Picture this:

You've been waiting for an important phone call for weeks. Every time the phone rings, you're the first one to the phone; you scan the answering machine with bated breath if you've been out for a half hour; you feel a sense of disappointment when the call doesn't happen that day... or the next day... or the next week.

You just step out of the shower, and the phone starts to ring. You stand there dripping, a towel clenched around your body, while you pick up the phone... and, of course, it's the call you've anticipted! Unfortunately, they haven't exactly caught you at your best moment... :?

That was my last blog: standing in the hallway, soaking wet and half-naked, as complete strangers held a conversation with me. :lol:

It wasn't my best writing. It wasn't really a topic I thought about in-depth for hours on end... in fact, I think it took me a 1/2 hour to write.

It landed me on the front-page for 5 days (or so) on the Soapbox. Caught me way off-guard.:oops:

I said to myself, "OK... I'll just let this go... in about a day or so, a better editorial will come along, and I can breath easy, and think about the next one."

5 DAYS, people... and about 4 times the comments that I'm used to. :shock:

There's a small part of me that's thinking, "What were you thinking?!? Were you thinking?!? Is the meaning of life really 42???"

Then there's the ego thing... "People loved it!!! You're on the front page of a widely-read website!!! You are awesome!!!"

Finally, there's the rational part (a good chunk of my thought process, really): "You're a writer. People are reading what you wrote. It's good... but it can be better next time." ...which is a better control on the ego than beating into a cage with a cooked salami. :lol:

So... if you've suddenly chosen to track me due to the Soapbox, I urge you to go back over the past year of random scribblings and get a better sense of who I am. It may turn you off, or it may make you think... but it's me, and I stand behind all of it. :D

SHAMELESS PLUG!!! Also, if you're interested in being a better writer, or intelligent debate about gaming (and other subjects), there's the Monkeys Writing Shakespeare Union, which can be accessed through the link behind the modular emblem bar at the top of my profile. We're a fun group with different interests and philosophies, but civil and friendly all the same. Come on in and check us out. /END SHAMELESS PLUG!!! :lol:

Movies: My son and I went to see "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army" yesterday. It's a solidly entertaining movie, but it suffers from a somewhat recycled plot (the villain needs to get the pieces of a super-powerful item together to rule the Earth; the heroes need to stop him) and some average acting and directing. The creature, effects, however, are outstanding, and the action sequences are spectacular. Three stars overall: worth seeing in the theatre.

Games: I'm almost to the end of the Prophecies campaign in Guild Wars thanks to some good groups and a lot of solo playing for side-quests. My single-player instincts for RPGs haven't dulled at all, and (oddly enough) have actually landed me in the leadership positions of some groups during cooperative missions. Since I look everywhere and do everything in an RPG, my sense of direction is better than average, and my recall is very good, so I've used that to help my son (who has his own account so we can adventure together) and my friend (who has seemingly abandoned HG:L altogether for GW, mostly because he's a fantasy RPG fan) get farther faster than I did.

Once that's done, I'll focus on getting through Factions, then Nightfall, and finally Eye of the North... all with my ranger. If he isn't super-ranger by then, it's not for lack of trying. :lol:

Other than that... nothing new here.

So, until next time, happy adventuring!!!