I am resurfacing

Okay, I know that it has been a while since my last post...okay, okay; almost two years. But I just want to let any that still check that I am still alive and planning to return soon. I have been thinking of a few things that I want to do. With my games, my fantasy world, my stories, and this blog. Hopefully I will be able to not only reveal my future plans soon, but also start revealing everything soon.

So, keep the faith and keep checking back. I will have a new post soon.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a fantastical Christmas and Holiday season.

Write ya later!

(picture from The Ranting Dragon)

Soccer Update

Hello everyone.

Just a quick update to say that I have some awesome news (well, I think it is just awesome and that is what really matters).

I have talked before about my eldest daughter playing soccer. Well, they just finished another fall season and went almost undefeated, losing only one game. This put them into the playoffs for the championship. This took place this past weekend.

On Saturday, they played three games. They won all three games, allowing only one goal. The scores were: 5 - 0, 2 - 0, and 3 - 1. Again, my daughter did an awesome job scoring a total of 4 goals. As a side not (and a proud daddy moment), in the third game Evencia got kicked just below the knee but above the shin guard. I thought she was going to be out of the game because she wasn't able to get up right away. But with an exceptional show to toughness, she lay on the ground for awhile and when she was able to stand, she chose to stay in the game. In fact, she went on to score a goal after that.(proud daddy moment over).

These victories got them into the championship game, which took place Sunday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see that game, I had to work. If I had known about it earlier I would have taken the time off. Anyways, they also won this game (6 - 0).

We also found out that because they made it to the championship game, they also made it into the district playoffs next weekend in Uvalde, TX. I mean, how awesome is that. 10 yrs old and already she is leading her team into championships (very proud daddy moment).

Okay, okay. It isn't only my daughter that got them there. Everyone on the team does an awesome job. We have an awesome goalie who doesn't allow hardly any shots past her that somehow get past the rest of the team. Awesome defenders one of which has a major power kick for a 10 yr old (not to mention she is quite tall for her age). The other defender is good enough with the ball to be an awesome forward on any other team. But then you have our trio of strikers that just wear down the opposing defense. They are fast and have great foot work all. Not too mention they are also the shortest ones on the team.

So that is the news I wanted to share. I will try to do another, more project based update later in the week. And also be on the look out for an update on the district playoff games next week.

Write ya later.

Edit:
I thought I would mention that I now have a Twitter account, @kntwriter if any of you are interested in following me.

To WOW again

Well hello all my great followers who haven't given up on me. I know it has been ... 4 months?!? Wow, I wonder if anyone is going to read this. But I shall write it anyways, read or not.

My blog isn't the only thing that I am returning to this month. I have also started playing WOW (World of Warcraft for those that don't know) again. I haven't played it since just before the Cataclysm update, but I had always thought about playing again. Then about a month ago I saw that Amazon was selling the box set for $20. You would get the basic set along with all the expansions up through Mists of Pandaria. That is a pretty good deal. And with all the talk of the new expansion (Warlords of Draenor) I started thinking about it even more.

So I went one day to Battle.net because I had read that you could play WOW for free up to level 20. I got the starter pack and began playing. It was fun and since Cataclysm shook everything up, the initial quests were different than I remembered. I was debating on whether I wanted to purchase the base game and start playing again.

Now fast forward to a couple days ago. (Yes, I could play for weeks without reaching level 20. I have this problem with continuously restarting characters. Ask my sister, she used to play WOW with me. Now, let me get back to my story. Thank you.) I logged onto the game to play and it pops up an ad saying that you can get the box set I talked about earlier for half off. Interest piqued. I went to Blizzards online store and saw that they were indeed selling it for $10. That was a deal I couldn't pass up. (And just to let you all know the sale is over.) So, I bought the game (all the way through Mists of Pandaria) and now have 30 days before I will have to start paying them to play.

There have been quite a few changes since I last played, not all of which I like. Now I haven't reached too high of level (my highest character is a 12^th level Dwarven Hunter) but I will talk about what I have experienced.

Like I said before, Cataclysm shook things up. And so quite a few of the starting quests have changed. Not all, but enough that it is like exploring a new … not sure if world is quite the right word but it is the one that comes to mind. So far I have only explored the Orc, Dwarf, and Gnome starting areas. When I reached Loch Modan I got to see some of the physical changes to the landscape. The lake there is nothing but a mud puddle now and the dam is basically gone.

The change that I am not sure I like very well is the way characters develop now. When I last played, you would get points that you used to select your skills with some of them being able to take multiple times to improve damage and such. This way you would be able to build your character they way you wanted to play. Now as you level, you unlock skill automatically. No more choosing which skills you want to concentrate on. You do get to pick a specialization when you reach level 10, and I have read in the game that you can pick a second specialization later which you can switch back and forth between the two specializations. But I still would prefer to be able to pick my skills.

I suppose that they went this route because they are trying to cater to what most serious, or hardcore, gamers call casual gamers. These are the people who play games for short periods of time and aren't likely to delve into the statistics of a game. They play it mostly for a distraction. Me, I am somewhere in between a hardcore and a casual gamer. I will get into the statistics of a game to a point, in other words just to help me finish the game. But I can, and probably would if it wasn't for outside influences (read my wife and kids), play for hours on end. I enjoy playing games for the story, which is why I tend to gravitate more to RPGs then any other genre.

Overall, I am enjoying the game but I am not sure how much time and money I am going to pump into it at this point. I will probably get a subscription for a couple of months since I did spend to money to buy it. So we shall see where I am at in a couple of months then.

Until next time … Write ya later.

Edit:

I know I hadn't posted this yet so I really don't need to do just an edit. But, I had already written the post and didn't want to re-write it since I had come across some new info about the game.

I was playing my Dwarven Hunter again and got him up to level 15. Apparently they do still do the training points though it looks like the skills you buy with them are enhancements to skills you already have.(ie: with my dwarf I had three different options to enhance my disengage ability. I don't remember what they all were but I chose to add a web to it so when I disengage from an enemy the will get stuck in place for a short period of time.)

Also, I have decided that I am going to create a human Warlock. I really do prefer to play magic types and a Warlock is pretty similar to a Hunter (which I also enjoy playing, just not as much).

Movies and stuff

I got some exciting news today...well, it's exciting to me.

I found out when the next Hobbit movie is coming out and I got to see a trailer for it. December 17. Yeah, yeah. I figured it was coming in December, but to finally get confirmation and an exact date just makes me squeal with geekery (yeah, I just made that up). I also read more about the up coming Avengers: Age of Ultron. Some pretty exciting stuff.

Speaking of Avengers, I have been getting more and more excited for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie. When they first announced the movie I wondered why they chose them. I hadn't been to big on the comic, in fact I don't think I ever gave them much attention except when they were mentioned in one of the comics I did read. I mean they have a talking raccoon. A talking RACCOON!?! How is a raccoon super heroic? Those were my thoughts anyways. So, I was never really excited about it.

But, talking raccoon aside (I have liked some of the raccoon's lines I have seen in the trailers) the closer it has gotten to the release date the more I have been interested in seeing the movie. First of all, it does have my favorite villain in it, Thanos (my second favorite is Dr. Doom). I mean, anyone that can go toe to toe with Odin the all-father is pretty cool in my book. There is also the fact that I am a geek and it is a comic book based movie and part of Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so...yeah. I am excited.

I also feel pretty unexcited by the prospect of an Ant Man movie. He is one of my least favorite Marvel characters. But maybe the trailers and my own geekiness will win me over for that one too.

In other news, my writing/game project has been sort of stagnant this last week. When I started thinking about doing the Generation Demigod story line again, I also started to think about doing my multiverse again. I am not sure what it is, whether it is the sheer magnitude of the project or my belief that I can't do it, but quite often when I think about this project I get lethargic with working on it. (Is that the right way to put it?) So, hopefully I can get over this and get back to working on my project (which ever it turns out to be).

But, I have to get my daughter to soccer practice so I shall...

Write ya later.