I’m considering launching a Kickstarter campaign for the games completion only because I’d like everyone to be able to test the game in its current state and suggest changes and or additions while hopefully providing the funding necessary to complete those changes prior to a launch.

I will of course post updates here as they are ready.

Bellow are some of the graphical assets so far completed. I hope you enjoy them.

I am hoping to have the iBook ready to launch in the new few months so stay tuned for links and launch date information soon!

Cristen just started working out again yesterday….shes in so much pain! I think it’s cute but she really killed herself for her first day back. I think shes in a hurry to get the last bit of baby fat off. The Doctors told her she had to wait 6 weeks before she could do anything so she counted the hours.

As part of her upcoming birthday present in August I’m taking her to see Bruno Mars in Columbus. I’m kind of excited because I can’t remember the last time I went to a concert outside of when I ran the record label and managed bands. I think it was Alabama when I was maybe 9 years old?

We also just went to see Kathy Griffin at the Taft Theater last weekend which she loved, but I was miserable. Primarily because the seating simply isn’t setup for 7ft people. I had to sit like I was about to deliver a baby for 2 hours while watching what looked like Kathy Griffin as tiny as could be on stage talking. We were much farther back than I thought we were going to be.

On a professional note, I’m taking my Uniform State License Exam tomorrow. Since I got an 86% on my National NMLS Exam I think I only have to get 11 questions right on my exam tomorrow and then I will be able to get over 27 state licenses if I want them. I’m licensed in Ohio, Washington and soon, Tennessee but I think once I pass this test I’ll get my Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky and maybe one other state and leave it at that for a while.

That’s it for now. Lots more to go over but I’m working on re-doing this blog to make it look nicer. Help me out and post some comments?

I’m currently working on an interactive iBook about a young boy who grew up without his father and his adventures. Hopefully that will become something that young boys will enjoy and send them the message I would have liked to have had when I was younger.

I’m developing an MMORPG game but that’s a passion project of my own and nothing thats going to change the world.

I used to tell myself when I was a kid that I would some day be a millionaire, and then I would spend the rest of my life helping others in some way. I used to plan charities and get really excited about the potential for these ventures. Why haven’t I followed through on them? It’s been a very up and down road the past several years and it’s very easy to get sidetracked. But is that an excuse?

My wife and I watch shows like The Biggest Loser, Extreme Home Makeover and I look at the joy and promise of a new life for so many of these people and I can’t help but wonder, how can I help someone that much? Back in my clubbing days I use to take homeless people out to dinners and listen to their stories. One of them shared his poetry with me and I was really impressed. There are a lot of people who are homeless with a huge variety of talents they could offer the world if only they had someone to push them in the right direction.

Since I was a teenager I dreamed of founding the “Second Chance Foundation”. I wanted to buy an old school building and remodel the building into a number of temporary apartments along with a number of class rooms focused around training people for careers. I wanted to send a team of people out into the world and approach them, talk to them and find out what went wrong and after they have established a connection with them say “Are you ready for a second chance to fulfill your dreams?”, if they they “yes”, we put them in the van and bring them in. We provide them with 5 new outfits, get them cleaned up, and qualify their current skill sets. We rebuild them from the ground up by breaking old habits, mental and physical and re-establish a will to succeed. Then we train them in the career skills they would excel at and help them get a job and a new apartment.

If I had the means to do this, how many lives do you think I would touch in a year? In ten years?

It’s pulling my heart strings the more I grow older as I don’t want to leave this world having only accomplished the nothing that I have thus far. My entire life I felt like I was destined to do more than I have. I used to think it was to be a wealthy man, full of power and money! But it’s not, my self employment background, marketing and my heart are the tools I need to help others turn their lives around. I’ve been down, I’ve been up. I know the struggles and I’ve stern enough to stick to my guns in the face of adversity.

I believe my calling is to help others, I’m just still trying to figure out how.

I was watching a movie about two cops last night and the one officer was getting married and the other told him, “Could you live without her? If so, you need to cut her loose and move on!” and I asked myself that question with an immediate, “HELL NO!” I couldn’t live without her. My wife is truly my second half. I couldn’t imagine my life without her. If something happened to her, I’d be completely lost and I know our children would be too. Of course all 3 of the kids love their other parents, but there is something about Cristen. She has a magic to her that I’ve never seen. We joke now about how I used to call her a cold fish when we first started dating because she always seemed so emotionless and cold, but she always told me that she just never met anyone worth opening up to and that’s just how she’s always been. To compare what I know today with what I was ignorant to then is night and day. She is the most loving, responsible and giving woman I’ve ever known. She helps raise my daughters truly as her own and I just couldn’t imagine where we would all be without her.

She truly is my reward for all of the hell I’ve had to go through to find her and we still talk today about how we came to meet and how weird everything that transpired was. It really does seem like some force brought us together knowing it was the right time for us to be together. My past makes complete sense to me now considering in order to truly appreciate the good in your life, you have to suffer through the bad.

I have had full custody of Olivia for the school year and she has grown leaps and bounds ahead of where she started. She’s doing so well now but it took some catching up due to her lack of Pre-School which I had no control over. She’s excited about her school work and shes now bringing home all of these good behavior slips that let’s just say took some effort on our part to help her obtain. She was never really taught how to behave in a classroom setting and how to focus on her learning etc, but that’s all been resolved as well. I’m trying to get their mother to let the girls stay with us for the purpose of us living in one of the best School Districts in Ohio but so far I just get “LOL no”. Olivia’s teacher is fearful that she will revert back to her old ways if she were taken out of our environment and I’m fearful of what will become of Alyssa next year when she starts school with no-preschool experience either. I’m still trying to convince their mother that the girls staying here will be in their best interest as has been proven already with Olivia, but, what’s in the best interest of the girls isn’t necessarily whats in the best interest of everyone apparently.

Alyssa is apparently struggling with her identity as she insists on us calling her Alex and tells everyone she is a boy. 4 years old and she will only wear boy clothes, wants boy haircuts and wants to be called Alex. According to her her mother calls her a boy and thinks it’s cute. “I’m a boy at mommies and a girl here.” We simply won’t call her Alex or let her believe she is a boy. Her mom just makes light of it and blows it off as kids will be kids but I think it’s already starting to affect her in multiple ways and will only get worse. It’s far beyond simple “tom boy” behavior. I know at her mom’s, Alyssa runs the show. Shes very demanding, temperamental and talks back to her mom constantly. She just doesn’t do that stuff at our house and I can’t understand why exactly. She likes to mess with Olivia a lot, but other than that she does what shes told and is generally pretty good. But the way she acts with her mom is just very odd. She likes to act like a baby and be cradled etc. I don’t know, it just seems very odd to me.

Overall, I love married life but we are definitely fighting an uphill battle with the girls. In a perfect world, the girls would be living here, getting the attention, structure and discipline they need and I could sleep better at night knowing they have a much better chance at success emotionally and financially when they are older but aside from a full blown custody battle that is sure to get nasty, I dont know what else to do.

On some side notes, I’ve been developing a new video game with a team of 7 others I’ve put together and am learning zBrush 3 Modeling as well as some minor programming in C#. I’m learning the Unity 3D Game Engine as well so I can better communicate with the other developers and things are going very well so far. I have 4 zBrush books, 2 Unity Programming Books and 2 3D Magazine subscriptions and 2 Online video Tutorial Subscriptions and I’m trying to suck it all down while working my day job which is going very well. I have the largest loan pipe of my branch and our branch is the highest producing branch in all of RFC nationally, so, I Think I’m doing pretty well. My pipe is sitting at 7.5 million right now and generally doesn’t fall below 5.5 million anymore. It’s a bit of a grind and it’s difficult sometimes to keep so many loans organized but I’m learning more each day and should be zeroing in on 3 week turn times here soon for loans without random complications that honestly, most have nowadays.

I also have an iPhone app in development that I’m going to keep a secret for now. Hopefully people will get a kick out of it and use it! Personally, I think it’s going to be HUGE, but, we’ll see. If less than a million people used it I’d be surprised. It will be a Free App with some paid features for 99 cents and be well worth it for any of you that go on lots of dates…

So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted, as usual, but felt like I would say something while waiting for some things to download I need for my next tutorial.

Here are some links regarding low testosterone.

http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Testosterone_Levels_Male.aspx

http://www.peaktestosterone.com/Symptoms.htm

The medical industry sickens me.

I just worked up a loan for a customer that is stuck at over 8% interest on a loan she can’t refinance out of because of her past medical bills. Now I have to call her and let her know shes stuck in this terrible loan and there is nothing I can do for her. It gets me so angry!

I went to the hospital, ER, I was there 4 hours, I was seen a total of 30 minutes, spent the rest of the time waiting around for my turn, I got a $2,500 medical bill.

RIDICULOUS! It cost me $950 to walk in the door of an emergency room where I waited 4 times longer than had I went to a regular doctor, I got 4 staples and a scan and the total was $2,500.

I want to know how the hell these costs are that high. Maybe, if prices weren’t ridiculous on medical expenses more people could afford to pay them.

I’m just really upset I have to tell this 65 year old woman I can’t help her.

I just got back from the Doctors office today and found out I’m in Hypertension with a blood pressure of 148/99. Pretty high, so I start my blood pressure pills tonight and a new diet, workout routine. My goal is to lose 20lbs to start and see where I can go from there. Cristen has been amazing in preparing my lunches for work and having everything broken up into time of day etc. It already kind of sucks eating turkey and spinach all the time but, hey, I have to do it for my family, not because I enjoy it.

Since I know some in my family read this and there has been some frustration relating to who in my family came to my wedding and why. All I can say is this, people commit acts of sin by the hour, even the most religious people knowingly commit acts of sin against their faith, church etc. It really doesn’t matter which system of dogma you subscribe to, they all have a means of control by which one is expected to abide by, or else something bad will happen to them. Growing up, I was very troubled. Intelligent but bad. Through my upbringing two of my closest relatives were two of my aunts who always showed their love and interest in my life, but always worked towards pushing me into the Catholic faith. Now, if I were to find a way to make a better banana nut bread, I’d want to share it with anyone I could as well because in my eyes, whats better for me should be better for someone else as well. However, if someone doesn’t eat bread, I wouldn’t constantly try and push my recipe onto them.

Now, I didn’t have a Catholic wedding and my now wife and I lived together (in sin) prior to our wedding which was cause for two of my favorite relatives to not attend the wedding. I feel they made that choice and I feel not so much betrayed, but definitely feel as though the most important day of my life in 34 years that I had hoped I could share with my family would be of more importance to them.

The fact is, in my opinion my wedding was used as a test of faith in their eyes. I’m sure they wanted to go, but the fact that they didn’t, probably brought them closer to God somehow and they ultimately feel they did right by their church. Ok, but in reality I feel that God is a part of all of us. He/it isn’t something we need to look into the sky to reach nor something we need to cut off family for etc. Did you know that the term Amen is actually derivative of the Sun God Amon Ra? So much of our religious symbols and dogma were spawned from Ancient Egyptian Sciences and mystical rituals, regardless of what religion you subscribe to, each just has it’s own form of limitations and style. God is the energy within all of us and is the constant in all life. It’s not a man with a beard smiting the unbelievers from the heavens.

I always say, believe what makes you a better person. Practice whatever keeps you whole. But some people just take things too far and I guess the older we all get, the less time we have, the less risk we are willing to take just in case we are wrong.

If either of you are reading this, I love you, I remember all of the great times growing up. I remember the amazing Christmas’ (which is also a Pagan Holiday and doesnt even celebrate the actual day of the birth of Jesus but it’s ok, it’s fun, so is Easter) but you should have been to my wedding. The fact that you weren’t sent invites isn’t an excuse as you both made it very clear there was no reason to send you anything. In the back of my mind, the entire day, I was hoping to see you walk in. I know if my Grandma was still alive, she wouldn’t have liked it, but she would have been there and I know if she would have went, the two of you would have too.

We are all busy in our lives and since Grandma died the entire family spread through out the country. I know it’s difficult to manage our daily lives and stay well connected to eachother. No more Saturday’s of trying to figure out what everyone wants to eat for 4 hours. No more weekend laundry chains. Everything is so different now, we are all older. But now, that troubled little boy who always got into trouble, who both of you worked so hard to help, advise and love, is now married, with a family he loves and a career he is doing well in and I just wanted to show you how worth it it all was.

I’m sorry you missed it.

First of all, I passed my National Mortgage License Exam (with an 86%) and my Ohio Exam. I am now a Licensed Mortgage Loan Originator for Residential Finance Corporation. What does that mean? Well, I am a Residential Loan Officer. I refinance home mortgages and extend purchase loans for houses. I love it!

Here are some tips on passing the National Mortgage License Exam (NMLS).
Get the ProSchools Course ($95 for the basic course, or $350 for the full kit which includes your pre licensing education course required for your 20 hours)
Once your done going through everything once, take the final course exam. If you get an 85% or better, you should be good if its the first time you’ve taken it. If you get less than that, try to figure out where you are weakest and do that chapter from page one. Dont take the quizes more than once after reading through the entire chapter. You dont want to memorize the questions/answers or you will really hurt yourself. When you do take the quizes, you want to be able to answer the questions with an explanation in your head. So if it asks a question and you have to guess, then you dont know enough yet.

Finally, when you are taking the actual exam, you wont know how well you are doing until the end, even if you are doing really well. The way the questions are worded and answers setup, you will often find yourself seeing more than one correct answer, but, if you can explain the proschools answers in detail, then your chance of selecting the correct exam answer will be MUCH better.

Before I took the national exam I had 3 full copies of the entire pro schools course highlighted and noted and was scoring 90′s on the quizes with no memorization and answering them in full detail explaining the answers.

Do that and you’ll pass the test.

Thats about it really. Everything you need to know to pass the exam is in the proschools course. Screw abacus, dont touch compucram. Just focus on learning and knowing the pro schools material.

When I was taking the exam I felt like I wanted to throw up and was shaking like a mad man. The stress was really difficult. I had no idea how well I was doing and the minute it takes to process your answers before giving you the results is the longest minute of your life. When I not only saw it read: Passed, but with an 86%, I lost it. I really couldn’t believe it. I knew I had earned it after studying as long and hard as I did. Dont let the crazy high fail rate of the test freak you out, if you do what I said above, you’ll pass it.

So, I’m writing this from my Father In Law’s Condo on the Beach at Daytona Beach, Florida. Yes, I married my best friend and the most amazing woman I’ve ever known. Cristen Schuerman, now Cristen Appleton. 5 foot 1 inch of miracle. We’ve been together 2 years now and I have only fallen deeper in love with her with every day. She is amazing with my daughters who absolutely adore her and shes just a fantastic mother and truly my best friend. We talk about everything, we have no secrets and we live our lives as a team. I’ve never before experienced what I now know as a soul mate. We were simply created for eachother. We were married at the Cincinnati Masonic Center in Downtown Cincinnati on May 5th, 2012. Pictures will be coming soon once the photographer has finished doing her thing with them.

What can I say other than this: if you are reading this and know you are in a bad relationship. If you are with a Narcissistic man or woman who makes your life miserable. If you are in an abusive relationship of any kind, be it physical or mental. If you fight and argue a lot about anything or everything. If you aren’t trusted for no reason or can’t trust who you are with for multiple reasons….DONT SETTLE. You can and WILL do better. My wife and I have argued 3 times in 2 years and we had a bit too much to drink two of those times and were just being stupid. When she walks into a room, I feel complete and safe, not fearful or concerned. When we talk, I know I can believe her every word not having to be concerned with her spinning some self serving lie. When we laugh, it’s from the gut and when we cry, its because we love each other and are typically overjoyed about something. My point is, in 34 years I’ve experienced a lot of horrible relationships and always wondered if it was me or the women I dated. What I realized is that, to become wise you have to have experiences to learn from. To appreciate the greatness of the person you are meant to be with, you have to experience the ones you aren’t. I know that Cristen is my reward for all of the battles I’ve had to fight before finding her.

Too often I see people getting married too young or for all of the wrong reasons. At 34 years old, having seen all I’ve seen, I know without a doubt that this is true happiness for the first time in my life and I’m grateful for my past for showing me just how great true and real love really is. I hope any of you reading this who are struggling through a bad relationship can see some light at what should be the end of a dark tunnel knowing that it’s ok to get out. You will find the one you are meant to be with and to be honest, if you know in your heart that you are the cause for your partners misery, you know you can’t tell the truth to save your life, you play games, take your partner for granted, cheat, steal, abuse etc, then you need to take a step back and look at yourself. Stop dating and try to find the reason you are the way you are. I’ve dated a person with textbook Narcissistic Personality Disorder, I mean, to the letter, and I know that she knows how messed up she is, as I’m sure you do as well. You may never admit it to anyone else, but you can admit it to yourself and then begin to figure out how to resolve those issues that cause you to find yourself doing all of the things that create a horrible environment for yourself and your partner. Until you do, you will never find happiness in your life and neither will anyone you ever date.

The point to all of this is, I see so many people in bad relationships or simply not happy in their relationship and believe it’s too late to change their lives or leave who they are with in fear of being lonely or never finding someone else etc. If you focus on being the best you that you can be, then the person you are meant to be with will find you when they have become the best them that they can be and the two of you will compliment each other and fill each others cracks as one from then on.

Drastic changes in ones life is scary. I have gone through a complete life transition. I’ve quit doing something I’ve done for over 6 years in going from self employed fight promoter and going into a completely new and unknown career in the mortgage industry. I’m now married to the love of my life and spend every day learning, listening and focused on how to make our lives and our childrens lives better, and I love my life for the first time in 34 years.

Hopefully, this long winded post to be aged blog helps you in some way and if it does, I’d love to hear from you.