What is Hell? What is the address of Hell? Who stays there? Can anybody be able to provide any suitable answers to all these questions? But they will give a big NO to the above asked questions. Really we do not know what Hell is; its exact location and its whereabouts. At this point of discussion I can recollect the golden lines written by Milton in Paradise Lost;

“The mind is to its own place, and in itself, Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven”. Paradise Lost

Actually human heart and mind is the only place for both Heaven and Hell. Even Milton has also nicely clarifies the theme in Paradise Lost. But we like to imagine about the conventional Hell as mentioned in many mythologies and we like to relate the mythical characters along with the events. We often love to imagine that Hell is full of darkness. The rays of the sun cannot able to penetrate the deep darkness of the Hell. Hell is somewhat located in the underground of the earth. At the core of the Hell there is boiler which is burning round the clock. The soul of the sinners is going through constant torture. They are receiving chastisement for their offense. This is the major picture oh hell that we get in the books. But this picture is purely imaginative. It is the pure creative process of the writers. Practicality Hell is created within the mind of every man. And man suffers emotionally for his offense. This is the place where he receives the ultimate punishment. He fears for his near future and off course for the impending results.

In Dr. Faustus, Marlowe deals with the concept of hell. But Marlowe reflects the spiritual aspect of Hell through the central character Dr. Faustus. In the drama Dr. Faustus we get the introduction of hell in Act 1. Dr. Faustus wants to attain the supreme power. To fulfill his wishes, Mephistophilis appears before for performing and carry out the duties of Faustus.

Mephistophilis though a follower of Lucifer, the Prince of Hell, but repents his golden days in Heaven and also of God. But now he lives in Hell and walks down to the memory lane that leads to Heaven. Faustus asks how he comes out of the Hell. And in reply of this he says that he is not out of the hell but carries Hell wherever he goes. And suddenly he recollects the face of God that he used to see in his past days.

He cannot enjoy his days in The Hell. He feels a constant pull between the Heaven and Hell; Good and Evil. He cannot get out of this terrible place. As he carries the Hell within his heart and mind. On the other hand Dr Faustus wants to attain the supreme power of this world. And for that he surrenders his soul to Lucifer. He signs an agreement with the blood from his own body. Faustus again and again wants to know and gather information about Hell and its exact location.

Mephistophilis says that Hell has no limit. It is the place where the sinners have to undergo through different chastisements and agonies. And all sinners carry the hell within their bosom. Where are the sinners there is only the Hell. Even Milton echoes the same expression in Paradise Lost; “Myself am Hell “replies Satan.

Faustus has also commits sins and he suffers for this too. Faustus wants to become God. He rejects and neglects God and Christianity in exchange of worldly powers and sensual pleasures. This is the gravest sin he has done. He suffers for his sky-rising ambitions and pride. He wants to gain a deity and thus he surrenders his soul to Lucifer or the devil.

Faustus can come out of from this suffering only by praying to God. And if he does not wish to gain mercy, he will sink more and more towards the darkness. Mephistophilis warns him again and again for his pride, ambition and high spirits. But Faustus refuses to pay any attention to his warnings.

In the concluding part of the drama Faustus realizes his fault and his eternal damnation. Dr Faustus realizes the deep agony and his soul is full of dreadfulness. His last soliloquy reflects the image of both the conventional Hell and spiritual Hell. At last he feels the terror and tortures of his mind and he carries the thousand hells within his mind. Therefore Mephistophilis says wisely that Hell is located within the mind and heart and soul of human being. Faustus asks for mercy to his soul.

He says:

“Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years

A hundred thousand, and last be saved”

Shiwan Pottery – Trace back to five thousand years ago

Many sand earthenware, soft and hard earthenware decorated pieces have been unearthed from the Beiqiu Relic of the New Stone Age excavation in Hedang, Shiwan. The decorating patterns include string, trellis design, leaf, ladder-shaped trellis, frogs, etc.. According to the carbon 14 dating by the Beijing Archaeological Studies Office, these pieces were made four thousand nine hundred to five thousand years ago. This archaeological finding has overturned the saying that Shiwan’s Pottery Industry was moved from the north in Song Dynasty. An historical perspective has a poetic appreciation of “Shiwan tile, the best in the world”. The surviving dragon kiln “Ancient Nanfeng Kiln”, symbolizes the outstanding technique of Shiwan pottery.

Ancient Nanfeng Kiln – Firing for five hundred years

To open the mysterious mask of an old dragon kiln, to show the legend of an ancient ceramic town, to extend the dragon’s life of five hundred years, the history of Nanfeng ancient kiln is worth studying and researching.

Ancient Nanfeng kiln was built during the Zhengde years of Ming Dynasty (1506-1521), a rare dragon kiln with a history of almost 500 years that is still in use for making ceramics nowadays. It is now the Key Culture Relic Unit of Ancient Kiln in Guangdong Province.

For nearly five hundred years the flame has never died out, with constant production. Thus the kiln has been kept completely without any damage, which is rare in China. It is the oldest dragon kiln left in China and the important cultural protection site of Guangdong Province.

The opening of Nanfeng kiln faces the south. The far end is under the green shade of banyan trees, which brought cool breeze in summer, so the kiln was called “Nanfeng” as it meant as “south breeze”. During the long years, the production had never been stopped for repairs. The present chimney of the kiln was built in modern times. The kiln has a total length of 34.4 meters. There are 29 rows of fire holes (5 for every row) on the kiln. It is said that one fire for each row totals 29 fires. The fire hole is used to stoke with wood during the firing. There are 4 doors on the side of the kiln, for the loading and removal of products.

Arts of Flame – Mysterious and unpredictable

The composition and heat given out during the wood firing bring limitless changes to the clay and glaze.

The dragon kiln is divided into upper, middle and lower sections with three levels of temperature, low, medium and high, varying from 900 to 1300 degrees Celsius, and operated and controlled solely by the kiln master, to fire different kind of earthenware.

To maintain the reducing atmosphere, the kiln master controls the duration and degree of heating and the changes during firing, making decisions only by his discerning eyes and operating according to changes of circumstance. After firing for 20 hours, and waiting until the kiln cools, it is then ready to open. The resulting produce is in dazzling colors including blue, red, white and green.

Review the whole course of pottery making, which reflects the hardship and intelligence of pottery makers.

Shiwan Ceramics

The old Shiwan Ceramic Town at the kilns twenty miles south of the city of Canton in Guangdong province. This is the most famous city in China in creating ceramic products nearly 500 years. Most of the National Master-pieces and Museum pieces created there have been being collected in the national museum and by collectors all over the world.

Shiwan Ceramics was shaped in Tang and Song Dynasty (618-906AD) and flourished in Ming and Qing Dynasty.

The main products such as artistic ceramics, ancient garden ceramics, Spanish-type roof tile, western-style roof tile, stone-resembled tile, stone-porcelain tile, artistic garden tile, etc. are famous worldwide, especially statues. There a professional team of art masters has inherited and developed the outstanding tradition of Shiwan ceramic techniques ranging from lively earthen figures, statues and animals with thick and earthy ceramic glaze, to modern ceramics of plain, elegant and fresh patterns, thus forming its own unique artistic style and making Shiwan ceramic techniques extraordinarily splendid.

The artistic ceramics of Shiwan are divided into four types of figures, animals, micro-sculpts and daily utensils, of which the figure ceramics is granted the national Golden Medal in three consecutive times, the animal ceramics is granted the Hundred Flowers Medal and Silver Cup Medal, micro-sculpt and daily utensils are granted Quality Product Medal of Guangdong Province. Following the principle of “quality product” is based upon elaboration, each piece of ceramics with “signs” of the art masters is produced via six complicated procedures (including design, plaster molding, pouring slurry for figuration, amending cog, glazing and burning).

To see today’s Shiwan Ceramic Lady Figurines

Until recently, the best thing about Apollonia was the view from its hovering cliffs. Just a small collection of Crusader ruins peeking out from within the weeds, Apollonia was located high above the Mediterranean Sea and offered a great venue for a romantic outing. Indeed, over the years lovers often shared a picnic while watching waves crash against the rocks. . .

At the beginning of the 21st century, however, Apollonia of the crumbling walls and barely recognizable ruins was transformed into a splendid National Park.  Overnight, it seemed, there was something more to Apollonia than a fabulous view: there were fortress walls, a medieval gate, a kitchen, a banquet hall, and the all-important citadel keep. Remains of a Roman villa had been discovered near the entrance to the Crusader remains, and workers had cleared out and reinforced the moats that surrounded the citadel and the Crusader city.

Apollonia dates back to the seafaring Phoenicians, who called the settlement that they founded in the sixth century B.C.E. Arshaf after their war god Reshef. The place was perfect for their needs, since not only was there a small natural harbor in the sea, crucial for the commerce they carried out, but murex snails were readily accessible on the shore. That spelled money to the Phoenicians, who used crushed snails to produce purple dye for royal robes.  

During the Hellenistic period, residents of Arshaf renamed their city Apollonia. In the first century B.C.E. Apollonia was captured by the Hasmoneans (Maccabees) and came under rule of the Jewish King Alexander Janneus. Next to occupy the site were the Romans, then the Byzantines, who greatly expanded the city. Moslems appeared in the seventh century, changing the name to Arsuf, and the Crusaders came along a few hundred years later.

The first Crusaders to try capturing Arsuf failed dismally. They couldn’t even besiege the city, because it was well supplied from the sea. So they decided to blockade the port, enlisting the help of the Genoese fleet that ordinarily traded with Arsuf. In return, the Crusaders agreed to give the Genoese an entire commercial street in the middle of the city. The Crusaders succeeded in conquering Arsuf, renamed it Arsour, and made it the capital of the southern Sharon region.

Plastered pits found at Apollonia were used by Byzantine residents for storing water and perhaps in glass production as well. They were cleaned out by three men on a special government program for the unemployed, who discovered buttons, a helmet, and bullets from a Mauser pistol! It is highly likely that the cisterns were used as a German position during World War I.

Apollonia’s moat, which encircled the fortress, is 30 meters wide and 14 meters deep. In its heyday, a bridge spanned the moat and ended in a main gate. The citadel was designed like a cloverleaf with semi-circular towers.

Because this is basically a Crusader site, explanatory signs sprinkled throughout the park are shaped like medieval shields. Some are accompanied by a spear-carrying “knight” – or topped by a fleur de lis that helps puts visitors into a heraldic frame of mind!  One of the signs carries an illustration of the citadel. It also holds a copy of a seal that belonged to Belian the first, Seigneur of the southern Sharon country, who reigned from Arsour. Interestingly, all of the fortifications pictured on the seal were uncovered during excavations. They include a gate flanked by two semi-circular towers, two corner towers and a tall keep.

Apollonia’s second line of defense was the courtyard, and if the city walls were breached whoever survived would rush in here for protection. Visitors should note the niches located on either side of the gate, where a bar closed behind the heavy door – just like in the movies. The ancient floor hasn’t been touched at all, except to remove thousands of arrowheads that were stuck in the ground.

Although the town’s first buildings were erected right after the conquest, the citadel wasn’t put up until 1241. It remained standing less than 25 years, for the Mameluke sultan Baibars attacked in 1265. The city fell after 40 days of fighting; after another three-day battle, so did the fortress.

Arsour surrendered after Baibars promised to release the defenders. But he went back on his word, took them prisoner and forced them to destroy both the city and the fortress. Afterwards, he paraded them through the streets of Cairo and sold them as slaves.

Visitors to Apollonia should look for the citadel ovens, a grand hall, a grinding floor, and dozens of the 2,600 ballista stones discovered at the site. They can also climb up the keep: an octagonal stronghold that was 10 meters high and the last line of defense. Once the enemy had stormed the gates and entered the citadel, survivors climbed to the top of the keep – which, by the way, offers a fabulous view of the Mediterranean Sea.

What’s In A Niche? When talking of niche websites, the answer to that question is, in my humble opinion, not very much at all in most cases. Certainly much less than should be in a niche. Is it just me – are my expectations too high? I don’t think so because I have seen some good niche websites as well as many horrors. A real niche website that has been built with care and passion is a thing of beauty (or, at the very least, interest) and is usually a treasure trove for visitors who share a love of the niche subject.

What I am complaining about are the so-called niche websites people are throwing together for the sole purpose of collecting advertising revenue. These sites have little (if anything) in the way of content. The colourful pictures and plentiful advertisements do not make up for this lack. Advertising is fine, in fact it’s usually essential if you want to stay in business. What makes me see red is clicking on misleading advertisements and landing on website after cloned website only to be confronted with a few sentences of poorly written text and dozens of gibbering advertisements. To test the integrity of a niche site, look at what would be left if you removed all the pay per click advertisements.

It is unfortunate for people who are surfing for information that the Internet is being overrun by the awful flimsy looking template produced websites that are being churned out at a crazy rate. If you spend any time on the Internet, you will know the type of thing I mean. These websites consist of a couple of pages with nice enough looking header graphics (that’s the pictures at the top, if you are not “in the trade” so to speak), and clumps of advertisements placed so that they are the first thing you see. If you manage to get past the advertisements, you might find a few articles which have been copied from other websites just for the sake of having something on the pages to lend them some credibility. These websites don’t exist to provide information or services or to promote anything. Their sole purpose is to carry advertising that will earn the owner money in return for just about zero work on his part.

How much time and effort goes into creating one of these monstrosities? Practically none: in most cases it is all done by a software package. The pseudo webmaster doesn’t ever need to worry about actual webpage design or building. All these charlatans need to do is decide upon their niche topic, toss a bunch of keywords into the mix and the software will do the rest. These people can create their pseudo niche websites on any subject anyone in the world might think of. It’s easy because they don’t need to know anything about the subject themselves. Whether it is dog training, bridal dresses, funerals or haemorrhoids, an online search tool will provide a list of keywords and the software will do the rest. Nobody cares that the laughing man clutching a fistful of cash or the sports car pictured in the heading has no relevance to the content and would be frankly inappropriate if you were looking for a funeral director or medication for a painful medical condition. The webmaster has no intention of offering you anything of value. In fact, it is in his interests if you take an immediate dislike to his web page because that makes you more likely to click away from it via one of his advertising links and that’s how he makes his money.

After a couple of days of trying to do some semi-serious research on the Internet, I feel like unplugging my pc and dusting off my library tickets. OK – so you can’t judge a book by its cover but the cover doesn’t usually set out to deliberately mislead you as to the contents (quite the opposite in fact). When I type a query into a search engine, I want the results to lead me to websites containing the answer to that query. If I am searching for information about a particular subject, I don’t appreciate being directed to websites that consist of a few keyword loaded sentences walled in by blocks of advertisements for other similar websites.

Roll on the day when someone invents a search engine that can distinguish between a real niche website and an advertising vehicle built from a cheap kit. Maybe we can get back to the time when searching the Internet was faster than catching a bus to the library and thumbing through books.

Copyright 2006 Elaine Currie

It is possible to sell your home even in today’s market. The big question you must first ask though is whether you want to be “on” the market or “in” the market.

Lets take a look…

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the value of a home. Even so, the reality is the seller only has control over two of those factors… Price and Condition. A seller can’t control the taxes, the seller can’t control the rating of the local school, the seller can’t control the lot size etc. On the other hand, the seller does have control over the price of the home as well as the condition of the home.

As I heard it spelled out one time during a real estate webinar, there are essentially three places you can be when selling your home…

1. On the market

2. No Man’s Land

3. In the market

If you are “on the market” you are listed, but not getting any showings or offers. Therefore, you will need to adjust either your price or the condition of the home…or both.

If you are getting showings, but still are not getting any offers then you have entered what is called No Man’s Land. To get out of No Man’s Land and actually start to get offers you will have to once again adjust either the price of your home or the condition of your home…or both.

Where you really want to be is IN the market. You know you are IN the market when you are getting both showings and offers.

So, the trick is to adjust your Price and Condition to position yourself IN the market. However, for most people, the reality is it is much easier to adjust the price of the home than it is to adjust the condition of the home.

Now if you really want to sell your home fast, the best approach is to under-price it 10% below comparative market value.

This approach often times leads to multiple offers and therefore bidding wars which actually drive the price of your home back up. You see once someone has mentally committed to buying a home and has already pictured himself living there, he is much more likely to come up in price when he finds out someone else wants to buy his dream home.

Again, if you want to sell your home you must be IN the market. The price of the home and the condition of the home are the only two factors a seller has control over to position the house IN the market. To sell your home fast we suggest doing only minor upgrades while focusing more on under-pricing your home to generate more showings and more offers and quite possibly a bidding war.

Let me begin by saying this; Demon’s Souls is not a game for everyone. It might not even be a game for you. However, if you can look past the game’s punishing difficulty and sprawling scale, you’ll find one of the best RPGs of this generation.

Demon’s Souls is an action RPG born of an unholy union between Armored Core developers From Software and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan. Best known for their Armored Core mecha action franchise, From Software was also responsible for the King’s Field games, a series of first person action RPGs on the Playstation, PlayStation 2 and PSP. The King’s Field series is notable for several things; its complex, sprawling dungeons, creepy monster designs, wide variety of NPCs and pieces of equipment, and its dark, dreary atmosphere. It’s also quite well-known for its difficulty. Demon’s Souls, planned by Sony and From as a modern re-invention of the King’s Field franchise, shares many of these features, as well as several new innovations of its own.

This is the End of the World

Demon’s Souls is not a happy game. The story opens with a narrator bitterly telling a tale of a power-hungry king taking control of the flow of souls, using them for his own personal gain; by slaughtering humans and monsters alike, King Allant was able to build up vast reserves of power for his kingdom of Boletari. However, as Boletaria grew more powerful, a thick fog spread across the prosperous country, covering the city in an impenetrable wall of darkness. By taking control of the power of souls, Allant awakened an Old God, and with it came an unstoppable horde of demons. From that point forward, adventurers, mercenaries, and psychopaths alike ventured into the fog surrounding Boletaria. Some went in search of lost loved ones, some in attempts to free the city from whatever evil controlled it; and others still sought to plumb the cursed city’s vast reserves of Demon Souls to increase their strength…or worse. This is where your hero comes in.

In a lot of ways, the story of Demon’s Souls is anti-typical of other Japanese RPGs; the game is clearly set in an European-influenced setting, from the environments to the accents of the characters, Demon’s Souls reeks of Western influence. Meanwhile, the story itself seems influenced heavily by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, dark and gothic with nary a doe-eyed little girl spewing “power of friendship” speeches in sight. That being said, the story in Demon’s Souls isn’t exactly the deepest or most in-your-face narrative you’re going to find in an RPG; it serves mainly as a means of setting the mood and explaining the setting. However, for fans of lore and subtlety, there is depth to be found here; item descriptions, NPC dialogue, and the bosses and level designs themselves reek of atmosphere, and the story explains itself well enough provided you’re willing to pay attention and forgive a few translation issues. The atmosphere in the game is absolutely breathtaking; the silent emptiness of Boletaria Castle is enhanced by the lack of dungeon music, while the inherent creepiness of the abandoned prison Tower of Latria is altered into abject horror by the muffled screams of its lost prisoners, and the ominous bells being rung by its otherworldly guards as they stalk you through its darkened halls.

East Meets West: Boletaria Style

In Demon’s Souls, much like a Western RPG, you play a created character; you choose a gender and a name, edit yourself a face, and then choose a character class. These classes range from fantasy staples like the Knight and Wizard, to more unusual classes like the Royal or the Wanderer. Your character class is absolutely important, as it influences your character’s starting stats, default character level, and what equipment you begin with. On one hand, you could choose a Soldier and you might be gifted with heavy plate armor and a large broadsword, but your character will be unable to use magic for a considerable amount of time. On the other hand, you could pick a Thief and be able to sprint and dodge considerably more effectively than another class, but if you take more than a few hits, you’re a goner. There are also several more “hybridized” classes like the Royal and the Wanderer that allow for more neutral stat builds, but they are generally not recommended for a first playthrough.

As I mentioned in my first impressions article, you begin Demon’s Souls by dying. After creating your character, you’re put through a simple tutorial dungeon to familiarize you with the game’s mechanics and controls, then thrust into a boss fight with the creature pictured above. This monster, referred to as Vanguard, destroyed me in a single hit. After you die, your character will awaken as a spirit in the Nexus, the game’s hub world. The Nexus is a constantly evolving tower full of NPCs to interact with; some appear when you level up, others can be found in the dungeons, and some are there from the start. In the Nexus, you can perform all necessary pre-adventure actions like shopping, item storage, repairing/upgrading weapons and learning new spells. Much like a Western RPG, Demon’s Souls is an extremely non-linear game. After you’ve cleared the game’s first “real” dungeon, the game officially lets go of any semblance of distinct structure; your only objective is to rid the world of the Old One, and however you get there is entirely up to you.

A Field of Corpses

The combat in Demon’s Souls is generally pretty standard dungeon crawler fare; you have two hands, and you can equip two items to each hand, one main weapon and one backup weapon, easily swapped between by a tap of the D-Pad. My usual setup was to equip my main melee weapon and my bow in my character’s right hand, and a shield and a spell catalyst in his left; allowing close-range and long-range combat, as well as defense and spellcasting. Other players may choose other ways of handling things, though; there’s really no wrong way to do it…that is, unless you decide to try and run through a dungeon dual-wielding shields. Each weapon class has its own unique combos and animations, with rare weapons receiving their own specials. You can also opt to wield any weapon with two hands, leading to more powerful, wider-ranged attacks at the expense of being able to defend as effectively. Equipping a light shield also allows you to parry incoming enemy attacks, if timed right, allowing you to unleash a devastating riposte, while careful blocking or stealthy maneuvers can allow you to perform a powerful backstab. Easy to learn, hard to master is the name of the game when it comes to combat in Demon’s Souls.

Now, there’s no point in mentioning the combat in Demon’s Souls if I don’t at least talk a bit about the bosses; it was the design for the boss pictured above that initially sold me on the game, and thankfully, the boss fights do not disappoint. With weaker fare like Phalanx the Shield Slime out of the way early on, Demon’s Souls evolves quickly into conflicts with truly breathtaking creatures like the Storm King, as well as head to head challenges with brutal humanoid opponents. Demon’s Souls also introduces what I believe might be a first in the RPG community; a PvP boss fight against another player summoned from across the PlayStation Network. Truly, the wide variety of boss battles is one of the greatest strengths of Demon’s Souls, capping off each dungeon crawl with a satisfying, pulse-pounding conclusion. What’s also impressive is the variety of ways a player can tackle each boss; while certain strategies certainly work better than others, almost any way you want to take a boss down, you probably can if you’re skilled enough. Well, provided you’re not trying to fistfight the Old God, that is.

Wait…I’m Dead AGAIN!?

Now, reading as far as you have, you’re probably thinking “well, that doesn’t sound so bad,” right? Wrong. Like King’s Field before it, Demon’s Souls is a difficult game; punishingly so, even. This is a game that, without question, wants you dead and makes no attempts to hide its murderous nature. From hazards ranging from a fire-breathing dragon strafing across your intended path to a massive, pitch-black lake of poison, Demon’s Souls will kill you more times than you can count. And frustratingly enough, there is a penalty for dying! As you kill monsters, you are awarded Souls. These Souls act both as currency and experience points; you can “spend” them in the Nexus, as well as at vendors throughout the game’s five sprawling worlds, to purchase new items and equipment, repair and upgrade your weapons, and also to level yourself up and gain new spells. This is all well and good until you realize that whenever you die, you lose all unspent Souls in your inventory. Like in Diablo, you can re-enter the dungeon and find your corpse, recovering any lost Souls from your last death, but also like Diablo, if you die again on the way back to your corpse, you lose what you lost, forever. As such, the game encourages very defensive, structured play during the early stages, until you learn the Evacuate spell. There is truly nothing more frustrating, after all, than amassing 50,000 Souls during a dungeon run, only to accidentally dodge off a cliff and lose them all.

As Dave mentioned in his challenge article some time back, Demon’s Souls is not a game you “get” instantly. Its sprawling dungeons are a throwback to the Roguelikes and dungeon crawlers of old, with numerous branches, ruthless deathtraps, and dangerous enemy ambushes around every corner. The enemies are, to put it simplest, bloodthirsty; there’s no particularly complicated AI at work here, these enemies want you dead, and if they get hit in the process of hurting you, they just don’t care. In fact, in the case of some of the bigger monsters, like the dragon pictured above, they will gladly roast other enemies alive if it means killing you. The level design, especially in some of the later stages, is also expertly engineered to lull you into a false sense of security, then drop a barely-visible cliff or deathtrap in your way at the exact second you’re too relaxed to react in time. The game’s numerous bosses also range in difficulty from pathetically easy to “HOLYCRAPIMPOSSIBLE”, and it seems that From Software doesn’t mind mixing things up a bit, as long as it leads to the player dying. In the first dungeon alone, I likely died a good three or four times before reaching the boss; you don’t want to know how many times I died during my first run-through of the third dungeon.

However, the difficulty of Demon’s Souls is a blessing in disguise. Interestingly, the more you play and the more you die, the more you learn; enemy attack patterns become more obvious, allowing you to dodge or parry more easily, while the map design grows more familiar, and several of the “surprise” elements designed to kill an unwary newbie are no longer a threat. You’ll learn which weapon types are most effective against certain enemies…and as your knowledge grows, the game will eventually click. No longer will you fear that skeleton wielding a massive zweihander; you’ve got a mace that shatters bone in two hits. That giant slime? He hates fire. Get a fire spell or enchantment for your sword and watch him die in under a minute. As you learn the game’s subtle nuances, and find ways to exploit them, the true depth of Demon’s Souls reveals itself to you. This is not a game designed to be blazed through in a weekend. In fact, a player’s ability to endure repeated deaths and learn from their own mistakes is perhaps the simplest way to gauge their potential enjoyment of the game; patient players with a drive to conquer any obstacle in front of them will be rewarded with an intensely enjoyable experience, while gamers more grounded in the “instant gratification” school of thought may not find what they’re looking for in Demon’s Souls.

It’s Fun To Slay Together

It’s no big secret that Japanese developers haven’t really jumped onto the whole “online” bandwagon this generation; hell, it’s been three years now and we still don’t have an online co-op Dynasty Warriors game. Despite this, From Software did at least try to bring something new to the table in Demon’s Souls; the Phantom system. As I previously explained in my impressions post, the game mixes single player, co-op, and MMO elements to allow a cohesive game world without any pesky online lobbies. Demon’s Souls supports online co-op play for up to three players over the PlayStation Network, allowing three friends (or strangers) of similar levels to join together and take down bosses. The downside to this is that to join another player’s game, the host has to be alive (easier said than done most of the time), and the people joining his game have to be within ten levels of him; there’s no asking your level 255 buddy to come in and oneshot a boss for you in this game. The game expects you to work together to take down bosses, and they grow considerably more aggressive to reflect this.

demonssoulscoop

As mentioned before, interaction between players is handled almost entirely through glowing runes inscribed on the floor of the dungeons, allowing players to warn each other of upcoming traps, or let other players know they’re looking for a co-op partner. This is definitely not the simplest online integration in the world; there’s no question of that. It’s very silly to have a co-op mode that boots everyone out of the party if the leader dies, for example. The PvP, on the other hand, is handled quite well. All in all, From Software should at least be commended for trying to innovate in terms of online/offline play for the RPG genre, as well as trying to make it fit the game’s story and universe. It’s definitely fun to take on a boss with friends, though, provided the game decides it wants to let you play together at all.

Game Over +

As I said before, Demon’s Souls is not a game for everybody. First of all, it’s not even available on US store shelves, only currently found on import gaming websites like Play-Asia and NCSX despite being completely in English. Completing the game requires copious amounts of time, patience, and ambition; you have to want to win in order to finish the game, From and Sony aren’t holding your hand along the way. While the brutal difficulty and lack of direction might put off some fans of more traditional JRPGs, patient gamers who’re willing to try something new (and get eaten by a few dragons along the way) will find plenty of things to love about the game; the brutal boss fights, the sprawling selection of weapons and armor, using the souls of previously-defeated bosses to forge new, more powerful weapons and armor; the list goes on and on. The story may not be the deepest or most elegantly told out there, but compared to the seemingly endless onslaught of asinine anime cliches being spewed out of games like Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Eternal Sonata, and Blue Dragon, the minimalist approach in Demon’s Souls is a welcome change of pace. And believe it or not, there are gameplay elements I haven’t even touched on in this review; it’s just that deep! My first playthrough of the game clocked in at roughly 58 hours; the only single-player games this generation that even approach the amount of time I’ve put into Demon’s Souls are the XBOX 360’s Lost Odyssey and the PSP’s Dissidia: Final Fantasy.

In the end, while it might not have the production values or graphical “WOW” factor of a mainline Final Fantasy title, Demon’s Souls has easily usurped the PS3’s “best RPG” throne…but with FFXIII slowly approaching, we’ll see how long it holds onto the crown. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a New Game + to finish.

Pluses

+ Dark, gothic atmosphere with solid graphics and excellent level design

+ Surprisingly competent localization, with few glaring translation errors

+ Breathtaking, challenging boss battles

+ Numerous online options for multiplayer fans

+ Vast array of items and equipment pieces to find, mix and match

+ New Game + feature allows for infinite replayability with increasing challenges

Minuses

– Punishing difficulty may take players by surprise

– Online functions are not particularly well-explained

– Frame rate can chug in certain isolated areas

– Not officially released in US/Europe

Available now on PlayStation 3 in Japan;

Asian version features full English translation

CERO Rating: D (17+)

Players: 1 (offline) 3 (online co-op)

Completed game as a Thief; began New Game + and defeated several bosses, experimented with online modes and PvP

Final Verdict: For players who love a good challenge, Demon’s Souls is an absolute must-buy, and one of the best RPGs of this generation.

I love this Country. We don’t manufacture as many products as we used to, but we’ll always be the masters of the marketing universe. No other country can take something as mundane as a 1,500 watt space heater and repackage it as the Second Coming. A perfect example of this marketing ingenuity is the Amish Heat Surge Electric Fireplace.

It Rolls! It Glows! The Heat Surge miracle heater is a work of genius from the China coast! Real Amish Craftsmanship goes into each mantle! And, to quote the Heat Surge website, “It’s not just a fireplace; it’s a fine piece of furniture.”

But you have to ask yourself: Do I want to spend $587 for a mini electric fireplace on wheels that produces no more heat than any other 1,500 watt space heater costing $500 dollars less?

Just to be fair, this is a valid question for all electric fireplaces, not just the Heat Surge. Believe it or not, you could easily spend more than $2,000 for a combination electric fireplace/entertainment center heated with the same 1,500 watt unit.

No matter how much you pay for an electric fireplace, the cost attributable to the electric heating insert is about $250 (retail). So every dollar you spend over $250 is for the mantel piece. In the case of the Amish Cherry Fireplace, $250 subtracted from the $587 retail price leaves $337 for the cost of the mantel.

Since the Amish heater is a mini electric fireplace, it’s difficult to find a similar sized electric fireplace for the sake of comparison. The best I could come up with is the ProCom 24″ cherry finish electric fireplace.

Although this fireplace is the smallest ProCom makes, and uses a similar 24″ wide heating insert, it’s overall dimensions are still 2 1/2 times larger than the Heat Surge.

The last time I checked, the ProCom 24″ cherry finish fireplace was available online for $400. After subtracting $250 for the heating insert, the mantel piece for the ProCom costs $150.

So why would you be willing to pay more than twice as much for an Amish mantel less than half the size of a comparable fireplace costing 30% less?

It’s the magic of marketing Baby!

If you buy an Amish electric fireplace, it won’t be for the boring 1,500 watts of heat offered by every other space heater out there. What’s going to get you excited enough to whip out your credit card is an unexplainable attraction to the Amish, the promise of superior Amish craftsmanship and pride of ownership.

I can’t explain an unexplainable attraction, but I’ll accept the claim of superior Amish craftsmanship. However, “craftsmanship” comes at a price. Over a three year period, the premium you pay for an Amish mantel piece will add an additional $5 a month, or $180 to your actual heating costs when compared to the purchase price of a Pro Com 24″ fireplace.

This leads me to the second problem I have with the marketing of this product.

If you go to the Heat Surge website you won’t find one picture of the Amish fireplace with the wheels attached. The reason for this, in my opinion, is the wheels make it look “dinky” compared to the “substantial” look it has when pictured without the wheels.

So how much pride can you take in a product the manufacturer is embarrassed to show in its entirety?

This is a shame. The wheels are actually a selling point because they provide the means for zone heating – simply wheel the fireplace from room to room as needed. Zone heating, or heating only the room you occupy, allows you to dial back your home’s master thermostat for substantial fuel savings.

On the other hand, attempting to “zone heat” your home for multiple occupants spread out in multiple rooms with just one Amish fireplace is impossible.

I have a few other issues with their marketing claims that I could delve into, such as “It uses about as much energy to run as a coffee maker” and regional energy costs, but they have little bearing on cost effectiveness when you pay $587 for a 1,500 watt space heater.

Ring lights are multi-faceted tools that cast a diverse range of usage in the world of shoots or any activity that involves the usage of a camera.

It is very common and widely embraced in the glamorous world and it has proved to show its immense usage, right from making a portrait to making magnanimously demanding music videos.

It helps a great deal in providing a uniform light that projects an even lighting right from the center viewing of the camera which in turn helps in terminating the unwanted shadows hence resulting in bringing a certain sort of a perfection to the designated shoot be it in whichever format it has been asked to be delivered – it can be video shoots or photo shoots, the main goal is to make the usage of the Ring light and make it work towards our benefit and not against the desired outcome.

Want to have a basic idea about few of the brightening ways in which you can make use of this fascinating tool?

Want to have a brief lead on how you can use a Ring Light for a better result in the fields it can be used in?

Then here are a few techniques that can prove fruitful to get you started

1. Giving your art a subtle touch

Use the ring lights to give a delicate touch to your photography. Since the light from the particular shaped tool comes from a 100 percent on axis, these flashing lights usually don’t have a massive effect on the referring scene. Its prime work is providing the additional amount of light so the scene does not really receive much of the glow. So subtlety is the key word here and also one of the core roles that the ring light can play by giving a gentle shine as that is the kind of outcome that is usually seen from this tool.

2. Use the Ring Lights for the brilliancy of Catch lights

Catch lights have this spectacular art of highlighting a particular detail on an image. To lend a hand to this, one of the most loved signature moves of ring lights are the brilliant catch lights they produce. As nearer as the ring light gets, the effect of the catch light is more prominent and useful. If you want to go up a notch and experiment with it on various higher levels you can sort to other ways of bringing in the bling to make your photograph look the way you want it to, like utilizing star patterns to the ring light or an array of other intricacies that can be used. But ring lights are quite well known for flashing some impressive catch lights that is just one more step taken to make the photograph look more of how it has been pictured.

3. Utilize them for photographing tiny elements

Due to its throwing of even lighting, these lights are perfect for the photography of minute existences. Due to its softened lighting it’s a first come preference for macro clicks where you need the least amount of lighting. Due to its balanced luminosity, Ring Lights do full justice to micro shots by providing the exact amount of lighting required by the images of such sizes.

Therefore as you can see ring lights has its own list of advantages that can help and in fact does bring in a great difference in the glamorous world where shoots are an everyday business.

These are just a few of the ways that have been listed that can get you brain do it’s racking to put these ideas into more innovative usage and get a decisive outcome.

So what are you waiting for?

If technology has made its move why not we extend our hands and make use of what has been created to make our work more effective and commendable?

So have a glance through these and get going with your own ideas and thoughts about how these ways can help you in acquiring what you dream to visualize.

What is there to be said in rational terms about the apologetic pursuits of true-blue members of the fastest growing, yet the most deceptive, ecclesiastical organization in the United States, the LDS (Mormon) Church? As I spent 30 years, from late-1970 to 2000, doing part-time what nearly 80,000 full-time Mormon missionaries are currently doing in 2019 to recruit, mainly from the ranks of Christianity, lukewarm believers in Jesus and the Holy Bible (men and women who claim to be Christians) into the grasp of Mormonism, I know a great deal about being a true-blue blind-faith Mormon. When I say a true-blue Mormon, I’m referring to an adult man or woman who learns in public or private high school, and college, the facts about the history, archaeology, and anthropology of ancient America, that there weren’t any horses in pre-Columbian North, South, and Central America until they were brought by Europeans and allowed to breed; and that there weren’t any wheels (chariots and carriages) used by the Olmec, Toltec, Aztec, Mayan, and Incan civilizations. These many (approximately five million of them) seemingly educated and rational individuals can spend a Friday in school taking tests to affirm that the foregoing historical facts about ancient America are indelibly true, and then, later, spend two-to-three hours in Mormon Church services on the following Sunday proclaiming that their sacred scripture, the Book of Mormon (stating in unambiguous words that Nephite, Lamanite, and Jaredite civilizations, which produced most of the native inhabitants of the North, South, and Central America, had abundant herds of horses and many chariots and carriages) is a historically true and divine book from God. Isn’t this, though, a bit like studying the fiction of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Tarzan of the Apes” and then belonging to a church that sacredly believes that the civilizations described by Burroughs in print actually existed?

Well, this issue goes to the very heart of true American culture and the really-sacred right and privilege, ensured by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, that all Americans have, to worship an olive tree, a racoon, or a catfish as a deity or god if they so choose to do so. Yes, Mormons, and all other Americans, have the right to believe and practice anything they want to believe, even that Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass/Alice in Wonderland” is a book of truth and reality and that the “rabbit hole” truly exists. But, yet, do Mormons have the legal freedom and right to ritually deceive Christian men and women (Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, etc.) into believing that Mormon theology is biblically Christian in doctrine and, after that, inducing those gullible individuals into promising to pay a full-tithe of their income to the Mormon Church for the rest of their lives before they are permitted to be baptized into the Mormon Church?

Mormon full-time missionaries, tens-of-thousands of young men and women hardly out of their teens and thousands of grandfatherly/motherly senior married couples, are very much like insurance and used-car salespeople as they spend two-years selling Mormonism, 8-to-10 hours per day, in assigned areas in the USA and around the world. At Mormon mission training centers (MTCs as they are called), they are tasked, over a six-week period of time with memorizing a script of, usually, five copyrighted “discussions,” (sales pitches) created by the LDS Prophets and Apostles about Mormon theology, doctrine, and history; and these missionaries are told to focus and concentrate on doing one primary thing during the two-year missionary timeframe, to ultimately baptize all of the non-Mormon investigators to whom they are presenting the Mormon sales pitch. Then there are the hundreds-of-thousands of part-time missionaries, called ward missionaries, much like I was as a stake (an area of multiple wards) missionary, who are officially tasked with establishing relationships with friends, co-workers, and neighbors to prepare them to be formally indoctrinated by the full-time Mormon missionaries. First-off, these part-time missionaries start telling these Christians about the Book of Mormon, which they call a second-witness of Jesus Christ and the most correct book upon the face of the earth (its original 1830 edition had over 4,000 grammatical and syntactical errors in addition to over a hundred fatal anachronisms). Most of the time, these Mormon part-timers don’t give those Christian investigators (friends, neighbors, co-workers) copies of the Book of Mormon because they don’t want them to read it without missionary instructions about how to read it. You see, when the full-time missionaries begin their “discussions” with the prepped Christians they hand-out specific Book of Mormon reading assignments. They don’t encourage the investigators to read the Book of Mormon from cover-to-cover like a novel. Why? Well, there are some verses in the Book of Mormon that directly contradict scriptures in the Holy Bible’s New Testament, such as 2 Nephi 25:23, which is the Mormon concept of grace. Most Christian adults have been taught as children that the grace of Jesus, which confers salvation from sin on the individual, is a totally free-gift, in addition to resurrection from the dead, that is given by Jesus through the faith or belief of the individual person. The preceding Mormon scripture states that, “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.” When investigators of Mormonism ask true-blue Mormon missionaries if it is a fundamental doctrine of Mormonism that a person is saved by grace, the response that they almost always get is, “yes.” Yet, reading that particular scripture without LDS missionary direction, a Christian will immediately and inevitably get the reasonable idea that grace is relegated by Mormonism to a much-lesser function of salvation than that of human endeavor, or works; for Mormon missionaries are loath to tell Christian investigators the absolute truth about Mormon grace, that it is regarded theologically by Mormonism as purely “resurrection,” which is afforded by (the Mormon) Jesus to all human beings, regardless of faith, past, present, and future.

The full-time Mormon missionaries won’t tell Christian investigators that getting to Mormon heaven, or exaltation, is an entirely work-based process of constant repentance, improvement, and human effort to be as good as one can possibly be, and that “only” Mormon elders and their wives” have the opportunity of getting there. In other words, Christian Baptists, or those of any other Christian denomination, believing that the grace of Jesus provides a free gift of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus will, according to Mormonism, not be eligible for Mormon heaven.

Another fact about Mormonism that the 21st Century full-time LDS missionaries won’t dare divulge to Christian investigators is a matter of true 19th Century Mormon history, that the statements about Mormon theology, doctrine, and history contained in the basic five missionary “discussions” changed significantly in 2014 nearly five decades after they were designed and written during the 1950s. The full-time missionaries presented those “discussions” (they were, and are still, more like lectures than mutual discussions) to me back in 1970, and I was shown color pictures of Joseph Smith, Jr. sitting at a table before golden plates that I was told were “translated” by him through the use of a regalia that he wore around his neck, which hung-down over his chest, called the “Urim and Thummim.”Across from Smith at the table, separated by a veil, was also pictured his scribe, Oliver Cowdery, who wrote down what Smith translated from the golden plates. I was told by those missionaries that the pictured depiction of Joseph Smith, Jr. was the only “way” in which the Book of Mormon was translated from those golden plates. In 2014, however, an official essay was published by the Mormon Church without any fanfare that substantially revised the story about Joseph Smith, Jr. and the way he produced the Book of Mormon, which shockingly wasn’t from the alleged golden plates. Way back in 1835, the Mormon Church had known that, officially, Joseph Smith, Jr. had “not” used the golden plates to “translate” the Book of Mormon, which had meant going from one language, reformed Egyptian, allegedly depicted on the golden plates to another, English. The version of Smith, Jr. producing the Book of Mormon was altered to a process of him placing his head into a hat in which was placed a seer stone from which he “read words that appeared above the seer stone.” Hence, a “translation” process, falsely told as fact to the Christian world by the Mormon Church for nearly 50 years, was abruptly changed, in 2014, to a “dictation” process, which involved no translational skills used by Smith, Jr. to produce the Book of Mormon. As a true-blue Mormon stake/branch missionary for 30 years, I swore to hundreds of Christian investigators of Mormonism during that timeframe that Joseph Smith, Jr. had translated the golden plates, from a fictional language called reformed Egyptian to English, to produce the Book of Mormon. Not once, during that time, did I, or any of the full-time missionaries with whom I worked, tell any investigator of Mormonism that Smith, Jr. had stuck his face into a hat to dictate what he saw written above a “seer stone” to someone else.

Hence, the rationality of apparently normal true-blue Mormons is certainly suspect when they knowingly substitute false information for accepted truth and fact and tell people who know nothing about Mormonism things about Mormon history, theology, and doctrine that are blatantly not true, or intentionally leave-out information and facts essential for a person to know in-order-to accept and believe Mormonism. Yet, a person who would believe and accept a true historical fact on Friday, but, on the following Sunday, renounce that fact in favor of blatant fantasy in the presence of other fantasy-believing individuals, wouldn’t appear to have his head on right. Nonetheless, true-blue Mormons who graduate from BYU with nationally accepted academic degrees fall into that category of delusiveness. At the time I was baptized into the Mormon Church, in 1970, the full-time missionaries were not allowed to baptize any investigator into the Mormon Church who would not agree to pay a full-tithing and to abide by the LDS word of wisdom, which was abstinence from tobacco, coffee, tea, and alcohol. To get an idea about how much money flows into the Mormon coffers every year through the payment of tithing by Mormon missionary converts, in 2018 approximately 190,000 people, mainly lukewarm Christians, were recruited into Mormonism in the USA. Now, the average income of the 190,000 adults, mainly between the ages of 20 and 45 years, was approximately $60,000/year. In tithing that is $6,000/year/individual tithe payer. Now multiply $6,000 by 190,000 tithe payers. That’s a total of $1.140 billion dollars per year for as long as those Mormon converts believe in Mormonism and pay tithing, which is generally between four and eight years. Not a bad profit for an investment of a few million dollars per year by the Mormon Church. Should there be federal and state laws against such a thing? There are such laws in the U.S. Code and in every State criminal code against organized racketeering and the systematic defrauding of gullible people through the systemic use of false statements and material misrepresentations about Mormon theology, doctrine, and history. Why, therefore, are they not enforced against the Mormon LDS Church? That’s a very good question that has yet to be properly answered. For there are many individuals, hundreds of thousands, who, at this moment, would like to get-back the money that they paid in tithing and other contributions, in good faith, to their ward bishops every payday, which went directly into the coffers of the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I love forced chastity stories… they’re like pulp smut for the easily shocked. They make me laugh after a hard day.

I love how the woman is such a domineering little witch and her poor, sad hubby is forced into submission and must jump at her every command. It amuses me to no end.

I can’t imagine John jumping to my every command and I sure as Hell can’t imagine removing his trousers in front of friends and family.

That’s why it’s so funny.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of leafing through forced chastity stories, then you’re in luck today, because I’m going to give you a few of them.

You might be asking yourself why I’m doing this. Good question. I’m doing this because you should know that none of this crap is true and that it has nothing to do with male chastity.

There are people out there with a very twisted sense of humor. Okay, fine I’m one of them, but not when it comes to my beloved… and nobody would do this to their beloved.

To Death do Us Part

Let me give you an example of a forced chastity story.

Okay, so this woman decided that before she married her hubby he would have to swear to her they would never have sex. I mean never.

He would be in forced male chastity for all eternity, or until death, and he would have to please her as she wishes. He would have to lick her pussy on command, show his device to his friends, call her master or commander, and basically be her little boy bitch.

Yes, I can totally imagine he’s wishing for that death do us part bit. I can also imagine trying to pull that one off on Jon. Coming home and making him kneel to my every whim of command.

I laughed so hard tears came into my eyes when I pictured that. It’s not going to happen, and it didn’t happen to that couple either. It’s completely false and meant to amuse you (or get you to buy in to their stupid fantasy).

Trouser Denial

I also read one where the man was de-briefed in front of all of his family at a formal family event. He had to stand in the middle of the room as she took off his trousers and showed everyone the control she has over him. She also threw away the key to his device.

All of which is bullshit.

The point here is that in no manner of speaking would male chastity go this way and if you hear these stories you have every right to laugh your ass off. In fact, you should.

Then get on with the real practice of chastity between you and your beloved.

Forced chastity stories are never true — and the sooner you get over the idea, the sooner you can get informed about real male chastity and start living the male chastity lifestyle you crave.