An Indepth Look Into A Geek's Soul

I have some unfortunate news to tell you all:  the world renowned human ranger, Alek, was killed in a gruesome fight defending the city of Argent late last night.  It was a bold fight, but alas, our brave hero could do nothing.  A break in the magical seal protecting the city allowed a few random elemental beings to break in, who promptly rushed the walls that Alek and his companions were guarding.  Now, it looked like they were going to be able to handle the group of monsters, but it just didn't happen.  The creature that swallowed Alek, a behir, first swallowed the rather bitchy cleric, and for awhile, we though she was dead.  However, she got spit up, twice in fact.  Then the doom of Alek came.  Already weakened by fighting the mighty beast, Alek was his next target.  Ten second later, he was dead.

Alek will be remember foundly by his adventuring companions.  There was Lo-Kag, the goliath warden; Quark, the human wizard; Monk, a monk of some kind; and McHealy, who is a deva cleric.  For all those who don't know, a behir is a huge, elemental, magical beast.  It has a mighty lightning breath, can stomp the ground with the power of the loudest thunder, and, well, can eat you.  All very scary things.

There was a short burial for him after the defenses were raised.  A public ceremony is to be held at an indefinite date after Argent is safely secured from the onslaught of primodrial beings.

Peace Out.

Alright guys, this is twice in one week?  Hell, twice in two days?  What the hell is going on?  That's right, I'm blogging.  Like, professionally.  Only not.  Because I don't spellcheck.  Spell check?  Two words?  Heck if I know.  Anyways, enough rambling, seeing as how I tend to do that enough.  It's time to talk about something of some importance:  women.

Seriously people, what is up with women?  More specificaly, why am I so scared to approach them?  It's like, hey, I have some confidence, so why don't I just go up and ask the cute girl over there if she'd like to go grab lunch?  It wouldn't be that hard, would it?  I mean really.  It's not that hard.  However, I seem to fail at this.  See, it goes something like this.  *Hides behind something*.  Yeah, just like that.  Pretty bad.  I either do that, or see a cute girl and run into something.   Kind of embarrassing when you are the library pushing a card and you run into a table.  Or a pole.  Or something like that.  Yeah, I'm smooth like that.

On the same topic, I feel that all my awesome, hot, female friends need not to be married or engaged or seeing anyone.  Because well, I'm friends with you, and you're hot, and we need to hook up.  At least a drunken late night hook up?  Can I get a woot woot?  No?  You sure?  Okay.

Peace Out.

Man you guys, working out nearly killed me today.  It was the first time I've worked out this year, and me in my cocky arrogance thought I would be able to handle anything I could throw at myself.  Boy was I wrong.  But I'm getting ahead of myself, lets start at the beginning.

You see, I believe I may have mentioned that this is going to be the Year of the Jon.  I can still sense it, too.  Especially when it comes to me finally getting another girl.  Being single is fun and all, but sometimes you just want someone you can go home to and bitch about your day who won't look at you too funnily.  Anyways, I think I'm getting some attention from a couple of ladies on campus, but it could just be my ego trying to build itself up again.  I thought I'd help them notice me more by working out some, you know, to build up my muscle, loose some weight faster, that kind of thing.  What was I thinking?

Starting off, I felt just great.  You know, a couple of sit up here, a couple of push ups there, that sort of them.  Heck, I even stretched before I started all of this, so I thought I was doing fine.  Turns out I wasn't.  About fifteen minutes in, I was like, "Oh yeah, I used to do those frog jump things.  I should probably do those too."  That's where everything went downhill.  I did a bunch of those (in this case a bunch mean ten) and stood up and felt super dizzy.  Like, hard to stand dizzy.  Also felt like throwing up.  I got some water, hoping that would help, it didn't.  Sat down for awhile until it passed.  No puking, no passing out, just uncomfortable feelings for awhile.

Was it worth it?  Maybe.  I am down to 190 pounds of pure Jon.  I think that makes it worth it, seeing as how I've lost eight pounds since I've lost posted something on here.  But who knows.  Only time will tell.  Hopefully at the least the females out there reading this will at least give me a second look next time they see me.

Peace Out.

It's a brand new year!  2010, the Year of Jon.  And it will be.  I can feel it coming, that this is going to be my year.  I'm not sure exactly what it is, be it I come across a lot of money or I finally get a girlfriend again or maybe I just become an entirely better person.  Who knows.  I just have good vibrations about this year.  Maybe it has something to do with the actual number, 2010.  Half that and you get 1005, which is actually the start of the model number of an Asus netbook we sell at Best Buy.  Crazy stuff right there.

Anyways, a new year brings New Year's Revolutions!  Woohoo!  I think my bigget one this year s to loose a good chunk of my lard.  I weighed myself today and found out I'm a rather chunky 198 pounds.  Not good at all.  That pretty much means I've gained thirteen pounds since Jimmy and I broke up.  It must have hit me a lot harder than I thought it did.  Anyways, I'm aiming for a weight of 160 pounds.  I realize that loosing 38 pounds in one year is possible, even if it's not totally healthy.  I would be super happy if I got down to 175 pounds.  At the very least, I want to improve my body mass index.  I haven't gotten around to calculating what it is right now, but I hope to do that this weekend.  I'm sure there's a way to found out how to do that on the internet somewhere.

Beyond that, my other resolution are a lot more vague.  I pretty much just want to improve myself in a ton of different ways.  I want to be good enough at bowling that Collin really as to fight to win that Golden Pin.  I want to be more of a go getter, more of a ladies man, more of an outgoing kind of guy.  I know, vague, right?  But I think that if I can improve my personality that way, I can find myself another girl, which is what I really want.  I'd like to believe that I'm not that desperate though.  Only time will tell.  I just want some physical intimancy with someone again.  You know how that can be.

Peace Out.

So I finally broke down.  I installed Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic on my grandfather's laptop.  You know, the one one that is actually powerful enough to play it?  Yeah, I'm rather jealous.  Anyways, the thing kicks ass.  I had no real expectations going into the game about what the gameplay or story was going to be like, but after playing the thing for a bit over five hours, I've come to really enjoy the game so far.  It's one of those games where I can die a couple of times and it won't but me that I have to replay a certain part.  Plus, it makes me actually think a bit about how everything is equipped and who does what and do I have this and this and that.  Yeah, to get me to do that in a game is rather difficult (just ask Joel) but here I am, doing it no problem in KoToR.  Man, I love this game.

I created the solider named Corath (of course) and there have been some strong hints that I'm force sensitive.  At the very least, I give off a pretty powerful aura that the Sith was able to detect.  I'm pretty sure that means when I finally am able to get off Taris, I'll be able to start my training as a jedi.  I'm not sure which path I'm going to be going down yet, but something tells me it'll be one that involves me using a green lightsaber.  At least at some point.  I already have a red doublebladed one, but my guy can't use it.  Not yet at any rate. One day though, I'll be able to.  Just you wait.  Probably not until this weekend though.

In other gaming news, I've restarted Wizardry.  The biggest reason I'm playing it (again) is so that I can finally beat the darn thing.  Yeah, it's another one of those games I've tried again and again to beat.  I was just going to pay some Time Splitters Future Perfect, but the disk wouldn't even load for me.  Not good my friends, not good.  And the only reason I need a new game is becasue I finally beat Need For Speed Underground 2.  I know, it's been a little while, but I got past that thing.  Just neeed to sit down and actually do it.

Anyways, that's mostly all I had to say today.  I might be adding some things to the Works section of the page detailing my KoToR and Wizardy going abouts.  We'll see.

Peace Out.

So I'm seriously considering writing a new campaign for Dungeons and Dragons.  I've been meaning to do it for awhile now, but I was trying to wait until I had a new computer before diving into everything.  This just doesn't seem to be possible though.  At the rate I'm saving up my money and the cash I know I'll need to keep going to school, I just don't think I'll be able to pull off getting a new computer, so that'll have to wait.  Until then, I'll just hunker down and write myself a new campaign.

It's going to be an epic one too.  Not epic level mind you (at least not yet), but it's going to be epic all the same.  I haven't come up with the name for the world yet, I feel that it's the hardest part, but I have come out for the basic premise of the world.  It's a flat world, square in shape, and one that you really could walk off the edge of if you were brave enough to get to the end.  In the middle of the world is a huge mountain that ascends straight into the realm of the goodly gods.  A giant river runs across the entirety of the world, effectively splitting it in two.  Trust me when I say it's going to be epic.  We are going all over this world, from the very top to the absolute bottom.

I think I might start off the first adventure with the bold party members going into the woods to investigate a recent meteor strike.  They'll be ambushed or something, and a plot of world shattering events will ensue.  You know, fairly typical stuff.  I'm trying to go with a good bit of high fantasy in this one, though we'll see how that ends up in the long run.  I have a feeling I'm really going to enjoy writing this one.  It's going to have a lot of history to it too, even if the players probably won't see or care about it.  Afrter all, that's for me to see and them to just trample on.

Anyways, I just thought I'd tell you guys what is up.  You know, keep you posted and stuff like that.  Have a good rest of the day guys.  I'm off to go do silly things before I get to slave away at Best Buy for the night.

Peace Out.

Alright guys, here's another Top Ten list after such a very long time.  Sorry it's been such a long time since the last real list, but I'm hoping this will be a nice easy one to let you all get back into the groove of things.  To start off, let me preface this all by saying that these are only the classes from the 4th edition of DnD, and if you don't like that, then write your own Top Ten list.  Anyways, any more hostilities aside, lets get into this.

Number Ten:  Rogue

Rogues are always fun. They are those sneaky bastards who prey on the weak and steal from whoever the hell they can.  Mostly, it's just fun to backstab people and watch them flail under the accuracy of your little blade.  I've always wanted to play a really awesome rogue, and from time to time I have attempted to such a thing.  I think that I might have to go and try and use a half-orc one someday, just to see how sweet that would be.  Hell, I might even do some fandangling and make him one of thoser brute type guys.  Pretty much, I just lke deal a shit ton of damage sometimes, and rogues let me do such a thing.

Number Nine:  Druid

Druids are a neat class in the most recent edition. I think they got a pretty big change in the current edition from the previous ones.  They still retain their wildshape, but it's less distinct and more a raw primal spirit.  They are natural leaders, which is kind of weak in my book, and it's mostly because they heal people better than others do.  However, I just like them for the nature spells they wield.  I can just imagine a druid, bringing down lightning onto a foe, and then transforming into a primal spirit to tear that guy limb from limb.  Good stuff.

Number Eight: Cleric

Ah yes, the humble yet necessary cleric.  I don't think this guy gets the attention and respect that he deserves.  Either you end up playing him as a healbot or you try to make him some martial character that buffs everyone.  I personally like to play clerics as how their god demands that they be played.  If it's a cleric of Moradin, I want him (and generally have him) act totally diffrent than a cleric of Pelor would act, or a cleric of Bahamut would act.  This here in lies the true powe of the cleric.  Sure, he may fall into one of the above catagories now and then, but trust me, it's a lot more fun that way.

Number Seven:  Wizard

Wizards have always held a certain fascination with me.  I love how they are in complete control of the arcane arts.  From the simplest parlor tricks to world shaping spells, there is a master of the arcane arts hiding behind them.  There are so many minor differences between the lot of them and you could make a thousnd different wizards who play totally different from one another.  This is one of those classes that I'll keep coming back to time and time again when I just want to loose myself into the greater magic of the world.

Number Six:  Warden

The warden is a new class that I really want to try out.  The easiest way to describe it is a defender of nature.  He has this awesome ability to turn into different aspects of nature, like a tree or a warrior made of out pure rock.  I personally just like the idea of some guy (like Mr. Warforged here) turning into a giant treefolk with his morningstar and shield at the ready, roots dug deep int the earth.  He's an immovable force of nature, and he's not willing to let you near his friends.

Number Five:  Ranger

Rangers have gotten cooler and cooler as time went on in my opinion.  With the fourth edition of DnD, it finally has reached it's peak.  It's simple, yet deadly, and is always a blast to play.  Plus, I think that using an archer is just a cool thing to do.  No other class comes anywhere as close to being so good close up and far away as the ranger.  You start picking guys off with arrows from a distance, then move in for the kill with your two blades.  Dealing a little extra damage on the side doesn't help either.  Their quarry ability is just plain sweet.  Reminds me of locking an enemy in your sight and not letting him go.  Pure awesome.

Number Four:  Avenger

Avengers are pretty much holy rogues who can use greatswords.  Need I say anything else?

Number Three:  Barbarian

The mighty barbarins comes in at number three on the list.  I've always had a soft spot for these guys, even if they never got used too much by me.  I think I just love the idea of taking the biggest weapon you can find and swinging it really hard at someone's face while screaming at them.  Of all the classes, I sometimes feel like it is the easiest one to role play, but only because I am very two dimensional when it coems to such things.  Plus, as this chick above demonstrats, barbarians tend to not wear a lot of clothes.  Need more proof?  Here's some for you:

Number Two:  Sorcerer

The sorcere represents pure,raw arcane power.  It's as if the wizard snapped and went crazy all over the place.  I feel that in the fourth edition, they nailed the flavor of what it means to be a sorcerer.  My personal favorite build is the chaos mage, who prety much doesn't know what is going to happen next.  One minute his spells are surging like  wild river through him, the next the spell rebounds on him, causing a gigantic explosion.  This class definitely had the biggest surprise in for me, and it only too something like 6 years of playing DnD to make me realize that it really is super awesome.

Number One:  Fighter

The humble and simple fighter from my youth.  I'm pretty sure most of the people reading this who actually talk to me about such dorky things would immediately guess that my true love of DnD is a fighter, but for those of you who don't, I suppose I could rattle off a few reasons why they are my favorite.  First off, they are simply super easy to jump into.  A lot of people confuse this with being a class for simpletons.  This couldn't be any more false.  While they are easy to jump into, they take a lot of skill to actually be good with.  Secondly, you get to not only focus on one weapon, but that weapon will determine what kind of moves you use.  Want to knock people around?  Get a hammer. Want to be jumping into a group of people and slashing everyone as they go buy?  Grab a longsword.  Want some reach?  Go get that spear.  Lastly, my first ever charcter was a fighter.  His name is Corath and he's broken to the extreme because I didn't know the rules back then.  Oh well.

So there you have it.  Go ahead and leave me some angry comments if you would like.

Peace Out.

ReadingBetween the Lines

            The plight of modern libraries is one that has been seenin many different industries over the years. As the world becomes more technologically influenced, the public librarysystems are threatening to slip out of the minds of the average American intooblivion.  This is something the averagecitizen cannot allow to happen.  However,unless there is a swift change in policies, but monetary and societal, publiclibraries nationwide are likely to fail and disappear.

            On an individual level, each public library system has adire need to change their role in society though the use of various policiesthat must be enacted on a local level. This entails reaching out to the community in a way that technologynever could.  This could easily be donethrough the use of book clubs, community events, and a public awarenesscampaign.  What it really comes down tois giving the public exactly what it wants. If the public is looking for a large selection of the newest movies,then the libraries should offer more movies. If the public would like to have more access to the newest JamesPatterson book, then libraries should buy more copies of it to meet thedemand.  The library should even offermore computers for the public to access if that is what they demand, which isincreasingly likely in this rapidly changing world.   However, that is far from the only way tokeep the public libraries from failing.

            Monetary policies are another strong factor that willplay into averting the crisis of the failing public libraries.  Over the last several years, spending onpublic services, such as libraries, has fallen to record lows (Oder).  This has resulted in library districts inmost states to have to cut back key services (Burke).  These services include hours of operation,availability of research materials, having the newest releases of all thedifferent kinds of mediums, as well as the cutting of library staff andpersonnel.  This is a trickledown effectas well.  Once there are fewer librariansto staff the libraries, there are fewer staff members to head things such asbook clubs and other publicity functions. This in turn will draw fewer people into the library, reducing the needof the library.  The government will seethe use of libraries has gone down, so they cut funding to it again.  The cycle continues until there is no libraryleft, but by that time there is also no one left who cares that the library isgone.  This is just an extreme scenariothat could potentially happen, but in some places this very event has occurred(Oder).

            Not all libraries will fall into this death spiral,however.  Some have already effectivelymade the changes and are thriving in the present world.  For instance, the Traverse City PublicLibrary is a thriving hub of the city. Library patrons have not only continued going to there, but haveactually increased their use of the library (Burke).  The library has adapted to the needs andwants of the local citizens, and is thriving as such.  In comparison there is the library system ofCharles County, Maryland.  In the pastfew years it has grown too big for it to function the way it should.  As recently as last year, it was set to breakground for a forth library.  Now,however, that library is not going to be built. Instead, they are going to close down all the libraries on Sundays tosave money.  Their budget has been soseverely slashed that they do not have money to buy movies until the nextfiscal year (Olson).

            The two libraries mentioned above are at opposite endswhen it comes to this crisis.  On onehand, the Traverse City library is flourishing even amidst the tough economictimes we are facing while the Charles County libraries are slowly dying.  This would not be a problem if more librarieswere succeeding.  Instead, more and morelibraries are slowly going the way of the Charles County system, simply becauseof the changes that society is going though. They are either not able to or not willing to keep up with thesechanges, and as such are failing.  Inorder for libraries to survive, they must act more like the Traverse Area one,or they will cease to exist as we know them today.

            Indeed, this crisis is surely one that not only can beavoided, but also must be avoided.  Whenit comes down to it, changes in policies could very well save this belovedpublic institution.  On a local level,each library system needs to enact changes in policies that will put it more inthe limelight in their individual communities. On a larger scale, the different levels of government must do theirparts to help the libraries stay afloat economically, especially in these toughtimes.  With these changes, there is achance we can not only prevent the public libraries of the nation from going onthe endangered species list, but also help them thrive like never before.

Peace Out

So I was browsing Wikipedia the other day in class instead of working on my paper and I stumbled across this awesome little article here.  It's about the Fermi paradox, which is basically asking the question about why human beings haven't discovered any form or intelligent life but ourrselves in the universe.  Now, being the imaginative guy that I am, I was trying to think of all kinds of reasons of why this might be.  Everything that I could think of was touched on in the article, but I'd almost like the real reason to be that we are the first intelligent species in the entire universe.  Out of all of the possible options out there, I think that one has the strongest pull on me.

Think about it, really think about it.  What if we are the original race?  I mean, most mythologies, both real and imagned, had a race of beings that created or gradually become every other intelligent race in the universe.  What if we are that race?  Think of the incredible power and responsibilty that title would bring.  Everything that we do could potentially be discovered and studied by species to come long after us.  Think of what they could glean from out lives, from out advancements, from our failures.  I think that if we knew that we were the first intelligent beings in the universe, everything would change about how we live.

Imagine it, really try your best to image what a universe full of nothing but humans would be like.  I like to believe it's different from Battlestar Galactica, but hey, maybe it's how some of you see it.  Humans could literally colonize every single planet in the entire universe if we really wanted to.  We may create new life forms, to test and expirment with evolution, much as you can do with Spore.  By the time any new intelligent race emerged, humans as we are now would be totally different.  We could have take on some new form, maybe one that doesn't rely on the physical form at all but merely on some mental form.  Maybe we won't be here at all, having passed away from the universe due to some unforeseen consequence of our own expirmenting.

If we really at the first being to be intelligent in all the universe, I think it would be rather unnerving.  Right now on our own planet, we have a hard enough time just coping with one another.  How are we to cope with a solar system or a galaxy or a universe of ourselves?  We would have to work out a lot of major problems with ourselves before we could do anything great on that galactic scale. 

Still, it's a lot to think about.  I think I'm going to go develop this idea a bit more, then commit it to writing in one of my many journals and books laying around.

Peace Out.

So yeah, today is my birthday.  I'm watching Memento right now and drinking Burnett's Watermeleon Vodka.  Not really a good combination when it comes to actually writing a blog here, but hell, I'm going to give it a shot.  Memento is a great movie by the way guys.  You should definitely go check it out sometime, probably when you are sober.  I think it helps.  I'm having a little bit of trouble following it right now.  It's rather silly.  Though I do like the fact that Trinity and Cipher are both in it.  I didn't realize that from the last time I watched the movie.  It's rather sweet.

Yeah, I'm not really sure why I'm even talking to you guys.  Maybe I'm lonely.  Maybe I just have nothing to do.  I think it's a combination of a whole bunch of things.  I think I need to grow some balls and just go find myself a girl of some sort.  Carlee was really getting on my case about being a pussy today about that topic.  I can't help it though, I mean, it's just who I am.  I have no confidence, never have, never will.  It's rather crazy.  Whatever though, I think I already knew that I was doomed to an existance of lonliness.  I mean, hell, someone's gotta be that way, right?

Anyways, movie is good and the alcohol is taking affect. 

Peace Out.