Wow, i cannot remember the last time i blogged... and i am too lazy to go back and find out while typing this one up so... i am just going to go with it. This one may be long in the tooth as i have several notes i dropped into an unpublished blog entry - which is not being converted into one i am going to (actually) publish. So let us begin, shall we. Some time back i mentioned that i was going to do a "Dragon Hunt" in my favorite Facebook game, MouseHunt. Wow, it was a miserable failure! LOL - i had 50 pieces of bait, i attracted the beast 14 times, and caught it exactly 0 (zero) times! That's right, none, nil, nada, zilch, diddly squat! LOL God is an awesome God. He has a perfect way to ensure i do not get so full of myself that i lose sight of more important things. Even when i jest, whenever i boast or talk smack, i get my tucas handed to me. In this case i was 'boasting' how i was going to do so well with a fellow MouseHunter that is much more experienced than i. 
This has been true since... well, High School. RAM, who i play a lot of games with over the years. We are pretty evenly matched strategically, etc. When i just "mind the house" and just take care of business i do pretty well, but practically every time in my almost 30 years of knowing him that i boasted and/or talked smack... he thrashes me in the event. LOL Maybe it's a mental block on my end... but i honestly believe it is God's grace that allows it. And this is a good thing. If i think about it... i will expound on how my praying for patience is working out in my life. 8)
This has been true since... well, High School. RAM, who i play a lot of games with over the years. We are pretty evenly matched strategically, etc. When i just "mind the house" and just take care of business i do pretty well, but practically every time in my almost 30 years of knowing him that i boasted and/or talked smack... he thrashes me in the event. LOL Maybe it's a mental block on my end... but i honestly believe it is God's grace that allows it. And this is a good thing. If i think about it... i will expound on how my praying for patience is working out in my life. 8)Well, since then i have dove into the Seasonal Garden and Zugzwang's Tower. While i enjoy the seasonal theme, i get impatient. Because i am not willing to just throw expensive Super Brie at attracting the mice (it costs real money, or 4,000+ gold per piece) i tend to get a lot of "failure to attract" (or FTA) results. This causing the power meter to dribble down 3% each time, while most of the mice you do catch only raise the bar 1% or so. So it takes me a long time to get the amplifier fully boosted to 150%. But once that is completed i am able to hit the tower. I like the overall chess theme and the strategy involved. What trap to use and when. What bait and/or base to use and when. Time is not on your side here. 
Each mouse you catch the power bar you worked so hard to charge up out in the garden, drops it a percentage based on the point value of the piece (for example, Pawns drop the meter 1% while Queens drop it 9%). You also have to catch the pieces in ascending order. That is, you have to catch 8 pawns before the knights become available, two knights before the Bishops, etc. However, once you have caught the 8 pawns does not mean they scamper away and hide. No! So you can continue to catch mice that you no longer need, all the while trying to catch the ones you do... but your power meter continue to drop with each catch (FTA). I have made four trips to the tower so far, while my first two trips were decent, catching the King while still having 70+%. My last trip it was in the 50's before i finally caught the King, but one one trip i stubbornly stayed until the power meter was in the 20's. The points are great, but not as much gold to be made. Still, this is my favorite area so far.
Each mouse you catch the power bar you worked so hard to charge up out in the garden, drops it a percentage based on the point value of the piece (for example, Pawns drop the meter 1% while Queens drop it 9%). You also have to catch the pieces in ascending order. That is, you have to catch 8 pawns before the knights become available, two knights before the Bishops, etc. However, once you have caught the 8 pawns does not mean they scamper away and hide. No! So you can continue to catch mice that you no longer need, all the while trying to catch the ones you do... but your power meter continue to drop with each catch (FTA). I have made four trips to the tower so far, while my first two trips were decent, catching the King while still having 70+%. My last trip it was in the 50's before i finally caught the King, but one one trip i stubbornly stayed until the power meter was in the 20's. The points are great, but not as much gold to be made. Still, this is my favorite area so far.A week or so ago i heard about how a current trend is for churches to have some kind of door prize or raffle to draw people in the doors around Easter time. 
I can see the arguments about wanting to get people in the door that normally don't attend church, especially around Easter. Overall i do not agree with the practice. I feel that it sends the wrong message overall. I am not saying that God does not use it, or that He won't or wouldn't use it - because God can use anything of course. In the end, i pray that God does use it. The most important thing is the sharing of the Gospel, and that it takes root.
I can see the arguments about wanting to get people in the door that normally don't attend church, especially around Easter. Overall i do not agree with the practice. I feel that it sends the wrong message overall. I am not saying that God does not use it, or that He won't or wouldn't use it - because God can use anything of course. In the end, i pray that God does use it. The most important thing is the sharing of the Gospel, and that it takes root.I have finally caved. I took DD3 to Pet Smart and bought her a new fish tank and some fish. I am just not willing to cave and get a dog, or even a cat. My beloved and DS1 are highly allergic to cats, and dogs need to be walked and cleaned up after. No amount of promises that "i will clean up, i will feed" were going to sway me because i know who in the end would be doing such tasks. I like fish, even with the containment of mess, etc. not taken into account. There is something pretty peaceful and fun to just sit and stare at them.
While i was watching a show on cable the other day i saw a commercial for "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
"... WHAT?!? AWESOME! LOL I already own the series on DVD, however, i plan on watching it on the Sci-Fi channel just to encourage it in syndication. 8) I feel Fox really did not do right by this series, and i am pretty sure that it will not make a comeback. This show is just one of many that i liked that did not enjoy a long run. Space: Above and Beyond
and Max Headroom
immediately came to mind.So, 12-Apr was the 150th anniversary of the start of hostilities between the North and the South of the United States of America. I believe it is called a "sesquicentennial"... boy that is a mouth full. Lately DS2 has been showing an interest in seeing a reenactment. 
It's not the soldiers he is most interested in, but the muskets for some reason. He has been wanting me to take him to one for almost a year now, so... i am going to be more actively engaged in trying to find one close to home. It really shouldn't be as hard as i am making it living this close to the Mason-Dixon line and all. Oh, and if you can... i HIGHLY recommend Ken Burns' "The Civil War
" special that first aired on PBS. An excellent work in my opinion.
It's not the soldiers he is most interested in, but the muskets for some reason. He has been wanting me to take him to one for almost a year now, so... i am going to be more actively engaged in trying to find one close to home. It really shouldn't be as hard as i am making it living this close to the Mason-Dixon line and all. Oh, and if you can... i HIGHLY recommend Ken Burns' "The Civil War" special that first aired on PBS. An excellent work in my opinion.
Ok, i am finally going to wrap this up. One thing that has 'hindered' my blogging has been a tare i have been having writing my short stories. All told i am pretty sure i've put down over 10k words. All three of my story lines have moved some. One has not been "published" (i.e. posted to my short stories blog site, not ink and paper), but the other two have moved along nicely. i have even taken some decent notes on where to go with all three at this point, so in a way... even if it means my blogging "suffers" (and judging from the number of readers... it will not be missed too terribly) so i can get more writing done. 
