Author: grasshopper

Weekly Roundup: Team America, DnD, and Space Cats

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~ A quick recap of things around Empire Earth over the past week.

 Word.
This Week in…
Team America: World Police
This is by far my favorite spoof movie. It was one of those movies I couldn’t stop laughing during. What does a decade-old silly spoof movie with puppets have to do with anything?
Sony was going to release a movie titled The Interview (a comedy about assassinating North Korea’s leader), but due to recent threats from hackers, they decided not to release it. Some theatres were going to host viewings of Team America instead, but Paramount put a stop to that.
What is my opinion? I honestly don’t care. Team America is just an awesome movie that I love, so I’m excited that it is in the lime light. We blare its unofficial theme song on special, ‘MURICA! occasions. 
 I scoured the Internet for the original source. I cannot find it! If anyone knows it, I’d be delighted to find out!
Why don’t I care about Sony and The Interview? I get up, eat, work, and go home. I really and truly honestly have no interest in politics anymore. I just like a stupid movie with funny puppits and awesome songs!
If you’re not offended by crude humor, rent Team America: World Police immediately! 
Revision!
I was able to get a good dose of it in earlier this week, before the zombie swarm of holiday shoppers started filling up my beloved cafe chairs. When you are going into a round of editing and revision, there are times when you cock your head and wonder why you decided to change the nature of something mid paragraph when you initially wrote the thing.
“The giant space cat from Mars descended upon Earth with the meow heard around the world. She lifted her great head, and the masses flocked to her beck and call. Mittens was a mystical sorceress from the ancient land of G’la’Totally’Long’Name, a land far, far away.”
See? Mittens suddenly wasn’t from Mars anymore, and she’s suddenly a sword and sorcery sorceress. There was an instance where I was completely stumped. I needed a muse. I needed inspiration. I turned to my old Dungeons and Dragons books!
My problem was solved. I saw a picture, snapped my fingers, and thought of something to make my “Mittens” stick to one planet.
*There are no giant space cats from Mars or G’la’Totally’Long’Name in my current project. 😉
Currently Reading
I’m going to talk about what I finished reading: The Silmarillion. FIVE STARS. *Takes a deep breath* The book reads like someone’s account of mythology. It has every single twisted type of fantasy, characters, and romance that I love. 
Tolkien’s book is jammed back with pure awesomness. However, due to the way the stories are told (the mythology “looking above” route), I can see why some people don’t favor this particular book. The Silmarillion is one of those books that you will either love or hate. I notice that I tend to LOVE those sorts of books!

Weekly Roundup: Ain’t no Party Like a Mirkwood Party

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~ A quick recap of things around Empire Earth over the past week.

This week is going to be a little different. I worked nine days in a row, so I didn’t have much time to keep up with all things geeky, sci-fi, and awesome. The good news is that I’m on Day 1 of a 4 day weekend! I have done absolutely nothing productive today unless you count the misadventures of my action figures as detailed below…

Ain’t no party like a Mirkwood party.
Some of these things may or may not belong.

Nothing like an Elvenking dance off. 

Blooper reel! 
Elrond, this isn’t your shot!

#TagIt!
Want to join in the fun? Caption or tag this one!
#HeHasMyVote

I can’t do a Weekly Roundup without a video of the week. Let’s just keep with the silly Middle Earth theme I’ve got going on today:

My personal favorite is his Gandalf costume.

Weekly Roundup – MMO Winter Fun and Games

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~ A quick recap of things around Empire Earth over the past week.

This Week in…
 Survival!
I survived my second Black Friday. If anyone was wondering why Weekly Roundup was on hiatus last week, you have your answer. With everyone opening Thanksgiving night now, we only get a few hours of sleep before we have to be up and at it again. Free food and Monster drinks were a huge helper in that endeavor.

MMO Land
December can be such a fun month; you have awesome festive food, treats, lights, gifts, and dual pistols that shoot giant snowballs.

 Screenshot is from last year’s Star Trek Online winter event

I love hopping into my favorite MMOs and joining in their winter events. I snag as many of the freebies as I can. It is the only time I actually enjoy *le MMO grind.* Lord of the Rings Online tends to have amazing outfits. Star Trek Online has awesome snow blasting weapons. I remember the original Guild Wars had a tradition of giving away amazing hats and headpieces! I would camp the timed instances for each of my characters in order to get the much sought after holiday headgear.

Currently Reading
The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien – This book is awesome. There is no other way to put it. I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I am. I honestly expected something dull and long winded. It is anything but! The only reason I am not giving it 5 stars right now is because I haven’t finished it yet.

Matters of Opinion
My blunt, unabashed thoughts in 140 characters or less:
I want a month long vacation without any monetary consequences. I just want to take a month off from work and do whatever I want.

Video of the Week
It’s people like this guy who turn crummy situations into awesome things:

Announcement
There will be no The Outlanders update this month. I apologize for this, but ‘Tis the holiday season, the most busy time of year. I really want that month >.>

Lord XYZ of Revision St.

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I survived the retail madness of Thanksgiving and Black Friday for another year! Now that those days won’t come around for another 300+ days, I can move on. I caught up on sleep and have my NaNoWriMo project on my mind.

With the first draft completed, I sat down and wrote several back stories and renamed many characters. I don’t think X, Lord XYZ, ABC Kingdom, and Dude would pass for final draft material. 😉 When I am in the throes of writing, I don’t always stop to name my characters, hence the lovely “names” listed above!

I’ll jump into the wild waters of revision after I get my post Black Friday madness rest. I need a few days to recuperate!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can officially break out the holiday lights, ugly sweaters, and cheesy music!

Speaking of holiday cheer, The Year is Now is still on sale on Lulu! I have to work tomorrow morning, so I’m not ending the sale until Monday night.

I can’t think of anything profound to say. Every awesome idea I had in the shower lay forgotten in the drain. I’ll end this post with a fitting video!

How to Recover From a Really Bad Day

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Yesterday was one of those days where nothing went right, the spirit of Grumpy Cat was in the air, and I seemed to screw everything up. Ah, yes. It was one of THOSE days, the dreaded sort that come once in a blue moon.

♣  Make yourself an awesome dinner. Leftover pizza and hot wings never fails to satisfy a foul mood.
♠  Go on a YouTube binge and put your favorite song on repeat. I went on a Let it Go cover craze.
♥  Pick a hobby and create something (I updated an old Elrond drawing I did last year).
♦  Last but not least, go crazy in a video game! I find this method to be the most therapeutic one out there (aside from taking a walk, but I don’t take walks at night…no thanks on that!)

Screenshot is from Star Trek Online

While these ideas may not completely erase the pent up anger a bad day builds, they sure as hell help. Your mind is always going to dwell on every little aspect of things when Grumpy Cat lingers in the air. When it does, combat it with some of the things I mentioned (combine them with things that make you happy), and that pesky voice will eventually die off.

A wild Elrond appears!