A Long Goodbye for a Short While

Very short while...

Hey there, classmates.

I welcome you back to the blog for my last post of the school-year and the last post until next Monday.

The sun is out today, and I can almost smell summer. Along with all the fun that summer ensues, I also have a lot of work to do, saving up for a new computer. I'll be mobile blogging and introducing some pictures every once in a while, incorporating them into the summer posts. After purchasing my new equipment, I'll probably spend a bit on editing programs, such as but not limited to: Photoshop, Sony Vegas, Fraps, and an HD PVR. 

Being that my blogs are very important to me, I might be putting some money into them. Depends on how things go.

Without much else to say, classmates, I must bid you a very fond farewell. I'll see you next Monday, and I hope you'll like the surprise I have in store for you *wink*

Goodbye, classmates, have a wonderful day, have a beautiful summer, and I'll see you soon

As always, your host, bidding you farewell,

What's To Come

Oh, the excitement... 

Hello again, classmates.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. Allow me to pause while the angels sing in the background. 

With the end of the school year comes some big surprises for my blogs. For "Reclaim, Revamp, Repurpose" I'll be finishing off some edits to give it a good feel, and begin posting about my newest project. Anyone like chalk? *hint hint* 

Also I'll be opening up a gaming blog with my good friend Sean, it will revolve around youtube, twitter, Facebook and, of course blogger. It will be casual gaming so feel free to join us anytime. I'll put the links in the side-bar.

And, as if that were not enough, next Monday starts a one-week blogathon! We'll have daily updates, Q&A's, short-stories, word games, and many other things! To top it all off with a cherry, I'll start Vlogging! Yep, that means you get to actually see and hear me giving you the latest updates and other things.

So much is to come next week and I've got a ton to do to get ready, so tomorrow will be my last post until next week.

To keep you busy reading, why don't you check out my mother's witty ramblings over at Sassafrass, and also my sister's at As Time Goes By. Great posts from both, plus they are my family.

Much to do, much to do. And so little time to do it. With that in mind, classmates, I bid you farewell. Leave me your ideas for the blogathon in the comment section below!

As always, your host,

The Book of Ages

Hey there, classmates.

I thought it would be nice to give you a preview of my novel, The Book of Ages. It's a fantasy novel written in a fast-paced style, and very family oriented, trust me.

So without further ado, I give you:

The Book of Ages

By Jacob A. Howard

The wind rustled the leaves on the now nearly bronzed forest floor. He took a deep, silent breath and pulled back the string of his bow a bit tighter, waiting for just the right moment. The bear looked up from the ground and sniffed the air; he knew something was amiss. At that moment, Thadius Groffson saw his chance to strike. He let the arrow fly with the accuracy of a well-trained hunter, but the bear proved to be much more cunning than he previously thought. It moved its head just slightly to the right and the arrow instead pierced the bark of a tall oak.  The bear turned its sights directly on him and growled fiercely. Backing up slightly, it reared up and stood on its hind legs growling even louder than before. Thadius  shot another arrow and it pierced the bear's stomach. It was a fierce wound, but in the bear's rage it proved only to stagger it in its advance.  As it pawed forward with enough force to knock a grown man flat against a tree thirty feet away, Thadius barely had enough time to draw his hunting knives, turn to the side to avoid the attack, and slice at the bears paws, wounding it badly. Barely enough time indeed, but then, it's what he was trained for. He spun around and stabbed the knives into the bear's fur covered back. It proved enough to drop the grizzly to the ground. He almost smiled at his victory over his opponent, but he knew in the end it was a failure. Master Ironhand gave him the task to kill the bear silently, and in that he had ultimately failed. His master would be displeased indeed.  He sighed heavily, and made his way back to the clearing which was where he was to rendezvous with his soon to be disappointed master. When he saw that his master had not yet arrived, he sat down cross-legged on the ground. The clearing was a rather beautiful site, surrounded by many old oaks and pines, it proved impervious to people with nosey intentions. Therefore, when he took Thadius as his apprentice, Lord Ironhand chose the clearing to be their point of training. The interior of the clearing consisted of a rack stocked with many leather-gripped bows in good condition, two barrels of arrows, three targets,- each further from the mark than the one before it- and one severely abused training dummy. He breathed in the scent of the freshly crushed pine needles, a smell that this forest was well known for. As he closed his eyes to enjoy the peaceful moment, he heard a growl at the edge of the clearing. He shot up to his feet and drew his hunting knives, for he had unstrung his bow after the fight with the bear. Out of the shadow of one of the lower trees, stepped a clawed, reptilian foot. At that moment, Thadius knew that the creature was a raptor, and he also knew that it was out for a feast. The brave hunter was not at all going to be a feast for this reptile. The raptor proved to be a speedy opponent, for it rushed out from the edge of the clearing and arrived in front of Thadius so fast, he barely had time to ready himself. It snapped at his head, but he ducked. It then whipped its tail around, and knocked Thadius' feet out from under him. He tried to crawl backwards toward the forest, but the raptor stamped one foot on his chest. he knew that if the raptor's one giant claw on that notched back toe snapped down on his heart, he would be dead within seconds. Just then he heard someone speaking in the Tongue of Magic, and he began to feel immensely cold. Suddenly the raptor was frozen on top of him. It fell to one side, it's neck snapped, and its head rolled off its body. He looked to the place where he heard the voice, and there standing on the northern edge of the forest, in all his splendid grandeur, was his amazing master, Lord Ironhand. 

                     ********

So there you have it, classmates. But a taste of what's to come. I hope you liked that bit and I also hope you'll leave me some feedback in the comment section below.

Now, as I said before, I'm taking a long break from writing on my novel. It might be a month or two before you get another update/sneak-peak of it.

Anyways, I finally decided to stick with the latest template on my new blog. Hope you guys like it. Of course, I won't be stopping posts here on my thought-blog. To say goodbye to it would be like leaving and old friend that it's not necessary to leave. Speaking of goodbyes, I bid you farewell, classmates.

Leave your short stories, inspirations, or criticism in the comment section below.

As always, your host,

Food For Thought

Yummy..

Hey again, classmates.

I was riding home from the gym with my father yesterday and we began having this strange, almost pointless, conversation. I call it "The Abnormalities of Todays Normality". Catchy right? Here's my hypothesis (prepare to have your mind boggled): Nothing is abnormal until it is compared, and differs from, your definition of normal. Many people have asked "Is Anyone normal?"

I answer with a question of my own:

"What is normal?"

If what you call normal differs from someone else's normal, are you abnormal? Who knows? And further more, does it honestly matter?

*Spoiler Warning*

If you'd like to continue pondering on this, read no further. I feel the need to sum this up.

No, being normal doesn't matter. Today's normal is a sick difference from Godliness. And in the end I'd much rather be Godly and different, than normal and doomed. Wouldn't you?

Food for thought.

Quick update time.

I'm putting a hold on my novel. I feel the inspiration slipping away, and I'd rather wait until I regain it to write than to continue it now and risk a shoddy chapter or two. Also, with no feedback on my new blog, I'll be going with my instinct and heart on the template choice. I like the one it has now, it fits what I'm doing, or rather what I'm beginning to do over the summer. 

Now, with that being said, I must once again bid you farewell.

Also, leave your FFT (Food For Thought) in the comment section below. Thanks for reading.

As always, your host,

A Matter of Great Indifference

Literally...

Hey there, classmates.

I have a problem recently. It's called carelessness.

Yep, that "disease" that gets people called "clutz" and "clumsy".

Well, honestly, not so much disease as habit.

Today I looked back on the few weeks before this one (I'm doing much better this week) and realized how little care I had for anything I was doing. Not that  didn't do a good job with the things I did, I simply told myself "get through it and it's over". That's what I did, and before I knew it, it was all over. Now this is not the worst thing in the world, being that I got done quickly and efficiently. But what truly made me feel sick was the fact that I seemed to only float through the week, I didn't enjoy much of what I did (much), and I didn't enjoy the work I normally do. Which isn't good.

"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."  - Dale Carnegie 

That pretty much sums my troubles up. I'm at a time in my life where I NEED to succeed with what I'm doing, and what I'll do in the future. So, I guess I should remind myself to have fun with whatever I'm doing. Besides it'll feel a lot less like work, or, rather, negate the working fact completely.

 "I never did a day's work in my life. It was all fun." - Thomas Edison

So there you have it.  If you can't take it from me, take it from them. And once you do, leave what you have fun with (work or not) in the comment section below. And also check out my newest blog and give me some feedback. The link is right beneath my "about me" section.

Thanks for reading

As always, your host,

On Humility

A gasp for air, a rasping breath.

One could hear it on the edge of death.

The sound of morals so long lost.

And how quickly to the side were tossed.

How humble we could come to be,

The moment we first felt agony,

Like a purging of doubt,

Like rain on a beautiful day.

It would crash around our ears,

A feeling so deep, its beyond any tears.

What would be right and wrong?

Could it take your life?

I say the answer to those,

Is, in itself, strife.

To ignore whats so long lost,

To rebuild what was so quickly tossed,

To start fresh, start anew,

To surpass all that others could do.

I say the way down this path is not perfection,

Though I do not doubt it as proactive.

So easily down this path we'd be,

If we all had faith in humility.

As always, your host,

Lost In Time

Sort of...

Hey, classmates.

What thrills you in life?

What do you want to be when you're older?

What interests you most?

For my little sister, Hannah, the answer to all these is archaeology. She loves it. Every facet of it. She enjoys dusting off old artifacts and restoring them, bagging them in specific categories, and just plainly admiring them.

I, myself, am not as interested and lack, mostly, the concentration for work so tedious, I guess. Unlike me, my sister has that concentration, that ability in her mind to think organize. Simply because she's amazing like that.

Now with my sister's love of archaeology, imagine how excited she must have been when she was told we were going to do a little archaeology ourself for community service. She was, indeed, ecstatic. She couldn't have been more forceful rushing us out the door. Need I say more?

Now aside from my sister, me and my mother were also excited. It seemed like a lot of fun, and I, myself, like restoring things, old and new. As does my mother.

So we arrived at the building where we were to start our jobs, and we were greeted by a man at the counter. He led us to a back room where we were introduced to a younger woman named Terra, which is, oddly enough, my sister's name. She sat us down at a table to the left of the room from where we came in, and showed us our sifting screens. Asking if we were ready, and upon hearing us reply that we were, she handed us each a toothbrush. My mom got her own bag and Hannah and I got one to share. They were promptly dumped into the sifting screens and we lifted them up and gave them a shake, removing the dirt. We began to dust off little fragments of rock and other things such as glass, ceramic tile, pebbles, etc. It quickly became tedious, but something about working with your hands is actually peaceful. The hours flew by and finally we had everything sorted out in categories on our tray. With a few mistakes, retries, and well.. More mistakes and retries, we had the bags marked with all the info and began to bag everything.

Everything except the glass and ceramic tile.

The glass we had to wash with a wet toothbrush, to get the dirt off of it. We then left it on the tray to dry, upon the command from Terra. 

All in all, guys, I'm going to be brutally honest, it wasn't the best field trip I've taken, mostly due to the dust really  getting to my allergies. But my mother and sister enjoyed it very much, and that's all that mattered to me. The work was interesting and enjoyable, and I can now easily tell the difference between asphalt, mortar, charcoal, and really rusted metal (harder than you think). 

As always, your host,

The First Day of The Rest of My Life

And how much nervousness it ensues...

Hey, classmates.

So right off, here comes the big spill:

I'm taking my CPT today.

Yes, today.

And I'm nervous as all get out (never understood that terminology).

For those of you who don't know what a CPT is, well, it's a college placement test. You're probably wondering, "He's fifteen, he can't go to college, right?" and the answer to that is: You are correct. I'm NOT going to college, I'm going to JUNIOR college. I'm going to PSC (Pensacola State College or as it used to be, Pensacola Junior College, aka PJC)for my last two high school years. That's a big opportunity and a big deal, especially for me. As you might have noticed, I'm not maintaining my usual level of speech. This is due to the amount of pain in my stomach which, in turn, is due to the insane amount of nervousness that holds me in it's grasp. 

A note on nervousness:

It hurts.

Now I realize what I am capable of, and I know I can score good on this test. In fact, I have no clue why I'm nervous. I simply am. Maybe it's just the fact that they call it a test. Maybe if the called it an exam I'd feel less nervous. Then again, I'd feel as if they were examining me. Yea, that wouldn't work.

Okay, so it's time to be serious. I want to talk about my strong points in schoolwork. I've always loved science, in fact, it's still my favorite. But it seems I've always had a knack for math. I'm good with grammar (you might have noticed) and I shouldn't have trouble with that. The essay part of the test should be fine, as I'm rather good at putting my thoughts into words and arguing my point. The history part, being as history has never been my strong point, worries me slightly. I love history, but it's just never stuck in my mind quite as well as science or math. So all in all, I'm not too worried.

Okay, I lied, I'm really worried. In fact this is what I feel like at the moment:

Sad, I know.

Anyways, guys, today was mostly just an update and a rambling on. I'll get back to my philosophical posts in due time. Tomorrow, in fact. 

As always, your host,

And It Goes On and On and On

No, I'm not quoting the "Dynamite" lyrics.. 

Hey, classmates.

As a return to my posts of philosophical ramblings I sometimes like to type out, I'd love to talk about something off the bat. Contrary to my normal, nearly accusative, subjects of want, honesty, and things of that sort, today we're going to talk about the fire of man, the intellectual object of stimulation when provoked by inspiration and motivation. Yep, creativity. Bored and curious, I looked up the definition of creative and came up with this: 

 Define Creative:

1. Having the ability to create.
2. Characterized by originality of thought; having or showing imagination.
3. Designed to or tending to stimulate the imagination.
4. Characterized by sophisticated bending of the rules or conventions.

All of these entries imply that the very idea of creativity is, indeed, abstract and must make use of a conduit- a person- to further spread its own mindset. Its like the first GOOD parasite.

The first entry, being obvious, I shall skip. The second, however, intrigues me. Originality of thought is something we all have, is it not? We all think differently from each other, if even in the most minute faction, therefore implying that our own thought processes are, indeed, original. Does that make us, every one of us, creative? I think not. Having or showing imagination, is something that some people may lack. We ALL have imagination, though sometimes we don't let it run free, therefore making us well... I'll put it bluntly: Uncreative. So no, not everyone is creative, but we all have the power to be. Bummer, I know.

The third entry implies something I didn't expect. It implies that through our own creative juices being displayed on something we make, or do, we can inspire creativity in others. Sounds pretty obvious at first, but have you ever truly thought of that? Creating a piece of art not only rakes in the praises and awe, but inspires someone else to try their hand at making something amazing too.

Now I must pause to quote Arthur Koestler:

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and the pupil are located in the same being" 

Entry four almost made me laugh. I immediately thought of someone playing a card game and ultimately bending the rules in unsettling, unseen, and unprovable ways. Using creativity to bend the rules is definitely something you want to learn if becoming a super-villain is on your list of to-do's.

Now speaking of to-do's, as you might have heard, making lists is a great way to remember things. I believe it's time I made my own as my life grows more filled with occupational tasks. I imagine it would also be nice to begin writing at least ONE journal post a week here on my thought-blog. Also if you'd like to check out my newest blog, "Reclaim, Revamp, Repurpose" then click the link. It's not even started yet, and I'm still playing around with fonts, colors, and layout/template design overall. But ya know, comment on the test posts with ideas for it's design if you have any. I'm always in need of some ideas.

So yea, guys, if you need a better look at at the meaning of creativity, I suggest you Google it. I found dozens upon dozens of sites filled with quotes and explanations. Also leave your ideas, short explanations, or quotes on creativity in the comment section below. Thanks for reading.

As always, your host,

Making It Your Own

A continuation of yesterday's post....

Good day, classmates.

I'm definitely liking my new blog template. Tell me what you think about it.

Now, if that was all I was going to talk about today, I wouldn't have blogged at all. No, today, with my coffee in hand, I'll talk about inspirations. Recently I was inspired to write a novel. Being that I've already talked about it, I will mention that I've also been inspired to enter a little business with my mother. The business includes the following in order:

1. Find a piece of furniture, in good condition or otherwise, on craigslist (for free hopefully, or if your not short on money, for cheap).
2. Buy it (or not) and take it home.
3. Sand it down and refinish it (depending on its current state).
4. Then give it your own little flares. 

Now, some guys out there might think:

"Haha, he's decorating furniture, how feminine."

I sometimes laugh at ignorance like that, you know?

To justify my little rant I'd like to say that this job was originally given to carpenters, who are, in fact, mostly men. That being said, let's continue on. I love the very idea of making something my own and I always have. So today, ask yourself: what can you make you own? Well if you have any damaged furniture, then I have a few tips on that, but we don't all like the same thing do we? Tell me what you can make your own in the comment section below, and even supply me with some ideas of my own. I'm here to help and listen.

Now along with my most recent inspiration (the furniture one), I'll be starting a new blog about repurposing furniture. I'm thinking "Reclaim, Revamp, Repurpose". Give me some ideas, guys.

As always, your host,

Inspiration and Motivation

An update and a little more...

Hey there, classmates(notice the new greeting). I've been gone for a while, and, though I did post a bit, I believe you deserve an explanation. So here goes:

 I have been struck with the very fires of creativity, the foundation of the arts, the fuel of the imaginative fires. I have been inspired. What was this inspiration? Well I read a book. A really good book. Multiple really good books, actually. I've read so many, in fact, that I found myself wondering if I could write one myself. Boy, could I (or that's what they tell me). If I'm at all being obscure with this statement then allow me to put it plainly:

I'm writing a novel.  

It's called "The Book of Ages", and it's in the fantasy genre (one genre I find the most interesting). It, of course, will never compete with Tolkien, or C.S. Lewis, but that's not really what I'm going for... or is it? Never curse a little ambition..

Along with my own inspiration, another person who has been struck with such is a woman I like to call my Mom. Not only has inspiration struck, but she also has the Motivation to justify her inspiration. My mom, being the amazing person that she is, has started a new blog. It's called Marvelous Motivations, and she needs some followers to help her restart. I trust you guys can help with that.

Now a little remark about books. Books are amazing databases for knowledge. And when it comes to fantasy novels, they're like an old friend that you get to see often, and then after staying a short while(or for me, long while) must say your goodbyes.

On that note, classmates, I must also bid you farewell.

You take care, and while taking care, leave what inspires you most in the comment section below.

    

Your philosophical guy, correctly named philoshophi-guy,


P.S. I recommend the Dragonlance series.