Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

What I’m Thankful for This Year 2017

Happy Thanksgiving, bub!

Happy Thanksgiving, True Believers!

It’s that time of year again! As usual, I list the many things I’m thankful for since, well, that’s what Thanksgiving is about. It’s not just food, family, and football. Admittedly, this list only changes a little bit from year to year, but I’m thankful for the same things every Thanksgiving.

So, with that, here’s my list for 2017.

  1. God the Father
  2. Jesus Christ
  3. The Holy Spirit
  4. My salvation
  5. The Bible
  6. My wonderful family
  7. My two nephews
  8. My amazing friends
  9. My equally amazing writer friends
  10. The Fort Wayne Ballroom Company (FWBC)
  11. My “dance family” at FWBC
  12. That I continue to perform at FWBC’s showcases and other events with wonderful instructors/partners
  13. Ballroom/social dancing
  14. For all the conventions I attended this year
  15. My car, which I named Silver Sable (235,000 miles and still going!)
  16. My church
  17. My gaming consoles and video games
  18. My book collection
  19. My movie collection
  20. My laptop
  21. My music collection
  22. My new podcast, Kaijuvision Radio
  23. My day job
  24. That I’m 2+ years ahead on my student loan repayments!
  25. My cosplays
  26. That I’m a published author
  27. Hades Publications, which published my first novel and still has me under contract
  28. CreateSpace, which publishes my self-published books
  29. That I’ll have a new co-authored novel coming out soon! (More on that later)
  30. My strong sense of justice
  31. The house I live in
  32. My talent for writing
  33. all for One Productions
  34. Volunteering for afO
  35. My YouTube channel
  36. For being part of the team writing at Children of the Wells
  37. That I’m creative
  38. My intellectual mind
  39. My poet’s soul
  40. My warrior’s heart
  41. That I can read
  42. My iPhone 7S
  43. That I’m an American
  44. That I’m a Hoosier
  45. Summertime
  46. October (the “sweet spot” of autumn)
  47. Changing seasons
  48. Christian Gamers Guild
  49. GameChurch
  50. Theology Gaming
  51. My sense of humor
  52. The North Webster Community Public Library
  53. The Constitution, which lists my unalienable rights.
  54. My “superpowers” (rarely get sick, my “BS” sense, look much younger than I am, heal fast from injuries).
  55. My health
  56. Netflix
  57. That I got to meet Stan Lee this year
  58. My camera
  59. My knack for photography
  60. Pretzels
  61. Exercising at the gym.
  62. My comic book collection
  63. Chimp’s Comics
  64. E. Comics
  65. My board game collection
  66. My nerdiness
  67. The police and their service
  68. The military and their service
  69. My journal(s)
  70. My website (NathanJSMarchand.com)
  71. My fandoms
  72. Gen-Con
  73. The family pets
  74. Bookstores
  75. Spaghetti
  76. Highland toffee (the family recipe)
  77. Amazon.com
  78. Movie theatres
  79. My college degree
  80. Running water
  81. That I’m tall
  82. That I still have all my hair
  83. Football
  84. (Most of) My coworkers
  85. The generosity of others
  86. The TUFW Alumni and Friends Center
  87. That I attended TUFW
  88. The YMCA
  89. For living in the countryside
  90. Plumbing
  91. The Internet (though I sometimes wonder if it’s that great…)
  92. My big tax refund
  93. Facebook (again, sometimes I wonder if it’s worthwhile…)
  94. Holidays
  95. Family reconciliation
  96. My intelligence
  97. Arizona Tea Herbal Energy Tonic (cheaper than any energy drink!)
  98. YouTube (though again, it’s merits are often debatable)
  99. Candy
  100. And finally…MORE STAR WARS!

    What are you thankful for this year?

Uncategorized, News, Announcements

No Superman because YouTube is stupid

no-superman

I was going to post a new episode of my vlog, “But I Digress…,” which is a review of the new Superman film, Man of Steel, but YouTube won’t let me. Or rather, it makes my video bug out and gets muted at the same place every time I uploaded it. I don’t know if it’s because the video’s encoding is corrupted (it plays fine on my laptop) or if YouTube is being a jerk because I used two pieces of Superman music. Those are the only explanations I can think of. If it’s the latter, what’s the problem? I’m using them to promote the new film and do some comedy! Last I heard, that was allowed in copyright law.

Regardless, this isn’t the first time I’ve had issues posting videos on YouTube. I did e-mail their customer support, but I have no idea if that will help.

I’m to the point where I think I may start posting videos elsewhere, even if it means I won’t get as much exposure. Perhaps I’ll find a video plug-in for WordPress. I also hear good things about Vimeo. Or YouTube will fix things. Who knows what where my future videos will find their home?

If I did “move ” I wouldn’t abandon my YouTube channel. I’d use it for previews of my videos, or perhaps for personal videos. Only time will tell.

Until then, please be patient as I figure out how and where to get my new vlog posted.

Uncategorized, Poetry

NaPoWriMo 2013, Day 2: ‘The Lie’

Today’s prompt was to write a poem that tells a lie. My poem does build to a lie, but it is a lie that some may not agree with since it stems from my Christian faith. Read on to see what I mean.

The Lie
By Nathan Marchand

There is no end to your evil.
You lie, you cheat, you steal,
You covet and kill,
Obeying my whispers in the darkness,
The silent coercion,
The subtle propaganda,
Which you believe you hear not.
Casualties of the invisible war, you are.
Slaves blissfully ignorant of your slavery,
And blinded to your master while doing his work,
Because you bought my greatest trick,
My most powerful lie:
That I, the Devil, don’t even exist.

Uncategorized

New Short Story – ‘The Hammer’

I’ve posted another short story for your enjoyment. It is called “The Hammer.” I wrote it in my college fiction writing class during my junior year. It was intended to be submitted to the monthly “Story Starter” contest in Writers’ Digest. The “starter” for that month was “The game was over…” The story also had to be under 1,500 words.

FYI: The title comes from the main character’s surname, which is Hebrew for “the hammer.” It was inspired by Jewish historical figure, Judah Maccaebus.

Like “Baptized in Fire,” this was an experiment using elements of a science fiction universe that was germinating in my mind at the time. This one, however, had more elements of that universe. The main character, a young officer in this, would be the captain of a military starship in the universe I was conceiving; the alien robots would still be the primary antagonists; and the war would still be going on. Essentially, this is flashback to one of the things that made this character who he is later.

Despite all that, I am not happy with the story. I feel it should be longer, perhaps written better (I was still a developing artist back then).

Enough talk! Go read the story!