Yeah. I know. It’s a long title. But as everyone should have heard by now, Gary Gigax died on March 4th. Considering his impact on my life, I think he deserves a long title. And this being Sunday, it’s a perfect day to dedicate a post to him. See, I wanted to do something special, but couldn’t think of anything. So it’s taken me a while to do this.

As for the Sunday comment, well, here’s why:

When I was about 13 I was going to church in a small town in Louisiana. The preacher’s son would be in the sound room upstairs during the service and he invited me up there. Unbeknown to the crowd below, he’d bring his Dungeons and Dragons books with him and we’d sit there reading them during the service. I know. I know. “It’s sacrilegious!” But I was 13. There was no youth program. And to be quite honest, the preacher had a monotone voice. Mix that with the fact I was easily bored (and still am actually) and you find there was an excuse. Not a good one, but an excuse nonetheless. That was my beginnings with Dungeons and Dragons. Although that particular activity stopped, I never stopped reading the books. In high school I met friends who also played. That was the beginning of Jolt Cola, Pizza, and Weekend Gaming Sessions. I won’t go into the gritty details. At least not in this post.

So what is this tribute? And why page 1? Well, there used to be this thing on the old BBS systems (read as “before the Internet”) where we would post forum posts that were the beginnings of stories and people would come in and continue them. It was a form of roleplaying, but without the dice, pencils, and math. It tested your creativity and your writing skills. Well, that’s what I want to start here.

RULES

I’m going to start a story just below. I’m then going to tag a specific person to continue the story. The point here is to pick someone who you think can accomplish the goal and also keep the spirit of the story alive. You may want to ask the person before you tag them. Some people would call this a meme. I’m just going to call it fun. To each person who is tagged throughout this story, I ask that you put the page number in your title so everyone can keep track. I also ask that you put a link to the page before yours (in other words, the person who tagged you) so anyone who wants to read the story from the beginning can find their way. And last, but not least, when the person has written the continuation, please edit your post to contain a direct link to the next page. For example, when the person I’m tagging has written their part, I’ll edit the link at the bottom of this post to point directly to their page of the story.

I’m tagging Woobie.

THE STORY

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 |

“What did you just say?” asked Serol. He was a blonde man about in his late twenties. The scar below his right eye always seemed to twitch when he was excited, bad or good. It was twitching now. There was good reason.

“I said I’d rather not go back to Reindwood. I know you came to take me there. But King Cers and I don’t really get along. It’s a long story,” said the gleaming white sword in his hand.

“I don’t know anything about that story. What I’m having a problem dealing with is that you’re speaking in the first place,” said Serol.

“Well, when the King sent you on a quest for the ‘Sword of the Three Souls’ and offered you treasures beyond your wildest dreams, did you really expect me to be a plain sword?”

“No. I figured the cyclops guarding you didn’t just like you cause you were shiny, or he may have considering the intelligence level of a cyclops in general. But a talking sword?” asked Serol.

“For a man who has had conversations with dragons, or so the legends go, you’d think you’d be used to things like this,” said the sword.

“Dragons have mouths. You don’t,” said Serol as he blinked.

“Oh. So now you’re racist against beings without mouths. I see how it is,” the sword grew slightly brighter and with a red tint in the tip.

“Ok. Ok. No need to get angry. ‘Sword of the Three Souls’ is kind of a mouthful. What can I call you?” asked Serol.

CONTINUED BY Woobie.

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »

DIET DIARY

NUMBERS FROM TODAY
Blood Sugar: 78
Weight: 285.0
Fat Percentage: 48.7
Water Percentage: 29.8
Muscle Percentage: 34.6

I really need more cardio. I’m waiting on a friend who is supposed to be getting me a cheap exercise bike. Gonna put it in the living room and ride when I watch television. I mean, my clothes are still getting bigger. My muscles are still getting bigger. But I want my weight to go down. Must have cardio.

“Saturday Update? Why the name change?” Well, because I’m going to start using Saturday to not only update you on my diet but on anything I feel I’d like to tell you about the site. So here’s a few things about the site:

1. I updated to WordPress 2.5 so if you see anything weird going on, feel free to let me know. The backend on this thing is beautiful.
2. I got rid of Project Wonderful and replaced it with Show Your Ad Here. I’ve also cut down to just the one ad. So if anyone actually buys the ad, then they’ll be the only ad on my site, other than the Entrecard. It’s only $10.00 a week and will help me cover the cost of my hosting. If you wanna buy one, the link is under the ad.
3. I’m going to change the MWF Read to the Monday Read. This is kind of like when I stopped doing the daily diet update. This isn’t a diet blog. It’s not a “Best of Blogs” blog. It’s a blog in which I want to write stuff that creates emotions within you. Whether you cheer for me on Saturdays as I lose weight (hopefully soon again), cry as I stir your heart strings, smile as I rant about the things that happened in my life, laugh as I produce satire and parodies because of all of the things that I truly want to make fun of, or wait in anticipation as you read the grueling tale of my life during and after Hurricane Katrina attacked us when we lived in Louisiana. I want to write these things, but lately I’ve been writing too much of the other stuff. But don’t worry. If you’re here for the dieting, tune in on Saturdays. If you’re here for the “Great Blog Posts,” tune in on Mondays. Otherwise, enjoy the ride the rest of the days.

As for tuning in, tomorrow I pay my tribute to Gary Gigax. Feel free to join in.

(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here. For the diet I follow, click here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 8 Comments »

(The MWF Read is a series of blog posts written on posts that have been found throughout the Entrecard blogosphere. If you’re interested in having your own post listed here, send me a link to that post THROUGH ENTRECARD. You can do so by clicking on the “E” on the Entrecard widget to your right. As you’re reading, make sure that if you like the sites you see, that you share them with friends, subscribe to them, etc. There’s never anything wrong with giving good content extra traffic. Actually, there’s always everything right about it. Confuse you yet?)

For those of you who participated in the blurb post, here’s my gift to you (along with 100 ECs for each of you):

• Debt Free Revolution - Excellent site on how to get out of debt without going bankrupt. Great tips.
• ahkong.net - Gaming? It’s here. Entrecard articles? Got them too. A friendly and helpful blogger? Yep.
• EyeSpi20 - An eclectic blog. Tons of topics. Great writing. Love the images!
• Dream-Act-Plan-Believe - A very uplifting blog with great sentiments and unusually good advice.
• Fantasy Baseball - If you love fantasy baseball, this is THE place on the Internet for the best tips while playing.
• Patsy’s Words of Wisdom - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You MUST visit and read these “pearls.” M-U-S-T
• Breaking the Silence - Another eclectic blog with tons of topics. And hey, the latest post mentions little ol’ me.
• A Strange Life - As the blog says, No Easily Offended Eyeballs. But if you can deal with a little offensiveness in your daily diet, this is a great place to start.
• Sue Doe-Nim - Me love.
• Android Guys - The BEST niche site I have ever witnessed the birth of. Seriously, this is the way you do it.

Posted by Saphrym | 10 Comments »

(The MWF Read is a series of blog posts written on posts that have been found throughout the Entrecard blogosphere. If you’re interested in having your own post listed here, send me a link to that post THROUGH ENTRECARD. You can do so by clicking on the “E” on the Entrecard widget to your right. As you’re reading, make sure that if you like the sites you see, that you share them with friends, subscribe to them, etc. There’s never anything wrong with giving good content extra traffic. Actually, there’s always everything right about it. Confuse you yet?)

I know. A day late again. Sorry. Was looking for some more blog posts to throw in this post. See, I’ve never written a blog post about Entrecard on my own blog. So, here is where I get a chance to do so. Oh, and be back tomorrow to see what I do for those of you who participated in my last post. I’ve got something special planned.

• Memo to Entrecarders: How to capitalize on Entrecard
  By: Josh
  Josh’s blog is a frequent read of mine. I came across this post on Entrecard and loved seeing what is a completely different way of doing the ads than I do. It’s great to see all the different ways people can use the advertising aspect of Entrecard.
• Getting the Best Out of Entrecard: 5 Benefits I Reaped Beyond Hits or Ads
  By: Spontaneous Derivation
  Of course, advertising is not the only thing that can happen with Entrecard. This post is a great example of the multiple uses of the Entrecard network.
• Entrecard | Put More In - Get More Out
  By: MoreMerchant
  MoreMerchant agrees with me that the amount you get out of Entrecard is directly related to the amount you put into it. Isn’t that the way it normally is?
• EXPOSED: The 10 Most Expensive Make Money Blogs on EntreCard
  By: Young Online Millionaire
  Speaking of getting out of it what you put in, take a look at this post. Don’t let the “Make Money Blogs” part of the title fool you. This is a well thought out post that proves that the top guys at Entrecard deserve their place.
• The Largest Entrecard Giveaway (or, how to get 250+ extra visitors each day)
  By: Sense to Save
  And last, but not least, is one of the best contests dealing with Entrecard I’ve seen in a long time. This one is about getting new members to Entrecard and has some of the most active members involved in it. If you’re new to Entrecard or thinking about possibly joining Entrecard (hint, hint Patsy), go check it out.

Posted by Saphrym | 4 Comments »

Doing the MWF Read posts has helped me learn a few things by watching the traffic going out of my site from them. What I have learned is that sometimes a blurb is much better than a review.

Have you ever had a friend say something like, “Oh, by the way, I’m pregnant” or “Actually, she’s my sister” and then walk off and not explain? Remember how you ran after them to start asking questions because now your curiosity was on full force? That’s what a good blurb does.

When you write a review for a web site, it tends to tell the reader so much information that they make a decision based on the review as to whether or not to visit the site or not. However, a review can be biased, be missing information, etc. You might leave out some feature or item that would have gotten your reader to immediately visit the site. Or you might have added something that turned them off to it, but they would have liked it if they’d actually gone to see it. There are so many things that can go wrong in a review. The more words there are, the more of a chance you can make a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, reviews have their place and are quite important, but when you want as many people to click as possible, the blurb is the way to go.

Now, when I talk about this, I’m not talking about paid reviews and such. I’ll reserve my opinion on those for another post. I mean when you really want someone to visit a site of a friend or a post that you’d really like to share like I do with the MWF Read posts. This is where blurbs come in handy. For example:

“This site is really great. You should visit it.”

Does that one really get you? I think it’s something like “Absolutely marvelous!” or other such blurbs found on the back of novels that tell you absolutely nothing about the book and sound mostly like hot air. But, what about this one:

“The things that man can do with a can opener. I just can’t stop watching.”

Aren’t you wondering what “things” I’m talking about? Aren’t you curious enough that if there was a link there you’d click to at least see what “things” I’m talking about? Isn’t that something like how “By the way, I’m pregnant” sounds? So, in my opinion, a good blurb is one that gives a few details about the site but leaves you wanting more. Almost like a mixture of poetry and those parts of a television show right before a commercial: Say as much as you can in as few words as possible but make them want to find out the rest.

So tonight’s assignment is this: Write a blurb about the last site linked above you in the comments (usually found by clicking the name of the commenter). For the first person, that would be this site since no one else has commented yet. Be creative. Leave us wanting more. Make us want to click.

Posted by Saphrym | 16 Comments »

(The MWF Read is a series of blog posts written on posts that have been found throughout the Entrecard blogosphere. If you’re interested in having your own post listed here, send me a link to that post THROUGH ENTRECARD. You can do so by clicking on the “E” on the Entrecard widget to your right. As you’re reading, make sure that if you like the sites you see, that you share them with friends, subscribe to them, etc. There’s never anything wrong with giving good content extra traffic. Actually, there’s always everything right about it. Confuse you yet?)

I’ve recently been asked for an interview by Rena Klingenberg. She’s a freelance writer and she’s working on a project for another very prestigious website. Her request was very professional and friendly. So professional and friendly that I decided to go check out her blog. Lo and behold, she’s an Entrecarder. So guess what… Tonight I’m focusing on her site:

Jewelry Business Blog

That’s her blog. I was looking through it and found that some of the information is not just for Jewelry. I’ve heard so much about niche sites, and in most cases, I never would have thought to visit her blog. But truly, just about any blog can be useful to anyone if it has good content. Here’s some examples (and remember, hers is a niche site):

Extreme Business Cards - a Fascinating Gallery of Ideas - This one is for anyone who needs some ideas for business cards. This is not jewelry business specific.
Put a Photo Gallery of Your Jewelry on Your Website or Blog - Anyone could use this information for any kind of photo sharing.
When Customers Bargain or Haggle Over Your Prices - This could be modified to fit just about any situation with custom made products, not just jewelry.

So my point is, and I’ve manged to turn this into not just a MWF Read anymore, sorry, but my point is that a niche site does not necessarily only appeal to the people in the niche. Good content is good content and many ideas and concepts can be adapted to fit other ideas and concepts.

Seriously, go visit her site if you’re interested in any kind of business. There’s great tips for all future entrepreneurs.

Posted by Saphrym | 6 Comments »

(The MWF Read is a series of blog posts written on posts that have been found throughout the Entrecard blogosphere. If you’re interested in having your own post listed here, send me a link to that post THROUGH ENTRECARD. You can do so by clicking on the “E” on the Entrecard widget to your right. As you’re reading, make sure that if you like the sites you see, that you share them with friends, subscribe to them, etc. There’s never anything wrong with giving good content extra traffic. Actually, there’s always everything right about it. Confuse you yet?)

Yes. I know. I’m a day late. Spring Break has been busy for me. Go figure. However, I’m breaking another rule tonight, not just the one about what day it should be.

Patricia, a.k.a. Patsy, has been commenting on my blog for a while now. I’ve told her she needed to get her own blog, not because I wanted her to stop, but because I loved her comments so much. Well, she did. She was also kind enough to add me to her blogroll, and I’ve returned the favor. Tonight, I’ve going to tell you about her blog. How does this break the rules of the MWF Read series of posts? Well, she’s not a member of Entrecard. But maybe we can convert her.

There are 4 posts on her site so far, and she just recently started it, so I can bet we can expect tons of good content flowing through the place. She hasn’t “discovered” widgets yet, so keeps it nice and clean and focused on the content. I love that. She even wrote a great introduction post:

Give Me Time

Make sure you go visit. Make sure to tell her how great of a job she is doing with her content. Make sure to read the posts and relive some memories with her. Make sure to care about her as an author, because I promise you, she’ll care about you as a reader.

Her blog: Patsy’s Words of Wisdom

Posted by Saphrym | 4 Comments »

DIET DIARY

NUMBERS FROM TODAY
Blood Sugar: 85
Weight: 285.0
Fat Percentage: 48.7
Water Percentage: 29.9
Muscle Percentage: 34.6

For those of you who keep up with my weight, you’ll see I’ve gained 2 pounds over the last week. Let the nagging begin. However, I will say that I knew it was going to happen because I haven’t followed my diet properly. I wanted to shock it into letting me lose more weight. I just didn’t expect the gain. Expect me to be much lighter come next Saturday, at least back down to 283.0 if not less. (If you keep track of my fat percentages, you’ll see that’s where the weight came from. I’m not proud of it, and I will fix it.) Now, excuse me as I hang my head in shame and wait for the comments to yell at me.

(For more information about my dieting and weight loss, click here. For more information about the specific foods I eat, click here. For the diet I follow, click here.)

Posted by Saphrym | 2 Comments »

I’ve been getting comments and praise about my writing style, so I decided to share some information about it and explain it as well as I can.

My style of writing is a bane to college professors everywhere. I normally end up with lower grades because of it, but I don’t really mind. It’s the way I write and I like writing this way. See, my mind works a little different than some people. I write better than I speak. When talking, I forget words. For example, one day I had to look at my wife and say, “You know the word. It’s got pages and you read it.” “That’d be a book, dear.” “Right. Book.” However, when I’m typing, words flow out of me that I sometimes didn’t even know I knew. It’s funny, but I “overthink” when I speak, instead of when I write.

When I write, I just let the words flow and put down the ideas as fast as I possibly can. I don’t take many pauses and I don’t do much editing like people would say needs to be done. I fix spelling mistakes and such as I find them because I tend to type in a dyslexic manner, but otherwise I let the language stay natural. I also tend to put my thoughts in wherever they may show up. One example would be the quick dialogue I put in the middle of my explanation in the previous paragraph. Another would be (and this happens often with me sometimes) when I put things in parentheses right in the middle of my sentences. That last sentence was an example of this. Those are the “asides” that my brain may branch off to while I’m typing. I don’t think about it, I just put them there. I think it feels more “natural” to do so.

Sometimes I also put words in a visual manner to make the pauses and necessary inflections. For example, I could type, “That was incredible!” or, I could type “That was in-cred-i-ble!” There is emphasis on the different syllables in the word and the reader tends to read it that way with the dashes. I like to make the words look the way they sound in my head. My creative writing professors have always loved that style. Grammar professors, not so much. (For example, that was not a complete sentence just then, but you got the point, and probably grinned just like I did when I thought it and typed it.)

So, as an exercise, as you comment on this post, type exactly what you’re thinking. Patsy tends to do so when she comments on my site, and it makes it feel more like I’m having a conversation with her instead of a “formal typing experience” which sounds much less fun.

(If people like this post, I’ve got some ideas for some other writing tips in the future. Just let me know.)

Posted by Saphrym | 15 Comments »

(The MWF Read is a series of blog posts written on posts that have been found throughout the Entrecard blogosphere. If you’re interested in having your own post listed here, send me a link to that post THROUGH ENTRECARD. You can do so by clicking on the “E” on the Entrecard widget to your right. As you’re reading, make sure that if you like the sites you see, that you share them with friends, subscribe to them, etc. There’s never anything wrong with giving good content extra traffic. Actually, there’s always everything right about it. Confuse you yet?)

• Mozilla Firefox 3 Beta 4 Portable U3
  By: U3 Applications
  I had no idea what a U3 was until I read this blog. The concept intrigues me. Make sure to read the “What is U3?” link too.
• Come and groan with me
  By: The (Other) End of the Internet
  I came. I saw. I groaned. Now you must do so also.
• Things You Didn’t Know You Wanted To Know
  By: Soul Meets World
  I had no idea I wanted to know these. But now I know that I did.
• A love poem for St Valentine’s Day
  By: Sharp Words
  Very nice poem. A must read.
• More Fun with Etsy
  By: Aerten Art
  The post is a post about a problem with Etsy. However, it’s not the post that caught my attention. It was the rain. You’ll have to visit to understand.

Posted by Saphrym | 1 Comment »