Finished: A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Thoughts on the debut of John Carter behind the cut. Not really spoilery. ( Read more... )
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. ( Read more... )
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. ( Read more... )

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. ( Read more... )

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*.

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) ( Read more... )

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.

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).

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.

( Read more... )


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.
( Read more... )

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.

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. ( Read more... )

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. ( Read 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.

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.

Book Foo!
Finished: Otherland, Vol 3: Mountain of Black Glass by Tad Williams
Started: The Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold

No detailed thoughts since it's part of a series and one part left to go. Still enjoying it though.

Started and Finished: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow (available online, and read that way)

Thoughts behind the cut, not especially spoilery, though. ( Read more... )

Finished: Ventus, by Karl Schroeder (available free online, but I read it in book form)
Started: 13 Great Stories of Science-Fiction (short story collection, mostly stories from the 50s)

Ventus thoughts behind the cut. Not really spoilery. Short version: Quite liked it, will have to check out more by the author.
( Read more... )

What else? TVwise, Lost was good this week, BSG better than the last few, and Doctor's Daughter had some good moments but overall didn't satisfy. Don't really feel a need to go into it any more than that, though.

Haven't done one for quite a while, so let's do another Wiki Random Battle!

The Rules:
Go to Wikipedia, select Random Article twice, and pit the results against each other:

Round 1: The Cocoi Heron vs Sir Winston Churchill Public School
Results::
( Read more... )

Round 2: Gaston Leroux, Canadian politician vs Richard Beesly, British Rower
Results::
( Read more... )
Round 3: Baeocystin, a psychadelic mushroom component vs ProgressSoft, a software development company
( Read more... )

Lifewise, well, nothing else really new. When is anything? My life unchanges. Yes, my life is so static that it forces 'unchange' to somehow be a real verb.

Edit: Oh, and it's around that time of year for Networks to announce their schedules. A few networks have already announced their slates, and this site I've found has given me a good roundup of them in the past.

This week I got one book:

Young X-Men #2 (okay, but still not sure if I'll stick with it)

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

I also picked up at the used bookstore:
Otherland Vol 4: Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams
and
Paladin of Souls, by Lois McMaster Bujold

PoS is a Nebula-award winner and a Hugo-award winner, and most importantly, it is the last Hugo-award winning novel I have to read before I've read them all (until Labour Day at least, when they select the next winner).

Work was okay, earlier than usual and not so bad. Rained a bit on the long walk, but I could still read through some of it. Course, my net conking out shortly after I got home wasn't very fun, but oh well.

So let's start with the TV, shall we? Doctor Who was a better episode this week with a trip to the past, and Donna's doing a good job as the Doctor's Companion. Though I do kind of wish we'd get a story set in a historical time period that _doesn't_ deal with some alien plot to destroy or take over the world, or really deal with aliens at all. I know they're the bread and butter of Who, but I'd like to see one that _just_ dealt with the history, with some of the drama being involved in being swept up in events, maybe being killed in the middle of a war, etc. Hell, I'd kind of like the same in a future story too. BSG also worked out better, with some odd developments on the cylons that were kind of cool, but (minor spoilers ahead) ( Read more... )

In other news about the old Televisual system, Amy Acker has joined the cast of Whedon's Dollhouse, so there's another alum of his old shows. You know when he finds someone he likes he likes using them again. There's still no official word on the renewal of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but TV guide lists it as a 9 on "chances to return out of 1-10" and pointed out that apparently they've been adding to the production staff, so that's good to hear. I just wish they'd make it official. John Shiban's taking up a showrunning position on another series (Wizard's First Rule) which I suspect means he may be leaving Supernatural or having less of an involvement, which I only mention because there are some SN fans on my flist who might be interested. Also Ron Moore and Michael Taylor (of BSG) have a SF pilot greenlit for FOX. Let's hope it works out better than their last series, the Bionic Woman. Here's how it, Virtuality, is described: "(A) sci-fi drama which follows 12 astronauts who are sent on a 10-year journey to find a distant solar system. The explorers pass the time by hooking up to advanced virtual reality modules to explore self-created worlds. But they discover someone has downloaded a computer bug into the system -- and one of them may be the saboteur." You know, I kind of dig the description? It sounds like they're making it a Slower-Than-Light travel SF series, which is good, and as long as the virtual reality element is handled well it could be quite cool. I'm in for it. I know a lot of people don't bother with FOX because they cancel stuff, but if you ask me, that attitude's just dumb and liable to get more stuff cancelled. They want a hit as much as anyone and they as a network seem to _try_ a lot more for SF than many of the other ones, who only attempt it when another network has hit big with one. Anyway, rant over. Moving on.

Writing-wise, I'm on another writing cycle, although I was actually working on a fair bit of free-writing during my off-cycle, so it doesn't seem like much. It's going okay I guess, still a bit slogging and still don't have the whole excitment about writing back yet, and though I still have decent ideas for the SFnal aspects of a story, the more basic plots sometimes elude me. However, last week I did make some good progress on a story (a sequel, or at least set in the same universe but much later, to one I finished and was quite pleased with a while ago). In the process, I wound up wroting my first male/male sexual relationship. ( Read more... )

I think the lack of writing excitement probably signals I haven't entirely pulled out of my winter depression, despite it being spring. I still feel a bit hopeless, which while a realistic outlook doesn't help me get up and moving like I'd want. Helping to mitigate it though is that I've been a bit more into chatting with a new group. No offense to the other people I chat with, but, well, you suck! No, no, you don't suck, it's just there is something sort of ego-stroking about talking to a new group of people who you haven't already told your best jokes to. ;) This is actually the remnants of the old BKV online forum who since migrated to a new one after he closed it, where we also set up a chat room.

Anyway, what else is else? Oh yes, Book Foo.

Finished: Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Ventus, by Karl Shroeder

Look to Windward is another Culture novel, and the last of them I'll be reading for a while (since it's the last I've got right now). It wasn't bad, but not my favorite of them.
( Read more... )

Ventus is a first SF novel by a Toronto writer, looking like it's a nice big idea novel, and it's pretty hefty.

Finished: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling
Started: Otherland, Vol 3: Mountain of Black Glass, by Tad Williams

Thoughts on OotP behind cut. Short version, not bad, but some elements rankle.
( Read more... )

So, I had a Stargate-heavy dream last night. Atlantis, too, which is odd (although some of SG1 made an appearance)
( Read more... )

So, naturally, once I woke up (both while trying to fall asleep again and after I was on my way to work) my mind tried to refine the idea into something that might actually work in the show. Here's what I came up with (which doesn't match the dream very much except in one of the basic ideas).
( Read more... )
In conclusion, I should totally write for Stargate!

In other news, they're producing a movie of the first two Hyperion Books. On the one hand, this is kind of cool, as they're great books and I'd love to see how they translate to the screen. On the other hand, I think there's way too much in the books to fit in a movie. I always thought it would make an awesome miniseries (with the first book being told in one hour installments, one for each 'story' and the connective tissue around them, and then another couple of hour installments for the second book). Is there anything so worrying as a half-fulfilled wish? Ah well, we'll see how it goes.

I normally post some kind of April Fools thing, even just in-jokes among subgroups of friends. But I'm skipping it this year because I haven't though of anything. Really. Disbelieve me at your peril.

After a discussion with locker_monster, I was reminded of the old Fox show Vr5, and so I went to download some of it to see how much of it, if any, holds up. And it's surprising how many people I'm familiar with from elsewhere passed in it. I'd already known that Anthony Stewart Head (Giles from Buffy) plays a major role after the first few episodes, but not only is Robert Picardo (Doc from Voyager, Woolsey from Stargate) in the first episode, but so is Adam Baldwin (Firefly's Jane). Not to mention Louise Fletcher (Kai Winn from DS9) playing the mom, and David McCallum (Man From UNCLE among many other roles) as the father, and a couple other more minor appearances.

For those of you who are unaware of the show (which will no doubt be a lot of you, it only aired like 9 episodes on FOX), it's about a woman who discovers that by hooking an active phone line up to her modem while she's wearing her VR equipment, she can sort of enter a 'virtual reality' state which is hyperrealistic, but very dream-like and based on the subconscious of her and the person she's connected to. They typically don't remember any of the encounter, but she does, and sometimes things she does to them can have effects on their subconscious. There's also a complicated conspiracy-esque backstory involving her family, her father and twin sister who (supposedly) died in a car accident when she was young, and her mother who has been catatonic since (but who she can reach in Vr5). Okay, the tech underpinnings of it are laughable (although part of that's intentional as later in the series it's made clear that there's a lot more going on than you find out at first glance). On rewatching... yeah, it's more than a little cheesy at places, but I still enjoyed the first couple eps (haven't got the rest yet), and the way it's filmed and such. It's no Firefly or anything, but might be worth a look if you haven't seen it and are into weird stuff. It's torrentable.

And some book foo...
Finished: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams

No detailed thoughts on this, since it's part of a series. Still generally enjoying it and will finish up.
Started and Finished: Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross
Some thoughts behind cut, concept spoilers but that's about it.
( Read more... )

Started: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling

Also
Finished: Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Look to Windward, by Iain M. Banks

Liked Use of Weapons, not as much as Excession, but still enjoyable, and the non-linear
storytelling actually worked well - sometimes it annoys me. The major reveal I had sort of guessed early on (but I kept going back and forth on whether I actually believed it was going to happen or was just speculating wildly), but still entertaining. Continuing onto the Culture for one more book, then I'll be taking a break and moving on to something else for a while.

BSG and Doctor Who new this weekend, so there's that to look forward to.

Writingwise, I haven't edited as much as I'd like, but I'm trying to finish up soon. Been a little distracted by a 'silly project' (that is, one which has no hope of ever getting published), which you might oneday see if I finish (it's somewhat WIDWish). Anyway, new writing cycle starts this week.

There, I told you no April Fools pranks. Unless I've cleverly hidden one, I suppose. But I haven't. Promise.

I claimed the whole weekend in the name of me, because I got ripped off this year due to Easter. Still, it was a rather lame weekend, even ignoring the general depression of the day itself.

Saturday did the family thing, though not for me, it was for Easter. And, well, the food wasn't bad, but it was still several hours sitting around mostly with people I don't know very well if at all, along with a few very noisy kids running around all the time.

Otherwise, it was like pretty much any other weekend, except with the added inconvenience of the stores being closed two days. (Though it did have one pleasant side-effect.. had to run to the gas station to get something since the grocery stores weren't open, and I noticed they have flavours of Mr. Noodles they don't have in any of the grocery stores near me... Pork, and Creamy Chicken. Tried Creamy Chicken, it was okay but I still prefer Curry Chicken, but still, cool for finding a new flavour.)

It occurs to me, that since virtually everything you can't classify supposedly tastes like "chicken", then "artificial chicken flavour" in a list of ingredients is spectacularly unhelpful and unspecific. Crocodile meat supposedly tastes like chicken, so theoretically artificial chicken flavour could be from crocodile meat. THINK ABOUT IT. Or not.

Let's see, what else is new?

I've decided that I'm going to boycott the 2008 Olympics. Not because of what's happening in Tibet, I just think the Olympics are really lame.

Finally got around to making this icon. Not quite as good as the other one since I had to pull from various sources, but still relatively pleased with it.

Oh, and I finally got around to watching The Mist, the adaptation of one of my favorite Stephen King short stories (well, novellas). So how was it? Generally, it was an excellent adaptation of the novella, faithful in almost everything but the ending. So we'll talk about the ending. (Major spoilers, of course, for both the book and movie).
( Read more... )
In general the effects were good but some of the monsters looked too obviously CGI, and I might have preferred a bit more use of practical effects vs CGI - like the loading dock sequence, and I would have liked a closer look at the a certain large creature (particularly the novel's description of the bugs hanging off it).

Oh, and the Mist, either the novella or the movie always reminds me of XET now, since I ripped off the idea for the Rutland TP, so I'm all nostalgic again.

So, I watched Stargate: Ark of Truth. Thoughts behind cut, some spoilers.
( Read more... )

That wraps up most of what I watch for the next little while, until BSG starts and Doctor Who shortly after that. Lost's still ongoing for a couple more weeks. It's been better than last year, since they've decided on a course to actually finish up the series. Up and down. The Desmond ep was the best so far this year I think.

Watching Serenity on Space now.

Book Foo:
Finished: Excession, by Iain M. Banks
Started: Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks

Thoughts on Excession (and a quote from it) behind the cut, non-spoilery. Generally liked it.
( Read more... )

Finished: Reflex, by Steven Gould (sequel to Jumper) (reread)
Still reading: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams

Brief thoughts on Reflex behind the cut. Not really spoilery.
( Read more... )

Haven't been writing very much, have been trying to do some editing, but have been in a real funk lately and haven't felt much like doing _anything_. Oddly enough I've had some decent ideas for writing, just when it comes right down to it I have trouble forcing myself to. Still hoping my depression tapers off before the end of March like it often does. Oh well, keep trying, the only way to go.

This week I got three books:

Avengers: The Initiative #10 (Plot feels a bit hollow, but had one of the best moments of the week)
Serenity: Better Days #1 (Feels a little better than the first mini)
X-Factor #29 (My Pick of the Week, barely, generally good as always)

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

At the used bookstore I picked up: Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, and Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks

Work wasn't too bad, a bit more than usual but came early, so it balanced out. Since I went to get comics, did the long walk. On my way into the Eaton Centre, there was a group of people offering Free Hugs. I didn't take them up on it, of course. You get what you pay for... the hugs were probably cheaply made with child labour, and are full of lead. Nosiree, don't want to risk that.

I had no such compunctions about accepting the free samples of soup on the other side of Eaton Centre. "Butternut Squash and Coconut Curry". Sounds... interesting. But hey, it was free.

Oh, and this meme has been going around, so I'll do it too I guess:
Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post or comment about it.
Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.

So, the latest in a series of annoyances, mostly minor with a few slightly less minor of the past week, the latest cuts in the universe's quest for 1000...

Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30am as usual to get ready and go to work, showed up at 6... and waited more than 3 and a half hours for the truck to arrive. It was apparently, running late. Then, after getting home, wanting to relax a bit before making up some sleep, I turn on my computers and... discover that one of them won't boot up. Apparently something in the HD died, or the whole HD died, I'm not sure yet. I didn't lose anything vital at least - most of my writing is here on this one, and most of the important stuff on the other computer I backed up here (and vice versa, cause I'm paranoid). Assuming the data's unrecoverable (I don't know at this point, but there's not enough there important to bother with trying to take it somewhere professional to do it, so if I can't get at it myself, it is), I think I lost a couple scripts I was working on, but those were more experimental/goofball than anything else, and the rest is all stuff I can easily (well, somewhat easily) download again, it'd just be a pain to get everything as I wanted it. The main problem is that it is my faster computer so until I get a new HD to run it off and install an OS on it, I can't watch movies (or even video clips, really). So bah. Bah I say. I mean granted right now all there is is SG:A's finale, but in the next little while will be a couple things that I won't be able to get on TV and I would rely on downloading to get my fix.

Anyway, let's get some Book Foo out of the way.
Finished: The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman (reread)
Started: Excession, by Iain M. Banks

I've already read FW many times so no detailed comments.

Finished: Jumper, by Steven Gould (reread x15ish)
Started: Otherland, Vol 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams

My only comments on Jumper is to reiterate: waaaaay better than the movie.

ETA: Yay! Thanks to some magic disk utils on CD my brother had on him, I was able to get the drive to boot up again and all seems to be running. It's too early to say if it's a permanent fix, but it works for now and everything seems to be there. Now to find SGA

No comics today, which is good, cause the snowstorm made walking to and from work hard enough, would have been a pain to have to take the extra side trip.

Terminator was pretty good last night - I think it wasn't the best of the season, but there were great moments in both of the eps that I loved. Really hope the show comes back next year.

"He had noticed that events were cowards: they didn't occur singly, but instead they would run in packs and leap out at him all at once." The Gaiman quote is true. Downer events are worst of all. First, I'm still in my winter depressive season. Got the short story rejection. Had to help my Dad move all weekend (went back and helped again on the Sunday) and so didn't get any time to relax. And I think I might be getting sick. So, although a new writing cycle starts tomorrow, I think I'm going to beg off on it and make this an editing week (maybe even an editing month). Do some free writing when I'm inspired, but take the meter off, and try to get some other short stories in working shape to be sent off into the world and try to sell themselves.

Oh, and speaking of Gaiman, through the First Look Program with HarperCollins they had the graphic novel adaptation of Gaiman's Coraline, so I requested that. Hopefully I'll get it because yay, free book + Gaiman book = yay, free Gaiman book. That's math I can get behind.

In sadder news, Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons and the father of roleplaying games, died yesterday. Most of my flist already knows and have posted on it, but I wanted to post my own little reflections on how he impacted my life, cut and pasted from a comic forum I hang out at:
( Read more... )

I was so annoyed this morning with my subconscious. I was taking a shower and, in the process, thinking of some things that I needed to buy when I could scrape up enough scare cash, and I thought, "Oh well, at least I have another $50 coming to me, that'll be nice." Then I wondered where that $50 was coming from, and then I realized, damnit, it was just a dream I had the night before. I guess I won some kind of contest or something. *shakes fist at subconscious*. Although oddly enough I did get paid some extra money I wasn't expecting later in the day. I'm still mad at you, subconscious. Don't claim you were trying to be prophetic, you just got lucky. If you want to play prophet, do it more often. I think I also dreamed something about Mercury from New X-Men, but I doubt that was prophetic at all.

Also... coincidence? Or connection? Some time ago I posted this post about Prisoners of Gravity including links to Youtube I found, one of which had a link of Neil Gaiman. This was on Feb 26th, in the afternoon. Today, I followed a link to Neil Gaiman's blog (where he talked about releasing American Gods for free online), and in reading some of the previous posts, realized he posted about the PoG clip that had him on it (There are also furthur comments from a PoG producer here). The time on that was a little after 8pm... on February 26th. Now, understand, 1) I found the youtube link on the spur of the moment on doing a search, not from following any other link. 2) The youtube videos have been up since the summer, so it's not as though they were new. So that seems like a mighty odd coincidence that he would post about it on the exact same day I did, only later.

NEIL GAIMAN IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ MY JOURNAL AT LEAST SAY HELLO! ;) Just kidding, it's fine if you lurk, too. (Or quite possibly the youtube link was just passed through many hands and in less than 6 degrees of separation got to Neil).

Today was a bit of a pain, helping my dad move. I was supposed to be picked up to go at 8:30am. Told to be ready at 8:30 am. I got picked up closer at 10:30 am. You know, I might have slept in a little longer if I knew you were going to be late. And the ride there was about an hour of sitting and listening to two hardcore Christians discuss religion. I have nothing against Christians, but it just gets awkward since I'm not going to bring up my beliefs, so I sit and stare out the window. Then I did a couple trips to a storage room with a guy I barely know, which was at least spent mostly in silence... though it was about an hour of travel for 20 minutes of work. ANyway, all in all we got done at about 9:30pm. My dad and step mom paid me (I tried to refuse it but they were persistent so as usual I gave in), so I did get extra money anyway.

Oh, and I realized that one year ago today (one leap year), I was involved in another move. My own Move From Hell, into the new place. It was all uphill from there living here, though.

This week I got one book:

New Warriors #9 (okay, but I think the cast is way too big)

Decided not to get Young Avengers Presents #2 after all.

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

Also at the used bookstore, picked up Otherland, Vol 3, by Tad Williams, and Excession, by Iain M. Banks.

Work wasn't bad, not too heavy and the guy came promptly. The long walk wasn't as bad as last week's.

Done another writing cycle, and a little early. It's a bit odd, because there were two things I complained about this week: 1) I didn't have any new ideas I was particularly interested in so I was probably going to have to force the writing on older stuff, and 2) Most of my writing tended to be a little longer in word count than most magazines are interested in. However, I not only worked completely on new stuff, I also finished a story in just a smidge over 3000 words. Yay me! (The other thing I worked on was a little forced-writing though).

It's a bit odd how the finishing one worked, too. Because of 1), while I was on the way to work one day, I said to myself, "Self, you need a new idea to write. Expand your horizons." Okay, I didn't actually say it in those words, but that was the gist of the thought. So I decided I'd experiment. I'd try to come up with the silliest idea I could think of in the next few seconds, and see if I could build a story about it. And I thought of a silly idea very quickly, and thought about it, and thought of a way it might not be totally silly after all. Now, of course, that was just the 'science fictional' germ of an idea. I didn't have anything else, nor know exactly what to build a story around. So when it came time to write, I basically just started with two simple character ideas and no idea where I was going. That's usually not a recipe for great writing for me, but in this case, it worked spectacularly. It was one of those beautiful writerly moments where the story revealed itself to me more or less naturally as I was writing it, to the point where I actually had a point where I essentially went, "Holy crap, (so and so is happening behind the scenes) and this is the story of how the narrator (first person) learns about it." So I was able to finish it up pretty easily. It wasn't a complex story, maybe a little obvious, but I'm rather pleased with it all the same. Oh, it still sucks and needs a great deal of revision, but it sucks less than much of my other work and I may try to polish it up and send it off next when my other story gets rejected.

I've mentioned many times my nostalgic love of the old Canadian TVO program "Prisoners of Gravity". It was a show where the host would interview various creators of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Comics. It's a bit kitschy (see the opening cartoon) but holds a dear place in my thought and have always thought more people should know about it. Well, I happened to do a search again and to my surprise, at least a few episodes now appear to be up on Youtube. Only 4 so far, alas. But, I've been watching them this afternoon, and I share! If you're a fan of written SF in particular, watch (each link's about 10 minutes in length)!

Amnesia/Total Recall: An episode devoted to how the loss of memory or perfect memory is dealt with in various spec-fic.

Part 1: David Cronenburg talks about his attempt to write the adaptation of We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (what eventually became Total Recall), Walter John Williams talks about Voice of the Whirlwind, C.J. Cherryh about memory, particularly in Heavy Time, Harry Harrison on The Turing Option.
Part 2: Pat Cadigan on Fools, and Korsikov's Syndrome. Nancy Kress on Brain Rose, Kim Antieau on "Another Country", Samuel R. Delany on Dhalgren
Part 3 (the eidetic memory part): Ray Bradbury on his own claimed eidetic memory, Megan Lindholm on Alien Earth,
Terry Pratchett on Small Gods

(other links/summaries will be behind the cut to save flists)
The Tolkien episode: Different fantasy authors/comics creators/artists talk about Tolkien's influence on them and the field in general. ( Read more... ), Science and Technology, pros, cons, definitions of SF and fantasy, science vs magic, other views, etc: ( Read more... ), Writers talk about Fans and Fandom: ( Read more... )
And it's not a whole ep, just to complete the youtube collection, here's a clip from PoG of Alan Moore and Steve Bissett talking about Swamp Thing and Metamorphosis in comics in general
Not my favorite of the episodes (though the Amnesia one I quite liked, and the second part of the fans one with Ellison and Gaiman was pretty cool), but still a blast from the past. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... I really wish there was a show like this now.

Okay, let's start off with Jumper. I saw it, and I was, expectedly, very disappointed. Significant spoilers behind cut, both for the book and the movie, to some degree comparing and pointing out the differences.
( Read more... ) In short, the same old story, loved the book, hated the movie.

Second, let's go for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Good episode on the whole, except for one BIG, obvious science flub (unless I'm mistaken, but I don't think I am) which really detracted things for me. (not major spoilers, but some for the recent ep)
( Read more... )

Now let's move onto Stargate Atlantis, "Kindred". Minor spoilers, but I'm not going too in depth.
( Read more... )

And we'll wrap it up with some two-for-one Book Foo...
Finished: Woken Furies, by Richard K. Morgan
Started: The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman (reread)

Thoughts behind cut, non-spoilery. ( Read more... )

Finished: Otherland, Vol 1, by Tad Williams
Started: Jumper, by Steven Gould (reread, to get the taste of the movie out of my head)

I'm not going to cut my thoughts to keep this short: It was interesting enough that I'm going to read the next book in the series, and probably the rest of it unless it starts to suck fast.

Mostly due to Runaways' delay again. Work was annoying. Timeframe wasn't bad, but due to all the snow and relatively mild temperatures, there was slush everywhere, and my shoes have a bit of holes in them, so often I was walking in ice cold water.

Since I had no comics, I didn't do the longish walk, and stopped at a new used bookstore on the way home. The bad news, there isn't much of a SF section, and the owner was extremely chatty, going on and on about things I had no idea about, until finally I got a chance to duck out. Nice enough seeming guy, but I'm not good at social interaction at the best of times. I might go back when he's set up more and has more books but hopefully he'll have some employees by then.

Since no comics, I'll talk a bit about TV of recent...
Stargate Atlantis - minor spoilers, not big ones though, for The Outcast ( Read more... )

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Very minor spoilers. ( Read more... )

Supernatural, last Thursday's episode, just saw it yesterday. Moderate to significant spoilers. ( Read more... )

And, finally, some book foo.
Finished: Superluminal, by Vonda McIntyre
Started: Woken Furies, By Richard K. Morgan
Minor, spoiler-free thoughts behind the cut.
( Read more... )

As for writing... writing cycle starts tomorrow, have tentative idea what I'm going to be working on, at least part of the time. It also occured to me today, that somehow since I started writing again, Toronto's become kind of my default setting for Earth based stories. I don't know how that happened, because usually I avoided Toronto before.. I think if I had any default setting, it was New York (due to all the exposure from comics). But now I usually write stories as though they're set in Toronto, and sometimes change it after the fact or if it doesn't fit. I kind of like the idea of giving my city a little more exposure in SF.. but on the other hand, most of my exposure to culture has been from US TV shows, so it's possible I might make some mistake with something that may or may not be different in the US than it is in Canada (like, say, for the sake of illustration, how police are structured... I don't know if they roughly follow the model of the US, or if they're different in some way I can't easily determine).

Anyway, that's about it for today.

So, I'm a fan of ImprovEverywhere, but I usually only go to their site when I'm alerted to their shenanigans from some other site like . So today I saw their prank where 200 people froze in place in Grand Central Station for five minutes, and as is my nature, I went back to see if I missed anything else. Well, I did. They had their annual No Pants Subway Ride day... and this time, in addition to the New York one, they had it in Toronto as well, along with something like 8 other cities. How did I not hear about this? Probably because I don't read the papers, since it supposedly made both of our big ones. But yay for Toronto.

I personally never could have gone on No Pants Day due to extreme shyness (I don't even wear shorts in summer), but, still cool. The other new development I missed was that they've set up an Improv Everywhere Global where spinoff groups are sprouting up in other cities. Maybe one day I'll actually get to see an op in progress, or if I ever get some nerve, participate.

-

The latest selection from Harper Collins Canada's First Look program (where they are willing to send me free advanced review copies of books in exchange for writing up my opinion of them) for this month actually had a book I was interested in. It's a YA book called "Gone", in which everybody over 14 suddenly disappears from the world. I've toyed with similar concepts in my own head and have enjoyed seeing other variations of it (the plague that kills adults, like was done in Jeremiah). So I put in a request for that one. Hopefully I'll get it, and it'll be my second book.

-

Judging by the commercials, people who like Malteasers are easily amused.

-

Why Canadian Teachers should be carefully monitored

-

Crazy snowblowing today.

-

Lost was last night. Decent episode, although I still haven't had a chance to really 'get into' it again. Hopefully the next few eps will help with that.

-

I got a "Wow, good for you" from a stranger today. I was at the grocery store after work, and the cashier asked me for my postal code, and if I walked there. Now, either she's stalking me and is now on to getting rather obscure information to make her fantasies extra complete, or it's some kind of market research thing. In any event, she just noted it down, but I guess the woman in front of me in line must have had some idea that my postal code was rather distant from the store, because she said, "Wow, good for you" when she heard I walked. (It's about a 45 minute walk, maybe an hour when the snowfall's heavy and unplowed as it is was then).

This week I got two books:

Avengers: The Initiative #9 (okay but felt a bit pointless at times)
Ultimate X-Men #90 (my Pick of the Week, the major developments here at least felt like they had something of a point)

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

I also picked up, at the used bookstore, Woken Furies, by Richard Morgan (last book of the Kovacs series), and Otherland, Volume 2: River of Blue Fire by Tad Williams.

Work was okay, came fairly early actually and wasn't too heavy, although the usual annoyances due to the renovations.

Since I had comics I did the full walk around, which was even more painful this time around because of the horrid windchill. Now, granted, it wasn't as bad as it's been in some parts of the country (-50, man), but it was pretty annoying for a 2 hour walk,
and particularly since it seemed to follow me around and blow in my face no matter which way I was walking. For a good portion of it I had to don my vigilante identity, the Red Toque again, pull it down entirely over my face, hook it under my chin, and walk around like that. If my book was smaller I would have tried to read while walking while having a toque over my eyes, just to freak people out.

Also on the walk, I did have an interesting idea I'm going to have to play with somehow. Sort of a superhero/team concept, inspired a tiny bit by a novel I read as a young kid and now can't remember anything but the base premise of it. Unfortunately if I mention the premise I'll possibly have given away the idea, so I'm going to keep it to myself a bit until I decide what to do with it.

Things I saw on the walk home: A poster of an Ood, from Doctor Who, just lying there on the ground. I almost picked it up, but it was really frayed around the edges.

And, posted just for the sheer wtfishness of it, some Dream Foo! ( Read more... )

And now, delicious cake.

Stupid State of the Union, making TV suck tonight. Of all the things Bush is to blame for, this is the worst. Well, okay, maybe not the worst, but it's annoying me right now.

Anyway, some stuff... lets see, we had Stargate over the weekend, but it was a total filler ep.

And in a bit of Canadiana of interest to probably nobody except me... I must have not been paying attention to the news, because I only just recently noticed that Space, Canada's science fiction cable channel, is now owned by CTV, when it used to be affiliated with CityTV. ( Read more... )

Writing cycle's over, ahead of schedule because, yay, I finished another story. It was a much older one. I actually thought I finished it earlier but when I went back to do some editing I remembered that I didn't. I had decided in broad strokes where to finish it, but the nitty gritty wasn't actually written, and there were many details that needed to be worked out. So I worked on that most of the time, and managed to get it finished. It'll be a pain to edit though, even more than normal. ( Read more... )

And from my writing to someone else's, Book Foo!
Finished: The Depths of Time, by Roger MacBride Allen
Started: Superluminal by Vonda McIntyre

Thoughts on DoT behind the cut, conceptual spoilers and other stuff behind the cut. In short, I didn't care much for it.
( Read more... )

I think we'll start off with some Book Foo.

Finished: The Best of Interzone (short story collection)
Started: Otherland, by Tad Williams (tentative choice, subject to change)

Thoughts behind the cut, not terribly spoilery becuase it's a short story collection. ( Read more... )

Random rant. You know, if someone hasn't picked up their cell phone after you calling them for more than half an hour straight? They might not be there. Particularly if they're at work. But somebody uninvolved might be in the vicinity of the cell phone and not appreciate the words "I wanna lie dowwwwwn in a beeed of roses!" repeated on an endless loop every 3 seconds while you try. The rule is if you can't reach them in a minute, you try again every 5 (you can constant call a landline if you like, in an emergency)

Oh, and my childhood suffered a severe blow, as I watched the animated movie Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight and it was... so bad. (not really any spoilers except in general how they differed from the books)
( Read more... )