Well, this year has been a challenge, especially the last couple of months. You will have noticed, if you are a regular reader of this blog, that I have me absent here for a while. This is for a number of reasons, none of which include Minecraft (which I have not played since the end of October), that I will not go into an great detail here. Everything kinda fell apart during NaNoWriMo because of an assume opportunity that came up at the Digital Drive In (http://digitaldrivein.crossroadpress.com) and my “day job” getting crazy.

There was much good in 2010. I met some great people (many of whom I interviewed) like David N. Wilson, John Skipp, Craig Spector, Steve Savile, Tina Murphy, Mary SanGiovanni, and Kate Jones to name a few. I put out 31 plus shows in October to entertain people around Halloween. Got a couple of articles published at Abattoir Magazine. Read (and listened to) a lot of books many of which I reviewed (or will soon). Watched a few movies. Worked to many hours for “the man”. Joined a writing group. Played some D&D and Gamma World. Lost over 30 pounds and got into a lot better shape. And spend time with my wife. So I can’t complain too much. (I will anyway).

In 2011, you will see a lot more of me at the Digital Drive In (there will be more info on this over at the Digital Drive In shortly I am really excited about what is planned for Digital Drive In for 2011 and beyond), and, if everything goes right, the return of the The Adventures of The Snarky Avenger web comic. I also intend to focus more on writing especially articles, short stories, and The Adventures of The Snarky Avenger.

All that being said, I am going to leave you with my top three to five picks (those that I enjoyed the most) in a few categories for 2010:

Movies:

• Triangle
• District B13
• Inception
• The Lost Tribe
• Lethal Dose

TV Shows:

• Top Gear (The original not the American abomination)
• Better Off Ted
• Walking Dead

Books (both print and audio):

• Ash Wednesday by Chet Williamson
• Deep Blue by David N. Wilson
• Night of the Crabs
  by Guy N Smith
• Nightmare Frontier by Stephen Mark Rainy
• The Invasion (Extended Version)
  by William Meikle

Short Stories (both print and audio):

• Flesh Welder
• The Last Great Clown Hunt
• The Nimble Men

Computer/Video Games:

• Minecraft
• Left 4 Dead/Left 4 Dead 2
• Gratuitous Space Battles
• The Ball
• Borderlands

Board/Card/Role Playing Games: (Okay… I didn’t play a lot of Board/Card/Role Playing games this year.)

• Gamma World (The new 4th D&D edition version)

Podcasts:

• Drabblecast
• PID Radio
• Midnight Radio Theater
• Woodland Hills Church Sermons
• Pseudopod

Best Magazine (Print or Electronic):

• Weird Tales
• Flagship
• Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens
• Abattoir

I recently picked up a collection of old horror films titled Night Screams (a collection of 50 classic horror flims on DVD) produced by Mill Creek Entertainment. I picked it up for a for a few reasons, but one of them was it contained a film titled Manfish, which stars Lon Chaney Jr. I saw the film as a kid and really enjoyed it, and wanted to relive the magic for Halloween. Unfortunately, when I got it home I discovered that the DVD containing Manfish was missing and I had received a duplicate of another DVD in the collection. Needless to say I was disappointed.

I decided that I would see if I could find contact information for Mill Creek Entertainment online in hopes that maybe they could replace the missing DVD. I didn’t have high hopes because I have purchased other collections like this from other companies that have contained defective DVDs only to find no recourse other than returning it to the place of purchase, which much like this case, is not always possible. But good fortune was with me and I found an email address for customer service on their website.

I sent an email explaining the situation, and to my surprise I receive a prompt reply the next business day. The customer service rep, who I will not name for privacy reasons, explained that they no longer make the Night Screams collection, but that they had the film, Manfish, in a different collection and asked if I would like that DVD instead. I agreed.

Within two business days, I received the replacement DVD with the film Manfish on it and another collection of 20 films from Mill Creek Entertainment titled: Undead: The Vampire Collection. That is great customer service. Not only did they find a DVD with the film I was interested in on it, they gave me 20 more movies to boot. I have been made more than whole in this matter, and would recommend Mill Creek Entertainments collections (which include more than just horror films) to anyone.

Thank you very much Mill Creek Entertainment, you rock!

For those of you either not into computer games or living under a rock, a new game is sweeping the Interwebs called Minecraft. Minecraft is a single and multi-player fantasy world crafting and adventure game. In it you mine things like stone and wood and gold and such and us what you have mined to make tools and weapons and buildings and other stuff. It is fun. It is creative. And is as addictive as crack. In fact, it is a new kind of crack for people like me because it offers almost instant gratification to my creative urges. And it is more immediately satisfying than many of my other creative endeavors.

In the short time I have played, I have built a tall tower, dug a mine down to the bedrock of the Minecraft world, built a castle with a lava mote, and bridge across a bay. Unfortunately, these efforts have taken their toll on other creative projects, specifically my writing. And that is a problem. It has put me way behind on articles (specifically reviews I need to get done), on work for The Adventures of The Snark Avenger web comic, and on prep for NaNoWriMo as well as other writing projects.

Minecraft, I wish I could quit you.

In light of all this, and the impending start of NaNoWriMo, I am taking a hiatus from Minecraft for the months of November (in fact, in November I will be avoiding all games) and December and possibly longer. I love the game, but I need to stay away from it for a while.