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White

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Black

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Indian

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Latina

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Asian(Kumiko from karate Kid 2)

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Biracial

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Orion

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Navi

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Anything to do with Anthony Weiner, if you get my drift.

There you have it. Go Buckeyes!

So I’m nearing the halfway point of my book and that fact has me thinking very hard about whether or not to pursue getting it published. Without permission from SquareEnix I doubt I would be able to other than as fanfiction, but it’s still interesting to think about. The thing about writing out a flesh and blood story to the skeleton that is Final Fantasy is that I get ideas for how to take these characters into all sorts of new directions. What began as a project to personally immortalize my favorite game as a kid has become a chance at a real career. But fame, as every celebrity(or non celebrity like the Kardashians) knows, has its’ pitfalls. So this had me thinking about the pros and cons of getting published. Perhaps the first book wouldn’t bring fame, but write out five or six of them to enhance what I’m calling the Final Fantasy Expanded Universe, and it will come.

So what are the pros? I would be able to afford a great many luxuries. I could buy my brother the Astin Martin that he drools over every time we watch a James Bond film. He loves nice cars, he just can’t afford them! So maybe I could earn some decent money and buy him one. As for my other brother, well he always beats me in poker. So maybe I could buy him a copy of supersystem for now and eventually pay his 10,000 dollar entry fee to the world series of poker one day. On a more serious note, I can easily see the ability to stockpile some serious money away to support my parents in their retirement. I can easily see the ability to stockpile some serious money for the retirement for me, my family(wife and kids), maybe even the grandkids if I make enough. Is that not a great enough reason to start getting published?

But what are the cons? Were I to start publishing books in the Final Fantasy Expanded Universe similar to what Timothy Zahn and others do for the Star Wars Expanded Universe, I would be under just as much scrutiny by the fans of Final Fantasy as they are by the fans of Star Wars. The characters and worlds I am creating from my imagination right now would pretty much enter the public domain and fans would feel like they are theirs, not mine. I know this because this is how I feel about Han, Luke and Leia. Yes, George Lucas created them, but they belong to the fans now. I don’t know how I would feel about Wes, Stan, Eve and Tova no longer feeling like they are my characters. And then there are other drawbacks to being famous. Yes there would be financial freedom, but how much personal freedom would there be. The life of a celebrity is always under a microscope. Right now I can ride the bus around Columbus and get pretty much anywhere at anytime. But if the local media gets wind of the fact that a well known writer is a well known rider, how long will that freedom last? Celebrities are supposed to have big homes, nice cars, and buxom wives. I don’t want any of that, but if I get published, will public perception turn against me if I don’t have things like that?

So I guess what I’m saying is that right now I’m just a normal guy who happens to write. I would like it to stay that way even if it means that my family(both now and down the road) have to deal with just being middle class citizens like everyone else. I kind of think that personal freedom is more important than financial freedom and all the fame in the world.

My question for you: If someone you were friends with became suddenly famous, would you think your friendship with them would change terribly much? If so, how?

My family and I went to a Columbus Blue Jackets game last night. They played, and beat, the Edmonton Oilers. It was 3-3 heading into the Overtime period, and ended up going to a shootout. The Jackets scored 2 shootout goals to the Oilers 0. This means they WON! Last year I went to four games and they didn’t win any of them. This year I’m 1 for 1! And here are a few photos. Sorry about the lack of zoom, but I took these with my new digital camera from Christmas and didn’t know how to zoom yet. I know how to now.

This photo gives you an idea of where I sat in the arena. We were practically center ice! Nice! This picture is of an early power play which did lead to a goal for the Jackets by Vinny Prospal.

Gotta take a picture of the zambonis!

According to my Mom, the guy there in the Hats for Heroes cap is a bigwig where she works. This was as close as I came to getting his picture. Don’t know who he was but people kept stopping by to say hello.

This is just a picture of the brand new Scoreboard installed during the offseason. Pretty cool.

There is a chance that this will not be my only game this season, but next time I hope to take a few pictures with the dumb zoom feature working. lol. Have you ever been to a hockey game?