Michael Offutt's Blog, page 169

And the game of the year is...SKYRIM. Plus the trailer for the HOBBIT

So I've been playing Skyrim on the weekends. My character is level 12, and I've killed three dragons now. I just wanted to post some screenshots for you because I think the game is so visually stunning. Note: You can click any of these to make them bigger. And yes, this is really what the game looks like through and through. Clouds move, I get stuck in blizzards, I hear footsteps coming up behind me, shadows change, day turns to night, etc. It's completely engrossing and has really consumed my writing/reading time. But truthfully, I'd rather play Skyrim than read 90% of the fantasy that is presently being written. It's like being in your own "visually stunning" book.  I read somewhere that it broke a billion dollars in just a couple of weeks. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Some of you may ask, why are guys not reading? Well the answer is in these screenshots. Boys eat this stuff up.
This is me and Lydia (the girl on the left) climbing the steps of the highest
mountain in the world to consult with the mysterious Greybeards about magic.
Not far from us is a badass ice troll that I finally killed by burning him down
with magic flames from my fingertips. Note the beautiful mountains. And yes
the clouds do move in front of the mountains sometimes obscuring them.
This here is actually Lydia and I after having killed said ice troll in the above
caption. We climbed the rest of the way without my horse that got spooked
and ran off.  The encounter with the Greybeards was fascinating as they taught
me how to use my Dragon Voice.
A dragon that I killed in single-hand combat. It swooped out of the sky at me
but by this time I've got all steel armor that has enchants on it and a pretty
awesome sword. I had to heal some during the fight but I can do that with
my restoration magic. I just took cover behind trees so it couldn't get me
with its breath weapon. Then I kicked its ass.
Me and my house thrall Lydia. She's my complete servant, always addresses me
as "My Lord" and whatnot and fights by my side. She's pretty powerful.
Another screenshot from a different angle. Not how awesome the water looks.
It's incredible to me that it looks so real. I've swum around and caught fish
with my bare hands in it. Pretty cool, huh?Skyrim is a game where you can do just about anything. You can walk over to mountains, explore buildings and ruins, jump off of cliffs...the world is so real and so incredibly detailed that the grass sways in the wind and the tree leaves flutter. You can customize your character so completely that you determine the shape of their nose, the color of their irises, and the style of their hair. Each item is so intricate that you can rotate it in three-dimensional view and find clues on the actual item on how to solve a puzzle.  I found a gold dragon claw set with rubies that when I turned it over, discovered how to open a magical portal deep in a dungeon. I did so, defeated scores of raving monsters, and got my first powerful magical item. It was pretty awesome.

It's also a game that has inspired countless online memes. Checkout Skyrim Hoarders in a google search. Below, click on the short video and watch. You may ask yourself...why? Why would someone collect all that? The answer: because YOU CAN!!! The video is only 13 seconds long. In this game, you can own a house and store anything you find in your home. You can organize it or just throw it in a room. As you can see, some guys are having too much fun with this by collecting junk, skulls, or even bodies.
If you would like to add me as a friend, my "handle" on STEAM is "kavrik519". We can chat while playing :)

Tomorrow I shall reveal who won the 12 Days of Christmas "Lords A Leaping" give-a-way from Sarah Belliston's blog. Also, I will probably "gush" some about the Prometheus trailer which is due to hit Apple's movie trailer site on Thursday.

In FANTASY NEWS HERE IS THE HOBBIT TRAILER .... ENJOY!!!!!

On Friday, I will post my "story" of sorts for Heather Arundel's blog hop and then will be going quiet until the New Year. Thanks everyone for getting me over 50,000 page views in less than a year. I think that's pretty good traffic.

A Little Chat With Author Brinda Berry

[image error] I don't know exactly when I started following Brinda's blog. It just kinda showed up in my Google Reader so I assume that I just went to check her out and liked what I saw. Soon after that, I read her debut novel called The Waiting Booth, and I reviewed it on all the usual sites giving it four stars out of five.

The Review:

Warning, there are some spoilers ahead.

The Waiting Booth by Brinda Berry is an excellent book. The majority of the time, the book remains in first-person perspective looking out at the world through Mia. She is in a difficult spot because her brother Pete has been missing. However, soon she meets two mysterious and extremely hot guys that offer to help her uncover the whereabouts of her brother. Despite a rough start, she eventually learns to trust them. But there is enough tension in the book that you never really know until close to the end if Regulus and Arizona have Mia's best interest in mind.

I thought the men in the book were particularly engaging. Brinda knows how to write them with just enough flavor to allow them to leap off of the page. She also takes chances with her writing by switching occasionally to third-person perspective. It isn't particularly "jarring" as one might expect because she treats these shifts in point-of-view as their own separate chapters. I might have gone about it differently. However, it does seem to work okay particularly as a vehicle to impart information to the reader that they may need to know.

Brinda also has a thoroughly engaging story. She has an amazingly detailed world and has done a lot of impressive world-building to allow the reader to feel its authenticity. I think that this book would appeal to readers of Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi or perhaps those who love strong female characters with paranormal powers (and mysterious men). All I can say is, I hope Brinda is working on a sequel.


Q: Was the online mmorpg in your book inspired by World of Warcraft? It had a certain "authenticity" to it that I could really relate to having been a competitive player for five years in a guild that maintained top 200 ranking in the world (not to brag but this is not easy folks). If so, do you play? If no, how did you get that level of authenticity?

A: It would be difficult to create a fictional MMORPG game without being influenced by WoW. So, yes, I would say that my fictional online game, Quest of Zion, was influenced by the gaming elements of WoW. I don't play multi-player online games as you can probably vouch for the time investment necessary to be successful. That's quite an achievement you listed in the question. I have enjoyed single-player RPG gaming like Final Fantasy and many others in the past. Gaming has always been an activity and discussion topic in my home. My son is majoring in computer science with an emphasis in game design, so we've had lots of discussions about my fictional game.

Q: Suspend time for a moment. You can have any actor from any age of Hollywood to make The Waiting Booth into a movie. Who do you cast for Mia, Austin, Regulus, and Arizona? Who plays Dr. Bleeker?

A: This is really a torturous question for me. If I were in charge of casting today, I would choose unknowns to play the roles. I'll take a stab at it. You do have to imagine these actors at a younger age to fit the characters from The Waiting Booth.

Mia- Ellen Page (of Juno and Inception fame)
Austin - Adam Lambert (I'm giving him a shot at acting.)
Regulus- Ian Somerhalder (currently of The Vampire Diaries)
Arizona - Brad Pitt (think very young Brad Pitt)
Dr. Bleeker - I think I'd like to have Bruce Willis here. Really.
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[image error] Q: One small point that probably cost you the one star in my rating is my dissatisfaction that there is no Pete in this book. The whole plot revolves around Pete. Why did you give us no payoff and can you give us a hint as to when we will see Pete?

A: Pete is the unfulfilled quest in this book. I knew from the moment I plotted the book that this would be an issue for some. On the surface, the book may be about finding Pete. To me, this is a story about Mia growing into her own skin and accepting her abilities and inner strength. Mia's synesthesia is a secret in the beginning, and I think it's evident that she's afraid to open up to her friends about who she is. She has trust as well as abandonment issues. As for Pete, you'll be happy to hear that Pete plays a much bigger role in the second book, Whisper of Memory. Without giving away too much, I think you might be satisfied with Pete's role in the second book.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for this book and are you working on the sequel? When can we expect it to be available for download?

A: A friend of mine told me about a news story involving an outdoor camera that captured some bizarre photos. It seems that there were all kinds of monstrous snakes and creatures crossing a piece of highway after Hurricane Katrina. Around the same time as hearing that story, I noticed a "red waiting booth" near the highway on my daily commute. I wondered what the kids saw every morning while they waited for the bus. The "waiting booth" was torn down a couple of months ago, but I have some pictures of it. As for the sci-fi elements of the story, I've always been fascinated by the concept of portals and dimensions. So, those are all the ideas that merged into The Waiting Booth.

I have a tentative release date of May 2012 for the second book, Whisper of Memory. I am currently working on the third (and last) book in the series.

Q: Can you tell us a little about your publisher?

A: My publisher is Etopia Press. Etopia is a small press with horror, fantasy, romance, and YA imprints. They are a royalty-paying publisher with wide distribution through major retailers. You can visit Etopia's blog at http://etopiapressblog.wordpress.com/ if you are interested in their catalog or submission guidelines.

WEB: www.brindaberry.com
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/BrindaBerryAuthor
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/#!/Brinda_Berry

Mark it "To Read" on Goodreads.

Buy The Waiting Booth now on Amazon for $5.99
Have a great Tuesday.

The Cold Winds Are Rising

In case you missed it, HBO released the teaser for season 2 of Game of Thrones.  Oooh it has me so excited. We are only four months away from more of the White Walkers!
And yes for those of you that read the books like me, that is the voice of none other than Stannis Baratheon providing the voice over. Rather chilling, don't you think?

Have a great Monday.

TransShifter by Cindy Borgne

I recently finished TransShifter by Cindy Borgne. This is a short story, and boy was it good.

Here's my review:

Five stars out of five.

This story is beautiful. Cindy Borgne is a titanic voice among new authors. Aside from having won multiple awards early in her career, she dares to explore a short story of love between a wounded soldier and an alien (who more often than not) takes the form of another man. This bold direction is refreshing and powerful because it has the courage to ask "Can we choose with whom we fall in love?" And "does sexual orientation actually matter?"

As a science-fiction story, Cindy is in full command of her powers as she weaves a tale of a world where nearly immortal entities travel in the form of electro-magnetic waves. But for all of their omnipotence and their ability to see the wonders of the universe, they choose to spend time with humans. The how and the why are within the threads of this story.

I strongly urge people to read TransShifter. It's quick...probably will take you an hour is all...and should belong on the same shelf as other great science-fiction shorts such as "For a breath, I tarry" by Roger Zelazny (probably one of my favorite short stories of all time-embedded link if you want to read it yourself).

You can download the short story absolutely FREE from Smashwords HERE. Seriously, it's worth an hour of your time.

Have a great weekend. :)

Welcome to the Bah Humbug Blahg Fest by none other than Grumpy Bulldog

Today is my post for the Bah Humbug Blahg Fest created by my friend, Patrick Dilloway. It goes all day long and you still have time to enter if you haven't done so already. If you don't already follow Patrick, please visit his blog and click follow. Then, create your post answering the following question:

What are the 12 things I hate most about the holiday season?
Here are my answers:1. Christmas music 24/7 on every radio station. It isn't so bad now that I live in a city, but boy when I lived in a small town with only three radio stations on FM this got really really old.
2. The bitter cold (it lasts six months). I live in the northern hemisphere and December is miserable. Additionally, where I live, there's always temperature inversions creating smog through the whole valley for weeks at a time.  I'm not a fan of this.3. Hazardous driving conditions. Snow and ice make for difficult driving.
4. No sunlight. On the night of the winter solstice there is more than 14-hours of darkness. That just sucks. Christmas is only a few days after that so it's almost the same. It seems like all I do is live in darkness. 5. Television consists of mostly reruns because its the period following the November sweeps.
6. That Thanksgiving and Christmas are so close together. In order to visit family for both vacations, it requires lots of time off, travel, and you have to turn around and do it again.
7. Finding an affordable gift for someone that already owns everything that is affordable and who has few activities that don't cost a lot of money. In other words, they don't read...haven't read a book ever. They just want to go on vacations, remodel the home, and scheme about ways to buy exclusive cars. Hard to get something under a hundred bucks when what they really want is granite countertops.
8. The celebrity Christmas album that everyone is talking about. I don't want to hear how Justin Bieber sings "Jingle Bells". Sure he's posed here in the snow. In reality he's tanning under lime
trees in California because he too hates the cold.9. Receiving a gag gift from a friend that thought you'd think it was funny when in truth, it's crap.
10. People who make a big deal out of Xmas versus Christmas. Everyone loves Monopoly, right? The Community Chest card "XMAS FUND MATURES"
never got any complaints in any game I played. Why does this always pop up?11. Inflatable yard decorations. I hate them. They're ugly and people keep them in their yard for too long and the wind deflates them and knocks them around. I will always live in a neighborhood with an H.O.A. so I can report
people that let this go on too long. You would either love me as
a neighbor or absolutely hate me. I don't think there'd be an
in-between state.12. Fattening sugary foods are everywhere. No matter where you turn, at the office someone has cookies, pies, cakes, rolls, candy...it's ridiculous. They bring them to work to fatten up the co-workers so that their families don't get fat. And I have a love/hate relationship with food. I'm at my best when there is no temptation. Christmas calories don't count. Yeah, right.ATTENTION YET ANOTHER BLOG FEST FOR DECEMBER 31ST. AHEM.
Before you leave I want you to know about one being run by Heather Arundel at her blog My Demon Spirits. In the contest, she wants you to write a holiday-themed story (it can be scary or whatever) that is 500 words or less, post it on your blog, comment on Heather's blog that you posted it and link back to it so she can see where it is, and then click "follow" on Heather's blog.
You can win a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card, a beautiful e-reader cozy, and a leather writing journal. The cozy's are done by Zizi Rho Designs  by a lady that just happens to write and knit at the exact same time. You try pulling that one off.

Making macarons is really hard

This last Sunday, my friend Meg gave me my Christmas present (a little early). We attended a cooking class together at Sur La Table which is at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City. What were we doing you may ask? Making a French macaroon. They look like this:
Now, these little delicate pastries may look like tiny hamburgers or perhaps...weird Oreos. But I assure you, they are really really hard to make. I was flabbergasted. What makes them so difficult and temperamental...I'm going to go over the short list with you right now:
Macaroons are really made with three ingredients. Egg whites, powdered sugar, and almond flour. However, these ingredients must be perfect. The eggs that make the egg whites have to be a minimum of two weeks old in the fridge. If you use younger eggs, the chef told us we would fail.  Additionally, the egg whites need to be set out for 24-hours at room temperature before you use them. Any less and it's guaranteed failure.  As for the other ingredients...you have to have 100% pure powdered sugar. There cannot be any contaminants, so you have to pay for the good stuff. No cornstarch. And the same goes for the almond flour (which costs about $15 for a small bag according to the chef). This helps to explain the price tag of charging $2.00 per cookie for these temperamental things.The egg whites must be whipped in a metal bowl with a metal beater. Somewhere between soft and hard peak, you have to add the food coloring. It cannot be liquid or dry because either of these will cause your recipe to fail. You need to use the gel food coloring and it has to have "no taste" on the label because the color you end up with will be less once cooked. If you whip the egg whites to hard peak...you will fail. That's how temperamental these cookies are. There's a narrow corridor of success. It was kind of mind-blowing. Just to give you an idea of what Meg and I went through over the course of three hours...we added a teaspoon of orange flavoring (the recipe called for it) and failed to whip the egg whites enough so our batter was too runny and we failed :(. There is no levener, so the egg whites are everything to this dish.I had to sift the powdered sugar through a chinois strainer three times with a wooden spoon. This is to get air into the powdered sugar. And yes, anything less than three times is failure. Once the almond flour and the powdered sugar were mixed (a delicate act since to do so too violently churns the almond flour and sugar into butter) it needs to be folded into the egg whites CAREFULLY. If you are ham-fisted with it, then you over fold the egg batter and the recipe is ruined. Basically start over (we should have done this).Once you get the egg batter done then you make the stuffing for the middle. Caramel, fudge, or some other buttery thing were our choices. These weren't so difficult...although the caramel had to be done with care.The ones that I made with Meg turned out hollow.  However, people said they still tasted good. Below are some photos I took during the 3-hour class:
So, anyway...macaroons are hard.

Happy Wednesday.  And don't forget, tomorrow is Patrick Dilloway's Bah Humbug Blahg Fest.

Making macaroons is really hard

This last Sunday, my friend Meg gave me my Christmas present (a little early). We attended a cooking class together at Sur La Table which is at the Gateway Mall in Salt Lake City. What were we doing you may ask? Making a French macaroon. They look like this:
Now, these little delicate pastries may look like tiny hamburgers or perhaps...weird Oreos. But I assure you, they are really really hard to make. I was flabbergasted. What makes them so difficult and temperamental...I'm going to go over the short list with you right now:
Macaroons are really made with three ingredients. Egg whites, powdered sugar, and almond flour. However, these ingredients must be perfect. The eggs that make the egg whites have to be a minimum of two weeks old in the fridge. If you use younger eggs, the chef told us we would fail.  Additionally, the egg whites need to be set out for 24-hours at room temperature before you use them. Any less and it's guaranteed failure.  As for the other ingredients...you have to have 100% pure powdered sugar. There cannot be any contaminants, so you have to pay for the good stuff. No cornstarch. And the same goes for the almond flour (which costs about $15 for a small bag according to the chef). This helps to explain the price tag of charging $2.00 per cookie for these temperamental things.The egg whites must be whipped in a metal bowl with a metal beater. Somewhere between soft and hard peak, you have to add the food coloring. It cannot be liquid or dry because either of these will cause your recipe to fail. You need to use the gel food coloring and it has to have "no taste" on the label because the color you end up with will be less once cooked. If you whip the egg whites to hard peak...you will fail. That's how temperamental these cookies are. There's a narrow corridor of success. It was kind of mind-blowing. Just to give you an idea of what Meg and I went through over the course of three hours...we added a teaspoon of orange flavoring (the recipe called for it) and failed to whip the egg whites enough so our batter was too runny and we failed :(. There is no levener, so the egg whites are everything to this dish.I had to sift the powdered sugar through a chinois strainer three times with a wooden spoon. This is to get air into the powdered sugar. And yes, anything less than three times is failure. Once the almond flour and the powdered sugar were mixed (a delicate act since to do so too violently churns the almond flour and sugar into butter) it needs to be folded into the egg whites CAREFULLY. If you are ham-fisted with it, then you over fold the egg batter and the recipe is ruined. Basically start over (we should have done this).Once you get the egg batter done then you make the stuffing for the middle. Caramel, fudge, or some other buttery thing were our choices. These weren't so difficult...although the caramel had to be done with care.The ones that I made with Meg turned out hollow.  However, people said they still tasted good. Below are some photos I took during the 3-hour class:
So, anyway...macaroons are hard.

Happy Wednesday.  And don't forget, tomorrow is Patrick Dilloway's Bah Humbug Blahg Fest.

Thinking about water conservation

I frequently tune into "Talk of the Nation" on NPR and they had a great topic yesterday yesterday that really got me wondering where humanity seems to be headed. You can find the program that I listened to here. As many of you already know, the world hit a population of 7 billion earlier this year. To comprehend these numbers, here are some staggering facts:

1) It takes 1 liter of water to create 1 food calorie.
2) The recommended daily allowance of calories a person is supposed to eat falls between 1500 and 2000 calories a day.  So per person, that's 1500 to 2000 liters of water that goes into the food that sustains each person each day that the sun rises.
3) Multiply that by a little more than 7 billion, and that's how much water is consumed each day around the globe, and it's only getting worse.
And this doesn't even account for other things that need water (for example, animals need water as well).
There are already 12 major river systems in the world that do not reach the sea.
I'm not trying to be negative, but I think we're screwed. That seems unsustainable to me. I try to create as little of a carbon footprint as I can. But I guess when someone like me chooses to do so, there's another person on the other end of the spectrum (the Duggar lady of 20 Kids and Counting fame is just an example) that just keeps popping them out. Do you know how many resources a family with 20 kids consumes? I think it would be just mind-boggling. A selfish, selfish, selfish family pictured here.And you know what, despite the fact that she had a miscarriage last week, I don't feel sorry for her. Not one bit. I think she's beyond the point of ridiculous, and that she has only herself to blame.
It really makes me question the ethics of this country that we give celebrity status to a woman that has tons of kids.

What about you guys? Concerned at the population on an overcrowded planet? Or could you care less? Do you think that it's all a "liberal agenda" and that people should have the right to have as big a family as they want? Let me know in your comments.
ANNOUNCEMENTS for the blogosphere:
1) If you get the opportunity, please go visit Stephanie Schmidt's website to see her wonderful "The Twelve Days of Bookmas" that she did. She even decorated a book tree and rewrote the lyrics to 12 Days of Christmas to match the pictures she chose. The originality and time she spent on this was epic. Please go check it out.
2) Please join the Bah Humbug Blahg Fest hosted by author Patrick Dilloway. The rules are simple because Patrick likes simple.  On Thursday, December 15th post on your blog the answer to this brain-teasing question:
What are the 12 things I hate most about the holiday season?
By doing this and copying the badge featured on his website to your blog sidebar, you are entered in a drawing for $25.00. That's the easiest $25 I have ever seen.
Happy Tuesday.

12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop ends today

Hello everyone.  This is a friendly reminder that all entries to the giveaways for Sarah Belliston's 12 Days of Christmas blog hop will end tonight at midnight. The winners will all be announced on her blog according the schedule posted below. Additionally, for my particular giveaway, I shall name the person on December 22nd. Prior to this (at midnight tonight) I will be notifying Sarah with the winner's name.

Thanks everyone for participating. If you have not entered, you should do so by clicking on the 12 Days of Christmas blog hop button on the left.

DEC 13 - Jaime Morrow

DEC 14 - Tessa Elwood

DEC 15 - Lisha Cauthen

DEC 16 - Morgan Shamy

DEC 17 - Rachel Bateman

DEC 18 - Carrie Butler

DEC 19 - Jess Melendez

DEC 20 - Charity Bradford

DEC 21 - Athena Franco

DEC 22 - Michael Offutt

DEC 23 - Cherie Stewart

DEC 24 - Suze Reese

DEC 25 - Santa

Have a great Monday.

Why I don't give to the Salvation Army door ringers at Christmas

The Salvation Army door ringers are out in full force, and I've always stuffed a few dollars in the little red kettles every year.

However, this year, I'm choosing not to do so. Jeff clued me into this over at his website located here and it just made me a little angry.
If they are going to claim to be a charitable organization, I don't think they should take a stance like this.

As Jeff said in his post on this same topic, it's important to examine a charity before you give to see if they match your values.

See you Monday.