| Thursday,
September 6, 2007 8:56 PM We won't talk about my car breaking down on me today. *sniff* That seemed to be the major problem of the day, until I heard that this guy:
...was dead. ... Dammit. Pavarotti was one of my favorite artists. Look at my opera collection, and his name appears in over a third of the list. Needless to say, I greatly admired Luciano, and although I knew he was suffering from cancer, I hoped he would make it through so that I might possibly be able to see him sing again. Alas, it was not to be. I won't say anything about it. It's just one more person on my list of people I admire that's kicked the bucket, right? Everyone knows Pavarotti, and I know he will be sorely missed. *sigh* The BBC has some good coverage here. Here's a great article about the intimate and personal life of Pavarotti. Definitely worth the read. I should also mention that iTunes has put up a whole section devoted to Pavarotti, which you should see from the homepage of the iTunes store. Lots of good stuff. What do I recommend most? It's hard to pick out songs from opera, because like classical pieces, there isn't a whole lot of stand-alone 5-min pieces. But here is a selection of some great pieces that go good alone, or with their associated full works. Some obvious. Some perhaps not. Please enjoy. Core 'Ngrato (Tutto Pavarotti album is best) None of those will disappoint. 
Pavarotti. The man may be gone, but his talent and inspiring voice will live on forever! "Adieu maestro"
Friday,
August 10, 2007 11:17 PM As some of you may have noticed, Furlisophical was down for a few weeks due to an oversight with the hosting company. All straightened out now. The reason it was taking so long is because of some issue with my current email account. I wasn't receiving mail from the hosting company for whatever reason, and I'm having some issues sending mail out, too. Apologies to anyone who sent me a message and I didn't respond! I wanted to, but bigger fish had to fry first! In other news, I've been EVERYWHERE in the past few months. I spent two weeks in Oxford England in June, having a wonderful vacation due to the hospitality of a friend. I went all over England on that trip. London, Oxford, Bath, Kent, Canterberry, Dover, and more! Then I was here and there for work. Then the crown jewel of the summer...my job required me to go have a face-to-face meeting with a client who was really far away. It was tough, but I made it all the way to Hawaii and suffered through! lol!!! I was there for two days business, then took the rest of the week and weekend off for vacation! Sweet! I had a blast! And now I'm back... :( I wish I had some eye-candy for you folks, but I sadly don't. I've been steadily chugging away at content for ThorHammer, but none of it is publishable just yet. Now that the site's back up, the forum should be active again, too. It still gets spam, but not as much as before. Thanks all! I'll be around!
Monday,
April 9, 2007 6:45 PM As many of you know, ThorHammer started out as a half-cocked writing endeavor, with no real preparation. I just started writing, and stuff came out onto this electronic page, and I just went with it (with spell-checks along the way, of course!). While it has been moderately fun to see where things go when even the writer is out of control...somewhat...it makes it extremely hard to keep a handle on things as sooner or later (like now) things have gotten so complex that no mortal being can keep it all on track. To combat this, I've begun doing what I did once in the past, and that is basically stop and spend time figuring out what the heck is going on and why. Lovely as that may be, it makes for poor publication output. :( I've always dreamed of turning ThorHammer into a real novel, and that's kinda where I'm heading right now. I want to regroup, figure out exactly what I want to do with this, and start off on the right foot (as opposed to the left, which is evil...apparently...) Yes,
but, when will the next chapter come out, Ian? Does this make for good fiction? Nah. Probably from a curious, technical sci-fi standpoint, it might be good reading, but from a literary standpoint it's a bunch of highly-refined notes. But it does help me write BETTER stories, and that is after-all the objective, right? So, yeah, I haven't produced anything in many moons, and it really sucks. You guys depressed about not getting a story? I look forward to all the responses I get when I publish one out to you guys...I miss that. I really do. I hope you all understand what it is I'm doing and why I haven't produced anything for you to read, lately. I suppose I could publish another chapter continuing on as I had been...but I'm so caught up in the new stuff I'm creating that it would not only be confusing, but kind of a rip-off. Maybe. So to end my rant, I hope you all use the forum to chatter. I'm always ready to respond to questions and not just those relating to ThorHammer. I'm thinking of getting a DeviantART account to use as my gallery instead of my site, just for ease of access and use. Gotta get all those pics back up, and some of the new ones. Take care, all! Go bug the forum for a bit. I'll be around. :) Sunday,
April 8, 2007 3:44 PM I'm still working on the projects below. My time is sucked up a lot by work, though. Thursday,
February 1, 2007 9:53 PM No
one was using it anyway. Tuesday,
January 16, 2007 5:43 PM Obviously my job takes up a ton of my time, but I'm not gonna complain about that. I'm working on three massive projects. They are as follows: ThorHammer - I'm busy working on the new chapter, plus the Blackfox article. These are taking a lot of time, especially the Blackfox article, because there's a lot of details I have to work out. It's frustratingly slow. I really want to give you all some new stuff, but at the same time I can't let myself give you crap. It's either right, or it's not getting uploaded. That's something I'm committed to. :) New Secret Project - Can't say anything about this one. It's a secret. But I will say you'll love it, and that it has to do with ThorHammer. I will also say that it has totally occupied my time for the last month and a half (except for work, of course) and I've only tipped the iceberg. TES:Oblivion - I'm a huge Oblivion fan. I play it nearly every night. I've decided to take my imagination, my yearning for new content, and my modeling/texturing/writing skills, and create a mod. And, in true Me fashion, it's BIG! Are you seeing a trend here? Yeah, yeah, whenever I do something, it gets HUGE fast...But as some of you know, the long wait is usually worth it. :) (I hope.) I'm at a stall point for the first two projects, simply because I need to unwind for a bit and let some critical ideals simmer on my brain-pan for a bit. The ideas effect the direction of those projects, so I need to seriously think about them before putting pen to page. In the mean-time, I'm going to be working on the Oblivion project, secretly codenamed "Insel." If any of you readers are fans of Oblivion, and do moding, I'll probably be looking for accomplises later on, once I get the foundations in place. So keep that in mind. So sorry for having nothing for you for a bit. I hope you'll still check by here from time to time. You never know when I might throw up a pic or drawing or something. Take care!
Friday,
August 10, 2007 11:17 PM As some of you may have noticed, Furlisophical was down for a few weeks due to an oversight with the hosting company. All straightened out now. The reason it was taking so long is because of some issue with my current email account. I wasn't receiving mail from the hosting company for whatever reason, and I'm having some issues sending mail out, too. Apologies to anyone who sent me a message and I didn't respond! I wanted to, but bigger fish had to fry first! In other news, I've been EVERYWHERE in the past few months. I spent two weeks in Oxford England in June, having a wonderful vacation due to the hospitality of a friend. I went all over England on that trip. London, Oxford, Bath, Kent, Canterberry, Dover, and more! Then I was here and there for work. Then the crown jewel of the summer...my job required me to go have a face-to-face meeting with a client who was really far away. It was tough, but I made it all the way to Hawaii and suffered through! lol!!! I was there for two days business, then took the rest of the week and weekend off for vacation! Sweet! I had a blast! And now I'm back... :( I wish I had some eye-candy for you folks, but I sadly don't. I've been steadily chugging away at content for ThorHammer, but none of it is publishable just yet. Now that the site's back up, the forum should be active again, too. It still gets spam, but not as much as before. Thanks all! I'll be around!
Monday,
April 9, 2007 6:45 PM As many of you know, ThorHammer started out as a half-cocked writing endeavor, with no real preparation. I just started writing, and stuff came out onto this electronic page, and I just went with it (with spell-checks along the way, of course!). While it has been moderately fun to see where things go when even the writer is out of control...somewhat...it makes it extremely hard to keep a handle on things as sooner or later (like now) things have gotten so complex that no mortal being can keep it all on track. To combat this, I've begun doing what I did once in the past, and that is basically stop and spend time figuring out what the heck is going on and why. Lovely as that may be, it makes for poor publication output. :( I've always dreamed of turning ThorHammer into a real novel, and that's kinda where I'm heading right now. I want to regroup, figure out exactly what I want to do with this, and start off on the right foot (as opposed to the left, which is evil...apparently...) Yes,
but, when will the next chapter come out, Ian? Does this make for good fiction? Nah. Probably from a curious, technical sci-fi standpoint, it might be good reading, but from a literary standpoint it's a bunch of highly-refined notes. But it does help me write BETTER stories, and that is after-all the objective, right? So, yeah, I haven't produced anything in many moons, and it really sucks. You guys depressed about not getting a story? I look forward to all the responses I get when I publish one out to you guys...I miss that. I really do. I hope you all understand what it is I'm doing and why I haven't produced anything for you to read, lately. I suppose I could publish another chapter continuing on as I had been...but I'm so caught up in the new stuff I'm creating that it would not only be confusing, but kind of a rip-off. Maybe. So to end my rant, I hope you all use the forum to chatter. I'm always ready to respond to questions and not just those relating to ThorHammer. I'm thinking of getting a DeviantART account to use as my gallery instead of my site, just for ease of access and use. Gotta get all those pics back up, and some of the new ones. Take care, all! Go bug the forum for a bit. I'll be around. :) Sunday,
April 8, 2007 3:44 PM I'm still working on the projects below. My time is sucked up a lot by work, though. Thursday,
February 1, 2007 9:53 PM No
one was using it anyway. Tuesday,
January 16, 2007 5:43 PM Obviously my job takes up a ton of my time, but I'm not gonna complain about that. I'm working on three massive projects. They are as follows: ThorHammer - I'm busy working on the new chapter, plus the Blackfox article. These are taking a lot of time, especially the Blackfox article, because there's a lot of details I have to work out. It's frustratingly slow. I really want to give you all some new stuff, but at the same time I can't let myself give you crap. It's either right, or it's not getting uploaded. That's something I'm committed to. :) New Secret Project - Can't say anything about this one. It's a secret. But I will say you'll love it, and that it has to do with ThorHammer. I will also say that it has totally occupied my time for the last month and a half (except for work, of course) and I've only tipped the iceberg. TES:Oblivion - I'm a huge Oblivion fan. I play it nearly every night. I've decided to take my imagination, my yearning for new content, and my modeling/texturing/writing skills, and create a mod. And, in true Me fashion, it's BIG! Are you seeing a trend here? Yeah, yeah, whenever I do something, it gets HUGE fast...But as some of you know, the long wait is usually worth it. :) (I hope.) I'm at a stall point for the first two projects, simply because I need to unwind for a bit and let some critical ideals simmer on my brain-pan for a bit. The ideas effect the direction of those projects, so I need to seriously think about them before putting pen to page. In the mean-time, I'm going to be working on the Oblivion project, secretly codenamed "Insel." If any of you readers are fans of Oblivion, and do moding, I'll probably be looking for accomplises later on, once I get the foundations in place. So keep that in mind. So sorry for having nothing for you for a bit. I hope you'll still check by here from time to time. You never know when I might throw up a pic or drawing or something. Take care!
Sunday,
December 24, 2006 7:29 PM I had originally intended to put out some stuff for Christmas, and I had a week of vacation set aside before now to do it...but a coworker got sick and couldn't do his BA with an important customer, so I had to cover. So, I've done a lot of squat. Sorry 'bout that. Tuesday,
November 28, 2006 5:29 PM In other news, the forum has some kind of bug in it that's letting in spammers. I apologize for the plethora of junk. Until PHPBB helps me figure out what the problem is, it's gonna happen. When I can, I'll clean it up. Otherwise, at least the spam isn't too rampant. Happy belated Thanksgiving day! Hope you all had a good one!
Saturday,
October 7, 2006 2:54 PM I think I've come to the realization that there's virtually no way in frosty hell that I can get a chapter out in a single month...THREE months is pushing it, even. I'm gonna try for a 3-chapters-a-year approach, but we'll see. Finding time to write is only half the battle. There's a lot of planning, development, and other stuff that has to happen before a single word hits the electronic page. So, in short, I'm not making any deadlines. I will most definately have some stuff for you guys to read/view by December, but it probably won't be the new chapter (unless a miracle happens). Sorry. In other news, I...ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....
Monday,
September 4, 2006 8:00 PM Friday,
September 1, 2006 6:03 PM #1 One, I have my brand new car! WHOOOOHOOOO!!! Nice. I'll post pictures when #2 is over. #2 I'm being hit by a hurricane. Or, rather, a puny excuse for a hurricane, but whatever. Anyway, Ernesto is doing his dirty work where I live. Rain, hail, the works. Nice time to buy a new car! LOL Anyway, house is fine, apartment is fine, car is fine, all is fine. Just gotta ride it out and hope I don't lose power. ^..^ #3 Gonna be full-bore on my project at work until Sept 19th. After that, I'm good for a while and can get on ThorHammer more. I've been doing work on it when I can, but with the car and work it's been tight. #4 Hope you all have a good holiday weekend! Enjoy!
Sunday,
August 20, 2006 3:56 PM Okay, I think my life is finally nailed back together. My new car should be coming in this week, and I'll be whole again! lol I've also got some down time this week (ie - I'm not traveling anywhere) which means I'll be in the office, so I'll be home each night. That could lead to work on ThorHammer. Stay cool, folks. Sunday,
July 23, 2006 3:36 PM Anyway, car searching has been fruitful. I haven't bought anything yet, but I've got 3 cars fighting for #1. I'm running the numbers in my brain as we speak. I won't say which ones I'm looking at, since that's tempting fate...and fate doesn't like me...(at least I don't think so...) Sad news is that I have had zero (o) time to do any ThorHammer related stuff recently...um...*looks down* since July 4th, at least. :) Priorities and all. Once I get my car affairs straightened out, and all that carp, I'll be good to get on the ball again. Out. Tuesday,
July 4, 2006 2:39 PM
Wednesday,
June 28, 2006 6:11 PM Still no word on whether my car is repairable or not. There were so many accidents that night that the autobody shop couldn't get to my car. It was sent to a specialist who deals with heavy-impact cases, and I got to talk to that person today. They won't know the results until Friday, 'cause they have to take apart the car to examine the damage, but he did say "I've seen worse"...so I'm hoping that translates to "we can repair it." Obviously, if "repair" equals "will cost more than car is worth" it's totaled and I'll have to buy something else. I'm hoping it won't be too bad. Either way, my insurance is being real helpful, so I'm in good hands. I feel like crap...and not just 'cause my car is messed up. I'm bonked up on the left side and it's beginning to get real sore. This weekend I'm gonna be back in town and I hope to spend my car-less time socked away in my apartment working on stuff to relieve my depression and tension...which means lots of work on ThorHammer and modeling. Monday,
June 26, 2006 5:39 PM Bad stuff happenin. First, the mild. A storm blew up my cable modem, so my net connection is zero right now. I'm actually updating this page through notepad from a hotel connection. Now the bad bad. I was in a bad car accident Saturday. I'm relatively fine, but my car is in a bad way. It's almost certainly totaled. Someone hit my passenger side while going through an intersection at about 50mph and just blasted the heck out of me and the car. Airbags and all that. Good news is no one was hurt and insurance will cover all but the deductable. Bad news is, if the car is totaled, I don't have the money to buy a new car right now. *depressed* So until I get my life back on track here, I'm afraid I gotta put a hold on everything. Obviously getting a new car (or said car repaired) takes precidence over anything else right now. Take care all. I should be back online in a few weeks. Wednesday,
June 21, 2006 5:39 PM 1. I got promoted at work. YIPPIE!!! 2. I've been effectively balancing work with writing and working on learning 3d modeling. I'm committing myself to my first ThorHammer related 3D drawing, now, as a starter to see if I can get through it with the knowledge I've got so far. Working on the new Blackfox article is progressing a paragraph or two at a time, but is progressing. Monday,
June 12, 2006 7:43 PM I've been drawing again...or rather, 3d rendering. To that end, I've brought the drawings section back online, but only for the purpose of posting this section: Reltazaan Lyus Training Forum Really nifty stuff, folks. Go check it out. Just don't slobber on my pages! ^..^ Oh, and if you feel the need to chitter about any of it, the forum's still working (yay!).
Thursday,
June 1, 2006 7:32 PM The new forum uses the very popular phpBB forum, and is far more powerful, featured, and user-friendly. Not to mention, safer (and easier for me to administer). I haven't yet altered the icons, so those are still standard, but the rest of the forum should be ready to go. Go have a look and register while yer at it! You can access the new forum through the usual forum link, in the menu to the left. The old forum can still be reached here: Old Forum The old forum will be officially closed three weeks from today.
Wednesday,
May 31, 2006 4:42 PM
Monday,
May 29, 2006 3:03 AM I've been spending my time between two mediums... On one line, the Blackfox article I have been...constructing...has become most intriguing. The directions it has taken me while I explore these...fascinating characters, has, well...put light upon many wandering factoids and dusty remnants of thought which until now I have had little time or desire to adequately place together. I entrust that the article will not only provide for a very detailed work on the subject (and others), but that it will be of a read and length that should quench many thirsts for at least some time. Secondly, I have spent my time on a matter which has been a tad thin in the existence of my meager writing. Essentially, the essence of faster-than-light travel, sub-light travel, and all concourses in-between. Yes, the Blackfox article...saga...has led me to confront the need to define or clarify the above, and let me be the first to say it has been a subject that has been most intriguing indeed. One could say I have been blessed with two richly-deep subjects to meditate upon... Subsequently, work on the next chapter has been limited to a few brief notes and smatterings of plot structure. Child's-play, to a great-deal. Ugly. I feel that although my thoughts on the next chapter continue as always in that realm of sleeping consciousness defined as dream, little time exists for work in the "real" sense. The tangible, pressing manner in which one can define advancement. For now, I leave you with the notion that the most difficult thing in any creative task...whether it be inventing a new programming language, aircraft...or the seemingly temporal waste of creating starships and the like of science fiction...is not the creating itself...but the naming. Words have the insidiously cruel characteristic that they are the utter channel upon which the essence of idea can be transmitted, and yet like salt in a self-inflicted wound they often outright refuse to cooperate in any way shape or form. Imagination...for those with the mind and/or taste for such a thing, comes easily to the rescue of the void, filling the brain with that which prickles our thoughts...but leaves us utterly incapable of linking the imagination with that of words. In many ways, creativity is the greatest and at the same time cruelest trait of life. To love it and to curse it...together these are the only things that can define it for the person who creates. So, after that ramble, I bring you to my conclusion of the day: Leonardo Da Vinci must have had the most f**ked up dreams. G'night... Sunday,
May 28, 2006 10:46 AM If Star-Trek and Star-Wars suddenly disappeared entirely, the grand total sum of all remaining starship and sci-fi drawings left on the web could be wrapped up in repetitive copies of Windows-Paint drawings of Babylon-5 space stations and downloaded onto a single thumb-drive...with room to spare. Alright, this is pathetic, people! I mean come on! It seems the only people actively producing anything worth-while in science-fiction design are the Asians!...And most of that is repetitive as well! Not that I have anything against Asians...but they ain't the only one's with imaginative brains out there. Um...so yeah, anyway... Like most creative folks, I'm in one of those "inspire me" moods lately. Which essentially surmounts to picking through the soggy wretch of the Internet in search of stuff that sparks my imagination and thus gets me in an even greater creative mood. If yer an artist, you know what I mean. To do this, mainly I lapse into a state of euphoria, brought on by extreme lack of sleep and high doses of caffeine, leaving me in a sort of floating buzz that either prompts me to write, draw...or watch re-runs of Robot-Chicken. Sure, you could probably get into the same state quicker through drugs...but drugs are for losers... Anyway, I've spent the hours between 3am and now...um...10:40am-er-so...writing, and poking at the bloated corpse of a Google image search for "starship". Let me tell you, it's scary. Dozens and dozens of pages, mostly filled with pictures of the Enterprise from Star-Trek, accompanied by numerous Starship-Troopers shtuff...with a generous slathering of Star-Wars model box pictures taken by nerds and Babylon-5 images that were rejected from seeing the light of day only to mistakenly appear on the un-holy Internet like everything else... My faith in the continuation of science-fiction amongst American and European artists...is officially dimmed. Except for the stary-eyed dreams of some folks from the 50's, it seems the closest we've come to a real revolution in science-fiction artistry is the movie industry...and they've been rapidly giving up on doing anything new, too. So anyway, I'm going to bed...because I think I've reached the point of enlightenment...or disgust...or maybe just the qualifications for a severe head injury. Either way, I've been chugging away strongly on the writing. Hope to have something for you all soon. G'night...er, G'day...er...whatever...
Monday,
May 8, 2006 2:19 PM Well, it's official. The below-mentioned project started two weeks ago, and I've been 100% sucked up into it, and still am. It's one of those projects where it is going to take a lot of work due to its size and complexity, and it is not local so I have to travel...which is draining. Time for ThorHammer has been thin, but I do have my laptop with me, so when I get a few minutes each night I've been plugging away at stuff. Of course, the fun doesn't stop there. I was (apparently) so successful with the start of this project, that the powers-that-be have decided to put me on another project. Yes, that's two (2) full scale projects...and one of them is in Europe. While I'm very delighted to be doing this fun stuff and traveling and all, it depresses me that I can't get as much writing done as I desire. The good news is that I am able to do a little work here and there, and as time passes I'll be less involved with the projects and that means my time will free up again (hopefully). Stay cool, all! Friday,
March 31, 2006 11:47 PM It's been a madhouse around here, both at work and at home. I'm supposed to be one of the lead guys on a very large project at my company, but the customer is still dorking around with the contract so I'm basically twiddling my thumbs on potentially getting sucked up into something big, or just padding around the office. It sucks. I mean, if the project is gonna start, START!!! If not, let us know so I can get to the 5-million other tasks I have to do! :( I have the unfortunate luck of being in one of those companies that has a good product and lots of business, but which is just now crawling from the depths of total disorganization. To say rampant idiocy, turmoil, and grief...is an understatement. On one hand, I like being part of "rebuilding" the company into something kick-butt. On the other hand, I keep thinking I should really just give up and go find another job where they actually pay me good and I don't have to put up with all this crap. Anyway, enough with the rants. I've been working hard on the ThorHammer universe. I've got so many projects started that even though I'm doing a lot, work is going slow. I'm making tons of notes for the next chapter, and the details are beginning to flush out and it is really starting to look like a real exciting one. If you folks have liked what I've done so far, you're gonna love chapter 4, which already has a title: "Links." I'll let you brood on what the topics are gonna be. Anyway, there was a time when I was considering doing something different at this point. I have some notes together for a chapter that entirely revolves around the Blackfox...but sadly, I haven't the time to develop another chapter when I'm still only halfway through thinking about the next main-line chapter. Unfortunately, the "Blackfox chapter" was supposed to not only be a neat little short, side-story, but it was supposed to help me explore the world of the Blackfox with you readers. There's a lot to know, and the key clincher here is that there is a bit of Blackfox history and lifestyle that is needed for the upcoming chapter. So, to accommodate this, I have resurrected the fragmented forgotten-ness of my Blackfox article, and begun finishing it. The good news is, I will be putting out a Blackfox article sometime in the next couple weeks. The bad news is, the more I get into the world of the Blackfox, the more I find there's a LOT of stuff to cover. Not to mention that the Blackfox article has already spawned another article surrounding a certain Anthro-celebrated festival. Apart from the article, I'm also working on some weapon drawings. I've got (literally) stacks and stacks of sketches covering at least two dozen guns, and a ton of other items and machines. Getting them drafted into a form suitable for display is a bit more tricky. I'm probably just gonna draw them digitally rather than CADing them as usual, since CAD drawings take forever, and I don't really need anything that accurate anyway. I tend to end up with a ton of sketches around here, because I sketch all the time. I'm no good at it, but that is because I don't draw to make a picture. I draw to understand what I'm thinking about. I could just scan and upload the sketches, but to be honest, they'd make no sense and from a visual perspective, they look like total crap. I'll spare you all from that. On a new, unrelated note, I'm trying to fix some of my stress and clogged brain flow by channeling myself into a new medium of physical study. Namely, I've taken up study of classical fencing. For those of you who don't know what that is, the fencing you see on TV at the Olympics is regular "fencing" or "modern fencing" and is pretty much its own entire sport that has evolved away from the deadly past of the sword. Modern fencing involves the three weapons: foil, epee, and sabre. I've been doing "modern" fencing for nearly five years now, and though I'm not that great at it, I've become proficient enough that my fechtmeister (that's fencing-master) made me an instructor about a year ago. So what is "classical fencing" you prod me to get to explaining? Classical fencing is the art of Western martial arts, and the schooling of defense with medieval and renaissance weapons. That is, weapons like the short-sword, falchion, long-sword, rapier, pikes, and combat in and out of armor...just to name a very narrow section of the broad subject. Unlike modern fencing, classical fencing is an entirely different method of work and study. Not only does the body move MUCH more differently, but the blade-work and sparring (fencing) is much more involved. In modern fencing, you're really just focused on the touch and avoiding the other opponent's point. In classical fencing, the other guy has a bladed weapon that can slash, chop, hammer, and stab...and he's also skilled in wrestling (known as "grappling"), too. Needless to say, the whole business is far more complex. If you've never heard of "Western" martial arts, I'm not surprised. When you say "martial arts" to someone, they immediately think of Asian warriors with samurai swords leaping around like Jet Lee. What many people don't know, is that the Western world (that is, Europe) had an entirely different, but similarly oriented teaching of martial arts. As much skill, both in fighting and in character, that you'd expect from a samurai, could also be found in medieval Europe. Armed and unarmed combat were perfected to the same extents as the Eastern world. Unfortunately, much of the general knowledge of the existence of this fact is lost in today's society. Personally, I blame this not only on the movie industry, but in the fact that the Western world is more "common" or "familiar" and thus the intrigue of the Eastern arts gained more focus (because it was something new and unusual). I think I'm ranting....Am I ranting?.......God I need a vixen..... ^..^ *sigh* Alright, take care all! And keep coming by to sniff around for new stuff each week. You never now when I might get something new up!
Sunday,
March 12, 2006 1:25 AM I've been doing a lot of good brainstorming...and some thinking...for the next chapter, as well as beginning the work on some drawings and articles I've been wanting to do. So far so good. Which is good. It's...quiet...in here. Which either means ya'll are still reading...or everyone's run away. Hmm. It may be time to risk poking my head back into some of the furry/SF nooks of the web to do a little plugging. It's been a long time since any work has come out of this site.
Friday,
March 3, 2006 11:41 PM I need sleep....(stupid germs...) Thursday,
March 2, 2006 12:32 PM On a side-note, I'm sick. Something was going around the office, and I got it. Oh well. So I'm on hiatus for a few days. Tuesday,
February 28, 2006 0:49 AM The same reader also brought up another point. Apparently in chapter 1, I referred to the Fox fruit drink, falla, with the spelling "fahla," and then in later chapters as "falla." Of course, I can always change my mind, but I believe I'm going to stick with "falla," since the use of the near-silent 'h' in the 'fah' is more of a trait of the Amar'I language than the Fox (good example is "Kahmin"). I'll admit I have not spent too much time considering the linguistics of the various languages spoken in ThorHammer, simply because from the reader's standpoint, the characters all speak Standard (which is English for the reader). I would assume that if someone served a cup of falla on Ciron, it would be called "falla," and on Kahmin it would be called "fahla." Thanks again to Elliott for his keen eye. I hope the rest of you are enjoying the chapter, and I eagerly await your comments/responses. I've got a bunch of other non-story projects I want to get done, now that the chapter's done, but I plan to start writing the next chapter by March. In the mean time, I have an article on the Blackfox to finish, and a bunch of other goodies. Plus I want to get this site flushed out some more. The gallery still needs putting up, for one. Saturday,
February 25, 2006 6:13 PM The delay of this chapter is also justified partially by its sheer size. In PDF, if weighs in at about 224 pages. To put this in perspective, if you formatted the chapter by mass-media standards (ie - in paperback format), it comes to about 554 pages. The average paperback novel is between 350-450 pages. Yeah, I know...I turned a chapter into a novel. (It feels like it, too.) So anyway, I hope you enjoy this one, and that it is sufficient pay for your patience and devotion. Spread the word to all that there's a new chapter out! I know there are some of my readers who think I'm dead and have left. Given the size of the chapter, and the literally hundreds of rewrites and re-organizations it has gone through, I hope I finally managed to get the continuity and plotline facing the right direction. Any discrepencies, discontinuities, spelling mistakes, etc, should, as always, be brought to my attention. So, without further delay, here's the link to the new chapter: Chapter 3 - Part III Please right-click and download this file. It is nearly 1mb in size, and I'm sure no one wants to sit around and wait for their browser to recover from that kind of download. As always, the chapter is bound by the copyrights and legal stuff found on the Copyrights page. Enjoy! It's high-gear time! Saturday,
February 25, 2006 1:19 AM
And, without getting too excited, read the next line: I have finished the chapter. I must, as a matter of principle, print and read the whole thing before posting. The whole chapter will be posted either Saturday night, or early Sunday. Expect an ENORMOUS PDF file. :) I suggest WD-40 for tail knots... Friday,
February 24, 2006 0:16 AM I made SIGNIFICANT progress with the story today. I can smell the end nearing! I can taste it! (You can taste completion, right? I hope so, otherwise that hamburger wasn't cooked all the way...) Any-who, just as a note to everyone it may concern, I killed my mirror site on FurNation and had the page simply direct to this site. The mirror was so freakishly out of date that it was doing more harm than good. Fixing it up is on my list of things to do after the chapter is completed. (I got a stack of fun new stuff to do, just waiting for me to get done with this stupid [I mean, wonderful and delightful] chapter.) I got a huge article on the Blackfox that needs finishing, some sketches for posting, and for those of you who asked for some weapon drawings...you want weapons? I got your weapons right here! It's coming, folks! Glorious joy happy joy! I can see light at the end of the tunnel! Yes, I know, I need sleep. I'm crawling in my nest as we speak... Gute nacht! Wednesday,
February 22, 2006 9:30 PM
This is a simplistic slice through the center of the main complex of the Grand Dome of the Palace on Kahmin, for basic architectural reference. Wednesday,
February 22, 2006 12:56 PM I gotta stop writing such huge chapters. Wednesday,
January 18, 2006 0:32 AM My plan was to have the chapter to you all by the first, but I'm sure you've realized you don't have it yet. Yer all pretty smart... Anyway, if this year has been anything but peaceful, it is because all the certain deities that concern themselves with my life have saved up some fun things for me here in this dark of winterness. These include: 1. My Grandmother passed away. 2. Work has doubled...and I'm a pretty dedicated guy who has a lot on his plate to begin with, so it's joy all around! Yippie! 3. A certain client of my webworking work...thing...who we'll just call Father, as a non-descript nickname...required some major site work for the beginning of January that, for obvious reasons, had to take precedence over writing. 4. Speaking of writing, some final scenes turned out to be a bit more work than I had anticipated. I had set these final touches to last, thinking they would just be short, 15-minute wrap-up deals...but they turned out to be a bit more complex. This, thus means I must think about them...and like a Windows machine run by a moron who hasn't read the manual, I'm a bit too tied up with other processes to fit that thinking in. No Blue-Screen-of-Death yet, but when it happens, Lord is it gonna be a sight! 4. er...5. Most recently (as in, this past Saturday), we had a major storm here and some considerable damage was done to my apartment in the areas of my deck door being nearly blasted off its hinges. I won't go into details, but I will say two things on that. One, though I am not a storm-naive person, I can say more or less that I know what it felt like for some of those hurricane "victims." And two, that duct-tape is the single most important thing you can have in a home repair kit. 6. It's 6 now, right? I'm not going to go into details, but between the excitement centered around a certain broken door in a storm, and some heavy broadsword work at the fencing club, I managed to do some fun things to my hands. I'm good now, but...no, I'm gonna leave it right there... So, before I collapse upon this keyboard and cause my motherboard to flip out in a panicked cry of beeping that will sing me to a nightmare-filled sleep...I must say I am very depressed and upset that I have had to miss my deadline on the story, but it could not be helped. Life, as always, takes precedence over fiction. Even, unfortunately, if the vixens are cute. I know I don't need to remind anyone that it is my job and other responsibilities in life that come before my writing. I wish it were the other way around, but alas, God hasn't blessed me with a nymphomaniac snow-leopardess either... Heh... So, sorry I got everyone's tail in a knot. I should be better situated in a few days to pick things up again and finish them off. In the mean time, my immediate schedule includes an important meeting between my head and this keyboard...and then, in the morning...if I'm not about to be late for work, maybe some whimpering in the corner. G'night. Saturday,
December 24, 2005 2:10 PM I'm getting close to the end of the chapter editing, folks! I took a few days off of work this week so I could totally dedicate myself to nothing but editing (and, of course, some Christmas cookies!) The happy news is that I'm just a few short breaths away from finishing it. Literally. The chapter is roughly 185 pages right now, and I estimate that there's about 20 pages left to edit. The sad news is, I was hoping to have this for you all for a Christmas present, but things just didn't work out that way. There were a few family things going on, and I've got plans for tonight, and tomorrow, so I just haven't had the last day or two I needed to wrap things up. Oh well. I hope you all have a very merry Christmas (or whatever you like to do at this time of year), and keep your eyes open for something coming out around New-Year's Day! Friday,
November 25, 2005 9:34 AM Second bit of news is a tad late...Happy Thanksgiving! (Sorry for the lateness, but I wasn't at home so I couldn't make the changes to the site! Hey, it's the thought that counts, right? Thirdly, the best news for the day, I have managed to wrangle my old .COM address back! YAY!!! For those of you who don't remember, Furlisophical used to be at furlisophical.com, but a web bot snatched it up the second it expired and I lost it, which is why Furlisophical is on .NET now. But don't worry, I have no plans to switch back to the .COM address. Too much has been done to point here, so I'll be setting that up as a redirect. This is good, though. It does mean that I'll have some extra bandwidth and storage capacity, so no more worries about stories and content getting too big! Yay! (again) Oh, the server was down for a little while so the host could do maintenance, so if anyone tried to hit up Furlisophical today or yesterday and got nothing...don't worry, I'm still fully here. I've renewed my domains for many years to come! Chapter Editing Progress Meter:
Wednesday,
October 5, 2005 10:00 PM
According to my doctor, I'm going to still be around for a while (or, at least, until next checkup). This is good, since, particularly, I don't have any fond desires of wanting to be dead. (That also means I'll still be around to write, which is good...right?) Good news is, I've got a good heart, lungs, organs...(though some I would rather of had a surprise about than had checked...) and my thinker's still...uh...thinking. Yeah. Bad news is, I've got high blood pressure. Gee, wonder why that is!? *sigh* So, in other words, I've just spent who-knows how much to have my doc tell me I'm fine, but stressed out. I should have bit him, but who knows what little runts he's been dealing with all day... Oh, the story. The story is in its last stages. I have no timeframe, this is a very bad period for me as I'm busy at work, and out of work, more so than usual. Good news is, it's all written. Now I just have to edit it. Okay, this specimen is gonna go lay down for a while...*groans* Wednesday,
September 28, 2005 5:33 PM The chapter is HUGE!!! In an unedited and barely incomplete state, it is already 143 pages long. It is likely to reach 200 by the time I'm done. Already it is nearly as big (and will soon be bigger) than the first chapter of this season (which was my largest to date). In other news, I'm having a professional artist do some work for me, for a picture concerning a scene in this new chapter. Lastly, I have one scene left to write in the new chapter, and then the editing begins. We're not long now, folks! (Someone beat me with a hammer, I'm dead tired!) Thursday,
July 21, 2005 0:07 AM Wednesday,
April 20, 2005 10:23 PM Oh, and I did manage to re-vamp the article on "Anthros" for the site, with pictures now too! Enjoy. Friday,
March 4, 2005 4:38 PM That's a level at which I won't go, though. ThorHammer has its standards, and they will stay that way. I also don't need a forum thread's questionable number-crunching to validate ThorHammer or my enjoyment writing it, or the fans who read it. As with most things, size doesn't matter. Oh well. In other news, for those of you already pecked to death about this, I'm writing an article on the Blackfox (similar to the ones done for the Fox and the Amar'I). I think this is a long-overdue subject on one of my first races that I created, and there's a LOT about the Blackfox that gets overlooked (or left out in chapters) simply because I haven't written an article on them yet and there's just too much to explain in a chapter. I'm not saying when this will come out, but it's looking good so far. Also of note, I'm working on a short article on the Fixace Plague, since a number of you have had questions regarding this particular plague. I think it's something a bit grim to be dealing with directly, but at the same time it is a topic very present in the story from time to time, so it should be explained, I suppose. It also has been hit in many historical notes of this universe, so it really does need some background and coverage. The history part will probably be better than the plague itself. As for the next chapter, it has now merged into a large collection of notes, stickies, doodles, and MS-Word clips. This will next be assimilated into a mass of semi-coherant storyline, which will then proceed to be edited, and come out sometime hopefully near the later half of March. Thanks!
Wednesday,
March 2, 2005 11:41 AM AIM Name: ShoobieRat or Shoobie Hope to see you 'round! Tuesday,
March 1, 2005 8:45 AM |
