Great review today by crime fiction reviwer Margaret Cannon in her Globe and Mail Books column (boldface mine):

13½
By Nevada Barr, Vanguard Press, 320 pages, $32.95

This is not an Anna Pigeon novel, but Barr’s legions of fans shouldn’t pass it by. This stand-alone thriller is one of Barr’s best books ever and, once begun, it’s hard to stop reading her harrowing story of bloody murder.

In a note at the beginning, Barr says she has had the idea of a story about a child who murders his family for several years. Her killer is 11-year-old Dylan Raines, “the Butcher Boy” who, in 1968, killed his parents, baby sister and family cat with an axe. The only survivor of the carnage was his older brother, Rich, who, seriously injured, managed to call for help. Rich stands by his little brother through a decade in a juvenile facility and then a new life in New Orleans.

But Dylan hasn’t changed, not really. And as love, in the form of a gallant and lovely woman, herself brutally abused as a child, comes into his life, it appears that the old secrets and fears of the past are about to emerge and explode in her present.

Barr builds this story with her usual intelligence and knack for chilling suspense. You will figure out the “who” on this one pretty fast. It’s the “why” that intrigues, and she saves that one for the very final pages.

Published by Vanguard

Enjoy your thanksgiving in this world of shit. peace.

Transformer art

Been playing alot of Vanguard lately, as EQ2 is in that uncomfortable in between stage where it feels as if we should have an expansion but the expansion is still a few months away. Vanguard allows for the exploration I love to do to really take over, as everywhere in the world of Telon there are scenic views that make for lovely screenshots. Getting there is sometimes difficult, but the chance to see the beauty of the world Sigil created is all worth it.

My little shaman is trying to get to level 21, a bit more than halfway there and he’s been making the tour of the chunks looking for easy quests and things to kill. My wanderings near Silverlake took me to a chunk in northern Thestra called Coastal Graveyard, which is a bit higher level than I am but beautiful to look at. In Coastal Graveyard the story is that the lord decreed three lighthouses to be built after the original lighthouse was unable to keep the beacon lit during a storm. Any engineer can appreciate the redundancy of a plan such as that.

This is the view from one of the lighthouses that is still in good hands. Unfortunately the graveyard in the name comes from the ridiculous amount of undead that have taken over the chunk. I’m not sure where they came from, corruption from the haunted ruins of Trengal Keep to the south maybe? Regardless, the undead are a plague on the land here.

One of the lighthouses is now under control of the undead, and down along the coastline is an impressive collection of wrecked ships of all continental styles, with their crews as eternal ghostly guardians of course. The amazing detail of something like this is wonderful to see, and in this image you can see the corrupted lighthouse out on the point and a shallow harbor with wreckage filling it. Dangerous as heck for someone my level, but really beautiful to see.

More from Telon coming soon, including my adventures in home ownership (I hope!) See you soon!

One thing i didn’t like about the transformer movie is that sound wave didn’t get alot of time. Hes a major character in the transformer universe hopefully he gets some more burn in the next film.

Soundwave

And here is one of the songs from the ninja assassin movie. Sounds like an old wu-tang song to me. The movie looks hot im in there like swimwear..lol

I have it.   And as usual, its a chain reaction.  I’ve been swamped at work, with some major things going down, that probably won’t be resolved fully for another month or so.

Artwork by Dale Wicks, visit his site and see his other awesome prints!

And once I get hit at work, it pushes my game time.  In part because I have less time to play, and in part because by the time I get home, get family stuff done, and hit my usual playing time, I can’t bring myself to do much more than stare at the computer screen.  I’m either so stressed or so exhausted that its hard to get over that hump.  It helps having a good corp in EVE that I can just log on and chat with.  Even if I decline to do much of anything with them, they understand, presumably because they’ve been there before too.  (The two month long long marathon to Cruiser V/Med. Turret V/Weapon Upgrades V/Hull Upgrades V doesn’t help either, esp. coming after the corp required two week long starbase gunner training.)

So the best way to break malaise is with something new and exciting and shiny right?  I’m sure the two weeks of Conan will pass pleasently, but unless I stumble into a good guild, I don’t think I’ll be resubbing there at the moment.  Honestly, I’ve contemplated two paths.

There's no giant yellow question marks or red dots - how do I know which way to go?!

One is Everquest II.  Its still by far the only fantasy MMO that has “the complete package.”  Fun crafting, solo and group adventuring, housing, and tradition behind it (I get goosebumps and flashbacks when I hear the main theme redux on the loading screen).  And I have a waiting guild invite.  It would mean either transferring my character or starting fresh (tempting here is the new box version at Best Buy – start a new account, with two months free, and all expansions, and 500 Station Cash, for $20).   I could also go the Access Pass route, tempting because this is my favorite time of the year to play Vanguard (Randolph the Free Flying Mount!), which still has my favorite class to play out of any game out there.  Plus, Pirates.  On the flip side – if I start a new account for EQ2 , it won’t be linked with my Station Pass sadly.  And none of it is really new – so will it help my malaise?

The other option is a pretty oddball one, but it might just work.  I missed the glory days of DAoC.  And I still kick myself for it.  WAR is really nothing more than a stripped down kiddy version of DAoC.  I asked around on the forums and it seems there might be a few guilds left kicking over there that would be willing to take a complete noob in and help him level and show him the ropes.  The downside is that population is down, and so finding friends to just go explore and grind with might be difficult.  As one responder said to me “Most people PvE to powerlevel. Almost no one does it for the content anymore because everyone has done it.”  So there is the inherent frustration – what will be new to me will be ho hum to all others.  I don’t suppose I could convince some one out there to go in with me to make for a better experience for us both eh?  Normally I’d drag my brother in, but between EVE and FE and WoW he’s got his hands full already…

So there’s my dilemma in a nutshell.  And what good is having a blog if you can’t share your dilemma’s and find aid for your DMD (decision making disorder)?  Even if you don’t respond, if you’ve made it this far, I feel better just knowing that through transference I might have a chance at another saving throw to overcome this Paralyze status ftw.  ::wink wink::

A story in today’s Vanguard regarding the desire of Nigerian starlet Sani Emmanuel to start a foundation for less privileged youths and use every proper means to discover the talented ones…

MOST Valuable Player, MVP, and Silver shoe winner of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, Nigeria 2009, Sani Emmanuel, has dedicated his award to less privileged youths as he also promised to fund a foundation that would cater for them.

Sani, a product of My People FC, a club owned and funded by Pastor TB Joshua of Synagogue Church of All Nations made the pledge yesterday in a Thanksgiving Service which was attended by former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba among other dignitaries. In an emotion-laden voice, Sani whose life typifies that of rags to riches said that he would use whatever God gives him in football to touch the lives of others.

Sani Emmanuel With Golden Ball And Silver Shoe

“I came from nowhere before TB Joshua catered and nurtured me into prominence. I promise to also help others of my type.” Also speaking, Goalkeeper of the Eaglets who could not control tears said that he conquered injury through the prayers of TB Joshua to become the number one goalkeeper of Eaglets. “My case was hopeless as I left hospital. My coach gave me four days to recover or be thrown out of camp. But through the help of Wasiu, Pastor Joshua promised to pray for me. It was like a miracle when I woke up one day and could not realise I had injury.”

Pastor Joshua said that what was important for the players was discovery more than the trophy and promised that some of the players of the U-17 would play themselves into reckoning in World football.

SOURCE: Vanguard, All Africa

Wer sich derzeit in WoW einloggt der stellt schnell fest “so richtig voll ist es nicht”. Um das mal mit Zahlen zu unterfüttern für Aman’Thul gilt dabei daß teilweise bis in den Nachmittag hinein in IF nur 20-30 Leute stehen. Da war es ja teilweise Nachts um 3 Uhr voller – vor Jahren.

Natürlich hat das auch Auswirkungen auf die Gruppenbildung und das Angebot im AH. Und an der Stelle holt Luna dann mal wieder den großen Prügel raus und sagt “selber schuld.” Gäbe es nicht nicht das dumme Fraktions-System sondern ein KoS wie in Vanguard dann hätte man auch ein einziges, weltweites AH-System installieren können. In Der Folge wären die Angebote im AH doppelt so hoch und es wäre für einen einzelnen viel schwieriger das Wirtschaftssystem des Spieles zu beeinflussen.

Und natürlich wäre es auch leichter Gruppen für Instanzen zu finden. Wenn es auch Allianz schon mau ausschaut dann will ich gar nicht wissen wie es der armen Horde ergeht. Jedem MMO-Entwickler rate ich deshalb wirklich 3x zu überlegen ob er wirklich auf ein Fraktions-System setzen will.

November, Dezember, Januar & Februar sind die 4 Monate denen ich vom Grunde her am ehesten bescheinigen würde sehr geeignet für ein MMO zu sein, aber auf den EU Servern spiegelt sich das derzeit nicht wieder.

Luna

This is an annual event that i always go to every year. Its good to see that the turn-outs are becoming better as the year goes by. Its always a good look for me i advise you if you are into the vintage clothing scene to check it out.  You can find out by going to the event why for the select few veiw this is a lifestyle rather than a fad.

lo-life bbq 4th annual

And here is some footage from the event. It was funny watching it because i spotted myself in the footage. Im only in there for a couple of a seconds but it was funny to me nonetheless. Enjoy the footage….peace.

Sitting in class on youth culture, staring at a panel of youth pastors discussing the churches response ot Youth culture, GenY.

The panel is:

• Eric Wayman, Small group/families pastor, Rock Harbor
• Tyler Carroll, Pastor of Student Ministries, Rock Harbor
• Jeremy Zach, Pastor to Students, Laguna Hills Evangelical Free church

Its interesting to see the different responses from the two churches, buch less the three pastors. Those from Rock Harbor are coming at the questions from a “how do we get in touch with a large group of people“, kind of like a business model of church leadership attempting to disciple people in a communal way, while Jeremy Zach is from a small church, dealing with issues of shepherding small groups of people – with a main focus on discipling people, and working against specific culture norms on a one on one basis.

Im loving watching and listening. It’s great.

Das Klassen-Konzept aus Aion oder Dragon Age:Origins mit den “zersplitternden Klassen” ab Stufe 10/15 ist ein altes. Es gab Zeiten da hat man Archetypen-Konzept dazu gesagt. EQ hatte es. EQ2 bis es rausgepacht wurde. Vanguard hatte es nicht und das aus gutem Grund – “an sich” hat das Konzept nämlich seine Erfolglosigkeit bewiesen.

Im direkten Wettbewerb mit einem WoW war es unterlegen. Wir erinnern uns – einst hatte EQ1 das MMO Monopol und eines der Dinge die WoW besser machte war die Abkehr von den Archetypen. Wenn ich die Talent-Spec aus WoW umbenenne in Klassen und die Klassen in Archetypen dann hätte ein WoW 30x Klassen. Aber wäre dem heutigen WoW trotzdem unterlegen.

Wobei ? Bei der Klassenbindung. Es gibt sehr sehr viele Spieler die sich mit ihrer Klasse die sie spielen identifizieren. Diese Identifikation findet schon sehr früh statt – die Spieler wollen wissen was die erwartet wenn sie ihre Klasse entwickeln und das vom ersten Tage an. Was für das Archetypen Konzept spricht ist der leichte Einstieg für RPG-fremde Spieler. Wer nicht weiß was er will der kann im Laufe des Spiels an seine Klasse “herangeführt” werden.

Was für das Archetypen Konzept spricht – es ist billig. Ich spare mir am Ende die Individualiserung innerhalb der (Sub-) Klassen und optimiere die Gewinne der großen Publisher.

Luna

Watch my new bag…………Watch my bag.

louie vuitton bag

And here is latest comic i recently picked up . Red she-hulk kicks ass……lol

hulk 16

and here is another song from the jay-z album on to the next one. very dope track. peace.

Von Hause aus komme ich auch der RPG-Ecke und in der geniest BioWare einen guten Ruf. Nachdem so manches in letzter Zeit mir aber nicht mehr gefallen hat kaufe ich RPG-Spiele trotzdem nicht blind sondern erst nach eingehender Prüfung. Oder auch gar nicht.

Letzteres gilt für Dragon Age: Origins – das bleibt hübsch da wo es hingehört nämlich im Laden. Die Grafik finde ich für ein offline Spiel indiskutabel mies – selbst ein 3 Jahre altes DDO kann das besser. An der Stelle rentiert sich es eben dann doch nicht eine eigene Engine zu entwickeln. Natürlich kostet eine “richtige” Engine Geld aber die Leute die für die selbst entwickelte Engine verantwortlich sind leben doch auch nicht nur von Luft und Liebe. Zwar hat das Vanguard Desaster bewiesen daß man auch ein Spiel mit einer richtigen Engine gegen die Wand fahren kann – das ist aber eher dem herumpfuschen der Programmierer bei Sigil geschuldet und nicht der unreal2.5. Spätestens seit Aion sollte der Mehrwert einer professionelle Engine auch dem dümmsten Amerikaner klar sein.

Hauptmangel Nummer 2 sind die Anzahl der Klassen mit nur 3 Stück. Die wenigen Klassen habe ich bei Aion bemängelt, bei SW:ToR und nun auch bei DA:O. Ich fand die 7 Klassen mit denen ein LotRO gestartet ist schon viel zu wenig – ich kann mit 3 Klassen nicht leben.

Das schlimme ist daß sich die Konzepte von DA:O und SW:ToR ziemlich ähneln. Ich glaube nicht daß ich SW:ToR kaufen werde …

Luna

For the last year or so I have discovered Current via iTunes and it’s great! I love Infomania, Vanguard, Supernews, and VC2. The best thing about Current is it’s innovative usage of citizen journalism. Probably the best thing Al Gore ever did(Yes, that includes An Inconvenient Truth). So, hopefully you can understand that Current moving towards more traditional programming is making me nervous. Let’s just hope that Current doesn’t become the New MTV.

Everyone loves lists. Here’s mine for top 3 best free-to-play MMORPGs currently out.

1. Duh! Runes of Magic: It’s more like a subscription based game than any other F2P out right now. It’s unique with some great features that I think all MMORPGs should have top being the aggregator which lets you make your armor look exactly how you wish, even detailing colors, but still retaining any stats from uber armor drops you’ve obtained. Housing, crafting, many mini-games, and a focus on more horizontal play while still offering traditional leveling and other vertical game play features make it my favorite.

2. Atlantica Online: I wrestled with putting this here as I think it’s better classified as a MMOSRPG(with less role playing). But great graphics and the difference in game play is what makes it stand out. It’s a lot of fun.

3. Shaiya: much like any of the other dozens of “Asian Grinders”, you progress the same. Kill kill, and kill a lot more. But Shaiya has great smooth running servers and terrific graphics. The massive PvP aspect is nice to pitting thousands of players simultaneously in faction wars across very large zone maps.

Right now I’m playing RoM(of course). I have 71 diamonds now. I’ve been perusing the auction house looking for alternative sources of fast money, but every thing’s closely balanced. I noticed essence crystals in Necropolis of Mirrors are making about 10K each, which is cool, but the drop rate is too low for me. My knight’s damage isn’t good, so it takes me a long time kill mobs. Other classes my level can kill the same mob in maybe 2-3 hits, when it literally takes me 30 seconds to a whole minute to down 1 mob(my sucky gear also plays a part). So I’m looking, but back to gathering in the meantime.

I’m also in the Alganon beta. My bad connection isn’t helping the already unstable server they have running, no doubt at peak population allowance. Don’t have too much to say about it yet. I’m level 6 now, and starting to study and buy into crafting. I am curious. I guess so far, the world looks nice. It’s stylized a bit more detailed than WoW but with a similar look in the larger textures.

Finally I am sort of trying out Dungeons and Dragons Online Eberron Unlimited(such a long title). Graphics and movement seem good, but I’ve only played a few hours total so far. I need more time on it before making any kind of decision or review.

I’m looking to play a lot longterm. I downloaded Battleforge but can’t play it until I have a dedicated connection. I don’t really hold any hopes for it. It’s a hybrid Trading Card Game/Realtime Strategy MMO. It uses advanced graphic technology and is different, so I want to try it.

I tried downloading Chronicles of Spellborn but proceeded to get a file error while installing. I’ll try DL’ing it again soon.

I’m downloading the Allods Beta client. I’m mostly interested in it for an immersion factor. It looks like it could offer a lot more immersion than any other F2P game I’ve tried. They mention crafting mini-games which has me cringing but still curious too. Why? mainly because all existing F2P games are all outside worlds. There’s always a lack of buildings, and even the buildings they do have are solid. You can’t go in them. That somehow breaks immersion for me on multiple levels. Allods looks like it could have quite a large world, and much larger cities with many districts and many buildings in each district that would really set it apart from any F2P out right now(if you really can go in them all or most of them-which it looks like you can). The graphics also look nice to me.

For pay MMORPGs?(the above so far have all been F2P games).

World of Warcraft has me a bit frustrated. I was offline 3 months, but always had a 2 month time card for WoW collecting dust. Now that I’m back online, almost full time, I wanted to get my account ready for a return. It was around this time that they were recently stating about the account mergers to battle.net, but it was before the deadline.

I totally forgot my username and pass(only having vague ideas of the dozen different combos it could be). I went to the forgot pass page, but no matter what I typed in I got “This account has been merged with Battle.net, you need to handle it from there”. Ooookay so I went to battle.net, tried signing in(knowing I didn’t make an account there), and of course, they said I had to sign up. As a side note. I know what email I used to create my WoW account and used it for Battle.net thinking it would give me the same old “This email is already associated with an account”, but nope it let me sign up. So then I tried figuring things out to find that I had to do a merge process. But wait WoW said my character or account was already merged, didn’t it? So I try it anyway which asks me for my WoW account info, which I don’t have. So I click on can’t remember which shoots me back to the WoW page where I started!!! I’m stuck in this aggravating loop. So, I’m going to set some time aside soon to call and try to speak with a real CS person.

I also definitely want to play Vanguard. I know I do. I read extensively on the game and played the trial. I just am waiting to buy a new graphics card and pay for maybe a year subscription.

I also would really like to try EverQuest 2 out.

I’m looking at some games right now and haven’t decided yet if I want to try them, or if I’ll have fun with them.

Fallen Earth seems interesting, but like with some other games, I’m mostly curious about its crafting system.

I’m kinda curious about that new space MMO(Jumpgate Evolution(??)) that is down the road.

There was one final MMORPG that I was following but it seemed to fall off the news radar. I can’t remember the name but its big claim to fame was server side patching. It was supposed to be entirely operated on the server end allowing for live on the fly patching which in turn allowed for ease and quickness of implementing many changes often and live events. If you remember the name, please let me know, thanks.

What’s everyone else playing and looking forward to?

Only a face a mother can love… don’t you think….lol

Long haul head

And here is a blast from the past scarface money and the power…great song people still can relate to this even today.

• Santos wants continuation of war on drugs [Colombia Reports]
• Chavez once again asks Obama to give up Nobel [Beunos Aires Herald]
• Peru takes arms reduction proposal to governments in the region [Peruvian Times]
• Algiers rocked by second day of marches [World News Network]
• Nigeria’s crude oil production hits 2.4 million bpd [Vanguard]
• CNDP Chief Kamanzi resigns [All Africa News]
• Monuc accused of sharing intelligence with FDLR leaders [The New Times]
• Record high Somali refugees land on Yemeni shores [IRIN]
• World hunger increases despite growth in food production [FAO]
• AIDS commission takes new direction in prevention [Plus News]
• Burundians hand in thousands of weapons [IRIN]
• Guinea – Humanitarian Update [IRIN]
• In Afghanistan, over 2,000 civilians killed in first 10 months of 2009 [Various]
• Car suicide attack kills four, injures 26 in Badhaber, Pakistan [Dawn]

Here is another piece of art from the transformers 2 movie which is out on dvd, awesomeness.

Holographic locater

And last but not least here is a great song from the group staind, fade. Art imitates life in most cases. peace.

「VANGUARD」
exist†trace

霧もやの中静かに流れる誰かの歌そっと
雫の様に煌めく音色は奏でる鼓動の譜を

牙を剥き噛み砕け瞳が開く前に
震えるその声を今そっと聞かせて

夕もやの中艶めく狂喜と苦悩の歌響く

牙を剥き噛み砕け瞳が開く前に
震えるその声を焦がして

限りなく青く深く透き通る空の元へ
いつか帰れるのなら
限りある世界に一人傷付いて倒れようとも
まだ鼓動は巡り傷を癒す

朝もやの様に色付く 音色は奏でる想像の譜を

牙を剥き噛み砕け瞳が開く前に
震えるその声を焦がして

限りなく高く遠く気まぐれな曇の様に
いつか自由になるなら
限りある時間の中に 迷い込み壊れそうでも
まだ鼓動は眠る君を探す

限りなく青く深く透き通る空の元へ
いつか帰れるのなら
限りある世界に一人傷付いて倒れようとも
まだ鼓動は巡り傷を癒す

牙を剥き噛み砕け瞳が開く前に
震えるその声を焦がして
牙を剥き噛み砕け理性が目覚める前に
途切れた感覚を焦がして

~♦~

‘VANGUARD’
by exist†trace

Someone’s song quietly drifting through the mist,
softly glinting like droplets, the timbre plays the notes of the beat

Bare your fangs and bite before the eyes open,
now softly let that trembling voice be heard

A song of gleaming ecstasy and agony resounds in the night

Bare your fangs and bite before the eyes open,
scorch that trembling voice

Toward the source of the limitlessly blue, deep, transparent sky,
if one day I am to return
even if I collapse, alone and hurt in a world with boundaries,
the beat will still come round and heal my wounds

Changing colour like the morning, the timbre plays the notes of imagination

Bare your fangs and bite before the eyes open,
scorch that trembling voice

Like the limitlessly high, distant, and fickle cloudy sky,
if one day you become free
even if you’re about to break and lose your way within time that has boundaries,
the beat will still search for you who sleep

Toward the source of the limitlessly blue, deep, transparent sky,
if one day I am to return
even if I collapse, alone and hurt in a world with boundaries,
the beat will still come round and heal my wounds

Bare your fangs and bite before the eyes open,
scorch that trembling voice,
Bare your fangs and bite before reason awakens,
scorch your senses that were interrupted