Store Hours

Washington Nationals' Alfonso Soriano refused to play the outfield recently and ran into some trouble from take-no-nonsense manager, Frank Robinson. Soriano eventually relented when he received bad press and knew that Nationals' upper management would look for ways not to pay him. That woke up Ol' Alfonso.

When the common person hears such utter nonsense it makes him want to scream. Soriano is paid an absurd 10 million dollars per year to hit a ball. A person making $50,000 per year would have to work 200 years to make what Soriano makes in one year. A little unbalanced to say the least. Thus, when the pampered player makes a stink about playing another position, huge groans come out from the populace. Play the darn position!
Barry Bonds is making a run for the home run title. Of course, pressing allegations of massive steroid use by Bonds and many other players dampens this quest. Basically, he became a better home run hitter the older he got. He also got much bigger in every way, right up to head size. To pretend he will be the "champ" when he most likely breaks this record is a sham. He could hit a million homers; it is still a bogus title for him.

As usual, the fan gets hit for it in every way. True, many fans turn these people into god-like when all they do is hit and throw a ball. But the assault on the senses of the fan continues. More money is put out to pay for guys who have less and less respect. They pray to "the green." Bogus agents who pimp themselves out to the highest bidder make the most ridiculous excuses for their clients.

Sometimes just seeing a high-school game without all the scamming is a great thing. It is just the game. No agents and no lying. No hulking monsters going bald at young ages with bad attitudes. Just the darn game.

Robert Carberry is a freelance writer from New York.

Role playing games give people the opportunity to entire a world that is completely different from out own, with its own set of rules and often filled with a number of fantasy characters. This allows them the chance to escape and have an adventure, which is something that is appealing to a great number of people. Indeed, it is often the biggest draw into playing a role playing game in the first place. One of the aspects of entering this fantasy world, however, is forming a character to play. This character is someone who will fit into this special world with its special set of rules, and will often have a specialty within that world. Usually the game will provide a certain number of character types for a player to choose from. These are characters who come with a basic set of tools and skills which are suited to their role within the game.

Besides this basic set of tools and skills, however, players are given a lot of room to develop their character and what they might become. Normally, a player can give their character any name that they might desire as well as a personal history. Then, as play of the game commences, a personality might start to form. These characters can be played in any way that the player might wish, being overly friendly and bubbly or gruff and rude. The purpose of having a character in this role playing game is to provide someone for the player to identify with and to explore this new, fantastical world with.

Players are able to give their character more than a name and a personal history, though. As the game progresses, they can teach their character new skills and magic. They can earn upgrades for the tools of the character and find them better weapons. As they progress through the game, they can become more proficient with their fighting techniques and become a stronger warrior overall.

Characters within the game can develop partnerships with other players; sometimes even relationships can brew. The world created within a role playing game is nearly a self-existing entity and while it is fully dependent on the people playing within it, the world can often be built to such a degree that it can be run as its own plane of existence.

People can feel very close to the characters that they come to develop. More than one character is usually developed by long-term players of a role playing game. Often, when new players come to join a game, veteran players will make a new character so that they can be on the same level as the newer players, not leaving them to be at violently different skill levels than the rest. Therefore, one player may end up controlling any number of characters within a role playing universe. However, they are most often connected the closest to one specific character that they have spent a great deal of time on and feel a special connection with. This character can be like a second skin to them, giving them a nice place to escape from the real world into.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for board games, chess boards, and dungeons and dragons miniatures. You will find all these things and more if you visit used board games, chess boards.

Spring has sprung here in South Africa and my garden is bursting back into life. On a beautiful sunny day I decided to meet my daughter in the Botanical Gardens for the most pleasant of days browsing through trees and plants from all over the world in the most glorious of surroundings. Daughter of mine, being of artistic bent travels with pencil and sketchpad and had a ball sketching away at the interesting plant life.

Then at the weekend as fate would have it there was a HUGE Spring Flower Show at the local mall. That was just delightful - the funniest was a dog made of chrysanthemums but the best for me was a huge balancing floral interpretation of "Bold and Distinctive."

What must have been very difficult and was done in such a masterly fashion was to interpret a painting in flowers! I really enjoyed seeing how this was done as usually we artists interpret nature not the other way round...

All in all now is a great time to do a spot of botanical art work, painting or sketching and South Africa has an abundance of fascinating plant life to inspire anyone from the finest of artists to those who enjoy more chunky palette knife work there is something there for all tastes. Vincent van Gogh summed it up very well with this advice "It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to; the feeling for the things themselves - for reality - is more important than the feeling for pictures."

FLOWER OF THE MONTH

Victorian botanical collectors must have rejoiced when they went to South Africa for they certainly took large amounts of plant material back to Kew Gardens in London, England in the nineteenth century and much of this genetic stock from the flora kingdoms of South Africa has since been hybridized into many varietals to suit every climate around the world producing many of the common garden plants that you will probably see in your country today..

One of these plants, which is the international flower for August, is the Gladiolus, from the Latin word for a sword and part of the Iris family. Gladiolus vary from very small, fragrant spikes to spectacular giant flowers. The South African species were originally pollinated in by-gone eras by long-tongued bees, but nowadays sunbirds, moths and long-tongued flies do the business. The gladiolus also attracts butterflies so not only can an artist get the opportunity to paint a charming flower but also the flitting butterflies.

You too can enjoy a botanical drawing frenzy in South Africa

http://www.paintingholidayskzn.com
I was an infant teacher for 25 years. When I relocated to South Africa, I ventured into Internet marketing following my interest in art, and as I wanted to share my lovely new environment with artists around the world so that they might enjoy painting it's beauty. South African Painting Holidays was born and keeps me happily employed now.