Yay! Last Post Of The Semester!

Well, UW Sheb Luce was asking for submissions, be it art, short stories, poems or what not. So I submitted a song I had published in my second book Jackie Reaper, called "Siren's Song." It was accepted and published in their literary magazine for the spring. Luce also had a reading being done at Paradigm this past Thursday. I agreed to do a reading of my song. A friend from class showed up to cheer me on. They did a good job. My first time doing a public speaking thing like this I didn't know what to expect. Some how or another I was asked if I would be the first to read! I said okay. If you remember from an earlier post I mentioned my stagefright, and this is me forcing myself to get over it. Also, since I am so bad at marketing I plugged my two books before the reading as well. So I was the first up and it seemed surreal (and I hate that word) but I was looking at the audience and even though I saw them it was like they weren't even there, like I was invisible and they just happened to be looking in my direction. My eyes scanned the crowd as I plugged my books, but I never made eye contact that I was aware of. Then I started to sing, I wasn't even really that nervous. I tried to make eye contact with the crowd, but soon lost myself in my own song and the words I was singing. Pretty soon I was just singing and I was the only one there. Just me and the words in front of me. The song done I gathered my books and went back to my seat. Enjoying the rest of the evening with my friend and the others who were doing thier own readings from their own submissions. The ice broken now, I may go to Paradigm for their open mic every third sunday of the month, and try to plug my book some more. Yay! Last post of the semester!

Video Gaming The Rule Rather Than The Exception

Video games have become a cultural norm. I remember when I was little having an Atari and playing Pitfall and Pac-Man. Later we graduated to Nintendo and playing Super Mario Bros. My mother for some odd reason loved watching me play Tetris. I think the Atari went the way of the dodo, and the Nintendo ended in the basement for a while until my daughter wanted it, and fixed what was broken on it. Flash forward to the internet and pc games and online games. My brother is very heavy into this online gaming culture. He even talked me into playing one that was free called Rappelz. It's pretty much a game where you go around and kill things in a medival fantasy setting. But the problem with these games that are free is that you have to pay for all of the good stuff! Me being a casual player I never spent a dime on an online game. My brother on the other hand has spent thousands over the years on these free games. I was playing Rappelz infrequently up until a few months ago when my mediocre account got hacked and someone stole the things I had worked so hard to achieve over the last four or five years. My son logged into his account and found the same thing had happened to him. I was upset, but not really as it was just a time waster, and I wasn't playing all that much anyways. I wonder if my brothers account got hacked, since he had a ton more stuff that he payed money for. So now my friend has introduced me to a game called League Of Legends, that I've played a bunch of times in the last few weeks. But I've never been a big video game fan, they are too addicting, and people waste so much time staring at a monitor or a tv screen instead of going out and enjoying life. Video games should be an infrequent entertainment, like going to the movies or a sports event. Video games have become a cultural rule rather than the exception. But after publishing this I may waste some time on League Of Legends.