Category — Hockey

I was going through old folders on my iBook tonight, looking for large files to get rid of, when I came across some fliers I had made for a few of my student radio shows while at Grand Valley State University.

Fair warning, this could get geeky.

My favorite part is the horrible clone brush job in the upper right hand corner

Ah yes. The Electric Challenge of the Powerslaves, a title that was not only a reference to the Go-Bots, but also Iron Maiden’s seminal 1984 album, Powerslave. Oh, here’s a live video of the title track. Better still, the entire background of the flier is the cover from Dio’s The Last in Line album. These fliers are a great time capsule of my Photoshop skills in college. I had probably only just learned the program at this point. Oy. I did this show with my buddy Erik.

The “premise” of this show, even if there was ever such a thing, was a combination of late night talk radio and music. All three of our listeners enjoyed it. In all seriousness, one of our friends commented that he enjoyed our varied musical tastes. Erik would play some Joy Division and I would follow it up with Iron Maiden. Hilarious.

Moving on.

This one was a bit better, look at all those images in the text!

Next up was Büllit Bëlt, my “old school” heavy metal show. This was a solo affair and a decent step in my Photoshop know-how. I had learned how to add images to text (and how to bevel/emboss said text). I seem to remember painstakingly cutting that flying V guitar and the ring of fire out of their respective original images. I also tracked down a Metallica font (called Pastor of Muppets, I believe) as well as an Iron Maiden font (Metal Lord?). For those curious, the images in the text are L to R: Eddie from Iron Maiden, the Motorhead logo, the cover of Dio’s Holy Diver and a Slayer album.

Next!

This is probably the best looking of the three, design wise.

Oh, Blades of Steel. My darling hockey talk show. Interestingly enough, it was a fairly landmark show at the time. WCKS was mainly music and a little bit of talk, but no one really did a sports show, let alone on hockey. They even did a story on me for the school paper. Obviously, this is just an ad for the Blades of Steel video game for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I didn’t have to do much, which was probably a good thing, but I did change “game” in “the hottest game on ice” to “show.” That took some creative Photoshop work. I got the S, H and O from “hottest” but I had to swipe and flip the M from “game” to complete show. I was pretty happy with that.

Ah, college radio. Good times, good conversation (well, not really, except when Erik was around). Doing LansingNext with Julielyn is bringing back some of those memories and that is part of the reason I am enjoying the show so much (and like a million times more people are listening).

Yes, the holiday shopping season is upon us, <sarcasm>woo hoo</sarcasm>.

You can buy that special someone(s) a copy of my novel, The Magic of Eyri, through Lulu, Amazon and Barnes & Noble (you can even go in any physical book store and give the ISBN 978-0615145280 and they should be able to order it for you).

A friend made my week by ordering ten copies to give out as gifts.  Any day I have to sign ten copies of my novel is a good day.

signing ten copies of the magic of eyri at once.

So don’t hesitate, g’head and order a few dozen copies of your own. And if you live in Lansing and want ‘em signed, let me know.

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In other Magic of Eyri news, episode 015 of the free podcast version, “Every Which Way but Uth,” is now online.  Download!

And remember that I’m not releasing any episodes in December (trying to build up a stockpile of episodes and to give myself a bit of a break).  Episodes will resume on the first Wednesday in January 2010 (the 6th).

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Here’s a digital digest of my other writings wandering aimlessly ’round the Internet:

• Save money by ordering a la carte at Los Tres Amigos, Examiner.com, 11.24.09
• Make the lunch buffet at Mumbai in East Lansing a regular stop, Examiner.com, 11.25.09
• And now for something completely different-breakfast at the Holiday Lanes bowling alley,
• This week’s High Noon Fantasy Hockey, IllegalCurve.com (11.23.09)

I decided that the Magic of Eyri Podcast is going to take December off as a “holiday” break.  December is usually rather crazy and I’ve been thinking of giving myself a bit of a rest anyway.  However, I won’t stop working on episodes.  After This Wednesday’s episode (“Every Which Way But Uth”), the next episode will be released on the first Wednesday in January.

The month off from releasing episodes will help me built up a bit of a buffer so that I’m not worrying about releasing episodes week by week.  My goal is to have at least two episodes totally finished by the first of the year, if not more (or at least some more scripts finished). I’ve been going full throttle on my free podcast since last Spring, so I figured I’ve earned a break. The less stress around Christmas, the better. I am looking forward to giving myself a bit of a breather–in a way, it is a Christmas present to myself.  I may take that time to re-record episode 001 (“A Shameless Summer“) as well.  It could certainly benefit from it, as I’ve become much better at producing episodes since then (if I do that, I’ll still keep the original version online, so one can compare and contrast).

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And here’s your weekly round-up of my various writings running wild around the back alleys of the Internet:

• Divide and conquer your hunger with the soup and sandwich combo at Soup Spoon Cafe, Examiner.com (11.16.09)
• Hold the cow and grab a spicy black bean burger at Michigan Brewing Company, Examiner.com (11.18.09)
• Find a fast, spicy lunch at Bangkok House, Examiner.com (11.19.09)
• This week’s High Noon Fantasy Hockey, IllegalCurve.com (11.16.09)

A busy week, but I got a bunch done. Episode 014 of the Magic of Eyri Podcast is online, so set yer phasers to DOWNLOAD.

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The big news of this past week is that the first draft of my next novel, working title Night of the Lonely Werewolf, is done. Yep, all 94,000+ words of it are finished.  I opted to print the dang thing out (all 499 pages of it, double-spaced at 12 point font) as I go through the editing process.  I’m glad I went this route, because I’ll at least have a hard copy of the first draft, and I like taking notes as I do that always important first read-through.  I may need to invest in more red pens.

I'm oldschool. Markin' up the paper with a bunch of red marks.

This is the novel I started for last year’s National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo).  Not happy that it took me almost a year to write the last 44,000 words after cranking out the first 50k in less than 30 days, but “thems the breaks.”

“Life happened” right after the holidays last year and I fell off the writing horse for a few months–but I dusted myself off and get right back on, spurs an’ all.  Getting that first draft finished is key, after that, things kind of fall in place.  But reaching that final goal of a workable first draft–no matter how good or bad it is–is super important.

I didn’t want to become a writer with a few half-finished novels lying around, so I’m happy that I soldiered on and finished this thing.  The interesting thing is that I got some of my better ideas after that six month dry spell, life’s funny that way.  I actually enjoy editing my novels and watching it change into something even better.

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And here’s your weekly round-up of my various writings infesting other parts of the Internet:

• Lansing’s International Flavor, Capital Gains (11.04.09)
• The Big O Mess at Grumpy’s Diner will put a smile on your face, Examiner.com (11.10.09)
• Photo tour of the Michigan Brewing Company Brewery, Examiner.com (11.11.09)
• Sip some apple cider at Decker’s Coffee Company, Examiner.com (11.12.09)
• This week’s High Noon Fantasy Hockey, IllegalCurve.com (11.09.09)

My first two articles as Lansing Restaurant Examiner are online.  Here’s the first, it is about the cappuccino at Restaurant Mediteran. My second story is about the yummy pumpkin bisque at Soup Spoon Cafe.

Some more great news: I am now doing a weekly column about fantasy hockey for the hockey blog IllegalCurve.com. My first column went online today. They pop up every Monday at noon (I turn them in Sunday night-ish).

I know what you’re thinking: where can I get an awesome hat like this dude? How the heck can he do all of these side things, along with his other freelance work, the podcast, his in-progress novel and his day job?

Answer: I’ll make it happen. There will be a bit of a learning curve as I get used to these added duties, but I think once I get in the habit things will get smoother. Also, as a person who works better under pressure and with deadlines, this will strengthen my time management skills.

I’m already getting better–I set up a Google doc today to act as a note pad for my hockey column during the week. I read about hockey daily anyway, and this way I’ll have a running tally of news and ideas–unlike last night when I had to spend a lot of time looking for stuff while working on my first column.

My second Examiner story went way smoother today as well.  I made the mistake of using the advanced publishing tool for the first story and it resulted in way more work than I needed to do. Heck, I wrote all of the Soup Spoon story and started a new story tonight while at the laundry mat. I’m confident I’ll do fine.

Yakkin’ ’bout my fantasy hockey team. Click on cut to read at own risk.

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