2/1/2007 - More "Warcraft" and Ode to an Old Freind Still going at it with "World of Warcraft," with the character getting a little punch to him and able to make some fairly decent items. Looking for hints and locations, found a couple more helpful websites, Allakkhazam's Magical Realm and World of Warcraft Maps.

But this week has a touch of sadness to it. It was five years ago that I heard my online friend and fellow online writer Paul Gibbs passed away. Jennifer Anderson did a recent picture in tribute for him. Paul's site, the Sah'aaran Embassy remains up as a memorial to him. Futher comments can be found here.

Rest in peace, Paul

1/15/2007 - On the Warpath with Warcraft It was probably inevitable after getting broadband. Especialy since some of my friends play it, and double especialy after getting it for Christmas.

I finaly joined the multitudes scrapping in Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft. And the game does look great. The crisp graphics, the HUGE map that it can take days of gameplay to walk across, etc. It does get a bit "laggy" at times on this old computer, but not enough to stop me from playing.

And so I've been going at it with some old friends, and a few new ones, as a "Horde" Tauren character. My friends also play that side, and the Alliance has gotten something of a reputation of being dominated by powerleveling kids with little sense of fair play. My friends, almost all Tauren, have been a bit help in figuring things out, and paitent in putting up with my "lag" and all the bull jokes, "Moooooving right along," "Don't have a cow, man," "That cultist is wearing a red cape - CHARGE!". :-D

And for more hints, WoW Gameamp, which I found on a websearch (in the middle of several pages of nothing else but buying and selling WoW gold on eBay) has been some help.

I haven't spent all my free time on "World of Warcraft." I have been starting work on another story. Will have it up sooner or later.

12/23/2006 - MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Writer's Block.

Recently got a cable modem, so have been going about and enjoying what one can do with high-speed internet. Have been able to watch those film clips sent by friends and family without going off and doing something else for five to ten minutes. But it's been more than that. I've finally been able to get on the multiplayer functions of some games of mine, such as "Halo" and "Medal of Honor." Trouble is, someone like me well past college-age and working a living tends to end up getting the worst of it when up against teenagers spending practicaly all their free time here. Maybe I should start calling myself "Pawned" on these games for a player name (for those not in the know, to clobber someone in a shooting game).

More recently, have been taking a look at the place one of my Trek buddies was bragging about in the past, Second Life ( Wikipedia entry ). So far, it's been much like what this news reporter described. Even with my high-speed net, details take a while to load, and things have been a bit "laggy" (slow). But when things go right, the detail in this virtual world can be really great. What sets this place apart from most other places on the 'net is that most of the content is made by other players, and the makers, Linden Labs, recognize the intelectual property rights of the owners. It has gotten the attention of the news media, big business, musicians, and politicians.

I guess I'll stick around, especialy as the basic membership is free ;-). To own virtual land, one needs to pay several bucks a month, but I think I'll pass on being the proud owner of what some friends and family of mine would see as nothing but ones and zeros.

10/25/2006 - Update My friend Richard McCluney has been busy lately. He's started a novel-in-progress, Something Wonderful This Way Comes. He's also been doing some research for it, which gets stored on his blog, Richard's Research.

If I can't come up with anything new, I'll find those who can. ;-)

10/23/2006 - Just a note I'm still around, and I think I uploaded everything. But having trouble coming up with anything new. Seems I can stare at a blank screen or sheet of paper for over an hour, and come up with nothing. Had a few ideas, but inspiration left me after a page or two. And looking at the majority of these ideas, they seem a bit depressing. I did a sketch to cheer up an Internet friend after she mentioned she was depressed, that's all. Trying work on another bit of art, not satisfied with the results.

A case of "to be continued ..."

9/16/2006 - New Server/Solar System Shakeup The hosting service we used to do business with pulled the plug, then demanded triple the price to resume. Well, instead we went with another one, a little cheaper than the old price and hopefully more reliable too. Will spend the next few days rebuilding things.

But the old size limit is gone, so I can put up new links, such as the Pardus game a friend told me about, and discuss space news again, like the mess over the Solar System this summer.

Recently "Xena," or "2003 UB313" as it was technicaly known, was given an official name. With all the fuss it caused, it was appropriate that it was named for a Greek goddess of discord: Eris. It's moon, nicknamed "Gabriel," was named for a Greek goddess of lawlessness, Dysnomia. With the actress playing Xena being "Lucy Lawless," the decsion must've been made either in humor, a nod to those who had grown attatched to the nickname, or perhaps both.

No word yet from either Mrs. Lawless, or from the Vatican, which must have smirked as it still gets flak from the hard line it took on Comprenicus and Galelio.

6/3/2006 - Another Freighter Strip The response from the first guest strip I did for Bill Redfern's Freighter comic was so good, I felt I had to do another. So I did. You can find the resuts here. And the Freefall board thread is still getting comments.

5/13/2006 - SETI Art A friend at work, no not the UFO/Conspiracy buff, had an idea for what he thought would be a good sci-fi story, aliens suing SETI for violating their privacy. I thought it made a better cartoon.

So here it is.

Gave him a copy, which ended up on the workplace lockers, "My two seconds of fame." While he likes it, he wishes it could be put up on the New York Times or some other well-known publication.

Maybe we need that guy on "Boston Legal" that William Shattner plays.

5/4/2006 - Freighter Tale Bill Redfern's Freighter comic has been inactive for some time. Still, it retains a group of fans that keeps talking about it despite the hiatuses. Bill himself has admitted to a little procrastination. So, I wondered what I could come up with if I did a strip on what would likely happen after the last scene posted.

So I went to work, and came up with something. The results are on the Freighter's bulliten board . There are additional comments on the Freefall board , including a little poem.

Poor Mizkitti, she never gets a break. Neither do her shipmates.

A friend gave me an idea for another comical drawing. After that, may just do another Freighter tale if Bill keeps napping. ;-)

4/10/2006 - New Artwork for Freedom Finally got around to some new artwork, inspired by a scene in the Trek sim.

Unfortunetly, it turns out the server for this website has a storage limit, and I've reached it's limit. So it will be on the Freedom's gallery page only, as will all further Trek-related art from here on.

Been a bit busy lately, and this storage limit puts a complication on plans for this webite. What happens next? Not sure.

12/26/2005 - MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Writer's Block, although a day late.

Finished a new story, Selectve Breeding . Special thanks to Saia Kferr for editing it for errors. Richard McCluney was also an inspiration with his ideas in "Cool Regime Change."

I'm not entirely happy with the story, or rather it's theme, which is a bit pessimistic and grim at times. Maybe I'm just worried my viewpoint on things is getting sour and moody as I get older.

Have been working a little on art as well, but so far have been having to start over after mishaps. Hopefully will have something up soon. Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

11/28/2005 - Comic The FKA's "Hornet" newsletter is still down, so the comic I did for it is up in the Gallery ahead of it.

11/24/2005 - HAPPY THANKSGIVING from the Writers Block.

Yes, I did do some new artwork, a cartoon for the FKA newsletter USS Hornet. But as it's been delayed, so has the release of the 'toon.

Hoping to have something else up soon, but not sure if I can keep the pace up as Christmas is coming, along with the shopping in crowded malls, and the time spent in that comes out of writing and sketching.

11/14/2005 - Cleanup Skimmed through the site a little, ditching inactive sites and some link exchanges that dropped mine. Also, "Sailor Poison" has a new PG/PG-13 rated pixel online comic called Redman. And added a drawing for a couple freinds into the Gallery.

11/07/2005 - Still More New Artwork We're on a roll. Another USS Freedom pic for the Gallery. Starring the characters Halfpipe and Melvin, they finally get their long awaited pictures.

Now, what to draw next ...

10/31/2005 - HAPPY HALLOWEEN We have still more artwork, a "trick and treat" for Mark Stanley's "Freefall." Check out the Gallery to see.

10/25/2005 - More New Artwork Another picture in the Gallery, this one for the USS Freedom . I think I made up for the cutsie stuff.

10/24/2005 - New Artwork The Gallery has some new art, a tribute to a friend and her little girl. More to come.

10/4/2005 - We're Back I finally got a new monitor for the old Mac computer, which had the files and pics I needed. Freind told me some PC monitors would work on it if the plug matched. Well, it did, and the site's all back together now.

I have taken down the two incomplete stories, Station 23 and The Hunt. I may do something with the latter later on. Suspended the "Joke of the Day," for now.

Thinking what to do next. Will do some artwork soon, but what? Further on? Another story? I have given a little thought to an online comic, but how many of you would be willing to keep tabs on a strip featuring lame art, corny jokes, and probably not updating more than once a week, maybe less.

9/22/2005 - Taking a Break If any thing can go wrong ...

Until fairly recently, I updated the website from the Mac. When the monitor blew out, I expected to get another soon. And there was the "Wayback Machine" website, so I only backed up a few pages. Well, it turns out "Wayback" can't get them all.

It is frustrating. So I'm taking a break to collect my thoughts.

Maybe a break is what I need. I haven't had much inspiration for new stories, and now I have trouble keeping track of my old ones.

9/09/2005 - Rebuilding In the shuffle to change servers, my hosting service lost the entire contents of my website. It'll take some time to find everything and put it back up.

8/31/2005 - Move over Camile What a mess. A couple years ago, my home was without power for a while after a hurricane moved through the area. Now New Orleans and parts of southern Mississippi are dealing with total destruction after that monster storm went through. Some Mississippi towns & cities were practicaly wiped out. New Orleans was flooded after it's system of pumps and levies failed. Entire populations evacuated, and now face their homes and jobs gone. Those that stayed have that and more, problems with fresh food and water. It's going to take months for the area to recover. It'll probably be smaller as well with some people getting homes and jobs elsewhere.

8/23/2005 - Back from Vacation/Outage Just when I get back from vacation, I find the website is down. It's back up now, sorry for the inconvienence.

8/11/2005 - Vacation Will be gone for about a week. Maybe the quiet time will provide some inspiration for stories.

7/28/2005 - Shuttle's back, or maybe not The shuttle Discovery sucessfully took off tomorrow, to the thrill of us space fans. And then came some bitter news - despite all that time and money spent to keep peices of frozen foam from the main tank from falling off, it happened again, and a peice almost as big as the one that doomed Columbia. It missed the ship, but further flights are grounded until further notice.

Well, back to the sci-fi novels ...

7/21/2005 - Scotty, R.I.P. It was only months ago that he announced he was attending his last sci-fi convention, due to Alzheimers. James Doohan, best known for his role as "Scotty" in Star Trek finally passed away - news item.

Rest in Peace.

7/19/2005 - Shuttle Delayed Well, the shuttle was about to launch last week, then it got scrubbed. Rumor is the flight will be delayed until fall.

Somehow, I don't feel too disapointed about it. My expectations of NASA have gone downhill lately, at least for it's near-term.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older and a little less idealistic. Or maybe it's because of some mismatched priorities. Planning a Moon base around the time Medicare is expected to go bankrupt? And then there's the balooning price of oil and where we are getting it from. Maybe we should stick with unmanned probes and the space station for a while until energy becomes cheaper and from more reliable sources.

Some others seem to feel NASA is in store for severe cutbacks as well, as is evidenced by this idea for a shuttle replacement, resembling a spaceship on the classic "Battlestar Galactica" (news article). "The Battlestar CEV isn't a serious design for returning to the Moon. It's the kind of proposal you slap together cheaply at the last minute for a dumb program that you know will be cancelled ... "

Still, unless we end up in a Depression, we should have at least a small space program, if nothing else to give the kids something to dream to achieving other than the next basketball shooter or rapper.

7/4/2005 - Happy Fourth of July

6/01/2005 - Site Problems Have had a bit of server trouble. Site may be offline at times. Hopefully it'll be taken care of soon.

Saw the new "Star Wars" movie on Sunday. It was supposedly a packed theater a week before. When I went, there was plenty of seating to spare. It wasn't a bad movie, all things considered.

So what now? Time will tell.

5/23/2005 - THIRTY THOUSAND HITS! The big "30 K" has been reached, thank you for your support.

5/20/2005 Revenge of the Lucas Revenge of the Sith is out, and it's initial showings are breaking records. Encourgaged by better reviews than it's two prequels, "it has something the first two movies lacked, a plot," fans are showing up in droves.

Lucas offered what some could take as a half-hearted apology for the first two movies, saying "sixty percent" of the prequel plot was in the present movie. He had briefly considered shoehorning the first two movies into one, but he concluded that would cause more problems than it would solve, so he went ahead with Phantom and Clones.

And so after twenty-seven years, the saga is complete.

Which leads some sci-fi fans to wonder, with the last "Star Wars" movie finaly out, and the last "Star Trek" episode aired, what will they do for science fiction now?

4/04/2005 I reguarly spend time on a MORPG, though try not to get carried away. One guy in China sure got carried away. He supposedly lent a gaming buddy a valuable weapon in the game, who turned around and sells it outside the game for real cash. He confronted him, and things quickly heated up, and the alleged cheated player stabbed the alleged cheater - news item.

No game in real life is worth dying for - no joke, April Fool or otherwise.

3/30/2005 - Webcomic Cameo Mark Stanley, the artist behind Freefall, gave a certain someone a cameo apperance in his strip for March 30, 2005. Thank you Mark!

I have been writing a little, another one of my "political science fiction" themes, but progress is a little slow. I just need a little time ...

3/23/2005 - Techincal Difficulties Having some trouble updating the website. Finding a way around it though.

In other news, the SETI@home screensavers seem to be producing some results. I couldn't find the "Spacedaily" article, but I read all those home computers working together came up with over 150 spots in the sky that were listed as "candidates" for possible sources of inteligent signals, and will get further looking in to. A peek at the SETI site revealed a map of the sources.

The odds of finding something are still small, "Under 1%," but it looks like the ol' screensaver came in handy.

2/28/2005 A useful link from a friend, The Straight Dope, which has the answers to a number of odd questions.

2/07/2005 Enterprise retired to scrapyard Well, after 18 years of new episodes, it's all over. No more Trek. With fans going away, guess it was only a matter of time.

More comments can be found on the Freedom bulliten board here.

1/05/2005 - Well, the response to the tsunami was pretty big. Already "Doctors Without Borders" is saying they have enough cash for the crisis. With that in mind, it may be a little late for this crisis for a link I found, Charity Navigator, though it will come in handy later on.

1/01/2005 - Happy New - Yikes!! Just when 2004 is winding down, you're planning the party on New Years Eve, and the news is going to be filled with Year in Review full of Iraq and the Bush-Kerry election, something comes out of the blue. In this case, it was out of the ocean blue. That monster tsumani that hit the Indian Ocean, that was the strongest earthquake in decades in the entire world. The region hadn't seen anything like it in 500 years.

An initial death toll of several thousand dead quickly went up as more and more regions reported in. So far, 138,846 are confirmed dead and it's expected to surpass 150,000. There's plenty of film footage of the killer wave - children and elderly just weren't strong enough, healthy adults were often knocked in the head by a log or some other heavy debris. Before and after satelite photographs show the extent of the disaster, entire neighborhoods gone, and often the land they used to be on underwater. Some small islands are now underwater. About a quarter of the people in Indonesia's Ache province are thought to be dead. One wilderness tribe in the area was thought to be wiped out. And disease is expected to double the death toll.

Staggering. One political cartoon showed "2004" in large granite numbers, a bit scared from bullets and blasts from terrorists but still standing, only to be washed away from the big wave.

Discussion with family and friends had a mix of opinions. The toll was staggering to all, but some had some reservations about helping out, "Didn't these guys behead some preacher a couple years ago ... and if it happened here, who would help us? Nobody."

One can argue Christian duty, one can argue the country hardest hit wasn't a Middle Eastern "tribe with a flag" but one of Asia's economic "little tigers," and one can argue it is not in our interests to let a place where major shipping routes go through go to heck. Hopefully the aid pouring in will get things there going back to normal.

And so the New Year begins with a sobering note.

12/25/2004 - MERRY CHRISTMAS from the Writer's Block.

My freind Kathy send over a page full of Christmas songs, so here it is.

12/06/2004 - Well, the Mac I did the site on chose the day after I finished my story for it's monitor to fry. Had to find a File Transfer Protocol program for the PC and figure out how to use it.

11/29/2004 - And Ayrini's Shore concludes with the final update to Part 4.

Finis

Looking back, it's been five years and a few weeks since I began this website for my stories, and later my artwork, as well as a daily chuckle (okay, a chuckle every weekday now). When I started, we had "Slick Willie" for president, people were worried sick about what a few microchips would do on 01/01/01, although wounded a little by "Jar-Jar" and "Voyager" science fiction fans still felt okay, and I had been recently hired at a defense contractor and in my free time played games and the "Freedom" Trek sim on a Mac.

Five years later, we have a different President with a different reputation, the old worries over microchips looks so silly as after 9-11 we face a war with no end in sight with the potential to go nuclear with Iran & North Korea, science fiction fans are abandoning "Enterprise" and preparing for a medicore "Return of the Sith" (and looking at old reruns, "Firefly" tapes, and peeking at other generes as "Lord of the Rings" demonstrates), and my job at the defense contractor has taken on a new twist since 9-11 and in my free time while I still do some things on the Mac such as updating this site the games (notably the MORPG "Runescape") and the Trek sim are done on a slightly used PC.

I've gone from Mac gamer to PC gamer. Good grief, my whole world has changed.

I have no real ideas for a story to put dow on paper for now. For the moment, it seems parodying sci-fi and Trek on the USS Freedom and the occasional peice of artwork for it and some friends will be where my talents go. What the future holds, I can only speculate, and as life demonstrates some things just can't be foreseen. But baring an accident, I'll find more things to add to my peice of the Internet as time goes on.

11/25/2004 - Happy Thanksgiving Been a bit busy this week, so no Ayrini's Shore update yet.

11/23/2004 - A new science link from my Uncle, SpaceshipOne Images - "Check this site for some pretty interesting pictures of the latest aircraft to make it into space."

11/22/2004 - And the cliffhanger to Part 4 of Ayrini's Shore is over. What happened? See for yourself.

The next update is the last. May be putting it up early for Thanksgving.

And the Gallery has a new bit of artwork. A slightly late Halloween pic for the Freedom.

11/15/2004 - Part 4 of Ayrini's Shore is updated. Dylan faces the decision of his life.

11/11/2004 - Veterans' Day A salute to all of our veterans. Thank you for your service.

The big thing in the news these days seems to be the election results. Republicans have been cheering "Victory," while the news is full of stories of Dems crying and moaning that the country has turned into a bunch of neanderthals. Never mind aside from a few million who died and a few million who began voting, this is the same group who brought in Bill Clinton about a decade ago.

Politics: although a battle can be won, there is no final victory or defeat.

The real war is going on in Iraq. If our guys don't win there, things could get extremely messy, and not just at the gas pump.

Guys, this is your day. Once again, thank you.

11/8/2004 - Another update to Part 4 of Ayrini's Shore . The fate of Grylos.

Well, last week was pretty exciting. First the election - 4 more years! Next came Neko-con. Some of the people were almost as strange as certain co-workers of mine, but not near as scary. Now, a break for a few weeks until Thanksgiving.

11/1/2004 - Part 4 of Ayrini's Shore is updated. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! "

10/25/2004 - The first of Part 4 of Ayrini's Shore is up. Winter sets in for Dylan.

Neko-con is again coming to town, and will be showing up at the area's own con.

10/18/2004 - Part 3 of Ayrini's Shore concludes with a trip to the Harvest Festival. But is it really fun and games for young Dylan?

The first of Part 4 to be uploaded next week.

10/11/2004 - Ayrini's Shore updated again - Dylan deals with a friend's tough break.

10/05/2004 - SpaceShipOne Makes History Today, the first privately-funded space plane made it's second flight in less than a week, winning the X-Prize and a place in history - News Item. Already, Virgin Airways is making plans for a fleet of space planes for anyone with enough cash to take a trip. Not everyone has to be filthy rich, though. 7-Up supposedly is making plans to have a contest with tickets as a prize. With NASA's manned program on the rocks, this is certainly a welcome development.

10/04/2004 - Another update to Ayrini's Shore up - "RAUUUUUUUUUNNNK!! "

Found an interesting link from the Daily Illuminator," the Mount St. Helens Volcano Webcam.

"And You Thought Webcams Were Just For Bored College Kids. ... Refresh the page 10 times a minute so you can be the first one in your cubefarm to see it when it blows!"

9/30/2004 - Forum Gone The buliten board this site has been using has gone offline, presumably for good. Posters can always use the "USS Freedom" board, though it's primarily meant for Trek talk.

9/27/2004 - The first of Part 3 of Ayrini's Shore is online - " ... do you realize what you've done?"

9/24/2004 - FAQ Even though I made a background page to explain certain things about the Mymar, the alien race behind several of my stories, I still get questions. So I made a FAQ - page.

9/20/2004 - The last segment of Part 2 of Ayrini's Shore is up. " ... Oh no ... "

The third of four parts starts going up next week.

9/13/2004 - Ayrini's Shore updated once again. " ... GET ME OUT OF HERE!! "

9/6/2004 - Labor Day A break from work, and a chance to spend more time on the Runescape online adventure game and the "Victoria" historical strategy game I recently got. Below is a hint site for Runescape for those interested.

And there's another update for Ayrini's Shore. Grylos has a bad day at the festival.

And I recently got in touch with Half-Pipe again. She still has her website, but made a few changes.

8/30/2004 - Another update to Ayrini's Shore, Dylan trying to answer a nagging question.

8/24/2004 - Finally! - Ayrini's Shore, is finally going up. Sorry about the delays, but I wanted to make sure the story was well-written. Enjoy the results.

For now, a piece will be going up about once a week, usually on Mondays.

And Saia, thanks for your help with the editing.

8/10/2004 - Another Astronomy link sent over by Mother: Current Sky information - What's in the night sky, from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Almost done with Ayrini's Shore. The little left to do still has to go through a proofreader, but it's finally close to done.

7/22/2004 - Was sent a link by Mom during her browsing around on the web: Astronomy Picture of the Day - "Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer." I was also sent another space link earlier from my Dad - Spacewander "You are about to take a virtual space-trip to the depths of the Universe! All of SpaceWander's space pictures are real NASA images!"

7/21/2004 - Apollo 35th Aniversary It was 35 years ago yesterday that man landed on the moon. Was sent one link, Apollo Archive, and found a great panoramic shot from the lunar surface - Apollo Panarama .

Unfortunately, there's a little bad news concerning the space program, budget cuts.

It may take the Chinese space program to get NASA up and running. Oh well, there's always private industry. Lunar honeymoon hotels anyone?

7/4/2004 - Happy Fourth of July

I was sent this holiday-related link, enjoy - a message

7/2/2004 - The Cassini probe has been sending some great pictures from Saturn - link

5/9/2004 - Happy Mother's Day. My own Mother has certainly been busy. She's been busy at work on her websites, Carolyn's Newsletter, and her new Christian website - Our Special Site. She also found one that regular readers should like, at least those with Macs, Stargazer's Delight a planetarium program for Mac owners.

Still working away at the next part of Ayrini's Shore though have been making a lot of corrections.

4/13/2004 - A new sci-fi link exchange - Giles D. Hobbs' "My Story Page."

2/29/2004 - New art in the Gallery. A whimsical take on antics on the Freedom between two characters.

Also, some more errors in the gallery have been cleaned up.

1/2/2004 - Happy New Year Been having some trouble lately with AOL, so I'm not always able to update when I want to. The uncertainy over schedules continues.

Click here for the log from an online chat with SETI astronomer and author Seth Shostak.

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