Captain Failburger was a man slightly portly stature with a thick, grey mustache. Gate Keepers are men of somewhat unique attire, and Captain Failburger tended to dress himself in the furthest end of that spectrum, as he was very partial to very small shorts that exposed nearly the entirety of his leg. It should be noted that Gate Keepers are famous for their practical assistance to travelers, known for their knowledge and ability to handle seemingly any matter presented to them. But their requests came to naught, as Captain Failburger was a Gate Keeper of selective sensibilities. Annoyed with the plight of Civicus, he refused the travelers aid. Though he was fully capable of aid, he denied it out of spite.

The travelers, shocked and offended by the Gate Keeper, sought out aid from their fellow travelers entering and leaving the Land of Palomar. Each of the party took turns trying to sooth the beast in various ways, but the party couldn’t find a solution on their own. With various herbs and ointments, friendly strangers tried to help Civicus as best they could, but none could resolve his ailment. As a last resort, the travelers sent out a message requesting aid from an Alchemic Blacksmith. This blacksmith was a part of the Guild of the Three Ayes, a group of Alchemy practicing smiths who could cure any problem with a beast of burden, and their reach of aid was nearly universal.

The adventurers waited for their aid, all distraught from their predicament. Jy’alcun used a druid remedy using elvish bread stuffed with various other foods that set the stomachs of the travelers and lifted their spirits in kind as well. After waiting, the Smith arrived, and brought a large contraption, with many wheels and cables attached to it. With his unique tools and ointments, he was able to bring Civicus out of his deranged state, and left soon after with his Guild Machine.

With no help or good will from Gate Keeper, the adventurers finally entered into the land of Palomar. The found a suitable area to set up camp, and go exploring. They journeyed out into the wilderness, finding many once mighty trees fallen upon the ground. Edwusk and Jy’alcun, having strange sexual fascinations with things resembling the male member, stood by these trees and told of how in another life, perhaps beyond the grave, they would have members of such monstrous might, and of what a glorious life it would be.

After witnessing the native mysteries and wonders of the land, the adventurers were coming to an end of their mid-day expedition and approaching camp. Am’aldir, lost in his Bard songs and etchings of the forest, walked forth, leading the group, unwary of the ground. As fate would have it, Am’aldir stepped on a piece of ground, narrowly missing the tail of deadly serpent by only a few gold pieces length. Adriminor, trailing behind, realized what lay before him, and brought the group to a halt. Utilizing the innate instinct of his mountainous people, Adriminor frightened the vile serpent away. Yet, as fate would have it again, the serpent seemed to move toward Am’aldir, as if the forests of Palomar itself cautioned the group against such potential carelessness again. The land was, indeed, a place of trouble at each turn, and yet strangely merciful, as the group would especially learn in the coming darkness of night.

The party arrived from their foot expedition into the mysterious lands tired and exhausted, especially after their incident with the Gate Keeper. They slept in their make shift abodes, recovering, and awoke near dusk. As the sun began to descend into the mountainous horizon of Palomar, it began to be a land of vast, deep darkness. Realizing this, the party knew it was time to build a pyre, which they came prepared for. Adriminor brought out tinder and food for the pyre, constucted it, and began to set it burning just as the sun began to drift away behind view. The group sat back around the pyre, comforted by the small flame in front of them, a flame that each of them felt would build into a blaze. But alas, the tinder would not catch, no matter what the party tried. Marlkus examined the wood, and recognized a rogue’s trick. He came to realize that while the party was waylaid at the Gate of Palomar by Civicus’ illness, Captain Failburger, in his seemingly infinite spite, used an old Rogueish trick on the party’s wood that kept it from holding flame. Realizing this, the group desperately tried any thing they could to start their fire in the midst of the darkness of night, deep in the woods of Palomar.

It was at this moment, when the deep darkness seemed to penetrate the very hope and spirit of the hearts of the adventurers, that Edwusk brought forth a mighty artifact. Hailing from the tribe of the Tamayohrn, Edwusk was came from a long line of dwarves held to a sacred task: They were Bearers of the Flame. Edwusk was the keeper of great artifact known as the Sentry Lantern. With great skill and generationally passed craftmanship, Edwusk was able to summon fort a flame from nothing, and placed this flame within the ancient Sentry Lantern. The Lantern shone forth, lighting the darkness as if was a pyre ten times it’s size. It was with this new found light and hope, that the adventurers ventured forth to find a way to fend off the cold and darkness of that unforgiving night in the woods of Palomar.

Edwusk, Bearer of the Flame, Weilder of the Sentry Lantern, led the group as they entered the deep of the woods. They asked other travelers if they knew what could do, but none had an answer. All the could say was to go find the Great Sage. It was with this that they came upon a small cabin with soft light coming from the window. Hesitantly, the party beckoned anyone inside to come out. A very small, old woman came forth, speaking in small clusters of words. The party asked the woman if she was the Great Sage, and she simply nodded. The party then explained their situation and, as if responding to a child’s trifle, the Sage offered them a mystical material that would set fire to even their cursed wood. She spoke very little, but knew much. She never exited her cabin, and never made contact with the party, only spoke her few words and gave them the item they needed. She stood beside a dog as ancient as her, which simply lay at the door and stared wide eyed at them when they came. And just like that, the party left the Great Sage of Palomar with mystical materials, venturing back in the light of the Edwusk’s Sentry Lantern.

When they finally arrived, the party began to burn the materials the Sage had offered them, and their fire began to actually burn. This fire was so pure and cleansing, that it burned through even the wood cursed by Captain Fucknuts Failburger. They repeatedly added to materials to the fire, building it to a huge pyre. Adriminor began to cook in the ancient ways of man, using the roaring fire itself to cook mounds of ground bovine and strips of swine belly to a crisp, while topping it with a strange hardened curdled milk filled with fungus, a food unique to the tribe of men. Afterwards, the party’s decadence seemed to strangely build through out the night, and Jy’alcun made soft wheat cakes filled with cacao butter, which was then wrapped around sweet, melted gelatin. It was in this food induced stupor, that party came to realize that Palomar was a land of both great peril and yet quiet, subtle mercy, of twistedly villainous leaders and ancient mystics of untold power and kindness. The party feasted that night in ways only Gods normally do, in celebration of having ventured forth into Palomar, met the darkest aspects of the land, and walked away. Conquerors.

With nothing better to do with my summer, I saw on the band’s website about joining the Street Team. I figured they had a sound worth exploring so I decided to lend a hand. I had a friend join a street team for other bands, and she totally had a blast investing time into it, so I figured… why not? I joined the Owl City street team with zero expectations, only to be surprised that I could get free credits for these things called orders. You can check them out at their website at http://owlcity.fancorps.com

So if you’re a fan of Owl City, check it out and do something productive with your summer. After all, as an artist, what can be more inspiring that quality music?

Check out Owl City’s newest single ‘Fireflies’ by clicking here

Anyways, lesson learned. When you make a website, have a copy of ALL your files on your desktop just as they are organized on your web host’s directory.

Googling the problem, I realize that I am not the only user that is made disgruntled by the unreliable host. Checking out other’s blogs, yahoo answers, just to name a few sources, I have discovered the web host is completely unreliable. So another lesson learned, do your research. Before investing time or money into anything, read reviews and testimonials. It’s a rather simple process, just click on your little search bar, and type in the product or company’s name + the word “review”. Forums are always a great way to troubleshoot your problems and get an idea of what you are actually investing in. Bad reviews and 20 times more useful than 20 good reviews. Always dig and search for those bad reviews because their biggest problem with the product or service just might be yours.

I had the tools I need, usable interface and navigation, and most important, for a free host, NO ADS. Perhaps I should just invest in a domain name and host with my own cash (which does not exist). And now, my site no longer exists. There went many afternoons of coding, image resizing and content editing. I am back to square one, just great…

Listening to music by Fatboy Slim

Techno Remixes

Watching movies with soundtracks by Tyler Bates and Brian Tyler.

Looking through Yu-Gi-Oh cards

Looking through my Magic: The Gathering playing cards

Researching online illustrators

and last but not least, milk and cookies =)

For this past weekend I’ve been working on my website, copying and pasting HTML code and script to make everything work and presentable. I decided to take the minimal approach because minimal are my web design skills. Either way I think it makes a nice site that will emphasize my portfolio once everything is posted on the web. I’m still deciding what to put up on the website. I have a friend who is a photographer who will take headshots of me for this blog (maybe website… I’m iffy about putting my face on the web outside of myspace or facebook).

As far as the website is coming along, I’m still working on filling it with content. My résumé, or curriculum vitae, is still unavailable as I don’t have much to mention. But I have a set template for a client reference page. I’m pretty excited about how it turned out. As far as the next thing in my agenda, getting some links to other blogs on here. =)

It’s all good honest work that takes up my afternoon. My plan is to have my site finished by the summer so I’ll be able to upload projects and other images. Also, hopefully soon I’ll be able to create a sketchbook gallery so you’ll see how I work and develop my own ideas.

Here’s a screen shot of what I have so far: