Hello, I'm Frank.
Now that my quota for obvious jokes have been made, I feel I need to update on the blog's progress.
I am currently enrolled in my first semester as a sophomore in college at Illinois State University. I'm having a real nice start to the year, but unfortunately I have been busier than I have ever been. My classes demand lots of attention and study time, which takes away from my ability to continuously write for this blog. All of the subjects I want to write about or have already planned to write about take a lot more thought power than I'm able to presently provide. However, I still want to keep this blog running and updated, hence my dilemma.
That's why I'm going to try out an idea that came to me earlier today. At my mother's house in my hometown, I have a large collection of books. (Currently the number sits around 320 and always growing.) It has been a collection I officially started last year and features a very large variety of subjects. It is entirely unfocused and include many of my current interests, my childhood literature, and anything cheap and/or free that looked interesting.
So I want to talk about them.
The entire collection is listed on an excel worksheet on my computer along with their publishers, authors, and the dates that they were published. It isn't a perfect list, and I'm nearly positive I've left a few texts out, but it still includes a large majority of what I store on my shelves. Once a week, I will use a random number generator to pick out a book. The only other stipulation is that I have to have read it. If the generator produces the number of a book I have not read yet, I will pick the closest one that has been.
I've been planning on talking about my book collection for a few months, and I think this is a perfect way to do so. There won't be a specific format for each post. It will all depend on what I feel like talking about. Like I said, the collection is always growing and there will always be new additions to talk about. There will be one for this week which I will work on as soon as I finish typing this up!
I'm very excited to start, so keep coming back for more posts about books!
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Flight Rising - Raising and Breeding Dragons
Since early April, I've been playing a newer online game with some of my close friends after a recommendation to create an account during one of their open periods. The game is called Flight Rising, a database where users can breed, raise, and fight dragons. The interface resembles games similar to Fallen London, browser-based and textual. Upon signing in, each user is required to choose a clan based off of the eleven elemental gods that helped shape the universe. After that, you are able to create your own dragon from scratch based off of four starter types (there are eleven breeds of dragons total.) This will be the only direct customization, however, because after the tutorial your only means of dragon tailoring will be through breeding different pairs of dragons with many different colors and genes. On my account, I am Pyroxima, currently a lower resident of the Emberglow Hearth in the fire clan. My overall goal for the game is to collect all of the different types of dragons, male and female, in each of the eleven clans. I have already written out extensive and organized spreadsheets for everything that I have collected, but I still have a long ways to go.
The game also supports some role-playing, with an ability to provide lengthy descriptions for yourself and your dragons. The encyclopedia also holds the background lore to the game, detailing the beginnings of the world. I eventually plan to take a more serious role in roleplaying my own story to add to the narrative of the game.
You can find the game at the link below, but it is important to note that sign-in periods are very strict. You will only be able to sign up for the game usually once a month and last for about two days. The registration window is closed right now for the June period, but when July comes around I hope that this has persuaded some to join. If you'd like, you can send me a friend request when you join and I will be more than happy to help out any new players. I hope to see this website grow!
Flight Rising: http://www1.flightrising.com/
My Clan Page: http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=lair&tab=userpage&id=143568
The game also supports some role-playing, with an ability to provide lengthy descriptions for yourself and your dragons. The encyclopedia also holds the background lore to the game, detailing the beginnings of the world. I eventually plan to take a more serious role in roleplaying my own story to add to the narrative of the game.
You can find the game at the link below, but it is important to note that sign-in periods are very strict. You will only be able to sign up for the game usually once a month and last for about two days. The registration window is closed right now for the June period, but when July comes around I hope that this has persuaded some to join. If you'd like, you can send me a friend request when you join and I will be more than happy to help out any new players. I hope to see this website grow!
Flight Rising: http://www1.flightrising.com/
My Clan Page: http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=lair&tab=userpage&id=143568
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Poetry Slam at Milner Library - April 24, 5:00 P.M.
In a few days, to see out the "Envisioning Poetry" exhibit, a final musical performance/poetry reading will take place this Thursday at 5:00 on the second floor of Milner Library at Illinois State University. I, along with some other cool people, will be reading and performing their own original works and it'll be a real fun time. If you can make it and want to feel cultured, you're cordially invited. It is free, to my knowledge, and the actual readings will take place around 5:15. The whole event shouldn't take more then an hour and a half. Hope to see a bunch of people there!
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Poetry/Art Exhibit at ISU
A few months ago, I submitted the poem "Candles and Ink" into the art history club as part of a collaboration set in our school library. I hadn't heard from them in awhile, so I figured they were still planning the set pieces. Tonight, however, as I was buying a bagel and some milk, I saw a new set of pieces lining the walls of the library. Lo and behold, my piece was hanging with it's companion sculpture, of which was my first time seeing. This is really amazing, and the art piece (titled "Sifted Clamp") is incredible. I'm so pleased to see it up and I figured I should share immediately. Thank you to the art history club for this collaboration, and special thanks to Jeremy Lampe who created the sculpture. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I'm not used to my pieces being recognized like this, so my gratitude is tremendous. :)
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Mint Chocolates and Morality Debates
Pretty much sums up my night in the title, with the addition of pajamas and the faint smell of tobacco from my roommate's most recent creation. I've just returned to the university from my spring break over the last week which turned out to be long and very relaxing. It was a much needed vacation, although now there is much work to be done.
However, before I begin any of this important work, I've decided to pass the time before I decide to sleep with some Youtube videos and I came across an interesting debate between Matt Dillahunty, former president of the Atheist Community of Austin and a popular public speaker/debater over religious topics, and Father Hans Jacobse, an Orthodox Priest who also speaks and debates religious affairs as well as edits the website Orthodoxy Today. The two discussed morality and whether or not God was a key component when considering moral choices and lifestyles, with Dillahunty arguing that He is not and Jacobse arguing that he is. I've been following Dillahunty for the past few months over YouTube mainly and I've ultimately agreed with many of his expressed opinions, and the same can be said for his position in this debate. However, one thing that caught me off guard was Jacobse's position, who seemed to formulate the argument around the stance that the bible as a work of fiction told more truth that if it was taken literally. This means he was not a biblical literalist, yet he still believed that God was the creator of the universe and human morality. The fact that he wasn't a literalist yet still a believer isn't what threw me off, however. There are plenty of Christians who recognize the bible as fictitious yet still believe in a deity. What really caught my interest was the formulation of his arguments. He seemed to heavily imply that it was purely the beauty of the bible's stories that offered even more truth than any non-fiction story due to its affect on your inner self or something like that. I worry that I'm butchering his arguments, but at the same time I'm not even sure if he fully comprehends what he's talking about. He was also convinced that this post-modernist age was in a war with "competing moral visions," which I believe I agree with, but then at around an hour or so into the debate he makes a large claim that secularist lifestyles lead only towards bloodshed and Holocausts. Unfortunately for him, this didn't please the audience very well and he quickly fell into a hole.
By talking about Father Jacobse on here, my goal is not to poke fun at him, but instead just to share this very vague yet interesting standpoint on the issue of morality. I've never really seen anything like it, and by the end he tried to twist it into a message involving pornography and music. I tended to find his positions less frustrating and more comical yet very intruiging and I thought I'd share it here. However, what did frustrate me was his blatant misunderstanding and misrepresentation of atheism, which is all too common in these sorts of formal debates. I felt Dillahunty handled it well though, and while it wasn't one of his most exciting debates, Father Jacobse definitely made the experience unique and entertaining. If you have two hours to spare and feel like watching formal religious debates, I highly recommend this particular one.
The full debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJl1mpTqj-o
However, before I begin any of this important work, I've decided to pass the time before I decide to sleep with some Youtube videos and I came across an interesting debate between Matt Dillahunty, former president of the Atheist Community of Austin and a popular public speaker/debater over religious topics, and Father Hans Jacobse, an Orthodox Priest who also speaks and debates religious affairs as well as edits the website Orthodoxy Today. The two discussed morality and whether or not God was a key component when considering moral choices and lifestyles, with Dillahunty arguing that He is not and Jacobse arguing that he is. I've been following Dillahunty for the past few months over YouTube mainly and I've ultimately agreed with many of his expressed opinions, and the same can be said for his position in this debate. However, one thing that caught me off guard was Jacobse's position, who seemed to formulate the argument around the stance that the bible as a work of fiction told more truth that if it was taken literally. This means he was not a biblical literalist, yet he still believed that God was the creator of the universe and human morality. The fact that he wasn't a literalist yet still a believer isn't what threw me off, however. There are plenty of Christians who recognize the bible as fictitious yet still believe in a deity. What really caught my interest was the formulation of his arguments. He seemed to heavily imply that it was purely the beauty of the bible's stories that offered even more truth than any non-fiction story due to its affect on your inner self or something like that. I worry that I'm butchering his arguments, but at the same time I'm not even sure if he fully comprehends what he's talking about. He was also convinced that this post-modernist age was in a war with "competing moral visions," which I believe I agree with, but then at around an hour or so into the debate he makes a large claim that secularist lifestyles lead only towards bloodshed and Holocausts. Unfortunately for him, this didn't please the audience very well and he quickly fell into a hole.
By talking about Father Jacobse on here, my goal is not to poke fun at him, but instead just to share this very vague yet interesting standpoint on the issue of morality. I've never really seen anything like it, and by the end he tried to twist it into a message involving pornography and music. I tended to find his positions less frustrating and more comical yet very intruiging and I thought I'd share it here. However, what did frustrate me was his blatant misunderstanding and misrepresentation of atheism, which is all too common in these sorts of formal debates. I felt Dillahunty handled it well though, and while it wasn't one of his most exciting debates, Father Jacobse definitely made the experience unique and entertaining. If you have two hours to spare and feel like watching formal religious debates, I highly recommend this particular one.
The full debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJl1mpTqj-o
Monday, February 23, 2015
Princess
In armor sewn with dragon scales
Within walls of diamond and metal
Surrounded by armies mounted on valleys
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Shout-outs to Cool People! Also, Small Updates.
Lately a few friends of mine have started projects on the internet that I'm really excited to see progress, and I figured they needed some attention to help them on their way. This may not be much, but its a way for them to get their names out in the open.
If you're a fan of let's plays on Youtube, then my friend Drake has started a channel with that exact purpose! The Mallard Gamer is currently tempting his fate in the popular horror game Five Nights at Freddy's and has a lot of plans for gaming in the future. He also posts daily vlogs to keep up with news and updates and has plans to host charity live streams. You can find him at the link below, or go onto YouTube and search for Mallard Gamer.
Mallard Gamer: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_uool6CvLWnlTGLb1IQOFw
The second channel I want to recommend is madamPHORIC, also on YouTube. She has just started vlogging on her brand new channel and has possible plans for future let's plays and other collaborations. Her channel is even newer than Mallard's but shows just as much promise in my opinion.
madamPHORIC: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvLRCvT5t19xRgnpGQ0-gcQ
Again, both of these channels are really good friends of mine and I really can't wait to see their channels grow. Please go show some support for them by subscribing or even leaving a like for one of their videos.
As for me, I'm currently in the process of a few minor projects. Underneath schoolwork, I'm also writing a few songs which I'll hopefully record and eventually share onto here. On top of that, I'm also starting a very rough draft for a short novel I wish to write. I'm still working out many of the kinks and dents in the layout, but the idea is slowly fleshing out and I'm excited to see where it goes!
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