Monday, February 27, 2012

Goals - Fitness

Pushups - 30 x 2
Situps - 30 x 2
Pullups - 10 x 2(!!)
6ct Bodybuilders - 10

Explanation to follow soon. Coming along nicely.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Demon Awakens by RA Salvatore



The book and author were introduced to me by a very close friend. Normally stuck behind tech manuals and internet blogs I needed to get out and read some fiction. Trusting that judgment I gave this a shot.

The Demon Awakens is a fantasy novel. In most cases it reminds me a lot of LoTR. I love LoTR but it didn't stop me from reading this. Even though there are a few similarities it's not a repeat and still a good read. I plan on reading the rest of the trilogy soon.

The Demon Awakens starts out with 3 humans in their pre-teen stage of life. A tomboy named Jilesponie (Pony for short), her longtime friend and crush Elbryan, and a young monk named Avelyn. Pony and Elbryan share a kiss right before their small village is razed to the ground by a small group of giants and goblins. During the mayhem they get separated. One gets taken in by elves and the other a small family that owns a pub. Avelyn is a different story. He's from a different part of the world and doesn't know Pony or Elbryan. At an early age he's accepted into a very high order of monks for service to God. It's been his lifelong dream until it's shattered by some of the order. He steals away from the order and along his path meets up with one of the others.

These three will eventually be tasked to fight a demon that has been awakened by man’s neglect of his spirit and discipline. In my opinion this parallels our own battles. When we stray from any path of discipline and follow our basic instincts we release our own demons that will soon sink us. Unless we pick ourselves up and fight against them, we're doomed to failure. I'm not saying God should be everyone’s path, everyone has their own god or struggles. The direction we travel can either kill our demons or feed them. It's our choice.

I liked the interaction between the 3, especially the romance of Pony and Elbryan. The fight scenes are intense, detailed, and often graphic. Don't worry I won't spill the beans here. I enjoyed it and am pretty excited about the other 2 books in this series. I wasn't pleased with some of the turn out in the end but hey, sometimes loss is necessary and I believe never forever.

RA's written an enormous amount of books including another series called "Homeland: The Legend of Drizzt". From what I hear this is a pretty sweet series too. I won't be getting to it for a while though as I have several other books on deck ahead of this.

I'm currently reading "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", "Fermenting Revolution", and I have to have a tech manual in there to keep me honest; "System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed". The last ones a real tear jerker....

What's on deck?
The Hobbit, a must re-read before I see the movie.
Brewing Better Beer: Master Lessons for Advanced Homebrewers by Gordon Strong
Beginning SQL Joes 2 Pros - I need some SQL knowledge to strengthen my skills in Config Manager.

That's the short list.

Pick up "The Demon Awakens" on Amazon. As a surprise to me I bought the entire trilogy for my Kindle at a cost of $7.99.

Box.com is Giving Away 50GB of Storage Through Midnight Tomorrow

They did it for Apple users so now it's Android's turn.
Download the app for Android - here
Log in (or register for a new one) to your account.
Start sharing stuff via the cloud.

Piece of cake!