A Collection of Thoughts

Fan Expo 2011 - Friday

2012-01-23T14:02:00.000-05:00

First of all yes I realize this post is incredibly late, I've been meaning to write this up and post it for ages but never actually got around to actually doing it so here goes.

Friday was the first full day of the convention however since I was taking the GO train into Toronto to get there and since it was still during the week I didn't actually make it to the convention centre until around 11:30 or so I think even though the convention actually opened at 10:00 ( I believe, I still actually have quite vivid memories of the convention despite it being almost 5 months ago but there are going to be things I'm not positive about) but since there really wasn't anything on in the morning that day I really wanted to catch I wasn't really too concerned about getting there late. In fact it was actually kinda nice since when I got there there was no line at all and I was just able to walk straight into the convention centre and onto the main floor with no problems and no delays at all. There were definitely more people in the main convention area already today then there were on the Thursday but it still didn't seem overly crowded which was nice. All of the booths were set up and manned now and there were a couple of more celebrities in the signing area so everything seemed alot busier now. The first thing I was really interested in was a signing by Zoie Palmer one of the cast of Lost Girl but that wasn't until 1:00 I think so I still had plenty of time before that so I figured I'd just walk around the convention and just take it all in really at this point since the day before alot of it hadn't been setup yet. This is when I really realized that there is a ton of stuff to see just in terms of the floor alone not counting any panels or anything else, I myself am not really into collecting in many regards but I can see how people interested in that could spend ages just looking at the booths and the vendors alone. I tried to get a good sense of where things were in relation to each other so that I could get to the various booths and areas I was interested in fairly quickly when I needed to get there. I made sure to keep walking by the Lost Girl booth, which is where the signing was going to be, as the time got closer to 1:00 so that I could get in line if one started forming. I didn't really see much of a line forming till around 12:45 so at that time I joined the line and so had a pretty good spot and was able to meet her soon after 1:00 (Since Saturday pretty much ended up being my Lost Girl day at the convention I'll wait till then to really say more about meeting the cast). The first Q&A panel I was looking forward to going to was at 2:30 with Lexa Doig who had been in a number of shows I really like specifically Andromeda, Eureka and SG1, so I explored the convention floor a little more then heading up to the room to wait for a good seat for the panel. Unfortunately though once 2:30 came around we were informed that sadly both her and her Husband Michael Shanks weren't going to make it due to weather (At this time there had been Tornado/Hurricane warnings for the area so a few of the guests weren't able to make it till late in the convention and some not at all). This was really the only disappointing thing for me during the whole convention since Michael Shanks Q&A, which was supposed to be later on this day, was one of the things I had been looking forward to most as I have always been a huge fan of Stargate and SG1 but life is life and something can't be helped. So since the two panels I had been interested had been cancelled I suddenly had alot of time to kill since the next thing I was interested in wasn't until 7:30pm which was a screening of the first hour of the pilot of Terra Nova, this was the first time any of it had been shown in Canada. Since I had hours now to kill I went back down to the main convention floor and checked out a few of the vendors I had noticed while I was scouting everything out. I have never really been much of an overt fan, in the sense of having shirts etc, of some of my favourite shows and game I figured I should start to remedy that so spent a good little while looking through the different T-shirt stands especially and ended up getting a Starcraft 2 shirt that I really liked. I also looked through a number of the comic vendors and picked a few of the Guild one-shot comics that I didn't have. I also decided that since I had quite a bit of time to kill I'd take the time and go stand in line to get one of the autographs I wanted, this being from Kevin Sorbo. I had pretty much grown up watching him on Hercules and then later in Andromeda so I had been debating whether I wanted to pay to get his autograph and ultimately the Q&A panel he did the day before is what made me decide to go for it, I am much happier supporting someone that clearly enjoys what he is doing but also very clearly cares about the people he is making entertainment for. So I stood in line for a bit I am not sure how long but it wasn't long and got the chance to meet him, shake his hand, get his autograph and talk very briefly to him which was nice, I will say that all of the celebrities that I got autographs from were very nice and friendly and even though there was often a line waiting I never really felt rushed or that they weren't happy to meet their fans which is something I know I really appreciated. After all that I was feeling a little beat and worn out, I have scoliosis in my lower back so if I am standing or walk alot it tends to get quite sore, so I just found an out of the way corner and sat down and had some water and an O'Henry bar I had packed and just rested for a bit. I am not exactly sure of the timing or order of alot of the things I mentioned I just remember them taking place in that time frame. I eventually ended up just heading up to the room where the screening was going to take place quite a bit early since I didn't really have anything else to do and was a little tired from exploring the convention floor quite thoroughly, I wasn't really in line for anything since there were a couple of panels in the room it was going to be in and unlike what I heard from people at SDCC here they cleared the rooms before each panel so you couldn't just go in and sit there for as many panels as you want. Once the last panel before the screening started I did go and take a seat along the wall near the entrance as I noticed a few others doing the same. It was nice to just sit and rest a bit and to just watch people coming and coming and milling around, conventions are incredibly interesting places to people watch :) As the time of the screening grew closer more and more people started lining up and before long there was quite a long line. I am not sure if they were getting things setup or waiting for all the press, since this was the first screening of Terra Nova in Canada there were a number of press there as well to see it, but we weren't let into the room till around 7:40 or so and I did get an excellent seat. The screening got started around 8:15 or so I think and went for an hour. I actually really enjoyed the screening of it, although I did feel bad at the end as there must have been a graphical glitch on the DVD so it messed up a bit of the picture near the end of the screening. With the screening this ended up being my latest night at the convention, and ironically the next day was one of my earliest as there was a panel at 11:00 the next morning I really wanted to catch. All in all though my first full day at Fan Expo was very enjoyable even if some of the Q&A Panels I really wanted to see got cancelled.

Fan Expo - Thursday

2011-10-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

Thursday was the first day of Fan Expo but the convention didn't open until 4pm that day, however those with weekend or premium passes were able to get in 2 hours earlier at 2pm so I had planned to try to get to the convention centre at around 1 - 1:30pm as I really wasn't sure what kind of a line there would be given the gap between the early entry and the normal entry.

I think I managed to get there around 1:15 or so and there was a line already well formed, thankfully it was nice out neither really really hot or cold and miserable so I got into line and was enjoying looking at everyone else around as there was definitely a good mix of people in all sorts of costumes from very large and elaborate ones to very minimal ones and everything between. So that is pretty much how I passed my time while waiting till we could start getting in, I think I finally got onto the main convention floor at around 2:30 or so which I felt worked out well. It was definitely interesting walking around especially at first as a number of the stands weren't actually setup and open and a bunch of the others were just starting to get everything out and ready so it was interesting to watch them for a little bit. So I spent a good little while just wandering around the floor checking out where certain booths were that I was interested in, looked at the celebrity autograph area and just generally was checking things out.

There were only really 2 panels that had looked interesting to me on the thursday both were Q&A panels by two of the celebrity guests one at 4:30 and the other at 5:30 which I figured meant that I'd only really be able to go to one of them as based on what I'd heard about panels at other conventions I was planning on trying to be lined up at least an hour in advance for any of the panels I was really interested in so I opted to go for the 5:30 panel which was a Q&A with Kevin Sorbo which I figured would be interesting as I had grown up watching him as Hercules and then later as Dylan Hunt on Andromeda. So after walking around and checking out the main floor for awhile I was starting to get a little tired and sore (I have scoliosis in my lower back which means my back tends to get fairly sore if I am standing or walking around too much) and I noticed it was a little passed 4 so I figured I'd go find the room the Kevin Sorbo panel was going to be in and see if there was a line yet for it but when I found the room there was no line but the doors were open and it looked like people were already inside sitting down since the Kevin Sorbo panel was the only panel in that room for today so I went in and got a pretty good seat and just rested for awhile. One thing I should add here as I mentioned before I really didn't know what to expect from this and as I mentioned my back isn't the best so I wanted to try and avoid having to carry anything if I could avoid it so since this day was a shorter day I figured I wouldn't bring anything and just see what other people brought and get a sense of what I would actually need, and while waiting I realized something to add to that list was a good book as the only thing I had with me was my iPhone which had some audiobooks and TV episodes but the headphones I brought weren't too good so I found it hard to enjoy listening/watching it so I pretty much just sat back and relaxed till it started filling up. The panel itself was great! Kevin Sorbo was just so down to earth and friendly and it really came across that he was having a good time talking about his experiences with his shows and answering peoples questions, he was also alot funnier then I was expecting but all in all I really enjoyed the panel and it just really increased my opinion of him a great deal.

The panel lasted for about an hour so after I was finished there it was around 6:30 and the convention seemed to be winding down so I decided I would head home as well so that I could be rested for the next day and there were a number of things I wanted to get ready so I'd have them with me for the next day. All in all though it was great first day and I really enjoyed it and was looking forward to the rest of the convention.

Fan Expo - Intro

2011-10-12T03:45:00.000-04:00

A quick note: I apologize to anyone reading this if you are a big stickler for grammar as I am terrible at it and since this is mostly for me to put down my recollections of my time it is going to be more train of thought then structured prose although I will try to not make it too horrible however you have been warned.

A friend of mine recently pointed out that it had been quite awhile since I had last updated this blog with anything and was just wondering why. Which was a fair point part of it is that I honestly hadn't given it much thought, the other thing is that for the most part not a whole lot had really been going on with me to write about. However at the end of August I did go to my first large convention in Toronto called Fan Expo and after reading another friend post their experiences at SDCC earlier in the summer I figured that would be something that would be worth writing some entries about and so I will write a post for each of the four days that I was there. I figured I'd put all the intro stuff into this entry so that for the next 4 at least I can just start out with how that day started. This was actually only the second convention I've been to as I went to a small one with a friend in February I think it was, however that one was very small compared to Fan Expo as it was one smallish hall and it was only 1 day so in a sense Fan Expo was my first exposure to the real Con experience. I honestly don't know when or how long it will take me to write these up but I am going to try to get at least a couple up before the end of the week.

I guess the only thing really left for this entry if it is really to be an introduction is to talk about how I ended up deciding to go to Fan Expo in the first place. As I had mentioned for most of my life I have paid very little to no attention to most conventions the only one I ever recall going to would be the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) with my family and as I have mentioned before on here awhile back I started to get more involved in online communities which lead to the original restart of this blog. As I got know a group of people online and started to communicate more with them I started to hear more and more about different conventions and was the first time I really was connected with anyone that regularly attended them or was even really interested in them. As they started to talk about and make plans for SDCC this year it got me to look into them more and I discovered a growing interest and curiosity about them as they all talked about them with such warmth and enthusiasm. So I started looking into any conventions that might be closer to home that I could check out which is what lead to going to the small convention in February. It was interesting in it's own way and there were a few interesting celebrities there but nothing/no one that I was really excited or interested to see. So while it was nice I definitely did not get that sense of love and excitement that my online friends seemed to have for conventions, I figured that might be because it was such a small convention so I started looking around to see if there were any larger conventions that were held that wouldn't require plane trips or hotel rooms it was through this that I first learned about Fan Expo. I learned that Fan Expo was one of the largest conventions in Canada and that it was held in Toronto every year and after looking at some of the guests and reports of previous years it seemed like it would be much more interesting. At this point I figured I'd keep my eye on it and see who and what was planned for this years show before making any decisions about whether I'd go or not as I wasn't sure if I'd really enjoy it or not since I would most likely be alone, I'm not a big fan of crowds and long lines and I've always been more of a TV and Games kinda geek then a big comic book geek which seemed to be a large part of these conventions. So I kept a bit of an eye on it until they started announcing the guests for this years show, now Fan Expo is a combination of 5 different sections: Gaming, SciFi, Comics, Anime and Horror and so they announced them a section at a time at different dates and so while I looked at them all the main one I was interested in was SciFi being mostly a TV geek as I mentioned (and I didn't really recognize many of the Gaming guest names from previous years) and so once they were announced I saw there were actually a few people there that I would actually be very interested to have the chance to meet them so that definitely increased my interest in attending the convention although at this point they were all tentative and there was no idea who was going to be there when as with the increased interest in going I started to debate while which day should I go, just one day or a few or all weekend. I debated this on and off for awhile ( I don't really remember when the guests were announced maybe around May but that is just a guess) it wasn't until SDCC actually started that I started thinking about it more seriously as alot of my online friends were going to it and so they would be talking about it on Twitter and other social media sites and hearing their excitement and enjoyment of it got me thinking about it. So after all this and after seeing a few more people I would be interested to see being signed up as guests I had pretty much decided that I was going to go but I just wasn't sure when or for how long so I started looking up how I could get there and where it would be and what were the ticket options etc. I debated this for awhile before finally just deciding that I wanted to really give this a good go and so I was going to go for the whole weekend so that I could really get the full experience and make sure I could see as much as I could so I decided to buy a weekend pass as it would mean I could go for the full weekend and it included early entry for the first day of the convention, I further decided to pay extra to have it shipped rather then having to go there to redeem it when it started after hearing about how long lines were for that sort of thing at other conventions from some of my online friends. So I got my ticket, which ended up being a wristband and as the convention drew closer they released schedules of what was planned and so I went through and picked out all the things that peaked my interest and then from that figured out what I could reasonably expect to do and in the case of any overlaps what I would rather do. I had decided to take the GO train (city-to-to public transit) as the convention centre was easily walkable from the station in Toronto. So after doing all the planning I thought I could I got everything ready on Wednesday which leads us to Thursday which was the first day of the convention.

A Fond Farewell to Stargate

2011-05-11T10:57:00.000-04:00

Well last night was both the season and series finale of Stargate Universe, which has become one of my all time favourite shows, so I just wanted to talk about some of the reasons why I have enjoyed this series so much and then comment on the franchise as a whole as this was also (for now) the franchise finale.

Where to start, I think that I have to start with what I think is the heart and soul of the show and quite likely why I developed such a strong connection to this show in particular and that is the characters. SGU was a very character driven show even from the very beginning taking time to introduce us to all the characters and then watching them as they dealt with the trials that come from being stuck on Destiny. This was also one of the best examples of an ensemble cast every character was given a story and depth and their own problems to deal with and in so doing provided a chance for each character to be both heroic and tragic in their own ways, even the secondary (and in this case I use that term very loosely) are given stories and personalities so that you care about them all without regard to who is official 'main' cast and who is 'secondary'.

Another reason for the show success which is heavily tied to the characters and that just really made them so much more then just characters on a show were the actors and crew behind the scenes. This was a cast & crew that you could tell they loved and respected what they did. I think one of the things that really drew me into the show and made me connect to it on a deeper level then I do with most shows was listening to the actors commentaries on the DVDs of the first half of season 1, in listening to them you could hear the actors enthusiasm for what they were doing and for all their fellow cast mates and I think that translates into much better and more dynamic performances then if they were people just there to play a part, do their job and then go home. You could tell that with these people they were putting their heart into what they were doing.

The last two things I wanted to mention in regard to why I loved SGU are the music and the visual effects. In any scifi show visual effects are always going to play a big role in making sure things look good and look real, however one of the problems that can come with such a reliance on visual effects is you run the risk of having them take over the show and instead of supporting the story they distract you from it. In SGU however, not only do the visual effects look absolutely incredible but they always seem to draw you further into the story which is a very tough thing to do consistently. In many ways the music in SGU is similar to the visual effects in that it manages to be both amazing and breathtaking and yet use that to further your connection to the events of the story and provide a deeper connection. If ever there was a show that needed and deserved a soundtrack CD it is definitely SGU.

All of these things I have mentioned can be seen very clearly in the season finale of SGU, it was such an absolutely incredible episode made all the more amazing by the fact that when they were filming it they didn't know whether it would be a season finale or the series finale but it works incredibly well as both. Although it did end on what you could call a cliffhanger "I'd rather talk about what we have, maybe even what we've gained" to quote Col Young and so rather then look at it as a cliffhanger I'd rather look at it as a chance to allow our imaginations to run wild and come up with any and all outcomes we would like and I think that is a beautiful way to leave the series and such an absolutely genius bit of writing.

What makes the end of Stargate Universe all the more bittersweet is the fact that it marks the end of a 17 season and 14 year run of the Stargate franchise. I remember watching the pilot episode of SG1 instead of finishing a paper or assignment I had due at the time and I've been watching Stargate ever since. SG1 was an amazing show as it managed to combine aspects of action, drama and comedy in a very entertaining way which never took itself too seriously. Stargate Atlantis in many ways continued in the same vein as SG1 but this time with some new characters and slightly different aspects and was itself a great show and did an amazing job of continuing the Stargate franchise. Stargate Universe however was definitely a very different kind of show it replaced the idealistic view and tone of SG1 and SGA with a harder more realistic view, it definitely was darker and had more grit to it but still in small ways continued the humour of Stargate although often in more subtle understated ways, but it lead to much deeper characters and an amazing story and in its own way proudly carried the Stargate franchise in a new direction. I am going to deeply miss having the franchise I have in many way grown up with not being around with new episodes. I do not believe that this is the end for the franchise, I like to think of it more like the finale of SGU and it is merely going into stasis until it is ready for new adventures whether that be in 3 years or a 1000 years I do believe Stargate will continue on.

Entry 71

2011-04-12T17:02:00.000-04:00

It's been awhile since I have written up an entry here so I figured I should add something, I have been sick the past while fighting off a rather annoying cold nothing really serious but definitely quite annoying and quite draining so that is part of the reason I haven't added anything lately. Another reason is that I am not exactly sure what to add on here anymore since I'm definitely not using it for either of its intended uses at the moment, I have been doing a lot of thinking though and if I can somehow organize my thoughts and get the energy to write it all up there might be a more substantial post with regard to how I feel, what my situation is like that sort of thing although I am not sure exactly how much of it can really be properly put into words but I might see if I can give it a shot.

Entry 70

2011-03-26T20:04:00.000-04:00

Well it's been a little while since I've actually written one of these and I really haven't been doing it daily for the past while so continuing with the Day XX titles seemed kinda pointless so I changed it to Entry which makes more logical sense. As for why I haven't been writing daily or much lately that is mostly because I really haven't done much worth writing about and it would just seem depressing and somewhat pointless to just write an entry saying "Well didn't do much today, just played Dragon Age 2, watched some shows and ate then went to bed" but then again maybe I should try to start doing that as maybe it would encourage me to try to actually do something worth writing about rather then just basically passing time. Well that's pretty much where I am at the moment

Day 69

2011-03-21T01:12:00.000-04:00

Well my trip to Toronto ended up going quite well, I'll probably try to write up a separate post specifically about the convention in the next day or two but overall I enjoyed it and it was really nice to spend sometime with a friend I hadn't really seen in awhile. I spent pretty much all day in Toronto, a large part of that being at the convention but after we were done there I went back to my friends place as I hadn't seen it and I was able to get two of my friends hooked on the Guild and Community two shows I have really enjoyed and correctly guessed that they would enjoy them as well. I ended up doing a lot more walking then I expected while I was in Toronto since we ended up walking out to a burger place my friend had mentioned to me in the past and the nearest one was about a 20 - 30 min walk from the convention which isn't really all that far but when you really aren't used to doing much it seems like a lot and I was definitely quite stiff and sore this morning. All in all it was a good day and I am glad I went.

Day 68

2011-03-18T23:05:00.000-04:00

Well I have now confirmed that I will indeed be going up to Toronto to meet up with a friend and then we are going to check out the Toronto Comiccon that is going on which should be interesting as I have never actually been to a convention so I am looking forward to it, I am just loading up my iphone with some audiobooks for the trip as I will be taking the GO train to and from Toronto since I don't want to have to deal with Toronto traffic and there is a stop very close to where to the convention is being held. It should be quite interesting as it has been quite awhile since I have really done anything out of the house. So I guess we'll see how things go.

Day 67

2011-03-17T00:36:00.000-04:00

Well I think I need to try to start doing these in the morning again so that I don't end up forgetting about them or just being too tired to write them. I think part of it is that I just don't really know what to write for them much anymore since I really seem to be stuck in this kind of limbo where I am just not doing anything. I am planning on going into Toronto on the weekend to visit a friend and go to a convention so that'll definitely be something different maybe it'll even be enough to knock me out of this rut I have found myself in.

Day 66

2011-03-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

Well once again I realize that I missed a day of getting a blog post up and I have really been struggling a lot more then usual against this apathy and inaction that has become the hallmark of a lot of my days lately. As for yesterday I also didn't get a blog post up as I really wasn't at my computer for most of the day which was unusual as I had bought the first season of a TV show called Community while I was out on Saturday and started watching it as I had been feeling fairly down and depressed and just got completely sucked into it so I ended up spending pretty much all day yesterday watching all the episodes and special features especially since the DVD set included cast/crew commentaries on every episode and I think I have mentioned before that that is above all else what I look for and enjoy most as a special feature so by the time I finished watching it all I was quite tired and it was fairly late so I just went to bed and only really realized I hadn't written a blog post this morning. So that was pretty much my weekend as for this week I don't know I am trying to get myself going but just haven't gotten there yet.

Day 65

2011-03-12T19:19:00.000-05:00

I know I didn't manage to get a blog post up yesterday I didn't really think about it in the morning and once it got later I was just too tired to do anything about it. Didn't really do much yesterday other then play Dragon Age 2 and try to help a few people in my horde guild get a few guild achievements to try to build up some guild XP which we could definitely use. As for today well I have actually been out of the house for most of the day which is something I haven't done in quite awhile, went out for lunch then did some running around and visited my cousins who are back from doing missionary work with the Tribes in Indonesia so that was nice, but sadly I am kinda worn out from being out so that has been the past 2 days.

Day 64

2011-03-11T01:29:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't get too much done today as I wasn't really feeling the best, not exactly sick but definitely not normal either if that makes sense to any of you. Honestly I think that is really about it for today, going to head to bed and hope that I can get a good night sleep and that I'll be feeling better in the morning.

Day 63

2011-03-10T00:41:00.000-05:00

Well today was alright, I got to sit down and talk to one of the people that I have the most respect for out of anyone I know so that was definitely nice. Other then that not too much was going on today, spent most of the day playing a new game I just got yesterday that I've been looking forward to for awhile, so that was fun. I have been feeling a little ill the last while tonight so hopefully I'm not getting sick but I guess we'll see. So I just wanted to make sure to get a blog post in for today as if nothing else I'd like to make sure that I keep up with it in the hopes that it'll help me to continue on stronger in someway.

Day 62

2011-03-08T11:32:00.000-05:00

Well I don't know that I really accomplished anything truly productive yesterday which was my goal for yesterday. I just don't know sometimes is this just something I've let myself become accustomed to and I don't have the strength or the will to snap out of it, or is that just a symptom of an underlying problem that I have been dealing with for years, or is it some combination of the two or something altogether different. I just don't really know what to think these days most of the time I feel so weak and so tired that it seems an effort to exist and yet at the same time I know there are so many other people out there that are in much worst situations then mine and yet they are continuing on far better then I am. I just don't seem to know what to think anymore.

Day 61

2011-03-07T11:19:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday is now the second day I haven't written up a blog entry for the day, I still and honestly don't know what it is that has just thrown me so of course of late, I'm sleeping better for the most part and nothing terrible or traumatic has happened so I am at a bit of a loss for what has so derailed my slow but rather steady progress. There are a couple of things happening this week that I have been looking forward to so hopefully in getting involved with them I might be able to snap out of this slump I've been stuck in. So my goal for the day is to do something anything to try and help me get out or start to get out of this slump.

Day 60

2011-03-05T09:12:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday was the first time that I have actually done made a blog entry I guess it was kinda inevitable with me leaving them till the last minute to write them but it is still a bit of a disappointment. So here I am to make sure I write this one and write it in the morning to make sure I don't forget this time. I didn't manage to do anything productive yesterday but at least I didn't feel quite as tired even if I still felt as unmotivated so hopefully that is a good sign. So my goal for today is to do a little bit of my course work even if it is only for 5 minutes to try to get back on track with it

Day 59

2011-03-04T01:21:00.000-05:00

Well another day where I am doing this blog very late and didn't get anything productive done, I really need to try to find a way to break myself out of this slump but I just don't know how. On the plus side I did get to see two of my friends I hadn't seen in awhile which was really nice and I found out another of my friends is going to be in the area in the summer which is good news as I haven't seen them in quite awhile. So at least today wasn't a complete waste. Well here's hoping things start to improve starting tomorrow.

Day 58

2011-03-03T00:02:00.000-05:00

Well I think this is the first time I've really come close to not getting a blog post in for the day, I don't know what it is but the past two days I've been exceptionally tired/unmotivated/etc and this time it isn't due to messed up sleep schedule as it is not really bad at the moment. Since I am going to probably be heading straight to bed after I finish this I won't go through the pointlessness of setting a goal for the "day" at this point. But I am hoping that I won't feel this way again tomorrow.

Day 57

2011-03-01T09:51:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't manage to meet my goal for yesterday as I didn't look at the code at all, I am not entirely sure why I didn't yesterday I was pretty tired most of the day so maybe it was just a off day. At least my sleeping schedule seems to have returned to a much more normal pattern so that at least is a good thing. Well I am going to take another crack at looking through and playing around with the code for the first lab project of this lesson in my course today so that will be my goal for the day.

Day 56

2011-02-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

Well I did manage to get my reading done yesterday although at first it seemed like it wasn't going to happen as I couldn't find the printed version of the workbook for the third lesson but I just ended up reading it off the PDF file I have on my computer. I'll have to try to remember to print out another copy of it. So my goal for today is going to be to look through and play around with the code for the first lab project a bit to make sure I understand all of what is going on with it.

Day 55

2011-02-27T10:51:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get some more reading done for my course and it seems like for this lesson they have it broken up a bit more as the textbook suggested I stop reading the textbook at the point where I stopped last night and suggested reading though and working with the first of the lab projects for awhile before continuing on so that is what I think I am going to try to do today is start in on that for my course. Other then that not too much else to report.

Day 54

2011-02-26T11:05:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get a bit of reading done for the course yesterday despite being quite tired but thankfully I was able to get to sleep in a much better time then I have previously so hopefully that means I've been able to break out of the awful sleeping schedule I was stuck in before. So my goal for the day is to get some reading done for my course and try to maintain my better sleeping schedule.

Day 53

2011-02-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't get any reading done for my course yesterday as I just felt dead for most of the day it was probably the day that I felt the worst overall in regards to my messed up sleeping schedule so this morning I made sure to set my alarm and get up regardless of how much sleep I had gotten so I am quite tired but strangely more with it and alert then I felt yesterday so hopefully tonight I can get a more normal amount of sleep and get a better sleep schedule setup. So my goal once again for the day is to get some reading done for my course.

Day 52

2011-02-24T14:39:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get started on reading for the third lesson in my course yesterday so that was good, my reading seems to keep getting pushed later and later in the day mostly due to my messed up sleeping schedule but at least so far it is getting done which for now is the important part. Not really much else to say today so I'll just say that my goal again today is to get some more reading done for my course.

Day 51

2011-02-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't manage to get my reading done yesterday but at least this time I know exactly why not, a demo was released for a game I've been looking forward to for quite awhile so I spent a good little while playing around with that yesterday with the unfortunate consequence that it took up a lot of the time I usually use to get my reading done, my sleeping is also still rather messed up so that didn't help either but I did find where I had the textbook and pulled it out which is better then absolutely nothing I guess. Well my goal for the day is going to be to get started on the third lesson in my course.

Day 50

2011-02-22T12:21:00.000-05:00

Wow it's hard to believe I have been writing this blog daily for the past 50 days, anyway I was able to get myself to sit down and spend some more time playing around with the code for the lesson and trying to do a few things I had thought of that weren't necessarily in the textbook. It took a little playing around but I eventually got things working the way I wanted them to even if I'm sure there is probably a better way to do it. So now it's time to get started on the third lesson in the course, I'm sure I've mentioned that this isn't the first time I have tried to work through this course and I have never gotten past the third lesson in any of my previous attempts so hopefully this will be the attempt that does it. So my goal for today is going to be to get started on the reading for the third lesson in the course.

Day 49

2011-02-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to make sure I sat down yesterday and did my review of the actual coding and a few minor changes/tweaks to the code itself for my course. I still want to play around with a couple of different ideas I have for the coding before I move onto the third lesson so that is going to be my goal for the day today is to make sure that I sit down and give myself a chance to try out some of the ideas that have been floating around in my mind.

Day 48

2011-02-20T13:07:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't get started on the programming portion of my course yesterday, I'm not entirely sure what happened but for some reason it just never really crossed my mind. My sleeping has been quite screwed up the last few days not being able to get to sleep till very late then ending up getting up very late as well which was definitely the case yesterday so I think I might try to see if I can figure out how to adjust that to a more normal sleeping schedule and see if that helps me get back on track with my work. So my goal again today is going to be to get started playing around with the code from the second lesson in my course.

Day 47

2011-02-19T14:16:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday ended up being more productive then I thought it would be, I was able to finish off reading the workbook section for my course and I even managed to get on the treadmill to work out for 30 mins. I'm not entirely sure what it was about yesterday that seemed conductive to getting stuff done but I guess the question now is to see if I can try to keep this up and make it a habit as it would definitely be a good thing for me. So my goal for the day is going to be to get into the actual programming section of this lesson of my course.

Day 46

2011-02-18T14:28:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get some reading done for my course yesterday but I have to say it is a lot harder to get focused and start working on it when you have something definite you know you'd rather be doing, especially when it is pretty close at hand. So I guess on the other hand it is good way to work on being able to set a goal and focusing in on it despite whatever else maybe going on. So my goal for the day is going to be again to make sure I take some time to put some real effort into reading and learning the stuff in the workbook for my course.

Day 45

2011-02-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday was the first day in awhile that I didn't manage to get any reading done for my course, but at least it was more because I forgot about it then that I just didn't have the will to get working on it. I think the problems was probably mostly the fact that one of the games I've been waiting to come out for awhile finally came out yesterday and so I lost a lot of the day playing that but then later at night I had our usual raid and then after that I was waiting to see if Felicia Day's interview on Jimmy Fallon was going to be hosted online as they were premiering the trailer for Dragon Age: Redemption during the interview. And I did find a link for it and the trailer is absolutely amazing! Well I have to head out but my goal for the day today is going to be to make sure I make some time to sit down and get that reading done!

Day 44

2011-02-16T12:32:00.000-05:00

Well thankfully I was able to get a good nights sleep last night so I am nowhere near as tired writing this as I was yesterday! However yesterday ended up going pretty good, the morning was definitely more interesting then normal trying to help promote and spread the word about Felicia Day's new webseries Dragon Age: Redemption. I was also able to get started on reading the workbook for lesson 2 of my course, didn't quite get as much read as I would have liked but given how tired I was I am happy I got any reading done at all. So my goal for the day today is going to be to try to get a good chunk of workbook reading done today.

Day 43

2011-02-15T11:05:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to finish off the audio lecture for the lesson I am working on in my course yesterday so that was good. Also I have to say that in terms of yesterday being valentine's day I actually was able to forget about it for most of the day and ended up spending most of the night with a bunch of the new friends I'd made through the internet at the Watch the Guild community site which was really nice and I quite enjoyed it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to really get to sleep last night so today I am feeling absolutely exhausted which is never fun. So my goal for the day is to get started on the reading for the workbook for this lesson.

Dragon Age: Redemption

2011-02-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

I know I haven't done a post like this in awhile but I just recently heard about something that has gotten me very excited so I thought I'd write up something to express and explain my excitement. In order to fully understand why this has gotten me so excited there are 2 things you need to know first.

The first is that Dragon Age:Origins is one of the best RPGs I have played in quite awhile. It isn't just because it had a good and interesting story, that there was a lot you could do in the game and many different paths and ways to enjoy the game but that through it all the game maintained a good sense of humor. Throughout the game and especially in alot of the dialog there is a lot of humor and it was humor that fit into the game and the characters very well which is something I value in all my means of entertainment be it game, show or movie. So as you can imagine I have been very excited for the upcoming Dragon Age 2 with my excitement growing as more information is released and especially since they will be releasing a playable demo on Feb 22 where we get the first chance to try it out.

The second is that I am a pretty big fan of both The Guild and Felicia Day herself, and that for the past while she has been working on a mystery project that she has been pretty tight lipped about but that the lucky few that have gotten a chance to see it have been excited about. The past little while she has been giving a little more information about it mostly cast and crew announcements but also hinted that it may have a connection with an existing game world.

Well they have finally announced what that mystery project was and that is Dragon Age: Redemption a web series based in the same game world as both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 which I have to say is absolutely amazing and far better then anything I imagined. So when you combine two things which separately I am already very excited about the result is tremendous excitement and this post. While there isn't too much information on the details of the story so far what we know is that Felicia Day will play Tallis an Elven assassin with a sarcastic sense of humor who is on a quest to hunt down a renegade magician.

I honestly cannot wait to see this as I think Felicia Day is the ideal person to have written this as she is an avid gamer herself so would not have agreed to do this if she did not think it could be done right and done well. She has also shown through her writing on both the Guild webseries and the Guild comic she has the same sense of combining story with humor that I think will fit in very well with the Dragon Age style of story telling.

Day 42

2011-02-14T15:30:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get some of the audio lecture finished yesterday so I should be able to get the rest of it finished today and can then finally move on to starting the workbook section of this lesson and then finally the programming exercises. On a more personal note today has always been kinda of a rough day for me probably because I have never been on a date in my life and so have never had someone to share valentine's day with and that is one of the things that used to really eat at me and drag me down but I am trying to stay positive and make sure to keep any of my negatively to myself as spreading it especially on the internet does no one any good including myself. I only mention this here because I find it helps to record somewhere what I think and feel and having done that here I think I will be able to face the day a little better and a little easier. So my goals for today are going to be to finish the audio lecture for my course but also to do my best to not let the fact that it is valentine's day ruin my day in anyway.

Day 41

2011-02-13T13:14:00.000-05:00

Well I think yesterday was probably the closest I've come to missing my goal for the day in the last little while as I just seemed to be moving for one thing to another and then suddenly it was almost midnight and I hadn't done any work on my course that day but I did manage to listen to some of the audio lecture, it just serves as a reminder to try to get it done earlier if possible as you never know what you might get caught up in later on. So my goal for today is to finish another chunk of the audio lecture hopefully I'll be able to finish it for real this time either today or tomorrow.

Day 40

2011-02-12T14:15:00.000-05:00

Well I have some good news and some bad news, the good news is that I once again was able to listen to a chunk of the audio lecture for the current lesson I am working through on my course, the bad news is that I am not finished with the audio lecture for this lesson like I thought I was, I didn't realize before that the lecture for this lesson covered 3 files as most of them are done in either 1 or 2 so I still have a decent chunk of the audio lecture left to go through. So that is my goal for the day is to get a sizable chunk of the last part of the audio lecture finished today.

Day 39

2011-02-11T11:44:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get through another chunk of the audio lecture for this lesson in my course yesterday so if all goes according to plan I should be able to finish off the audio lecture today and then move onto some of the more interesting stuff on the weekend. I think that's pretty much all I have to say for today so my goal for the day is going to be to finish up the audio lecture for this lesson in the course I am working on.

Day 38

2011-02-10T13:26:00.000-05:00

So far so good, I was able to get through some more of the audio lecture material for this lesson in my course so I am about halfway through it now at this point so hopefully either today or tomorrow I should be finished going through it and ready to move onto the workbook material and then onto the programming section. So once again my goal for the day is to work through some more of the audio lecture material for this lesson of my course.

Day 37

2011-02-09T13:23:00.000-05:00

Well I listened to the first section of the audio lecture for the current chapter of the course I am working on and I have to admit I am having a hard time staying focused on it, for some reason my mind always keeps wandering off and trying to find anything to distract me so I am having a much hard time really focusing on listening to the audio lectures then I did in reading the textbook. I guess I am just more of a visual learner then I am an auditory one. Well either way I am pushing forward on it, and looking forward to getting that finished so I can start in on the workbook material and then get into some coding again. So my goal for today is going to be to listen to another section of the audio lecture for my course.

Day 36

2011-02-08T11:53:00.000-05:00

Well I am happy to be able to say that I am finished reading the textbook portion for this section of my course now I was able to finish it off yesterday, I was worried that it was going to take awhile to get through this section as parts of it are quite dry. I decided to do things a little different with this section compared to the first section I decided I would read the textbook part first then listen to the audio lecture portion as it goes over the same material just in more of an overview in some aspects that way the audio lecture could help refresh and strengthen my knowledge of the topics covered. So my goal for today is to start listening to audio lecture that accompanies this section.

Day 35

2011-02-07T13:31:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to end last week on a good note I got a lot more reading done yesterday then I thought I would so it was definitely nice to come out ahead for a change. It also meant that I once again met my goal for the week last week of managing to keep up my reading for 6 of the 7 days of the week which means that this week I am going to aim for keeping it up everyday of the week. I think I am starting to get more into my course slowly but I have been enjoying my reading a little more lately and have started thinking of different things I want to try and figure out with the code when I get to the programming part of this chapter of the course. So my goal for the day is to maintain the good momentum I had from last week and get another chunk of reading done on my course

Day 34

2011-02-06T13:09:00.000-05:00

Well so far so good I was able to maintain my momentum and get my reading done yesterday as well which means if I can get my reading done today as well I'll have met my weekly goal of getting my reading done 6 of the 7 days of the week which would definitely be nice. So needless to say my goal for the day is to get some reading done for my course

Day 33

2011-02-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to keep up the momentum yesterday as well and get some more reading done, I've been managing to read about 10 pages a day roughly the past few days which is not all that much on its own I keep telling myself it is the consistency that I am aiming for at the moment not necessarily the length as I get more into the routine I am hoping I'll be able to read more each day but until then I'll be happy if I can maintain this pace. So for today my goal is to get some more reading done, preferably 10 or more pages.

Day 32

2011-02-04T18:10:00.000-05:00

Sigh again I forgot to write this up in the morning, I was just about to actually go do some reading for my course when I realized that I hadn't actually written my short little blog entry yet for the day so here I am. As for yesterday I was able to get some reading done so so far this week doing a good job of maintaining some momentum in getting this reading done. I just need to keep it going until I get to the point when I have learned enough to really start playing around with the code as I think once I get to that point it's going to be alot easier to move forward. So I am about to go and do some reading at the moment which is and would have been my goal for the day if I had written this up earlier.

Day 31

2011-02-03T13:35:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get another chunk of reading done for my course yesterday so I was happy to get back into it after missing it on tuesday but I think the consistency of doing it each day helps in an of itself with the motivation. Well I don't know if I really have much else to say at the moment so I think I am just going to say that my goal for the day is going to be to continue reading for my course and keep up the momentum I have building up.

Day 30

2011-02-02T13:46:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't end up getting a chance to do any reading for my course yesterday as some of my friends ended up stopping by and didn't leave till much later then expected, not that I didn't enjoy seeing them which I definitely did since it is actually fairly rare that I see any of my friends in person these days but it is still what kinda threw my schedule out a bit. However today looks like it is going to be a great day to get some reading done since we've just gotten a ton of snow so it'll be nice to stay inside and try to get some reading done. So that is my goal for the day to get back into my reading and hopefully get a good chunk of it done.

Day 29

2011-02-01T12:57:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to accomplish my goal for yesterday and got started on the reading for the next section of my course so that is definitely a good start to the week. It is pretty dry reading so far but I can definitely see how it is quite important as it is detailing the core means of interacting with Direct X, which is the main piece of software used in graphics programming, so I am doing my best to try to keep myself focused. My goal for today is to continue reading the textbook for my course.

Day 28

2011-01-31T11:12:00.000-05:00

Well today definitely started off oddly, I had gotten up earlier as I had a doctors appointment and so everything was going as expected till I actually got out to my car and tried to start it up with absolutely no luck at all, it is a very cold day today and I don't really get out too often these days so I imagine that is what has done in my car at the moment. So after about 10 - 15 mins of playing around with it trying to get it started I tried calling a few people who I knew I could ask for a ride but none of them were home so with only about 10 minutes before my appointment was supposed to start I figured I should at least call the doctors office and let them know I wouldn't be there however once I got connected with the receptionist and conveyed my message I found out that the doctor I was supposed to see wasn't in that day and that according to their records my next booked appointment wasn't until the middle of February so it all worked out in a strange sort of way. Anyway as for yesterday I was indeed able to accomplish my goal and then some this time, I finished the exercises and even spent some extra time playing around with the code to try a few things on my own. It was really nice to get back into some actual coding and realize again how much I actually do enjoy doing it. I also accomplished my goal for the week last week as I missed 2 days but managed to meet my goal on 5 days (unless my count is off but I don't think so) so that is good and it is an improvement over last week which is also nice to see, so for this week my goal is going to be 6 of 7 days and try to keep that improvement going. I am now finished the first section and so am moving onto the second which means back to more textbook reading, I am a little worried about this part as if memory serves this is one of the driest chapters so I am hoping my recent re-exposure to actual coding will help get me going and working through it. To be clear and specific my goal for today is to get started on reading the second section of my textbook.

Day 27

2011-01-30T12:33:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to get the last chunk of reading done for my course yesterday so now all I have is the actually programming exercises to do and I'll be moving onto the next section. Yesterday was a better day, I got to see a bunch of my cousins I hadn't seen in awhile as we were celebrating my mother and my aunts birthday (they are twins) so that was nice. So my goal for today is to get started on the programming exercises and see how far I can get with them today.

Day 26

2011-01-29T10:58:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday ended up being an off day for me right from the start and consequently I didn't get anything I set out to do done. I'm not sure if I have just been going through a particularly low point as the past few days I have been feeling particularly down and unmotivated or if there is something I am just missing that has triggered it. I guess the only thing I can do at the moment is to try to focus and see if I can't try to work through it and get back to getting some work done. Again my goal for the day is to finish up the reading I have for the first section in my course.

Day 25

2011-01-28T13:03:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't manage to accomplish my goal yesterday since I just didn't push myself hard enough to actually sit down and get it done. Even though I got up late and was out for a good part of the afternoon I still had plenty of time to get it done but just didn't, I had a hard doing just about anything yesterday though and sadly enough spent probably a good hour at least sitting around trying to figure out what to do while doing absolutely nothing, I hate it when I do that. So my goal for today is the same as yesterday finish the reading for my lab project and if possible get started on the actual programming exercises.

Day 24

2011-01-27T15:46:00.000-05:00

Well this is probably the first time I've been making my blog entry this late when I haven't actually forgotten about it. I ended up getting up later then normal this morning and was supposed to be meeting a bunch of my extended family for lunch today so I didn't really have much time to write it earlier hence why I am writing it now. As for yesterday I have to admit I kinda cheated a little on my goal as I had actually finished it before writing the entry as it was actually working on my course that reminded me I hadn't written an entry for yesterday. So my goal for today is to try to finish off the reading for my lab project so that tomorrow I can actually get started on the exercises and actually doing some programming.

Day 23

2011-01-26T15:17:00.000-05:00

I'm not entirely sure how I managed to forget to write my blog post earlier this morning but clearly I did so here it goes. I was able to get started on the lab project for the first section of my course, of course I had forgotten that the first part is an explanation of the base program which we will be modifying for the exercises so it I still have some more reading to do before I actually get into the programming side of things again. So I read the first chunk of the explanation yesterday and my goal is to continue on with it today and get the majority of it finished so that I can finish it off tomorrow and get started on the actual programming part of it.

Day 22

2011-01-25T11:14:00.000-05:00

Well I managed to get all the software I need for my lab projects downloaded, installed and setup so now I can dive right into it whenever. So I did indeed manage to accomplish my goal from yesterday. I know I am going to be going out today so I am going to have to try to figure out a way to still manage to meet my goal despite that disruption in schedule. I think I am going to try to get it done a little earlier and see if that works. So my goal for today is going to be to actually get started on the lab project now that the environment is all setup.

Day 21

2011-01-24T11:07:00.000-05:00

Well it is the beginning of another week and although I didn't achieve my goal for the week last week as I managed 4/7 days of getting some work done on my course however I did learn a little more about some of the things that caused me to miss it. I think my goal for this week though is going to be the same as last week, to manage to get some work done on my course at least 5 of the 7 days. Not too much to say about yesterday as I pretty much covered it in the last entry so I'll just move onto my goal for today. My goal for today is going to be get everything setup and get started on the lab project for this section of my course.

Day 20

2011-01-23T20:32:00.000-05:00

Well I just realized that I hadn't actually sat down to write up my blog post for the day, I got up later then I have been and so it kinda threw off my apparently still quite fragile semi-schedule, and so even though it is now quite late in the day I figured I should still try to write up something at least for reference on yesterday since it is a little for aiming for anything for today. As for yesterday I didn't end up getting started on the lab project since I ended up going out for a little bit and then for supper with my parents to celebrate my mothers birthday which is coming up, if that had been it I think I probably would have still managed to get some work done on it, however my friends ended up stopping by so I ended up talking to them for most of the night. So while I didn't in fact get any of my work done it still ended up being a good day and still productive in its own sense as it is quite rare these days for me to have a chance to sit down and talk to my friends as most of them have either moved away or we have just lost touch completely. Anyway I'll take another shot at getting my lab project started tomorrow.

Day 19

2011-01-22T10:51:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to meet my goal for the day yesterday and I am now finally finished the reading for the first section of my course. It definitely took longer then I would have liked to get here but I guess that just means I have something to aim for when I start the next sections. The next part of my course will be to go through the section 1 workbook which should be interesting as it is more hands on in terms of actually doing some programming so I am hoping I'll be able to motivate myself to work through that a little quicker as I will be doing more then just sitting there and reading. So that is my goal for the day get everything on the computer setup for the first lab project and get started on it.

Day 18

2011-01-21T09:08:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't manage to accomplish my goal yesterday but I am pretty sure I know the reason why this time, I had gone out for lunch with an old friend I haven't seen in years and we had a good long talk which was nice but it also was very draining for me. I am not sure if it is because I don't regularly get out and see and interact with other people too often anymore but these days I find that I will be quite tired afterword, I definitely enjoy it but it takes alot out of me. So that certainly threw off my tentative schedule for yesterday, that combined with just feeling worn out lead to me not getting my reading done. However for the next two days I have more time in the evening as I don't raid on Friday or Saturday so I am going to make a renewed effort to get some solid reading done still going to aim for the afternoon around 4 pm slot but maybe if I get on a roll I can pick it up again later on in the evening. That's the goal for today then.

Day 17

2011-01-20T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to meet my goal once again yesterday, I really think that focusing on a particular time for me to do my reading helped as it helped avoid the "I don't feel like it, I still have time, I'll do it later" thought pattern as I had a certain time frame in mind so that when I hit that time frame I could go "okay this is when I set out to do it, so let's get it done". So I think I am going to aim for consistency and see I can make this a regular occurrence as I am almost done with the reading for this chapter and then can move onto the first lab project which should be more interesting as it is getting back into actual coding. So to be clear my goal for today is to again get some reading done in the afternoon around 4 or so.

Day 16

2011-01-19T10:09:00.000-05:00

I was able to accomplish my goal yesterday and sat down and actually got a decent chunk of reading done for my course. I think the best idea in terms of timing for this is probably going to be later in the afternoon probably around 4 or so as usually around that time I tend to have finished what I was doing earlier and start trying to find something else to do, I think I need to start really trying to make doing some course work what I do at that point as it gives me plenty of time to get a fair bit of reading done if I am able to get into it. So with that being said my goal for today is going to be to continue what I did yesterday and try to get some reading done within that same time frame.

Day 15

2011-01-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't manage to get any reading done for my course yesterday, I think that might be partly due to the fact that for the past few days I have been getting up earlier and going to bed earlier then I used to and since I used to do my reading for my course later in the evening after I had finished raiding but now I generally go to bed after I am done raiding as I am usually quite tired at that point, so now I just have to try to find a good place to fit it in that isn't going to get thrown off by my sleeping schedule. Again my goal for the day is going to be to sit down and get some reading done hopefully at a better time that I can make consistent.

Day 14

2011-01-17T08:37:00.000-05:00

Well this is the beginning of the second week of this blog, unfortunately I did not meet my goal for the week last week but I had a few off days that really threw things a little off track. On the brighter side I did manage to meet both of my goals for yesterday I was able to get myself on the treadmill for 20 minutes and I managed to get some reading done on my course work so that was quite good. I think my goal for this week is going to be a little different rather then setting a milestone or something I want to achieve by the end of the week this week my goal is going to be to actually sit down and do some reading for my course for at least 5 of the 7 days, hopefully I'll be able to do it for all 7 but for now I think my goal is going to be 5 of the 7 days. As for my goals for today it is going to be my usual, get some reading done on my course work as I really want to try to get that going as I am hoping if I can get it to pick up some momentum that I'll be able to really start making some more significant progress on it.

Day 13

2011-01-16T10:21:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday I did manage to sit down and read a little bit for my course, it wasn't much but at least I was able to actually sit down and do it and I think that is what should probably be my goal for right now is just trying to make sure that I actually sit down and read some of it each day no matter how much or how little and that way once I can do that consistently I will start working on reading more each day till I am at point that I am happy with. Although I wish I could just jump right ahead to reading for an hour or two each day it looks like if I really want to make this work over the long term I need to start back at the basics. I was also up at a good time this morning and so am feeling a little more alert and awake so I think I might also take a shot at going downstairs and getting on the treadmill for a bit. So for today I have two goals, first to sit down and read some more of my course work and second to get on the treadmill for a little bit today.

Day 12

2011-01-15T11:54:00.000-05:00

I wasn't able to achieve my goal yesterday as I didn't get any reading done for my course, I knew it was there and I knew I needed to do it I just couldn't seem to get myself to sit down and get it started. This caused me to really start trying to figure out exactly why it was that I have such a hard time getting myself to sit down and focus on this as this course is definitely something I want to learn and I think that I could really get into it if I could just get through the initial groundwork section. In some respects I think it also just might be that I am afraid of failure, I have tried to finish this course in the past and have never succeeded so I think part of it is that I am afraid that will happen and that I am worried about what effect that might have on me. I think it might be that some part of my mind is avoiding it because if you don't try you can't fail but that is really no way to live and is not what I want for myself going forward I just haven't quite figured out yet how to overcome it but I am more determined now to push through it and keep trying to move forward with my life. That being said my goal for today is again to get some reading done on my course regardless of how much or how little but just to sit down and actually focus on actually sitting down to and starting to read it.

Day 11

2011-01-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well I managed to at least get a little reading done for my course yesterday certainly not quite as much as I would have liked and so if I want to reach my goal for the week I am going to have to try to step things up a bit and really focus in on this. My sleeping schedule seems to be improving a little bit and I think that is actually helping a little bit on regards to focusing on what I want to get done each day. So for today my goal is going to be to try to focus in on this course and make some good progress towards achieving my weekly goal.

Day 10

2011-01-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday definitely did not go as planned I woke up already tired and somewhat out of it and things didn't really change much throughout the day, I am not sure if that is because my sleeping schedule is off at the moment getting to bed really late then correspondingly getting up really late as well but I wasn't able to get any reading done for my course yesterday either. Well I guess I might be able to test whether it is the getting up late part that was the problem as I am up much earlier today although I still didn't get to sleep till quite late so I am not really going off that much sleep but I guess we'll see. My goal today is the same to get some reading done on my course.

Day 9

2011-01-12T15:30:00.000-05:00

This is probably the first day that I have really not wanted to sit down and write this blog at least partly because I did not accomplish my goals for yesterday and I honestly have no real reasons why not just laziness/poor planning I guess. Well my goals for today are exactly the same as yesterday, try to get another chunk of reading done for my course, although so far I just don't really have a good feeling about today don't know why though.

Day 8

2011-01-11T13:25:00.000-05:00

Well I was able to accomplish the goals that I had set out from myself yesterday as I did indeed manage to get myself out of the house to complete a few errands that had been piling up I also did manage to get some reading done for my course, not quite as much as I would have liked but at least I made a little more progress on it. For today my main goal goes back to getting a more sizable chunk of reading done from the current chapter of my course. Oh and in case anyone was wondering what course it is that I am working on it's a programming course for creating graphics using Direct X and C++. Well that is all for today

Day 7

2011-01-10T08:58:00.000-05:00

Well I have now been doing these daily blog entries for a week and I have to say that I am glad to see that I have been able to keep up with it and it is definitely something I am going to keep working on as I think they have been helping. Seeing as I am now starting a new week though I think I am going to add one thing to this and that is that I am going to try to add in a goal or goals for the coming week at the beginning of the week in addition to my usual daily goals that way I can have a little more of a larger or broader view. So here is my goal for this week and it is to be at least if not finished working on the lab project for chapter 1. Hopefully this will also help give me a little extra motivation to make sure that my goals for each day are at least somewhat aimed at also meeting my goal(s) for the week. In regard to my goals for yesterday I did not manage to meet them although to be honest I was doubtful of it given that I actually made my blog post a fair bit later in the day then a normally do as doing it early also helps me try to make sure I fit it in somewhere as once I start getting into other things time has a nasty habit of slipping away from me. As for my goals for today I actually have a few slightly different ones today as I really should try to get myself out of the house and get some errands taken care of that I have just plain been avoiding for awhile now, so getting those done is my main goal for the day although I am going to try to get a bit more textbook reading done even if it is just a bit so that I don't lose track of what it is I was reading and where I was. Well that is all for today.

Day 6

2011-01-09T15:35:00.000-05:00

I usually try to do these fairly close to the beginning of the day as I can partly so I don't forget about it as I almost did today and partly so I have laid out what my goals for the day are going to be on here even if for the most part they aren't really going to change too much from day to day at the moment. I did remember though so here goes, yesterday was a bit of a strange day, I don't know if this happens to anyone else but there are just some days where I just feel grumpy, irritable, unmotivated, bored, annoyed for no real discernible reason and I just have a hard time focusing on anything even things I typically enjoy, well yesterday was one of those days for me and I had all but given up hope of getting anything productive accomplished however later on in the evening I'm not entirely sure what happened but I managed to convince myself to try to at least start reading the textbook for the online course I am working on and at first it was fairly tough to stay focused on it but as I continued I was surprised that it suddenly seemed to get easier to keep going and so I ended up getting a fair bit more read then I thought I'd manage so while it started poorly it actually ended on somewhat of a good note. As for today my goals are pretty much the same to try to keep up the pace and try to get another section of the first chapter of the textbook done so that I can hopefully move into the more hands on part of working on the first lab project since I think I'll enjoy that more and it'll again hopefully give a nice boost of motivation to keep me going on the course as a whole. Well I think that is all for today.

Day 5

2011-01-08T11:47:00.000-05:00

Well yesterday was a good day I accomplished the things I had set out to finish, I got the thank you email I was writing finished and sent off and I completed listening to the audio lecture portion of the online course I am working on. That leads me to my goals for today, I think my main goal is going to be to get started on reading the textbook chapter for the online course I mentioned which is going to take a bit more effort then the audio lectures as it is going to require a higher level of focus but that is the goal so we'll have to see how it goes. Until tomorrow

Day 4

2011-01-07T14:11:00.000-05:00

Once again I would say that I was partially successful in my goals for yesterday as I was able to make some more progress on the course I am working on although again not quite as much as I would have liked ideally. I also realized after reading my entry for yesterday that even if my goals are going to be the same as the day before I should still be as specific about them as possible so there is no misunderstanding when I look back on it later. So for today my primary goal is going to be to finish the thank you email that I have been working on the past 2 days and get that sent off as well as trying to finishing up the current set of audio lectures for my course. I don't have a raid tonight in WoW so I am hoping the extra time gives me a chance to get more of this stuff cleared up. Well I think that is all for today.

Day 3

2011-01-06T14:33:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't quite get everything that I wanted done yesterday, I manage to get through some more of my course work but not quite as much as I would have liked but I am still just getting started and I need to realize and accept that there are going to be days when I don't get everything that I wanted done but that especially at the moment it is more important to stay focused on what I have been able to do and keeping pushing forward. I also didn't get around to finishing what I had started the first day but that doesn't really surprise me as it is honestly something I expected to have some difficultly with as it is a thank you email I am writing. As I have mentioned before I tend to have a lot of problems with self-esteem and that usually leads to me being rather hesitant about really putting forward my own view or opinion on things, however it is exactly to work on overcoming this that I have gotten involved in Twitter and other web based communities. Thank you notes specially to actors/writers/etc are still tough for me as I really don't want to disturb people who I am sure very busy but at the same time feel that it is a cop out and not really fair to withhold my thanks to people who definitely deserve it simply because of my own personal problems, which is why lately I have been pushing myself more to actually go through and send them although especially for longer ones such as email it will take me awhile as I know I am going to worry about how I am phrasing what I want to say. Well that is just something that was going through my mind yesterday/this morning and I thought I'd get it down in this blog. Moving on to today my goals are going to be fairly similar to yesterdays and probably for awhile as right now I think that constant progress is more important then trying to find new things to try to do each day, start small and work my way from there and see what I can build. See you all tomorrow

Day 2

2011-01-05T12:04:00.000-05:00

Well this is the second day for my new daily style blog and I've realized something after starting at the new post screen for awhile and that is don't convince yourself you need titles when you are going to be doing something daily unless you are really clever with that sort of thing. Anyway moving on from that my goal from yesterday was to actually clear up a few things that I had been meaning to do but just hadn't gone around to doing and I managed to get most of them finished, one of them is still in progress but it is the one that required the most effort so I am glad that I was able to at least get it started and I hope to have it finished today. Beyond that I am hoping to get through some more of an online course that I have kicking around unfinished for awhile now, I am hoping to finish listening to the audio lectures and move onto the textbook reading and if I am feeling ambitious I might try to get started with my exercise by hopefully getting onto the treadmill we have for a little bit. Well I think that is all for today, until tomorrow.

Day 1 - Getting Started again

2011-01-04T17:52:00.000-05:00

Well this is the first day of my daily blog and to be honest I am happy that I have managed to sit down and get it started as motivation for me especially lately has been a huge problem. I am still not entirely sure of what exactly the format of this is going to be moving forward but to start off I think I'll just keep it simple and list a few small goals I have for the coming day and then tomorrow I can comment on how I fared with them. So for today my goal is going to be pretty simple as I have a few small things that I have been meaning to do for awhile now but just never gotten around to actually doing so my goal for the day is to buckle under and get them completed. Well that is going to be all for today I'll see you tomorrow.

Change in Direction and Purpose of this blog

2011-01-04T17:47:00.000-05:00

I know that so far on this blog I have mainly been talking about random things that I enjoy or have found interesting but I think with the new year upon us I want to try to do something a little different with this blog. I don't know if it will work but I think it is something that I need to at least attempt or else I will regret not at least having made the effort. I haven't really mentioned very much personally on this blog so far as I have problems with self-esteem and being very negative at times especially in regards to myself and that is something that I decided I did not want to bring with me on my foray into the online world and so in order to achieve that I have pretty much avoided the subject altogether. I bring it up now as I am going to try to start a short daily blog in the hopes of using it to keep me motivated toward my larger goal of starting to see some positive forward progression in my life and as such some of the things I have to say may be a bit more on the personal side as these blogs are going to be mainly for me to track my progress and keep me motivated. I will still write up some blogs about things that interest me at times but hopefully for the next while this is going to be focused on the daily blog.

My Internet Law of Proximal Awesomeness

2010-12-28T14:06:00.001-05:00

Considering how long I have been using the internet I'm surprised that I really haven't taken much of an interest in web communities or web projects until recently. I had never watched a webseries before watching the Guild a few months ago, nor had I ever been involved with web communities beyond in-game stuff such as my guild in World of Warcraft. I knew of and had listened to a few podcasts before but I had never known anything about live webcasts till I heard/attended my first Tech Barbarians show. Through all of this the one thing that has surprised me when I think about it is that so far I have yet to come across anything in my web journey that I haven't enjoyed or that has made me think to myself "Man I wish I hadn't wasted my time on that" and so that got me wondering how that happened as I have no doubt there is plenty of crap on the internet. Which got me thinking how have I managed to find so many incredible projects and people, has it just been luck or is there something else I've missed or just not noticed and it was thinking about this that led me to what I have decided to call my Internet Law of Proximal Awesomeness. This law states that when you find someone who has created/produced something awesome on the internet, take a look at the people that they choose to surround themselves with both literally and figuratively as there is a high chance that they are going to be awesome themselves.

I'll use my own experience thus far to illustrate how this law works itself out. The Guild as I mentioned was what started my own journey and so it and its awesome creator Felicia Day became my starting point or awesome project/creator as mentioned in the description above (quick side note if you have not seen the Guild please go see it here). From the Guild I discovered the Guild Community which is the first web community I have really been a part of, and from them I discovered the Knights of the Guild Podcast(link) which is an amazing podcast devoted to the Guild which is hosted by two people who worked on the show and so have a lot of behind the scenes info and stories to share. I also discovered and attended my first live webcast of a podcast through the Guild Community and that was Tech Barbarians(link) which I really enjoyed and have attended every subsequent show that I have been able to, also it was through one of the hosts of Tech Barbarians, Chris Pope, that I have become a big fan of OnVox(link) which interviews voice actors and talks about that industry. My next discovery was The Legend of Neil(link) which was created by Sandeep Parikh who plays Zaboo on the Guild, Legend of Neil is a very funny if somewhat twisted parody of Legend of Zelda. This leads to my most recent discovery, Team Unicorn through Michele Boyd who plays Riley on the Guild, Team Unicorn is a group of 4 girls (Michele Boyd, Clare Grant, Milynn Sarley and Rileah Vanderbilt) who are all strongly interested in gaming/scifi/fantasy/comics/etc and are challenging the idea that there aren't girls who are seriously interested in those things. They have created a music video and a fun holiday zombie PSA so far both of which I would highly recommend and you can find on their Youtube channel here.

So if you are looking for something new on the internet I'd recommend trying out my Internet Law of Proximal Awesomeness as you never know what you'll find!

Quick Update

2010-11-26T19:02:00.000-05:00

Just a quick message this time, after reading my last post and realizing how long and semi-rambly it was I think I need to try to work on getting my thoughts into a better more readable form since I am still very new to blogging so there is probably going to be more of a delay till my next TV show post, quite possibly a very long delay if I haven't come up with anything before December 7th as after that I will be playing the new WoW Expansion far too much. I am going to the Distant Worlds concert tomorrow so I will probably write up a post about that sometime in the next few days

My Favorite TV Shows - Show #1

2010-11-18T23:31:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to think of something that I could write a series of posts about in an effort to try and write something on here a little more regularly. Given that and following the advice I'd heard from a wise person "write what you know" so I started to think of what do I know well and what might at least slightly interesting for others to read. After thinking about it for awhile I decided to write a post about some of my current favorite TV shows since I do spend probably too much time watching these shows and it is something I can do over a couple of posts as I can do one each on shows I enjoy the most. That being said let me start of with one of my absolute favorite shows: Stargate Universe.

Stargate Universe is the latest show in the Stargate franchise. The basic premise of the show is that a group of people both military and civilians end up trapped aboard an Ancient starship which they cannot control with no way home. It may not be the most unique premise for a sci-fi show but what they have been able to do with it is absolutely amazing. Stargate Universe is a very character driven show as a lot of the drama, action and energy of the show comes from the interactions and relationships that form between these characters. The characters on SGU are one of the main things that first got me interested in the show and that even now maintain my interest in this show. All of the characters in the show are real, they all have their own strengths, weaknesses, flaws, beliefs and quirks and it is a pretty good bet that you'll be able to identify with at least one of the main characters if not more and perhaps in different ways which was my experience. Perhaps the greatest thing about the characters though is that fact that they actually do grow and change and develop over the course of the show which is something that you don't often find in a lot of shows as it can mean that they aren't interesting or likable as soon as you see them. SGU is currently in its second season and I can honestly say that at this point there aren't any characters that I think are pointless or that I don't feel some sense of investment in. Dispite the fact that when I was watching the first season there were definitely characters I didn't like and at times wished the story would move onto the characters I found more interesting. It is because of these amazing characters and the journey that they take that I think SGU is one of the few sci-fi shows that people who normally aren't interested in the genre could really enjoy if they gave it a chance.

That being said, there is certainly a lot more going for SGU aside from the characters, the music in the show for one thing is unbelievable, I honestly don't know what I can say about it other then to just go and watch and listen for yourself, it is really beyond words especially when hearing it for the first time. The graphics and visual effects of the show are also incredible, I was re-watching some of the episodes from the first season and just blow away again by just how amazing a lot of the show looks and not only that but how much the show continues to look amazing but in a way that supports the story and immersion of the show rather then in a huge showy display that while does look cool for the moment can sometimes take you out of the flow of the show I have found.

Each of these elements on their own is amazing but when they are all put together and all work with each other strengthening and supporting each other the effect is just mesmerizing. In the case of SGU the whole is definitely greater then just the sum of its parts. However I think for me at least the thing that I love the most about the show is just how committed it seems that everyone that is a part of it is to making sure it is the best it can be. I mentioned in my previous post how much I enjoyed listening to the commentaries on the season 1 DVD not only because they were very interesting and entertaining to listen to but also because it showed how much the people (usually some of the cast) supported and cheered for their fellow cast members and as I have seen on twitter how excited and supportive the crew and the writers are of the actors they work with. And just as if to confirm this earlier today when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to say in this I saw I message on Twitter from Mark Savela who does visual effects work on SGU showing a picture of a set of dog tags that apparently the cast had given to the crew for their work on SGU which I thought was a really nice gesture. To me this clear interest and commitment from the people working on both in front and behind the camera on the show translates through into the show itself helping to make it what it is.

Despite all of this SGU hasn't had the ratings that it definitely deserves and sadly enough I think a lot of it comes from the fans of SG1 and SGA who seem to feel the need to attack the show because it is quite different from its predecessors. I can understand if you don't enjoy something not watching it but I don't understand these people who claim to be "Stargate" fans and yet continue to attack and berate the show. SGU is indeed a stargate show it is just a different type of stargate show, it is a little more serious, it is a little darker but that doesn't mean it isn't a stargate show. The story in SGU does start off a little slowly in season 1 but if you look at it in the bigger picture it makes perfect sense why that is the case as that is in all likely would actually happen, when you start off pretty much with nothing it is going to take awhile to get things going and as season 2 has proven so far now that they have that foundation things are definitely starting to pick up in terms of pace. Another thing I have often heard said against SGU is that isn't funny and is missing all the humor that was present in the other stargate shows which I can't agree with at all. There is plenty of humor in SGU it is definitely more of a subtle humor but it is definitely there. It really wouldn't make sense in the context of SGU to have the same kind of humor that is in the earlier shows but the same comic sensibility is definitely there just adapted to fit with the type of show SGU is.

I know this post has been fairly long but there is one last thing I would like to mention, SGU is approaching the end of the first half of Season 2 and how well it does will likely have an impact on whether it is picked up for a third season or not. It is because of this that I have joined a group of SGU fans to try to raise awareness of this great show and try to get as many others as we can to start or continue to watch SGU live on whatever channel it airs on where you live (Tuesday on Syfy for the US and Friday on Space for Canada are the only ones I know of). If you would like to help us do what we can to try to make sure that SGU gets another season please tell anyone you think might be interested in the show to give it a chance, also every tuesday while the show is airing we are supporting the show by including #SGU and #giveSGUseason3 in any of the messages you send on twitter. I have included a link to the website for the SGU Awareness Campaign in the links section of my blog you can also follow @SGUAwareness on Twitter. Thank you very much to the entire cast and crew of Stargate Universe for such an amazing show which I will enjoy for a long time.

My Morning with Stargate Universe

2010-11-12T18:10:00.000-05:00

I consider myself to be extremely fortunate that I was able to attend the taping of the Innerspace SGU (Stargate Universe) Special this morning especially since the entire cast of the show was going to be there. Although it ended up taking me longer then I had hoped to get there due to traffic it was an amazing experience. I had never been to any kind of filming of anything before nor had I ever had the opportunity to meet any of the actors that I have admired so as you can imagine I was quite excited this morning.

When I first got to where they were doing the taping there was already a respectable line formed for getting in and I was a little worried at first that the studio might fill up before I got in since I hadn't the slightest idea how big the studio was or how many people they needed for the audience but I got in without any troubles. Once I got into the studio itself I got to my seat and not long after that one of the hosts of Innerspace came onto the stage they had setup and welcomed us all and we then got to watch the newest episode of SGU (which is an amazing episode). After that they began to setup for the live taping and it was interesting to see them getting everything ready and then one of the managers came out and gave us all a few instructions for the taping what we couldn't do and when we should and shouldn't applaud. I won't go into any detail about the actual show itself as it is going to be on tonight at 10pm EST on the Space Channel and I'd highly recommend anyone to watch it then. What was interesting was watching during the breaks in filming where I imagine the commercials will be watching the SGU cast interacting with the audience and talking amongst themselves while the crew for Innerspace were doing any necessary changes for the next section.

After the filming for the special was finished a bunch of the cast of SGU stayed to sign a cast photo that was provided to those of us that wanted to stay for the signing. Although watching the new episode early and getting to see the filming of the special was interesting, it was getting to meet a lot of the cast face to face and get them to sign a photo for me that was really the highlight of the experience. I really wasn't sure at all what to expect as like I mentioned earlier this was the first time I'd ever met any celebrities or gotten any autographs for anyone, but all of the cast that I met were incredibly friendly. I got to shake hands with Brian J Smith, David Blue, Jamil Walker Smith (who despite being gruff and menacing in SGU is an amazingly nice guy) and Ming-Na which was wonderful, I got a high five from Alaina Huffman which was awesome and got to briefly say hello to Elyse Levesque and Louis Ferreira and I have a cast photo signed by each one of them. I feel incredibly honored to have had the chance to meet them and think it is great that they stayed to do this for the fans despite I'm sure being exhausted from flying into Toronto and appearing on another show before the taping of the special I was at.

Ever since I started watching Stargate Universe I have enjoyed it since the show really focuses on the characters within it all of which are interesting but also flawed each in their own way which makes it a lot easier to connect to them and really helps drive the tone of the show. I don't think I really started to love the show as much as I do now until I started listening to the cast commentaries on the first season DVDs as they just showed how connected the cast was as they would comment and cheer for the different actors as they appeared in the show regardless of how large a role they played in the actual series and it is probably because of that that I think SGU is the only show where I know the names of all the actors as well as the names of their characters even for most of the secondary characters and I think that says a lot about the cast and why the show is as amazing as it is. If anyone hasn't checked out Stargate Universe even if you haven't seen any of the previous series or aren't usually a fan of science fiction I'd recommend giving it a chance as the characters themselves are incredibly compelling. Well this has certainly gone on rather long so I'll conclude it here by saying thank you to the Space Channel and Innerspace for doing this special and thank you to the cast of Stargate Universe for coming to do it and for creating such an amazing show that I love all the more now.

Twitter

2010-11-06T23:15:00.001-04:00

I was originally going to mention this in my earlier first post but as I thought about it I figured it made more sense to create this as its own entry. Twitter was one of the social networking tools I had considered when I decided I wanted to stretch myself by trying to get involved in web community but I initially dismissed it. I don't have a lot of friends nor am I very socially active and so for someone like me it seemed kinda pointless.

It wasn't until recently when I was watching an interview that Felicia Day did that something she said made me think of a good use I could put Twitter to. She had mentioned that one of the things she liked about Twitter was that it allowed more of a direct connection with her fans. This got me to thinking that it could also be used in reverse for fans to give feedback to people they wouldn't normally have any real communication with. Because of this I have since joined Twitter and decided that since I tend to watch a lot of TV shows I would use it to basically say thank you to the actors and writers of the shows I enjoy. So these days if I watch a show or movie or anything I really enjoy I will send a quick message to the actor/writer/show if they are on Twitter saying that I enjoyed it whereas before I would merely think "wow that great" and that would be it. Now I am well aware that a lot of these people probably get tons of messages, and there is a good chance that they may never actually be seen and just lost in the stream of other messages they receive and that it is even less likely that if they are seen I will not get a reply. Which is completely understandable as I know that if I was in that position I would do the same thing and I am sure that the vast majority of people would as well. That is why I try to make sure that everything I say or sent on there is first of all true and second is indeed to send feedback and not just sent to try to get a reply. So my rule of thumb has become before I send anything I ask myself if it is something I would want a stranger to say about me or something I'd done and if the answer is no then I either don't send it or try to re-word it so that it would be appropriate as I am sure the people I am sending messages are very busy and so don't deserve to have their time wasted with pointless messages. All that being said I think it is a great way for us the fans to give back to the people whose work we enjoy and I know on the few occasions where I have gotten a reply it has meant a great deal to me.

The one thing I can say I honestly did not expect when I joined Twitter was just how interesting it was to see what some people would say and how others would respond and so while I started off just following the actors/writers/shows I enjoyed it soon started to include people I just found interesting. I still really don't know all that much about Twitter but I am actually enjoying it more then I thought it would.

Sorry that this entry has become so long I guess I had more to say then I thought I did. Anyway if you have any comments please leave them or feel free to comment with why you joined or haven't joined Twitter and what you think of it.

Where to Start

2010-11-06T21:43:00.001-04:00

Well I have been thinking of starting this blog for awhile now and just never quite gotten around to it so I finally decided I needed to just sit down and start thing and worry about whether or not it is any good later. I've thought of a number of things I could add or include in this blog but I figured the best place to start would be why I am starting this blog in the first place especially if I have had such a hard time sitting down to write it. I am starting this blog as part of a desire to push myself towards expanding my boundaries which I imagine requires some explanation. For most of my life I have always have problems with self-confidence and self-worth which in the past year or so have become quite serious to the point of severely limiting what I actually do with my time and my life. It is because of this that I decided to start this blog to post some of my thoughts and opinions for whoever is interested which is something I usually shy away from as I often don't think my opinions on things matter, so this along with trying to join into some web communities is a first small step towards breaking out of some of the things that have been holding me back.

So far I have only really joined one web community at Watch the Guild which has been going alright so far but I am awful at judging these things but at least it is a start. On a side note if anyone hasn't seen the web series The Guild I'd highly recommend it as it is very funny and entertaining, you can watch the episodes either on MSN Video, You Tube or there own website at Watch the Guild. The show is about a group of gamers that play an MMORPG and what happens when they meet each other outside of the game. Each episode is about 4 - 6 minutes long so if you haven't seen it I'd recommend giving it a shot even if you aren't a gamer yourself. Well I think that pretty much covers what I wanted to say in this introductory entry, I don't expect many people will end up reading this but if you do feel free to leave any comments you may have on it.