ebb_of_ragnarok

You know, it's been a full year and some change since I last posted. I am alive, that I promise. So much has changed, so many things done in the past year that I really don't know where to begin.

I'm currently starting a new job as Armed Security. Between that and my degree, which I'm in the process of getting in Computer Programming with a minor in Criminal Justice, I hope to join the FBI, NSA, or CIA.

I got a new car. It's a 2000 Ford Focus ZX3 Hatchback 5 speed. Nice little car with good gas mileage.

I'm living with my Dad while I finish up school. It's definitely helpful on the wallet.

I've quit smoking. It's a bad habit I shouldn't have started, but I'm glad I've quit.

I don't really game much anymore, but I am eagerly awaiting Diablo III. That's definitely going to be a fun game from what I've seen and read.

I've started writing again in my spare time. I'm working on a new book that I will hopefully start posting snippets in a locked page.

Kate and I are still together after four long years. I've enjoyed every minute of it.

That's about it for now. This is just a little update though. I figure I'd let you guys know I'm alive. Hope to keep in contact with you guys still.

~Brandon

http://www.guidebazaar.com/guide/gba...BArticles4.htm

I ran through the facts I could dig up in preparation for BlizzCon '07, and this is the situation:

It has been known since last year that Blizzard has at least three new titles under development. Of these, one of them turned out to be StarCraft II. The second one is a new World of Warcraft expansion, since Blizzard has mentioned plans to release a new expansion for that game every year and has provided thus far since The Burning Crusade. The new expansion was revealed yesterday as "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King". This leaves a third project, as confirmed at E3. What could it be?

* StarCraft: Ghost: Definitely not. This was ruled out by the Gamasutra article.
* World of Warcraft 2: Definitely not. Blizzard has said in interviews that their next MMO will not be another World of Warcraft.
* World of Warcraft expansion: Very unlikely. Blizzard wouldn't want to develop two expansions for the same game simultaneously, nor would it be "totally awesome".
* WarCraft 4: Pretty unlikely. Most fans have had enough of the WarCraft universe for a while.
* World of StarCraft: Unlikely. Blizzard is already working on a game in this franchise.
* New franchise: Possible. This possibility has been referred to by Vivendi representatives several times.
* Diablo 3: Possible. Blizzard has been hiring developer staff for the "Diablo Team" the last three years.
* World of Diablo: Likely. Blizzard opened three positions for the development of a "Next-Gen MMO" in April - would also qualify as "totally awesome".

Personally, I'm convinced that we can expect an MMO - either in the Diablo franchise or alternatively in a new franchise altogether.

The best I can say at the moment is.... tomorrow is the last day of BlizzCon... let's hope for the best.

~Kage

So my previous post was the first of many hilarious moments. Beware of Mechasnowmen!

"EL EM AY OH NOOB WITH 27 EXCLAIMATION POINTS ABACK OF IT! That's right! That's how smart I am!"

"You do realize Northrend's going to be nothing but ice and snow, with the occasional Fel Reaver... and though Mechasnowmen would be cool, I don't think I'd pay to get slaughtered mercilessly by Frosty the Decepticon"

"I just want to kick him in the Ding-Ding"

"I've decided that Vodka is..... Fuck!"

"Everything goes good with BBQ sauce, especially BBQ sauce"

"Ye got a first name?"
"Yeah"
"Ye got a last name?"
"Yeah"
"You're mine!"

MECHASNOWMAN!

This post will have many embedded objects, but I'm going to tag it, so if you're ever wondering what I'm listening to, you can check this post! I'd recommend getting this plug-in for your media player. It's from www.last.fm . It's pretty nifty, I think so at least.




And now for a Quilt for all of the current albums that I've listened to over the past month:





Wew!! Huzzah for music!!!

Best. Book. Ever.

Check back in a week or so after everyone's read it, I'll post an in depth review that will more than likely include spoilers, but if you've read it, it shouldn't be a problem. (I'll put it in a cut-text, so no worries if you haven't)

~Kage

There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.

But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and,
The light that you shine can be seen.

Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grave.
Ooh, The more I get of you
The stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grave.

There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain,
My power, my pleasure, my pain.
Baby, to me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?

But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.

Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grave.
Ooh, The more I get of you
The stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grave.

I've been kissed by a rose on the grave,
I've been kissed by a rose (on the grave)
...And if I should fall, it will all go away
I've been kissed by a rose (on the grave)

There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain
My power, my pleasure, my pain.

To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?

But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and,
the light that you shine can be seen.

Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grave.
Ooh, The more I get of you
The stranger it feels, yeah.
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grave.

Yes I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grave.
Ooh, the more I get of you
The stranger it feels, yeah.
Now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grave.

Now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grave.

So, I've taken a few more days to write this than I had originally intended... but here it is!

Horray!

Now onward to the good stuff, lets see if I can get this all in a nutshell the past few months:

( Cut for Space Saving! )

So it's been a while since I've posted.... a very very long while. It has been absolutely crazy here. Lets go ahead and get the thrilling topic out in the open though... as I know most of you will gasp/applaud/faint.

I quit playing World of Warcraft.

I know, I know, you're saying to yourself "how can this be?!?!" .... well it is. I got bored, didn't even get to 70, just stopped playing again. *shrug*.

For those of you who don't know, I'm living in Fayetteville again. I decided to ditch Charleston for whatever reason and move somewhere else, but I doubt my migrating habits are at an end.

That's it for now, I'll start posting more often. Expect a big post tonight or tomorrow. Big things are happening =D

~Kage

Hey guys, just popping in to post a picture I created with a nifty little Chibi-avatar program. I'll have to repost the link to the program, I'll probrably just edit it.... but anyway, this is one that I did for Kate and myself last night as well as a quiz to see how well you guys know me.





http://www.testriffic.com/friendtest/2816487

~Brandon

Ok, so I've been in Connecticut for the past week visiting Kate and her family for the holidays. It has been great, wonderful, and all around freakin' awesome! We've done everything from making random sweets, hoping to create a secret marshmallowey recipe, to playing with overly hyper chocolate seven hundred dollar puppies that are teething. It has been awesome! I couldn't ask for any better company than those that I am with right now to enjoy my Christmas with.

Onward to the fun parts! (and enough of the gooey parts)

Trinity Blood is freaking awesome! I've been watching the anime, but only since the day before have I actually read the manga and the novel. It is one of the best anime I can think of, hence the background ^_^ .

We went to NYC yesterday for my first visit, which is what this post is supposed to be about, but silly me, I rant and rumble. It was awesome beyond words! Kate and I took the train into Pennsylvania Station (Pennsylvania Railroad! One rail down, three to go) just next to Madison Square Gardens. I made jokes about Madison Cube Gardens, and she just looked at me funny. We then took a taxi to the hotel near the UN where her parents were waiting for us. Unfortunately, due to the death of Saddam Hussein, they had closed it down. By the way, on a simple note of the taxi drivers... they're crazy, they're fast, they drive within inches of each other... they're like bloody fighter pilots, but they work damned well.

Anyway, so we're out and about, we sandwich and juice it up in a park. I had eaten a Roast Beef, Honey Glazed Ham, and Smoked Turkey sandwich with Provalogne, American, and Swiss cheese (it was a huge sandwich), while Kate snacked on a Reuben. It was bliss!
So after our sandwich escapades, we escaped the UN and hotel area and made our way from coordinates 42nd and 2nd to 52nd and 5th, sticking our head in Grand Central Station (which was awesome, I was reminded of the movie Madagascar), and some random Godiva store (Kate really wanted a raspberry chocolate truffle =D ). Fifth Street was really packed, so we ducked down a road and realized we were next to Saint Patrick's Cathedral. We ran inside away from the crowd and marveled at the structure of, in my opinion, the most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen! Unfortunately, the mob followed us in, so we had to leave. We ran down the road a bit and stopped to behold Rockefeller center. The crowd was huge (as was the line)! The rink, however, was rather small for a skating rink. We made our way across the lot, took a few pictures, and went into a Japanese bookstore. There it was amazering and horrifying simultaneously. On the one hand, they had every manga I have ever seen in English AND Japanese. It was awesome (Even manga about Valkyrie Profile, Devil May Cry 3 [both Dante's and Virgil's stories], and Kingdom Hearts). The horrific part? It was filled with DAMNED FANGIRLS!!!! ARGH! They are, without a shadow of a doubt, one of my worst nemesis... fangirls.... ehg. Their genocide shall only bring light to this world. *sighs* Alas, if only it were four hundred years ago when I could get away with that.

Moving on, after the bookstore, we ate with her parents at a place called the "Sea Grill", which was a very nice and upscale restaraunt right there in Rockefeller. You have to take an elevator down to get level with the rink. The food was absolutely amazing. Every morsel of food they brought out was fit for a king! Damn the rest of them for tasting my food! >.> Ahem, anyway... we had to go though, after a couple of hours chatting in the restaraunt, our train was to leave shortly. Off on the fighter taxi so we can enjoy sleep after such a long day.

It was excellent. I recommend for everyone to head to NYC at least once to experience such an exciting place. Next time, Central Park will be mine!

P.S. Every time I looked at the Chrystler building, I couldn't help but think of Parasite Eve... actually, most of the time I couldn't help but think of that game. *sigh* I really am such a gamer.

Here are some things I've read to help ease your questions of if I'm actually alive.

"As Fred de stabenrath remarked in April, 1954, 'Les jeux sont fait. Nous sommes fucked.'"

"... They denied the paradox by swallowing it whole. Paradox, after all, is two irreconcilable truthes. But children do not know the laws of the world enough yet to fear the ramifications of the irreconcilable. There are certainly no primal associations with spatial anomalies... seeing these two giddy children romp around is an equally unsettling experiance, perhaps because their state of naïveté is so appealing to us, even seductive, offering such a simple resolution to an enigma. Unfortunately, denial also means ignorning the possibility of peril."

"Look to the sky, look to yourself and remember: we are only god's echoes and god is Narcissus." Hanson Edwin Rose, Creationist Myths (Detroit, Michigan: Pneuma Publications, 1989)

"Ye Voices, and ye Shadows / And Images of Voice - to hound and horn / From rocky steep and rock-bestudded meadows / Flung back, and, in the sky's blue caves reborn --" [Italics added for emphasis] Williams Wordsworth, The Poems of Williams Wordsworth, ed. Nowell Charles Smith, M.A. vol 1. (London: Methuen and Co., 1908), p. 395.

"Myth makes Echo the subject of longing and desire. Physics makes Echo the subject of distance and design. Where emotion and reason are concerned both claims are accurate. And where there is no Echo there is no description of space or love. There is only silence."

"Ma io perchè venirvi? o chi 'l concede? / Io non Enëa, io non Paulo sono," Dante, Inferno. Canto II; lines 31-32

"The labours of men of genius, however erroneously directed, scarcely ever fail in ultimately turning to the solid advantage of mankind." ~ Mary Shelley

"Quod evenit in labyrintho properantibus: / ipsa illos velocitas inplicat."Seneca, Epistulae morale 44

"No one should brave the underworld alone" ~ Poe

Stay out of the light
Or the photographs that i gave you
You can say a prayer if you need to
Or just get in line and i'll grieve you
Can i meet you, alone
Another night and ill see you
Another night and ill be you
Some other way to continue
To hide my face


Another knife in my hands
A stain that never comes off the sheets
Clean me off
I'm so dirty babe
The kind of dirty where the water never cleans off the clothes
I keep a book of the names and those
Only go so far 'til you bury them
So deep and down we go

Touched by angels, though i fall out of grace
I did it all so maybe i'd live this every day

Another knife in my hands
A stain that never comes off the sheets
Clean me off
I'm so dirty babe
It ain't the money and it sure as hell ain't just for the fame
It's for the bodies i claim and those
Only go so far 'til you bury them
So deep and down we go

Down

And down we go
And down we go
And down we go
And we all fall down

And we'll all dance alone to the tune of your death
We'll love again, we'll laugh again
And it's better off this way

And never again,and never again
They gave us two shots to the back of the head
And we're all dead now.

Well never again,and never again
They gave us two shots to the back of the head
And we're all dead now.

Well i tried, one more night, one more night
Well i'm laughin', cryin', laughin'
I tried, well i tried, well i tried,
'Cause i tried, but i lied

I tried
I tried
I tried

And we'll love again and we'll laugh again
We'll cry again and we'll dance again
And it's better off this way
So much better off this way
I can't clean the blood off the sheets in my bed

Never again, and never again
They gave us two shots to the back of the head
And we're all dead now

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.



Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.



Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.



Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.



Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.



And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.



      -- Dylan Thomas

Alrighty, here are my plans for the future:

~Get a job as a flight attendant.
~Move to Europe for a little while (while having free flights anywhere in the world)
~Live in Europe for 6-12 months while saving my money in Euros or Pounds (Exchange Rate is higher... thus the money I can save will be more than what I can save while here)
~Wait on my responses for college applications from University of France in Paris/Monte Carlo/Cannes, University of England in Cambridge, University of Japan in Tokyo/Kyoto/Fukouka.

Let me know what you think of my plans

~Kage

Ok, I haven't updated in a while, but I'll post about that later...

For now... NEW MUSIC!

I urge all of you to check out the following:

Nightwish ~ Ghost Love Score
Nightwish ~ Gothic Sanctuary
Nightwish ~ Ocean Soul
Lacuna Coil ~ Heaven's A Lie
Trivium ~ Rain
Trivium ~ The Decieved
DragonForce ~ Prepare for War
DragonForce ~ Fury of the Storm
Bill Bailey ~ Insect Nation
Mandalay ~ Beautiful (7" Canny Mix)
Faithless ~ Insomnia (Monster Mix)
Robert Miles ~ Children (Dream Version)
Cascada ~ Everytime we touch (Club Mix)
Paul Oakenfold ~ Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar (Three N One Mix)
Stuart Chatwood ~ The Sands of Time

There's more, but I have to find them first.

Until next time,

~Kage

Maple syrup is made by demons!!!

Wew! New job! The only thing is that I'm working 3AM - 11AM... *laughs* Wew!