I knew that playing Diablo III was going to be momentous for various reasons for me. I loved Diablo and Diablo II and spent a lot of hours playing them. Unlike some friends, I didn’t spend so much time playing them that life got put on hold, but it was a great game for winding down after work or for doing nothing much for part of a day off when the weather was too crappy for outdoor fun. To say that I was excited to bring Diablo III home is probably an understatement. For those that haven’t heard yet, there are spoilers in this post. Continue reading
Tag Archives: commentary
Impossible Client Expectations
A couple of days ago, an old friend* of mine, Heidi, posted a PSA for her readers on her blog, The Happy Freelancer. The post, Walking Away from a Potential Client, had me reminiscing in a comment about an extremely rude potential client. I don’t know whether the universe was bent on biting me on the posterior and taking out a chunk, but I had a run in yesterday with a client over a short 350 word article. Continue reading
Gender Specific Possessive Pronouns Need to Make a Comeback
I am working on a writing project at the moment and I have come to the conclusion, once again, that I am going to make every effort possible to try to move back into using “his”, “hers”, and “its”, instead of “their” to encompass all three. That’s my goal, anyhow. I know I have a few friends who are feminists who may get upset by this. I know a couple of other women who will be livid because they were of the group who worked toward gender-neutral language. Now, I can sort of understand the issue, but as someone who works as a writer, albeit sporadically, I don’t have to like it. Continue reading
Temeraire Makes a Great Return in Crucible of Gold
My husband and I have both been reading Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series and we’ve been quite pleased with its characters and imagery. The idea that dragons provided integral air support during the Napoleonic War with England and the rest of Europe is an interesting one for both of us. Temeraire is a dragon without equal- or so it was thought until a little ways into the series when it was discovered he is of the rarest of all Chinese Breeds, a Celestial. We’d been waiting for a while to be able to read the new installment in the series, Crucible of Gold. Beware… there may be a few minor spoilers in the text to follow, but no major plot points. Continue reading
The Trials of Paying a Canadian Bill From the USA
In February, I logged into my credit card account online (the credit card company in question offers cards in both Canada and the United States) and found to my utter joy that there was an option for me to initiate a payment by inputting bank account information and initiating the payment from the credit card’s website. Finally, an option that would allow me to pay my credit card without having to jump through the Flaming Hoops of Doom! I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do it because I was initiating the payment online via the Canadian website and trying to make the payment from an American bank account. Continue reading
BC Teachers vs. the Provincial Government
I’ve been reading quite a bit about the latest dispute between the BCTF (British Columbia Teacher’s Federation, the Province’s teacher’s union) and the BC Provincial government. Sadly, the government is threatening to legislate an agreement again and the sticking point seems to be all about the salaries. The BCTF had originally included a (in my opinion) outrageous demand that teachers be given the option to take a 26 week paid leave for compassionate care among other things that I didn’t think were necessary, but they have pared all of these away. They do, however, want a 3% increase in salary each year (http://bctf.ca/publications/bargainingbulletin.aspx) for cost of living an additional 3% market adjustment in years 2 and 3. Continue reading
David Gemmell’s “Drenai” Novels
After reading Reamde, I felt the need to re-read Legend, the First Chronicles of Druss the Legend, and the Waylander series. I’ll probably dive into The Swords of Night and Day and White Wolf as well because I adore the character of Skilgannon. There wasn’t anything that really connects Neal Stephenson’s writing to David Gemmell’s. I just simply had an overwhelming urge to revisit stories that have entertained me for years. Maybe I’ll even finally get around to reading the Rigante novels, but I’ve waited this long already. Continue reading
A Readable Door Stopper – Reamde
I’ve read several books by Neal Stephenson and I’ve enjoyed his “alternate reality” or “alternate history” pieces, despite the fact each of the books I’ve read would almost put the Bible to shame in terms of length. Reamde is certainly a door stopper in terms of size. It’s nearly a thousand pages long and can be somewhat intimidating because of its size for some. But it is very much worth the read.
Set all over the world, but largely in British Columbia (I may be a little biased toward it because of this), the Northwest USA, China, the UK, the Philippines, and various other places around the globe, Reamde is an extremely entertaining novel involving an unlikely cast of characters that somehow mesh really well together. Continue reading
Out With Drupal, In With WordPress
As I mentioned previously, I had the intent of switching blogging software from Drupal to WordPress. Several people informed me that Drupal is so much better than WordPress and, honestly, I would have stuck with it if I didn’t need any extra features that weren’t included with the base build. When I was researching blog software, I should have paid attention to the people who had issues migrating from other software to Drupal. Continue reading
Immigration Fun, Writing, and 2012 Blog Plans
Well, 2012 is here and I’d been meaning to try and keep up a little more with postings at least once a week, but it’s been difficult with all the other things going on. Finally my paperwork to become a Permanent Resident of the USA so that my husband and I can continue to live together has been submitted. This is some of the fun that’s been keeping me from writing more. Continue reading