Writer's Land: Blog

New Blog Home Notice

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:24:18 GMT

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I've posted anything here so I thought I should make a decision about my blogging. It wasn't easy, it's taken me a while to finally say to myself that I will let go of Live Spaces as my primary blog home. The good news at least from a personal perspective is that I have been blogging more regularly on my new home at http://writersland.blogspot.com.

For anyone curious as to why I left, well that has to do mainly with what kind of control I have of the blog. I love Spaces for the sheer variety of templates and such, but Blogger just makes me feel like I have more control, and being from a tech background that is something that really appeals to me and allows me to be more creative with my blog if I so choose.

The ironic thing is that when I firtst started blogging waaaay back, I started on Blogger, and eventually I came to Spaces and have now come full circle. Funny how things work. I've already started moving my Realm of Ambrahka story over to the other blog and over time will move everything. Maybe I'll finally get around to finishing my Europe and Ukraine travel log. But not this month, I've still got 33,000 words to go for my NaNoWriMo novel. :)

I look forward to hearing from all of you. Please visit me at my new home for

Writer's Land

July

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:14:20 GMT

"Punctuality is the politeness of kings." -Louis XVIII

Paris - Day 1 (Part 5)

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:12:27 GMT

After arriving back at our hotel, we are greeted with a warm smile and a key to our room, which is obviously ready for us. Taking our luggage and calling the elevator we cram inside the tiny box and nervously head for the 5th floor hoping that all the shaking and rattling doesn't mean we will end up on the 1st floor. The elevator finally comes to a not so pleasant stop and we head into the hall. The hallway is incredibly narrow. I had to push 1 bag in front of me, and pull the other behind. This place would be very uncomfortable for anyone that is claustrophobic. We reach our room, open the door and walk inside to a very lovely 2 bedroom suit as it appears. We had no idea, otherwise we could have had my wife's friend stay with us. But no biggy, she had a room 1 floor below and we spent most of the time outside anyway. Well, we parked our bags took a shower, which buy the way felt so goooooood. We opened the window and unfortunately our 5th floor view was not so good into the back alley type area with nothing to see but other buildings. Regardless, the fresh air felt nice swirling into our room as we relaxed.

I pulled out my power converter and set up my laptop excited to transfer some pictures and maybe get a few thoughts down. The computer came to life and after a few moments of booting up I logged in and went for my memory card. Then it hit me. "Oh my God!" I said, "I brought all this stuff, but I forgot one important item." My wife looked at me. "Uh oh, what is it?" To which I replied. "The memory card reader!" Yes I am ashamed, but hey remember how we got rushed the last minute? :) But all was not lost, I did have my 30GB video camera which takes SD cards, so I was able to back up my pictures at least and was not limited to only the 3 cards I had on me. Instead I thought I'd get on the Internet, check email and what not. I opened the wireless manager and started to look for an access point, when suddenly my computer power light started blinking and I got a low battery warning. Well, long story short, the power converter I bought didn't work. In fact after about 30 minutes of letting the computer battery charge, I pressed power only to have the computer shut down mere seconds after starting. Finally I accepted my fate and decided I would just put the computer away. Lucky for us I did that too, because when I grabbed the power converter to remove it from the outlet, I almost burned my hand. That sucker was SO hot! Who knows, it may have caught fire if I left it plugged in much longer. I took it and placed it on the ceramic sink in the bathroom. I was afraid to leave it on the wooden table it was so hot. Ok, it was so hot, it didn't cool off completely until the next morning. I know! However, while in the bathroom I discovered a US style outlet, which sadly to say did not have enough power to charge the laptop battery either. But at least it was enough to keep our other stuff charged, which was a very fair trade off.

So I finally settled down to relax once again, when the phone rang. Well that could be only one person, and upon answering the phone I found that it was only one person, naturally, as opposed to say a conference call. Just kidding, it was my wife's friend. They talked for a few minutes. She was already in her room and ready to head out into the city. My wife told her to come to our room to plan out the rest of the day. When she arrived, my wife finished up getting ready and we looked through our Frommer's book for two things. A restaurant that was recommended by her friend in Germany, to which we would go to in the evening, and the path we would take to get there. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out the correct name of the restaurant using the GPS, we finally found it and marked it on the map. By the way the GPS reception in Europe, or at least where we were, is horrible. It took 10 minutes to find the satellites, and another 5 to finally connect. Apparently as we learned later, it seems that GPS satellites are American, and do not have a very good line of site around Europe. I have to believe this after our experience with it. This particular GPS model has some newer technology which promises much better reception which is true, because here in the US I can get a connection indoors. Over there, I had trouble in wide open spaces and even then it would only last anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes.

Finally we left the hotel. One block away we passed a very nice looking bakery/restaurant which we made a mental note to visit later. You should have seen all the sweets and oh how yummy they looked! We continued walking and after a few blocks we passed through place de la Concorde and got on to avenue des Champs-Elysees. The first few blocks had a park on our right and we stopped at a food kiosk, where we bought a crepe, and ate it as we walked. Seemed a bit odd walking down the street eating a crepe like you would an ice cream. But hey, this is Paris.

We walked the entire avenue occasionally walking into a store to have a look. Levi's are about 80 euro. I'll let you do the math. Prices are just ridiculous. We walked almost all the way to the Arc de Triomphe, but decided to cross the street and head back since our restaurant was in the other direction on the other side of the Seine. As we crossed the street I took this picture of the Arc.

On our last day I got a really nice shot at night also, right in front of it. I'll post that later.

We walked almost the entire avenue back, but turned right and walked towards the Seine.

The day was really starting to improve as it got warmer and a bit clearer. We followed the Seine for a couple miles and decided to get our bearings. We found that we somehow ended up much farther away from the restaurant then we thought. At this point we were all getting pretty tired. We had already been walking for about 3 hours. It was around 6pm and we decided that we need to find the nearest metro and use that to get there because it would take us at least another couple hours if we walked, and that didn't appeal much anymore after a very long day of nothing but walking.

On the way to find the metro we stopped for a few minutes to get these shots.

Around this time it looks like I got some dust inside my camera which on some pictures shows up as a dark spot. I didn't clean it for a couple days because it's hard to notice it on the small display the camera has. I will eventually use Photoshop to remove it, but with so many photos to go through and write these posts, I decided I'd rather use my time to get this out there rather then spend the next few weeks correcting images.

We actually ended up walking another 30 min or so until we finally got to the closest metro station. We rode to our stop and from there we figured out which way to go and had to walk yet another 30 minutes to reach the restaurant. Here I was able to use the GPS to get us there quickly, but the reception on it was really bad at best. By the time we reached the restaurant it was around 8pm. We got a table and had a really good dinner. It was in fact a very nice place. It was strange though, one of the waiters there was kind of weird. Every time we asked him for something he just said "No." and walked away. So we had to keep calling someone else. We had a really good laugh every time after the first few attempts of asking him for something.

We finished dinner around 10pm and decided it was time to head back to the hotel. We got outside the hotel and looked down the street and to our surprise there was a metro station right at the end of the block. How did we miss it on the way there? No one knows. Needless to say we chose to use that station versus walking back to the one we came from. We got back to the hotel, set our alarms so that we don't oversleep because we needed to get an early start on another long day of site seeing, starting with Montmartre.

Paris - Day 1 (Part 4)

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:21:34 GMT

At this point a couple hours have passed and we started getting anxious to find the Mona Lisa and head back a little early. We're both getting tired and the back pack is starting to feel more like 60 lbs. After all, we have not had any rest what so ever. So we study the map to try and find the quickest route. The map however doesn't label the spot where the Mona Lisa is, it only labels the areas. So we take a guess and move in the direction we believe we need to go in when we spot a court yard type area that is inside with a glass ceiling. We decide to have a look around and check out the many statues that are displayed here.

I wonder if they call this the hall of nudity? Some people appear to be very impressed by this display.

And for those of you wondering what is on the other side of this statue...

It's a good thing this is art, otherwise I'd be in big trouble. But it's interesting how the human body at one time was considered a very important artistic expression. Today's versions of that are somewhat distorted, which is probably a big part of the reason for how screwed up our society is getting.

We go back to the area we came from and continue up the 3 flights, thankfully on escalators, until we get to the top floor with paintings. But upon examination of said painting, we quickly realize that we are in the wrong time period and the Mona Lisa would certainly not be there. So...back down we go...

On the first floor we again examine our map and try to figure out which way we are facing in comparison to the area where the Mona Lisa is. Finally we look outside the window and get a good visual idea of where we are in contrast and overlay that on the map we have. Suddenly we know where we have to go. It's pretty easy to get turned around in there if you don't know what is what. As it turns out we were on completely the opposite side of where we needed to be. This meant we had to traverse the entire area to get back. We stayed strong and determined and started walking.

Ok this might give you a better idea. See the building on the other side? Ok so the building we're in is the same length and connected to the other one at the end, like a letter "U". The Mona Lisa would be in an area that is approximately at the end of the building. So this meant we had to walk all the way around from approximately a location at which this picture is taken. Do you see how small the people are in contrast to the building? 2+2 equals a very long walk. :) Nice picture by the way, I wonder who took it? ;)

On the way around we did stop at places that we have not seen. Come on...did you think that we were going to let a little fatigue get in the way of this? So the next two pictures are from the Napoleon apartments.

It is truly unfortunate how poorly these people had to live.

Passing through yet more areas.

Now that's a chess board!

Finally we reached a popular area. Venus de Milo. Notice how many people are in this room. Of course feel free to look at the statue as well.

This is pretty constant. People were constantly flowing in and out of this room.

We moved on and finally started seeing signs pointing towards the Mona Lisa. We were finally getting close and towards the end of our visit here. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier, we did not have a chance to photograph her, but here are some photos other photos we got before we left.

There is nothing really special about this picture. I just wanted to give you another idea of the size of this place. Look down the hall...it just keeps going and going. Yes there are other people with back packs. But mine is about 80lbs by now. :P

And thus our journey through the Louvre has come to an end. We leave through the exit and before heading back to our hotel we make ourselves comfy in some very cozy chairs at a cafe inside one of the building. We sit on the balcony area overlooking the main yard and order some sandwiches, frit, and coffee, while we people watch and discuss what we have seen.

It's approximately 12:45pm and we are rebuilding our energy before our 2 mile trek back to our hotel. I didn't mention earlier, but one other exciting thing that we had coming up was that one of my wife's best friends from childhood, who is now a professor in Germany was to arrive and meet us at the hotel at about 2pm as well.

What can I say, the Louvre is a truly amazing place. There is just so much to see here, so much history, so much art. I was immensely impressed. If you are ever in Paris, do make sure you plan to come here and spend at least half a day. Just walking through without stopping anywhere to closely examine any pieces, it takes no less then 2 hours. But if you want to really understand some of the items and read the history and background, you can very easily pass 4 hours without notice, and even more depending on how much you want to do. But regardless of how much time you do spend here, in my opinion, every single minute is worth it!

Paris - Day 1 (Part 3)

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:54:50 GMT

Well it's day 3 of writing and I still have a ton of pictures to go and starting to wonder just how long the entire thing may take. Also I decided I'll split this day into multiple posts as it's becoming to long for 1. So I just split it into 3 parts and posted the first. Well, at least I won't have a shortage of material for the coming years. LOL

So we continue walking when we spot to our right, in the not to distant...err..uhm...future? That sounded right when I started typing. Lets see...we spot to our right not much further away from us...

The Louvre. There it is, a section of the Louvre

Just beyond the statues rear end of Joan of Arc and her horse. On a side note, see those busses on the left? Those are tour busses, and the tour office entrance is inside the building left of those buses. This is also a place of note, because we take a tour from here later on, which my wonderful wife scheduled for us in advance, of castles. But that's another day, so stop asking. sheeeesh, people!

But wait, no Louvre just yet, we can't forget our primary objective...cafe shop! Well what do you know, just across the street on the opposite corner from where I am taking this picture as an open cafe, with chairs outside and everything. "Two cappuccinos." I ask of the gentleman behind the bar. Yes it's a cafe with a bar, so what of it? As he prepares our lovely beverages, my wife looks for a place to sit. Inside is a bit cramped and we really wanted that outside in Paris in a cafe experience. You know what I mean? Even though it's like 58 degrees outside and windy...imagine how cold that is, we choose to sit outside. So my wife walks out and picks a table to sit at. At this point the guy has said to me that the 2 drinks will be 8.50 euro, naturally, and notices that we will be taking our drinks outside. With a quick wave of his hand, "Outside?" he asks. To which I respond wee, my French is exceptional with all 4 or 5 words that I know. He responds, 3 euro, brining our total to 11.50. So now we are also paying an additional 3 for the luxury of sitting outside! Imagine if Starbucks did that. This seems to be normal there, although this was the only time we were specifically told there is an additional fee to sit outside, it's possible it was automagically included in future trips to cafes and we just didn't pay attention. Anyway, about $5 US gets you a seat anywhere outside the cafe. Which we ended up regretting because it was very difficult to enjoy in that cold and windy weather. None the less, our spirits high we finish our drinks and head for our next destination. By now it's around 9am or so. Hey look who we passed.

The front side of Joan of Arc and her horse. "Hey Mr., quick run! She's gonna spear your head!" She also does circumcisions on the weekends.

By now we've walked almost 2 miles. Which really isn't that bad, unless you've forgotten I'm carrying about 30 lbs on my back. I didn't forget! So our plan is excellent. We'll spend the entire morning at the Louvre and head back to the hotel to get our room at 2pm. As we get closer to the Louvre however, it starts to look like we are going to have to rework our plan.

It looks like there is not a sole, well except for that guy by the bushes, around. Well it is pretty early, and this is Paris, so we are thinking makes sense that it's not open yet. But we figure we're here, we'll get closer and take some pictures. As we get closer and round the bush, to our surprise...

It's open! Yay! We rejoice, take some pictures and get in line. As it turned out, this was an excellent plan, because we got there in time to beat the crowd. What you see here is nothing. When we left this place, but mostly inside was a blob of people. So we had a great opportunity to see stuff without any pushing and shoving. You know how it gets in a really crowded place when you try to get up front and see something? No one moves, no one cares, excuse me, pardon, etc., people don't seem to understand this. So you end up having to squeeze through. Anyway, inside this glass pyramid the first thing you go through is a security check and then an escalator to the bottom and entrance into the museum. But before we go there, here are a few more photos outside.
This is what I love about a place that's not crowded. You get to take scenic photos. My favorite style of photography by the way is journalistic, but I do love to be able to get nice portrait styles as well. Keep in mind I didn't do any Photoshop work on these photos, but with a little cropping and tone adjustment, even with the bad weather and poor lighting, it can look pretty decent in a frame.

Ok we head inside to get our tickets.

Well this is the lobby area. The ticket booth is right there on the left and it appears like there are 4 or 5 different ways to enter, depending on which exhibit you want to start with. But don't worry they are all connected so you will be able to see everything. But make sure to get a map, because lost is what you'll be without one. This place is HUGE! On the flip side, while there are multiple ways to start your day here, there should be only one way to leave, and that is through the Mona Lisa exhibit. I mean really, that is probably one of the single most reasons people come here. But I should say right now, photography in that area is strictly prohibited and guards are very watchful of this, so I do not have any photos of her.

I take one more photo before we head inside.

And we begin with...

Armenia Sacra. It's pretty cool. The room is built like a section of a castle.

With a miniature model of what the entire castle looks like.

We move on.

That was about the size of the crowds we had to deal with. Pretty good. The only time it got really crowded was at the Vinus de Milo, Winged Victory and Mona Lisa areas.

Next we arrived at the Egyptian exhibit. Actually this and Mona Lisa were the two things we wanted to see most.

How cute...it's the original and current version.

Wait a minute...something about these...hold up I know!
They look Japanese. Don't they? I swear we were in the Egyptian section.

In the next room we find...
"Ok, the next one to interrupt me will end up like these guys!" Needless to say it was very quiet as all the children listened up.

"We were inverted..almost."

And finally you know how sometimes you read a forum and there might be a picture with some phallic shaped object, and it's almost certain that someone will write something really stupid about it, and you just know it's some poorly raised 14 year old?

Well, I'm not 14 years old. ;) So I will not make any comments. Not a single one, nothing that stands out and makes you wonder about my character.

I believe this one was Hathor.

Next we went to the Chinese section and I only have 2 pictures from there.

It's kind of hard to see it in a picture, but this was a giant slab that was hanging on the wall. By the looks of it it has to weigh at least a couple tons. I can't imagine what it takes to hang it on a wall.

Red Bull, it gives you wings.

There are still a few more areas to cover, but my time has run out today and I must go to work.

Paris - Day 1 (Part 2)

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 14:27:38 GMT

Ok this line here is day 2 of writing this entry. I realized that I'm already forgetting stuff. Just before Paris, we had a quick change in Vienna also. We didn't really see much, but one thing that really stood out in their airport is the fact that it looks like a mini mall and one very prominent store that really pops into view with big red bold letters is, "SEX UP YOUR LIFE". Not use to seeing that kind of store so public, even more so in an airport. Overall that entire scene kind of reminded me of the part in Space Balls, where they meet Yogurt and he tells them that it's all about merchandising and shows his store. Anyway, lets move on. Ahhh Paris....well Paris airport anyway. The weather wasn't very good when we arrived, but it wasn't horrible either. So we couldn't complain to much. After getting our luggage we set out towards the taxi area, and made a quick stop at the Amex booth to exchange some money. We knew that US dollar kind of suffers compared to Euro, but it still hurts to see your money reduced by so much. Armed with some spending cash, we got our taxi and directed the driver to our hotel. The drive from the airport to the hotel wasn't all that impressive, not at first at least. The highway and scenery almost reminded me of home. Sure it was obvious things are different, but I didn't have any significant feelings of being in another country. It was almost like a been there done that kind of deal. But then, we got off the freeway and onto the city streets in the main areas of Paris. I was immediately awe struck at the site of the gorgeous architecture. You also notice right away how many people keep flowers on the perch of their windows. A very nice touch! By the way, I forgot to mention that we arrived at about 7am so the streets were pretty empty and the city seemed almost abandoned in certain parts.

Finally the taxi turned into a tiny street and stopped at our hotel. Hotel Burgundy was a very cute little hotel. The lobby was nicely decorated with a short hall way to the front desk and a small couch with a foot rest on the opposite wall, just left of the very tiny elevator, which at first we thought was a storage room and we would have to hall our luggage up 5 floors. Just beyond the front desk was another room separated by thin columns which had a dimly lit lounge and a computer by which to access the Internet. This lounge connected to the hotel restaurant, which had a very decent appearance but we never did go there. "Bon jour" said the lady at the front desk and so did the gentleman who offered to take our luggage. "Bon jour" we replied, and then gave our name after being asked in English. She did her thing on the computer and told us that our room isn't ready yet and won't be until 2pm. She said she has a room on the first floor we can have now however. Well, we wanted a room higher with a view, so we decided that we will roam around until 2pm and come back for our normal room. We asked them to store our luggage, which after tagging, was placed inside a room adjacent to the desk. Well all bags but one was put into that room. I chose to keep the back pack with me as it contained, what in my opinion, are some of the most important assets in a man's life. Computer, cell phone, GPS, ipod, in short, electronics. Looking back now, although looking back 1 hour after we started even, not relocating the laptop to one of the suitcases was a -huge- mistake. That's about an extra 6lbs of hell! Yes my friends, that 6lbs doesn't seem so much, but when it's an extra burden on your back for a period of 5 to 6 hours, the only thing you want to do with it is burn it. But as it were, I placed the bag on my back, with the assistance of my beautiful wife. Yes, the bag was so full of stuff and so heavy, she had to help me with getting the second strap around my shoulder. This is one of those cornerstone moments in life that you never forget.

We whipped out our Frommer's, got our bearings and headed in the direction of the Louvre. We picked a hotel that was right in the center, or very very close at least to all the main spots. Basically the primary tourist area of Paris. We eventually found that there was a metro entrance just 2 minutes walk from us, but I'll get to that later.

We left the hotel and set out down the street.
That's our street. If you look at the top slightly right of the center, you will see the sign for our hotel. Well a part of it anyway, "Urgundy". See that large building at the end? That's Madeleine and at the end of the street, just around the corner is the entrance to the metro, but I thought I told you I'd get to that later...stop asking.

We at this time we were walking in the opposite direction and turned left at the end of the street. You know what, I think I'll skip the turn by turn. Notice, how empty the street is. It seems that the cars are always parked, even when it's busy. Primary objective this morning was to find a Paris cafe. Who would of guessed...right?

As we walked I took a picture of the view down the street. Nothing out of the ordinary, just to show what we were looking at. Notice however, how monotone everything is. Everything has this gray appearance. All the building are exactly the same color with slight variance in darkness. But the architecture is wonderful. Look at the street lights, I mean how cool is that? It's like walking into a movie.

Oh, quick fact about Paris officials. They have a special gender police unit. I kid you not...see...

"GENDARMERIE"...Must be a tough job. After all, a loaded 9mm with 3 extra clips. I would not cross dress in front of this guy!

Anyway, as we move on towards our goal, we find that most stores are still closed. Who are we kidding right, this is Europe, they probably open at 11am...lucky bastages. I of course being digitally armed, take photos of everything! I kid you not, and in many cases multiples just to make sure I got a good one. Here is another street I took a shot of, primarily because I liked the glass building at the end.

It's kind of hard to see it, but it was rather impressive looking. On the left in the foreground you can see some construction going on, which is a very common thing there. Especially in most of the tourist areas which killed the ability to take good pictures. As we continued on I turned and got this shot.

I forgot the significance of this monument and I'm to lazy to look it up, and I'm already late for work, so I might find it later. But I want to point out again the weather, was a bit depressing for our first day, but it is only 8am or so, which leaves a lot of time for improvement. Also I have a picture from this exact same spot on a later date when it was nice and sunny, and you will see just how beautiful it is in contrast to a picture on a gloomy day.

Paris - Day 1 (Part 1)

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:28:45 GMT

I was worried that our ride would not arrive on time and we would end up rushing at the airport to check in. But worse then that, I really hate waiting in long lines. Then again, who doesn't? While some people like to get to the airport as close to their flight as possible, we prefer to get there early, check in and hang out at stores and stuff. On the flip side, we don't rush to get on the plane since the seats are assigned. So we wait until most are boarded before getting on, or at the very least we don't stress over making sure we get our seats. Also since seats are assigned, there is also no worry about space for carry on bags, since 99% of the people end up stowing their luggage above their assigned seats. For anyone who's done at least some travel, you know that on local flights seats are normally not assigned so you need to get in line as soon as possible, especially if you want to sit next to someone. Also on local flights it tends to be a problem finding space overhead for carry on bags.

Anyway, so it's 5am and we are doing a last minute check to make sure we didn't forget anything. Tickets and passports are definitely with us, we are certain, after checking 10 or so times. Our plan is to have about 15 minutes of relax time before we set out on our trip. Suddenly the door bell rings...and the rush begins. Having to abandon our last minute check to a rushed move to get everything to the front door so the driver can get the bags on the van. This became quite hectic and stressful as you usually tend to forget stuff when you rush to leave. Mind you, going away for 3 days can tend to be stressful wondering if you haven't forgotten anything, but going away for 3 weeks is a completely different animal. Well having no choice, we put those worries aside, got everything out the door and after a last minute walk through of the house, I turned on the alarm and left to join my wife in the van.

We told the driver which airline as he pulled away and we were off. We checked our flight time again, and it was scheduled to depart at 8:53am. We had plenty of time. We thought also that since we are on a shared ride, that by the time he gets other people we'd end up getting to the airport early enough, but not to late. We went through the usual good morning, how you doing, where you flying dialog with the driver, then he tells us, that we are his only ride this morning. He had another couple to pick up, but they canceled. That would have taken us to another city and added at least another hour to the trip. Sounds good...but wait...

We arrived at the airport, paid the driver and went into the terminal. We get inside and this lady at the terminal tells us to go the the automated check in. We stood there for 15 minutes or so until our turn came up and then wasted about another 10 min or so trying to check in. Apparently the automated check in does not work for international flights, or at least it didn't for ours. It was asking for some weird confirmation numbers that we did not have. We finally interrupted one of the employees there and found at that we needed to go to a completely different line. We were slightly pissed. Well we got to our line which only had 2 people ahead of us and when our turn came up we made sure to request seats with more leg room and we got our tickets. Upon examination of the tickets, it showed that the departure time was at 7:15am! We double checked with the lady there and she confirmed that was the correct time. Imagine our surprise! And then imagine our relief of how things fell into place that morning with the driver arriving early and the other ride canceling. If those two things didn't happen we may have missed our flight! I always check flight status when meeting someone to make sure their flight is arriving on time or what not, but I never thought it was necessary to check the status of a departing flight. At least in all the dozens of times I have flown over the past few years I have never had a flight leave at a time other then scheduled. Well we had just enough time to grab some breakfast, which we did, and headed for our gate.

Our flight had two parts, with a change of equipment at Washington DC. And from there straight to Paris, France. I have to say, the airport in DC is horrible. It's in such bad shape. It's almost depressing to think that the airport at our nations capital looks like that.

1 year

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:17:42 GMT

It just dawned on me. It's been a year since I started my windows space. Amazing how time flys. Thanks to everyone that visits and reads my posts.

June

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:42:50 GMT

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit." - William Shakespeare

Travel Log update

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:49:45 GMT

It's been a few days since I started my travel log for our trip, so I thought I'd give a quick update.

I have all the photos for day 1 set and ready. I started writing and have a small part of day 1 written up and already I have almost 2 pages worth of text. I will see how much I write for the first few days, but I'm thinking I will end up condensing multiple days into 1 entry at some point as writing out each day on it's own may end up being to much. On the other hand, what's the difference...condensed into 1 huge entry, or a more manageable multiple entry log?

Also I thought I'd note that since I did not have a tripod, I have a lot of low light pictures that I took holding the camera. To get good quality shots I upped the ISO to anywhere between 500 and 1600. This actually works great for hand held low light shots and the natural light is just amazing compared to the generic light you get from a flash. This really becomes apparent in the photos that are taken inside buildings with displays that are finely crafted with vibrant colors. I tried doing a comparison shot of natural light vs. flash and the flash just washes all the color out and creates a very boring picture. As soon as I took that flash away and let the camera eat up the natural light, it just makes a world of difference. But, there are times that the flash does play a very important role, like getting good detail from close subjects under very bright lights.

Anyway, I love how these photos turned out, even under bad weather conditions. And I really enjoy seeing the change in the shots as the weather improves. It's just amazing what a difference good natural lighting can make to a photograph, both indoor and out.

Oh, and I also wanted to note that my write up will include images where appropriate with explanations before and after as needed. I thought it will flow much smoother if I do this, versus having you read and then go try and find the image I'm talking about in a separate location.

The Trip - Prologue

Wed, 30 May 2007 23:24:51 GMT

While I still have not gotten to my pictures of which I have over 2000, can you blame me? I'm guessing yes, but that doesn't change anything. :P I thought I'd write a little intro / overview of the trip, to get the appetite going so to speak.

It's hard getting my thoughts organized as there is just so much to write about. I'm not quite sure where to start, so I'll try at the begriming with the specs.

Two suitcases...packed
Wife's carry on...packed
My carry on back pack with laptop, mobile phone PDA, ipod video, tomtom, video camera, all needed cables and chargers, and ofcourse the most used item my D80 with 3 lenses. Total weight of my carry on about 25 to 30 pounds if not more.

By the way, I carried my wife's carry on as well. :) Did I mention I was still recovering from a bad back injury at this time?

Laptop and ipod were synched with the latest season of CSI and Battlestar Galactica and various music, that never got listened to by the way. Although CSI and BG did a great job at passing time on the plane. I made sure to bring 2 headphones and a Y splitter.

Objectives:
1) Paris, France (4 days, with a 1 day trip to Barcelona. Wait until you hear about this one.)
2) Lvov, Ukraine (2.5 days, visit my family explore city)
3) Nikolaev, Ukraine(20 days, visit wife's family, friends and explore surrounding areas. Yalta, Odessa)
4) Kiev, Ukraine (2 days, visit my family and explore city)
5) Home

Since I'm writing this from memory I may be forgetting some details, but overall that about covers it at a high level. I'm thinking that once I start to go into details of the trip, I will not just write one time and that's it. I think it will be funner to post each day of the trip individually. And really, each and every single day was so full of activities and adventures that they definitely hold up on their own.

May 5th:
It was 3am and I had finally went to bed to get at least a good 1 to 2 hours of sleep before getting ready to leave for the airport. Even with this little time to rest, I was able to get up with ease when the alarm went off. I took a quick shower and waited for my wife to get ready. We thought we had it all under control but then our ride arrived 30 minutes early.

To be continue...

Home Again

Mon, 28 May 2007 14:14:53 GMT

Well, we're back. Just arrived last night. Luggage is still by the front door and will probably get unpacked today. Probably... :)

I doubt I'll post anything for a bit while I recover and get up to speed at work. Besides I have a ton of photos to organize and get stuff written up. Hope everyone is doing great!

Travel update

Mon, 14 May 2007 15:28:38 GMT

Well as I thought it's not as easy for me to get connected here, so I'm not able to do regular updates. But that's ok, I've got over 1k pictures taken so far and a ton of stories to tell. So I'll have to do a write up when I get back...if I can remember everything. :)

Really happy to see some old buddies stopping by. Hope all are doing well.

The big day...

Fri, 04 May 2007 07:36:37 GMT

Well tomorrow...or should I say today, is the big day. In 5 hours the shuttle will be here, which will be 5am here, to take us to the airport. I have maybe a good 4 hours left to sleep and I don't feel sleepy. It's kind of hard to empty your mind and relax when something so big is just around the corner. In case you're confused I'm talking about my wife and I going to Ukraine to visit our home. On a side note, if you've been following my posts I'm happy to say I did get my passport in time, obviously if I'm going. :) I ended up paying through the nose for one of those passport services that guarantee a quick turn around. While expensive, you sure can't beat having piece of mind. Would have been much more expensive having to cancel my trip.

So here I am, just mere hours left to sleep and I'm at the computer typing. I got this idea, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do it because I don't know what if any Internet access I will have, but I want to try and chronicle our trip here. Should be fun, if I can find time and Internet access. I have 3 2GB memory cards for my Nikon, and I'm brining my laptop. So that means I can take as many pictures as I want and not worry about running out of memory cards. Even if my 50 or so gigs of free space on my laptop won't be enough, I still have a 30gb video camera which also takes SD cards and has a copy to HD function. So depending on how much video we shoot, I have between 50 and 80 gigs of picture taking pleasure. :) On the other hand, I'll probably need a year to go through that many pictures. Which is ok, I love photography and with digital you can't have to much. Of course I won't have my tri-pod with me so I'm going to have to improvise if I want to get some good sunset and evening shots. I think between the aperture and speed I should be able to get some decent hand held shots going. And of course it's not always very difficult to find someplace to rest the camera and leave the shutter open a bit longer.

So here's my plan. Every day I will be taking photos and if I have time in the evenings I will post my favorites and do a little write up. Yeah...sounds fun, I will try and do this.

On a side note, I put some TV shows and movies on my laptop to watch on the trip tomorrow and was pretty stoked until my buddy at work, thanks Jake :P, reminded me that airplanes don't have AC so this means my 16 to 19 hour movie extravaganza will be a mere 2 hours at best. Although we have a stop on the East coast before we take off again for Europe, so I'll be able to get off the plan and charge up in the terminal. Better then nothing I suppose. Oops, how can I forget, my wife will be there too, so it won't be boring after all. I think that last comment was just in case she reads this. LOL

How exciting! I'm going to see where I was born, where I lived, where I went to first grade, the park I played at, I'll also finally get a chance to visit my grandparents graves and place some flowers there. Sounds kind of weird saying that after indicating excitement, but you know what I mean. I have no idea what to expect. I have no point of reference, this is a totally new event for me in my life, just a roller coaster of emotions. I guess that explains me not being able to sleep. Besides my own reasons for excitement, I'm also really excited for my wife. She hasn't seen most of her family and friends for 10 years, so this will be a huge reunion. And since I really don't have much family left there, just a few cousins and an uncle, I get to still experience meeting my family from her side and see her just so happy when she sees them. I can't wait, this will be nothing less then excellent!

Oh wow, I hope my DVR doesn't fill up, I'd hate to miss the last episodes of 24, Heroes and Stargate SG-1. Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. I'm not going to loose sleep over it though. The trade off is more then worth it. Shoot there is always iTunes.

I feel like I want to just keep writing and writing, but at one point I'll probably loose your attention anyway, that is, if I haven't already. :) So I'll just say good night, and have a great Friday.

May

Tue, 01 May 2007 23:41:46 GMT

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." -George Eliot

International Travel and Passport

Sat, 21 Apr 2007 00:18:11 GMT

I was born in Ukraine and I came to the United States with my parents almost 30 years ago. Last year my wife, also from Ukraine, and I made plans that we would visit this year. She hasn't been back in over 7 years. So we're taking a big chunk of next month off from work and will be travelling to visit family, friends, see places from our childhood...etc. But this entry is not intended to talk about my past, it's about something much, much, much...MUCH more important....

PASSPORT!!!

Why you ask? Well then you came to the right place, because I will tell you. For those of you that don't know and those that probably do, passports last 10 years from data of issue. Pretty convenient. I actually had one issued exactly 10 years ago (no I never used it, not even once) and ironically it expired last month. Which of course put me in the uncomfortable position of having to go through the rounds of getting it renewed. I went to the post-office well over a month before our departure and they said it's not enough time. Regular turn around is something like 10 weeks. But luckily there is such a thing as rush service which has like a 2 week turn around...or so I thought. The very unhelpful gentleman at the post office told me the only way for me to get rush service is to go directly to the regional office in San Francisco. Here is where the really frustrating part begins.

I called the regional office end of March, around the 27th or 28th. Naturally it is fully automated and the automated appointment scheduling system tells you that if you, and pay close attention here as this will be important later, are leaving within the next 14 days press 1, if not press 2. Pressing 1 gets you into the appointment system to make an appointment. Pressing 2 gives you instructions for calling later. This got me very nervous as I was not sure how 14 days is enough to get a passport. So I played around with the menu options in their phone system and found an option to speak to a live person. After being on hold for about 45 minutes I finally got someone. He told me that this process is normal and that I should call back, as the automated system said, 14 days before and it will give me an appointment. Then I can come in at that time and within 1 to 3 days I will have my passport. That's great I thought. NOT!!!

Today is 14 days before. I called and got into the automated system and pressed the option to give me the earliest available appointment. This thing put me on hold for like 15 minutes while it searched. There were no sounds what so ever to indicate that anything was happening. Just silence until it came back suddenly and gave me an appointment time, which I was very happy to hear was on the same day of my departure, and if that's not bad enough...5 hours after my departure time. Talk about pouring salt on an open wound.

Once again I got someone live and they said there is nothing they can do over the phone and you can't do a walk in cause the guards will shoot you on site. Well not really but they won't let you in without an appointment. But, he said he will tell me how to finesse the phone system so that it will give me an earlier appointment. Worth a try I thought. Well another 30 min and 3 tubes of lubricant later I finally did in fact have an earlier appointment, although not much better. The new appointment is next Friday which is 4 working days from my departure. While slightly relieved I'm still very nervous cause the first instruction they gave me a month ago ended up loosing a month worth of time for me. So I'm not sure how much stock I can put into their statement of a 1 to 3 day turn around. Plus I have to take extra time off work to go there.

Long story short...errr...to late, I found a place in SF that is a private company which specializes in expediting the passport process, and they are even open on Saturday for 4 hours. Supposedly their promise of a 1 to 3 day turn around is something that can be trusted cause, well I'm not really sure why it can be trusted, I have no other option. I guess what I was looking for was some place I can walk into and not have to drop personal documents + money into a mailbox and wish for the best. There is an extra charge beyond govt fees of course, their services aren't cheep. But compared to other ones I found that are not local to me and some that only take applications via mail, they are the cheapest.

Well I'm breathing a bit easier now and worst case I still have my appointment at the regional office as back up.

Ok so remember earlier I mentioned to pay close attention to something? This is where it comes into play. If you need a passport to travel internationally, you absolutely must apply more then 10 weeks before. If you can't or for any reason you do not have that much time. DO NOT wait until 14 days before your departure. When it asks you if you are departing within 14 days to press 1 to confirm, or press 2 otherwise, just roll your eyes and press 1.

April

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 23:55:01 GMT

"The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath." -William Shakespeare

Chapter 9 - The Adventure Begins

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:32:59 GMT

     Dekkion stopped and listened, thinking he heard footsteps. Slowly turning his head over his shoulder he grimaced slightly as he tried to see through the darkness. ‘Nothing, perhaps it was just the wind’ he thought and continued onward. The wind started to pick up and it was becoming fairly difficult to travel and Dekkion was starting to wonder if he had made a mistake entering this forest so close to nightfall, when he spotted a small shack. No torch or other means of light was present in the area which made Dekkion reluctant to explore it for he did not wish to disturb or frighten anyone. Yet the weather was not permitting for much more travel and besides, it was already late and after a long day of travel he figured he should get some rest. Still the eeriness of the woods was frightening enough and he could not imagine why anyone would want to live here or for that matter how he managed to foster enough courage to examine the strange shack.
     The thick woods made the darkness even darker and he maintained caution as he closed the distance between himself and the shack. The usual forest and some strange noises were a constant hum in the air of this place most likely forgotten by God. His journey up to this point had been fairly uneventful. It would seem that even though there could be some vile creatures living in these woods, they wanted no part of him, or perhaps that was just his wishful thinking and they just didn’t find him to be worth the effort. Either way, he could find himself in danger at any time and was mindful of his surroundings. The shack appeared old and somewhat rotten at the edges of the boards that made up its walls and roof. Dekkion walked around the shack and tried to get a glimpse of the interior, but it was to dark. In fact it was starting to appear as though there is no one there. He approached the door and placed his hand on what was left of the handle. He slowly pulled and the door creaked as it moved outward creating a gap of darkness that was the interior of this shack. He propped his right foot against the door so as to keep it from shutting, then with his left hand he reach into his pack and withdrew a torch. With his right he reached into a pocket and pulled out a small crystal. He looked at it fondly for a moment, thinking about his father, who had given him this item and explained how it possessed magical properties. The crystal was one of his fathers’ most prized possessions. Its magic allowed the wielder to create a small flame when manipulating the crystal correctly. At this moment Dekkion felt very thankful for his fathers generosity and of course his thoroughness in teaching him how to properly use the crystal.
     Dekkion drew the crystal over the torch and made two small circular motions around the top of the torch and then touched the crystal to the material wrapped about the stick. As he separated the crystal from the torch, it suddenly burst into flame. The flickering brought the immediate area to life. Dekkion blinked shutting his eyes tightly before slowly opening just his left as it was always the first eye to adjust to bright light. The flames danced as light poured into the empty shack. Dekkion replaced the crystal and kept his elbow against the door as he leaned in with his left hand and moved in slowly. Finally able to open both eyes comfortably he surveyed his immediate surroundings. There were some broken chairs and a table that was still held up by one of it’s corners against the floor, the leg that once held that side up was broken in two and laying by the wall. He jolted startled slightly as the door shut suddenly behind him, he couldn’t help a chuckle at his silliness. Making sure the door was properly closed he decided that it was a safe enough place to take shelter for the night. He found a notch in one of the boards that made up the barely stable walls and with his sword carved it out some more and made it larger; Just large enough to place the torch into. He leaned his sword against the wall and removed his pack resting it on the floor to his right as he slid down against the wall with a simultaneous sigh of relief.
     He sat there for a while just staring ahead lost in thought, thinking about his journey and wondering what may come. He thought about his family, his brothers, sisters, his mother and father. He thought about everything he left behind in pursuit of what some had referred to as silly aspirations. But there was nothing silly about wanting to become virtuous and even less silly, was the fact that he wanted to find his half-brother. Who was not necessarily the most responsible one, but the years they spent together while both living at home they became very close. Dekkion was very fond of Kvalhion and after the disappearance of their sister being the youngest, it feel upon their older brothers to set out and find her. Over time Dekkion and Kvalhion became closer brothers than that of Dekkion and his other brothers who all had the same father. Maybe it was because they were the only ones left to tend to take care of the family, or maybe it was that they were very close in age, but regardless of the reason their bond grew very strong. It was somehow ironic as well that things turned out in such a way that always had Dekkion watching out for Kvalhion. But then again, it seems Dekkion always showed the potential to become a holy knight, and Kvalhion showed enough potential to become… something, if he really tried hard. Dekkion smiled to himself as he thought back to all the good times he had with his brother and all the misadventures they had shared. After a few moments the smile turned into a frown as thought of trouble resurfaced in his mind, and deep in his gut he felt that something was wrong and finding Kvalhion was the most important thing that he needed to do. Dekkion broke his gaze and looked down at his pack. He opened the cover and to pass the time took out a journal and began to write…

January

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:28:14 GMT

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -T.S. Eliot

December

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 19:24:29 GMT

"The way to get started is to stop talking and start doing." -Walt Disney

November

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 14:57:33 GMT

"The key to success is for you to make a habit throughout your life of doing the things you fear." -Vincent Van Gogh

Useful Tools - PC Protection

Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:12:55 GMT

I thought this would be a great next topic for my Useful Tools section. Probably one of the most important considerations for your PC. Without proper and addequate defense against hackers, viruses, spyware, trojans, etc., you may be looking at big problems on your computer.

I've been testing 3 solutions that seem to be highly popular and based on my testing so far appear to live up to the hype, at least for me. The best part about them, they are totally free!

Anti-Virus
AVG Anti-Virus Free

Anti-Spyware
ewido Anti-Spyware Free
Windows Defender

I have this configuration installed on all my comptuers and have been using it for almost 2 months. I use to have Norton Internet Security+NAV. I really like Norton, but I don't like what a resource hog it is. The above 3 take less resources as a sum, then Norton does by itself. The reason I have 2 programs for anti-spyware is that besides just having a double protection, ewido does not have automatic updates for the free version.

I would also recommend upgrading to IE7 and making full use of the phishing filter. This excellent tool will check web sites as you access them and let you know of any fraudulent websites and potential dangers.

Chapter 8 - Gu'ardan - Denouement

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 12:02:37 GMT

     For six long years the harsh training continued. Six long years training to be an elite warrior has a way of changing a boy into a man rather quickly. Roncur, his unit partner and four others were ordered to assemble in the very room where it all began with the orientation six years ago.
     "You have completed your training. You shall be assigned a contact, which will be your only source for information, assignments, and council." Virquin spoke in an abysmal and swift tone. "You will be assigned a charge, this is what you have all been training for and this is what you will spend the rest of your days doing."
     The men looked at each other with a quizzical look and waited. The door opened and a tall woman entered the chamber.
     “Hello, I am called Amiana. I am a keeper of a sacred knowledge. We have much work to do.”
     She spoke softly. Roncur couldn’t resist her beauty as his eyes remained fixed upon her face.
     “Listen carefully as we do not have much time.”
#
     Magic overwhelmed the small village of Gorndei as dark elves fell one by one. It was determined that where these few allowed to live, the knowledge they possessed about the realms of magic called Nec-T'yur, would give them the ability to release a deadly plague upon the land. They had to be stopped and Roncur was given the duty of bringing the wizard Amiana to intercept and destroy the dark elves.
#
     Fifteen years have passed since we left the Academy. I have made it my life’s work to record as much as I can of the Gu’ardan in my journals. It all began twenty-one years past when my own studies of the arcane came to a most unexpected end. Master Vi’Akyran came to me and interrupted my reading. I still remember that evening as if it was just last night.
     “Jerhuar, listen to me. There is a duty of great importance which I am entrusting to you. It will be no easy task and as my most progressed student I feel there is no other that could better accomplish it. It is however an unfortunate exchange, as we will no longer be able to continue your training. But I must admit, that which I am asking you to undertake can not be asked of any other. I have not the time to delve into the details of your task as you must depart come early light. I will tell you this…a very powerful and secretive society exists in our lands. It is a very special group of individuals that plays a critical role in our lands, but has maintained a shroud of secrecy, for reason that you shall soon enough learn. I will not lie to you; I have played a part in this. Of course I have long since retired from those duties and as you are aware have been teaching for more years now then even I can remember. The council sought me out and requested that a formal study and record be made. So please trust me when I say there is no other choice and this will be the most important thing you will do.”
     I did not question him…you do not question a Master Wizard, you simply listen and do as he…or she, says. There is no such thing as personal principle when it comes to the wisdom of a wizard. I knew that if something could lead Vi’Akyran to such actions then it must be of incredible importance. Discontinuing the studies of a pupil before completion was, dare I say, unheard of. Do not understand this as a lack of modesty on my part, granted I was on the high marks list but simply that sometimes in life you make choices, and, sometimes the choices are made for you. In this case it was most certainly the later, but given the circumstances I did not regret the actions. I must admit I do so wish to have been able to complete my studies. It would have been wonderful to have become a wizard instead of just a prophet and a scribe. Mere words and old dreams, as I did come to realize just how right Vi’Akyran had been. It’s just that sometimes, I wish I could have done more…
#
     Amiana stood back, casting deadly storms of death onto the hapless elves. Roncur took point and with his mastery of battle, cut down any that managed to get close enough. How ironic that, such beautiful colors of light can be responsible for such destruction. Not long after this had begun, all that was left was a town covered with bodies and two defenders standing tall like gods.
     The years went by leaving only memories of the vast numbers of life they had taken. Their lives were indeed filled with incredible danger as promised during their training. Only Roncur and Amiana remained as the rest of Roncur’s group had fallen in battle over the years. Their bond to each other eventually brought them close and they developed a love stronger then their combined might. They found solace in each other that was desperately needed and it helped them endure and press forward, mission after mission.
     One day a pact was formed between a cult known as the Dark Brotherhood and the dark race. Agents of the society returned information to the council that made them very nervous. The Brotherhood wanted to establish their own rule, under which they would destroy the Gu’ardan and release the dark magic that would make them the most powerful members of the arcane world. After learning of this, the society decided that it would be necessary to bring all the chosen together to rid the world of this threat once and for all. The necessity to put a stop to the Brotherhood was greater then that of keeping the secrecy between the ranks. The Brotherhood leader Grenex Nurthies had established some camps in the South Tahirah desert not far from some old ruins where what he called the dawning of a new age would begin.
     For the first time the Gu’ardan had all been gathered in one place for one purpose. There was an obvious feeling of uncertainty as this imposing army of warriors who have never trained together, never fought together, have never even as much as met all gathered in one place. They could only hope they would be able to stop this threat and save the land from a horrendous evil.
     As day break came scouts reported that an army of dark elves had been spotted approaching from the north. At first only small numbers could be seen, but as they got closer there appeared to be no end to the procession. There must have been thousands by the time they had surrounded the ruins. The Brotherhood had also gathered in vast numbers as well. A small number of dark elves entered the structure. It appeared they had a human woman in chains that was being taken inside. Not long after they had entered, a bright red glow started to emanate surrounding the entire area. A shrieking scream was heard and in almost what seemed to be an explosion, the sky changed color and the red glow around the ruins began pulsating. It was so quiet that chanting could be heard from within the ruins. I couldn't hear everything but what I did hear was the most frightening moment of my life.
     "They shall rise and walk this plane. Let the barrier be broken and the dead will take rein of this land and NOTHING SHALL STAND IN OUR WAY."
     The land begun to shake and what happened next could only be described as appalling. It appeared that the human woman had walked out without escort, but there was something different. Terrible discoloration in her skin made her look like she had been rotting for many years; a wide laceration was visible from her belly to her throat. How was this possible, how could she be alive? A dark elf emerged from within walking up to her. He was dressed in a bright robe and carried a staff. He must have been the one that carried out the ceremony. He stopped in front of her and yelled out.
     "It has begun, the queen is born. We will rule this land and there shall be nothing to stop us."
     Before he could continue the woman grabbed him and bit into his neck gnawing at it with a great hunger. He fell to the ground and at witnessing this, others in the immediate area turned to attack her. Ten must have been killed within moments, but they were not able to stop her as more went down. The ground continued to shake as the ground opened up. This was not expected, no one was prepared and if only they knew, the Gu’ardan could have attacked sooner and put a stop to what transpired. Yet they had failed before they even began.
     This was certainly a dark day, for these openings began to produce forms that looked like the human woman. Slowly they climbed out, pulling themselves free from the ground. Very quickly both sides had been surrounded by these things that I can only describe as walking dead.. Caught by surprise both sides who would have met in battle began to fight side by side against this common foe. There seemed to be no hope as the now unified army began dwindling in numbers. It appeared as though these creatures could not be stopped. The chosen and their wizards were powerful indeed; they had managed to regroup and kill the dead around them without many losses. The numbers of dark elves and the Brotherhood had fallen, for they had not the means to fight this foe. The only one that could possibly know how to stop these creatures was the first to die without so much as a warning. I can only surmise that the appearance of these creatures is very deceptive, as they clearly posses intelligence. If not for the Gu’ardan wizards surely they would have gone down as quickly. The wizards cast spells destroying the dead, while the warriors made sure nothing could interrupt this channeling of magic. But the numbers of dead seemed endless as they poured forth without end and it wasn't long before the only thing remaining was a desert covered by death.
     "AMIANA!"
     He screamed her name, but it was to late…she was no more. Some who remained wondered around aimlessly desperately trying to escape the area. In all the confusion I managed to find a cave and have been here for many days without food or water; I am afraid I shall not last much longer. I pen my final words and shall hide this text within the ruins. I can not let my life’s work be lost. I can only hope that one day these journals shall find their way into the hands of the right people. The Gu’ardan shall return it is inevitable. They shall rise in great numbers and will live in this land preserving its future. Until such a time, I can only hope that the land and its people will find a way to fight these creatures. I grow tired, feeling very ill. I fear my end is near. I know not what awaits me, but I fear it. I can hear them coming closer…
#
     “Who are these Gu’ardan?”
     The knight looked up at the master healer.
     “Where are they, why have they not shown themselves? If there was ever a time we had need of their services, it is now.”
     The master healer flipped through the last few pages again, quickly glancing over some text and nodding. His expression changing from confusion to impatient excitement, as the words sink in.
     “Yes, yes. This is most interesting. What is of more importance at the moment is that there is a Queen! I do not believe it, yet there it is as clear as the waters of Lake Reise. Do you realize that if this text tells true, then we may very well have a way of ridding our lands of this vile plague?”
     The knight nodded awaiting the orders he most certainly was about to receive.
     “Now be quick knight, guard this text with your life and make haste. Deliver this to the King. He must know of this at once!”

Quote Of The Month

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:58:04 GMT

"We are all failures -- at least, all the best of us are." -Sir J.M. Barrie

Almost a terrible Sunday!

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:44:02 GMT

     Ok so last week I decided to clean up my home network and make it a bit more networky. I know that's not a word...it is now. :P I decided to upgrade my router to a 54g with support for NAS (network attached storage). Well I plugged my external hard drive into the device and started copying all my files to it. I was having trouble copying very large files, so I called support and they sent me a beta firmware which I installed and it seemed to fix the problem. So I resumed my copying. I really wanted to clean up my computer hard drives and get everything centralized. Suddenly a couple days later I started having the same copy problem again, except this time it was with everything. So I started doing some research and on my hard drive manufacturers web site I found info about how to connect to that type of router. It turns out you have to format it using the router erase function which uses it's own type of format, which then makes it compatible and all will be well. Well I started moving my files off the hard drive so that I can do the format. Let me tell you, until you've tried moving 120 gigs of data around, you don't know what the meaning of wasting time is. Finally managed to get all the data off at the same time taking the opportunity to organize the data.
     So now I go to the admin console of the router select erase and claim the disk using the router. Selected all my files and initiate a move. Things are looking up, and the move process appears to be going fine. There is so much data that Windows doesn't even give you an estimate of time remaining in the move dialog box. Just says "Don't you have anything better to do with your time?" So a couple hours later I come back to my computer and the move failed after a couple folders were copied. After doing a couple tests, I found I still have the same damn problem of not being able to copy small files. So I started doing selective moves figuring I'll worry about the small stuff later. Again I left my computer for a few hours and when I returned sure enough the move process had failed.
     This is the part where I almost had a heart attack. I look at the contents of the NAS device and everything that I had moved is GONE!!! Empty, there is nothing on the hard drive. Used space still reports usage, but nothing, there is absolutely nothing there. There were 2 things in particular that immediately made me feel ill. Every single, and I do mean every single picture I have ever taken from 2004 and ALL my writing (poetry, stories, Ambrahka stories, notes and other related stuff) was there. Needless to say I about had a nervous break down, but then I remembered that my pictures I had backed up to DVDs so that was ok. At least I'm pretty sure they all are backed up. Have been to scared to verify. I will probably do that today. So that left probably the next if not the most important (it's really a hard trade-off for me) thing to me, and that's my writing data. I probably broke into a sweat without moving a muscle. So I started looking through the data that had not moved yet, hopelessly wishing that somehow, some way, it had not really moved over like I thought it did. Like a child looking for a lost toy, I was really upset. And then...THERE IT WAS!!!!!!! Turns out I had moved it to another folder when I was organizing and that folder had not made my initial selection of stuff to move over. Sigh of relief had never felt so good.
     So what's the moral of the story. Probably a couple. For one, NEVER "move" data, copy it and when you are sure it's all good, then delete the source. But, not before burning it all to DVD, to like 10 DVDs. I will be calling the manufacturer of my router today to give them an ear full. Probably not much they could do about it, but I just have this desire to at least make them share in my pain. Someone is going to offer up their first born before I'm done with them. ;)

Chapter 7 - Gu'ardan - Commencement

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 07:39:56 GMT

     The whispering was beginning to annoy Roncur as he sat in the silent hall of this strange place he had been brought to. Why was he even here? Roncur thought, why did he trust that stranger? Was it only because he was promised a great knowledge, or was it power that only few possessed? He didn't even know what it was he was called here for. Hours passed and the voices finally stopped.
     "Roncur Bisto, please enter the council room."
     A deep voice rang out from the halls. Roncur stood and approached the thick wooden doors. Slowly opening the doors he was suddenly hit by a cool breeze from within the enormous chamber. A large rectangular table stood on the opposite end, six hooded figures sat calmly waiting. The room was enormous, but was not dressed up with any fancy paintings or tapestries. For the most part it was empty with unlit torches hanging on the walls. It was difficult to make out any details accept for the single chair that stood in the center of the room. A guard motioned to him to enter and sit as he closed the doors behind him.
     The chair faced the large table at which he could barely make out the shape of six bodies. Cautiously, Roncur sat and began to nervously fidget his hands. The one seated farthest left made a slight waving motion with his hand and no sooner then he stopped a torch hanging on the wall behind Roncur sparked and began to burn, making the dark room seem more alive. ‘Could this be hell?’ The thought passed though Roncurs mind. Again he heard the deep voice.
     "Do not fear young one, 'not trouble you have found…and certainly not hell."
     A look of surprise and relief was visible on Roncurs face now. He melted into the chair he sat in and began to breathe calmly.
     "This council is the highest rank in our society, save for them."
     "Them? Them?" Roncur whispered to himself but remained quite. ‘I wonder who “them” are?’ The familiar voice from the council again opened up, "Not a concern for you young one, please remain silent so we may begin." After a short but seemingly uncomfortable pause...
     “You have been brought here to join the ranks of hundreds more like you. And like you they have been chosen because they show potential to be among the most elite. You will no doubt think that this carries some high rank or great rewards, but do not be fooled by the knowledge we will teach you. If you complete the academy you will be joined by one other. The both of you will from that moment become a single unit. You will then be given highly important missions, shadowed only by the life you will be responsible for protecting…at all costs. Except if need be, you will only have communication with two other units. Aside from your group you will be known to no other. You will receive no victory celebrations, your duty will be to serve a greater good. The only rewards you may find, are those that you have from personal gain and advancement. Your training will be extensive and difficult. It is important to keep your mind on your purpose and you just may succeed.”
     Roncur nodded in understanding, yet feeling overwhelmed.
     “Now go, you will be directed to your living quarters. Do not squander away this evening, for it will be the last peaceful night you will have for years to come.”
#
     The blade made a swift downward arc on a course to Roncurs' neck. The instructor was once a Gu'ardan himself, who completed his commission and was given the opportunity to remain as a master trainer. If this had been an actual battle Roncur would have lost his head, but Virquin had been holding back. He certainly couldn't eliminate a new initiate before he had a chance to prove himself. Roncur leapt back quickly barely avoiding the razor sharp edge…then quickly brought up his sword to parry the return swing. Virquin grinned at the young lad, knowing very well, he could have dismissed him any time he wanted. He could see errors in every move Roncur made, openings even the slightly experienced swordsman could exploit.
     "Very good lad, you display potential. Yet there be still much work to be done with yah, but that's what I'm here for. This has been a long day and 'tis only the first of many more to come. Now go and get yourself some rest, and we will continue come first light."
     Roncur turned and walked in the direction of his room, to weak to even lift his sword as it made a grinding noise along the ground. He couldn’t help but wonder what exactly could Virquin have possibly meant by rest, given that only three hours remained until sunrise. None the less, he was determined to make it the most restfull three hours anyone has ever had. And so with renewed vigor he finally managed to raise the sword high enough to lay it upon the table and without delay become one with the bed, sinking his head into the pillow…fast asleep.
     The first few months had been very difficult for Roncur, he was subject to many difficult and life threatening tests. A period that determines and singles out the best and most qualified of the chosen. Those not as resolute had their tongues fixed in place through magic so as never to reveal anything they may have learned of the society…if they survived their training that is. It was a high price to pay for failure, and from what I gather not indicated at the orientation.
     One day I was called to a small building by the church, when I approached the guards nodded to me, most likely expecting my arrival as they let me pass and enter. Inside I saw only three. One was certainly a priest of some form, gathering by his colorful robes with various symbols matching those carved into the wall beyond the alter. Next to the priest stood a woman…beautiful as the petals of a rose she was. They paid no attention to my presence as I quietly sat down to observe what it was I had been summoned for. They stood in front of a young lad. His back was to me, so I was not able to make out his face. He was nodding his head as they spoke to him, yet they must have been whispering as I could not hear what was said. After a few moments passed they stopped talking and there was a brief silence. Suddenly the priest raised his hand slightly and spoke in a tongue foreign to me.
     “Per silentium vos vadum teneo pacis.”
     It was precisely at the moment he finished talking that I realized the woman is a mage. She lowered her head and began chanting, though it was in hushed tones and I know not what was said. I felt a slight chill pass through me as she continued chanting and suddenly the boy was jolted by some force and almost fell to the ground, but the priest caught his arm. The young lad got his bearings, turned and walked out. His face seemed calm, yet his eyes displayed sadness. I could not resist, I jumped from my seat.
     “What has happened, what did you do to him?” The priest, he looked at me with a firm stare.
     “You are a guest here, maintain yourself.”
     “Forgive me sir.”
     I apologized in the most sincere tone I could muster at the moment. The priest looked me over thoughtfully.
     “Very well.” He paused another brief moment.
     “What you have witnessed is called the Gentle Silence.” ‘Not very gentle in appearance.’ I thought. “We go through great length to maintain our secrecy. Even your role here will be maintained in secrecy. You records will be made available only to the highest of ranks, because a time will come when the call for our society will be needed. As you have seen so far, we take great measures in training only the very best. There is no room for failure among us. Do not judge us though, for this is just the simple fact of who we are. Unfortunately even those that we find to be of great potential sometimes fail to follow in that path and if they choose to be discharged we perform this ceremony to render their tongue useless. Since we do not teach them to write until they have obtained a certain rank, they will have no means for disclosing the knowledge of our society.” I was about to ask a question when he interrupted me.
     “And our location…well…let me just say that you can not find, that which you can not see.”

Why dogs bite people...

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:57:21 GMT