Wordless Wednesday

Here There Be Dragons

"...and from the ashes of the Old World, another breed of man will be born. A man born in peace and not in war. And to his kin, the teachings of the Order will be as myth.

The sacred pact 'twixt Dragon and Rider forgotten, dormant in time.

Yet fear not, for when the darkness is once again made flesh, The Order will ride again, delivering righteous fire from the sky..."

-From the sayings of Rimril, Fourth Archmage of the Order

Lately I gotten back into playing an old video game of mine called "Draken Order of the Flame." I'm really not a very serious gamer, since I tend to play them for awhile, and then put them down and forget about them for a year, and then start playing them again. This one I have had for quite awhile and it is definitely one of my favorites.

Most games don't really do much for me, but put me in one where you get to swing a BFS (Big Farkin Sword), Fly a Dragon and protect a Fair Warrior Maiden, and I'm all there.

The story revolves around "Rynn" (that would be the Fair Warrior Maiden) who is traveling the land of Draken searching for her younger brother "Delon" who was carried off when a band of "Wartoks" attacked and destroyed Rynn's village. Along the way she hooks up with the ancient dragon "Arokh" and together they search the land for Delon, all the while having to fight off all kinds of creatures like Wartoks, Orcs, Giant Spiders and Scavengers. During the quest all manor of weapons, Armor, Potions, Magic Crystals and Runes are found to help them in their search.

I spent most of the day today playing, though in truth I had to start over at a previous game save because I got my dragon "stuck" in a mine and couldn't get him out. I don't know if it was a glitch or what, and at first I thought maybe he just wasn't allowed to go any further with Rynn until I played on for a while and realized he was really supposed to be with her. I had to start over again at a save that was quite far back in the game and spent most of the time just getting back to where I was. Once I got back I found the going much easier with Arokh, it really helps to have a fire breathing dragon with you when you are slaughtering bestiary. These dragons should really come with four-wheel drive for moving around on the ground and in caves and mines.

There are a lot of places in the game where Arokh cannot pass and Rynn has to go on alone until she can unlock a gate to allow him to come through. Some of the time you are flying around on Arokh's back blasting the creatures on the ground, fighting crow dragons in the sky, and dodging the shots from the cannons that the Wartoks use to try and blast you out of the sky. Other times you have to traverse underground mines and caves on foot, fighting the creatures with sword, mace and bow.

I'm not the greatest gamer in the world and I do manage to get Rynn and Arokh killed probably more often than many other gamers would but that's when the health potions and game saves come into play so I can keep on going through the game wreaking mayhem and destruction on my enemies.

I collect swords and dragons, and even have a couple dragon tattoos so this game pretty much has everything in it that I could possible want in a 3DVR game. I also like going to Medieval Faires and this game really has very medieval flair to it. You just can't beat a game where you get to fly a dragon and swing a sword, so if you will excuse me now "It's time to go hunt some Orc"...

Happy 18th Birthday to Me

Today is my birthday and according to the calendar and my driver's license I am 45 years old but I believe they are wrong and I can prove that I'm 18 again.

Now when I was 18 I looked up at 28 and thought it was old, it seemed so very far away. Now that these lying documents say I'm 45, I once again look at 28 and it seems every bit as far away.

Therefore the only conclusion I can come up with, using strict scientific visual observation, is that I have come full circle all the way back around to 18 again, though if you visually observed me you might disagree.

So not only have I proved that I am 18 again I have also proved the viability of circular logic.

My Meme

Sorry about being a.w.o.l. on blogger lately, but overtime has started up at work again and though I don't mind the money it really doesn't "leave much gas in the engine" at the end of the day or much brain to think with. I've had things to say just not a lot of energy or time to say them....

This time I've decided to write the meme rather than just snatch it off of someone else's blog. Someone has to begin these things somewhere, so I thought, "why not here with me." If you like it, please feel free to snag it...

1. What is the background image you have up on your computer right now? Teotihaucan, a place I've never been to but would love to go see someday.

2. Which is your all-time favorite Dinosaur? Brontosaurus which is now called the Apatosaurus.

3. What was the first music concert you went to? Kiss and I was 13. It was at a place here called the Erie County Field House and their pyrotechnics scorched the ceiling...good concert...

4. Polar Bears or Penguins? Always partial to Penguins whether they are in Pittsburgh or a PC...

5. Describe your favorite "comfy" clothes? My Raiders sweat pants and my gray flannel shirt...

6. What natural disaster would you least like to experience? I don't think I would enjoy being around a forest fire very much...

7. If you could have any other job, what would it be? Archeologist...no wait Bush Pilot...

8. How do you like your coffee/tea? Coffee with creamer, no sugar...

9. I was going to write you a letter since you left the Earth, but you forgot to tell me which planet/moon you moved to, which is it? Hanging out on Europa watching Jupiter rise...

10. What was the first car you bought? 1978 Firebird Redbird Edition, she was sweet...

11. What is your favorite type of tree? Eastern Hemlock...

12. You've offended my honor! Now we must duel, choose your weapon! Draw your cutlass matey...Aaaaarrrghh!!!

This Post Really Stinks

Well this guy seems to have taken up residence in my yard. I've seen him a couple times now in my backyard, right behind the porch, but every time I ran to get my camera he pulled a disappearing act. Now I know these guys can't run very fast, and generally don't need to, as a defense, since most creatures run from them, but every time he managed to elude my camera... until now.

This time I just stood in the window and waited, watching him eat. When a car drove by I saw him scurry into my shed. Now he can't really get into my shed like "Oscar" the red squirrel can, but I have a little open addition built on the side of the shed and he ran into that. The addition has three sides, a roof and a floor but is open in the front, and is where I keep trashcans, my wheelbarrow, and such. It appears that he has made a little home for himself among the junk that I have stored there.

I don't know how "Oscar" the red squirrel and "Chubby", the woodchuck that lives under the floor of the addition, feel about their new neighbor, but my shed sure seems to be turning into a wildlife condo. As for myself, I don't think I'm too overly thrilled with the new resident.

I grabbed my digital camera and snuck out onto the back porch and tried to take his picture, but it is a really dark and rainy night, and my camera isn't the greatest, so the first pictures all came out black. I then went back inside and got the 1 million-candlepower spot light I got for myself for Christmas, and went back out on the porch again.

The spot light did the trick, allowing just enough light for him to show up in the pictures. Fortunately I have my back porch wrapped with plywood panels for winter, which afforded me some protection to get these very dangerous shots. It's funny how long I just stood there with the spotlight trained on him, snapping pictures, and he really didn't seem to care, at times getting within 15 feet of me, of course he knew he wasn't the one in peril.

He hasn't sprayed yet or at least I haven't smelled him, but I'm sure he's a "fully capable skunk" so I guess I'm going to have to be a lot more careful when leaving and coming home now. The shadows thrown off by my porch seem a lot more ominous now, maybe holding unseen dangers.

The only thing left to do now is come up with a name for him... Pepe is just too un-original...

Plant a Tree... Save the World...

TREES ABSORB CARBON DIOXIDE.

CARBON DIOXIDE IS THE GAS THAT CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING.

PLANT A TREE...SAVE THE WORLD...

I don't know how I can make it any clearer. It's early morning, the sun is just rising on this New Years day 2007 and it's a balmy 50 degrees F. and raining outside when it should be 20 degrees with 2 feet of snow on the ground.

We are deforesting our planet, killing off the one thing that can save us. There is no more time for argument and debate, because while people talk, the temperature is rising.

In 2006 I managed to plant 22 trees in my yard and have many more in my "tree bed" waiting to go in this year. Here are some tree facts for you taken from the Colorado Tree Coalition.

Carbon Sequestration:

· Heat from Earth is trapped in the atmosphere due to high levels of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other heat-trapping gases that prohibit it from releasing heat into space -- creating a phenomenon known as the "greenhouse effect." Trees remove (sequester) CO₂ from the atmosphere during photosynthesis to form carbohydrates that are used in plant structure/function and return oxygen back to the atmosphere as a byproduct. About half of the greenhouse effect is caused by CO₂. Trees therefore act as a carbon sink by removing the carbon and storing it as cellulose in their trunk, branches, leaves and roots while releasing oxygen back into the air.

· Trees also reduce the greenhouse effect by shading our homes and office buildings. This reduces air conditioning needs up to 30%, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned to produce electricity. This combination of CO₂ removal from the atmosphere, carbon storage in wood, and the cooling effect makes trees a very efficient tool in fighting the greenhouse effect.

· One tree that shades your home in the city will also save fossil fuel, cutting CO₂ buildup as much as 15 forest trees.

· Approximately 800 million tons of carbon are stored in U.S. urban forests with a $22 billion equivalent in control costs.

· Planting trees remains one of the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess CO₂ from the atmosphere.

· A single mature tree can absorb carbon dioxide at a rate of 48 lbs./year and release enough oxygen back into the atmosphere to support 2 human beings.

· Each person in the U.S. generates approximately 2.3 tons of CO₂ each year. A healthy tree stores about 13 pounds of carbon annually -- or 2.6 tons per acre each year. An acre of trees absorbs enough CO₂ over one year to equal the amount produced by driving a car 26,000 miles. An estimate of carbon emitted per vehicle mile is between 0.88 lb. CO₂/mi. – 1.06 lb. CO₂/mi. (Nowak, 1993). Thus, a car driven 26,000 miles will emit between 22,880 lbs CO₂ and 27,647 lbs. CO₂. Thus, one acre of tree cover in Brooklyn can compensate for automobile fuel use equivalent to driving a car between 7,200 and 8,700 miles.

· If every American family planted just one tree, the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion lbs annually. This is almost 5% of the amount that human activity pumps into the atmosphere each year.

· The U.S. Forest Service estimates that all the forests in the United States combined sequestered a net of approximately 309 million tons of carbon per year from 1952 to 1992, offsetting approximately 25% of U.S. human-caused emissions of carbon during that period.

· Over a 50-year lifetime, a tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen, provides $62,000 worth of air pollution control, recycles $37,500 worth of water, and controls $31,250 worth of soil erosion.

If you live in an apartment or don't have any place to plant a tree here are some people at AmericanForests.org that will plant trees for you.

Please try to make it your New Years Resolution to help do something about this environmental catastrophe that is going on all around us.