Beautiful Night in Canyon

It's an absolutely gorgeous and still night outside. Very silent and quite. Completely undisturbed. One of the nights that will make me miss Canyon. Neither too hot nor too cold. Still. Fresh. The kind of night that makes you want to wake up early the next morning to see the sun rise. (Not that I will... far too late into the morning for that.)

Makes me realize how close I am to my time in Canyon (and in college) coming to a close. And being out there alone, it's easy to reflect upon all the evenings I've spent out there with friends. Over the summer, 4th of July with fraternity brothers. Evenings after exec councils. (And sometimes followed by a visit to my girlfriend when we first started dating and were both super busy.)

It's easy, with the Panhandle wind and incredibly unpredictable weather, to overlook evenings like this. So I'm glad I was able to appreciate at least one more while I'm here. Probably won't be the last, but I don't really know that.

You only live once.

Possibly Hinting?

Creative Assembly, responsible for the Total War series of games (of which I'm a fan and perhaps even an afficianado) recently started up a Twitter feed, in which they announced that the upcoming total war title will be revealed at E3 in June. They also stated that they would be getting away from gunpowder for awhile, which cancels out quite a few time periods.

Then the little picture below appeared on their Twitter. It may be absolutely nothing. But, it may be a hint of things to come. Spartan style helmet - think they're suggesting something?

g at www.yfrog.com">

Visit CAGames's Yfrog profile

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Fan Made Class Vids for Lotro

Saw this while browsing the official forums. I have to say, this fan made videos are excellent. I hope Turbine's marketing department takes a cue here; if the lotro trailers for advertising were more like this, I think the game would be much more widely known and played. Granted, I've never been too impressed with Turbine's marketing department. But still, these vids are great.

The Lord of the Rings - Online "Loremaster Trailer" from EveNArtworkS on Vimeo.

Lord of the Rings - Online "I am warden" from EveNArtworkS on Vimeo.

Enedwaith!

Yes, I've been on a bit of a spree lately. Oh well. It's summer, and I have little to do.

I found this little nugget on the lotro forums. Most of it isn't anything new or amazing. What is worthwhile is that the interviewee is the Turbine Director of Communications, and that at just about 0:56 he states, flat out, that the next land update will be the addition of the Enedwaith on the road to Isengard, and the the rest of Rohan.

This is pretty substantial for fans of the games. We've all been expecting the game to approach Rohan going South through Lothlorien, but that appears to be not the case. Especially when you consider this little nugget from a Finnish gaming magazine.

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Well, unless you read Finnish, I don't expect you to get much out of that. (I didn't either.) But some handy bilingual people from the interwebs say that the very last sentence of the interview with Steefel confirmed that the next expansion would start with the letter 'E'. Now, it's not a full blown expansion, but since when has Steefel ever understood what he was talking about?

Masonic Music - Haydn and Mozart

Well, the title is a bit misleading. It's just music by the composers, who were both Freemasons, but not necessarily Masonic in nature. I found this on Bro. Chris Hodapp's blog, which he gives credit to a Mark Haworth, so I have absolutely zero credit in finding this, just wanted to add it to my blog. All credit is due to the aforementioned.

Here is the playlist Bro. Hodapp linked.

And, provided you have RealPlayer (blegh), here is the audio file itself.

My Experiment in Blogging Thus Far

So its been, from the start, mostly for me and my personal though processes, organizing them and the like, that I started this. Some place to get my thoughts on [digital] paper, out of my head, a place to straighten things out. But of course if, somehow along the way, a couple... hundred thousand people decided to start caring about when I scratch my nose and eagerly visited my blog daily so that I could spread my wisdom around the world and monetize for a nice check here and there, well, it wouldn't hurt my feelings.

But the more I poke my head around the blogging world, the more I see certain trends:

• Blog only tend to get notice if you self-advertise. A lot. In other people's blogs, facebook, twitter, ad nauseum. That's decidedly not me, and I'll have a hard time ever doing it.
• Apparently, somewhere a long the lines, the invisible internet majority decided that blogs must have a ridiculously narrow focus. For example, see this blog about Jeopardy, with a hugely higher number of blogger followers than I'll ever have. Or this blog that seems to cater to all those with oil/electric energy concerns who also have a fancy for trains. It's not a recipe to success, but all the cool kids are doing it.
• Apparently all the cool kids are also into wordpress. Which, I admit, after internet research does seem more powerful, it also seems not worth the money for the full edition while blogger does everything that I need.
• Apparently having pictures in your blog posts helps make people more interested. You know, since people have such a strong aversion to reading on the internet.
• Did I mention self advertising?

It was difficult enough for me to insert a link to my blog into my forum signatures in those forums that I frequently peruse. (I know, lots of nerd in my blog in general.)

Stolen from Facebook

I originally wrote this October 13, 2009, but felt it could and should be reposted. On some level, I've very proud of this little paragraph, something I truly believe and still resonates in me. I don't think I have come close to achieving it, nor will I ever, but it's always something I'd like to keep in my heart and hope to ever strive for.

I will say, it was largely inspired by The Four Agreements and its aftermath on my outlook on the world, though I've been influenced by many things since then, and this still holds true. I hope others can find some truth in it as well.

---

Imagine how beautiful life would be if you looked at everyone around you, and chose to love them a little bit more each day.

Imagine if you actively chose to look past flaws, find people's strengths, and revel in the glory and beauty of their individuality. Imagine if you did everything you could to cultivate those things worthy in life and use them as foundations for new skills, strengths, passions, and beauties.

Imagine how beautiful life would be if you were to wake up and declare, "Hate has no place in my life. I live for creation, the uplifting on mankind, the love of others, the compassion that I am capable of. It is not a duty, nor an obligation, but a choice to arbitrate peace and love between everyone in my life. I choose not to ostracize others as pariahs, but to love them unconditionally and cultivate the beauty in their life and my own."

Everyone has a capacity to do great harm with their words, to destroy relationships and leave people emotionally desolate. It is a survival instinct to lash out, demean, condescend, to do anything to make oneself feel superior to another. Everyone does it, often times without realizing it.

Imagine how beautiful life would be if, every time we felt a negative emotion, be it anger, frustration, disgust, hate (the vilest of all negative emotions), we stepped back and scolded ourselves and said, "How can I show my love for this person? How can I encourage the good *without* demeaning someone just as valuable, worthy of love and respect, as myself?"

What if we made the proactive choice to set a positive example, realizing we control our fate, our mood, no one else? If we feel negative because of someone else's actions, it is our individual responsibility to find the positive emotion from it, the positive situation in it, and to encourage a greater good. How beautiful would life be if, instead of expecting others to set a cheery world for us, we looked around and saw the world as cheery and beautiful for what it is?

We are the masters of our emotions, moods, fate, lives. We are the instigators of everything around us, whether we like it or not. Our every word, our every action, echoes and ripples through the social net that surrounds us. We have a choice to cultivate beauty, or to dwell on negativity. Happiness, beauty, and love of your fellow man are all choices, each one having a profound implication on our lives and the lives of those around us.

It's a struggle for me to avoid those negative emotions every day. It's a change in my mindset, and I'm a totally different person from a year ago because of it, and the change isn't finished. But its a beautiful change to make, and one I hope to inject into my life a little bit more each day.

So, I say again: Imagine how beautiful life would be if you looked at everyone around you, and chose to love them a little bit more each day.

I am a Freemason

An Entered Apprentice Freemason, specifically.

And though I've only begun to work in the craft, I honestly can't understand why anyone has any objections to the work of Freemasons. Yes, I am but an iota into everything there is to know about Freemasonry, but everything I've learned is good.

It's becoming increasingly clear to me that most objections to the fraternity are simply fear of the unknown. Fear of what a bunch of old gentlemen do once a week in their lodge meetings. (Mostly planning of breakfasts and cookouts, and sometimes charitable work.) And yes, it's a fear that's exactly as silly as it sounds.

I make this post mostly because I had a fear. Fear of what others might think if they knew I was a Freemason, fear of perhaps harassment, maybe lack of trust, or maybe, like others have, fear of an unknown reaction. But I now realize that's not necessary. In fact, if anything, I should wear it on my sleeve so to speak. Masonry shouldn't be feared, or even cast a suspicious glance. It should be seen in the community doing good works. That's the only way to earn the trust of those critics of the craft and to spark interest among those future brothers who have an interest in the fraternity. And I hope that as I continue my Masonic education, I can grow from a good man to become a better man.

Freemason Square & Compasses

Originally uploaded by cantonviaduct

Camera!

Yes, I went out and splurged a bit. I've never owned a digital camera to call my own, and I did my budget and realized I could work the cost of one in this month. So, I went out to Wal Mart, surveyed my options, and picked up this Kodak EasyShare C190.

Well, not that one specifically. It's a stock photo I dug up on google image search.

But anyway, I purchased and spent some time fiddling around with it at the KKPsi BBQ at one of our brother's homes. I have to say, I'm pleased with the picture quality and the quality of the camera. Battery life isn't shabby, and a simple 4 Gig SD card can hold over 1,000 pictures. Hopefully this will open up the possibility for a new dimension to my burgeoning blogging and actually allow me to have picture albums, easily, for the first time ever.

I'm excited. :)

Rivendell

One of the Reason I still love Lotro after two and a half years of gaming. The graphics are still beautiful and stunning. This is what you are first greeted with upon entering the valley of Rivndell: A gorgeous view of the Last Homely House where Elrond resides.

Say what you will about it, if nothing else Lotro is the most beautiful MMO on the market. A great virtual world to spend time in, if I do say so myself.

I threw in a picture of Ost Guruth, a ruined fortress now inhabited by the Eglain, for good measure. :)