Reid My Blog!

Yes, that’s write (pun intended), I’m making another novel. And yes, that means that my other novel, Blood on the Golden Horn, is pretty much dead. It was an experiment, a trial run to prove to myself that I could make a novel. This one will be much, much better. I promise you. The biggest reason it’s going to blow your socks right off your feet? I’m going to be writing about my favorite topic: modern warfare. The grand dance of aircraft, infantry, and armor working together is going to play out on a large (and quite snowy) stage. Where that stage will be? I’m not quite ready to reveal that information, nor any other information about the plot. But, if you can recognize that tank or recognize the shape of the mountains, they may lead you to find out where and who is participating. Until then, I leave you with this! And I wish you, my loyal reader, a very happy holidays indeed!

Update: The Playstation 3, although able to connect to the Wi-Fi, cannot play online because the hospital (of course) blocks the Playstation Network. In other news, I was able to bypass the hospital’s firewalls on my MacBook using Vidalia, a desktop proxy service. Still, although I was able to bypass it, chances are no other patient on the floor knows how, so they are stuck. Oh, and I got my pickline in today. All is well. Thanks for reading!

As many of you loyal readers know, I have an ailment (yes, I will use ailment because it sounds more serious than an illness!) called Cystic Fibrosis. It is a genetic disease that usually only affects people of Northern European decent (such as myself). To get the disease, both of your parents must have the recessive gene and give both genes to you. Unfortunately, this is what happened to me. I got both of my parents CF genes, giving me Cystic Fibrosis. My brother, curiously, got neither of the genes, so he isn’t even a carrier of the gene. But anyway, Cystic Fibrosis primarily affects the lungs and the pancreas. My mucus in my lungs is stickier than most people’s and I am much more prone to infection in my lungs. My pancreas doesn’t produce enough digestive enzymes for me to absorb nutrients and fat from foods, so I have to take pills before eating which have digestive enzymes in them so I can absorb the nutrients. To treat my lungs, I have to do the Vest, a black vest with blue tubes (see picture. This is obviously not me, but this is what the Vest looks like) that vibrates my lungs so I can get the mucus out. So I do both of these things every day.

Unfortunately, this was not enough, and I got a bad infection. So now, as you read this post, I am in the hospital. Nothing to worry about, though; I go to the hospital pretty much every year around this time because I always seem to get an infection in December. So, that means that I am in the hospital. Of course I have brought my laptop and my PS3 with me, for I will be in the hospital for at least 10 days, probably longer. And thankfully, the hospital has free Wi-Fi, so I am able to write this article, tweet, and do other things online. This is great and all. So I started up my computer, hooked up my Wi-Fi, and went to Facebook. The page doesn’t load; turns out that it’s blocked. Ok, wait, WHAT? The hospital (whose name I am withholding so that they don’t get in trouble. If you follow my Twitter or know me in real life, you know what hospital I’m talking about), which is supposed to cater to the patient, has blocked the world’s largest social networking site? Sure, I prefer Twitter much more, but Facebook is still an essential part of keeping up with my friends.

So I decide to go to some other websites to see if they are blocked. RapidShare? Blocked. Kotaku? Blocked. The Pirate Bay? Blocked. Playstation.com? Blocked. (This may affect if I can play online with my PS3 or not, I’ll update this post once I hook up my PS3 to see if it actually works online) Addicting Games? Blocked. Twitter? Blocked. (Not the API, so I can still tweet with my desktop app. I never us the website, anyway) The list goes on and on. Sure, I understand the need to block some websites so that your employees do not go to them while working, but blocking them for the patient, too? The patient is paying for their stay in the hospital, I think that they deserve the right to go to whatever website they want. The hospital could set up another Wi-Fi specifically for patients, and put a password on it that only patients can use. They could make a little USB Flash Drive that allows patients to override the firewall. Just something so that the patient, who the hospital is supposed to be taking care of, doesn’t get their favorite sites blocked.

As promised, here are a bunch of download links to my NaNoWriMo novel, Blood on the Golden Horn. Before you download, keep something in mind. This novel was written in only 30 days. It is not the greatest novel ever written. I realize that it is not that good. I realize that there are countless spelling and grammar errors throughout. I realize that there are massive gaping plot holes all over the story. And yes, I realize that there is pretty much zero characterization. But you know what? I don’t care. I wrote a novel, and it’s a novel I’m proud of! So I hope you enjoy it! And, if you have any suggestions on how to make it better (of which, I am expecting quite a lot), please feel free to email me. My email is solidreid@gmail.com. I hope you like my novel!

PDF Format (recommended): Download (Thank you @besweeet!)

ePub Format (For eReaders, like Stanza on iDevices): Download

Doc Format: Download

RTF Format: Download

AZW Format (Amazon Kindle): Download

Have any other formats you want Blood on the Golden Horn in? Email me! solidreid@gmail.com

So I did it. I won NaNoWriMo. I got over 50,000 (55,853 to be exact) words in 30 days. And I’m proud. Tomorrow, right here, I will release the entire book for free in a number of different of formats, including .rtf, .pdf, and .epub. But right now, I’ve got something special for you. Here is another preview of my book. This excerpt is actually the intro to the novel, so once you download it tomorrow you can skip the prologue and go straight to Chapter 1! I hope you enjoy it!

Excerpt: “The blood poured down my face. The sweat was pooling under my chin, and the beaming sun just made it worse. Every single bone in my body ached with pain, but I knew that one thing was true. I just had to keep doing one thing; I had to keep on moving. I put one foot in front of another, thinking of nothing else but what I had to do. I knew what would happen if I stopped; I had seen what they did to the ones who had given in to the tiredness. And I knew that, for me, that moment was slowing itching ever closer.

I heard another shout of “Keep moving!” from one of the guards behind me, and heard somebody yell. Then I heard the clinging of their chains as they fell to the ground. And then, I heard the clash of metal upon metal. Shouts and screams of pain and agony erupted from somebody behind me. I knew I couldn’t look back, for if I did I would suffer the same agonizing fate.

As we marched and marched across the sandy landscape, I felt a quivering thirst begin to develop in my throat. I realized that I had not eaten or drank for almost two days. I was near breaking point, as were most of the people around me.

As we neared a small stream, I saw one of the men break for it in the hopes that he would be able to drink. Unfortunately for the poor fellow, one of the archers picked him off as he ran for the small stream of water. There was no hope for us; we could not escape. We just had to continue to do what our captors asked. And then, only then, could we survive.

I continued to walk along with the people beside me, but did not notice them, nor did they notice me. We were in an eternal trance, fixated on surviving this hellish walk. It did not matter what the person next to you thought or how well they felt or how horrible they felt; it was just about surviving. Just to keep walking. Keep moving. And to not ever fall. Ever.

As we walked across the road, it began to open up a little bit. The harsh gravel against my bear feet that cut into it like walking on glass slowly and gradually changed to soft and smooth sand, blessing my feet and sparing it from the pain of the hard and sharp gravel. I walked, and a smile began to develop across my face at feeling the sand. It seemed to caress my feet with the smoothness of silk, sending me waves of joy that I hadn’t felt in months.

But this was just a small comfort on a long, long march that I had endured for over 80 days. Endless days and night without food, hours upon hours with little or nothing to drink. It took a toll on my body, and I still had no idea when, or for that matter, how this hellish march was going to end.

As the entourage marched down this sandy highway, trees began to appear around us. It seemed we were getting further and further into a large forest. Where this forest was situated, I had no idea. As I said earlier, we had been traveling for over 80 days, and I had lost all sense of direction and time for that matter. It mattered not what time of the day it was, just that when the sun was up we marched, and when the moon was up we slept on the cold ground.

The small amounts of trees soon began to morph into large clumps, and then massive groups, and then eventually a whole forest of trees was around us. Strangely, the ground was still sand, and I thanked God over and over again for giving me the blessing of it’s smooth texture upon my beaten and broken feet.

In fact, at this point I no longer felt my feet at all. The continuous marching had numbed my feet, and all I knew was that they were moving, nothing more than that.

My head turned on instinct as I heard commotion in the back of the entourage. I heard shouting, and then the sound of screaming. I suddenly realized that I had stopped moving to stop and listen to the beating behind me. I tried to get my legs moving again, but they wouldn’t budge. I had let my body indulge in the art of stopping, and and now it didn’t want to start again.

“Hey, you, get moving!” a soldier shouted at me. I tried to start, but nothing happened. I no longer had control of my legs. I fell to the ground, my legs no longer willing to support me.

At the sight of me falling, a swarm of soldiers rushed over to my position. I saw some of the other captives stopping and staring at me for a short time, but they soon began to move again, so they would not share the same fate as me.

The soldiers pulled out their muskets, but instead of shooting me to quickly get rid of me, they turned them around and began to beat me with the butt of their muskets. They wanted me to be in immense pain before my death. I was scum. I did not deserve the honor of dying quickly, I was supposed to have a long and painful death. So they beat me.

The butts of half a dozen muskets impacted my body. They caused bruises all around my body, and pain shot up from every place imaginable. I cried out for help, but knew that nobody would be coming to my side. I was alone, I was scared, and I knew that I was going to die.

There was nothing I could do to resist the inevitable. I tried to fight my eyes that were slowly but surely boing black. I knew that my time had come. Immense gushes of blood poured out of the numerous wounds that had been inflicted by the soldiers across every portion of my body. It began to pool underneath me, surrounding me in a pool of dark red blood.

But this large pool of blood did not stop the soldiers from enjoying their beating in the slightest. They paid of no mind to the developing pool below me, and did not decrease the intensity of their strikes one bit. They were savages; they seemed to be enjoying watching me fall closer and closer to death. One of them even broke out in laughter upon watching my pain.

As the beating continued, I felt my eyes slowly begin to close. I tried to fight it with every ounce of energy I had left in my body, but it was to no avail. I could not stop the inevitable. My eyes were closing, and soon they would be closed for good.

You often hear people say that right before you die, your entire life flashes before your eyes. For me, this was not the case. The pain that was being inflicted upon me and the desire to live stopped any life-reliving to occur. I just sat their in immense physical pain, trying to fight death.

My eyes closed more and more, and the world gradually became blacker. The laughs and cries of merriment from the soldiers that were beating me became slowly muted. My body became numb, and I could no longer feel the wounds the soldiers were placing on my body. My eyes closed more and more. Soon, my eyes came to almost a  complete close, and I could hear or feel no more. It was at then end. I knew it was over. And then, everything went black.

*   *  *

I have often wondered what happened next in my story. I do not remember what happened after I fell into unconsciousness, just that I later woke up in a strange place in a strange room with people I did not know. But we’ll get there, all in due time.

Now I assume you, the reader, is quite perplexed as to the situation that has already unfolded in this interesting and (somewhat) exciting tale. I have, for years, contemplated sharing my story with the world. I had been asked by many different people from many walks of life to write down some of my adventures, for I have many. I would often share these tales of my younger days over dinner or for entertainment with friends. They enjoyed them very much, and were constantly nagging me to write them down and get the manuscript published. Well, I am happy to report that those unnamed friends who, at various times throughout my life, have been very adamant (and very annoying) about getting my story out there to world have succeeded in convincing me to share it.

As I began to write this story down, I had trouble finding a place to begin. Should I begin at the very beginning with my birth, treating the entire book like a biography of my life? Should I begin in the mist of a scene of action and work my way backwards? Should I start with my later life and reveal my story that way? It matters not what other ways I thought of introducing my story, because I have already decided and you have (hopefully), already read how I plan to do it. I will start with how I arrived in this city, the great city of Istanbul, and how I established myself here. And (at least for this manuscript), will focus on this story and this story alone.

First, I think I should provide some essential background information before I divulge into this wonderful tale, for I feel that if you do not understand the circumstances that surround me arriving in Istanbul and why it happened, then you will not understand certain parts of this tale. So, on to the background.

The year was 1521, and I was living in the city of Belgrade, located right above Greece in Eastern Europe. Belgrade was a peaceful city. It was also a large one, at least by European standards. It boasted a plethora of different churches, shops, taverns, inns, and all other necessary businesses found in most cities. Of course we weren’t the biggest city in Europe, nor the most important, but we did exerted great control over the region which we were located in and enjoyed a large amount of merchants from all across both Europe and the Middle East. So naturally, I became familiar with not only my native language of Serbian but also Turkish, the language spoken by most Middle Eastern traders.

Turkish was also spoken by a fledgling Muslim Empire to the East, the Ottomans. They were an aggressive bunch of people who had already taken control of most of the Near East and parts of North Africa. Now, they were making a push into Europe. Led by their Sultan, Suleyman I, the Ottomans made a large drive towards Eastern Europe, hoping to spread Islam in it’s wake.

This did not bode well with me at the time, for I was a monk in one of the many monasteries spread around the outskirts of Belgrade. We did not live in the city, but I had when I was a boy. As the Ottomans advanced further and further in to Europe, they came dangerously close to Belgrade. Our monastery was located on a large hill that was able to see all across the valley that led up to the gates of Belgrade, which was a walled city. One of the monks ran in one day and screamed that he had spotted a large army heading up the valley towards Belgrade. Upon hearing this, we quickly deduced that it was the Ottoman forces and decided to send a runner towards Belgrade to warn the city. I volunteered to warn the city, so off I went on a made dash towards the gates of the city.

They let me in, and I quickly informed one of the guards. They ran back to their commander and told them the news, who then ran to his commander. The news quickly spread throughout the city, and thousands of men showed up with weapons to defend the walls. I asked the guard to open the gates so I could return to my monastery, but his commander forbade him from opening them. He was too scared that the Ottomans would take advantage of the open gates and invade the city. This was preposterous, but I agreed anyway, knowing I had no other choice.

So I waited. I watched men kill other men. The Ottomans made frequent attacks, but could not breach the gate nor could they grasp control of the walls from the hands of the citizens of Belgrade. So eventually, they just waited to starve us out. They let no person enter or exit the city, and formed a large circle around it. Everybody inside knew that eventually, some time in the near future, we would have to surrender. And eventually, that day came. The city opened it’s gates, and the Ottomans came rushing in. They rounded up all the Christians in the city (including me), chained us up, and marches us off to Istanbul to work as slaves.

And if you’re wondering what happened to my monastery up on the hill above Belgrade, they were all slaughtered by marauding Ottomans looking for some excitement. I found that out the day after we surrendered after talking to some Ottoman soldiers.

Knowing Turkish was a big help to me on the long march to Istanbul. Knowing Turkish meant the difference between going hungry for the night and getting a small sliver of food. Knowing Turkish meant that I was able to sometimes obtain a blanket out of pity from one of the soldiers. But do not think that these small comforts made that march tolerable; far from it. That forced march for 80 days towards Istanbul was the closest thing you can get to hell on earth. But I will not bore you with the specifics of said march, for it would lose your interest quite quickly. The march was a repetitious one; get up, march, march, march, maybe stop for an hour to allow the soldiers a rest, then march, march, march, and then sleep. We rarely got food, and when we did I would not classify it as food. It was more like dirt mixed with sup. But it was something to eat, so we ate it.

We marched across mountains, we marched over rivers, we marched through forests, and we marched over plains. It was a long and strenuous march, and eventually I could no longer take it. And this is where my story begins.

As you already had found out, my loyal reader, this blog has not been updated for some time. That is, unfortunately for you, my fault, for I have been participating in something most would call insanity. This insane event? National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. The objective of NaNoWriMo is just what it sounds; write a novel in 30 days during the month of November. To be classified as a novel, your book must be at least 50,000 words. Which means that you have to write 1,667 words every day in the month of November to reach 50,000 words on midnight of November 30. Now you can see why a) everybody calls it insanity and b) why I have not been updating my blog. I currently have 39,030 words written so far, so I am almost there. And now, I have a treat just for you, my special reader! Here is a long (2244 words long) excerpt from my wonderful novel for your enjoyment! I hope you find it to be exciting and enjoyable!

From my NaNoWriMo Novel for 2009:

Nassan nodded, and said, “Prepare the men! Marko, I will leave you with care of Jamil, I must attend to my crew. I’ll see you on the other side, I know that you are in good hands! Good luck, my friend!”

I screamed back to Nassan as he ran to the top of the bridge of the deck, “Good luck to you, too!”

I then turned to Jamil and asked, “So, how does this work?”

He handed me the ring of three pistols that he was holding and said, “Here, take these. Place them over your head like a necklace like mine. You’ll need them.”

“Why?”

“You have three because pistols take a long time to reload. If you have three, you can shoot three in quick succesion.”

“Alright, I get that, but what do I do when we get on the ship? And more importantly and the more pressing matter at this time, how are we going to get on the ship?”

Jamil smiled and said, “You’ll be fine. Just follow my lead.”

With that, I heard several large “BOOMs” crack the air from cannons on the three ships that had, at this point, encricled and surronded the doomed Venetian vessel. Out from each cannon flew what looked like a large arrow, connected to a long metal chain. Each of these “metal arrows” from each ship connected with the Venetian ship in the middle, each hitting one of the sails. We couldn’t see the surface of the ship because the sand storm was still going on, but the sails were easily visible.

Jamil motined for me to follow him up to the bridge of the ship, and he hastily climbed the stairs to the bridge. The rest of the crew followed suit. On the bridge, we seemed to form a sort of line in front of the cannon connected to the arrow that was connected to the ship. Nassan, who was in front of the cannon with his sword held high and his pistols around his neck (in fact, if I was a Venetian I would probably be cowering at fear in this point from such an intimidating sight), said, in his booming voice, “My friends! My comrades! My fellow corsairs!” He pointed his sword to the ship below. “This is your prize! Aboard, we will found countless riches for us to behold. As usual, it will be split up proportionaly after all the goods have been secured and recorded. But now is not a time to worry about that! We are the Corsairs of the Rose! We answer to nobdoy, take orders from nobody, and steal from everybody!” With that, a mighty cheer erupted from each of the three ships. “Here, today, my fellow corsairs, we will take this Venetian ship, and we will become ever richer! Follow me, my friends! Follow me to glory!”

The crews of the three ships once again cheered in joy, and watched as Nassan placed his sword over the metal chain connceted to the cannon, hel one side with his left and one side with his right, and slid down the metal chain across the gap between the Venetian vessel and the flagship of the Corsairs of the Rose and dropped down onto the deck of the Venetian ship and out of view. We all followed after him, and the line gradually got smaller as more men slid down the chain. The line got smaller and smaller until Jamil, who was in front of me in line, was in the front. He placed his sword over the chain, smiled, and said, “Here we go!” as he slid off onto the ship.

I, rather reluctantly, placed my sword over the chain and slid down in a similar fashion. For the few seconds I spend flying through the air at breathtaking speeds, I felt an exhilerating rush of energy. I then promptly landed on the deck of the Venetian deck, and what I saw surprised me.

What I saw was a bunch of ruthless corsairs just standing around an empty deck looking clueless and confused. Not a single Venetian was in sight. I walked up next to Nassan and Jamil, just in time to hear the report of two corsairs who walked out of the captains quarters on the ship.

One of the two corsairs reported to Nassan, “There appears to be nobody aboard, sir. According to the captain’s log, the crew abonded ship shortly after they left port.”

Nassan nodded and said, “Never the less, we can never be too cautious. Send a few members of the crew to the lower levels. I want every part of this ship checked!”

“Right away, sir!” The two corsairs said in unison.

Jamil turned to Nassan and stated, “Very strange, this is. Where are the Venetians? Usually we get some sort of fight!”

“Patience is key, Jamil. Our Venetian friends may show up soon enough,” replied Nassan.

As he finished that sentace, we heard gunshots coming from the lower levels. Immediatly after the gunshots, the crew sprung to life, aiming all their pistols at the door to the lower deck. The problem was, they were only ready for several Venetians to burst out of the door, and not from the uncovered position; behind us.

Suddenly, gunfire erupted from both the front and behind the corsairs. “AMBUSH!” screamed Jamil as we all rushed for cover. I grabbed one of my pistols from my neck, and shot into the crowd of attacking Venetians. A man named Chris Farlow was the first to fall. My bullet hit him clean through the chest, peircing a whole directly in his right lung. Blood gushed out of the wound as he fell, and his life was ecstiguished forever.

The chaos was absolute, corsair and Venetian alike exchanging gunfire across the deck of a ship. I spotted a man with a musket, aiming it towards me. I rolled out of the path of the bullet just in time, and the man’s (whose name was Joey Basile) bullet ripped into the wood of the area I was standing in less than a second ago. I took my second pistol and hastily aimed it at this Joey Basile, and pulled the trigger. The metal ball ripped through the man’s arm, and he fell to the ground, mortally wounded.

As more people released the bullets from their guns, the air now not only was filled with sand, but was filled with smoke as well, reducing the visibility to almost zero. I could hear the screams of the dying all around me and the explosions of guns vibrating across the ship. Throughout the haze, I spotted a lone apple rolling along the floor. I ran for it, but just when I was about to grab it and enjoy a quick and delicious snack in the middle of the firefight, a woman named Nida Saeed snatched it from the ground. I quickly took my kilji and stabbed it through her chest as she promptly fell to the ground, taking the apple with her. I picked up the apple from her dead body, wiped the blood off of it, and began to eat it.

As I sat down to eat my apple, I watched as a man named Jason Boehm was thrown off the ship by a corsair and into the chilly waters below. The chances of surviving in this storm were almost zero. I witnessed Brian and Issac fend off two ruthless corsairs as they dueled across the deck of the ship. One of the corsairs took out his pistol and blew Issac’s stomach open, who had run in front of Brian to save him. Brian then charged the corsair who shot his comrade Issac and stabbed his kilji through the corsair’s head. Brian was then promptly stabbed by the corsiar’s comrade, and the three bodies fell limp onto the ground.

More carnage ensued, and in the carnage, a confused lady by the name of Katie Kraft ran out into the fighting. She tried to fight off a corsair, but she was quickly thrown into the icy waters below. Simon Alparaz charged a corsair with his pistol and shot him square in the heart, instantly killing him. As Simon ran for the bridge, I spotted Jamil, who threw his sword at Simon. The sword sliced Simon’s neck, making him instantly fall to the ground dead.

Adam Oxild, maddened by his Venetian comrade’s death at the hands of Jamil, charged Jamil with his European blade. It was long and thin, no match for Jamil’s superior curved kilji. Jamil was also a better swordsmen, and made quick work of Adam. Nick Golowko also charged Jamil, this time first shooting his pistol at Jamil and then throwing a small knife. Jamil easily doged both the bullet and knife, and was able to stab Nick in the chest. Blood spurted out of the wound as Nick slowly bled to death on the floor of the Venetian ship.

My apple now finished, I decided it was time to rejoin the fray and take care of the Venetians once and for all. I spotted a shooter aiming his musket at Jamil, so I charged the man, who was called Mike Savioe. I sliced at his shoulder just as he was about to pull the trigger and end Jamil’s life. Mike quickly fell to the ground in agony, and I finished him off by stabbing my kilji directly into his chest. A man named Ralph was also with Mike trying to pick off corsairs in the open, so I stealthily came up behind him and slit his throat with the knife Vlad had given me.

As I ran back down to the main deck, I watched as Charles Qian and David Measly fended Dan Chabaan. Dan was using the kilji of the corsairs, Charles and David the European rapier of the Venetians. Dan stabbed Charles in the eye, and he quickly fell. David, enraged by Charle’s death, is able to slice open Dan’s chest. As Dan dies before David’s eyes, he throws his sword at David, hitting him in the heart and killing him instantly.

At this point in the skirmish, blood was making a large pool of dark red over the deck. I stepped in the sticky blood with my shoe, and it stained it red. I spotted Dustin Tan trying to shoot one of the corsairs, so I threw my knife at him, hitting him in the left lung. He was quickly incapacitated, and I ran up to him and retrieved the bloodied knife from his lung as he suffocated to death.

As the battle progressed, it became move and move evident that the Venetian’s defeat was close at hand. But not until a few last waves to face. Mike Fitton appeared on the scene, and ruthlessly cut down three corsairs before coming to face Nassan, who was previously engadged fighting a tag team of two skillful Venetian fighters; Brett Irwin and Brian Smith. Jamil and I made eye contact and nodded to each other. We both ran towards Brett and Brian, and yelled to Nassan to take care of Mike.

Brian and Brett were able to fend off all of our attacks, so I hastily pulled out my last pistol and shot Brett square in the head, exploding it instantly. Flesh and gore hit Jamil and I’s faces, as well as Brian’s. Jamil, capitalizing on the situation, is able to jab Brian in the neck, which spurts out blood in every direction. Brian slowly falls to the floor in pain, bleeding to his death.

Meanwhile, Nassan was having no trouble dealing with Mike. Although Mike was a quick and fast fighter, Nassan simply flipped over Mike and stabbed him in the back, ending Mike’s life quickly. The slice cut through the spine of Mike, and his bones fell out of his back and littered the floor.

As Mike fell, Sophia Laurenzi bursts throw the doors, cutting down three corsairs with her sword in her wake. She kills two more corsairs before getting to Jamil and I. Suprisingly, she is able to fend off our attacks, but Nassan charges from behind and stabs her in the back. Sophia falls to the floor limp, blood pooring out of her body.

One final person walks through the door, but this time, the man is not armed. He simply says, “My name is Garrett Calcagno, and I am the captain of this ship. You have seen what the Venetians can do. Do not think of doing this again.”

He stood there, unfraid of us. Nassan did not care, and took his pistol, put it up to the captians head, and pulled the trigger. The metal bullet impacted his head, and killed the captain on the spot.

As I looked around to survey the carnage, Venetian and corsair body alike littered the ground. Blood stained the deck of the ship and every single person on it. My kilji sword, my three pistols hanging around my neck, my clothing, my shoes, and my bare skin were all drenched in blood.  The stench of decaying flesh and death was all around us, and the screams of the wounded and dying echoed all across the ship.

It was a horrid site. But through the chaos, the death, the sadness, Nassan raised his sword high, and cheered. And his crew followed. The Venetians were conquered, and now they could claim their prize from the vessel.

Hello loyal ReidMyBlog reader! It’s just began posting over at Gumball Tech, a great site about all things technology. If you have any interest at all, go ahead and check it out here! I just posted my Uncharted 2 review, and I know you want to read it it! Although I will be posting on Gumball Tech, don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about my loyal readers like you! I’ll still be posting regularly here, too. Thanks for your support!

Think you’re a Photoshop whiz? Think you’re the king of graphic design? Then you can help me out! As you’ve noticed, Reid! has recently moved to an external server, but is still using Wordpress.org. We’ve also changed names, to Reid My Blog. So, to go with the change, we’re putting out the call to all you design guru’s to create a new logo for Reid My Blog! The requirements? The image must be 1200 X 300 in pixels, it must contain the text Reid My Blog, and must be incredibly awesome. Other than that, the rest is up to you! Oh, and the reward? One, you’ll get a special section on the links page for you and you alone. Second, you’ll get a special mention in the post announcing the winner. And third, you’ll get the satisfaction that you beat a lot of other people on the Internet! Once you’ve got your design ready, just email me at solidreid@gmail.com! Good luck!

[WARNING: Major Rant By A Guy Who's Really Angry At Facebook Today Ahead, Proceed With Extreme Caution] Seriously Facebook. What the hell? You used to be so pure and simple and now… now I don’t even know what you are. You’re a mess. You’re in shambles. You’re overcrowded by useless apps and stupid online games about farms and the Mafia. You’re no longer Facebook, you’re the disabled, mentally challenged, and deformed child of Myspace and Twitter. Facebook, you suck.

First of all, I would like to explain why I feel the way I do. Facebook (originally called The Facebook) was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes as a way for college kids to connect. Back in 2004, MySpace ruled the social networking scene, but the times were ‘a changin’. The Facebook soon gained steam because of it’s ease of use and it’s clean and simple design. The Facebook dropped it’s name in 2005, finally able to purchase the domain http://facebook.com. It expanded to High Schools in 2005, and opened up for everybody in 2006. And since then, Facebook has taken off as the largest social network site on the internet.

And this is where the fun begins. Here’s a slideshow of Facebook’s profile evolution from 2005 to 2009. Tadaa! Notice a trend? It gets more and more complicated all the way up to the last one, which is Facebook Lite. Lite is basically a copy of Twitter, but we’ll get to that later. As you can see, up to 2006, Facebook’s profiles were simple and easy to read. Then, in 2007 the interface becomes extremely cluttered. Apps start appearing, the navigation bar is confusing, and it’s just way too complicated. 2008 brings no more improvement, just making Facebook more complicated. In fact, it sparked a whole controversy about how Facebook changed it’s UI suddenly and without warning. Zuckerberg was able to contain the damage, but only barely. Over 7 million people joined groups to change the UI back to what it was, demonstrating Facebook’s inability to communicate with it’s users. So, pretty much, Facebook’s profiles were messed up from 2007-2009 (they still are). But, a new type of profile was shown in the last slide, Facebook Lite (http://lite.facebook.com/). Facebook Lite is basically a “we give up” scream from Facebook to the guys over at Twitter. Facebook Lite is Twitter. It’s got the same feel, same look, and same function. And I hate Facebook for it. You don’t copy Twitter and get away with it. That’s not the only thing Facebook has stolen from Twitter. Just today, @ replies, the same ones you see in Twitter, are being released on Facebook. You can now link to an account on Facebook in the same exact way as you can in Twitter. This cannot stand.

As you can see, I hate Facebook. Copying Twitter isn’t the only thing I hate Facebook for. Remember the whole Terms of Service fiasco back in February? Facebook wanted to have the rights to any and all of the content you posted on Facebook. Of course there was public outcry, and the Terms of Service was changed back to what it was. But with this change, we can safely assume that it will be rolled out once again some time in the near future. Once again, this illustrates Facebook’s horrible public relations and how it doesn’t really care about it’s users.

The final thing I loathe about Facebook is the endless amount of apps and quizzes. I @#$%ING HATE QUIZZES! They bombard your notifications with “So and so took the quiz. Compare your results now!” The games are no better. Your timelines are filled with things like “Joe found a Lonely Black Sheep. Oh no!” Why do I care that Joe found a Lonely Black Sheep? Does that inform me? Does that enlighten me about anything? Does that make my day better? No, it just tells me that Joe is a loser because he spends his life playing Farmville and taking Facebook quizzes about when he’s going to die, the first letter of his true love, and what Twilight character he is most like. If Facebook doesn’t get rid of quizzes and games showing up in the timeline, it’s going to gradually lose users to another social network, be it Twitter or something that has yet to be founded.

The name of the game for social networks or any website is simplicity. If you’re website’s not simple, it’s going to fail. Take Twitter for example. It’s the simplest website out there, but it took off and now is also one of the most popular websites. Originally, Facebook was simple. It was simple enough to take away MySpace’s audience, because MySpace had become too complicated. But now, Facebook has become too complicated, and Twitter looks poised to take away it’s audience. Facebook, your time has come. You have copied Twitter to the point of becoming a virtual clone of Twitter. You’ve neglected your users and cluttered your interface. You’ve allowed yourself to be filled with useless apps and ads in every empty space. I’m sorry Facebook, but it’s over. Facebook, you suck.

[Update] It turns out that a “Hafenschweinswal” is a type of dolphin. Thanks @wondroushippo!

On Tuesday, September 15, the game that has been awarded E3’s “Best of Show” by Gamespot, Gamespy, and IGN, as well as E3’s “Most Innovative Game,” “Best Original Game,” and “Most Pleasant Surprise” by multiple other gaming websites will be released. It’s not being released on the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox 360. The PC or the Wii will not be graced by it’s presence. It’s called Scribblenauts, it’s being released on the Nintendo DS, and it’s going to change everything.

Your first thought coming to mind right now is probably “Why is Scribblenauts so special?” Well, you control a guy, named Maxwell, whose objective is to collect these objects called “Starites.” Sounds like a generic side-scrolling game, right? If you thought that, you’d be wrong. It may sound like a normal game from what I’ve told you, but Scribblenauts has something no game has ever had before; you can summon any object you want. Say you want to summon a Robot Hamster. All you have to do is write, either with a keypad or the stylus on the DS, “Robot Hamster” and it will appear on screen. And no, “Robot Hamster” isn’t the only thing you can summon. You can call the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” and a massive “Mecha” robot to duke it out on screen. You can summon “God” to fight a lowly “Atheist.” You can get a “Hafenschweinswal” (I have no idea what that is either) or a “Kleinuhringar” (an Icelandic donut). In fact, Scribblenauts has over 22,800 words you can call.

This seems great and all, but how is this going to change the video game market? First of all, this could propel portable titles to be thought of with the same prestige as home console games. This was the first time in the history of gaming that a portable title won E3’s “Best of Show” award by not one, not two, but three of the largest and most respected video gaming sites on the internet. With the popularity of games on cell phones, coupled with this prestige for portable titles, it looks like gaming on the go is going to finally get the respect it deserves. Scribblenauts will also affect the video game market as a whole. It’s going to revolutionize the market the way LittleBigPlanet wanted to. For those of you who are not gamers, LittleBigPlanet was a PS3 exclusive title that allowed users to create their own levels and share them with the rest of the world. This was great in concept, but the “LittleBigPlanet” where you shared you levels became crowded with levels about giant dicks, levels that just helped you get all the trophies in the game, and horrible half-finished levels about nothing. Being a PlayStation exclusive wasn’t helping LittleBigPlanet either; it only sold around (insert number of copies sold here) copies . It wanted to let creativity run free, and it failed.

Scribblenauts, on the other hand, has got a lot more going for it than LittleBigPlanet. First of all, it’s for the Nintendo DS, not the PS3, so it’s got a much larger audience. As of August 5, 2009, the Playstation 3 is 24 million strong worldwide. Compare that to the Nintendo DS, which has over 107 million followers worldwide. That’s over 4 times as large as the PS3’s install base. That give Scriblenauts an infinetly larger audience, and the potential to sell way more copies. LittleBigPlanet sold around 1.3 million copies, which means that 5.5% of PS3 owners bought LittleBigPlanet. If Scribblenauts matches LBP’s 5.5%, that would mean they would sell 5.885 million copies. That would be an incredible figure for a portable game to reach, and would net a hell of a lot of sales for the developers of Scribblenauts. But more important than the money (wait, there’s something more important than money?) is that it will reach so many more people. More people will be exposed to what you can do in a video game, and developers will be forced to create more innovative and creative titles, because the public will demand it. Scribblenauts could usher in a new era of gaming creativity, and put an end to the generic FPS game or the standard platformer.

Of course, I’m being way too overly optimistic. Scribblenauts could also only sell 500,000 copies, lose all the hype, and not do anything to the gaming market. Whatever the outcome, I know is that Scribblenauts is going to be awesome, and I am definitely picking it up when it comes out on Tuesday. Will you?

If you want to check out Scribblenauts’ full dictionary, complete with all of it’s 22,802 words you can write in the game, go to here.

I love real time strategy (RTS) games. I love the thrill of building up an impregnable fortress; watching your villagers expand your economy, attacking an enemy with a well rounded army. Those are the things I crave in an RTS. When I was young, I constantly played games like Age of Empires II, Starcraft and Rise of Nations (I still play them today), as well as Empire Earth, Command and Conquer, Homeworld, and Age of Mythology. Those games define the “classic” era of RTS games. Nowadays, the classic RTS games are impossibly hard to find. It seems that the industry has hit a slump. Sure, there are some bright spots (like Sins of a Solar Empire), but overall there are very few RTS games on the market. How did the RTS market come to this? How did a flourishing genre suddenly grind to a halt? The answers are very unsettling.

Before we dive into the story of the real time strategy game, I would first like to bring those who have absolutely no idea what I’m talking about up to speed. The concept of Real Time Strategy is actually very simple. The RT of Real Time Strategy consists of Real and Time, which means that the entire game happens in real time; enemies, allies, and you all play at the same time, there are no turns like the Civilization and Total War games. I’m not saying that turn based games are bad, but I find the RTS genre more appealing. The S of Real Time Strategy is Strategy, which means that you actually have to think while you are playing. The basic template of a RTS is you have your town center which produce villagers. Villagers can construct buildings or collect different resources which are needed to create buildings and units. The normal three resources are food, wood, and stone. Depending on the time period, some games also add other resources such as oil. You have three basic types of military units; infantry, cavalry, and archers. They use a rock paper scissors like system; archers can kill infantry easily, infantry can cut down cavalry, and cavalry can decimate archers. There are usually multiple ages, and with each age comes new units and unit upgrades, new and improved buildings, and more advanced technology. And that is your basic RTS.

For years RTS after RTS changed up the formula for an RTS game a little bit to make each game different and enjoyable in their own right, but not so different that someone who has played an RTS game before would have a difficult time adjusting to the different gameplay. Soon, games like Rome Total War took elements of the RTS genre and the turn based strategy genre and blended them together, and this was all fine. But soon, companies were trying to fit a full RTS on a console with a controller instead of a PC and a mouse. This was a horrible mistake, and soon extremely simple RTS games for consoles disgraced the RTS name. Gamers decided that rather than thinking during a video game, they just wanted to kill people mindlessly. The RTS market was all but destroyed by the FPS (First Person Shooter) and TPS (Third Person Shooter) genre(s). And then, the RTS genre suffered it’s biggest blow; Ensemble Studios, the makers of the Age of Empires and Age of Mythology series closed it’s doors. It seems like the era of RTS games is over.

So I sit here in anguish, distraught that my favorite genre is on it’s last legs. The RTS game is slowly withering away.  A genre that prided itself on strategy and superior thinking is dying because of our increasing laziness. Instead of thinking, we just want to run and shoot. And with the RTS, so goes the pride of intellectual gamers.