Hello everyone. Fellow members, lurking guests, anyone reading this topic; greetings to all of you. This may sound like a generic introduction; perhaps too generic for someone claiming to be Radical. And it is. I started this topic in Microsoft Word at 13:00 GMT on July 10, 2007. It has taken me fifteen minutes already to perfect this introductory paragraph, and even now I don?t completely like what it has become. I barely know what the purpose of this topic altogether is. But I do know its goal will be to knot all the strings I left untied when I ?retired? for a year. This is my attempt to gather all my thoughts and settle them. This is my rant on what I?ve done, what I?m doing, and where I will go from there.

The first paragraph is always the hardest. And I?ve found that it always goes downhill from there. For example, this following excerpt is the first paragraph of a story I tried writing a few months ago:
?I suddenly found my consciousness in a void. There was no existence outside my own thoughts. The infinite reach of total nothingness prompted a gasp of horror, triggering me to open my eyes. I felt life return to a body previously unnoticed, as warm air diffused into its empty lungs. My senses were still mere blurs, but I gradually gained more awareness of the reality growing around me, relative to the quickening return of my perceptions.?
I have been told several times that this description of waking up (Kudos to everyone who figured out what I was narrating) is, in short, great. Immediately after that the person comments on how the rest (I don?t plan on copying that also) isn?t as good. I completely agree too; the four or so following paragraphs that I wrote are not as good as this first one. I spent too much time trying to make the waking process as long as possible. I literally did spend about an hour on the first paragraph, crafting it slowly and intently, rewriting a portion of it every few minutes. In the end I decided to scrap the project, not wanting to put as much effort into every paragraph. Though I obviously wouldn?t have to; the first paragraph is always the hardest.

This entire topic so far is disproving my original idea that the first paragraph is the hardest. I haven?t continued work on this in fifteen days. (Ironically, when I finally did decide to open it today, it was 13:00 GMT.) I have lost count of how many times I have started writing this third paragraph and then scrapped it, finding some petty flaw deep within it. Please though, don?t assume when I say ?deep within? that I always write out the entire paragraph; half the time I barely finish the first sentence. I am struggling to figure out what it is that?s preventing me from writing this topic to its fullest potential. I know that for it to reach its potential I will eventually have to stop writing these Introductory Paragraphs and get to the point, but there is still so much I want to say before I say anything important. First of these, I have been planning on conveying the point that I haven?t said anything relating to the point of this topic yet. Starting this paragraph with that basis always lead to a choppy result; but this time I was able to introduce the fact midway into the paragraph, and I am quite proud of myself for it. Almost as much as I am for my Waking Up paragraph; which leads me to a great segue?

Recently I have had more and more enthusiasm toward the releases of various books or movies that interested me, such as Transformers or Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And when I say I had more enthusiasm for those things, it means that I was online lurking on various fan sites for the subjects, and that I saw Transformers on the first showing and bought Deathly Hallows at midnight on the Twenty-first. I finished Deathly Hallows in two days of nonstop reading (I stopped to eat and sleep of course). I don?t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn?t read the book yet, so the remainder of this section will be written in the smallest font allowed by the SIZE tag. The beginning of Chapter 35, King?s Cross, featured Harry slowly regaining his senses and consciousness as he wakes up. Exactly the way I had tried to do in my story, except Rowling handled it perfectly. I found that little coincidence both funny and aggravating that she perfected the description before me. And with that, I am done ranting, and the real topic can begin.

In the last year my activity at Omnimaga was nearly nonexistent. It all started back around April 2006, when hype was building for the next installment in the main Pok

Damn dude, that is a farking long post. x_X Now that you mention it I haven't seen you around in awhile. WB.

Thanks everyone, I'm gonna try to stay back this time. But there are so many members that I have no idea who they are o.o

Another random bit of irony; as soon as I posted that I got an idea for another project. Maybe not one that I would attempt myself, but definitely something that sounds feasible...

I will, when I get around to it. First I have to prove to myself that I'm good enough with Basic/xLib; then I'll make z80 a priority.

Inactivity: the leading cause of death on forums...

I owe a lot of people time now