One of the things I do when I’m not writing is play World of Warcraft. Not as much as I used to, but still enough.
I am certain the game is making me get OCD, what with all the mounts, and achievements and vanity pets and tabards I have to get…
I am Horde – always have been, always will. My main is a Tauren Druid, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given how often Minotaurs crop up in my writing – though that predates playing WOW by many years.
I have been a Feral Druid since the start, which is a kind of druid that shapeshifts into a bear or a big cat to fight. The problem is that since game release the models have never changed – every druid, no matter their level or equipment, looks the same.
Finally, after four years of waiting, that is about to change. New skins are coming and the previews of the Tauren Bear Form have been released, with cat form to come later.
My Tauren is white skinned (and you may have run into a couple of those in Pure Escapism…) and, according to what we know so far, I should end up with the new white skinned polar bear form, and should also end up as a white lion. All very exciting.
Came across the following article at Strange Horizons, an online SF magazine, about what they don’t want to see more of – basically story ideas they have seen submitted too often.
I am fairly certain I’m not guilty of any of them, at least not recently.
A few examples from the list;
# Scientist uses himself or herself as test subject.
# Evil unethical doctor performs medical experiments on unsuspecting patient.
# In the future, criminals are punished much more harshly than they are today.
1. In the future, the punishment always fits the crime.
2. The author is apparently unaware of the American constitutional amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, and so postulates that in the future, American punishment will be extra-cruel in some unusual way.
# White protagonist is given wise and mystical advice by Holy Simple Native Folk.
Had a rather intriguing idea come to mind the last few days. Of course I don’t have time for any other new ideas so this one is just being made note of for future use – unless it really takes a hold and doesn’t let go.
I was watching a show the other day and there was an actor on it whose face I knew but I couldn’t place him from what. It bugged me for quite some time until I figured it out – he was one of Sean Bean’s men from National Treasure.
These treasure hunting movies and stories have always been a favourite of mine. As it happened I had also been looking at the Belgariad again. That series is the equivalent of junk food and Coke – it isn’t good for you but some days you just crave it.
The thought came to me that the whole prophecy thing in the Belgariad (and similar stories) is remarkably similar to the hidden clues that lead to the secret treasure. What if you were to combine the two…
And thus was born the idea of a character blessed by vision – but instead of using it to slay the evil god, save the world, but to get clues leading to the hidden treasure…
This post is, in a way, related to the previous post I made, on Dwarves vs Elves, though it goes beyond that.
There are a number of never ending debates out there. Some, such as Cats vs Dogs, are fairly widely known, whilst others are more localised and often unknown outside the more geekish elements of culture. These are things like Dwarves vs Elves, Werewolves vs Vampires, Pirates vs Ninjas.
I have a theory, though it has yet to be tested, that if you were to ask someone who they favoured, Cats or Dogs, you could pick with a fair degree of certainty their answers in the other debates.
Lets list a few and see what you choose.
Cats vs Dogs
Dwarves vs Elves
Pirates vs Ninjas
Werewolves vs Vampires
Romulans vs Klingons
Narn vs Centauri
Horde vs Alliance
Swords vs Sorcery
My theory is that if you went with dogs, you would be more likely to choose Dwarves, Pirates, Werewolves, Klingons, Narn, Horde and Swods. On the other side a cat person would be more likely to go for Elves, Vampires, Romulans, Centauri, Alliance and Sorcery. In my case I am a dog person and went every single choice on the dog side.
In thinking about his I labeled this as a debate between primal and intellectual.
The primal side is the wild side, doers, not thinkers. They react on instinct, are fierce and proud and often rely on brute force and ignorance to solve things.
The intellectual side is the exact opposite. It is the side of the thinkers, the refined and cultured types who prefer to plan and plot before acting.
Of course the primal side can go to far, becoming bloodthirsty and barbaric, yet on the other hand the intellectuals can become arrogant, spiteful, and petty.
And the worse villains. A primal villain will simply kill you. An intellectual villain is likely to take sadistic pleasure in victory and prolong the torment to let you know just who has won.
Dwarves or Elves. It is an old debate, and one, like Dogs or Cats and Pirates or Ninjas, is endlessly debated with no resolutions. On one side you have those who know the truth and on the other the recalcitrants that refuse to acknowledge what is obviously the truth. On one hand you have a race that is honourable, hard working, loyal, dependable and on the other is an arrogant, proud, xenophobic people with delusions of superiority.
But now that debate can be put to rest. The Dwarves and Elves themselves debated this very topic, and the winner is obvious for all to see.
For myself I have always been a fan of Dwarves, ever since I can remember. Early influences were of course Narnia, The Black Cauldron and of course The Hobbit.
Dwarves, unfortunately, have never had the respect they deserve, unlike those upstart Elves, and have become more and more likely to be used as comic relief, and as badly stereotyped Scotsmen.
In the early days, back when I was a teen, I also liked the Elves. But as I got older the more Elves began to annoy me, until now days I hate them with a burning passion. Why the change of opinion? It is because I grew up in my opinion. Elves appeal to teenagers, as they share the same superior, know-it-all attitude. Lets face it Elves, as normally written, are arrogant, angsty and superior at everything. (The Inheritance series is a classic example of this, and, not surprisingly, written by a teenager. Vegan elves who wear leather? Think a bit harder.) The there is the fact that Tolkien’s Elves have been ripped off so badly and often it is beyond a joke.
Elves of today are a far cry of Elves of mythology, which is why I like Pratchett’s Elves, whom are vicious and evil and malevolent, just the way Elves should be.
When I started writing in my world, my aim was to have Dwarves front and centre, to make them in my world what Elves were in Tolkien’s – the superior race. Looking back, I probably overdid it a bit, but I was young then, and since then have wound it back a bit until the current situation where they are no longer Dwarves as commonly seen, but a race called the Arduq, ancient and mysterious, spirits of earth who emerge rarely from the deep deserts on tasks few understand or can fathom. Hairless and beardless, their skins are the colours of stones and metals and they also work alongside the dragons. They are sometimes called Dwarves, but that is a result of a mistranslation of one of the names they give themselves – The Diminished.
Elves also existed int he early days of the creation of the world, and were, sadly, clones of Tolkien’s Elves. As my opinions of Elves changed, so did their place and role in my world. I am still deciding exactly how, if at all, to use them. Their current role is that of of a race called the Aelfir, a race not of the world of Sharael and who fill a role somewhere between that of a Vampire and a Wraith. Not a pleasant people, but there are exceptions.
It is often hard to judge a movie by a preview. Sometimes the only good bits are in the preview and the rest of the movie is terrible.
The most recent preview of the upcoming Terminator Salvation movie, the forth in the series, certainly looks very very good. Hopefully the rest of the movie is just as good.
Sam Worthington, who plays Marcus Wright, is an Aussie, and one you’ll be seeing a lot more of. Besides the role in this movie, he has the lead in another Sci-Fi movie coming out later on, Avatar. He was recommended for the role in Terminator Salvation by James Cameron, who directed him in Avatar, (though Avatar is coming out after Terminator).
Terminator 2 is one of my favourite movies, a real ‘guilty pleasure.’ The Terminator movies, along with a few other Sci-Fi influences (notably 2000 AD’s Rogue Trooper) were to play a large part in a sci-fi setting I created many years ago to write in, and specifically a colony world that had descended into rampant warfare, where crippled soldiers were sent back into the frey after being heavily ‘cybered’ up. One of these days I plan to return to it, but for now I shall enjoy T4 when it comes out.
There are days I wish I had a save button so I could reload.
Case in point yesterday.
Was driving making a pickup and just short of home there was a dull clunk from the engine and the car stopped. Two hours later after getting roadside assist and a tow to a mechanic, who luckily lived just near my place, the news wasn’t good. Cam belt broke. Bad news was in my type of engine that tends to mess up the valves. Won’t find out to Monday morning when they get a chance to look, but it is most likely the result, and if that is so the car will be out of action for one to two weeks and cost a fair bit to fix.
Not enough that it would be easier to get a new car, but far more than I want, given I’m not exactly overflowing with funds and am still unemployed. Will force me to dip into the emergency funds, but unfortunately I need the car. They have been accessed far too often these last few months.
Hopefully things improve soon otherwise I may be out on the street 😛
Everyone loves zombies it seems – but no on asks the Zombies what they think of things, so I started a small blog, done from the persona of a zombie, writing about zombies and zombie related matters.
It is just a simple bit of fun – nothing too serious and should only take up a few minutes a day to update. Got a few more posts ready to go, but the plan is to spread them out over a bit more time and not do all at once. 🙂
Special zombie points to those that can pick the references in the first couple of posts.
I’ve finally gone and joined Twitter, though it did take a while. I am, oddly, a mix of both technophile and technophobe and also heavily cynical towards bandwagons and the next big things.
On the technophile side I’ve been using computers since the early 80’s and the internet since the early 90s – my current computer is something of a beast, specifically bought as a high end gaming computer. I am also always interested in hearing of new scientific and technologial discoveries.
On the ‘phobe side, it took me the longest time to get a mobile phone, and then only because I needed it for work. Even now it is still an extremely basic model – can’t take photos or movies or has colour screen or anything like that. Likewise things like Facebook, Twitter, etc I tend to sheer away from.
But I have been convinced that Twitter may be a useful tool to have for my writing so I am giving it a go.
There is a very basic feed of it on the sidebar – apparently wordpress doesn’t support the Twitter badge properly, so at some stage I will have to look into ways to improve the look of what is there.
Anyhow, feel free to peruse it, even though there may not be much happening on it for a while.
Well, Empire Total War came out today, and I am going to have to be very careful that it doesn’t end up as too much of a distraction. I don’t want to wake up in five months and find I have done hardly any writing.
So this is going to be a major test, to see whether I can pace myself properly and not let it distract me. I think I may need to set some rules – only play X amount of time a day and only after writing X amount of words.
Mist and Shadows 