The gist:

Twilight Falling (Forgotten Realms: The Erevis Cale Trilogy) was an OK book, but I fully agree with the Amazon reviewer who made the remark about “Riven sneered”.

Full comments:

The book wasn’t bad, though I’ve read better stories. Perhaps it would have helped my enjoyment had I read the previous trilogy, but I’m not patient enough to go that far back. As it is it’s safe to say that I enjoyed it, but it’s also safe to say that it’s not going into my list of favorites.

I’m not sure if I want to buy the next book in the series as I had planned, but I will check the local libraries to see if it’s available. That’s not to knock the book or the author, but it’s not a classic like The Legend of Huma, or the books in The Time of The Twins, or even some of the Xanth books. Those are all books that you display on a shelf, if for no other reason than as conversation pieces.

That’s not to say that Twilight Falling was bad. It certainly wasn’t. I definitely do want to read the next book in the series, I’m just not so certain that I want to spend money on the book, plus shipping costs, and then give it permanent shelf life.

One of the biggest problems is that I never found myself caring about the characters, and this is probably where past trilogies would have helped. I didn’t care if the people in the manse – including Erevis’ love interest – were slaughtered. To me, they were all just flat characters to move along the plot. Heck, I didn’t even care all that much if Jak died or not, or what the conclusion of his internal struggle would be.

That brings me to another point: It was predictable. Certain characters may as well have been wearing red shirts to announce their inevitable deaths. This was on top of finding myself simply not caring about any of the characters.

Lastly, I get the point: Riven sneers. A lot. Every comment made to him, every look shot at him, every gestured made anywhere within his point of view, nearly every emotion that he has; they will all elicit a sneer. We get that. Sadly, it’s forced down the reader’s retinas every couple of pages: “Riven sneered”, or occasionally the more flowery descriptive, “Riven simply sneered.”

Yes, it played into an apparently important plot point at the end, but it was over played.

For all of its faults, it wasn’t terrible. The next book in the series is worth reading, and I am curious to see how the trilogy finishes up. It does give the impression that it’s a story about so much more than just “kill the evil guy and we win”. I expect larger things to be happening in this world that I’ve peeked into, and while there were some speed bumps along the way the author nonetheless has me curious about what happens next.

Twilight Falling (Forgotten Realms: The Erevis Cale Trilogy) is an OK book to pick up and read. Surely there are better, but you could certainly do worse.

Technorati Tags: fantasy, books, twilight falling, Forgotten Realms, Erevis Cale

edit: Huh, apparently it doesn’t like HTML submitted in this way.

What this post was, was a test of a service called IMified. It’s a tool that allows you to post to your blog, have a reminder sent to you, manage a simple to-do list, and various other useful things directly from your instant message program.

My test showed me that it does not at all like HTML being submitted so I’ll have to keep such submissions very simple. I’ll probably change my blog’s default category to the Asides and use this as a method to easily post quick notes to the blog. Scratch that. I’ve added Twitter to the IMified account and replaced the side blog with my Twitter RSS feed. It’ll be the same operationally, but it’ll also be even easier and quicker to submit items to it. Look for a quick test message in the sidebar soon.

Curious? Check out IMified for yourself. It’s a free service.

The original post follows this line, but keep in mind that the HTML (a link to the website) that I typed broke the submission:

. This post is a test of this tool. I don’t know if it’s possible to select the category that it’s posted to, but I guess we’ll see. Later!

Yesterday was my first day of classes for the Fall 2008 semester. Here is a brief record, partially for you but also partially for myself to look back on.

• Books cost $370.
• A mere 5 folders cost me $75 – the gorging of students only worsens despite all of the talk about making it better for us
• My first class, Research Methods In Psych, was canceled. Apparently the instructor was ill.
• Astrology class: Instructor said that there would only be about 7 math problems, and calculators are welcomed
• Educational Psychology: My adviser teaches this class. In all not an interesting subject, but maybe useful if I do teach English in South Korea

One student in Research Methods is repeating from last semester. Apparently they don’t generally come to class. Their comment was, probably paraphrasing, “This is basically a math class. As long as you know how to do the equations then it’s easy.” Great, right? ::sigh::

Ashley is in my Astronomy class. I said hi to her like 4 times before she noticed me, or maybe I’m just that uncool LOL. She was polite, but over all disinterested in conversation. After she left (we were all allowed to leave during roll call), I think that the guy who she was sitting next to made a comment about her being sexy and bragging to his pal about how he was going to … you get the drift, right? I can’t be entirely certain that I heard him correctly, though.

I also saw the Hispanic guy who went on the Korean trip with us. Of all things to say, the first thing out of my mouth was, “How’s it going, man?”. Oh yes. Social skills are still lacking.

Oh, I also spoke to one instructor about Psi Chi, which I have filled out the application for. I’m not too familiar with his behavior, but I kind of got the feeling that he was halfway annoyed at my presence, but that’s entirely expected since I did appear without forewarning. He was very patient and conversational though, so perhaps I’m merely imagining things. Side note, I also saw him later that day while walking to another class.

He also said that he would be willing to sign my exchange student paper. So there are my two signatures required to go to South Korea. Woot! Now I just need to decide on the Korean university, but that’s digressing.

Oh, I actually had to use my asthma inhaler during the evening class. That was some foresight to bring it that evening, or maybe just following an obvious nudge. Asthma has been a mild problem lately. Perhaps a good, serious cleaning of the room from top to bottom will alleviate the issue. Anyhow, I got up, flashed the inhaler to the instructor,a nd walked out of the class to use the inhaler.

Gary also called during the evening class. Apparently he was going to invite me to play basketball with someone at his work.

Also in the evening class, a foreign Asian student came to class at around 5:30 quite confused because she thought that her class was supposed to be in. The instructor’s a nice fellow and he took the time to look up her class information. Turns out that her class was at 6:30, which some of the other students seemed to know as well. She seemed like a nice gal so maybe she’s not Chinese, but I didn’t recognize a Korean accent in her speech. She’s quite the pretty woman though. I sure wouldn’t mind topping the evening with speaking to her. ^_~

Must read the first chapter in both Research Methods and Educational Psychology. Even glancing through the Research Methods In Psych paper threatens to numb my frontal lobe.

That’s that.

Today, the second day of class, I have only one class to attend. It starts at 12:30. Yes, this rocks.

Laters.

EDIT: Oh, another thing that I forgot. I managed to buy 4 shirts for $20, and I also picked up a gym bag so that I can shower at the recreation facility. That should theoretically help me continue using the facility.

Technorati Tags: university, college, PSU, Pittstate, Pittsburg State University, student, Gorillas

I’ve finished reading Twilight Falling (Forgotten Realms: The Erevis Cale Trilogy). I actually finished it Sunday night before bed.

This semester promises to keep me fairly busy. If I don’t have the sidebar adjusted and the review up by this evening then I will hope to have that finished this weekend.

Later folks.

Technorati Tags: Books, Twilight Falling, Forgotten Realms, Fantasy

I just completed a survey by Universal Studios that asked questions about several of its movie franchises. The questions were very specific, and very revealing, down to who will play the lead and supporting roles for most of the movies.

The movies in question were: Underworld, Wolf Man, Dracula, Land of The Lost, Fast And The Furious, and Back To The Future.

The survey did not reveal who would be starring in Back To The Future, but it did say that Will Ferrell (of all people) would play the lead in The Land of The Lost, Benicio Del Toro (of Sin City) is the lead role for The Wolf Man, and the original cast is back back for The Fast And The Furious. Underworld is about the rise of the Lycans, but you probably already knew that.

I don’t recall who it said would be starring in Dracula, if it did say, but I’m interested in seeing what they do with it.

Not only were there multiple choice questions, but there were also text boxes provided with questions that asked what each movie brought to mind when you thought of the movie. It then asked if there was anything else that came to mind, and this was done for each movie. Additionally, open questions about why one was or was not interested in seeing each movie were also asked.

All in all it was an impressive survey and required a good 20 minutes to finish.

Does this mean that we’ll definitely get a Back To The Future IV? Obviously I can’t say one way or the other, but there’s little other reason to include the movie in the survey. They’re definitely giving it some real serious consideration, if nothing else.

My only hope is that they don’t rely on CGI and mediocre acting to pass the day. Back To The Future is an incredible series with a great sense of humor that deserves a good deal of respect (quite unlike what was done for Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull…).

Of course, Back To The Future III closed with “THE END” (do you remember the boos? I do!), but that can’t keep a good series down, can it? >)

Later folks.

Technorati Tags: Michael J. Fox, Back To The Future, Delorean, Doc, McFly, Movies, Underworld, Wolf Man, Dracula, Land of The Lost, Fast And The Furious, Universal Studios

Today is the second time that my hard drive tried to fail. I’ve been considering the possibility of selling this computer for awhile now, and this is just one more nudge into that direction. This time around, the HDD decided to randomly lose 20 GB or more of available space. I discovered the problem when I noticed only 385 MBs of free space remaining.

Now that I’ve received (finally!!) the student financial aid I do have the money to buy a new drive. Obviously I would buy a replacement before I try to sell my PC.

I wonder how much money I can get out of my computer? It may be worth it if I can get $600 or more. I’m almost certain that I could, especially if I tossed in my license for Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate. Perhaps I’d add my PC games to it as well, including Mass Effect.

Hmmm..

This “fix” is not a perfect solution, but it will stop the MSN Switchboard error message: “Message could not be sent because an error with the switchboard occurred“.

If you are using Pidgin and the BotSentry plugin then you have almost certainly seen this MSN Switchboard error.

Here is the quick & simple fix:

1. Load Pidgin so that you can see the contact list.
2. Click on “Tools”
3. Click on “Privacy”
A new window will appear
4. Select MSN from the drop down box
5. From the second drop down box, select “Allow only the users on my contact list”
6. Click “Close”

This will make it impossible for people to send you a message if they are not already on your contact list. There are pros and cons to this approach:

• Pro: No more spam! No more Switchboard Error messages!
• Cons: New people can not contact you, so you will have to add them to your contact list FIRST before you can talk to them.

You will have to decide which is best for you, but this is the only way to stop the “Message could not be sent because an error with the switchboard occurred” message until the folks at BotSentry figure out a way to prevent the error.

Enjoy your new peace of mind. Good day!

Technorati Tags: MSN, Switchboard Error, IM

This (screen shots after the jump) is the dark elf female in Neverwinter Nights 2 after installing player made face and hair mods. This is SO much better than the monkey-like appearances for dark elves that were created by Obsidian!

The character’s profile is “quick and dirty”. There wasn’t much room to write a proper profile, but I think that you’ll get the point.

I had an incredibly difficult time choosing the class, especially knowing how enormously biased Neverwinter Nights 2 is toward melee classes. This strong bias carried right on through to the expansion. This new dark elf model looks so damn cool in assassin or similar armor that I nearly could not resist. I wish that the game was not a linear path, else I would gladly make about 3 more classes at least.

Screen shots after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Along with changing the theme today I also added a new reading list.

The reading list will let you – my pals and curious visitors – keep up with what I’m reading (not counting college text books, which hardly count as “entertainment” or “relaxing”). You’ll see what I’ve read since adding the reading list, and what’s coming up in the que. You’re also encouraged to submit your own Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Sci-Fi, or Horror recommendations to me. (psst! it’s quick and easy to send me a message via the Contact Page to do that)

As expected the book links will go to Amazon, but it goes to a special Amazon page that does not contain the considerable clutter that is typically found at the Amazon.com website. These pages will focus specifically on the book or my list of books, respectively, and will still include the customer reviews and other book information.

The cost of Twilight Falling was $7.25 after shipping costs. Heck, it’s hard to beat that for such a well reviewed book. This seemed like a good way to get started to me!

Of course, once I’m finished with the book I will write a review for it as soon as I have time. Those reviews will be posted to this blog.

Later folks!

Technorati Tags: books, reading, fantasy

A Brief Introduction:

The purpose of this information is to clearly explain what smime.p7m is. This information is deliberately short, simple, and is not full of technical jargon. Feel free to link to this page from your email signatures, as I do, so that the people who you send messages to can understand what the file smime.p7m is.

You may occasionally receive an email with the file smime.p7m attached, but you don’t know what it is. The good news is that this is not a bad file. Read the rest of this entry »