Back in the Saddle!

Long time, no post! I'm back from another great underway period, and it's time to start blogging again! Things are going to be a tad bit different from here than ever before! first, I'm going to start posting more. Why have a blog with nearly 2000 visitors when I'm not going to post anything? NEVER AGAIN. Second off, Pokemon, Pokemon, POKEMON! X and Y just hit stores, and I wish to also use this blog as a day-to-day life of the competitive battler! This is a short blog post, because I'm tired, but I WILL be posting again tommorow! I'll have some very interesting things in the near future!!!!

Bullying: Enough is Enough (My Challenge To You)

Back when I was in Middle School, I was made fun of a lot. And it wasn't just words. I got beat up sometimes, and on some days, I would cry. Everyday I was called a "retard" and when I had warts, I would be called "wartboy". Looking back on those days, I still get the shivers. I'll admit, I did some pretty stupid things to try to impress people and be that "popular kid", and it all blew in my face. When I got to High School, this vastly improved, and soon, I rarely thought of it. But In cases such as Tyler Clementi, or the recent suicide of Amanda Todd, brings all of those memories back to full force, and I am full of malicious rage. So today's blog post won't be about books, games, or any of the things I cherish in life. This post will be about BULLYING, and the effects it can have on the victims.

First and foremost, Bullying is real, and it does not just happen in Schools and/or Colleges. It can happen ANYWHERE, at work, in your home, even in THE MILITARY, Bullying EXISTS EVERYWHERE. I have been bullied in school, at work, and in the military. ANYONE can be a bully as well. IT does not have to be the stereotypical jock or the perceived husky child. It can be your own father. It can be your own boss. It can be someone who is higher rank than you are, OR lower rank. These people can call you names that hits home, that make you feel like utter shit, that make you question your own existence, that make you hate your life and wish you did not have to leave your home/not be at home. Bullying also is not something that one can do in five minutes out of jest, then leave you alone. NO. Bullying is an imbalance of power between one or more individuals, and can spread quickly through rumor-mongering and public humiliation. The Bullies themselves, having said this, are also suffering as well, because Bullies rely on power physically and emotionally, Bullies desire CONTROL of something, specifically, someone. This means that something is wrong in the Bully's life, and is using the Victim as a scapegoat. However, not every case of Bullying relates to this notion. In the case of Megan Meier, a 13 year old teenager who committed suicide due to a former friend's mother having created a false account on the once-then-popular social media website MySpace, to gain information about the young teenager to humiliate her, due to rumors about the young teenager having spread gossip about the mother's daughter. Note, that the mother did not see that her ends would lead Megan to hang herself. So, Bullying can used as a means to gain untold power through peers, and using said power to humiliate others. In the case of Amanda Todd (whom I JUST read the story about her an hour before writing this post), a bully used her body against her. She and another friend went on a webcam chat room, where some boys asked for a flash. Amanda never expected the boy to pop out of nowhere sometime later, and threaten her to "give him a show" or else everyone she knows will see what she has done. Soon, after ignoring him, he sent the picture to everyone she knew. Even after switching schools multiple times, the boy was their, reaching for her new friends, making a Facebook page with her breasts featured, and no one respected her, everyone abandoned her. She had committed suicide. So, what do have on Bullying now? That it is an imbalance of power that can used to physically, emotionally, AND sexually control other people for the Bully to gain satisfaction in an area of life where life is not exactly perfect. Or the Bully can just be an arrogant asshole with a God Complex. Even myself, as I have said before, have been subject to harsh bullying. And on more than one occasion, I myself have contemplated suicide as my answer of choice to "get away from it all", to "show them I have balls", because "I HATE LIFE!!!" I was weak, puny, afraid to go to school, afraid to go home. This ultimately lasted until I was around eighteen. From fourteen-eighteen, at school, Bullying did not happen to me that much. But home was a different story, especially if I did something dumb... You might be thinking "WOW". Well, you should. Start thinking it now, because YOU, INNOCENT BYSTANDER, I CHALLENGE YOU!!

Whether your young or old, a guy or a chick, slim or big, black or white, I will not matter. IF, you happen across a case of bullying, STOP IT. Like, STOP IT RIGHT THEN AND THEIR. Even if you get beat up, called names, or something negative, as a human being, our basic nature is that of GOOD. Even if you so not have the physical power to do, words have always been more powerful than blows. Speak up! Report it! Even if you are branded as a snitch, it's not snitching if you have just potentially saved a life. It's not snitching if you have stopped it. So, my challenge to all of you who have read this is this: LET'S STOP BULLYING TOGETHER. To find out more about Bullying, and how YOU can stop it, go to , take a look, and together, let's make a difference :)

GW2 is THE SHIT!!!!

I told myself yesterday that I'd be going to bed a bit early. Then I started playing THIS baby:

GUILD WARS 2!! As a former WoW crack addict when it came to PvP, The team of GW2 boasted how it's sequel will have other MMOers judging other MMOs (my interpretation of that, namely, WoW), and I have to say, this is one of the best MMORPGs out in the market TODAY(though Runescape still has my heart ;) )

I play as this cool cat right here, the Mesmer profession, doing what I do best, making clones then shattering them for large amounts of damage! Sure, we ain't that powerful up close, but you'll need to be up close if you don't want to die! PvE wise, this is a great support class while simultaenously, with the right build, can build up to large DPS over a (short) period of time! I'm still getting the hang of PvP, but if one of you guys wants to help me out, then shoot me a message or something by e-mail! Another thing I got in the mail is THIS:

Good ol Gorz, and much cheaper than my $50 Gold Edition Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning. And with it's effect of summoing a Lv.7 LIGHT-Fairy token, I can think of some devious ideas with the token and not just the card. Which brings up the argument of which is better, Gorz or Tragoedia? Personally, Gorz. I mean, just look at him! Lastly, I also got THIS in the mail yesterday:

The second book of the Quantum Thief trilogy, which is by far, one of THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION SERIES EVER WRITTEN! Following Jean le Flambeur from Book One, The Quantum Thief, he thinks his freedom lies within Schrödinger's Box (a fictional variation of Schrödinger's own paradox theory, "Schrödinger's Cat"), but something is hunting him, Mieli, and the flirtatious AI vessel Perhonen. In the last book, he stole into the land of the dead, battled another version of himself, and swallowed a god to escape prison. If this doesn't ring curiosity, then your a lost cause! This book has tons of paradoxes and interesting workings on quantum mechanics and privacy issues. The Quantum Thief is a relatively cheap book too, and like me, you might have to read it twice! Alrighty then, enough from me, I got to go because I have work tommorow! I had the day off today, sweet! Later!!

What to do what to do what to do...Daily Ramblings

 So, as yall might read on the small Twitter box to your right, I managed to slice of a rough 100+ of The Wise Man's Fear I got back to my base's Fleet Recreation Center at 12, and did not realize it it was 3 in the morning when I had asked! I fell asleep their, and what did I do when I woke up? Continued to read The Wise Man's Fear!! IT is a glorious book so far, and Rothfuss almost made me cry when he compared how a library is akin to a city, with all the pros and cons, and how to love in despite of. Any true reader of any medium would agree to this, which made thaat specific part of the book one of the most memeorable. Rothfuss also had me dying of laughter. I particulary loved this scene between a Master and his student, which exemplifies the intellegence of this work, the humor, and complete parody of Epic Fantasy:

“You can divide infinity an infinite number of times, and the resulting pieces will still be infinitely large,” Uresh said in his odd Lenatti accent. “But if you divide a non-infinite number an infinite number of times the resulting pieces are non-infinitely small. Since they are non-infinitely small, but there are an infinite number of them, if you add them back together, their sum is infinite. This implies any number is, in fact, infinite.”

“Wow,” Elodin said after a long pause. He leveled a serious finger at the Lenatti man. “Uresh. Your next assignment is to have sex. If you do not know how to do this, see me after class.”

I recommend The Wise Man's Fear to anyone wanting to know what Fantasy is, why you should come back to the genre, and for any writers, to change what they think about Fantasy as a whole. I myself, was in the middle of re-reading The Name of the Wind, the first book of this series, just to re-clarify and re-analyze what I had missed.

Other than that, the week has been wonderously boring, to say. Haven't really been writing. Just reading and reading, and eating, and reading. No video games either. I have just been chilling. And you know what? Not writing at the moment is alright with me. Let my ideas be on the side for now. I'm on military leave. Let me relax and enjoy a book :)

*NOTE* Excerpt taken from tor.com

My First Book: Aspects of Strange Sorceries

  Writing is no easy art. Any author can tell you this. It takes years of practice to hone and perfect the art, yet even with that, we are still practicing. This is what I hope to accomplish with my first book, a small short story collection to display my talents, to really see if I have really improved. I believe so.
  Aspects of Strange Sorceries, the title of my book, will contain five short stories never read before by anyone(with the exceptions of my beta-readers, thanks guys), all which will will include an introduction by me, the stories `The Gods' Black Market`, `Ten's War`, `Night of Thieves`, `The Underground Dirigible`, and `My Wife, The Kingslayer`.
  I am excited to have announced this, yet the date is not set. But the book inches closer to completion.

Oh Epic Fantasy, How Funny Art Thee with your Traps and Whatnots

We've all seen it, lived in it, been entranced in it, and probably never want to leave. I think we all spent the night at Bree, or maybe even attempted to live in The Academy itself. I know that I wanted to stay clear of The Blight as far as I can, but here I ask a serious question: can we truly live in a Fantasy world? I recall Moorcock's good 'ol Epic Pooh article many years ago, baggin' on Tolkien's use of language to lull the reader into a world of comfort and safety, somewhere we can always go to, where we will never know any harm. Ah, but what happens when the book is closed and the curse breaks? That same stress rises up again like poison, and you quickly tame it again with that same book. But what happens when you finish it? Then go look for another. Here is my next question? How long can this last? Fantasy fiction shouldn't (but when shouldn't it shouldn't?) be always about global-landscapes, magic swords, unique magic systems, and armies of thousands of nation marching to the Plains of DOOOOOOM to take the crown! No! IT should be used to give the reader hope, to explore what never knew about our own world through the eyes of a character moving through a constructed one. I've always looked at Fantasy as my treasure trove for learning. An educational experience, if I can be allowed to go THAT far. Yet I learned nothing from reading Lord of the Rings, Name of the Wind, or The Drsgon's Path. But I did learn that vaginal mutilation DOES exists ans it IS a problem in Who Fears Death, and I also learned that a warrior does not have to be some badass swordsman, but maybe a simple doctor. Isn't that right Kaladin Stormblessed? So, we as writers should find more uses for our worlds other than for entertainment. Its good to be trapped in your worlds for a little bit, it really is! But it's not healthy to stay in them for to long, especially if we are not learning anything. Fantasy should always be a learning experience.

Books -I- WILL READ

The Black God's War by Moses Siregar A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman A Tide of Shadows by Tom Bielwaski Infinity Blade: Awakening by Brandon Sanderson Any thoughts?