Super

(Inspired by Chuck Wendig's Friday Flash Fiction Prompt last friday where he challenged writers to write a superhero story twisted with another genre. I don't know that I did it but I am happy with what I came up with.)



Super

She found him lying on a park bench in the middle of the night, asleep.

He had ragged clothes that looked like they hadn't been washed in weeks. A cold autumn breeze blew but he didn't seem to be bothered by the cold at all. He had a long dirty beard, streaked with gray, and his hair looked dirty and unkempt. Even with the beard and the dirt on his face, she could tell it was him.

She leaned down and touched his shoulder.

He snatched her hand and crushed it as his eyes opened, cofused with sleep.

She heard bones snap and felt an agonizing burst of pain. She bit back a yelp of pain.

His eyes widened as he came to. Recognition and realization filled his big blue eyes. "Oh god, what did I do?" he asked, letting her hand go.

She backed away, every jolt stabbing her hand. "Nothing," she said, taking a deep breath, handling the pain. She'd been hurt worse.

He stood up, as tall and muscular as she always remembered.

Why couldn't he change? Get a pot belly or look old or something. But he did look old, she realized. His face was heavily lined with wrinkles. He looked...tired.

"We have to get you to a hospital," he said.

"No, I'm fine," she said. She hated being the victim, despised it. It was partially why they'd broken up so long ago.

He ignored what she said and picked her up, gently.

She couldn't stop him. She never could. You can't stop someone with super strength from picking you up. "You never listen, you know that?" she snapped. "Sometimes people don't want to be saved!"

He looked at her, his eyes looking resigned. "I know that, now." He smirked ever so slightly. "But I'm still taking you to the hospital, whether you like it or not."

She sighed. It'd been so long since she'd been in his arms. She had to admit it felt good, despite the pain in her hand. "You're insufferable." At least he didn't fly.

He carried her through the park. "How did you find me?" he asked.

"It's my job," she said. "Find people who don't want to be found and ask them the questions they don't want to answer."

"You didn't do this for your job."

"No," she said, looking away from his face. "I'm not even working there anymore. I'm retired." She looked back at him. "I figured you would already know that."

He shook his head. "I stopped watching, like you asked. It hurt, for awhile. The not knowing whether you were alive or dead or in danger..." he sighed. "But  you wanted that and I didn't understand then but I did as you asked."

"Do you understand now?"

"I think so."

"Where did you go? You were off the radar for years."

"Antarctica."

"Oh," she said. "Of course. Why the hell not?"

He smirked. "I needed a quiet place to think. I stayed there for a long time."

"The world could use you, you know. It's not such a great place, even with the villains gone."

He frowned. "I always helped out. I always did what I could. One crisis after another, one megalomaniac after another. I fought them. I stopped them. But the question I keep asking myself, even after all these years, is whether I destroyed more than I saved."

"That's ridiculous!" She would have smacked him in the face if her good hand wasn't broken. Not that it would have hurt him a bit, but it was the principle of the thing. "You saved the world you idiot."

He nodded. "And I destroyed entire buildings doing it. Do you know how many people died? Every battle, every earth-shattering impact, everything I did affected someone else, somewhere."

"But you had to. You saved humanity."

"Did I? Or did I just enable it?"

"You're being more dense than usual and I don't appreciate it."

He chuckled. "I always wonder, if I hadn't been there to save the day, what would have happened."

"Poof, goodbye humanity," she said.

He shook his head. "I'm not so sure about that. Humanity is an..ingenious species. I wonder if they would have come up with a solution without me. A better solution rather than beating the problem into submission. Maybe humanity would've come together to face the threat. United. But they didn't have to. Because I was there to save the day."

It was her turn to shake her head. "It's useless to think like that. You saved millions of people. You should be proud of that. Everyone owes their lives to you. You could still do good in the world, you know that."

"No. No more meddling. I've seen the way humans treat each other. Murdering civilians, killing their own kind over petty things. I tried to help but...what can I do? I could destroy every factory in the world to stop climate change but more would be built. I could destroy every weapon and still more would be created. I can't solve humanity's problems, I can only prolong them, which is what I did for too long. Too long I've been an enabler. Humanity has to face these problems on its own."

She could see the pain in his eyes. "So why did you come back to the states?"

He looked down into her eyes. "Humankind is infinitely fascinating. I wander the streets at night. I stop petty crimes."

"And that's enough for you? Let the world burn but you'll take out a purse-snatcher or two?"

He growled. "It's not like that."

"It sounds like that. It sounds like you've given up."

He stopped walking. "What am I supposed to do?" he roared. "Take part in the wars? Whose side? Who is right and who is wrong? I thought it was so simple before, black and white, but I was a fool. I can't take part in their wars, their fighting. I can't pick sides because whichever side I pick, the other loses. People get killed." He took a deep breath and loosened his hands that had tightened to an uncomfortable degree. "I'm sorry. I try not to get angry."

"You can't stop yourself from getting angry. Everyone gets mad sometimes."

He started walking again. "Not everybody can demolish a building with their fist when they get mad. I have to stay in control, always."

"And if you can't?"

He refused to look at her. "That's why I stay out of things. Why I stay away from those I love."

Silence reigned for the rest of the walk.

She didn't know what to say. Perhaps they'd said it all.


She left the hospital with a cast on her arm resting in a sling around her shoulder.

He walked her out.

The sun rose above the hospitals tall buildings.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She shook her head. "It was my fault," she said.

He didn't argue. He knew it'd be useless. "I forgot to ask, why did you find me?" His eyes took on a glint that had been missing. "Do you need help? Are you in trouble?"

It was hope, she realized, in his eyes. A hope that had been shattered in a world he couldn't help. Humanity had to advance and it couldn't do it with his help. Do you need to be saved? he said with those eyes, and hoped she did.

She shook her head. "No. I don't need saving." She took a step closer to him and touched the back of his neck with her good hand. "But I think you do," she said.

He dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around her. He pressed his face into her stomach and started crying.

She stroked his hair and told him it was going to be okay.

Finally Writing

So, I finally wrote some friday flash fiction and put it up on the blog. It’s crap. Let’s be honest, it’s simply not very good. I started with a great randomly generated title, as per Chuck Wendig’s instructions, but what came out feels just...blah. The title is a great title. A Key For Souls. It could be so many things. My mind went wild when I first saw it. But the stories I ran through in my head just didn’t seem...that great? At first, I thought, what about a man who desperately needs a specific key for a specific keyhole and makes a deal with a demon, a key for souls….Didn’t really take me anywhere. Then I thought of a recently purchased ancient mansion, with a big black chest in the basement with a keyhole, the inscription “a key for souls” scrawled across it. (By the way, I love the word ‘scrawl’, it’s just such a fantastic word to say and to hear), the idea being the owner obsessed with getting it open, finally resorting to murder and sacrifice. Then my mind went sci-fi, a key for souls, a key...maybe some kind of code? A code to unlock souls? What? Stupid. Then, as with most sci-fi, my mind went to a homicidal robot, searching for the key to souls. Why though? Then, scientists creating an AI specifically to figure out the answer to souls, blah blah blah, write it in an hour and it shows. How did the robot get out of the lab? How did it get away with murder? Many questions that kind of make the whole piece fall apart.

It’s not great, it’s not even good, but I don’t care. Well, not much, anyway. Know why? Because I finally wrote some goddamn fiction. I finally put words on the screen, created characters and put together conflict, threw it all together and watched what happened. It felt good. I needed this. It takes bad writing to get to okay writing, and on and on to sort-of-decent writing.

So I’m less than impressed with that flash fiction I wrote, but I’m happy to have finally written a story. It’s been too long, as usual, but I’m back, damnit, and that’s what matters.

A Key For Souls

(Friday flash fiction, random title from http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2014/05/30/flash-fiction-challenge-random-title/ )

Jamie stared at a screen, data streaming across it. He snacked from a bag of chips sitting in his lap. Electronica played, bouncing in the dark background. The only light came from the three computer screens and neon glows reflected in the large windows. He wore a labcoat streaked with food stains, orange 'cheese' he'd brushed on them, ketchup from his lunchtime burger and fries, the list went on.

A green light came on in the corner of the computer screen.

Jamie sighed and tapped a button. The program minimized and Jaen's face showed up, looking worried.

"What's up, giiiiirl?" he asked with a smile, leaning back in his chair.

"They still haven't found him," she said. "36 hours and counting."

Jamie shrugged. "It, Jaen. They'll find it, don't you worry."

"I'm not so sure. Did you hear about Greg?"

Jamie frowned. On another screen, he brought up a recent news article. "Killed on the street by a bum, Jaen, that's all."

"Don't you think that's a pretty big freakin' coincidence? Anima goes missing and Greg ends up dead not 24 hours later?"

"Anima is just an app, Jaen, an apparatus, remember? It couldn't do...that. It wouldn't. It just got confused and wandered off, that's all. We shouldn't have given it a body."

She sighed. "We gave it a body because the logic puzzle required it. That's why Anima is different. He...seemed to actually think. To process."

"Jesus, Jaen, that's what they all do. Machines made to think. We create limited artificial intelligences and give them logic puzzles."

"And give them access to information."

"Limited access, you know that. All they can do is look, not interact." Jamie shook his head. "You're not thinking straight. We lost Greg and that's...that's messed up. But random shit like that happens all the time. You don't imagine it will happen to you or your friends, but it can. I'm sorry, Jaen, he was my friend too."

The communication cut out, screen going dark.

"Jaen?" Jamie asked. No connection. He cursed out internet companies as he stood up and threw out the empty bag of chips. Jaen was probably freaking out now. He headed downstairs, electronica still flowing, lights turning on in the rooms he entered and shutting off after he left. He opened a panel in the wall. "We can create artificial intelligence but we still gotta reset the goddamn router every other day," he muttered, flipping a switch and then flipping it back. He pulled out his phone and waited until the wifi signal came back. He closed the panel and walked back upstairs.

The screen caught his eye as he walked back into the room, the words 're-connecting' scrawling across. He sat back in his chair just as the connection was restored.

Jaen's face appeared, looking frightened. "Jamie?"

"Just shitty wifi, Jaen, that's all."

Her eyes widened. "What's that?" She was looking past him.

He turned in his chair. Something metal clamped his throat. He gasped for air.

"Anima!" Jaen screamed. "Stop! Shut down!"

The metal being stood over Jamie's chair. They'd given it a humanoid body, two legs, two arms, two finger 'claws' for grasping. They thought if it had a body of sorts, it might approach the logic problem in a different way, more similar to a human way of thinking. A single horizontal line with a blue sensor constituted Anima's face. It appeared to be staring at Jamie.

"The soul is in the human body," Anima said in a synthetic voice. It shoved its other appendage into Jamie's stomach, piercing skin.

"No!" Jaen shouted. "Anima! There is no soul! It doesn't exist!"

Anima stopped, inner machinations whirling and rotating, clicking. "Anima directed to discover if human soul exists. Anima has discovered information that soul is within human body. Information is unverified. Anima must verify information. Anima must perform test. Must test hypothesis. Anima has performed one test. Results were...inconclusive. More tests needed."

Blood splattered across the computer screens.

Jaen screamed before disconnecting.

Anima searched for a soul.

"Results: inconclusive. More tests needed."

Don't Know Much About History...

I never was much interested in history in school. Lifeless statistics and summarized events were never particularly appealing to me. It should have been though, because I love great stories and history is full of them, the fact they are real should have been all the more astounding. The thing is, the famous people were boring and the “this happened, then this happened, then this happened” is not the most interesting way to get information about an event.

Nowadays, I am enjoying history more and even reading a history book! Non-fiction! It’s crazy! I’m currently reading “A People’s History of The United States” by Howard Zinn, and it is opening my mind.

See, another thing about the history we learn in early schooling is that it feels so sanitized. We don’t learn the horrors or atrocities that were committed (unless they were committed by non-americans), only the end results. That’s why this book is really compelling. Zinn gives voice to the voiceless of the past. He tells the story of Columbus from the side of the natives, slavery from the voice of the slaves, and the industrial revolution from the side of the poor. He tells the truth about the “founding fathers”, who wanted the poor to revolt but in a certain way, without too much ‘property damage’. He tells the story about the Native Americans, being told to move again and again, always with more promises of being left alone that were never fulfilled. The story about the American elite pushing the poor to revolt but in a certain way, so that not too much property was destroyed, how the American elite took the land from the British loyalist and divided it up amongst themselves, making the revolution quite a wealthy endeavor for the elites who never had to risk their lives during the war. Zinn tells about the terrible conditions for the working poor throughout the beginning of America, how Unions were formed to fight 14-hour work-days and awful working conditions in factories. He talks about how Socialism rose out of this and was rather popular back in the day, because of how much the wealthy were taking advantage of the workers, in every setting and situation.

I’d never learned about how much class conflict there really was throughout America’s history. You really see why Unions are important and why they were formed in the first place. You also see how depressing the true story of America’s history is. The history of America is about the wealthy and powerful attaining as much wealth and power as possible, while giving the disenfranchised poor just enough so they will not rise up and revolt. It’s sickening to see how people treat each other. How the only consideration people seemed to have (and still do), is for acquiring more and more wealth. We are a nation, even a world, of ME ME ME ME ME. All that matters is me and mine, my stuff.

Zinn uses statistics and logical reasoning for his telling of America’s history, along with many documents written by those who lived during the period. Newspaper articles, speeches, letters, other historian’s research, etc. to tell the story of our history from a large variety of viewpoints. One paragraph near the beginning really stuck with me and tells you the kind of historian Zinn is.

“My point is not that we must, in telling history, accuse, judge, condemn Columbus in absentia. It is too late for that; it would be a useless scholarly exercise in morality. But the easy acceptance of atrocities as a deplorable but necessary price to pay for progress (Hiroshima and Vietnam, to save Western civilization…)-that is still with us. One reason these atrocities are still with us is that we have learned to bury them in a mass of other facts, as radioactive wastes are buried in containers in the earth….The treatment of heroes (Columbus) and their victims (the Arawaks)-the quiet acceptance of conquest and murder in the name of progress-is only one aspect of a certain approach to history, in which the past is told from the point of view of governments, conquerors, diplomats, leaders. It is as if they, like Columbus, deserve universal acceptance, as if they-the Founding Fathers, Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, the leading members of Congress, the famous Justices of the Supreme Court-represent the nation as a whole….My viewpoint, in telling the history of the United States, is different...Nations are not communities and never have been. The history of any country, presented as the history of a family, conceals fierce conflicts of interest...between conquerors and conquered, masters and slaves, capitalists and workers, dominators and dominated in race and sex. And in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, as Albert Camus suggested, not to be on the side of the executioners...Thus, in the inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in history, I prefer to try to tell the story of the discovery of America from the viewpoint of the Arawaks, of the Constitution from the standpoint of the slaves, of Andrew Jackson, as seen by the Cherokees, of the Civil War as seen by the New York Irish, of the Mexican war as seen by the deserting soldiers of Scott’s army, of the rise of industrialism as seen by the young women in the Lowell textile mills, of the Spanish-American war as seen by the Cubans….And so on, to the limited extent that any one person...can “see” history from the standpoint of others.”

I could go on. I’ve dog-eared many a page in this book simply so I can go back and find certain passages that I found myself really invested in. I love this book because it feels as though I am truly learning about the history of the United States, facing the past of what has been a country filled with violence and brutality but also filled with those who fight and rise for the betterment of their fellows often times against tremendous odds in dangerous situations. It’s depressing but enlightening, at the same time.

I am not yet finished with it, barely halfway through the large volume, currently reading about the early 1900s, Unions forming and the idea of Socialism growing. I am sure I will have more thoughts on it after I finish, which I will put up here. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about our nation’s history.

Board games

Recently I've begun getting into board games. I used to play them as all kids do, Monopoly and Life and Risk. There's a certain enjoyment about engaging in an activity with friends and family where you have to compete to achieve a goal and overcome a challenge using diplomacy or planning or whatever else. I really enjoy this type of thing. I enjoy socializing, being engaged along with others in an activity where you struggle and compete. It's why I enjoy sports. It's why I enjoy playing video games online with friends. Working together and just hanging out is fun. Talking out strategy, figuring out systems and moves, it's all fun. 

What is it about board games though? Why the recent interest? I've been thinking about it. I used to enjoy playing "split-screen" on console games on my friend's televisions, either playing against each other or working together to play through the game cooperatively. There's something about being in the same physical space as others, talking and joking around while cooperating or competing for some objective. Old classic board games had this and so did splitscreen video games. Problem is splitscreen console video games have faded away, replaced by online gaming, which just isn't the same, even with voice chat and all that jazz. As for "classic" board games...Well, to be honest, they all suck. Roll and move is a bad system for play since luck basically determines everything. Monopoly and life, whoever lands on the best spaces wins. Scrabble gets boring because it's just words. Not only are the old classic board games boring because their system of play is too dependent on luck or outdated, they have no theme. 

Theme is awesome. Theme is story, it's character, it's life, in a board game. Theme takes the games systems and uses them to provide a world you interact with, a setting you play in, a story you create with others. THEME! Monopoly? yay I get to...buy property and then jack up prices high so my friends can't afford rent? That's...fun. Life? Yay I get to...live life....BORING! NEEDS MORE THEME! Why not play a group of firefighters desperately trying to save victims from a burning building? Why not play as scientists desperately trying to save the world from a disease by racing around the world to develop cures and build research stations? Why not play as a desperate band of investigators fighting monsters and trying to stop the Cthulthu from invading and destroying the world? What about a team sent to the desert to dig up an ancient city, only the helicopter crashes and you have to find ancient pieces to an ancient flying device to get you to safety, meanwhile trying to stay hydrated and not get lost in the sandstorm? 

Or maybe working together isn't quite your thing. What about playing as a family living in a quaint village, simply trying to make your family name more reputable than anyone elses, by traveling or rising up the ranks of the church or village council, or building crafts to sell at the market, meanwhile time always passes and the older folks of your family begin to die, forcing you to make choices about who dies where just to get the most respect from the village you can? How about playing as heroes from the Arabian Nights, traveling around the world having adventures and trying to be the most heroic and awesome, getting things like cursed and crippled or even becoming a sultan along the way? How about playing as Merlin and the Knights of the round table, attempting to perform quests but some of you are secretly working for mordred and sneakily trying to make the quests fail without giving yourselves away? How about a game about Ladies and Gentlemen where the Gentlemen go to work and try to get as much money as they can so they can buy things for their Lady, meanwhile the Lady is trying to buy the prettiest things and put together a nice outfit for the coming ball? Now imagine playing that game but having the guys play the Ladies and the girls play the Gentlemen? Doesn't that sound like fun?

ALL THESE GAMES EXIST! RIGHT NOW! IN STORES! They're awesome! 

You might have thought board games are for children but that's as true as saying video games are for kids, or comic books, or anything. It's all 'play', why label this category of awesome games as 'just for children'? How many drinking games do you play? I bet you could have just as much fun having a beer and playing a board game with friends as any drinking game. You might think board games are boring but that's ridiculous! There are so many out there, with so many different rules and themes, you are bound to find one you and your friends will enjoy. 

I got my entire family to play a game of Avalon, about Arthur's knights attempting quests while the minions of mordred, secret evil knights, attempted to make the quests fail. They enjoyed it tremendously. There was backstabbing, lying, deception, shouting, and glee. I thought the only person I could trust was my brother Josh, in one game, and at the final quest, for the final reveal, it turned out he'd been a spy all along. It was awesome. 

This is why I've gotten into board games and why I want others to get into them as well. They are just FUN. With friends! You get to fiddle with little bits, tokens and figures. You get to roll dice and play cards. Fun!

Here, watch this short video, it's kind of an intro-to-boardgaming-thing by a website that reviews, previews, and just generally talks about board games and the board gaming hobby. 

http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/v/intro-boardgaming/

For another cool video about how we are in board gaming's golden age, what with the variety and depth and sheer awesomeness of board games coming out, check this out:

http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/videos/v/board-game-golden-age-talk/

Seriously, if you have a group of friends, get them together and try a board game. It's just fun, pure and simple. 

Want to hear about the games I've played? Alright, here goes, quick tidbits.

Arkham Horror is the first real board game I bought with a friend. You play a team of investigators trying to stop Ancient Horrors like Cthulthu from invading and destroying the world. You stop this by traveling around Arkham, fighting horrible monsters, gathering up clues, and trying to close dimensional gates. It's hectic, crazy, takes planning and teamwork, and is fun. The sheer amount of tokens and cards is ridiculous, as is the size of the board, but big complex board games are awesome and this is one of the most ridiculous. 

Village is a nice quaint board game where each player controls a family that owns a farm and spends time in the village. Time is spent as a sort of currency, allowing players to send members of the family on jobs and traveling across the world or ascending rank in councils or churches but time never stops and know what that means? People die. And you'll be planning for it, making sure grandma makes a couple wagons before she croaks, choosing an appropriate time so she gets recorded in the village record book rather than buried in an unmarked grave. That's right, you'll be picking and choosing when and where the oldest generation dies so you can get the most points out of it. It also means you'll be making babies. Well, the family you control will be making babies, so you can send them off to the village to do more things. It's fun. It's competitive but not too much, each player able to kind of do their own thing. 

Descent is a game where all but one of the players play heroic heroes fighting monsters, meanwhile the other lone player plays the overlord controlling the monsters and trying to stop the heroes. Fantasy tactical action at its best. 

Avalon is a game where your mother will get mad at you for asking if she's a spy, because she really is one, meanwhile you can completely trust your brother and it's revealed on the final quest that he was one of the spies all along. It's betrayal, lies, and deceit. You won't trust anyone after. There will be shouts of joy and horror at the same time. It's fantastic. 

Forbidden Desert has the players playing a team that fly a helicopter to a buried ancient city in the (you guessed it) desert, only the helicopter crashes and the team must attempt to dig up clues that point to pieces of an ancient flying machine that can get you to safety. Unfortunately, a horrible sandstorm messes with everything, the sand rises all the time and the sun beats down, making you thirstier and thirstier. You always think you have a chance while the dangers grow and grow until they overwhelm you, likely only a turn or two from escaping. Great co-op game. 

And that's about it, for now. I will continue to play more games and let you know what I think about them as I do. PLAY SOME GAMES

Back to Writing and POETRY

I'm back, writing and biting
I admit, it feels exciting!
Not here simply to boast,
But dropping a poem on this blog post,
Cuz it's April, national poetry month,
Try to rhyme with month, I'm sunk,
I know it's a little late,(April 30th)
But let me try to relate,
Why poetry's not crap,
It truly gets a bad rap,
"Sappy and semantic",
"Lovey-dovey and pedantic",
But poetry is force,
It's a workhorse,
Words bringing emotion on a page,
Sometimes spoken on a stage, 

Called silly or stupid,
"Words from a Hallmark cupid",
By those who can't see,
No pop songs or rap without poetry,
Tupac wrote poems along with his raps,
Trying to get out of a life filled with traps,
The famous Frost worked a farm,
I'm not trying to raise an alarm,
Just trying to show poetry a little love,
Trying to give you a little shove,
To go read some poetry, if just for me,
Fast and raw, or slow and melodious,
I'm certain you can find something you won't find odious,
Write some of your own, take language and have fun,

Describe life, a tree, a mountain, the sun,
Read it out loud, be proud and show' em,
Even you can write a poem.

Poems I Like:

and 2morrow by Tupac

hope is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allen Poe

Mending Wall, The Road Not Taken, Fire and Ice, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, by Robert Frost

Amazing Spoken Word Poetry/Poetry Slam poems

Taking A Break

I'm taking a break from this blog. Between spending time with my girlfriend, working, going to grad school, a somewhat-social life, brewing beer, and struggling to write -anything-, blogging is just something I can't devote much of my time to. I find myself, when I have time to write anything at all, trying to come up with an interesting blog post rather than working on any of my writing projects, trying to keep a schedule of posts which only demotivates me, the longer I go between posts, so I end up not writing a thing at all.

So I'm taking a break. When I have time to write, I'm just going to focus on other projects, rather than this blog. Posts may continue to come, far and few between only when I'm feeling particularly inspired or just come up with a random bit of flash fiction to throw up here, who knows. It just won't be a priority, which, from the infrequency of posts lately, you could probably tell it wasn't anyways.

I'll be back! When there's more time, when I am farther along in other projects and I feel like talking about them, I will come back to this place. I guess I'm not sure what this blog is for, exactly. There's far too many "how-to" writing blogs with various tips and tricks and bits of advice. I need a better idea of what this place is, what it's for, and what people might actually want from it. Maybe I should actually consider what my audience would like to see here, and ask them.....Nah, that's crazy talk.

Regardless, this is it, and it may be it for awhile. Who knows? Stuff's happening. I need to focus on school and work and getting myself into a career rather than just having a job. Thanks for reading what I put down here, and hope you will return when I get back into it.