prison, the less prisoners living off the taxpayer. Is it possible I'm wrong in this? Quite! Unlike some, I admit to my failings.<br />
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So lets look back at the presidential candidates. It turns out we have two other possibilities, Johnson and Stein. The way Johnson's campaign is going, he could actually stand a chance to actually be president. I agree with his stance on legalizing marijuana and doing further research into it. I agree with quite a bit that he's said and done. Yes, Trump is a Republican this year and swears all those Democrats he supported over the years was just a wild coincidence. Yes, Hillary didn't really mean to let those soldiers in Benghazi die rather than deal with it, nor did she intend to leak sensitive information to her friends out of country via an unsecured personal email server. At least Johnson is actually talking about the issues, not going crazy slinging mud at his opponents. Hell, even his <i>criticisms</i> have been clean. And this has gotten long enough. I might respond to comments or edit more into this later, but I don't exactly have a large readership. Vote your conscience this year folks, whomever you support, and I will see you at the polls.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-55913889100952291342016-05-07T14:33:00.000-07:002016-05-07T14:33:11.502-07:00Where are you?<div class="MsoNormal">
Hello! I know that you lot are wondering: What the heck is going on with Steve? Where is he? What is he doing? Aren't you? Ah, that's because I have the best readers. Worrying about me, I'm exceedingly touched. Okay, Erin might say I'm touched in the head, but touched is touched! I've been a wee bit busy living life, which is hilarious in its way. I've also been writing. I should be writing here more, though, and maybe I'll just have to make it up to you. I now declare this the month of excessive blogging! Not that I expect to beat my earlier combined blogs, but I have plenty of time to do so. 23 total since December and I want to say the first two or three months were the big ones! Well then, let's get to it.</div>
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As you all know, I have this habit of writing a little. It's not that I can't type fast (because I can), nor that I don't know what to write, I have an idea... I just hadn't been as active about it as I could have. Well, that's changed. I've got a double short story almost ready to go up, and I'm working on some other stuff. Like 25 other short stories. Okay, maybe not quite <i>that</i> many, but quite a hop! I'll tell you a little about each, just a general idea. Are you as excited as I am? I knew it!</div>
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So you already know about my short story in that zombie anthology, Once Upon A Zombietale, where I pitted "Alize" against her old antagonists, the people of Wonderland. To be fair, there was little violence. I gave her a gun and barely let her use it. She's tough. Well, that's not my only fantasy-thriller. Another notion I have, one I've been toying with again in recent times, is a mirror version of Earth where all the dark creatures of our imagination hold power. Not only do they live, they rule, and all humanity can do is survive... sometimes. Sometimes we die. It's one heck of a place and it makes even me wonder: Is that what happens to some of our missing people? Who knows.</div>
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Then there's my Institute set. The Culhanian Institute of Magic and Technology. It's the modern day, magic is real, the supernatural exists, and magically animated corpses are assaulting the Institute! The only problem is, our hero is already dead. Still, for a ghost, he tells a lively story. This one is going up in the next few weeks, or it will as soon as I finish with editing. Then there's a dystopian Terra, a thousand years or so in the future. Humanity was all but destroyed by a weaponized virus and our young hero, a woman named Erin, is on a hunt to discover the history of her world. She takes us all along for the ride, though, which is awfully nice of her!</div>
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And then there's Captain Gabrial Scott, a young ship's captain who is forced to turn pirate. He doesn't have the temperament for it, alas, and becomes more of an anti-pirate. His enemy, Admiral Bruce Allen, is hunting him across the galaxy, and the pirate Christopher Alexander is just as determined to see young Captain Scott dead. It's a tough galaxy, and aside from a few loyal friends he is alone in the universe. I'm excited to see how he survives!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-2674137313061929452016-03-22T15:33:00.003-07:002016-03-22T15:33:57.379-07:00Short Story vs Novella vs NovelHello everybody, glad to see you again. So there's a few thoughts on indie-author work. What's the best thing to go for? Is it better to write a short story, or a novelette? Is a Novella the better deal? Or should you go right for the novel, giving your fans what they want: more story for their buck? I'm of two minds on the matter, and I'll be happy to tell you about it. After all, that's what I do!<br />
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So first, let's look at the monetary aspect. Writers want to get paid, whether they are indie or traditionally published. While the quality, and quantity, of your work should determine the price, that doesn't always happen. Personally, I'm of the mind that a short story should go for a dollar or two, same for a novelette. Novella should go for a bit more, say three to four, and a novel for five dollars. As it gets older, start lowering the price. So, after a year or so, cut that price back by a dollar! What do you think, are my price points reasonable for a self-published affair?<br />
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But that leads us to content. I like the idea of having a few short stories available, so people can get a taste of my writing style without having to go for the whole novel. Then again, there's kindle unlimited these days, so more pages mean I'll get paid more per viewing. Not sure how I feel about Kindle Unlimited, but it's a neat concept. I like the idea of a digital library, mind, but... yeah<br />
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So I've got a short story released, available as part of an anthology being released on the 1st. Maybe I'd better get my book done, huh? Eandyil Nathar made a guest appearance in my short, it's only fitting I get back to him. And my loyal fandom deserves to know I've not forgotten him. So, see you all soon!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-47430905406737093892016-03-11T11:29:00.000-08:002016-03-12T11:08:58.396-08:00A new adventureI know, I make this sound like a sexy new book, or even a good action movie. We are now in Nebraska, hanging out with the Zombie Queen herself! That's <i>got </i>to be good for morale! We hit a few state capitals on our list, too. YAY Bucketlist! So, Kentucky down, West Virginia down, and Missouri down. We didn't go near Illinois capital for the obvious reasons, but we plan to eventually. First words we heard when we got here? Welcome home! So, yeah!<br />
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Plans from here are straightforward. Finish that book, job acquired, and selling tickets to see The Hobbit. Okay, that last one is a joke. Hobbit doesn't leave the dungeon. I mean, wait, what? Right, so we have the Burglar, we need a crazy old man for the Wizard. Casting starts with you. This is a short update, but that's life. Cheers, folks! We'll see you again, soon!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08316592697541062940noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-44261037458630567522016-03-02T23:19:00.004-08:002016-03-12T11:07:28.075-08:00My thoughts on Twitter, Facebook, and some alternatives.With the recent changes in Facebook's policy, especially right on the heels of the twitter controversy, it would be very easy for me to start ranting and raving. I will rise above such base impulses, however, and we'll chat about it. There's no guarantee that things will not get heated, alas, but you wouldn't want this to get too boring, now would you? Yeah, me neither.<br />
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<u><b>The Tweet That Was</b></u><br />
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Twitter has gone completely 1984 on us. In this particular instance, Big Brother is actually a team of men and women on the "Trust and Safety Council." My problems with them are legion, but I'll try and keep it simple. I'm going to break this up a little bit. I'll tell you the way I think they should have done this, and then what they actually did. I'm even going to try to keep the name calling down. Aren't I nice?<br />
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What they should have done is appointed their 40 people from a variety of different views, both conservative and liberal, libertarian as well as authoritarian. While a government doesn't work so well as a committee, suppressing free speech (even on a privately owned platform) that will lead to people hating your dying business should only be done as a last resort. If a user spends a great deal of time tweeting about killing all white people, then delete those posts and issue a warning about racist comments. They get three chances, third strike and bring down the ban hammer.<br />
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I think my idea sounds reasonable, I'm sure there are thousands of people with a better idea. That's awesome! But here is what the 'wise' folks in charge of twitter decided to do instead. The filled their 40-person team with Leftists with a Cause. We're talking about the kind of Leftists that most Democrats are embarrassed to admit share the same party ticket. The majority of them are known ONLY for their anti-harassment work, the ban first and ask questions if they get in trouble types.<br />
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People such as Anita Sarkeesian, who's first act upon becoming a member was to BAN a person who tended to pick on her favorite subject, in this case feminism. I've tried to be polite, but this woman needs to put on her big girl panties and grow up. Want to run a fun experiment? Try using #FreeStacy and see how long your post stays up. If you are conservative, or even if you tend to post positive thoughts on anything that is felt to be a Right Wing Issue, then you've probably noticed that your posts have been disappearing, or that your followers aren't SEEING them. TaSC seems to feel like it's their task to censor the Right, because they are Evil and Wrong and they do not follow The Way. I mean, really, censorship is un-American!<br />
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Which leads to a conclusion, of sorts. Why doesn't Twitter's leadership do something about this? Is it because they don't care? Or are they actively supporting this behavior? Several popular conservative, and even moderate, Twitter users are actively leaving the sight. What else can we do? When even people with huge followings, like Adam Baldwin, or even large followings like Larry Correia, are being shadow-banned and censored it feels like it's time to leave Twitter. My account is active only in the sense that I'm posting links to my blog and various ads. I've deleted the vast majority of my tweets in protest, not that I think The Leadership of Twitter cares in the slightest about me. If things continue to digress, I'll quit. Quite a few have done so already.<br />
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<u><b>Which Brings Us To Facebook</b></u><br />
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Look, those of us who remembered Facebook when it was young remember how cool it seemed. It had so much potential! Yes, there have been some good changes since those days, but there is a limit to that. Now it is all about "Facebook Games" which are nothing more than an annoying time sink, at best, and click-bait/malware waiting to happen at worst. Then there's all the advertisements, and the fact that you can have a thousand people who like your page, follow you, really want to know more about you and your books yet they never SEE your stuff because Facebook wants you to PAY for that privilege.<br />
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Excuse me? Even if a HUNDRED of that thousand chooses to share a post, less than half of your page's "likers" will ever see it. I posted a link the other day and didn't share, like, or anything to it. Two people saw it, one of them was my girl. Alright, so my page was just a little inactive! I also manage a new page, just over find hundred folks, and at LEAST ten of us are sharing and liking the posts. Of the five hundred and twelve people who like our page, only 86 people saw it. Many that saw it didn't like the page until they saw our reposts, So even with a highly active page, with people actively sharing and talking about it, less than twenty percent of our page's viewers actually see our posts. This is a problem!<br />
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But this isn't even my main problem with the social media outlet. This is just the beginning. Fortunately, there isn't enough alcohol or drugs in the world to make me get into all of it. The above about pages applies to your personal wall as well, only you have a slightly higher reach. I've got less than four hundred friends, but more than 300. Let's round it down, call it the even three oh, oh.... Of that lot, I see about a dozen people's posts regularly, then maybe a few of the more 'popular' pages and a bunch of "sponsored" posts I could care less about. So I've tried a few experiments. I went through my friends list, posting stuff on their walls, just saying hey. Did you know that over half of my wall has NEVER seen a single one of my posts? Quite a few asked me who I was? I didn't even hit everyone, some! Forgive me, but that is RUBBISH! That's not even getting into Zuckerberg's "I don't care if black people post racist stuff, they are cool, don't block them. But them white folks, you block that stuff HARD." Not an exact quote, but it's what came out of a few articles on the subject. Racism is racism, it doesn't matter what skin color the person has, or the culture they come from. But I'm moving past it.<br />
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<u><b>Which Leads Us To Alternatives</b></u><br />
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Granted this is one of my more verbose blog articles written to date, I'm pretty sure "the most" is accurate, but I am not a hundred and twenty characters kind of guy. It is a bit hard to take a Tweet seriously when you don't have enough sentence options to argue a case, and it leads to dropping punctuation almost altogether. I make mistakes, who doesn't? I don't like when I have to do it willfully, however. So when I went looking for alternative social media sites, I wanted something my friends would actually use. For that reason, Google+ is out. I love it, myself, but it's kind of too little, too late for many. Then the author, Stephanie Osborn, who gave us the Displaced Detectives series, introduced me to MeWe.<br />
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Before I talk about this funny sounding social media site, I do want to take a minute to expand on the person who told me about it. I met her at a science fiction convention and found her to be a great person. We don't always agree on a subject, but she doesn't hold being a rocket scientist over my head. Unlike some friends, she will actually take the time to explain why she feels the way she does on a subject, and she isn't <i>condescending</i> about it. For that reason alone I bought her first Omnibus. If you haven't read it, I'll give you one little spoiler. It's a modern day story with Sherlock Holmes. There's a couple of people, whom I often refer to as fools or <i>ignorant jackasses</i>, who started trolling her store posts and trying to tell people that her books are crap. I'm sorry, but these people haven't even read the books. Having read the first four, I recommend them. Click my amazon link below, look up Stephanie Osborne, buy the omnibus. Now. GO! Read them for yourself and be the judge. I'll wait for you. Back? Let's continue then.<br />
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MeWe is the way Facebook should be. Are there ads? Adblocker is off at the moment and I don't see any. Am I blind? No, there could be an ad in there somewhere, but <i>I don't see any</i>. MeWe is the reason that Facebook now has five little emotes you can do now, instead of just a like. MeWe, however, has dozens of those little emoji/smiley things you can use on a post. Hate something AND it makes you laugh? Post a smiling imp and a thumbs down. Groups are easy to create and moderate, and while I am experimenting I have personally found I like it more than Facebook. Give it a shot, add me as a friend. This post has gone on long enough, so I'm going to call it here. I've obviously saved this and reworked parts of it, but any errors are my own. See you around, hey neighbor?<br />
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https://mewe.com/i/steve.moynier<br />
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UPDATE: So, I've been informed about another site, minds.com and... Well, I don't know yet. I'm @Eandyil there, so come find me.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-17961533629393566222016-02-16T17:18:00.001-08:002016-02-16T17:18:51.983-08:00A book idea - Space Opera I'm thinking of something kind of like a space opera, with an odd twist. I'm assuming it'll count under that genre, but let's talk about this some more first. There are varying degrees of science fiction, from Hard sci-fi such as Poul Anderson wrote to almost pure fiction like Star Trek. The difference is known science, or what we know to be likely as possible, to the made up science (I don't know how to stop them, Captain, but if we use the deflector dish somehow it MUST work!) found in some books. Les Johnson edited an anthology called Going Interstellar, worth reading if you haven't (I've got mine SIGNED!), that has several hard sci-fi stories followed by a science article on the science related to the short, if I remember properly. I haven't read it in a few years, but I may read it again.<br />
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So what is the difference between Space Opera and various science fiction novels? Well, technically nothing. All Space Opera is sci-fi, though not all sci-fi is Space Opera. Who knew it was used in a negative fashion? Essentially, it's a grand adventure that takes place, for the most part, in space. Well, that's what I'm thinking about writing, so that works for me. I've decided to stay away from hard sci-fi. I'm just not that good at science. Oh, I'll research, but aside from that I've got nothing. Well, something, artificial gravity verses the whole spinning section of the ship to get a kind of gravity... I'll think about it.<br />
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So, here is my idea. I'm going to create a good man, a captain, and he's going to be on patrol with the flagship of their fleet, their best vessel ever, designed to fight pirates. Only, the new ship has been sabotaged and will blow in the first fight, designed to leave the captain as a scape goat. He's going to either fix it or find another ship and will save his planet from an invasion force, then get kicked out of their system by the ungrateful government. I'm debating making him either a privateer/pirate, or a lone policeman. Thoughts?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-27573752393762269672016-02-01T15:52:00.004-08:002016-02-01T15:52:45.958-08:00BAEN Fantasy Contest!It's another year, and Baen books is hosting another fantasy award contest. The rules are available in the link at the bottom of this post, just copy it from me and paste it in your browser. While I know the link to be safe, it is up to you to double check these things. Look, I know I'm honest, but you probably don't know me. I'm not asking you to cry stranger danger at me, only that you should always be wary of trusting strangers. In this case the link is legit, but good on you for googling "Baen Fantasy Award 2016" and finding the below link.<br />
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This is the year! I've got it ready, but there's a bloody CATCH! The word limit is 8K and I'm almost 3K words over. I think if I cut the prologue out completely, and do some editing, I can cut it down... After all the trouble of GETTING to 12K total words (I kept writing after the end, I want to see where it goes) I'm cutting it down. Ay de mi! But what can you do? Well, I'm going to get it done, and done right!<br />
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Okay, so what is it about? My fans know a bit about Eandyil Nathar, my elven name that I've used everywhere from Everquest to EVE Online to World of Warcraft. He's guiding a couple of troubled kids, Chase the son of a Guard and Rhian the daughter of a local noble, on a journey to save the world... only they don't know that part yet. For them, it's just about surviving. They don't want to suffer a fate worse than death. What can you do? Flee, of course, which brings us back to Ean and his mission. I'll tell you how I do.<br />
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Are you going to enter? I say, "Go for it!" It doesn't increase my chances if you do, and if you win (and I take second) I'll kick myself for it, but if you are that blamed good, or even if you are just curious, you owe it to yourself to try. I'll send well wishes and the best of luck to you! You get them tiger, you can do it! I'll meet you on the field of battle: I'll be the one wearing Elven Steel. Until then, ciao!<br />
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That link: https://www.baen.com/baenfantasyaward2016Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-8334125471075264682016-01-11T19:04:00.000-08:002016-01-11T19:04:08.270-08:00I reject your reality! I'll substitute my own.Reality can be a stone cold witch. So, what can we do about it? My instinctive response is "Not much," but to be fair that's not really true. Oh, we're not going to start shooting fireballs out of our fingertips, nor turning our hated foe-men into frogs, sheep, or goats, don't get me wrong there. What we can do, however, is change our circumstances. Right now I'm living in a big place, and lately there's getting to be<i> far</i> too many people here. So change it: we're working on getting into an RV and touring the country, it's a dream both Erin's father and my Aunt Lynn shared, despite the pair of them being from opposite ends of the country. But there are other options as well.<br />
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Okay, so I'm a little cheat in one regard: I do write, even if I've never published anything more than the occasional blog post. I can lose myself in my head, thinking about the worlds I've created and selfishly kept all to myself! Well... there are tidbits here and there, little teasers into my head, but mostly it's still kept here. Well, I am actively working on sharing one with the lot of you soon, so that's something. When it's done I'll publish on Amazon and see if any of you think it's worth reading.What can I say, I hope you'll enjoy it! But there are ways other than trapping yourselves in my head to escape this reality. Hmm... but how?<br />
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Here's an idea: Movies, television, books, and video games! Just about everyone in the country does at least one of these things, though some of us do them all, and it's a fine escape from reality for a short time. One idea I had for a book was a man in a coma. He wakes up to find himself in a steampunk world where science works, but the whole world went a different route to get there. Maybe more dieselpunk. As you get further into the book, he is temporarily awakened from his coma and you learn that he's still alive. But is what happens in the world of his dream no less a reality? It feels real to him, smells real, he can still be hurt there, at least it seems that way to him. If he dies there, will he die here? He spends as much time as he can escaping our world to live in his, and the ending is a kicker. Someday I really MUST share with you. Any ideas of your own? I love hearing about them. See you on Facebook or G+!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-19257317240672182092016-01-02T15:04:00.002-08:002016-01-02T15:04:54.470-08:00Writing and meSo, few of you know this but I've been 'working' on a book, off and on, for the past couple of years. I know all of the tips, I've given them out a few times. Set small goals, require yourself to do a little today, a little tomorrow. Keep going forward, don't stop in the middle of something to go back and edit. That's a great way to keep wasting time on it. When the book is finished, leave it alone for a week or so, then come back and read it. As you read, then you can edit. Just remember to finish, first. As you edit, you may find that one section looks better somewhere else. So you move it, then change your mind and move it back, or maybe you just don't like it at all and take it out. For reasons like this, I personally recommend the yWriter series. I've used yWriter 5 for years now, although I just upgraded to yWriter 6. It's free software, I'll leave a link below.<br />
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So, back to my book. From what I have let others read, I've gotten nothing less than encouragement. I've heard that it's great so far, what happens next? Shut up and take my money, that never ceases to make me grin. Realistic characters, with villains you can hate and protagonists that make you want to laugh, to cry, to scream at, and take home to protect. I really do need to finish this sometime, with praise like that it feels like a lot to live up to. Of course, I tend to jump around a bit, and then I need to go in and fill in the blanks. So much for following an outline, huh? I'll work on it!<br />
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The bright side is that I've found a few good folks for editing and proof reading. I know enough about converting from rtf to other formats, I'll be switching to epub and mobi files, but I didn't really trust myself to just finish it and publish without at least a few readers checking it over, first. They're good people, I've also left their link below as well. So, all of you out there looking to get a book written, I've got one other bit of advice for you. It doesn't matter if you think it's crap, or if you think it's the best work every written. Finish it, send it out for editing, and put it up on Amazon. You may be surprised by how many people like it.<br />
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yWriter site:<br />
http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter6.html<br />
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Editing/proof reading/author services site:<br />
www.cmwauthorservices.com<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-37371570754772049332015-12-30T12:43:00.001-08:002015-12-30T12:43:42.031-08:00ResolutionsSo I'm not really big on resolutions for the new year. Personally, I think it's kind of silly. But hey, it's nice to have goals in life and this got me thinking: The reason so many resolutions fail are that they're either unreasonable or unrealistic. When we set ourselves goals, they're supposed to be kind of incremental... For instance, for a smoker to say "My resolution is to quit smoking!" for the new year, and the plan is to quit cold turkey so to speak, then they are most likely going to fail. Instead, for a multi-pack a day smoker, it should be a pack a day. Then a pack a week. A pack a month. Reduce the amount of cigarettes you smoke until you get to the point where you really aren't smoking anymore. Can everyone do that? I don't know, probably not though. But a carton-a-day smoker is more likely to quit the way I specified here than to just give it up in one go. Sure, some can, but it's usually the exception rather than the rule. Having a support group helps, like the AA group for drinkers.<br />
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So I've been setting some goals for my life, not necessarily new things... just things I want to get done. One goal we are actively working on is living a dream of some loved ones. My parent's are excited by the idea, and when we get it going we'll be picking them up to join us on a grand adventure. Another goal was to start my own blog, and work towards becoming self-sufficient. Kind of like a self-employed self-sufficient kind of me. I'm also planning to pick up ghost writing as a way to help with that, which is kind of a thankless job but something I can do. Erin's even on board with this, doing hand made crafts to help out. This is a step in that direction! I will eventually add adsense to this blog, but that's kind of in the future. Right now, I'm growing my reader base and hoping I really am good enough to do that.<br />
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I'm also working on a book. I know, I know, I've talked about doing this for ages. I even have a writer page on Facebook: I will not call it an author page, I'm not published anywhere that matters. When I finish up this book, I will self-pub via Amazon and see what I see. Who knows, I might even be good enough to get picked up by a publisher. Wouldn't that be fun? My plan is to start small. I'm thinking a hundred words per day. I know! That's such a minimal number. I know that when I do write, the odds are good I'm going to go well over that. I'm alright with this! But by setting a low number, I can tell myself "I just need to write a little bit today," and if I go over I go over. If I miss a day or two it's fine, as long as I remember to make it up. Seven hundred words a week, still a small number. But you know, I'm not planning to write a three hundred thousand word book or anything. I'm not David Weber, that guy is cooler than I'll ever dream of being on the sci-fi/fantasy scene, and he could probably out-write me on his worst day (and my best). Meh, I'm cool with that. I need to take the time to pick up an editor at some point, but it's early days yet. But, that's my goal! Thanks for reading, and I hope you lot have the best year yet!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-25293006550118015942015-12-27T14:09:00.001-08:002015-12-27T14:09:49.722-08:00Bringing in the New Year!Alright, so it's getting closer and closer to the beginning of the year. Now, most families have traditions for bringing in the new year. For some, it's as simple as getting tossed on cheap grain alcohol and having a blast. It's the countdown to midnight, the resolutions for what they will do the next year. The Christmas and Thanksgiving days are more about being with family, but new year's is all about being with friends! I guess it comes down to having spent so much time with family, making nice, people want to be able to vent and unwind. Well, what better holiday for the occasion?<br />
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I will not speak for anyone else, nor their plans. Not really, beyond generalizations. Me and Erin don't really have a tradition yet, but we're planning to watch TV and play games with some of our friends. We might drink, but we don't aim to get so wasted we can't remember what we did either. Yes Erin, that means no Vodka for you! Now I like my family, and I expect most of my immediate family will be here. There will be PS3 and PS4 games, as well as PC. Randomly, we need more non FPS co-op games for the PS4, Sony if you are reading this I'd take that as a kindness. Not that they'd read my stuff, I'm a little small time.<br />
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As far as the drinking goes, there will undoubtedly be some.What can I say, the sis loves to hook up a drink or ten, and my brother in law too for that matter. Part of me thinks it's all the kids, sometimes it's nice to be able to not have to deal. It's great having a day off for parents, and what better day than new years? So whatever your plans for the new year, I hope the next year goes famously for you! Have an awesome one!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-85280813934245146742015-12-25T10:01:00.001-08:002015-12-25T10:01:09.915-08:00Merry holiday!For us, it's Christmas. Oh. I'm fond of the Yule tradition... buy a tree, a real, honest to god pine, leave the log in the backyard for a year then burn it at next year's Yule... But they are messy, real trees, and my sister is allergic to pine. So, while I've been staying with her I haven't followed the tradition. I can hardly wait for Erin's first time burning the Yule log! She doesn't know, I haven't told her, but she reads my blog so I suppose the cat is out of the bag so to speak.<br />
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I know the holiday is about giving, which is a nice thing, but everyone always wants to know "What did you get?" My response is easy enough. I got some PS4 games, a new controller, an A&W mug collection, some books and a sword. Damascus steel is so very pretty, but this baby is combat ready. I had an old Marine Ka-bar, I've had it for a decade and it was old when I got it, but... Well, it just felt like the time to pass it on. It's something I knew my dad would like, so I made it a gift. Me and Erin gave away some of her hand made bracelets, some Perler Sprites, a LeapPad2, some Star Trek ship model kits, game controller, Nerf gun, and a Halo Warthog my nephew has been eyeballing for the last year or two. Good times!<br />
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I don't know how you spent your Holiday this year, but I do hope it was spent with people you love. This year we got rain in West Virginia, but I know it's snowing in Seattle. Ashby, a friend, shared a video on Facebook. It looked crazy! My brother in law, Bruce, was able to get down this year with his Sam. Warren's here with his boys, one of my sisters, all the kids... It's nice. I could wish my brother and my other sister had been able to get down, but I don't really expect them anymore. I hope they're having a great day. Merry met my friends, and a happy parting! Until next time!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-30140205402144051412015-12-21T11:51:00.001-08:002015-12-21T11:51:08.955-08:00The holidaysFor some reason, Christians get all upset if you tell them 'Happy Holidays!' instead of 'Merry Christmas!' And I understand the reasoning, I mean for them it's all about the one day. Oh, except of course for their OTHER holidays, Easter, Good Friday, all of that. I get it. But not everyone believes in or celebrates Christmas. Hell, Christmas as we know and celebrate it isn't even a Christian holiday anymore. I'll expand on that in a moment, but there is another thought. What about the Jewish population? Shall we wish them a Merry Christmas, even though for them it's all about Hanukkah? Or let me phrase it differently, are Christian's not upset when a Muslim wishes them a happy Arba'een, or when a Pagan or a Wiccan wishes them joy this Yule? What about Kwanzaa?<br />
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So, most people don't know much about the history of Christmas. For Christians, it's the day they chose to celebrate the birth of the Christ, their messiah. Here's the thing though, the day was specifically chosen to correspond with several "Pagan" holidays so that they could still enjoy their holiday, while nominally claiming to be Christian and avoid persecution. It's an ugly story, and there are dozens of books on the subject, so I'm not going to get into everything. One of those holidays was a week long event that concluded on the 25th of December. This festival, Saturnalia, was a Roman holiday that commemorated the dedication of the temple of Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and harvest. During this event, there was no law, people could do whatever they wanted. At the end of the event, all debts were forgiven and no charges were pressed. As you can imagine, this wasn't really the best of times to be weak or an unprotected woman, but the wealthy were more often than not victims on this day as well as anyone the public had a strong dislike for.<br />
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Anyway, back to the subject at hand. Happy Holidays! If someone is wishing you happy times, why get offended? Simply said, Happy Holidays is a nice way of saying, "I don't know that I believe what you believe, and I have no clue what you believe, so I hope your holiday, whatever it shall be, is a good one!" Happy Holidays everyone, and may your god, God, gods, goddess, goddesses, god and goddess, or other watch over you this holiday season.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-68091350939076355322015-12-20T12:16:00.000-08:002015-12-20T12:16:12.992-08:00RV UpdatesSo I haven't really talked about this a whole lot, unfortunately I've lost my job. What has been a hobby for the past month or so is suddenly becoming vital to living. While I might have some disagreement for why I was fired, the fact is that I have been fired. Apparently I owe unemployment for my last job. They paid me, then the job appealed and suddenly I don't qualify anymore. So I owe something like two thousand to them. This is why I really need to read mail, instead of blithely assuming it's all junk. There's nothing for it but to move onward.<br />
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Officially, we are looking at getting this trip on the road, as soon as possible isn't soon enough anymore. So, as things stand we're looking at ways to make money online AND on the road, although I expect this income to supplement whatever alternative income I can get. The goal is still, eventually, to base out of Seattle. Right now we want to start, for the east coast, based out of WV. We're wanting to head north first, working up through Virginia to Maine, then taking another route back to WV before heading south to Florida. I'll grant, right now it's all dreams... but what is life worth if you don't have a dream, or a goal to shoot for?<br />
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One other thing we've been looking at is mobile internet. Satellite is the worst, but we haven't ruled it out. We're thinking about a mobile hot-spot, and using free wireless at various places to keep our bandwidth uses down. I've heard about a few that are supposed to be really good, but we're in the researching stage still. Time's about up though, and just in time for the holidays. Some days, it really doesn't pay to get out of bed. Our youcaring site is on my sidebar, donations are welcome. Happy holidays, everyone, I hope yours are as amazing as you are!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-85337859663555441292015-12-18T09:48:00.002-08:002015-12-19T16:41:39.706-08:00Nerdorkable CraftsSo, people have been asking about Nerdorkable Crafts. I know, I'm people and I had a few questions of my own! Nerdorkable Crafts is a tictail store created by Erin. While there isn't a lot posted there now, she's got some pretty big plans. So I'm going to breakdown what she is offering and what she's planning to offer, as well as estimated pricing. I understand that she's trying to keep the price as low as possible, so that's pretty neat.<br />
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First are the Perler Sprites and coasters. She currently has listed a set of four Perler Sprite coasters done in the power puff girls style, the fourth being a heart. They're normally $1.25 but she's doing the lot for $4.00, so you save a dollar. As for the Sprites, they will vary based on the content. For instance a Minecraft styled coaster would be $1.25, whereas the Pacman style ghosts would be $0.75. This is essentially at cost, plus a very small markup for the time spent in making these things.<br />
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The next thing on her list are her "Lovelets." There are bracelets made with love, it seems, and are all completely crafted by hand. It takes her about a day to make two, and colors vary. They are $2.00 each right now, $3.00 for customized. She's planning to do a discount on premade, 15 lovelets for $10.00 just to get rid of some stock. They are three colors, mine is blue, black, and red. I wear it everywhere.<br />
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Finally there's future product. She's making soaps, but isn't sure there is an interest in custom made soaps. She's going to experiment and will give us pricing later. I'll update this at that time. She's also got a couple of scarves in stock. They are done on a hoop, so you have a long sleeve, essentially. Really warm, and while most people wear these around their necks, I like to stick my arms in mine (especially when it's really cold!). These are $15-$20 depending on which type of yarn was used and how many skeins she had to buy to make it.<br />
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So all in all, some pretty cool stuff! I've got a link to her store below, just copy it and paste it in your browser. Happy buying, happy holidays!<br />
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http://nerdorkablecrafts.tictail.com/Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-91187302169986658672015-12-17T19:21:00.000-08:002015-12-17T19:24:45.081-08:00Life and EthicsOkay, so I'm no longer working at Ticketmaster. Yeah, bit of an issue with attendance. Late too many times, which is funny because I was always early. O.o Missed a couple days too. Part of me wants to log into my work email from home, I do still have access. By the same token, I don't want to do anything beyond send a goodbye message, which should just about freak everyone who cared I'm gone out. Another part of me thinks that would be unethical, since I'm not there anymore. Erin's weighing in on the side of not doing it so I'm probably just not going to do it.<br />
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So what else is new? What's going on? I find myself with all the time I need to actually commit to this. Blogging, writing, my own honest reviews: I can do it all. I feel free again! The problem is, this doesn't really pay the bills right now. I'm not a one percenter, I don't see me suddenly becoming the next Larry Correia or David Weber. I'm just a guy with an opinion. To be fair, half the U.S. disagrees with me on any given topic. But hey, that is life, not so?<br />
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Then there's the ethics of it... Is it ethical for me to try and really make a living like this? Writing blog posts and reviews of various books, sitting at home behind a monitor doing my part for my Great Cause? Well, it turns out that making money blogging isn't easy. There are a few ways to do this. One, google adsense. It's a sexy program, and every time somebody clicks on a google ad I'd get paid. Nice idea, but I can't sign up until my blog is six months old or so. Then there's the Amazon Affiliates program. If you guys click on the link on the bottom, then buy <i>anything</i> at all from the website, I get paid a percentage. It doesn't cost you anything extra, but by clicking my link then buying something Amazon believes that I sent you there. It's a small percentage, true, but so what? Every little bit helps. And then there is my paid per view blogging, through another company. I've been working on it for a little bit... and I've made $6.15 so far. You laugh, it's a big deal for me. I'm waiting for the big $10.00!!!<br />
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Take care, friends, and please copy the link below and go there.. Every person is 2-4 cents!<br />
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http://www.softwarebroadcast.com/most-important-coding-languages-for-it-professionals-aid-18633Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-80718212278354939232015-12-16T15:36:00.000-08:002015-12-16T15:36:26.378-08:00Trip ideasSo, we're looking into a few things to do while on this trip. We're expecting to need to use tax money in order to buy/payoff the RV we're going to use for the journey, but we've got a fund raiser out there for anyone interested in helping out. It's now listed on the right hand side of this blog. I'm also doing some ghost writing as well as blogging for money, although... With ghostwriting, I write and someone else gets official credit. The blogs are view based though, for every few people that click on my links I get a few cents. Ghostwriting is far more lucrative for me right now, I get two or three dollars every article, which ranges from four to five hundred words. Not too bad.<br />
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But these are all little ways I'm supplementing the move, as opposed to where we plan to go. The very first stop is Charleston, WV. We're pretty close, and we've been once, this time we're looking for souvenir's so to speak. If I can find a place, I'd like a tile with an image of the city on it. Not sure if it's feasible, the capital here is small compared to most other States. It's worth a look, though. I've got Erin looking into that aspect. But that leaves us where to go next. Erin thinks we might head north east first, up to Maine and work our way down through the capitals of each State. This way we're close to family in case of emergencies, and we'll get a stronger feel for how much it'll cost in gas.<br />
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I've got friends in Arizona, southern Cali, and Washington. She's an east coast girl, I'm a west coast boy, between us we've got friends and family in all kinds of places. There's a mutual friend in Texas we're planning to hit up, and there's some people we met on Facebook and a few conventions we plan to visit while we're out. It might be cool to hit a convention before we go... if we're good to go by February, might be able to hit up MystiCon, one of our favorites. If closer to July there's LibertyCon for sure, and another place in MI as well. It all comes down to when we leave. So, that's where we are in the planning, although I am open to suggestions. Cheers!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-3035260065520356612015-12-14T08:35:00.002-08:002015-12-14T08:35:42.223-08:00RV Ideas: An updateThe last RV post is featured on the right, over there, with the link to the fundraiser site. Donations are welcome and just in time for tax season. I'm not assuming it's going to work at all, but I'm not going to be upset if it does. Now then, we've got some updates! I was asking mom more about my Aunt Lynn, places she specifically wanted to see and so on. A new goal is to buy a tile from the capital city of each State, also from DC if we can get it. When we finally move into a house, we're going to use these tiles in the kitchen to make a kind of homage wall to my Aunt and Erin's father. Isn't that something?<br />
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There's more though! My mother is a cancer survivor. That's right, the same disease that stole my Aunt, my mother's half-sister, from us was beaten by my mother! I'm a little worried for any children me and Erin have, though, cancer on her paternal side, as well as my maternal side. Anyway, mom is going to be joining us on the trip. That's excellent news, because that means dad will be along as well. This means that I won't be doing all of the driving, dad will be driving too. This is great for us, because it means I can get more videos and pictures of the land, and we'll be looking into towing their car behind the RV. What do you guys think? I know most of you answer me on FB, and that's cool, but if you post here I won't be offended. Promise!<br />
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So Erin's thinking we might also hit up flea markets and swap meets along the way, selling her crafts and my mother's art work to supplement our income. I'm cool with the idea, but it's something I haven't really asked mom about yet. Dad is all for the idea of swap meets though, you can find some amazing things that way! We're also thinking about hitting up various salvage yards on our journey, looking for newer RV's that might have better cabinets and so forth that we might be able to buy cheaply. Keeping costs down is always a good idea! Thanks for reading folks, if you like what you read here please feel free to share. Have an awesome day!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-24694074020142773072015-12-10T18:55:00.001-08:002015-12-10T18:55:14.703-08:00Windows 10 hates new motherboards repost<div style="color: #3d596d; font-family: Merriweather, Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 25.5px; margin-bottom: 24px;">
I originally posted this on my wordpress site, but I decided to go with blogger.com since I'll eventually be able to use adsense without having to go through hoops. Enjoy!</div>
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Alright, so quite a few people know that any Windows 7 or newer user can upgrade to Windows 10 for free. This has been true since mid-July of 2015 and it will remain true until mid July of next year. This isn't <em>just</em> true for computers and laptops either. This is also the case, right now, for tablets. Microsoft has also announced that some smart phones will also be able to upgrade to Win 10 as well. If you have not yet upgraded, I personally recommend waiting a few more months. Many of the bugs have been worked out, but I've personally come across a few that have been inconvenient.</div>
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So what does any of this have to do with Windows 10 hating on new motherboards? Not too much, but it is kinda cool to know. I understand that most people out there aren't the kind of people who do their own upgrades. This isn't a bad thing, and it really isn't even a matter of whether or not most people <em>can</em> do their own upgrades. For the most part it is as straight-forward as following the instructions and being extra careful. Most people don't have <em>time</em> to mess with it themselves, however, and elect to go with pre-built systems. There's nothing wrong with going to a website, telling a computer company what you want in a system, having that company build your system and ship it to you. If you are the kind of person who either prefers to build it themselves to keep costs down, or even so you can buy it one awesome piece at a time and assemble it as you can, then you need to know that Windows 10 can give you trouble.</div>
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As it stands, once you have installed it on your hard drive and started it for the first time, Win 10 is more or less set on that motherboard and CPU. I recently updated my motherboard (and processor, in for a penny and all that) you see and I got a bit of a shock when I turned my system back on. You see, 10 deactivated itself as soon as it detected the motherboard. I wasn't the only person to find this little problem and it isn't fun to fix. In fact, fixing the problem required (essentially) replacing the entire OS! Since it is still within the first year, I downgraded back to Windows 7 and called the number to reactivate my copy. When I did that, however, I lost every single thing I'd done since I installed 10, with the exception of the work which I backed up. I subscribe to the 3, 2, 1 method, it's worth looking up. Since it has been less than a year since release, I'm able to upgrade back to 10 at any time, and yet I'd just been burned a little. I wanted to make sure this new motherboard and processor were going to work out before I re-upgraded.</div>
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So, it's been a little bit since all of this happened, why bring it up now? Well, the truth is that the research I did hadn't turned up anything specific until I specifically looked for problems. Maybe someone else out there with the same problem will read this and find a better way than I did. This week I reinstalled 10 and I've only had a few glitches. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I stand by what I said earlier. If you use Win 7 and are thinking about upgrading, I'd hold off for a bit. If, alas, you are one of those poor souls like my Erin was, stuck using Win 8.1 for what felt like all eternity, I recommend upgrading as fast as humanly possible. You don't deserve what Microsoft has done to you my friends, 10 will be a good thing! As an old friend is known to say, stay golden my friends.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-5252591591808483442015-12-08T08:52:00.003-08:002015-12-08T08:52:30.668-08:00Goal ideas: Fallout 4So I was talking to a friend at work, and we've got some big plans for a mod. Here's the thing though, we can't really even get started until Bethesda gives us the FO4 GECKO. FO4edit isn't nearly enough for what we've got in mind. We've got an ambitious project set to take place in West Virginia, after the war. I've started my initial research, however. I've gone over some satellite imagery of WV, getting an idea for the way the land is. Our goal is to start with how it is today and guess how it might have looked in 2077, add in a few of the Fallout universe specific companies to take over the locations of every similar place as possible with the exception of WV specific areas like Tudors and Appalachian Power. Throw in a couple of obvious bosses, add in the main college FB teams (we don't have any pro),<br />
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We're also looking into WV specific gear and transportation. Instead of having to build the equivalent distance of Charleston to Beckley, we're looking at using the existing transport system, with the newer FO style buses, to go from main city to main city, although we might try adding a few stops such as Marmet or Cabin Creek. Take it for granted that this isn't everything we want to do, there's a series of quests we want to implement that make the FO4 main quest look small, we're also wanting to do better options for good/evil/sarcastic than the main game. So if you are talking to the mayor and pick the good option he'll say something positive, or if you pick the bad option you aren't getting the same dialogue. One other thing we've been thinking about is a Children of Atom quest line.<br />
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So these are a few of the ideas we've discussed, and as you can see it's fairly ambitious. Add in that there's trees pretty much all over WV, including IN the capitol city, and it's chalk full of win. We're wanting to add in pine trees and greenery. Look, even if WV were nuked it used to be a rain forest (and who'd care enough about us to nuke us anyway?) and would be a low priority target. We're assuming we got at least one, thinking about a radioactive Corridor G maybe, or perhaps up near the airport on Greenbrier (there's at least an AF base up that way). If you have thoughts, by all means I'd love to hear your ideas! Just keep in mind we can't even start until Bethesda finally gives us the GECKO.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-30714012305258105932015-12-04T17:28:00.000-08:002015-12-04T17:28:53.068-08:00Stories and writingOkay, so I'm not the most amazing author in the world. The simple truth is, I've picked up a couple of cool ideas and just never taken the time to actually follow through. There's no reason I couldn't have finished a book or ten at this point, but I've been lazy. So, I'm going to tell you a few of my ideas and let you think about it. You can comment, of course, but I don't really expect you to. So, ready for a glimpse of how my mind works? Without further ado, let us be about it!<br />
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One idea I'm toying with is a result of an FB conversation. I once stated in error that the world was once believed to be square. That's false, of course, the world was believed to be flat. Quite the difference! But we got to talking about what if the world WERE square? It would have to be a fantasy or a science fiction book. Sci-fi for a created world, or fantasy for something like... Say Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I'm not on his level, in my opinion, and I don't think I could pull it off quite right as a true fantasy... But what if we take this square world and invert it? Think of a Dyson's Sphere, now make it a square and wrap it around the sun. Now we've got six huge flat worlds... We can break them down further, kind of like the Ringworld, but I don't want to do that. Right now I'm tempted to work in this single square. So how about day and night cycles? I was thinking a sphere much closer to the sun, rotating of course, which is partially contained. Essentially, every so often as this sphere rotates you get light and you get darkness. On one of the worlds there's a place where it never gets dark, on the opposite side a place where it's always dark. What do you think? Yeah... but it's got potential, despite the hand-waiving.<br />
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Now I've already got two of these worlds kind of pre-written. One is basically earth, only a powerful esper (because ESP not real magic) named Eandyil Nathar sells contracts to trade one life for another. Yeah, I know, one too many Linkin Park Vids, but the idea is awesome! I've even got a contract written up for it, it's kind of fun. The other is a faux-fantasy world that Eandyil starts in. There are Dragons, although they're basically powerful shape-shifters with some ESP as well as time-travel. Time travel is deemed impossible by science today, but didn't Clarke state that any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic? Come to think of it, there's three laws that are attributed to Sir Clarke, but that's the most famous one. Anyway, that's the world my tidbits come from. Check it out on my facebook page, www.facebook.com/Eandyil.Nathar and have a great day today!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-73919170547983867182015-12-03T20:19:00.000-08:002015-12-03T20:21:15.999-08:00Little AnnoyancesHello everyone! Have you ever worked harder than you should have for something to get done, then when it's done it seems to have vanished? I've got a link at the bottom of this. Months ago I posted this for a paid-to-blog site I've been flirting off and on with for awhile now. I did far too much research, and got this article together but they wanted an introductory paragraph. Not a problem, added it and they said it was like it was written by a middle schooler or someone not from the country. Okay... so I might have been a little annoyed. I went through and thoroughly messed up the grammar, then proceeded to fix the initial paragraph. It got accepted, with criticism, and supposedly it was posted... but the link has never worked. The first time I clicked it, it came up as a deleted page. Now it says a database error. Still, I get paid for every new IP that hits the link, so by all means! Click the link below, laugh at the page and close it out. Two cents a click!<br />
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Erin has joked that I should post this on the bottom of every post, so people will just "know" to click on it. The idea made me laugh, I won't lie, but what's the point? It's not there! Specifically it's a post about the internal components of gaming computers. I waxed eloquently about the joys of AMD, because even though Intel is better, if they have no real competition then we'll get less than amazing hardware.Where is the drive to be the best when there is, literally, no competition? This is a short post, as it's a late night for me now, but I thought I'd share my thoughts and let you all know I live. I've deleted that politics post from last month, I've decided to leave politics to facebook for now. Don't worry, I'll let you know here when I change my mind. I don't know whom or what you worship, but may they shower you with favor! See? I'm not above a little religion. Farewell!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-66018244161713801542015-12-02T11:50:00.002-08:002015-12-02T11:50:15.006-08:00RV Ideas: Step one, choosing an RVSo, the future is now and nobody can afford a house anymore, at least that's how it feels. All over the t.v., you hear about "Tiny Home" living. Here's the thing, they're putting a new "glam" name on something people have been doing for decades. What is tiny home living? It is living in: A modified bus, a fifth wheel, a travel trailer, a recreational vehicle, and even a camper. Look, until a few years ago, whenever someone said something about tiny homes you thought about shows like "Little Family," and "Little People, Big World." You thought about "little people" living in the world. It wasn't even about their homes being little, just them. But these days, "tiny home" is just a new spin on an old idea. For convenience, I'm lumping all of the varies types of "tiny homes" into the initials RV. So, glam aside you still like the idea of travelling the country in your own mobile home? We're right there with you! So, our first step is choosing the RV!<br />
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Now the first thing to do is know what you want. Do you want something that drives itself, or something you have to haul? Are you planning to camp out as much as possible, or only as a last resort? I'm the driver, so I personally prefer something that drives itself. That limits me to either a Class A, B, or C RV. The Class B is, essentially, a glorified van. That's not the most accurate description, but it's pretty close for our purposes. Dropping that, then, we're looking at a class C or a class A. Now the class A is, generally, going to be the more luxurious option. If possible we'd like a class A with a real toilet, walk in shower, queen or bigger bed, a desk for my computing needs and a place for Erin to do her crafting.While I'm inclined to like the class A, I aim to look at the C's as well, and find the best I can for the money we're planning to use.<br />
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Update: So we've hit up our local RV/auto dealer and found a couple of okay deals. We found a class A that's within our budget, but we're holding off until after the new year. Depreciation works both ways, dealership people! So, since we're not planning to leave until April or May we are going to hold off as long as we reasonably feel we can. I've also been comparing prices on the rvtrader.com website, and I'm reasonably sure that even if the dealership manages to sell the one we want that we can find another good RV for a good price. So, 2015 Itasca By Winnebago Sunstar 26HE, I'll be seeing you real soon! Although, to be honest, we're willing to go even older if the price is right. This model doesn't have a real desk area, but it's a little smaller which I read to mean a little easier to drive. Until next time, people!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788785120218389083.post-9042734237341207672015-12-01T09:54:00.001-08:002015-12-01T10:08:18.823-08:00Long term goals.Hello again, everyone! As you know I'm still relatively new to blogging. My old site, eandyil.wordpress.com is still active at this time, but I'm moving here. Speaking of moving, and long term goals, I'm going to give you all some information about me and my life-mate/fiancè Erin. I know this feels a little disorganized, but I promise to bring it all together. Right, moving on.<br />
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We've all lost people. We've lost people to murder, violence, disease and just plain old natural causes. We've lost a double handful between us, and we try to honor our lost, but I'm going to tell you a little bit about her father and my aunt. My aunt's name was Elizabeth Lynn Therkildsen, and she passed away from cancer. She'd done many things in her life, short though it was. She was in the Army when I was very young, but her big dream was travel. After she got out, she became a stewardess to continue seeing other countries. She used to bring back foreign coins all the time. She once said that she'd like to hit every state, but she wanted to hit every country as well. She sure did get the chance to visit a few, but she never got to spend a lot of time there. I know I'm not likely to see all the countries like she wanted to, but I do think visiting the states shouldn't be a problem.<br />
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And then there's Erin's dad. His name was Steven Culhane and his dream was pretty straightforward. He wanted to buy an R.V. and spend a few days visiting each state in the U.S. When I asked Erin about Hawaii, she pointed out that he'd talked about taking some kind of boat to get over there. So what we're planning to do is honor both my aunt and her dad by living his dream, and also visiting each of the States. Since driving to Alaska would mean driving through Canada, we can even visit another country on the way. Hawaii is not currently on the list, but the simple truth is that if we get enough money figured out then sure, we'd love to spend a day or two down there. By the same token, we'd love to see the world like my aunt dreamed of doing. Japan, Britain, Norway, Sweden, even Russia would be awesome. However, we've agreed to start small. So, the first goal is to buy an R.V. we can live in for an extended length of time in. We're thinking solar panels on the roof as well, this way we can save money as much as possible on costs once we hit the road. Our end goal is Seattle, Washington. Aunt Lynn lived in a few places, but whether you count it as from L.A. or Phoenix it's still deserts. I remember her saying how much she liked trees and greenery, so Seattle is the plan!<br />
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So, before I posted this I found that my Erin has started a fund for this. If any of you would like to donate to the cause, well we won't say no. I'm sharing the link here.<br />
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https://www.youcaring.com/erin-culhane-steven-moynier-479080Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11682780045880331521noreply@blogger.com0