Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Doubts

It's finally happened. After over three years of researching, begging, pleading, arguing, and deciding, I'm finally allowed to buy an airsoft gun, and I've also decided which one I'm going to get:

It's a replica of the new Heckler & Koch MP7A1, a small submachine gun that fires special 4.6mm armor-piercing ammunition. It's relatively cheap for an airsoft gun (~$200), but the price also includes the battery and charger, items that are normally not included with an AEG. I can get the gun, a spare battery, a spare magazine, a holster, a large bag of BBs, and a BB loader for around $300 shipped from Hong Kong. (Airsoft is really big over in Asia, especially Japan, so a lot of folks buy from overseas b/c that's where you get the best stuff. The clear plastic "soft-air" guns you see in Dick's Sporting Goods stores aren't worth the $15 you pay for them.)

Now the only problem is, now that I've all but bought my dream prize, I'm not totally sure I want it! I've kind of worked it up in my mind over the last couple years (trying to prove to my parents that they're not real guns and they're not the same thing as those air rifles you hunt squirrels with), and now that I've finally gotten the OK, it's kind of gone all anti-climactic on me. Even having recently found out my cousins skirmish in the woods behind their house and would like me to join them, the perceived thrill of finally owning a decent airsoft gun just isn't there anymore. I'm really not sure if I should go through with the purchase. Do you think I should? I'm going to ignore nerdjedi 'cause I know he's going to say not to get it. (You should too. Ignore nerdjedi, I mean.)

Ah, what the heck. I'm gonna do it. Not right away (need to deposit all the checks relatives gave me first), but pretty soon I'm gonna buy it.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Well It's About Time!

At (incredibly) long last, it's finally finished; Chapter 10 of More Than a Job is up and ready for your reading pleasure!

I know it took forever. Between the holiday madness and my computer freaking out again (I think the hard drive wore out. Thankfully I'm getting a new one if a few weeks), I havn't had much time to write.

The story's probably not going to be completed before I go back to college, but given my current class schedule, You can probably expect about one new chapter per week (only 1 class on Tuesday!).

I'm not exactly sure where I want Chapter 11 to go, but it should be up within the next week or two.

Well, that's all I've got for now, so goodbye, and in case I don't get on again before Sunday, Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

A Belated Merry Christmas To All!

Merry Christmas! Yes, I know I'm a day late. Didn't get around to blogging yesterday, I was real busy. Season 2 of Hogan's Heroes (I love that show!) on DVD will do that. That and helping with the big Christmas Dinner.

I bet some of you are panicking that I'm about to tell you everything I got for Christmas. Well stop; I'm not. Nothing much to list anyways, 'cause I didn't really want anything. Heck, I only made a list because my parents wouldn't leave me alone until I did. That's almost scary.

No Chapter 10 of More Than a Job yet. I know I said I'd have it up for Christmas, I'm so sorry I couldn't come through. I can't think creatively when I don't get a decent night's sleep. (Actually more like a whole week's sleep. Yeesh.) I'm going to make a sincere effort to get it written by New Year's Eve.

Well, I'm all out of ideas for things to write down, so I'm going to go. Again, Happy Holidays to all!

Friday, December 22, 2006

My Favorite Super Bowl Commercial

That second caveman must've been the prehistoric world's Donald Trump! Ha!

Actually, I take it back. This isn't my favorite Super Bowl Commerical. My favorite is a really old Budwieser (sp?) ad with the frogs. One frog gets his tounge stuck to a Bud truck and is towed behind it. I love it 'cause my mom freaks out ever time she watches it. If I find it, I'll post it.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Ah Hobe Dad Yu Ar Sthatithfide.

Yeah, that clip gets me everytime.

No new chapter for More Than a Job yet. My computer is still messed up, so now I have to share a PC, so I don't have as much time to write. I don't think that I'll have Chapter 10 up by Friday, but I'm going to try to have it done by Christmas.

Well, one month from today and I'll be back at college. I can't wait! I won't be bored anymore!

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

At The Dentist

Before I get into the meat of this post, I regret to inform you that my computer has had another stroke. It boots up, I can sign into Windows, but that's about it. It's in a sort-of perpetual safe-mode and it either doesn't detect, doesn't recognize, or doesn't care about the mouse, so I can't really use it. Plus it only recognizes 16 colors and a 640x480 resolution. Hopefully I can get this fixed soon. If not, well, I get a new one when I go to college in a month.

Okay, now that I'm done griping, to business.

I saw this video clip a couple of years ago when I rented the movie Bill Cosby: Himself. It's a stand-up routine that Mr. Cosby did in Canada in the mid-70s (I think). The section below deals with dentists:



Personally, I think he's right on. Except my orthodontist is a sadist. Like the one from Little Shop of Horrors, only more subtle.

Monday, December 18, 2006

What the Heck's a Code Monkey?

I was cruising around ThinkGeek when I came across these shirts:

This one says "Code Monkey,"

And this one says "Killer Coding Ninja Monkeys Do Exist."

My question is, like the title says, WHAT THE **** IS A CODE MONKEY?!?!? Also, what's the difference between a Code Monkey and a Killer Coding Ninja Monkey? Any info you could provide would be much appreciated.

On another note, now that I've discovered that I can use Blogger Beta Spell-Check without fear of my posts being un-formatted, I've gone back and Spell-Checked all the chapters of More Than a Job. I also did a bit of minor editing while I was at it, so feel free to check that out. *nudge* *nudge* *wink* *wink*

Saturday, December 16, 2006

A New Chapter and 2 New Records!

Believe it or not, Chapter 9 is acutally up! I know I originally said this coming Friday, but since I finished reading this incredibly long book entitled Once an Eagle, I've found myself with more time to devote towards writing.

This has got to be a record for the shortest time between chapter updates! I'm going to say to look for Chapter 10 by Friday, but I expect to have it up much sooner than that.

Also, before anyone says anything, PALE HORSE comes from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, so the name works.

On a different note, this is also a record for the latest I've ever posted. Acutally wait, I'm not sure, hang on a sec. *checks first post* Yep, this is the latest. (First Post was at 8:49, this one's at around 10:45.)

Well, like I said, it's late, and I have to be up rather early tomorrow, so caio!

Friday, December 15, 2006

The Ultimate Weapon

While browsing through my usual haunts on the Web, I came across a link to a rather unusual and (in my humble opinion) entertaining website; The Death Star Designer.

It's a promo site for the upcoming Star Wars: Lethal Alliance videogame, but despite its (rather rampant) self-advertizing, the design game is still entertaining. If you're interested, click the above link to go to the site, then click on one of the Login buttons in the upper-right of the page, Try it and let me know what you think.

For those of you who didn't catch my last post, Chapter 8 is out. I'm going to start writing Chapter 9 tonight, so look for that by the end of next week. Like I said earlier, I'm aiming for one chapter a week right now and hope to have More Than a Job completed by the time I head back to college in late January.

Also, be sure to check out yesterday's first post, entitled Don't Mess with Billy Bob! And whatever you do, don't take his parking space!!!

Thursday, December 14, 2006

A New Chapter Unfolds

Good News! At long last, Chapter 8 has been published! Again, it's a really long chapter, probably the longest I've written so far. It also gets pretty dark, compaired to the rest of the story anyways, so on both points consider yourself warned.

I'm aiming for one chapter per week at this point, so expect Chapter 9 by the end of next week. The good part is that I've finally cleared up the issues I'd been having with inserting this one element into the story, so things should go much smoother from here on out. I'm figuring a rough guestimate here, but I think that More Than a Job will be completed in another six or seven chapters or so. I just have to work out one minor detail with timing at the end.

Also, I'm pretty sure I'm going to can the Legacy of the Swan blog. Any objections?

That's all for now. Later.

Don't Mess With Billy Bob!

or "2002 Toyota Prius Hybrid vs. Armed and Angry Hillbilly"




Next time I'm out in the boondocks, I'm going to give this dude a wide berth!

Although, to be honest, I really can't think of a better use for a Prius than this...

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I Can't Keep Doing This

I did it again; I stayed up past midnight watching TV. This time it was a special CSI presentation on SPIKE TV; Cross Jurisdiction. Three episodes back to back that are crossovers between the three CSI franchises. Vegas guys in Miami, Miami guys in NYC, that kinda thing. Now I'm paying the price for watching TV past midnight for two days in a row; I'm so dirt tired that I can barely get this typed out. Oy.

Chapter 8's coming along pretty well, considering my lack of sleep over the last two days. It should be up by Friday or so. I'm going to try, try to get one chapter up per week. That way, I can hopefully get this done before I head off to college in January.

Yeah, I'm pretty beat, so I'm gonna go crash or something. Later.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Late Nite Movie

Ordinarilly, I make a point never to stay up past midnight watching a movie. However, there are rare times where I'll make an exception if the film is worth it. And let me tell you, Murder on the Orient Express was definitely worth it. Agatha Christie's legendary classic definitely makes for great movie material, and with an all-star cast, including Albert Finney, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, and Lauren Bacall, it's hard to go wrong. The story is such that I can't say anything without giving away much of the plot, but I definitely reccomend either reading the book or watching the film-which is extremely faithful to the book-if you enjoy a great murder mystery, particuarly one with an ending that you'll never see coming!

On another note, I've decided to slightly alter the plotline of More Than a Job. I thought about it, and what I have written thus far for Chapter 8 will serve as an impetus to really get the story moving. What I have planned for Chapter 9 would then serve to disruprupt the momentum that the previous chapter created. So, what exactly? Simple, I've decided to flip-flop Chapters 8 and 9. Unfortunately, this means that I've gotten about half of Chapter 9 written but no Chapter 8 to preceed it. So my update schedule has been altered; Exptect to see the new Chapter 8 by Friday and Chapter 9 by the end of next week.
**UPDATE** I've now just decided to scrap my proposed idea for a new Chapter 8, reason being that it was just a pointless action scene that wouldn't further the plot and was out of place in the story. Look for the original Chapter 8 to be up by the end of the week.

Also, I'm sticking with my "traditional" Blog layout (how it was before I upgraded to Beta) for now. So the whole "When in Doubt..." thing is gone. I am still going to play around with the layout, but expect to see the traditional setup for most of the time.

Be sure to stop over to Multimeda of the Mind and say a quick "feel better" to nerdjedi. He's real sick; looks like a stomach virus or something.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Blogger Beta Is Cool

Like I said yesterday, I upgraded to Blogger Beta (finally!) So far, it seems pretty sweet. Loads faster (on and off, but that's just my **** computer), looks cooler, more features, and I get a Google Account to boot!

One thing I did that was stupid was I accidentally typed my password into the username box when nerdjedi was helping me set up my Google Account. Fortunately for me, he was-uh-nice and pointed this out, so I changed my password as soon as we got the account set up. Sorry for spoiling your fun, nerdjedi. And NO, I'm NOT going to tell you what my old password was, so DON'T ASK!

I'm thinking about changing around my template. I'm probably going to be messing around with it for a while, so bear with me if I make any major screwups. Likewise, I'm considering canning my Legacy of the Swan blog. If anyone objects to this (which I doubt), let me know before it's too late.

*EDIT* I'm actively experimenting with the new drag-and-drop layout tools. The layout's going to change a lot in the next few days. Please bear with me.

Chapter 8 is coming along nicely. It's actually going a lot quicker than I thought, so it will probably be up by Wednesday, with Friday as my fallback deadline, just in case I get a bout of the lazies.

Sunday, December 10, 2006

News For Y'all

First off, I'd like to apologize if my last post offended anyone. Honestly, I have no idea how I let it get so out of hand. The whole "non-denominational-winter-religious-holiday" thing was a joke my AP Lit class made up last year. My intent was to sarcastically mock political correctness, but the post quickly got way out of control. Again, my apologies.

Blogger's going gaga again. This time, it doesn't remember me. By that, I mean that whenever I start up Blogger, it takes me to the sign-in page, even though I click the "Remember Me" box every time I log in. I need to upgrade to Blogger Beta, but I don't have a Google account... yet.
*EDIT* I acutally just upgraded to Blogger Beta. Much thanks to nerdjedi for his help.

Chapter 8's coming along, but it's not quite finished yet. It'll defintely be up by Friday. I'm not going to give anything major away, but I will say that there's a major revelation in this chapter, so be sure to stay tuned.

Good news: I've finally decided which airsoft gun I'm going to get!


It's a Tokyo Marui M16VN, (VN standing for Vietnam) a replica of the first M16 variant adopted by the US Army. Actually, the weapon's correct designation is the XM16E1. I for one am glad they shortened it.

If I ever get into Airsoft Skirmishing, I'm going to try to eventually build a Vietnam-era Special-Forces loadout, with a Colt M1911A1-replica as my sidearm and plenty of tiger-stripe camoflague (think John Wayne in The Green Brets). Maybe I could eventually get an M14 and go for the ARVN advisor look...

Friday, December 8, 2006

HAPPY NON-DENOMINATIONAL-WINTER-RELIGIOUS-HOLIDAY EVERYONE!!!

Well, it's official. The Christmas Season... excuse me, I mean the non-demominational winter religious holiday season, has officially begun. Christmas-whoop, I did it again, I mean non-demominational winter religious holiday-sales are starting up in retail stores again, Holiday carols are being sung almost non-stop on my favorite radio stations, Winter Festival decorations are springing up all over the place, my family's getting on my case for me to make my Annual-Season-of-Giving Wish List, and the US Postal Service has mailed out flyers letting everyone know when to mail their gifts so they arrive in time for the non-demominational winter religious holidays.

Being politically correct is a pain in the @$$.

Seriously, what's the big deal with political correctness? Okay, I agree that calling someone with Down Syndrome "retarded" is rude and inappropriate, but some of the crap out there is just plain ridiculous! My family and I celebrate Christmas, okay? You don't like it, then don't come over for dinner on December 25. But don't tell me I can't set up a Nativity Scene or sing Christmas carols on my front yard. Again, if you don't like it, then don't look at it. I don't have a problem if you're Jewish and you put a Menorah on your front lawn. Do unto others, remember?

I think that Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson are right: there is a war against Christmas. Don't believe me? Think about it; how come we get of for other religions' holidays, but Christmas gets called "Winter Break?" How come many towns have passed ordinances banning the display of Christian holiday symbols in public places but have not done the same for other religions?

Okay, before I go any further, DO NOT use the commenting board to blast Bill O'Reilly or John Gibson. You can voice your disagreement with our views, that's fine, but any name-calling, insults, or other forms of flaming will get your comments deleted. You've been warned.

Most of the excuses I've heard for getting rid of Christmas symbols, the religious ones at least, is because "we don't want to offend people who practice other religions." Really? Well, in my experience, there are two kinds of religious people: those who genuinely practice religion and those who profess that they practice. It's the latter category, and they're not really being religious, that take offense at Christian symbols so that they can try and prove that they're Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or whatever. And it's those people who really get me steamed.

Bottom line:

You don't like Christmas? That's fine and dandy with me. Just don't try and keep me from celebrating it.

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Pearl Harbor Day

65 years ago today, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing the deaths of amlost 2,500 Americans and forcing the US to enter World War II.

Never forget the ultimate sacrifice these young men paid to their country.

Remember Pearl Harbor.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Clarification on Chapter 7

Firstly, this is an MP5:

It is a 9mm submachine gun designed by the German company Heckler & Koch in the mid 1960s

This is an MP3 Player:


MP3 is a file format for encoding music developed by a team of multinational scientists in the early 1990s.

Second:

The continued questioning by the police about the cheese omelet is a standard tactic used by law enforcement to see if the subject being questioned is lying. If over the course of the questioning the subject's story changes, that's a pretty good indicator that the subject is lying.

Third:

Yes, Elizabeth told the police her "real" name. However, seeing as no one (besides David and Cheryl Watkins) knows Elizabeth exists, and Ms. Watkins did not file a Missing Person Report (reason for not doing so explained next chapter. DO NOT ASK ME NOW!), she was not giving anything away by doing so.

Okay, now that that's out my system, I've decided to reverse the orders of Chapters 8 and 9. This means that there won't be an update for at least a week, but on the flip side the plot will be advanced much faster. Reason being I'd like to complete the story before the end of January (before I go back to college). After that, I won't have a lot of spare time on my hands so it will be unlikely that I get it finished (before summer anyway).

Monday, December 4, 2006

I Made It! and The Contest Results

Chapter 7 is up! And it's on time too! Wow! Be advised, it's a long chapter, so plan your time accordingly.

I've got Chapters 8 and 9 pretty much planned up, so they should both go up within the next two weeks or so. 8 is going to be relatively short, so it should be up pretty quick, but 9 is going to be pretty large, hence the 2 weeks.

Now, to change the subject;

Nerdjedi won my "cast a Legend of Zelda movie contest. His cast list is thus:

  • Link would be played by Humphrey Bogart
  • Princess Zelda would be played by Miss Piggy
  • Ganondorf would be played by Sean Connery

Sam came in 2nd, with the idea to make the film with puppets animated by Martin Robinson.

And those were my only two entried. *sigh* Now I remember why I vowed to give up contests in the first place.

And on a different note...

I've scored a great victory in my quest to get an airsoft gun! Mom's finally decided that I can get one (over nerdjedi's vehement protests) since I'm an adult now and I have my own money. Now all I have to do is convince Dad...

Since I'm new to the hobby (despite 3 years of exhaustive research) I'm going to go with an electric-powered rifle or submachine gun, since their less maintenance-intensive than a gas-powered pistol. Plus, I only need to buy one battery as opposed to many, many cans of gas.

Now I just need to decide which one to get. I've already settled on a manufacturer, but they make dozens of models. M16s, AK47s, Tommy Guns, MP5s, the list goes on and on. They all cost about the same and have roughly the same performace, so it's all about looks. Hmm, maybe another contest...

Friday, December 1, 2006

The Method To My Madness

Okay, apparently my last post caused a but of confusion. Allow me to clear things up.

While I have posted Legacy of the Swan (which needs a better title *nudge* *nudge*) and may post Ghosts of Sherwood, I will not devote much effort to finishing these until More Than a Job is completed. Mainly, I posted Legacy because I like it but need some incentive to finish it eventually. Like I said, I hate starting a story only to abandon it when it's only partway completed. Actually, that's one reason why I posted More Than a Job- so I wouldn't stop writing it halfway through and never pick it back up.

Actually, I have a confession to make: I don't think I've ever finished writing a story. Seriously. I've come close in one case, but never actually completed a story. In fact, I usually don't get past 10 pages in MS Word. The farthest along I ever got (22 pages) was with a mystery I was writing and planning to publish on FanFiction.Net, but then I decided to rewrite it because it wasn't coming out the way I planned, i.e. everything kept coming back to the same clue (a mysterious Ferrari Testarossa) which really wasn't much of a clue, so the story was pretty dull and monotenous. Then the rewrite died because I found a similar story that had already been partially posted on FanFiction.Net. It hadn't been finished yet, but my story was similar enough to it that if I posted, I'd probably be accused of plagerism and be forced to remove the story. So that fell through.

So now you know the whole sad story about why I'm posting all these stories on Blogger.

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Chapter 7 is almost done (about 70%-ish). It'll definitely be up by Monday at the latest.