Number6's Journal

There.

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:32:07 GMT

I now have two separate short stories out trying to sell themselves for me at the same time. Yes, I know it took long enough. And really, not likely to get anything for either of them. But, the effort continues.

Happy Birthday

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:20:19 GMT

Happy Birthday colonel_taisa!!

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:14:49 GMT

Happy Birthday rose_etta!

Also, happy birthday canada!

Aww, damnit...

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 23:15:22 GMT

Don S. Davis passes away.

Best known to many SF fans as General Hammond from Stargate SG-1. In fact, I found this out while watching a Stargate SG-1 rerun as I looked over my friends list.

More PoG goodness

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:46:07 GMT

Found a couple more episodes of Prisoners of Gravity on Youtube...

The Jack Kirby Tribute episode
Part One: (Interviews with Jack Kirby on the importance of Alter Egos, storytelling. Interviews with Len Wein, Kevin Eastman on his influence)
Part Two: Interviews with Dave Gibbons about Jack, interview with Jack Kirby on Captain America, the Fantastic Four (and how the Thing is based on himself), Thor, other Gods/Godlike characters, interview with Will Eisner about Kirby facing down the Mafia (sort of), Walt Simonson on Kirby creating the visual language of superheroes)
Part Three: (Non-comics personalities Charles De Lint & Samuel R. Delany share thoughts on Kirby, Jack Kirby on what he thinks his greatest contribution to comics, advice to the young cartoonists, the influence of his family, Scott McCloud on Kirby's influence, Max Allan Collins on playing his song "King Jack" and others for Kirby himself)

And, though it's not as good, it still has some mild interest:
Adaptations:
Part One: Interviews with Bob Kane (on Batman, the TV show, and the 1988 movie and its sequel), Frank Miller (on The Dark Knight Returns), Kevin Eastman (on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its adaptations), Max Allan Collins (on Dick Tracy and adaptation attempts)
Part Two: Interviews with Dave Stevens (The Rocketeer creator, on its adaptation), Commander Rick talks about SF stories adapted to film, Interview with Larry Niven (about the possibility of bringing Ringworld to film, or comicizing), George R.R. Martin on the Wild Cards novels (novel series adapted from a private roleplaying game and it getting adapted into comics and RPG form)
Part Three: Bill Sienkiewicz (on Classics Illustrated), Rick Geary (on what to cut out in comic adaptations), Mike Kaluta (on the comic adaptation of The Abyss), Harlan Ellison (on adaptations of his work)

Doctor Who 4.12: "TSE"

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:18:59 GMT

Unlike most of my friends, I did not care much for this episode. I will therefore have to do a spoilery filled rant. Which means cuts for those who haven't seen it.

Okay, let's start with saying I didn't _hate_ it. It wasn't completely awful. It was just, as RTD's tend to be, and RTD's big two-part events tend to be EVEN MORE, sloppy and poorly written in which the good elements were soured strongly by the bad, and so my enjoyment wound up somewhere in the middle. It made me really eager for RTD to go away, and don't let the TARDIS door hit you on the way out.

I'll also say that what I did like about the plot was basically the Rose reunion (I'm not a super Rose fan but I do like that they brought her back for a special), the Shadow Proclamation (except for a few elements of it, like the mysterious psychic albinos who don't seem to know a damn thing except to refer cryptically to events in one of the character's life), the surprise ending (of which I forcast a 90% chance that it will leave a bad taste in my mouth by the resolution of the episode), and the Daleks/Davros. Even if they're overused, they're still fun to me. But that's not RTD's doing, really, the Daleks were great before him - it's a case where the ingredient is doing the work, not the chef.

It always seems to me though that RTD has two basic tricks up his sleeve for Who: 1) Creating a supporting cast for the companions that don't travel with the Doctor, but keep popping up. This is generally good work here, and probably one of the reasons
he's popular (I don't think he does as good with one-shot throwaway characters, though).

2) Having a little trail of hints running through the season's eps towards the season finale. In Season 1, it was Bad Wolf. In Season 2, Torchwood. In season 3, Saxon.

These all worked, for the most part. Bad Wolf because it was specifically a message scrawled throughout time and space by SuperRose. S2 was a little weaker, but at least it was mostly mentions and hints. S3 worked because the references were all from the present-day episodes, or from present-day characters in other episodes.

S4's was different. There were a couple different threads. It was the repeated mention that the bees were disappearing (which was okay, and one of the few things in the episode that made sense), the idea of something being on Donna's back (annoying if that's all it turned out to be in TL), Rose's brief failed attempts to contact the Doctor (which if she doesn't have her own time travel technology in the parallel world, is dumb, and if she does have it, is dumb for a different reason), and the mention of various planets disappearing, which, of course, was to lead up to the big reveal that Earth becomes one of those planets. OMG.

Except, it's done in such a crappy way. I mean, think about it. The Shadow Proclamation is frantic because 24 planets all disappeared at the exact same moment. Ooh, spooky. Then Donna pipes in and points out that Adipose 3 was also taken, and Pyrovillia, and the Doctor remembers the story of the 'Lost moon of Poosh'.

Now, this might have been fair enough, on its own. But then it turns out that that makes 27 planets. AND ONLY 27 PLANETS. It's explicitly stated. "Oh, look, that makes 27 plans which creates a perfect double immelmen turn or whatever", followed later by the Doctor's revelation of seeing all 27 planets. So, wait. Davros and the Daleks had a master plan that involved stealing 24 planets all from the exact same moment at the exact same time. Plus _one_ planet from thousands of years ago. And one planet from probably a year or so ago. And one moon from the far future (presumably, although it's never said exactly when Poosh went missing). Doesn't that seem dumb to anybody else? I mean, if there were 70 planets taken from different points in time and space, and the Doctor and Donna happened to hear about 3 of them, that's one thing. But in all of time and space, in the last year, they encountered brief mentions of 3 planets going missing, and all of them just happened to be the only 3 that weren't taken at the same time as everybody else.

Why? BECAUSE IT PROVIDED THEM A CLUE. Yes, it's another example of the dreaded "Just So" writing. The only reason the Doctor and Donna heard about these planets is Just So because RTD wanted to tease the plot in advance. Otherwise it stretches the bounds of coincidence past breaking. (And, what's more, like a lot of RTD's time travel work, it makes no sense. He writes Time Travel as though the Daleks operate on the same date as the audience - because they haven't launched their master plan until July 28th, 2008, even if you're 2610, if it's not July 28th, 2008 in the real world, no results of the master plan are evident. You can be on Earth at 2610 up until that date in 2008. You can get around the problem here with the Daleks time travel abilities, but now the problem is Poosh. If Poosh is gone in the future, that means the Dalek intervention in the timestream has already begun. So if Earth was taken in 2008, then _it's not there_ for the people of Midnight to have come from when they set up a colony and even noticed that Poosh has gone missing. That, or it's such a part of history, that Earth was stolen for a short time, attacked by Daleks, and then saved, but that the Doctor has somehow missed this despite being a huge know-it-all about all elements of history. This is a pet peeve that RTD is by no means alone on, though.)

And that's not the only Just So writing, where RTD just writes crappy magic tech into being just to get his plot from one beat to the next in the sloppiest way imaginable. Harriet Jones had access to a magic sentient operating system that could magically contact anybody who _might_ be able to contact the Doctor (and, oddly enough, only comes up with people the audience has seen). Why? Because it's the easiest way to hook up all the separate crossover elements. But a contactee not having a webcam is enough to stifle the whole thing and make them unable to communicate. Why? No reason. Just so Rose has to watch and no one else knows she's there. And the plan is just awful, over done. I mean, maybe hooking up the transmission to the rift (if the sub wave device wasn't just dumb magitech) might be okay... but 'Mr. Smith' helps by forcing everybody on Earth to dial the Doctor's Phone Number? That is dumbness on the level of saying "I know what we have to do! Get everyone on the Earth to jump up and down at the exact same time, and we'll knock the Earth out of orbit!"

There's also the Sontaran-derived Indigo device somehow providing the two numbers Jack needs to fix a device that lets him teleport right to the Doctor? Huh? How does that make sense.

You know, RTD, good SF isn't about shovelling stuff out of your ass and tying them together in any way you need for your plot, it's about making them make sense, sometimes setting them up in advance, and thinking through the consequences. Your science fiction plot elements SHOULD NOT operate by the laws of Fizzbin. "The Vortex Manipulator doesn't work, except on Saturdays when the 4th digit is the same as a Sontaran device you've barely heard about, or when the rift spins counterclockwise." Just like with magic, if ANYTHING can happen, I don't give a %$!% what happens. If you're making everything up off the top of your head for plot's sake, you suck as a SF writer.

Sure, you have decent skill at characterization, and making a few cool moments, but this ep? This was a 'bringing everyone together' ep, and you didn't do it well. Some of the moments were expected, still cool but predictable given what the plot was, and others, as described above, don't make sense, and a few were genuinely good with no qualifications. The ep also suffered a little for being a crossover with two other series, as well - it might be great if you watch them, but if not it was a little lame even though the main actors appeared in Who episodes, that's not a major problem, though, it was just exacerbated the other problems a little, making too many characters who have to be juggled and included.

(Oh, and RTD's other big stock trick is a huge, Earth-changing, people-killing event in the PRESENT, that nobody should be able to ignore, and that either has to be retconned with the reset button, or alter life fundamentally from then on because everybody on Earth knows what just happened. And guess what, it happens again here. I'm betting the reset button's coming on this one, and that will be total crap if that's what happens. But it'll be total crap if it doesn't, too. This is the horror of RTD, he gives you crap either way.).

Despite the ranting, like I said above, I didn't think it was _horrible_. It was okay, I just didn't get the gushing (well, okay, I can see the gushing of those people who absolutely love Rose returning, or any of the other supporting characters the ep involved). Taken on its own, I thought Turn Left was better, and, as I ranted last time, Turn Left itself was weak. Midnight remains RTD's best effort this season.

Book Foo, with a few random add-ons.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:07:55 GMT

Finished: A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Thoughts on the debut of John Carter behind the cut. Not really spoilery.
I enjoyed it for the most part. I think I enjoyed it more on the level of 'well, it's a classic and I can see how it influenced the genre' a little more than I enjoy newer stuff, but as a simple adventure on Mars, it was fun, and I liked it more than the modern S.M. Stirling adventure on Venus I read recently. I'll probably read the other John Carter books if I can get my hands on it. Sure, there's a bit of silliness due to early-20th centuries ideas about Mars (not to mention other science in general), but they're not too bad.

Started and finished: The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (short stories)
Started: Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman

Thoughts on the Omni SF book behind the cut. Not really spoilery.
The usual mixed bag of stories you always get in a short story selection, although a little worse because although there were a few that were enjoyable, there was none that really stood out as 'wow, awesome story, worth the whole book'. The closest was probably "Adagio", by Barry B. Longyear, about a conflict among stranded spacemen waged using the local life form - an extremely slow moving species of sentient 'rocks'.

Finished: Otherland: Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light, by Tad Williams
Started: Queen of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder

Thoughts about the whole of the Otherland series behind the cut. Some minor spoilers. Quick thought: liked it more than I thought I would.
The series involves a huge, highly complex virtual reality network that the hyper rich has built secretly for their own use, and some people are drawn in to investigate it because it seems children are falling into comas because of it. A group of these people get trapped in the Otherland and drawn into all sorts of plots as they explore lots of newly created simulation worlds that seem as real as life.

Now, when I went into the series, I figured it was going to tweak two of my pet peeves in SF - one, the whole "If you die in VR, YOU DIE FOR REALS!" idea (generally stupid unless extremely well explained), and the other being messy spirituality-is-real type elements. I can look past them for a good story. To my surprise, though, in this case, I really didn't have to - they managed to, to my tastes, satisfactorially avoid both problems(though there was a tiny bit of the latter, it was well within acceptable, deniable limits), while using the ideas of both. So, well done there.

It was a long and, occasionally, meandering story though, with groups of characters getting split up and reunited and split up again, and each of them going through their own sets of worlds inspired by history, SF, or fantasy in an almost random way (along with a lot of ongoing plot streams set outside of the VR system). Still, it was handled well enough that, although there were times I was bored and wished they just got on with it, I'm not annoyed at having wasted my time reading it. I might read it again at some point, which is saying something considering it's something like 3500 pages in total.

The ending is a little weak, suffering from "So, here's what all that was about" Syndrome, where a character has to, at great length, explain a whole load of things and how it fit together into the plot all at once - many of which might have been better if they explained it earlier for the audience. Also the author did seem to be too attached to a happy ending for most of the people left involved after the climax - there was a point where I was able to predict what would happen just because it was the most absurdly beneficial thing that you might expect. Still, fun.

Other news! I have a new tasty sandwich treat. Mortadella and Caesar dressing. Now, one of my favorite sandwich discoveries of the last decade was Mortadella and Feta Cheese. Very nice, but there's one problem. I have to have Feta. And though I love feta cheese, I don't eat it enough to make it feasible to have it on hand at all times - it's too expensive in small batches and goes bad in large batches. So usually I only get it if my grandmother gives me some from her own batches (she uses it a lot), and so Mortadella and Feta is, although awesome, somewhat rare for me. However, Caeser dressing does a lot of the same good thing - gives it a nice tangy, salty kick, and I can have Caesar dressing all the time. So it is now superior on my list of favorite sandwiches.
(By favorite sandwich discoveries I mean things that I can make easily and for relatively cheaply, not fancy frou frou sandwiches or ones that require 50 steps, no matter how awesome they might be).

In other food news tried a microwave (PC) 'lamb rogon josh' dish today, which was quite nice for a microwave meal. Never had rogon josh before, but it might be worth trying sometime if I get the chance at a real place.

And, haven't mentioned dreams in a while, but there were a couple in the last few days I wanted to get down. One involving something very disturbing from Doctor Who, and another just SF goodness.
One I remembered was kind of cool. We were living on a space habitat, a massive ring like something in Iain M. Banks' Culture books, and something had happened, it was damaged and we needed to evacuate. But, also, something was coming, something that was eating the universe, and so it was very end-of-the-worldy, even though a spaceship did eventually arrive towards the end, before the universe eater reached us, to start evacuating people. Despite the grim nature of the circumstances, it was actually quite a calm and peaceful dream, and I regretted when I woke up that I _wasn't_ on a dying ring habitat.

As to the Doctor Who dream? All I can remember is... *shudder* naked Davros. (He was standing, and the story was set sometime before he was in the chair). You couldn't even really see anything (that is, if it was a TV show I was watching, the actor was in a full body costume and the bits were alien), but still. *shudder*.

Oh, and damn you Marvel. You finally decide to do a Runaways What If (What If... The Runaways became the Young Avengers)... and not only do you have to give it to CB Cebulski to write (a guy who seems very nice and apparently likes all my favorite characters, but to whom I've never particularly enjoyed any of his writing), but you make it a BACK-UP story to five other What Ifs I have no interest in. *shakes fist*. I think I'll have to resort to... let's call it magic, to get this story.

Finally, shouldn't there be _some_ standards and accountability with television commercials? I mean, specifically, that when a TV channel advertises something as an "all new episode", should it not _be_ an all-new episode, and if it is not, that commercial pulled and replaced with one that does not use that phrase (or, in the absence of that, some kind of punishment)? I'm speaking specifically of the Comedy Network, which I watch a fair bit, and I constantly see commercials for Corner Gas that start with "ON AN ALL NEW CORNER GAS"... except they're reruns. This year's reruns, sure, but reruns all the same. NOT ALL NEW. YOU DIE NOW. It's not like I'm looking forward to new eps or anything, it's the principle of the thing - if you advertise All New, it had damn well better be all new. It's bad enough when US channels used to advertise something as the "World television premiere" of something that already aired in Canada, but this is another level entirely. I don't actually think they're being deceptive in this case, just lazy (too lazy to redo the commercials from when it was new), but laziness is not an excuse - you're a network, you've got millions of dollars - fix it. *shakes fist*.

New Comic Day!

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:39:30 GMT

This week I got three books:

New Warriors #13 (meh, okay)
Runaways #30 (My pick of the week, some interesting tweaks to the status quo)
Secret Invasion Runaways/Young Avengers #1 (reasonably fun)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also noticed the bookstore I got my giftcards at for my birthday/xmas was having a 'buy 3 books, get the 4th free'... not _that_ great a deal, but still, better than nothing. So I used up one of them and got:
Queen of Mazes, by Karl Schroeder
A Meeting at Corvallis by S.M. Stirling
Iron Sunrise, by Charles Stross
and
Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman (Nebula Award Winner).

Work was okay, but a bit later than usual and so got home later than I'd like, both hot, tired (from the long walk), and hungry (I wanted to stop at a Taco Bell and see if I could take advantage of Phillip Ontakos, but alas, none is ever in my path when I need one. :P). However, on the way home I did pass a strip club with "Hulk was filmed here" on the marquee (outside). You can see the one in the trailer, when the two monsters are rushing each other in the streets and you see a big Zanzibar sign in the background. I just found it was amusing that they were advertising that.

In other news, I'm reasonably pleased with myself writing wise this month. Not only have I met my writing quotas for on-weeks, but I've also _edited_ a significant amount on my off-weeks. Pretty much every day this month that would have been a writing day on an on-week has become an editing day on an off-week. Okay, sure, I may not have done as much as I would have liked on each day, but I've done a chunk that I can at least be mildly pleased with. So yay me. I think I'm also getting a little better at identifying exactly what about particular passages that doesn't sound right - before it was usually sort of a vague unease, that the words didn't flow as I wanted them to, but wasn't sure exactly what to fix. So I think I'm getting a little better at it. Yay me x2.

In TV news, well, there's Doctor Who, and... well, unlike a lot of people on my flist, I didn't much care for the latest episode. Like a lot of RTD's work, it was only okay. Well-acted, certainly. A few good moments, undoubtably. But on the whole it didn't do much for me - the basic plot has been used many times in SF (and even non SF) and, really, not done terribly innovatively here. The reason why it happened (both the sci-fi reason and the more human reason behind the title) didn't reall work well for me, nor did I see why certain elements of the resolution should work (which seemed to boil down to 'just because we need that'). There's also a lot in the episode that, because it's a tease for big events that the finale will handle, I have to hold in abeyance before I decide whether they were handled well or terribly in this episode. Midnight was much better.

Also watched the S5 premiere of Stargate Atlantis, which I watched early by... let's say 'magic'. It was also okay, but a little more on the enjoyable side. Kind of a lot there that I expected to happen, but Stargate's the kind of show that it's fun to follow along even with that. Still, one thing really bugged me (fairly minor spoiler, but cut anyway) I mean, come on. I know Shepherd's the hero, but this 'I'm terribly wounded but I'm going on this mission anyway!' and all the superior officers who have both the authority and the physical power to make it stick say 'duh, okay! Go ahead and compromise the mission! Your feelings are all that matter to us!' is really dumb. If you (the writers) need to play the terribly-wounded-but-going-anyway card, you either have them successfully hide it, have them disobey orders, or have there literally be no choice for some reason. Don't make everybody stupid (not to mention bad officers) just so you can do it.

Oh, and a teaser from Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog (the Joss Whedon mini-musical with Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris), if you haven't seen it yet.

Birthday

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:09:18 GMT

Happy Birthday redlantern2051!

Birthday

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:15:15 GMT

Happy Birthday jetfx!!

Damn

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:34:16 GMT

RIP George Carlin

May Joe Pesci rest your soul.

Birthday

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:30:07 GMT

Happy Birthday psychosomat1c!

New Comic Day

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:37:19 GMT

This week I got one book:

X-Factor #32 (enjoyable, interesting new status quo setup, but its my last issue for a while)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore (50 cents each, woo!):
Brain Rose, by Nancy Kress
The Fifth Omni Book of Science Fiction (short story collection)

Work was okay, a bit later than usual, but, ah well. Got through it.

Oh, and a belated congratulations to George Takei for getting his marriage license with longtime partner Brad Altman. Sulu's not flying solo anymore! Or, well, he won't be in September when he actually marries, but I might not remember the line then so I'm using it now. (I'm sure I'm not the first to come up with it).

Some Random Stuff

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:36:34 GMT

I did a Sci-Fi friending meme a while back, and got some new friends out of it. So, welcome! Maybe I'll try to do one of those intro memes going around in the next little while. One thing you should probably know is I occasionally do big random post full of whatever comes to mind, with few segues.

Done another writing cycle... still working on the same longer story I was doing so last time, and still doing well with it, know generally where I'm going, so that's a relief. It's still pretty rough, of course, but I'm having fun with it.

I hate when ads answer questions I never asked. On the way to work I pass a place where there's a big sign in the window saying, "Yes, we have lemon tarts!" That's a little presumptuous of them, don't you think? How do they know what question I'm asking? Maybe it's "Do you have anything that I can break into your store and steal without you getting mad or pressing charges?"

Speaking of ads, whenever I see a dating website commercial that shows a couple happily in love, I always try to find myself imagining which of them will snap and attempt to kill the other first. Have I become too cynical?

In TV, what's been new? BSG and Doctor Who! (Hey, that's a poem and I didn't know 'em!)
BSG was somewhat disappointing, all in all, both all this year and, to a lesser extent, the finale. It wasn't bad, just, kinda meh. We'll have to see where it goes. I'm still thinking they jumped the shark with the Final Four. I get the impression they got too enamored with OMG COOL NEW IDEAs at some point that they dropped the ball on their previous ongoing plots and won't be able to tie everything up in a fundamentally satisfying way.

Doctor Who, though, wow, that actually turned in a good episode by RTD. Surprising, because his are the episodes that I usually dislike quite a bit, even if I like elements of them. This one, although it had a few rough spots, was overall very well done. (My main problem is that I thought the reactions turned a bit too extreme _too_ fast, at least without invoking alien paranoia-rays), and I don't think I have any reservations in calling it one of RTD's best. And, for that matter, possibly one of the best of the season.

I saw a trailer for the US version of Life on Mars. I didn't really plan on watching it, but was just curious. Now, one of the big rumors is that they're going to redo the whole pilot and recast everybody except the star. Based on the trailer? Wow, I'm hoping the rumor is the exact opposite. Because I can see everything else working in a kitschy sort of way, but the star is _so_ flat. And you do not mess with Colm Meany. You recast something to _get_ Colm Meany, not to get rid of him. Anyway, I probably still won't watch it, regardless of recasting, unless nothing else is on when it premieres, but it's the principle of the thing.

You know you're a comics geek when anytime someone starts talking about 'green living', you instantly suspect them of being Skrulls (or Green Martian, I suppose, for DC fans).

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:17:11 GMT

Happy Birthday high_father!

New Comic Day

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:42:06 GMT

This week I got two books:

Captain Britain and MI13 #2 (a little too fast paced for me, but enjoyable and my Pick of the Week)
newuniversal: shockfront #2 (conversely, a little too slow, but enjoyable)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the comic store I saw the Heroes action figures, which apparently came out... was tempted to get either Hiro (with sword and super-hero messenger bag!) or Claire (with replacable wounded head and arm), but they were almost $20 each, and, well, on a budget. Maybe if they ever get cheaper. They also had Sylar and Mohinder, and maybe there were others behind those but I didn't see them.

Work was okay, and of course I did the long walk both to the comic store and home. Except, there was a little problem. On the way, I started to feel a little gassy, which, well, happens from time to time and is only a mild concern. Then, later, added to that, I began to feel a strong sense of... let's call it intenstinal urgency. This was not a good feeling, particularly when you're a) about 45 minutes walk from home, and b) in an area without anywhere convenient to duck into for a washroom (an area with homes, apartments, and long stretches of bridges). I managed to hold out across the bridges to get into a McDonalds. After I was done, I bought a double cheeseburger, of course, because, well, they really helped me out and when I use else someone's bathroom I feel guilty for some reason. Now, you might rightly think, "hey... given what sent you in there, perhaps eating McDonald's food was not the best idea there", but I think I know what happened. There was no logical reason for me to have those troubles that day, as I'd barely eaten anything. So, I think I scarfed down that double cheeseburger so fast it broke the speed of light on its way to my stomach, and thus travelled back in time, and caused a predestination paradox.

Edit: Oh, and I think I got a touch of sunburn on my shoulders/neck.

Marvel August Solicitations...

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:43:41 GMT

Sure, it might be a _little_ late, but that doesn't mean there's nothing here we can discuss!

(SOMEHOW, NO SPOILERS AT ALL)

Titles Shipping August 2
Daredevil #261 - It looks like Daredevil's dead, and that leaves Hell's Kitchen without a protector. The Human Torch wants to take up where DD left off, but can the Torch keep things cool? "Meltdown" is written by Ann Nocenti, penciled by John Romita Jr. and inked by Al Williamson. 75c

Semper Fi #1 - In the tradition of THE 'NAM comes a series that shows what life in the U.S. Marine Corps can really be like. See the history of the Corps through the eyes of the men who lived it! Scripted by Michael P. Palladino and illustrated by John Severin and Sam Glanzman. 75c

The West Coast Avengers #39 - Mantis embarks on a quest to regain her memory! And the consequences could wreck the ranks of the West Coast Avengers! Written by Steve Englehart and penciled by Al Milgrom. 75c.

Wolfpack (limited series) #5 - A ring of drug dealers has been terrorizing kids to further their ruthless plans to take over the neighborhood. Can Wolfpack put a stop to it and "Save the Children"? Written by Ron Wilson and John Figueroa, penciled by Ron Wilson, and inked by Kyle Baker. 75c.

G.I. Joe Special Missions #16 - It begins as a reconnaissance mission to get aerial photos of Cobra Island. But when it turns into an all-out battle in the sky, there's no telling whether or not the Joes will make it home alive. "Tight Circles" is written by Larry Hama, penciled by Herb Trimpe, and inked by Andy Mushynaky. $1.00

Excalibur #3 - Excalibur's endured an awful lot during its brief career. But even if they make it through a battle with the unstoppable Juggernaut, can they survive the unbelievable horror of... "Moving Day"? Written by Chris Claremont, penciled by Alan Davis, and inked by Paul Neary. 32 pages. $1.50.

Tales of G.I. Joe #13 - Re-presenting from G.I. Joe #12: When Snake Eyes was captured by the Eskimo tracker, Quinn, the last thing he expected was a fiery death. But that's exactly what might be in store when it's "Three Strikes for Snake Eyes!" Written by Larry Hama, penciled by Mike Vosburg, and inked by Jon D'Agostino. 32 pages. $1.50.

Web of Spider-Man #45 - When Peter Parker boarded a plane in Las Vegas, he never expected it to become the property of the Vulture! After forcing the plane to crash-land, the Vulture's picking off the survivors one at a time! Can Peter stop him without revealing his secret identity... and without any web fluid? "Death from Above" is written by Adam Blaustein, penciled by Alex Saviuk, and inked by Keith Williams. $1.00.

Psi-Force #26 - Reporter Andrew Chaser has written a book that'll rip the lid off the Government's plan to use paranormals! But considering that Psi-Force may be dead and Andrew's been getting threats against his family, can he bring himself to publish it? "Hard Copy" is scripted by Fabian Nicieza, penciled by Graham Nolan, and inked by Mike Witherby. Direct sales only. $1.25.

The Last American #1 - It's been twenty tears since World War III left America in ruins. Now Captain Ulysses S. Pilgrim is finally leaving the safety of his bunker. His mission: Rebuild his country -- and avenge it! Written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, and painted by Mike McMahon. An Epic Comic. 32 pages. Hudson paper. Direct Sales only. $1.95.

Someplace Strange Graphic Novel - So you think it might be fun to leave the real world behind and enter a world of fantasy? Well, so did a group of kids who found themselves in an enchanted Never-Never Land... until they wound up having to battle fearsome creatures from their nightmares in order to survive! Written by Ann Nocenti and painted by John Bolton. An Epic Comic. 64 pages. $6.95.

Strikeforce: Morituri #24 - As if mankind's war against the alien Horde wasn't bad enough, now their Morituri force must face the appearance of two new alien races! And to make matters worse, one of those aliens promises to make the Morituri more dangerous to mankind than the Horde! "Good-by Blue Sky" is written by James D. Hudnall, penciled by John Calimee, and inked by Val Mayerik. 32 pages. Mando Offset paper. Direct Sales only. $1.25

Titles Shipping August 9
Captain America #348 - Flag Smasher's got a problem, and he wants Captain America's help. But when Captain America turns out not to be the one Flag Smasher knows, the stage is set for a battle royale! WRitten by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Kieron Dwyer, and inked by Al Milgrom. 75c.

Solo Avengers #13 - It's two, two, two tales of avenging action for the price of one!
There's a mad chase in store for Hawkeye when he takes on the high-speed menace called Bullet Biker! It's going to be tough for Hawkeye to beat Bullet Biker... assuming he can even catch him! Written by Tom DeFalco, penciled by Ron Lim, and inked by Jose Marzan.
Also: Some alien filmmakers have come to town and Wonder Man is the star of their latest epic. The only problem is -- they haven't bothered to tell him first! Can even Wonder Man stand up to the threat of the incredible giant mutant bunny? Written by Gregory Wright and Dwayne McDuffie and illustrated by Jackson Guice. 75c.

Alf #10 - It's back to school for ALF when the Alien Life Form realizes he's only a few credits short for his Melmacian college degree! Will alien academia ever be the same once "ALF Goes to College"? Written by Michael Gallagher, penciled by Dave Manak, and inked by Marie Severin. A Star Comic. $1.00.

The Amazing Spider-Man #310 - Is it burglary? Is it blackmail? Or is it both? Spidey's late-night investigation of an Empire State University lab uncovers a high-stakes plot that pits him against both Killer Shrike and the Tinkerer! Written by david Michelinie and illustrated by Todd McFarlane. Biweekly. $1.00.

Groo The Wanderer #46 - Spider-Man did it. Iron Man did it. Thor did it. But you won't believe your eyes when Groo gets himself a brand new costume! Written and illustrated by Sergio Aragones and reconstituted by Mark Evanier. An Epic Comic. 32 pages. $1.00

Heathcliff #29 - It's election year, and it looks like everyone's getting into the act! Things take a turn for the hilarious when Heathcliff runs for mayor of Westfinster! "Go Fight City Hall" is written and penciled by Angelo DeCesare and inked by Jacqueline Roettcher. A Star Comic. $1.00.

The New Mutants #70 - When the New Mutants have their final showdown with the alien Spyder, mutant rock star Lila Cheney is going to have to make a fateful choice. But her decision could spell tragedy for the New Mutants. Written by Louise Simonson. $1.00.

Alpha Flight #65 - Box has been having some bad dreams lately -- dreams about the brother and friend he killed. But are they really dreams at all? "Do Robots Dream?" is written by Bill Mantlo and drawn by Hugh Haynes. 32 pages. Direct sales only. $1.25.

D.P. 7 #26 - It's now the size of a mountain! It's ravenously rampaging through South America! It's the horrifying Famileech! The C.I.A. is sending a contingent of D.P.7 reinforced with the new paranormal, Chrome, to somehow stop it! But how can anyone destroy a creature whose need to consume has made it virtually all-powerful! "Flesh" is written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Paul Ryan, inked by Danny Bulanadi. 32 pages. Mando OFfset paper. Direct Sales only. $1.25.

Marvel Comics Presents #8 - Four big stories in a single comic book!
As Shang Chi's epic serial draws to a close, the Master of Kung Fu finds himself facing the deadliest threat of his life -- and possibly the last! Written by Doug Moench, penciled by Tom Grindberg, and inked by Dave Cockrum.
As tough as Wolverine may be with his teammates around him, he's alone now... and the gloves are off! Scripted by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Buscema.
The setting ranges from Washington, D.C., to the heart of a Florida swamp as the U.S. Government furthers its plans to create an army of Man-Things! Can the original Man-Thing stop them? Written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Tom Sutton.
You already know that Alcoholics Anonymous helped Iron Man stop drinking. But there's a lot more to AA than just that. How can AA help Iron Man in a battle with the electrifying Zzax? You'll find out in "One Day at a Time..." Written by Sholly Fisch and penciled by Javier Saltares. 32 pages. $1.25

St. George #3 - They say you can't go home again. But that idea takes on new meaning for Michael Devlin when he finds his home town overrun with Shadow Dwellers! "Light Against the Darkness" is written by D.G. Chichester and Margaret Clark and illustrated by Klaus Janson. An Epic Comic. 32 pages. Direct Sales only. $1.25.

Star Comics Magazine #13 - Come relive more of your favorite classic (not to mention hilarious) Star Comics tales, staring ALF, Heathcliff , Muppet Babies, Top Dog, and Flintstone Kids. A 64-page digest. $1.50.

Wolverine #2 - Jessica Drew's been possessed by the spirit of the Black Blade! And even if Wolverine can defeat the slashing Silver Samurai, the only way for him to save Jessica is to become possessed himself! Written by Chris Claremont, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Klaus Janson. 32 pages. Baxter paper. $1.50.

The 'NAM Mazine #5 - Re-presenting from The 'NAM #s 9 and 10: Death strikes the company when they least expect it! And if Vietnamese guerrillas have anything to say about it, there's more death where that came from! "Pride Goeth" and "Guerrilla Action" are written by Doug Murray and illustrated by Michael Golden and John Beatty. A 48-page, black and white Marvel Magazine. $2.00.

The Savage Sword of Conan #154 - Conan's on the trail of the evil Khalli. But when the chase leads Conan into the path of some old "friends," the savege Cimmerian has to face "The Return of the Iron Damsels!" Written by Chuck Dixon and illustrated by Gary Kwapisz. A 64-page, Black and white Marvel Magazine. For Mature Readers. $2.00.

Akira #4 - What would you do if you suddenly developed psychic powers? Tetsuo uses his in an unexpected way as he takes over a vicious motorcycle gang! Written and illustrated by Otomu Katsuhiro. A 64-page Epic Comics graphic album. For mature readers. $3.50.

The Punisher Trade Paperback - Re-presenting the Limited Series that won the Punisher his own monthly book! The Trust wants to enlist the Punisher in their own war against crime. But can the Punisher trust the Trust? Written by Steven Grant and Jo Duffy, pencil ed by Mike Zeek and Mike Vosburg, inked by John Beatty, with a new painted cover by Mike Zeck and Phil Zimmelman. 144 pages. $7.35.

Titles Shipping August 18
The Avengers #298 - The Avengers are gone! And the threat of Inferno is on the horizon! Without Earth's mightiest heroes to defend it, could this be the beginning of the end? Written by Walt Simonson, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Tom Palmer. $1.00.

Conan the Barbarian #213 - It looks like there's no way for Conan to make it through the land of Ghamud assassins alive, so the barbarian makes a deal. They'll give him safe passage... provided that he can slay their all-powerful god ofdeath. "The Gate" is written by James C. Owsley, penciled by Val Semeiks, and inked by Alfredo Alcala. $1.00.

Count Duckula #1 - You've seen him in action with Dangermouse and starring in his own animated series on cable TV. But you won't believe your eyes when you witness the never-before-revealed origin of everyone's favorite vampire duck! Written by Michael Gallagher and drawn by Warren Kremer. A Star Comic. $1.00.

Flintstone Kids #9 - You already know what Fred Flinstone's like as an adult. But little Freddie has no idea what'll happen when he grows up -- and just wait till you see how he imagines it! "When I Grow Up" is written by Tony Franco, penciled by Warren Kremer, and inked by Jacqueline Roettcher. A Star Comic. $1.00.

G.I. Joe #81 - New Jersey is in flames! No, it's not a chemical or oil explosion -- it's an all-out Dreadnok rampage! How can the Joes hope to stop those savage maniacs, when Cobra is invading the city of Broca Beach, New Jersey! Written by Larry Hama, penciled by Marshall Rogers, and inked by Fred Fredericks. $1.00.

Marvel Age Magazine #69 - Previews of: the INHUMANS Graphic Novel by Ann Nocenti and Brett Blevins, STRAY TOASTERS by Bill Sienkiewicz, COUNT DUCKULA, and an exclusive interview with X-MEN artist Mark Silvestri! Plus: Stan's Soapbox, Hembeck, the MArvel Trivia Quiz, and much, much, more. How do we do it? Direct Sales only. 50c.

Marvel Tales #219 - Re-presenting from Amazing Spider-Man #201 -- the drug dealer Lorenzo Jacobi is being released from prison. But the Punisher is determined that he stays there -- or else! And could the Punisher have unlocked the secret of Spider-Man's dual identity? Written by Marv Wolfman, penciled by Keith Pollard, and inked by Jim Mooney, with a new cover by Mike Zecks. Plus: an all-new PETER PORKER tale. 75c.

Doctor Zero #4 - The Shadow Dweller Anubis is in Russia. And if Doctor Zero can't stop him, he's going to spread death and disease clear across the U.S.S.R.! "A Million Deaths Is a Statistic" is written by D.G. Chichester and Margaret Clark, penciled by Denys Cowan, and inked by Bill Sienkiewicz. An Epic Comic. 32 pages. Mando Offset paper. Direct sales only. $1.25.

The Sub-Mariner (limited series) #2 - Get a glimpse into the Sub-Mariner's childhood! Meet his friends and relatives -- one of whom will grow up to be one of Namor's greatest foes! Written by Roy Thomas, penciled by Rich Buckler, and inked by Bob McLeod. 32 pages. Direct sales only. $1.25.

The Incredible Hulk #350 - The new Hulk battles the new Thing! And waiting in the wings: Doctor Doom and the Beast! Written by Peter David and illustrated by Jeff purves. 75c.

The Light and Darkness War (limited series) #1 - The forces of Darkness threaten to take control of the world. And the only person who can stop them is a crippled Vietnam veteran! Written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy. An Epic Comic. Mando OFfset paper. 32 pages. Direct Sales only. $1.95.

Nick Fury Vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. #6 - All of your questions are answered in the wild wrap-up to this much-talked-about Limited Series! Who will live? Who will die? And what will be the final fate of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Written by Bob Harras, illustrated by Paul Neary, and cover painted by Tom Palmer. A 48-page Graphic Album. $3.50.

Marvel Fanfare #41 - What is the reality of being? The search for that answer may sound like a metaphsyical conundrum to you, but to Doctor Strange, it's a matter of life and death as he's trapped in... the City of Dreams! Written by Walt Simonson and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. 32 pages. Hudson paper. Direct Sales only. $1.95.

Justice #26 - Quill has found a foolproof way to force Justice to work for him! But will QUill be able to put his plan into action before Justice can catch --and kill-- him? Written by Peter David, penciled by Lee Weeks, and inked by Mike Gustovich. 32. pages. Mando OFfset paper. Direct Sales only. $1.25.

Power Pack #42 - As the Inferno storyline gets under way, the Bogeyman returns from Limbo... as a real Bogeyman! When he takes revenge on Power Pack in front of the kids' parents, it could blow their secret identities forever! Written and laid out by Jon Bogdanove with finished art by Stan Drake. Direct sales only. $1.00.

The Punisher #14 - The Punisher--a substitute teacher?! That's what the Punisher becomes when a teenage gang starts running drugs and guns in school for the Kingpin! Before the smoke clears, the Punisher's going to teach the Kingpin quite a lesson in "Social Studies!" Written by Mike Baron, penciled by Wilce Partacio, and inked by Scott Williams. $1.00.

The Silver Surfer #18 - Galactus is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. So is the In-Betweener! And when these two finally meet -- the consequences could annihilate a galaxy! Written by Steve Englehart, penciled by Ron Lim, and inked by Joe Rubinstein. $1.00.

The X-Men #239 - There are revelations galore in store for the X-Men! Madelyne finds out where here infant son is! Storm discovers that Marvel Girl is alive! But will the X-Men benefit from these revelations, or is ignorance truly bliss? Scripted by Chris Claremont, penciled by Mark Silvestri, and inked by Dan Green. $1.00.

X-Terminators (limited series) #3 - The kids may have rescued Artie and LEech in the nick of time, but they're not out of the woods yet! If they can't defeat N'Astirh, the result could be... Inferno! Written by Louise Simonson and illustrated by Jon Bogdanove. $1.00.

Titles Shipping August 23
Thor #398 - Seth and his legions are storming the gates of Asgard! And deep inside Seth's Black Pyramid, Thor discovers the secret of Seth's success and the astonishing source of his power! Miss this story and you'll miss one of the most titanic revelations of the year! We're not kidding! "Prisoners of the Black Pyramid" is written by Tom DeFalco, penciled by Ron Frenz, and inked by Brett Breeding. 75c.

Transformers #47 - The Decepticons turn their secret base into a tropical paradise where the sinister order of the day for unsuspecting human vacationers is sun, surf, sand... and the savage Seacons! "Club Con" is written by Bob Budiansky, penciled by Jose Delbo, and inked by Dave Hunt. $1.00.

Alien Legion #7 - Force Nomad and Torie Montroc's father know all about the corruption that's brewing in the Glarchy government. In fact, they know a little too much! The Legionnnaires may be able to take on hordes of Harkillions in a head-on battle, but can they escape a hidden assassin? "The Bite" is written by Chuck Dixon, penciled by Larry Stroman, and inked by Mark Farmer. An Epic Comic. 32 pages. Direct Sales only. $1.25.

The Punisher War Journal #2 - The Punisher's got an awful lot of problems. Not onyl does he have to keep a kid from going down the same path he did, and not only does he have to go after a man he sympathizes with, but he's also been poisoned! Guest-starring Daredevil. "Tie A Yellow Ribbon" is written and laid out by Carl Potts with finished art by Jim Lee. 32 pages. $1.50.

The Inhumans Graphic Novel - Medusa's going to have a baby! But instead of joy, the impending birth threatens the Inhumans with civil war and Earth with environmental annihilation! Written by Ann Nocenti, penciled by Bret Blevins, and inked by Al Williamson. 72 pages. $7.95.

Conan Saga #19 - Re-presenting from SAVAGE SWORD OF CONAN #28: Conan ventures into Zamboula and discovers that its desert harbors a form of death that can destroy the soul! "The Blood of the Gods" is written by Roy Thomas, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Alfredo Alcala. A Marvel black and white Magazine. $2.00.

Speedball #4 - There's a dead body hidden in the cornerstone of the school building! What's the connection between it and Speedball's parents? That's what Speedball would like to find out! Written by Steve Ditko and Roger Stern, penciled by Steve Ditko, and inked by Jackson Guice. 75c.

Classic X-Men #28 - Re-presenting from X-MEN #122: The X-Men face death in Scotland, the streets of New York, and even their own Danger Room! And what is the secret of the mysterious Jason Wyngarde! "Cry for the Children" is written by Christ Claremont, penciled by John Byrne, and inked by Terry Austin. Plus: An all-new tale written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by John Bolton. 32 pages. $1.25.

Marvel Comics Presents #9 -- The penultimate chapters in the WOLVERINE and MAN-THING series, and complete in this issue, two stories -- Cloak and El Aguila!
Wolverine might finally get some answers as we near the thrilling climax to this scintillzating serial! But will he live long enough to put them to use? Written by Chris Claremont, penciled by John Buscema, and inked by Klaus Janson
The Man-Thing approaches his final battle for the super-soldier serum! Can he destroy it... or will the country be filled with hundreds of Man-Things? Written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Tom Sutton.
When a child is trapped in a well, Cloak heads to the rescue. But the last thing he expects to find at the bottom is a fearsome monster! Written by Marc McLaurin and drawn by Tony Salmons.
El Aguila planned a nice, peaceful visit to his home town. But things take a turn for the deadly when he gets there to find the ruthless Conquistador! Written by Scott Lobdell and illustrated by Larry Alexander. 32 pages. $1.25.

G.I. Joe Comics Magazine #13 - Re-presenting from G.I. JOE #s 35, 36, and 37: The Joe's go up against the Dreadnoks and thos terrible twins, Tomax and Xamot, as they battle Cobra on the land and sea and in the air! And just wait till you meet Bongo the Balloon Bear! "Dreadnoks on the Loose," "All the Ships at Sea," and "Twin Brothers" are written by Lary Hama, penciled by Rod Whigham, Bob Camp, Larry Hama, and Frank Springer, and inked by Andy Mushnsky and Mike Esposito. A 64-page digest. $1.50.

Fantastic Four #321 - The Wily Wizard's back -- with his all-new Frightful Four! And they may be even more dangerous than the originals! Written by Steve Englehart, penciled by Keith Pollard, and inked by Joe Sinnott. 75c.

Titles Shipping August 30
The Incal Graphic Novel #3 - John DiFool may possess the awesome power of the Incal, but that doesn't mean much when he's caught in a war for control of the galaxy. Written by Jodorowsky and illustrated by Moebius. For Mature Readers. 120 pages. $12.95.

Iron Man #237 - Someone --or something--has killed the scientist in NASA's space lab. Iron Man's search of the orbiting lab forces him to confront not only the murderer, but also the horrifying consequences of genetic manipulation gone out of control! Co-plotted and scripted by David Michelinie, penciled by Jackson Guice, and co-plotted and inked by Bob Layton. 75c.

Spectacular Spider-Man #145 - Who hired Boomerange to kill the winner of an international yacht race? Spider-Man wants to know, and he's not leaving San Diego until he does! Written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Sal Buscema. $1.00.

X-Factor #35 - As Inferno looms, Cyclops and Marvel Girl run a race against time to rescue Cyclops's infant son! But what's the mysterious connection between the child and Marvel Girl? Written by Louise Simonson, penciled by Walt Simonson, and inked by Bob McLeod. $1.00.

Cloak and Dagger #2 - Cloak is on his own, battling a full-fledged alien invasion! Why isn't Dagger beside him? She's too busy trying to cope with being blind! "Straying from the Path" is written by Terry Austin, penciled by Dan Lawliss, and inked by P. Craig Russell. Direct Sales only. $1.25.

THE 'NAM #25 - Andy Clark and Jim Rubino are in the Khe Sanh to get help for Rubino's wounded leg. But Khe Sanh is the target for one of the first strikes in the Tet Offensive! Can they rescue an ancient city from the North Vietnamese onslaught? "City of Death" is written by Doug Murray, penciled by Wayne Fansant, and inked by Geoff Isherwood. Mando Offset paper. Direct Sales only. $1.25.

Dragon's Claws #4 - The Dragon's Claws team embarks on a search and destroy mission to neutralize the bizarre terrorist organization, La Folie. But the crucial question is not if Dragon's Claws can catch the terrorists; it's will the manhunt turn them into marauders as savage as their enemy? "Wild in the Country" is written by Simon Furman. 32 pages. Mando Offset paper. Direct Sales only. Produced in England. $1.25.

G.I. JOE European Mission #4 - The action may be on the high seas, but the stakes are sky-high when Cobra Rattler take on the G.I. Joe W.H.A.L.E. in "The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" written by Steve White and Richard Alan.
Footloose is assigned his first solo mission--one which the Cobras have sword will be his last! "Killer Instinct" is written by Dan Abnett and drawn by Bryan Hitch.
Plus: another startling tale of G.I. Joe versus the Transformers in "Ancient Relics." 32 pages. Mando Offset paper. Direct sales only. $1.25.

Solicitations for Marvel Comics, August 1988.

Take from Marvel Age #68.

(Too much time on my hands)

Because Zombies are always awesome

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:40:47 GMT

Zombie Meme, stolen from lots of people on my flist.

You are in a mall when the zombies attack. You have:

1. one weapon.
2. one song blasting on the speakers.
3. one famous person to fight alongside you.
* Weapon can be real or fictional; you may assume endless ammo if applicable. Person can be real or fictional.

1. I'm choosing THE STAR BRAND. That's right, a weapon 95% of you have never heard of. It's a comics thing. The original one, not the Warren Ellis version. Phenomenal Godly Power + Invulnerability.
2. I dunno... It's the End of the World as We Know It? I'm not a big music guy. Maybe "All you need is love" by the Beatles, because I always thought that was a great song to kill things by.
3. Hmmm... I was going to say River Tam, because she's awesome against Reavers, but then I thought her nifty mind powers might not work on zombies as well, and so she might not be as effective. Plus, if she slips up and takes one bite, she's infected. So I'll stick with Summer Glauity but instead choose Cameron from Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Still an ass-kicker, no threat of zombie infection (the skin might potentially get infected but she could probably grow a new one from scratch if she had to), plus, hot post-apocalyptic robot sex after we've dealt with the zombies, and that's always awesome!

Oh, and I hate when I miss these, shoulda posted this one yesterday but I guess I forgot to look at the list:
Happy Belated Birthday, thesexyplant!!! Sorry it's late.

Friday Five + Book Foo

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:45:12 GMT

1. What creative things are you doing?
Well, I write, mostly. Almost exclusively SF. Often I find myself including Artificial Intelligence as a major theme (or a minor one), and I also seem to enjoy writing characters who are particularly flawed and dysfunctional in one way.
Mostly I write short stories, although there are a few novel like works in progress. I find for some reason when I write novel-length I'm usually writing them in a Young Adult style (or outright children). I don't know why, maybe it lets me look past my own perceived flaws since I'm imaginging my audience not being _as_ picky, or maybe I just find children/teens better characters because I was a functional child/teen once but never managed to become a functioning adult. ;). Or maybe it's my comic background, and the type of ideas I want to explore novel-length are more along the lines of the adolescent fantasies.

Anyway, right at this moment in writing I'm mostly working on a novel-length.

For fun, once in a while, privately I also adapt (or plot to adapt), which is similar to writing but I find uses a slightly different creative muscle. More working out problems and economizing not just space, but key moments, emotion, etc.

I also do occasional other things like icons, though not as much as I used to.

2. What motivates or enables you to get them done?
Enjoyment, to a degree. Desire to make a living off it. More specifically, I write to a specific schedule. Right now it's 8000 words every other week (writing 2000 a day for each non-work day). So in the rough moments, when it's hard to write, knowing I've got a break coming as soon as I finish helps, and trying to keep to a schedule gets me writing even when I don't want to, usually.

3. What creative things do you want to be doing, but aren't?
I'd like to be doing _more_ writing. In addition to my own stuff, I'd kind of like to work a little more on writing things like comics, cartoons, tv shows, and/or movies. (Well, scripts for such, since I'm unlikely to be able to do it for myself).

4. What stops you from doing them?
Laziness, in part, and I get burned out working, even writing, straight without a break. Also lack of self-confidence. I think that if I could be convinced that what I was writing wasn't complete drek, I might find the energy to do it more. Unfortunately only some level of success might help with that.

5. Are you distressed at the thought of the things you aren't doing? Why or why not? If yes, how do you deal with this distress?
A little distressed that I'm not writing more. I'm not so distressed that I'm not writing the particular things I'd like to work more on - I've made my choice of what to do with my available energy and I'm not disappointed with that, but I do, as written above, feel I should have more energy for writing. How do I deal with it? I dunno, I just keep going with what I'm doing.

From writing onto reading, it's time for Book Foo!

Finished: The Sky People, by S.M. Stirling
Started: Otherland Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams

Sky People review under the cut. Some mild spoilers. Short version: Meh.

Okay, the Sky People take place in an alternate history, running off the premise that Mars and Venus turned out to be more like they were depicted in early SF. So when the Russian probes landed on Venus in the 60s, it found a lush jungle world, filled with primitive humans and dinosaurs.

It's an irresitable premise, for me. Maybe a better premise than it is a book. Or maybe it's just the writer's execution.

See, to me, the great thing about an alternate history is exploring the alternate history, how small changes spiral out into big things. There's a little of that here. Not much. And most of it is confined to the encyclopedia entries that introduce chapters. And when you're more interested in reading the encyclopedia bits (as I was) than the story, that's a bad sign.

But the problem is, the story's almost entirely set on Venus, where there's already a military base that's been there for a decade or so, and it's an adventure _on_ Venus, outside the base. This does not leave much room for alternate history. What it is, is basically Stirling writing an old-style adventure set on Venus in the days where it seemed plausible, and only just enough alt-history content to justify that. And the problem _there_ is, if I wanted one of those stories, I'd just go _read_ one of those stories. I wanted a story dealing with that irresistable premise of seeing how history was changed with mankind having two inhabited planets nearby.

And it reads very much like stock Stirling. There's the competent hero who comes from a background/part of the country/religion that is colorfully unusual, and who uses phrases from that to spice up their dialog. There's the guy he has a bad feeling off right off the bat (who really is up to something nefarious). There's people isolated from technology save for some examples of it they're able to save. There's violent encounters with savages and cannibals. Even a few stock phrases pop up. I've said before I like Stirling more for his ideas than for his writing, and I think this is why. I feel like I've read it before, and this is just shuffling around the plot a little. There are some surprises, certainly, but not enough to get over my disappointment. I'm not even sure I'll read the sequel, now (set on Mars). Maybe. If I can find it used, I might. But I was planning on picking the series up new (in paperback) eventually.

Finished: The Number of the Beast, by Robert A. Heinlein
Started: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

NotB review under cut. Some spoilers. Short review: Oh, Heinlein, how you lost your touch in later years.

The Number of the Beast involves a group of four
people, two men and two women (who couple up extremely quickly), who basically have a car/spaceship with a new invention on it that lets them teleport instantly anywhere, including to alternate dimensions.

Firstly, the style of writing isn't very engaging. There are stretches of paragraph after paragraphs that are exclusively dialog, but it's not very entertaining - half the time I can't keep track of who's talking because they sound exactly the same to me. Everyone's a genius or near genius (just having slightly different specialities), excessively competent, rugged individualists, everyone's always horny. They all seem to share roughly the same ideas about everything (and even if there is a mild disagreement about something it usually only lasts long enough for one of the characters to explain why they think the way they do, whereupon the other character starts to agree). About the only major difference is that one character has a problem with taking orders from his wife, and the men are a little overprotective.

There's really no plot, in the sense of having a deliberate problem and quest and going about that quest. Instead they explore a few worlds stay there for a while, get in trouble, bicker for extended periods, etc. In the hands of really good writer (or in the format of a TV series of ongoing comic), this is not necessarily a problem. Here though, it just reads like Heinlein decided to write about them visiting whatever came into his mind next. There's a hint of a giant threat that starts the plot off but they barely play any role in the rest of the story. And when some of these universes are not only fictional but magical and characters get magical attachments to their flying car, I cease to care. It's like the old adage: "If literally _anything_ can happen, who the *@$! cares _what_ happens?". I stopped caring what happened when they got to Oz.

And, of course, there's the sex. Now, I don't have a problem with sex in SF. But Heinlein writing sex never really felt right to me. It feels to me uncomfortably like how I'd imagine it would feel finding the fetish porn sites my grandfather surfs on the internet. Scratch that, it's more like hearing my grandfather talk about the fetish porn sites he browses on the internet. Having female characters describe their 'teats' in the first person for several paragraphs, every girl's nipples are a barometer for her mood, everybody superbly pro-nudity and happy with polygamy.

Now, we must forgive Heinlein, he is one of the masters of the genre, and this was written in 1980, making it quite late in his career (and in his early 70s). I'm reminded of Claremont, in the way some writers are great in their heydey but tend to lose it somewhere along the way, either due to their own efforts or just because they're so successful they're more able to resist editing.

New Comic Day + some rants and other stuff

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:58:50 GMT

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #3 (Meh, wishing it would get to the point)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
Probability Moon, by Nancy Kress

Work wasn't bad. Showed up early and not too heavy. Also, it helped me prove Heinlein wrong today! That is, in the specific case. There WAS such a thing as a free lunch, and I had it. They had a deal with the Wendy's next to us that employees got a free meal. So I had their 'Spicy' chicken breast sandwich combo. I say 'spicy' because, well, what the media considers "Spicy", I almost always consider merely "flavoured". Don't get me wrong, it's usually a pleasant flavour, but I need more of a kick to count it as spicy and am constantly disappointed when something advertised as spicy isn't. And I'm not even one of those crazy major league chili-heads. Still, yay for free food, even if I probably should have gone for the Baconator.

Random other thoughts:
Things I saw on the way home today: A guy fall off his bike in the middle of a street (luckily there were no cars around that the time). A fistfight break out between two people (looking around high school age, and near a school). Rosey O'Donnell at the Bookstore. Well, technically I don't know if I saw her. I saw the crowd around her, and it's possible my eyes crossed over her at some point, but I could not confirm.

At the bookstore I also happened to see "Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone", which makes me wonder.. surely somebody out there's written a crackfic where Indiana Jones stumbles upon rumors of a parallel society running off of magic, in England, and so investigates Hogwarts? I mean, come on, Internet. I'd be disappointed if someone hasn't.

Pet peeve: I hate all the headlines saying 'Obama makes history'... not because I don't support Obama or don't think it's great he passed this particular milestone, but because "makes history" is a meaningless phrase - if he lost, it would make history. If he choked on a celery stick and had to be rushed to the hospital it would make history. Whether he won quick, won after a long fight, lost quick, lost after a long fight, he made history. If he quit right now to become a hermit in the woods where he carves make a congress out of wood to agree with him, he makes history. History dutifully records what happens even if it's not a huge milestone that's never happened before. In my glorious new regime (which would, btw, make history), the phrase "makes history" would be banned from newscasts.

Also, is it wrong I'm much less bothered by the fact that the people on the colon check commercial are transparent and have visible internal organs, than I am about the fact that they're apparently going to the movies nude?

Finally, it's come to that time. I must say goodbye to Newsarama. That is, I must say goodbye to the forums. I'll still read it for news, I suppose, although by the looks of the front page it'll probably stop being my primary source. But I'm leaving behind the forums, which have changed formats. Why?

Because you need javascript to access it. To access forums. And that's abominable. I'm sorry, called me old-fashioned, but I like to surf with javascript off, 90% of the time, and it manages to cut out 90% of the crap (viruses, popups, etc). Having a site that _requires_ javascript On almost guarantees I will rarely use it. (Although often, if there's a site that I like that doesn't require it, I'll add it to my 'allow javascript on these sites' list, because it provides _easier_ use. But if it requires it, usually gets a 'screw you' response). IMHO, it's extremely poor web design. In my glorious new regime it would be disallowed for forums. So, I'm out one more forum.

New Comic Day

Wed, 28 May 2008 23:35:11 GMT

Ha ha to those in the US, ours aren't delayed a day.

This week I got two books:

Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men #1 (Oh Joss, you are so... not good at science)
New Warriors #12 (the book's on a death watch, but I still enjoyed the issue for small reasons)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

Work was okay. Took the long walk, sore and tired now because I did something stupid and bought something for the roommates because it was a good deal and ended up lugging around the equivalent of 3 2L bottles for about 3 hours of walking.

Worse? On the way home, there was a place offering FREE GYROS. I guess it was a grand opening type thing, but I don't know for sure. In any event, I
(sniffle) had to pass, because the line was super long and I was sore and tired from the lugging of the 6L of liquid and packaging for 3 hours. NO FREE GYRO FOR ME, WHAT A CRUEL WORLD.

Ah well.

Mostly Book Foo

Sun, 25 May 2008 16:55:44 GMT

Finished: 13 Great Stories of Science Fiction by Various Authors (50s short story collection)
Started: The Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein

Well, it was a short story collection, mixed bag, some good, most unmemorable. Best of the lot was probably The Analogues, by Damon Knight. They're all from the 50s (and maybe a year or two on either side), so there's a retro, nostalgia vibe to them all reading them now.

Started and Finished: Starfish, by Peter Watts (available online, and read that way)

Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. Overall: okay with some cool beats, but not as good as the other Watts I read, Blindsight. So yeah, I liked Blindsight and was idly considering reading his other work, but wasn't super interested in the plot of his Rifters books, so I decided I'd try what I did with Blindsight - read some online and see if it grabbed me enough to want to buy the book. Well, it didn't. Grabbed me just enough to be willing to keep reading, but I never really got sucked in.

There's a lot of thematic similarities to Blindsight... both involved groups of really messed up people in an extreme situation, a sort of looming worry of AIs making humanity irrelevant, but it's all put together a little differently, and I never really felt I got to know most of the Rifters, or, I suppose, that I wanted to. There's still a good deal of cool ideas and if you like (deep, deep, deep) undersea stuff this might be a book for you. I'm not sure if I'll read the second book (also available online free), though. The book only left me wanting more in the sense that the story was obviously unfinished (as it's part of a trilogy), and the completist in me would like to see how it winds up. On the other hand, it's reading online and I do feel a bit guilty for reading with no intention of buying. Who knows.

Finished: Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold (2004 Hugo Award Winner, 2004 Nebula Award Winner)
Started: (To be determined, have a couple choices and probably won't choose till Wednesday... most likely the last Otherland book)

PoS thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Meh, okay.
PoS is technically a sequel to another book, but I didn't find I was lost - it seems to be set far enough into the future that it might as well be a completely new story. It's a fantasy book, and I suppose it's decent enough one, but falls into the category of 'really not my cup of tea'. I like Bujold's SF work, but this doesn't do much for me... it held my interest, but that's about it. So I'm actually a little perplexed that this won both the Hugo and the Nebula. It doesn't seem to be all that groundbreaking or spectacular, but maybe that's just my own disinterest in straight fantasy. Still, it seems odd. Maybe it was a year of poor competition or was one of those things where she won in part due to her past work (I can see the book winning the Nebula from that year's shortlist, but I see at least two books on the Hugo list I enjoyed more).

Now, most importantly, after reading Paladin of Souls, I have completed one of my life goals. Well, or half completed one. Or half-completed one, also requiring ongoing maintenance.

In any event, with this book, I have now read every single Hugo Award winning novel. (Not counting Retro-Hugos, but there's only one of those I haven't read yet so maybe I'll try to pick it up eventually). That goes from 1953 to 2007. That's been a goal of mine for something like 10 years at least. Technically it requires ongoing maintenance (the next winner is announced late this summer), and you might consider it only half completion of my goal to read every Hugo or Nebula award winning novel, since I made the decision to read all of both at the same time. (I have 7 Nebula winners left to go). Still, yay me, reading milestone.

In non-book news... well, TV's sucked this weekend since most everything's been on a skip week. Supernatural finale was okay, mostly for how it ended, though the episode itself kind of felt flat and lame for what was going on. I think I'm pretty well done with Grey's Anatomy for good. It's been hanging by a thread all year, and the thread finally snapped. I might watch eps if nothing happens to be on at the time, but no more priority watching.

What else... that chat (with the castaways from the closed BKV forum who formed a new one) seems to have died off mostly. Chats often die out (particularly ones where you can't stay connected easily and so have to depend mostly on people randomly showing up at the same time), so I can't say I'm surprised, but usually the dropoff isn't quite so fast. Most of the people I particularly enjoyed chatting with haven't been around in weeks, which kinda sucks, and it seems the only one there with any regularity is a twit who refuses to identify him/herself (and has on at least one occasion impersonated me, possibly only because he knew I was there, but still), and yet still seems to expect conversation, so I've taken to mostly ignoring him. I'll probably hang around there a little more just to ensure it wasn't some kind of natural lull, but I don't have much hope. Ah well. Maybe it's me driving people away. I know I'm not the greatest conversationalist in the world. Who knows. Anyway. Yet another thing seemingly falls into the category of 'fun while it lasted', and there's still the forum.

Also... woo!

Thu, 22 May 2008 12:04:02 GMT

Marvel's Runaways movie in the works!

I might have preferred a TV show, but a movie is also good, especially if Vaughan writes.

Birthday

Thu, 22 May 2008 12:00:24 GMT

Happy Birthday tadiera!!

New Comic Day

Wed, 21 May 2008 22:15:22 GMT

This week I got three books:

Ultimate X-Men #94 (a bit of a continuity mess, and it's my last issue of the book)
X-Factor #31 (solid for what it is, my Pick of the Week)
X-Men: Divided We Stand #2 (not even as good as the first one, one decent story in it)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
The Sky People, by S.M. Stirling,
and
A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (figured it was about time I read the Mars books)

Work was okay, happened to get there really early and so all was done pretty quickly.

I have temporarily completed one of my life goals, but more details on that will wait for my next edition of Book Foo, which will not be right now.