7thdesign.net

Grr… That’s a good start to a blog, right. Yeah so my old keyboard went out and I got a new Microsoft “Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000″ and I like it but I have to get use to it because of how it splits in the middle. It is very comfortable on the wrists and has a padded rest for my hands. Just one more reason that I should write more and one less excuse from keeping me from doing so.

It has been cold and overcast so that has put me into a funky mood lately. Top it off with playing on the computer far to much and I have become zombiefied. I have World of Warcraft : Burning Crusade to thank for that… I enjoy playing the game but I have been making myself play so I can catch up with all the other people I play with.

I have the attention span of a gnat.

Truly I do.

I haven’t taken any picture lately and I have been to lazy to get my North Carolina pictures up on here. I have some ideas for pictures I would like to take to really test out my digital camera. I like a lot of macro pictures so I might spend my next day off at a park taking pictures of bugs and rocks with the hopes that I get something interesting.

I haven’t listened to my Megadeth Cd’s in a while and Megadeth “Risk” is the theme album for this blog entry. It isn’t my favorite album but I do like a few songs on the disk. A while back I ripped every CD I own onto my computer which was a massive undertaking. I think I am over 10,000 songs and about 1,000 Cd’s covering pretty much rock, metal, electronic, classical and who knows what else. Ever since I got my XM Radio I have been buying bands and composers I had never heard of before. Keeping up with ripping them into mp3 for my computer is difficult because I usually grab the Cd’s and take the all over the city while I am working.

I also was going through older burned Cd’s of computer backups and I cam across a ton of old pictures, web sites, and the start to a book I had started on in 2001. I am thinking about expanding on it and working on a time line and outline… Here is what I had as a prologue and I think I could rework it a little bit and it might be good.

“It was the dawn of a new age, an age of darkness, of war, of famine, and of magic. Engulfed in chaos, the world was illuminated by the fiery might of war. The marks of war took it’s toll on the very being of the land, with time the scorched marks where all that was left. As the fires of rage died out on the land, the land then began to change. Rebirth brought new life, altered by fire, and tempered by the near destruction of man. As the world began to heal, it took the very existence of energy and used it. In time an energy flowed through everything, from bird to fish, and the essence of life consumed them. Masking the deep and rigid scars of the past. Yet, one thing was still the same, Man. The ancestors took their mistakes and rage to grow, build, and manipulate the environment into great city’s, ports, villages, and places of study. Seven capitals where formed, all survived the test of time and flourished by blending into their environment. The changes to the world influenced not just the environment, as much as the people. Knowledge, magic, and prosperity became the core values in peoples lives, for soon after, the wars of old where forgotten. Reason replaced rage, as peace to anger, and knowledge to war, and in the seven capitals, great stone and steel structures where formed, balanced by magic they extended into the sky. Massive gardens and university’s where built into their natural environments, they became the center for all cultures. In the university’s, studies where that of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. These constituted as the basis of life, and that of death. As in times past only a few where able to study in such great places, and the skills of magic went wasted to all but the select few who where taught to harness it. They where the ones who could control Life and Death.”

Whew, the spell checker didn’t like that little prologue, heh. I think somewhere in a binder I may even have a revised version and a few chapters written that I can work off of.

Good night all….
Cheyne

When I daydream

I am usually a knight and some times a space warrior. I love to drive and dream of heroism, duty, chivalry, and honor with a sound track at hand. XM radio’s Cinamagic is great for this and I find myself trying to cling to my dreams when I get out of my car with the music and images still in my head. Imagine running into battle with the epic sounds of Hans Zimmer, John Williams, or Basil Poledouris. The singing sounds of a string section filled with the rumblings of the percussive section on tempo with the actions of battle. Every day is a new movie or episode to my imagination whether an epic story or a jovial tale. It is an escape to some place magical, beautiful, and breathtaking. To be able to see the ocean atop a grassy bluff with the sounds and smells of your army at your back. The aroma of the sea air blowing across you face watching the fleet of your opponents come ashore, flags waving vigorously in the wind. Bringing winds of change, battle, and adventure is nothing like my every day life. Rushing into battle felling the very ground shake with the power of my troops behind me and to a spectator seeing the dust rise like cattle across the plains. The the clash, sounds of blades striking iron and the popping of air as arrows pass overhead. The muted sound seen through the eyes of a hero as he begins to do battle with the enemy. The fury of the blade with a form as elegant as a feather through a grove of trees. Then the calm comes, with the airy sound of the horn section and a lone violin bleeds through. Around you lies the forms of friend and foe and the smell of stagnant dry air floats like fog over the battleground.

Through the rolling hills of the country side, with the warmth of the sun on your back with the warmth of victory you march towards the home you defended. In the distance is the shining home of your forefathers, like a beacon it beckons all to the safety of walls like a warm embrace. A hero’s welcome.

Some times I wish I could describe everything, the smells, sounds, tastes of such wonderful adventures. Cling to them and make others see them as I do, feel them as I do. Put them onto paper in a tangible way so that they can make sense to every one as they do to me.

The short bit I wrote doesn’t even really give any substance to what I see in my dreams.

I wish I could write in a way that others could feel what I see and see what I feel. I need to make myself write more often so that I can better express what I try so hard to express.
North Carolina was very beautiful this time of year and never have been to the east cost it was fun to explore the area. I was staying in the Raleigh / Durham area near Chapel Hill in the third story of a Holiday Inn. It was great to be able to wake up and get a cup of coffee while looking out into the tree lined hills. Most all of the trees where a ghost form of their summer selves reaching into the sky. Driving through the country out there was very nice as well. Hills create a a place for the eye to wander off to. I got to drive to the base of the Appellations to open a store out there and driving in the mountains was fun.

It was much different that the usual flat area I am use to but an enjoyable difference it was.