OK, so I have been asked a few times why we decided to bring NL back. Before I do that, I'd like to take a moment and talk about the different stages of The Northlands.
1.0
Northlands Fantasy and Northlands
Northlands Fantasy was first started after one of the many nukes at Fantasy Essentials (FE). A few members from FE and myself were a little tired of that and how the members were treated if they questioned what happened, of cou
For the longest time I have had to the urge to write. Or at the very least, express my feelings about stuff going on in my life. This has been very hard over the past year due to some major changes in my life as well some major changes beyond my control. For those that do not know, I live with a condition called bipolar. I'm in a federally funded government program that provides housing for people like me with mental illness and I have been in the program since 2009. Since I have been in the pro
So, by popular request, I'll go into my language study a bit on this blog. This post will be on a couple of tools I've been using. The first is Houhou, a Windows app. It's designed specifically for Japanese, but the SRS (spaced repetition system), which is the focus of the app, is a system that has more common-use programs built around it, such as Anki. I've even heard that people use an SRS for studying other things that require memorization, such as anatomy and chemistry.
Here's the front
So, ever since I was 18, I've had back problems. It first started at work the morning after a pickup basketball game--I leaned over to pick up a product for a customer and something went *ping* in my back. I had a flood of pain and couldn't get up for a few minutes. Somehow I managed to walk out, drive myself home, and end up laid up on the couch for a week. In the years after, I'd have lingering back pain that came and went. Sometimes it'd be gone for months at a time. I also started putting on
There is no other feeling that can compare to what I feel browsing through these hallowed forums again. From the people I have come to know and care for to those I have yet to meet. The sweet call of this place online formed by our words is a haven to the real world around us.
Sometimes we need such a sanctuary to escape, unwind, or terrorize and I am so estatic with it's return. I would caress my online home like a lover come home after a dark sleeplessness night if it were to physica
Well, the past few days have kind of been hard couple of days. It all started on Saturday.
Something happened while I was at work, and I had such a strong desire, want, need, craving for a smoke! I almost walked out of work, walked down to the local 7-11 and bought a pack. It was so strong, I couldn't believe it. I'd yet to be hit so hard with such a craving for a smoke since we've quit. It was rough. But I didn't go out and buy any cigarettes. I grit my teeth and worked through it, but
So yesterday I finished another class. The class was at a place called Aurecon. Aurecon is a company the has engineers and drafters for buildings and such.
The class was Pre-Intermediate level. Now the book we used, wasn't actually the correct book to use in my opinion. We used a book called Market Leader, which is a great book for people in marketing. And not really what these students needed. Now don't get me wrong, the students learned from the book and they did get something out of i
So @hirondelle told me around Christmastime that she wanted to buy my next tattoo for me for my birthday. So I finally got some free time, and put together an image that I was very happy with. When you look the gallery pictures for this blog post, it will be the one titled original.
They are great! The lady that did the samurai on my right arm is the same lady that did my new tattoo. Her name is Poo. Her husband, Leck New York, does the big back and body pieces. They both are amazing art
For the last 2 weeks, I've been teaching a special class. Well, what my work calls a camp actually. It was a lot fun. I had a class of twelve 5 year olds. Every day of the class they learned a little bit about a different countries.
Day 1: Orientation, Make passports, Make photo albums
Day 2: Went to United Kingdom
Day 3: Went to New Zealand
Day 4: Went to Australia
Day 5: Went to United States
Day 6: Went to Canada
Day 7: Went to China
Hey all, I'd just like to keep you posted on what's going on with The Northlands. I will continue to post an update in the Forum News area, but I will also post in here.
To start with, I've updated the blogs. The software for the blogs is supposed to be more streamlined and runs smoother and fit better with IP.Boards 3.1.4. If I see anything that is totally amazing going on with the blogs, I will let you know.
Also, I tested out a thing that put the Active User list (who's online
I have a lot to say and I will try to break this up into sections for you, lol. Please enjoy the read.
My birthday
Well, let's see. Today is my birthday and I got some lovely well wishes for so many people today. I feel truly loved. In my 40 years on this earth, I have met so many amazing people. Some have just traveled in and out of it, some have traveled in and out and back in again, some have even stuck around awhile. Some of you I have met in real life first and have gotten b
Well, what do you know. It's been 9 days, and I'm feeling really good! It's also been 3 days with out using the patch. I haven't had any anxiety attacks at all. The only problems I'm having about now is that one, I'm starting to feel like I can't get enough breath sometimes, because my lungs are starting to heal back up, sometimes it takes me forever to get to sleep, and I have so much energy. There are times that I feel like I'm just bouncing off the walls. Like right now, I'm sitting here, it'
Well, let's see. I would have to day that day 3 has been the worst so far. Yesterday started off really good, and the whole day was good. It was some thing that happened at night that really kind of drove me crazy, but I soon mellowed back out.
Now for today? I've been great so far. Yes, I'm still using my patch, and I have 2 more patches left, but I'm feeling really good about it. I haven't had any issues or anxiety attacks at all today. As of right now, I'm feeling really strong about
Well, yesterday was pretty good. Only had a few times where I really craved a cigarette, was a little sore from working out the day before with my buddy, and I got a lot of work done on the new thing for The Northlands.
Today I go back to work. But how am I doing? Well, I feel good about getting things done with the new thing for The Northlands, I'm feeling a little bit more sore from working out, lol. It usually takes two days. But I feel frustrated and full of anxiety. Everything our
Well, as some of you have read, @hirondelle and I have decided on a few things for New Years. First and foremost, is that we plan on quitting smoking. I would also like to get back into shape, bring my weight back down to what I think it should be, and also start studying martial arts again.
I'm going to try and keep a bit of a travel log of how things go here.
As of today, we have quit smoking. I always forget how hard the first day is. So what I'm trying to do is keep my mind b
As most of you know by now, Tracy and I have moved back to Bangkok. Well, it's been like forever since I've written in here, so I figured this would be a great way to get back into it.
Well, let's see. About 3-4 weeks ago, Tracy and I had our stuff packed up, said some sad good byes, packed up Roso, Lily, and Spike and climbed into a van for a long drive down to Bangkok. The driver, Tony, was great and stopped whenever we asked him to so we could let Spike get out and run around. I felt
Some of you may know this, but @hirondelle recently "retired" from her position as Academic Manager at the British Council, and she really needed to relax, so we had decided to take a trip to Pai, Thailand for a few days. Everybody here has talked about how great Pai is, and neither of us has been there, so we decided why not.
Now we've both heard all kinds of things about Pai. One was how relaxing and beautiful it is, and another was how openly people smoke weed there, so we kind of fig
Last week I posted about some issues that I have been having while here in Chiang Mai, that started when I was leaving the company NES. And I've noticed something really great since I've written.
When I'm driving, I no longer get angry or bitter. I mean, some of the things they do, still make me a bit upset, but the good thing is, when that happens, I usually either laugh about it or I just growl and let it go. Where as before, I would get angry, hold on to it, and then somebody would do
I plan on making this post a bit of internal exploration. Now at times, I may wonder off track, but bare with me.
About 2 years ago, @hirondelle I and moved from Bangkok, Thailand to Chiang Mai, Thailand. When we first got here, we rented a Honda Click (what a Click looks like) for a month until we bought bikes of our own. First we got a Honda Wave 100 cc (what a Wave looks like) for @hirondelle, and ordered a Honda Phantom 200 cc for me. When my bike arrived, we returned the Click, and
Hey all. I know I've kind of missed a little on keeping up with my writing, but I have been a bit distracted.
One of the small distractions has been my own Visa for Thailand. It's become a bit of a rig-a-maroll. Before, all I needed was a letter from the British Consulate, but things have recently changed. As I am an American working for the British Council, I now need to go to the American Consulate and get a letter from them stating that I am working for the British Council. Now the Am
I have to give you some back story for this before I get to far into this.
Since the start of the Swine Flu scare, I've been kind of taking the piss out of it. Someone coughs and "OH NO, IT'S SWINE FLU! SWINE FLU, SWINE FLU!" That type of thing. At work we were told that if a child coughs a lot, sneeze s a lot or has a runny nose we should ask their parents to take them home. So I would joke cough and say I've got swine flu, can I go home. And things like that. I was also scoffing at peo
Well, things have been a bit busy for me around here. As you all know, I've recently finished a number of skins, which I am very happy with. Just after finishing my latest skin, and just before heading to Bangkok, our desk top computer crashed. Well, the C-Drive crashed. Now that wouldn't be so bad if it was just the software, because then we could have gotten all the information off of the drive. But nope, the actual hard disk itself crashed. Which means we lost everything on that drive! All ou
On Saturday, Tracy ( @hirondelle)and I flew down to Bangkok from Chiang Mai. We wanted some time away from Chiang Mai and we also had an appointment with an immigration lawyer on Monday (Today).
Yesterday, we went shopping for a camera for Tracy ( @hirondelle)(she has been wanting and SLR camera) and we looked at a number of places, but nobody had the model she was looking for. Hell, most places didn't have have the brand she wanted. We settled on a really nice camera which she really lo
