Writing
Writing is that thing I do when I am not working, or not with my family, or not playing eve online. Yeah, it is that thing I have not been doing lately. I feel like it will start to come back around and writing will have to happen. It can only be bottled up for so long and then it must happen.
Sorry about that.
Not that anyone noticed, but I forgot to renew the domain option for my wordpress account. All better now.
Racing season again
With the sound of engines humming in the background, spring weather reminds me I need to finishing editing and start posting some more racing tales stories. I know the two fans in Oregon are about to lose patience and move on to other fiction. I promise, I will get to editing and posting soon.
Star Trek Online – just when productivity was about to happen
Just as productivity was about to increase, here comes, Star Trek Online.
The open beta convinced me to play the game. Of course there are hiccups and weird lag issues that anyone would expect from a beta. What made me decide this was the space shooter MMO for me? When I flew into Wolf 359 and observed the wreckage and the memorial.
I knew they got it. the developers know that the back story for this game is as rich as anything every created. It is bigger and more complicated than almost any other science fiction story ever created.
One of my earliest memories of television was watching late night reruns of star trek with my parents when I could not sleep. This is an MMO that feels like home. If you are over 35 and have seen all episodes of all of the star trek series and you have ever played and MMO, you will be playing this game eventually. You don’t have to wait. Go ahead and jump in the pool. The water’s fine.
Windows 7, Frame Rate increase
One noted benefit from upgrading my laptop from vista to windows 7 is an increase of 20 fps. My NVIDIA GeForce 8400M went from 36 FPS in bench market to 59 FPS after the upgrade. I had the latest drivers before and no other changes were made. Perhaps the drives for windows 7 are just better or maybe the OS is getting out-of-the-way. I don’t care. It is better and WoW looks better.
Note: Benchmark using Video Card Stability Test from The Freestone Group
Windows 7 Family 3-Packs
This is not a review of Windows 7. There are plenty of those. I am a gamer, and Vista is awful for gamers, and everyone else. I am just happy that Microsoft finally decided to do what Apple has done for years. Giving me a multiple license upgrade for a “reasonable” price. I think it should have been a 5-pack for $150 but a 3 pack for $150 is better than the old options.
I have upgraded most of my machines now, and had to pave my gaming systems since they were vista ultimate and I was “downgrading” to Home Premium, but gaming machines need to be wipe and reloaded every so often anyway. That aside, I wish I could have upgraded to 64-bit from 32-bit with the upgrade, but I am still satisfied with everything working.
ATT 3G Microcell
I have to admit that I am not like other people. Most people would change phone companies, or continuously register complaints about poor coverage, but after 15 years of dropped calls and delayed text messages in my own house, spending $150 to make that never happen again is an easy choice.
The 3G Microcell is finally available in my area, if you have an iPhone and have spotty coverage in your house and you have a good internet connection, you want this.
Setup was pretty straightforward. Took about 90 minutes from when I plugged it in until it was working. Just as the documentation said it would.
There is a deal with unlimited calling for $30 a month that will give you $100 back for purchasing, but I have enough minutes. I just do not want to miss a text or email again in my house.
Eternal Emperor Short Stories – An homage to Hammer’s Slammers
The once completed and pretty much unreadable eternal emperor novel I wrote 4 years ago is still locked safely away where no one can read it. My writing and editing is much better these days and will presumably only get better.
Rather than go and rewrite a novel that I have written at least 4 times in the past 2 decades, I chose to do something different. I was reading David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers collection recently and it struck me that I should just rewrite the story as a series of short stories in a style of Drake. Why write a long novel about a 6 events and leave the reader asking why you did it, when I could write 6 short stories in the style of Hammer’s Slammers and get the back story out-of-the-way.
The choice to create the “Arrested Development Collection” seems so natural once I realized that Drake was the author that inspired these stories in the first place. I love Military Science Fiction. When you read this collection I think you will see the Hammer’s Slammers style in these stories, and I am happy if you find it enjoyable.
I will be posting the stories when the editing completes. Once it is all done I will post another version with the entire collection.
Fallen Earth – The MMO for after the fall of society
My son points out to me that most of my writing is not post apocalyptic, but is rather apocalyptic. So what about all those nifty stories that can take place after everyone else is gone? Well, I will leave that to Fallout games and now Fallen Earth.
I played the beta when the Non-Disclosure Agreement was up and rather than suddenly talk about this game when the NDA was lifted I chose to wait for the release. Not because of any problems, but mostly because I am lazy. I wanted to see what the game was going to be at launch.
What is Fallen Earth? You are a clone wandering around the Grand Canyon after a virus and nuclear weapons have wiped out the rest of the planet. If riding a horse and shooting a rifle while scavenging for metal to make you own ammo sounds like something you want to do in your spare time, this game is for you.
What makes FE different? It is a 3rd person view but combat requires you to aim. Your ability to hit what you are aiming at is determined by you skills, but the fact that you have to aim makes combat a more complicated version of the normal MMO shin kicking affair we are all used to.
The company that spent 6 years making this game is small, less than 100 people, and they have their sights set on a more eve online like model for growth. They know they will not be WoW, and are able to be profitable with just 20,000 or so users as opposed to Warhammer Online that seems to be a failure at a million subscribers.
I would write more, but I have to go gather some copper, my revolver needs some ammo.
