Story Ideas: Dreamer and Fantasy War

New Idea for a story:

A character dreams he is other people. Things he does in dreams actually happen the way he dreams them. Character is travelling in time with his dreams and affecting his future. It's like Quantum Leap. Wait. Shit. It is Quantum Leap. It became obvious as I wrote it out. Nevermind.


Other Idea:

Magic weapons that create powerful suits of armor, making wielders powerful tools of war. If weapon is dropped, however, the armor vanishes and they become unprotected.



The second one sounds good, I think.

End of Semester Plans

My last week of school technically begins next Monday (theoretically). As a result, I'm spending all weekend confined to my apartment, churning out as many papers as possible until I'm either finished, or my head explodes. My phone will be off. Chat programs will be off. TV will not be turned on at all. Not even for meals. Meals will be spent in front of the computer. I have pitchers of tea and Kool-aid already made and some light snacks. I will be working almost non-stop, taking small breaks once an hour, until I am done, no matter how many days it takes. No going out. No drinking. No quick trips to the store. Nothing. I will be on full lock-down.

"But why would you have to kill yourself to do all of this? There's no way that any teacher assigned so much work that you'll need all weekend to do it?" Well, yes and no. A teacher CAN assign an absurd amount of work... over the course of a semester. I'm essentially doing a full semester's worth of writing (not from scratch, but a lot of things need to be redone, edited, revised, etc.) As to the why? Because I've spent almost four months dealing with these things, sitting in the library and going over pages and pages of articles and essays and research and notes and trying to find verification and collaboration on facts and etc.... I've stared at blank pages for hours on end. I've sat down to work at home, only to have lost five hours messing with my music collection (damn you, ADD). All the time I spent doing nothing with these papers is time I could have spent doing something fun with ANYTHING ELSE. So, I'm throwing the gauntlet down. I have a bottle of Aspirin, plenty of refreshment, and an emergency caffeine boost in the fridge. It's time to get this over with. I want as much time as possible between the semesters to make up for all of the time spent staring at a blinking cursor for hours on end.

Speaking of, this isn't a post about my nightmare of schoolwork. This is about what I'm going to do AFTER I'm done. On my other monitor, I will have a list of everything I'm going to do when I'm finished with the semester as motivation. It's like clipping a picture of your vacation destination on your monitor at work to remind you what you're working for. Some of these will make no sense. Others will make perfect sense. Without further ado, here is what I'm going to do after I'm done with school.

• Finish the following games I started this semester
• Castlevania (PS3)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
• Start and finish the following games that I bought this semester
• Dead Space (PS3)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3)
• Play every numbered Final Fantasy game (except for the online ones) in reverse order, starting with 13.
• Possibly make a "Let's Play" out of one of the earlier ones. May have a vote to decide (might include Mystic Quest in the poll.
• Replay the following games
• Bayonetta
• Write a few short stories to submit to St. Ed's writing journal.
• Work on Maelstrom
• Read as many books on my "to-read' list as possible.
• Watch the following TV Shows
• Walking Dead (Season 1)
• Dexter (Season 5)
• Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)
• The Wire (Seasons 2-5)
• Battlestar Galactica (at least season 2)
• Doctor Who (finish rewatching season 2 and 3)
• Tochwood: Children of Earth
• Watch the following movies
• Scott Pilgrim
• Iron Man 2
• Zombieland
• As much as possible on my netflix queue
• Cancel Netflix Discs, move to streaming only
• Start walking every day again
• Clean the apartment (should do this first)
• De-stink the aparment (Where is that smell coming from?!)
• Get to 85 in WoW with two characters
• Get auxiliary cable hooked up to Tahoe stereo
• Fix the satellite radio that stopped working
• Try to have at least one date (low priority)

Wow. I'm such a damn nerd. I really should move these.

(UPDATE 1 - December 23, 2010: Marked off finished and played games. Got the auxiliary cable working in Tahoe, but somehow screwed up the satellite radio. Oh well. Removed Harry Potter, because I won't get around to seeing it until it hits DVD most likely).

End of Semester To-Do list (or, I'm going to spend 3 weeks playing video games)

My last week of school technically begins next Monday (theoretically). As a result, I'm spending all weekend confined to my apartment, churning out as many papers as possible until I'm either finished, or my head explodes. My phone will be off. Chat programs will be off. TV will not be turned on at all. Not even for meals. Meals will be spent in front of the computer. I have pitchers of tea and Kool-aid already made and some light snacks. I will be working almost non-stop, taking small breaks once an hour, until I am done, no matter how many days it takes. No going out. No drinking. No quick trips to the store. Nothing. I will be on full lock-down.

"But why would you have to kill yourself to do all of this? There's no way that any teacher assigned so much work that you'll need all weekend to do it?" Well, yes and no. A teacher CAN assign an absurd amount of work... over the course of a semester. I'm essentially doing a full semester's worth of writing (not from scratch, but a lot of things need to be redone, edited, revised, etc.) As to the why? Because I've spent almost four months dealing with these things, sitting in the library and going over pages and pages of articles and essays and research and notes and trying to find verification and collaboration on facts and etc.... I've stared at blank pages for hours on end. I've sat down to work at home, only to have lost five hours messing with my music collection (damn you, ADD). All the time I spent doing nothing with these papers is time I could have spent doing something fun with ANYTHING ELSE. So, I'm throwing the gauntlet down. I have a bottle of Aspirin, plenty of refreshment, and an emergency caffeine boost in the fridge. It's time to get this over with. I want as much time as possible between the semesters to make up for all of the time spent staring at a blinking cursor for hours on end.

Speaking of, this isn't a post about my nightmare of schoolwork. This is about what I'm going to do AFTER I'm done. On my other monitor, I will have a list of everything I'm going to do when I'm finished with the semester as motivation. It's like clipping a picture of your vacation destination on your monitor at work to remind you what you're working for. Some of these will make no sense. Others will make perfect sense. Without further ado, here is what I'm going to do after I'm done with school.

• Finish the following games I started this semester
• Castlevania (PS3)
• 3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)
• Alan Wake (360)
• Dragon Quest IX (DS)
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (360)
• Darksiders
• Start and finish the following games that I bought this semester
• Dead Space (PS3)
• Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3)
• Play every numbered Final Fantasy game (except for the online ones) in reverse order, starting with 13.
• Possibly make a "Let's Play" out of one of the earlier ones. May have a vote to decide (might include Mystic Quest in the poll.
• Replay the following games
• Bayonetta
• Write a few short stories to submit to St. Ed's writing journal.
• Work on Maelstrom
• Read as many books on my "to-read' list as possible.
• Watch the following TV Shows
• Walking Dead (Season 1)
• Dexter (Season 5)
• Boardwalk Empire (Season 1)
• The Wire (Seasons 2-5)
• Battlestar Galactica (at least season 2)
• Doctor Who (finish rewatching season 2 and 3)
• Tochwood: Children of Earth
• Last Exile
• Black Lagoon
• Watch the following movies
• Scott Pilgrim
• Iron Man 2
• Zombieland
• As much as possible on my netflix queue
• Cancel Netflix Discs, move to streaming only
• Start walking every day again
• Clean the apartment (should do this first)
• De-stink the aparment (Where is that smell coming from?!)
• Get to 85 in WoW with two characters
• Get auxiliary cable hooked up to Tahoe stereo
• Try to have at least one date (low priority)
• Go see Harry Potter

Wow. I'm such a damn nerd. I really should move the games to the bottom of the list... but I know myself too well.

And with that, good night. I will see everyone in a few days.

NaNoWriMo 2010: An Unfortunate End

Well, with 15 minutes left in the month, I'm going to sadly call my attempt over, falling short of 20% completion. I could make excuses, but honestly, if I had pushed myself, I probably would have done better.

Having said that, here are my excuses.

1) 2 Literature Classes and another class called "Research and Argumentation" which demands an 8 page research paper a week can really sap the drive and motivation to write something for myself.

2) I spent way too much time on my notes and not on actual writing. The blueprints are there, but the crew had to reschedule.

3) School. Again. School. Always. School.

4) It's hard to make progress when you have to edit what you wrote while drunk or sleepy. Or both.

So yeah. What it comes down to is school ate up all of my time. If I wasn't writing for a class, I wasn't writing at all.

What does this mean for the story?

Not a damn thing. I'm not stopping this one. I might put it on hold to work on a short story or two to submit to my school's writing journal, but Maelstrom (working title) will be finished. Probably better now that I'm not just trying to throw in as much as possible as fast as possible.

I'll keep posting the status of it as I make more progress.

And I look forward to trying again in 2011 with something brand new.

Oh, and before I forget.

NaNoWriMo 2010 Word Count: 7070 words.

Cooking with Goodwin: Steak

I know I should be working on something else. I have it open in the background, aching to be noticed. No, not my book. I am afraid I am talking about hideous schoolwork, with its opinions and soul-crushing. But if I don't do this now, I'll never get around to it.

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, where we can all spend time with our family at their house with their turkeys and fine china and place settings and, of course, grills.

Seeing as I live in an apartment and hate walking to our community grill (singular, but there's probably two), I am unable to really grill. Yet, I like steak. But without a grill, I am rendered steakless, like some sort of fish (note: fix analogy). This couldn't be further from the truth.

I will show you people how a simple student eats like a champion without having to deal with charcoal or propane or whatever. Keep reading to see how I, the amazing Goodwin, cook a ribeye with a cast-iron skillet. Fair warning, I have heard many ideas and rules on cooking steaks. I will break most of these rules.

Cooking with Goodwin: Pumpkin Bisque

Felt like having something different today. Here's a recipe my mom came up with that tastes pretty decent (if you don't add too much spice. Like I did). It's a pumpkin bisque. Don't be put off by the "pumpkin" part, it tastes nothing like pumpkins.

Recipe and pictures follow after the break.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day One

I started at around 1:30 AM.

I had to rename a bunch of characters as well as invent a couple, but the prologue is basically finished, save for an un-fleshed out scene that I will improve. I've also reworked the third faction to be split into two groups, depending on their careers. Sor'ran will be the ones who live in secrecy, while Mystics are the ones that interact with the other groups.

I'm going to stop for now (seeing as it's 4 in the morning) but I might add more later today.



1559 words and counting.