Well, I actually followed through with my own mandate to myself today and finished up the fourth chapter of my beloved Paradise today. I probably started at about 2:00pm and by 5:30pm I had written a solid seven pages of content and brought the lengthy chapter to a close at about fourteen pages (with 1.5 line spacing). Now, by the time I considered the first full draft of the chapter "finished," I think I honestly felt like my brain was just going to be set to "Gone Fishing" status for the res...

I'm beginning to realize that Michigan's seemingly-schizophrenic weather patterns actually do follow some kind of predictable logic. Not in when things occur, of course, but there are definite "seasons" that begin and end, honestly, whenever the Elder Michiganians Up High designate that the season in question starts and terminates. For instance, summer is just now beginning as of May 27. Would you like to know how I know this? Because the weather forecast for the next week is all eighty degrees ...

I figured it was damn near time that I actually wrote about a game and there's really no better title to suit that necessity that the only game I've been playing for about the last two months (I was on the beta): Rise of Legends . This is the second title from developer Big Huge Games , which features Brian Reynolds at its helm (who, if memory serves, was a kind of protege to simulation thinktank Sid Meier . The first game from BHG was the very well-received Rise of Nations which, in my m...

Prepare for melodrama. I'm going to go ahead and violate so many of my own site-writing rules at once that, in fact, I may never be able to write again just out of the shame of my own writing infidelities. But, currently, I think this is something that needs to be done. Some people, when bad events occur, hole up in their living room with a bottle of ice cream and watch depressing movies. Some go on murderous rampages. I write a lengthy treatise on why I am the way I am in a romantic sense. S...

Since I got the majority of my work done for my fulltime job of a summer class that they call Intensive Second-Year Spanish, I figured I'd pretty much just go ahead and enjoy the day fully. And oh, let me tell you, it's been an enjoyable day. Between EG and I going to a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place which felt the need to not just serve up food but, rather, serve up some food to also going to Border's and picking up a couple of Philip K. Dick books ( Flow My Tears... and A Scanner Dar...

I'm continually impressed with my own ability to neglect this site (I simply refuse to call it a… blog . Such a silly word). Last time I apologized that I had successfully forsaken the site for about a week, and this time I'll apologize for successfully forsaking the site for, roughly, ten days. To make up for this from the get-go, I present to you two pictures with cuteness levels which have the ability to make all neglectful behavior disappear. Exhibit A and Exhibit B . I do hope that, n...

So, I originally started an entry that was more in line with the standard kind of rambling entry that I normally do. I got about three sentences done, when I realized that this simply wasn't going to cut it. Mostly because I think I've been mildly sleep-deprived for the last few days, but also because I've been really sleep-deprived for the last few days, but mostly just because I'm in a good, rambling, story-telling kind of mood that I feel would work best as a more storylike entry. Rambling is...

Alright, sorry kids. Put down the pitchforks, torches, and hostage kittens. I had been doing so well updating this thing with consistency every 3-4 days, and then I go and so something brash like not updating it in a week. Apologies. Apologies all around. I came home-home on Monday and, to be quite honest, I do so love coming home. I don't really do anything other than just hang around with my family, watch TV at night, and then retreat to the room that I spent so many hours in while grow...

I'm a big fan of the whole idea of keeping some semblance of structure in terms of the structure of yearly posts. So this is, for most intents and purposes, the 2005-2006 version of the "end of the year" post (done with similar intentions, though mostly likely a completely unique execution) that I did last year . I have yet to officially end this, my junior year at the University of Michigan , but with only a handful of days left before I go home for the week-long separation between winter a...

I had a nice, mildly lengthy entry dedicated to the "end of the year," which is to say the end of the school year. Which it is for me. But the entry… Well, to be honest, it was pretty horrendous. I actually deleted it after I had posted it because I felt that it didn't live up to the standards which I, myself, have established for entries on this site. And I'm not going to lie to you: the bar is pretty low. So when I say that an entry is bad I mean that it's really bad . I'll give it another ...

Sometimes, late at night, I feel this urge to, say, write an entry of some sorts for a site somewhere. Tonight, that happens to be the case. I can't say, specifically, what created this unique feeling in me... But I'm guessing it has something to do with chips and salsa and beer... Yeah, that sounds about right. I don't really have anything to really write about, to be honest. Though let's not kid ourselves here: it's not like I ever do . The Internet is truly a wonderful place. It is a lo...

So, at this point in time I only have roughly two weeks before I can head home and begin my summer vacation. And a week after that I come back to school -- so, yeah, awesome and such. Though, honestly, as much as I don't really want to do it, school during the summer is actually kind of fun. It's a lot more "relaxed" than a normal school year and, at least in my experience, the people that stay for summer tend to be a different variety of student. You know -- the insane, masochistic variety of...

It's some sort of given that if you have a week of little sleep, you're going to finish the big project or two or three that you've been working on and then you're going to wake up sick. I mean, sure, you might have been feeling a bit sick before you wake up -- say: just enough to make working on the project as much fun as licking sandpaper -- but it's really going to hit you that moment you think: "Hey, now I can relax!" This isn't exactly a theory or law or anything fancy of the sort, but… Yea...

After spending a couple of fairly long, enjoyable nights editing I think I can consider the second chapter of Paradise in a state of completion limbo — not "done" by any means, but done well enough to the point where I can not worry about it and move on to the next chapter. Which I think I'll probably start work on at the end of the month. Chapter 2, though, is fairly different than the first chapter in that there was no longer the need to be incredibly detailed in environment descriptions ...

I do very much apologize for going almost five days without so much as the smallest update to this, my Beloved Internet Paradise. That said, now is not going to be that update. I'm currently working on the second full draft of the second chapter of Paradise -- everyone's favorite dystopian, post-nuclear, romantic, darkly comedic, dramatic psychological thriller of a book. Once this thing is done, along with a couple other requirements for the week, you can expect a nice little rambling ...