Have You Got It In You?

Good evening my friend. I've been spending the day playing board games. Earlier my brother and his wife were here and we played a game of Robinson Crusoe. This was excellent and fun - I loved it! After they left I opened up Pandemic (which I bought for myself) and played a game. I narrowly won but had discovered after the game that I had sort of cheated. Oh well, haha. I played it a bit more like how you play another game by Matt Leacock called Forbidden Island.

After that I pulled out Betrayal at House on the Hill. Oh man, was this a fun thematic game. I started the game with a high school football player and two kids going into this creepy house alone. I had set it up in my mind that it was some horrible babysitting gig and that the football player had gotten lost - or maybe he had loured these poor kids here to play a sinister prank on them, maybe worse? Only time would tell.

You see, in Betrayal at House on the Hill play begins as a cooperative game so all of the players work together. Near the middle of the game something called The Haunt happens and one of the other players betrays the others and the game usually ends in someone's horrific death. It's a great representation of B horror movies.

At any rate, in the beginning my unsuspecting characters explored this mysterious mansion, uncovering rooms and gaining items. A lot of terrible things happened before The Haunt even started. The house shook, the wind howled, and my characters were starting to lose their sanity and physical powers. Then about midway through the game, my football playing creep of an investigator found a creepy book that gave instructions on how to summon a demon lord.

He made his way swiftly through the house using an enchanted elevator to the chapel where he summoned the demon lord. He should have been wary, though, because the demon lord immediately slayed him and started to hunt down the poor children. Peter, the boy, was nearby and took the enchanted elevator across the house to where the girl was exploring. They rallied together and found some weapons, then took the elevator around the house, running from the demon lord until they could sneak in the chapel where the evil book lay.

The girl (whose name I can't remember) grabbed the book and ran back to the elevator before the demon lord could get back to it. In a hurry, the two children took the elevator throughout the house until they managed to find the furnace room, where they threw the book into the flames, silencing away the demon forever.

I was absolutely shocked that the children ended up getting out alive. As soon as the football player turned traitor, his stats maxed out practically, making him remarkably stronger than either. The demon lord was also incredibly strong, though not as fast as the two children.

After that I played a quick game of Elder Sign with the Unseen Forces expansion. I played in anticipation of the Gates of Arkham expansion coming out in the next few months. Who's excited? This guy.

I wanted to play a game of Arkham Horror with the new King in Yellow expansion that I got for Christmas, but it's getting late and I don't know if that would be a good idea.... but I could at least set it up.

I hope you have a great night, my friend. I'm off to game some more!

Thank You For Finding Me, and Thank You For the Care

Hey there, friend.

Well, National Novel Writing Month is over with now and I can get on with other parts of my life. I did relatively well, finishing two thirds of the goal in the alotted time.

Aside from that, life goes on. Work goes well. I haven't been sleeping all that well, but that's a whole seperate blog topic.

I've really been liking what I've been seeing from the new Into the Woods movie. It's been one of my favorite broadway shows for many years now, and I'm thrilled about the attention that it's getting. I had been worried several months ago, as details started to emerge about it. Certain scenes that I am rather fond of in the musical were deemed too inappropriate for a Disney movie. I can understand that, I just wish it wasn't necessary. If it's done the way it often is on stage, children probably wouldn't get that it's inappropriate in the first place.

Who knows, though? I don't make movies, I just comment on them.

In other news, I still haven't gotten my Christmas decorations up. It's very unusual for me, usually I start to go crazy around the first of November, packing away my Halloween things and getting my Christmas decorations out. I'll have to get on that as Christmas is creeping closer. I think I have most of my presents picked out, but I haven't bought very many of them.

Well, friend, I think I'm going to sign off here. Have a great night and stay warm until I talk with you again.

I Should Probably Say Why I'm Running

Well hello there, it's been a moment.

Life has been good here, very busy with National Novel Writing Month, work, and juggling various other social obligations.

My novel is coming along well, and I'm hoping to spend most of my days today and tomorrow catching up and getting ahead. I'm about four thousand words behind today which is easily doable. If you want to check out my NaNoWriMo progress, feel free to check out my profile. It almost feels like cheating to be writing something other than my novel, so I'll keep this as a short update!

Much love, my friend. I hope you're well.

Knock Knock, Are You Alone?

Good evening, friend. Life continues to be busy. I''ve been taking solace in the quiet moments between this and that. Between here and there. NaNoWriMo preperations are under way for me, and I'm attempting to narrow down basic character information so I don't have to worry about it when I'm writing away.

I've noticed that people recently seem to show a certain amount of disinterest which is weirding me out. I went to a drag show on Saturday night and all of the queens and kings performing seemed so disconnected from what they were doing. High energy, but you could see in their eyes that they were somewhere else entirely. I go to the grocery store and the clerk ringing me up won't even make eye contact. I don't know if the moon is in an odd phase or what's happening. Maybe I'm the one that's disconnected and am only noticing in other people what I'm unable to see in myself.

At any rate, I've been planning out a little halloween get together for me and a couple of my friends. I'm hoping that it will be fun. Some snacks, maybe some board games, and a lot of laughs. On the note of snacks, I've learned that I cannot keep lemon stuffed or any Oreos on hand at my house. It doesn't matter if I like the taste of them anymore, they're just so crunchy and delightful that I can't stop eating. Next thing I know, the box is gone. Apparently I need to work on my portion control.

Thanks for listening to my very random ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful time until I see you again.

I Put a Spell on You

Good evening my friend. I'm just listening to Annie Lennox's most recent album (just out!) and I'm loving it so far. I hope you understand that I'll be talking a lot about music in my blog. For goodness sakes, it's called Just Elevator Music, haha. I like to think of it as just that extra voice playing as you go from this thing to that. In turn, expressing those voices and influences that play in the background of my life.

I really like this concept, and I've been thinking about adapting it into a podast. Just a personal journal of my life. Then again, I probably wouldn't blog as often... so there is that. I guess it's just a matter of finding out what's best for me. However, until that becomes aparent, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing.

The fall colors here in Michigan are absolutely beautiful. I think they're just past their peak, and the leaves are really coming down now. There's something about the weather in fall I can't do without. The wind blows barely icily, the clouds start to roll lazily by and cover the sky, and the sun starts to get less intense. Taking walks through it all remains a guilty pleasure of mine. I love to sit beside a river or stream and take it all in. I watch the birds fly south, and all of the other animals begin to take refuge.

I've really enjoyed reading through my collection of HP Lovecraft. I'm a big fan of the board games Arkham Horror, Elder Sign, and Eldritch Horror which feature heavy influences from his works. This time of year is excellent for some good horror reading. In particular, I just finished The Statement of Randolph Carter the other night. Really well done, great build of suspense, excellent ending. Short but sweet.

And now, my friend, it is time for me to go to bed. I hope you have a wonderful night and day tomorrow.

The Coffee's Never Strong Enough

Good evening, my dear friend. As you can see, I'm up very late again. All day it seems to me that something's pulling at me from the outside. A force penatrating my spirit, leaving me uneasy. Laying in bed I realized the need to create and communicate to help ward off this sensation. I get like this every now and again: unsure and emotional. Sometimes I joke that it's my "man period."

I don't ever really know what brings it one, but I have my guesses. Big changes in friendships and work are to come, as well as several side projects. As you know, I've decided to take place in National Novel Writing Month in November. It approaches faster than I think I'm ready for. Such a huge undertaking, and I can't even figure out the name of the main character. I'll figure out, haha. I think that's part of the beauty of NaNoWriMo: you have to just do. Making the best novel isn't the point. The point is to finish one in 30 days. That means that all involved have to write over 2,000 words every day. In that time, there is no chance to second guess.

This will be very good for me, I think. Not being able to obsess and perfect something; just to finish it. I'm already building playlists, thinking of overarching themes and settings, an trying to get as prepared as possible for it. I think that's one reason I've been talking so much about music to you. Trying to get my descriptive muscles moving. I really wish I could type as fast as my brain can think! Just imagine all the work I could get done.

I doubt that the novel I write will ever be available for publication, but I really think that it would give me the self confidence to be able to get the other ideas I want to share with the world out into publication. It's a step. And that's one thing I've really been working on in my personal life: taking that first step. Many times for me, that's the hardest part. Of course, that then leads to the next hardest part: the follow through. Workout routines have never really worked out for me because I lack the effort to follow through. Then again, I really hate physical exercise. You get my idea, though.

I really think that's life, though. You take a step, and it's the most difficult thing you've had to do. Then, you take the next step, and it's just as hard - if not more so. Most people give up when they reach that second barrior in something new. Maybe the third or fourth. Somehow, though, I have got to know that it's worth it. It's worthwhile to overcome and move on to new and unseen territory.

That's sort of why I'm excited for NaNoWriMo. It's something I've always wanted to do, it's something to overcome. It's a way to rid myself of all of this unwanted creative dark matter. It just swirls inside me, a biproduct of the human existance. I have to find new ways to let it out in productive and beautiful ways. If I don't, it bottles up and tends to force itsself out in ugly and... unfortunate ways.

At any rate, I've been very excited to pen an idea that I've been working for the past few weeks. When I decided to take on a novel, I had to decide if I wanted to choose from a list of ideas I'd already thought about, or if I would do something new. I chose the latter, for the thrill of it. Well, mostly that if it was very terrible, it wouldn't be an idea that I held dear to me and I might be able to just chuck it out the window!

The concept that I'm running with now is heavily inspired by the works of HP Lovecraft, though I doubt that we'll see any of his universe show up. Just general ideas, themes, and vague images that give me inspiration. I was reading one of his stories before bed and this idea really jumped at me. To paraphrase, any hack can draw a scary image for the cover of a magazine. Only a true artist can make a creation that causes a stirring in us, that speaks to the unconcious portion of the brain. That's because the artist has had direct contact with the reality of what they're conveying through their chosen medium.

Those words really got me thinking. I have to portray this story in a realistic way, a way that sounds more like memory than imagination. I think if I come at the novel with that approach, I'll already have a much more quality piece of work. I think my general concept is that the novel will be a tome, written by a high priest of an ancient god that has invaded the modern world. The story will be almost a history that the god has instructed the priest to set to paper as a testiment to its greatness. How the twenty-first century found itsself crippled in a matter of days to a force it couldn't comprehend.

It's a bit rough, I'll admit. But it's something to work with, and I'm grateful for it. With those thoughts, it's probably time for me to turn in. Goodnight, my dear friend.

Wait it Out

Hello friend. Just made my morning coffee. Want some? 

It all starts with some tasty espresso:

Add some steamed milk and a pleasing crosshatch:

Voila! Delicious espresso creation! 

That was a hazelnut white mocha with regular mocha as a garnish on top. I love my deliciouss morning coffees, but I usually don't have time to make a latte like this. I love days off! 

It's been a busy week of work , I apologize for leaving you hanging for a bit. I always come up with great things to write about at work. Then days pass and I'm left here staring at a blank page where there should be text... ah well. 

I'm still crazily obsessed with Imogen Heap. Wait it Out plays as I write this. I love how Imogen starts her songs with a simple musical thought and slowly expands it throughout the song until it crescendos beautifully near the end. It's powerful and moving to me. In this song in particular I love the lyrics "everybody says time heals everything. But what of the wretched hollow, the endless in between... are we just going to wait it out?" So powerful to me. 

It's aching hurt that we all carry from one thing or another. A bad breakup, the words spoken to you that you'll never forget. We'll get over them sometime, but until then... what do we do in 'the one life that we've got?' Do we try to overcome these emotions and feelings, or do we just... wait it out until things get better? 

Something to talk about over coffee, I suppose. Until then, I'm off to roast some more coffee! 

Practically Dope

Good evening friend.

It's good to be around again. I am so excited that October is upon us, you have no idea! The weather has swung into fall mode: mid 50s and drizzly during the day and chilly, chilly nights. I thoroghly enjoy my walks to work this time of year.

I did take a few days off of life and work due to a sickness, but I'm back on the road of life eager as can be! I'm planning out the novel I am writing this year for National Novel Writing Month in November, and I'm getting some great ideas. This will be my first year doing it, but I've got some great buddies going along for the ride.

I just roasted another batch of coffee and got all of my dishes caught up (my least favorite chore), and now I'm all pumped and ready to get more done around my apartment... at two in the morning. My guess is that my neighboors wouldn't appreciate that too much. So I decided to sit down and write a bit.

What I'm very much excited for tonight relates to one of my favorite past times: tabletop gaming. I discovered upon logging into the internet today that one of my favorite games, Elder Sign, has an expansion on the way! This game takes place in the same universe as Arkham Horror (rereleased in 2005  by Fantasy Flight games) universe. Much of the theme and content derives from the works of H. P. Lovecraft and his contemperaries. It features a heavy horror theme mixed with science and the incomprehensable nature of the universe in which we live. Elder Sign is sometimes reffered to as Arkham Horror lite because you get a bit of the Lovecraftian horror elements in half to a third of the time as Arkham Horror (I've spent five to six hours playing Arkham Horror before).  If you want a quick demo on Elder Sign in play this episode of Tabletop is a great introduction.

I've picked up about half of the eight expansions available for Arkham Horror, and the only expansion available for Elder Sign. And now this! I was concerned that Fantasy Flight (who also publishes Elder Sign) wouldn't release another expansion to Elder Sign. It's been over a year since the last expansion came out and they are actively adding expansions to another game, Eldritch Horror (also in the Arkham Horror universe). I took this to be a sad sign that Elder Sign would just be set on the shelf with just the one expansion.

Don't get me wrong, I love the first expansion for Elder Sign. It adds a lot of new cards, as well as a couple of new mechanics that change the game, but not drastically enough to make it difficult to pick up. Now Fantasy Flight has announced a new expansion due out in the first quarter of 2015: Gates of Arkham. In this press release they talk a lot about what the new expansion will offer.

It looks like the defining component of the game is called Streets of Arkham Mode. Now, in Elder Sign, you play as an investigator looking for clues about the Ancient Evil threat. You go through rooms of a museum gathering useful items and clues on how to lock away the Ancient One using Elder Signs. In the new Streets of Arkham Mode, it seems to me that the investigators will now be able to go into the town of Arkham and have adventures there. This mode features a new deck of encounter cards as well as beefs up decks from the base game. It does appear, however, that several things from the base game won't be compatable with this new mode of gameplay.

For me, this begs the question: why change the basic components in an already good game when you could just release another game? It could be Elder Sign: Arkham Edition. From what it looks like so far, that almost seems like an easier solution than cramming more elements and locations from Arkham Horror into an expansion. That aside, I'm super pumped for this expansion. I'm a huge fan of the Lovecraft mythos and theme, and I love the way Elder Sign encorperates it. Fantasy Fight will be demoing the new expansion at a few events they have coming up in October and I really wish I could go see what it will be like.

I cannot wait until the first quarter of 2015. That could be March! Ah! Sigh. It'll be okay. I'll be sure to tell you about it the moment I can preorder it. Until then, I'll be re-reading this press release a few more times to see what other details I can glean from it.

Oh, and I'm listening to Dope off of Lady Gaga's most recent album. I've heard her joint album with Tony Bennett so much recently that I pulled out Artpop and gave it a listen. This song seemed strangely appropriate for this blog. What can I say? We all have our vices.

Have a great night, my friend.

It's Just Textbook Stuff

Good morning friend. Day off here. I have some photos from yesterday, I thought you might like. You know the coffee I roasted a couple of days ago? This is what it looks like as espresso! Beautiful double shot in my opinion. And delicious! 

The fall colors are really coming on. Here's a tree outside of my apartment. Its beauty was so striking, I had to take a picture for you. 

I took the picture from my phone as I was heading to work in the morning yesterday. Beautiful sunrise. 

This morning I finished a book called The Infinite Sea by Rick Yancy. I read the first book in this series probably a year ago. That one was called The Fifth Wave. Great read, interesting story, ingenuitive way to talk about an alien attack, I really  enjoyed it. I'm worried that The Infinite Sea is just a slightly uninteresting way to bridge the events of The Fifth Wave and the last book in the series. It had engaging ideas and more creative alien attacking ideas. I think that fans of the first book will enjoy this one, but almost in the way someone enjoys fan fiction. Not quite as good as the real thing, but it'll sate a thirst. 

It's also much shorter, only about 2/3 the size of the fist book. Not that a good story can't be told in that time, it's just something I took note of. It feels a bit like the first book in terms of climaxes and rising excitement, all that. However, where the first book rises toward the final climax, this one just sort of ends. All of the story threads are wrapped up, but I think that's part of my problem. Aside from caring about the characters, there's nothing really grabbing my attention in anticipation for the third book. Sure, there's some excitement at the end of the book, but nothing near what I craved. I'm really hoping that it's just the author saving all of the good, tasty bits for the third book. 

I will give this to The Infinite Sea: it filled in a lot of the problems I had with the first book. For instance: why did the aliens bother with the five waves if they had the technology to send an EMP across the world in one fell swoop? It seemed like a whole lot of theatrics, and Rick really explores their motivation for the theatrics. He also adds a couple of cool alien devices that mix up the story, and add to the "humans are so screwed, but we still have hope" feeling that pervades the series. 

I really recommend the first book to anyone who enjoys basic sci-fi. It's a great introduction to sci-fi and post-apocalyptic writing. I might wait until the third book is released to pick up the series, however. Or, you could enjoy the first book on its own - it's well worth reading as a standalone novel. 

I'm also reading through a collection of H. P. Lovecraft's works. Last night I finished his short story, Dagon, which was a frightening read. Not the best thing to be reading at three in the morning when you're trying to sleep. However, it thrust into my mind vivid images of the horrific and strange landscape that the narrator traversed. A quick read, but well worth it. 

Well, I'm off. Until next time, my friend! 

First Train Home

Good evening friend.

So you may or may not have noticed that I have had a small obsession with Imogen Heap in the last few days. In reality, it's been about a month or two (but hey, who's counting?). I find in her music something unique yet universal. It flows through my ears, into my veins and down through my feet into the ground. I hear in it the lifeblood of humanity. I'm not even sure if I like some of her songs, but I feel them and I connect with them in a beautiful way.

Take for instance her song First Train Home. I listen to the song and waves of familiarity rush over and through me. There's something casual and yet understood underlying the song. That need to be home, to be with that one you love. It's that desperate need to be with someone that understands you, that will move on with you. However, you're stuck where you are. People don't get you, they look at you and don't see you. It's not that this relationship you're rushing to is perfect, but it will be what is best.

And so you find yourself rushing to that place that feels right and natural.

That in a nutshell is why I love Imogen. Her music is a bit cryptic, vague, and experimental, but I think she finds a common thread of humanity that I can connect to. Her music engages me, body and soul, and I crave that connection with humanity. I think we all do. We just find it in different ways.

I suppose that's another reason I started writing on this blog again: to connect. I'm aware that I have a rather unique perspective, but I think people might be able to connect with me in ways that perhaps they couldn't through a "normal" perspective. That's why I share what I'm reading, cooking, cleaning, listening to. We might not like the same things, but you can appreciate with me how we connect to the whole of our existence.

While we're talking about things I'm sharing with you, here's some coffee I just roasted. It's a Mexican/Peruvian blend, roasted in my air popper. 75.1 grams, first crack begins at 2:20, second crack at 4:40, took off the heat source at 6:00. Beauifully greasy. I hope you'll share a cup of it with me tomorrow. Until then, my friend.

The Moment I Said It

Hello friend. Well, it's the second day of writing and I'm still very pumped up. I was thinking all day about what I'll be talking about on the blog. It was day five of seven at work, so I'm tired yet incredibly grateful for the day I had. While I'm on the topic I'll explain a bit about my job. I work full time in retail, in lower management. I love my job. There is a lot of freedom in my position, and the company I work for treats me excellently.

So last night I finished a young adult novel called Conversion by Katherine Howe. I managed to get my hands on an advanced readers copy a few weeks before it came out. I'll probably refer to this type of book as an ARC. Essentially a publisher will send out copies to interested parties a month or two before the book's release to get people reading, reviewing, talking about, and generally getting excited for the book. Anyway, I had picked up this book on a whim (I was oddly attracted to the vague implications of witchcraft on the cover), and read a page or two.

Essentially, it's the story of a high school senior girl named Colleen, and the strange circumstances happening in her town. Girls at her private school are falling ill of a strange illness with a variety of side effects; one looses her hair, another can't speak correctly, another jitters uncontrollably. Intermixed through the book, the narrator flashes back to Salem during the witch trials. At some point you learn that the town where Colleen lives was once West Salem, and had changed its name. And that right there brings up the main draw of the story to me: are the girls in modern day faking the illness, like we think the girls in Salem did? Or, were both events part of a more supernatural event?

The author did a great job of describing the life of a typical teanage girl; that's what lost me. I kept reading to find out what was causing the illness. If you've looked at the book, you'll know it's been out for several months. At one point, about halfway through, I had enough and set the book down. I only picked it up again a day or two ago. And why, you ask? Because I had to know what caused this mysterious illness. SPOILER ALERT, you never really find out. I'd like to think I know, but the author leaves it on an uncertain note.

I can't say I loved this book, but I think I actually liked it. The ending also seemed anticlimactic as far as an excitement level, but it makes sense in the context of the story and I think I'm okay with that. Colleen never really knew what caused the illness, and she ends the story on antidessants that make her drowsy. So it would make sense for the end of the book to be level and unsure. The flaws of writing a book in first person, I suppose. Right now, I really want to talk about it with someone and no one in my circle of friends has read it, and I doubt anyone would. Don't you hate that? When you really want to talk with someone about something you're passionate about, but you can't find a single person that would?

At any rate, I'm just enjoying some Imogen Heap (The Moment I Said It), the quiet of the night, and some tea. A great way to spend a night. Well, more work tomorrow for me. Have a great night, my dear friend. 

Act II

 Well friend, it's time to pick this up again. The time has come for a new format, and a new way of looking at things.

I decided recently that I needed to start writing and getting my thoughts out. I was very much tempted just to make a new blog and leave this one to sit gathering dust... This would, I think, somehow discount the life I left here for you to read and enjoy.

The new format isn't even entirely worked out, but I figure I should start practicing my writing several times a week, if not an attempt to write daily. I'd like to discuss thing from my day, though not specific enough to violate anyone's privacy nor disclose too much personal information. We'll see as we go along.

This space will be used also as a means to let you know about my projects here online. Sometimes I'll appear in YouTube videos with my great friend Lindsay. She has a daily vlog that I occasionally appear in. We're also working on a series of videos for her other YouTube channel called Drunk Disney Reviews... so far it's been as fun as it sounds like it would be. The first few episodes are recorded, but not uploaded yet. We're also working on a great podcast that I might share here in the future.

Also later on this year, I'll be working on my first attempt for NaNoWriMo which I am uber stoked about. I have a few details worked out, but not enough to start writing tomorrow.

I've also been getting into board games a lot recently and will probably be doing some reviewing and discussion about them. Pictures to come, certainly.

Since reading is also important to me, I'll be attempting to read a whole lot more, I'm gunning for about a book or novella a week. At the end of that read, I'll be writing out my thoughts in a semi review form. Nothing too serious, just expressing the deep need that I've found to communicate and share my thoughts and opinions. Feel free to interact at every point. Comment on posts and tell me what you think of my ramblings.

As always, I'll be sharing the music that's on my mind (currently Propeller Seeds by Imogen Heap).

Oh, and expect pictures of food and coffee. I'm a bit addicted to both.

Feel free to visit my other blogs, one I might still use for fun, one completely dead and gathering internet dust.

Raise Your Ragged Sail

We are Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On


Thank you for staying with me, friend. The two years I've let this lay quiet have been good for me to refocus and find a new purpose, a new meaning. Something to tell you about in the future to be sure.