My Arkansas

Well as many of you may have noticed I have been really quiet here lately. Well for over 6 months now. It’s been hard, we have moved, I tried to jump start my business again but the pain from my disabilities and depression was just too much for me. I ended up closing it down and have been selling & giving away what is left trying to wipe out any debt I have left from it. I haven’t done much, I have some new chickens (egg layers) so we can save money on eggs every month and maybe one day I can give some away to my neighbors and family.

Fishing season is coming up and I can’t wait, nothing like sitting on the banks of a pond or a river and just enjoying the beautiful nature around us. I love fishing at Cassatot river, it’s an absolutely beautiful place. I caught alot of small fish the last time I was there but it was just a few months after a major flood so I figure alot of the fish got swept somewhere they can “rest”. The floods of 2011 were insane and I know it effected alot of people and animals great & small we don’t notice. Think of the amount of displaced fish that used to live in schools that got scattered because of those currents. 

Why do I fish? I get asked this alot, some people consider it cruel but I do my best to not catch the same fish. I catch & release, most of the time, and before I put it back in the water I give it the bait that was on the hook (if it is edible). That way that particular fish won’t be hungry again, not at least while I’m there. Don’t worry all you sport & food fisherman, I don’t typically fish anywhere major where there are alot of people. The fish I do keep (usually from my families pond) go into my aquarium and they have a simple life they never have to worry about droughts or predators. I go fishing to get away from some people and enjoy being one with nature when  I can, just because nature is very indiscriminate and will show me, you, or anyone else the beauty if your just looking for it. You have to look and think about more than just the view. Next time your out and about think about why that view is the way it is. Such as the amazing power and control of the sun, and how this massive body we live on spins just right and is set just right to support our life. How that river food chain is so perfect that is supports life of all kind, how the clouds are formed. I could go on for a long time about the beauty of nature. It is beautiful in many ways even when it’s dangerous but it’s natures way of balancing things out. The reason it rains is because too much water has evaporated and the sky can’t hold anymore along with clashing cold & warm fronts. It’s just amazing, all around. Check out my picasa album sometime you won’t regret it: https://picasaweb.google.com/screavics

I plan on updating the Picasa web album with photos as I get them. It’s a great place to share your best and worst moments and $5 / year for 20gb of storage you can’t beat that with a stick. Plus it gives me the opportunity to share what I see with all of you no matter what social engine you are on.

Look for upcoming updates as the better months come along and I will try to remember to give you all an update. Here are some amazing games, websites, and various other things I have came across in my time of silence.

Games:
http://projectzomboid.com/blog/ - Dedicated development team that works very hard for something they deeply believe in and support their community. I couldn’t ask for more 4 out of 5 will change to 5 out of 5 probably whenever multiplayer is released and I can share my enthusiasm with friends.

http://lordsofuberdark.com/ - Very nice looking indie game in very early development, can’t wait to see where it goes. I tried to buy a copy back when I wasn’t flat broke. Unfortunately the way my Paypal is setup I couldn’t do so. Unrated, haven’t played it myself due to the Paypal issues.

http://terraria.org/ - Posted this one before but I still recommend it. The developers have made alot of changes but they are taking a break from development for awhile. They have family they need to spend time with and I can’t blame them. Indie development especially in gaming is more than just a full time job. Really great survival adventure game 4 out of 5

http://www.minecraft.net/ - Posted this one before too but I still like it. Development seems to have slowed a little would like to see it come out with more content and better wiring but it’s still really fun sandbox creative game. 4 out of 5

http://goo.gl/ - Custom URL shortner from Google with programming API access for automated jobs. I love that I can keep track of my personally shortened URLs no rating cause it’s not a game.

Modern Warfare 3 - I play this on PC, people say it all looks the same but alot of cars look the same. You have to see what is on the inside to realize what you are missing. Coop on this game is really fun, just wish it were more than 2 player co-op. 4 out of 5

http://www.sauropodstudio.com/ - Company that is making “Castle Story” this game looks amazing and I can’t wait to try it out. Indie developers are just great, they are not tied up by the rules of a bigger company so they can make some of the best games & software out there. No rating since I have not played it yet

There are some more I can’t think of right now but if you know of a great game, website, or tools from indie or respectable publishers you think I would like please leave a comment below and thank you for reading.

Some of you may or may not be “of age” to have experienced the 2d side scrolling games that actually had more of replay ability rather than a lot of the 3D games we play these days. Terraria is one of those games that mean alot to me, it’s graphics are quickly “forgiven” by the enormous amount of things you can do and feature rich game play. The game is alot more challenging and has goals that you can accomplish if you feel like it. As with other sandbox games (if some of you have read) I really enjoy the feeling of being in control of the situation. There are certain things while playing Terraria you will feel “naked” without when you start over, like the grappling hook. I would highly recommend Terraria (www.Terraria.org) to my friend’s and if you like the sandbox gameplay styles like Minecraft then you will probably like Terraria. The patches so far have been speedy and feature rich with new ideas for the game.

Rift, my World of Warcraft replacement.

After a major falling apart multiple times in World of Warcraft I have finally found a game that I can give a second chance without being completely burned out while playing (or leveling). Rift (www.riftgame.com) is the game that replaces my feeling for MMO’s. You can make fun of me all you want but with MMO’s I’m more likely to spend less per month gaming than I am without a MMO. I’m a big co-op gamer, I love to play with my family & friend’s and this game does just that. I will have more on this game in the month’s to come as we experience more and more of the gameplay.

This year I have decided to go out in my yard and find my own worms for fishing and feeding my pet fish. I have found some monster worms that are about 6″-8″ long. They were found along my fence line next to the woods under a small layer of leaves. I ended up finding the most / best worms on the corner of my property in the shade where water “builds” up when it rains. I got a 10 gallon aquarium and put some leaves, old lettuce, and moss in there with some rocks on the bottom to prevent the water from “just sitting” in the dirt. Went to Home Depot and picked up a plexiglass piece and cut it to fit over the top. In the center I put a Fly Catcher sticky trap to catch any knats / flies that decide they want to hang out. It works really well and I have a good supply of worms. I avoid any areas where the ground has been sprayed for insects because I found out the hard way (by not thinking straight) that the dirt the worms eat actually kill my fish just by eating one worm. It doesn’t kill the fish that don’t eat the worm, but just the one that does.

Keep in mind if you make your own worm bed that you need to water your worms about every day. Just check the soil and make sure it’s kind of moist, don’t “drown them”. I don’t know if you notice but the worms must stay moist or they will die. You can see the harsh reality of this by looking around on a sidewalk or asphalt and seeing some dead dried worm. I am not sure why they do this but we tend to say they committed ”wormerside”.

Also, when keeping your worms make sure you change out a good portion of the dirt every once and awhile. I replace the dirt with some mulched leaves or just leaves in general. Put some vegetables in there that won’t stick too bad while “rotting”. To my surprise lettuce maintains it’s freshness while packed under some soil. This is a excellent food source for the baby worms, specially the stalk part on the big green leaf lettuce. Worms leave “castings” behind that are an excellent fertilizer for a garden or flower pot. I typically just sprinkle some on the surface so when I water the plant it will “drain” the nutrients down into the soil. That way I don’t put my plant into shock by re-potting it with worm castings. If you do re-pot the plant be very careful on the ratio of worm castings / soil you put in there. Sometimes (depending on what they ate) you can change the soil so much that it puts the plant into a deep shock or kills it. Some plants are really sensitive to soil change, an example of this would be cedar tree seedlings.

Well that’s enough of my “rambling” today, I hope you enjoyed it and found some of it informative. You can leave a comment below if you have a rant, comment, or question. Some of my information may not sound right to some people but I live off the older ways of living and it suits my purpose well.

I thought the bee population here was on the incline at the beginning of March but all of the sudden I seen almost no bee’s at all. I’m not sure what is happening but on my infinite quest for knowledge on anything that puzzle’s me I came across a documentary about this “phenomenon”. It’s called “Colony Collapse Disorder” and is well documented all around the world apparently. You can check it out here: http://www.vanishingbees.com/ I myself have considered taking up bee keeping to help try to bring the bee population back up. If any of you know me that is kinda… odd. I used to be allergic to bee’s, deathly allergic but over a period of years of allergy shots I no longer had a reaction on the “test” they give annually. I have been stung by a wasp here and there but not honey bee’s.

Anyways, this is a serious thought in my mind, of course as with all my pets, I will do research and study many different issues of bee keeping before I begin. I will research all avenues of bee keeping and look into how I can help with this situation. I plant flowers, keep a “green garden” and make sure I do not use pesticides that harm bee’s. Do your part too, we all need to or the bee’s will decline so much that it will hurt our food levels.

What can I say? I really enjoy Minecraft (http://www.minecraft.net) and the concepts behind it. I love games where you can do almost anything you want to in  them. Sandbox games are really fun and makes it even better when they are made multi-player. In Minecraft we built vast buildings that turned into a castle then that turned into a city as we progressed further out with a massive infrastructure under the city. From aqueducts to just tunnels with rail to travel around at different mining sites. There are something things that feel left out in Minecraft that I would like to see in the future. Whether it be built by the Mojang team or the vast number of modders out there, I would really like to see vehicles and construction equipment. The play style would be rather difficult for dump trucks / track loaders etc but it’s possible.

The Next sandbox…

The next sandbox game I have prowled around on the internet for is a game like “Digger Simulator 2011″ (http://www.excalibur-publishing.co.uk/digger2011.htm) but on a multiplayer scale and expansive worlds like Minecraft. I really think it would be a great idea and how the dirt / concrete in Digger Simulator feels more realistic. I was even able to bury one of my tractors by digging a massive hole then filling it full of concrete / dirt. I cut in sidewalks and was able to dig around buildings. This game was fun but just felt empty cause I was playing with myself and didn’t have a good area to work with like Minecraft.

A few just for fun games

I have been toying around with OECake (http://www.scuzzstuff.org/oe_cake/) and Powder Toy (http://powdertoy.co.uk/) and they are great physics toys. If you like to make different reactors / experiment with different elements these games fit the bill. You can build reactors, bombs, whatever in these games. In OECake I built more reactors / simulation devices so I could show how a plumbing system works. Pick them up, they are both free.

The wife and I went fishing out at lake Sylvia this week and it was pretty peaceful and we had a lot of fun. I didn’t catch much any keepers at least but I only fished in one area of the lake and just really to relax and unwind. The most fun came when my wife started feeding the fish with bread. So many little fish came up to the banks of the water just to eat some bread. This would be a great adventure for kids and adults alike. I had a time trying to identify the fish in the water without pulling them out.

When fishing out there keep in mind that there are some tighter restrictions at this lake and would highly recommend you check the latest Arkansas Game Commission fishing book before heading out here. Here is a exert from page 67 of the guidebook (2011 Edition):

“Catfish daily limit is five. Largemouth bass must be released immediately to the water. Lake Sylvia Campground parking area closes Oct.10-May 5. Lake access remains open unless otherwise posted. Call 501-321-5202 for more information. Open to fishing with rod and pole only. Pregnant women, women who may become pregnant, women who are breast feeding, and children under the age of seven should not eat largemouth bass 16 inches or longer because of mercury contamination. Others should not eat more than two meals per month of largemouth bass 16 inches or longer. Other fish may be eaten without restriction. For more information on mercury contamination, see Page 52″

You can get the guidebook by visiting almost any place that sells Fishing / Hunting Licenses or you can look at them online here: http://www.agfc.com/resources/Pages/ResourcesPublicationsGuidebooks.aspx