Writer's Land: General

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

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.

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. ;)

By the way...

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 22:34:24 GMT

Did I mention that I'm on vacation? It'll be a few more days before I resume posting stories. However I do have the latest version of the timeline and history finished. So I'll be posting those when I get back.

Recent developments

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 06:17:06 GMT

I know that everyone is very anxious to read more of the Ambrahka stories, as indicated by the vast number of comments...NOT! But seriously I have some great news. My good friend, who's actually the RL person behind the character who's my characters brother, agreed to contribute stories as well. In fact he's already written one and decided to make a few adjustments to the timeline...thanks bud. :P So I've been working on some modifications and will repost the timeline and chapter 1. This is going to be really fun!

Happy 4th

Tue, 04 Jul 2006 15:18:52 GMT

I want to wish everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July.

Let me explain

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:48:56 GMT

I thought I would take a few minutes to explain the over all theme I have going here. I really enjoy being able to use my imagination and write freely without rules. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean I will go out of my way to make spelling and grammar mistakes. But I do believe in crossing boundaries in imagination and not being restricted by "writing" rules, and really at the end it all comes down to the "artistic license". :)

Happy Father's Day

Sun, 18 Jun 2006 14:38:15 GMT

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Enjoy the one of the few and far in between days that we get.

Enter The Bard

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:51:51 GMT

No I would not go as far as call myself a Bard, but I thought it still a good reference considering most of my original short stories were created thanks to inspiration from events in Online Role Playing Games. With that in mind, it's easy to see how fantasy plays a role in most of my stories, even in some poetry.

My biggest dream has always been to publish a novel, but in so many years of writing I have never found a book idea that I wanted to stick with. Sure they all start out as very promising...in my mind, but after writing a few chapters, they tend to end up on the shelf...pun intended. (probably more ironic sarcasm)

So what can you expect to find on my space. Well first and foremost, this will be home to all my works, with exception to something I am currently researching. Yes another new book idea, but this one really has my interest peaked and I am going full speed ahead to research, write and publish. I wish I could share it here, but because I intend to find a publisher for it I must keep it to myself until then. If you are a publisher and would like to hear about my story, please do not hesitate to contact me. By the way, I should mention at this point it is a serious of notes, research topics and a few pages of the first chapter. But I promise that my presentation will leave you wanting more. I can say this much, it's fiction that is grounded in reality. When I tie it all together, it makes people wonder if things didn't actually happen the way I have interpreted.

I guess starting "my space" plays a couple roles. The first I mentioned and the other is turning out to be a milestone of sorts. A mark to signify, mainly for myself, that I have officially committed to completing this novel.

Please feel free to read all my poetry that I have already posted. I will try to keep the space updated as often as possible. I will also be adding stories that I have written. I have not already done so, because they were originally based in a "realm" that does not belong to me. So I have created my own world to base these stories in, and I will post them as I complete each one.