newnumber6

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*.

Nothing worth getting today, so just went to work and went home. And it was actually a pretty good day. Truck came pretty early and so with no comics, got home early too.

At the grocery store (No Frills) I saw something that struck me as a little odd. Avatar: The Last Airbender Action Figures. Now, it's not odd that they exist, seems a standard enough thing to do. It'd odd that they were at the grocery store. And what's more, they were only $3.00 each (and looked to be fairly standard action figure quality). At that price, I almost considered getting some, but although I like the show I'm not a huge fanboy for it (I haven't even seen the first or newest season), and they didn't seem to have all the main characters in their selection (Just Aang/Momo, Sokka, Spirit-Form Aang, and Fire-Nation-Guy-With-Scarface-Who's-Name-I-Can't-Remember), and unless you can get all of them it's no fun, they'd feel lonely. I just wish they would get Marvel or DC superheroes at that price, I might actually pick some up.

Anyway, temperature was nice, and it would have been great reading weather (not that cold ever really stops me), except for one thing. Just the faintest drizzle. Enough to make me not want to read and get the book wet, but not enough to actually enjoy the rained-on feeling. Since I couldn't read, as is my wont, I thought. Among other things I was thinking of that PoG episode and my recurring desire to see PoG back. I think if I was a bolder person and could speak publicly with any skill, I would actually get a decent webcam and try and produce my own show, soliciting video interviews with various SF/Fantasy/Comics people and putting the clips together in shows. I actually sort of plotted it out in my head a bit, maybe going with, instead of shooting up into space, as the host "uploading" myself into a NANCY like satellite, and use the first episode to talk about the Singularity and Transhumanism/Posthumanism in SF and comics (and then different subsequent episodes talking about all sorts of different topics). Call it Prisoners of Matter? Prisoners of Flesh? I dunno. But in my head it seems like a cool idea. Alas, I'm not bolder.

Oh, and also, I'll be boycotting LJ on Thursday Night/Friday, like others on my list. No posts, comments, or even reading LJ. Here's the details, if interested. But when it's over I'll still read everyone's posts. I suppose I'll take the time off and try to work more on editing rather than constantly refreshing LJ to see if anything new is going on.

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.

So, finally my net is back up, too. For the last few irritating days, while it would be incorrect to say I had no net, it was functionally true. Every page I hit, I had approximately a 10% chance every refresh of it loading, and even then, most of the images, etc, each had their own 10% chance. So annoying. I'm really starting to think that the net has become a prosthetic to my mind, because I feel so lessened without it. Want to know something, just look it up, instantly... oh, I can't. Woe is me.

Anyway, moving on. New Comic Day today (delayed a day due to Labour Day)! This week I got one book:

New Warriors #4 (pretty good).

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

Pretty hot day out today.

Oh, and, I'll do some Book Foo too...

Finished: Accelerando, by Charles Stross
Started: Pandora's Star, by Peter F. Hamilton

Thoughts on Accelerando behind the cut (not terribly spoilery, but some minor plot elements talked about). Overall, really enjoyed it.

I often find finishing a book feels like finishing a meal. Some you don't feel it so much.. it's just fuel, even if you enjoyed it. But some are like this, they touched on and satisfied a craving inside you may not have even know you had, and so where after you're done you feel the need to sit back and savor, and think, "Mmmmmm, Accelerando."
( Read more... )

Not a whole lot _to_ be watching. I've already posted on the TV pilots I've seen, and those are really all the ones I'm particularly interested in seeing early. The others I'll just wait until they come on TV.

So what else is there during the summer? Well, I haven't downloaded any of the new Dead Zones, 4400s, or Flash Gordon to check out, and they haven't started airing here, so all that's left is reality tv, which I don't particularly feel like talking about, reruns, which don't deserve much talking about, and a handful of new (or new to me) stuff.

1) Masters of Science Fiction. Limited run anthology show of adaptations of short science fiction into one hour episodes. Stellar idea. Wonderful. There are hundreds of short stories out there that would make awesome one hour episodes. Hell, you could even do one ep that's a bunch of short short science fiction, each a few minutes in length (like "They're Made Out Of Meat").

Execution? ... Well, they've aired four out of six produced, and it looks like that's all that's going to be aired. ( Read more... )
So its a little disappointing that they took a great idea for a series, and so completely wasted the opportunity.

If I were going to do this, and I had an order of 6, just 6 to do? Off the top of my head (and cutting off ones that were already adapted reasonably well several times or are likely to have major rights issues because they're tied up with movie properties):
( Read more... )

I've also been working my way through Classic Who. See, aside from some very dim memories of childhood, I started Who with the first Doctor, Hartnell, and watched up until the start of Pertwee. After that, the station that was airing them didn't think it was cost effective to buy anymore episodes. So, I've been gradually trying to finish up Pertwee. I'm not done yet, but I'm close. ( Read more... )

Commercials I hate! There's this sprint commercial where they sing out "ladies and gentlemen," followed by various flight instructions, all being sung as though by a choir, while the scene shows people interacting on their PDA or some. But the singing really irritates the hell out of me, and it's on all the bloody time. It's gotten to the point I have to mute it when I hear the first bit of it. DIE DIE DIE, whoever made that commercial, and allowed it to be produced.

Now to books. First:
Finished: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (Reread)

I've read it several times already so no new comments really. I still quite enjoy it and it sweeps me up into the story every time.

Started: Scatterbrain by Larry Niven
and
Accelerando by Charles Stross.

Scatterbrain is a collection of short stories, excerpts from his novels, and some essays, a lot of which is concentrated on 'process'. Still, a lot of it feels like adds for his other books. I think I'd feel cheated if I paid more than $2 for it, but since I got it discount, I am enjoying some of the insight he gives on the process of his writing, and particularly the process of collaboration.

Oh, speaking of $2 books, I found First Meetings in the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card for $2 the other day and so I snapped it up. It's just a few short stories, one I already have (Investment Councilor, with his first meeting with Jane), the original novella format of Ender's Game (which I'd never read before... it was okay but I much prefer the novel), and two short stories dealing with Ender's parents. Wouldn't have bothered at full price, but it's nice to have at a discount.

Now, on to a meme! Books and reading meme from soleta_nf...
( Read more... )

And finally, to move off of reading and on to writing, I've finished the basic writing of the workshop thing I'm working on, the one with steampunkish elements. It clocked in at about 9600 words. Oops. I guess I got a little carried away. Anyway, I still need (badly) to edit (it's awful, but I think it can be made less awful), and I still love the basics of it even if my implementation sucked.

I'll also probably whittle a shorter version down for workshop posting (since they tend to expect shorter submissions), and leave the longer one as an optional, but I'll post both.

The tentative title is Steampunk Allie and the Omniscope.

So I just finished watching the Sci-Fi channel miniseries (also aired on Space), The Lost Room.

Some thoughts behind the cut (not very spoilery except for the basic plot description).
( Read more... )

In summary: I liked it quite a bit. I'd recommend checking it out on a rerun or by... other means you can acquire it if you haven't seen it.

First up, Dream Foo! ( Read more... )

Spoiler-light TV bits: Veronica Mars, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Torchwood
( Read more... )

I created my very first Wikipedia page this weekend. I've done some minor edits before, but this is the first time I've created a whole page. It will no doubt interest nobody on my friends list, of course. Anyway, what happened was, while I was rereading the Grainger/Hooded Swan books, I did a wiki search for it, like I tend to do for most series I read. Only to come up empty. Not only has barely anybody I talk to heard of it, nobody'd created a page for it. So, I did. I'll probably be adding a little more to it as time goes on. It's an interesting feeling, adding to the sum total of human knowledge on the internet. And the editing was remarkably easy, I've never actually looked into how to edit a wiki before a couple weeks ago. I'll probably be doing more of it when I see something that needs doing. I'm a wikiconvert!

Speaking of writing (but from another angle), I don't think I'm going to do NaNoWriMo. Can't come up with a plot I want to use on it, and I don't want to 'waste' any of the plots I've got stored up on it (I put waste in quotes because I don't technically think it's a waste, but I fear that if I do the style of writing NaNo requires and it sucks I won't be able to write the story again. If I'm to do it, I need a plot that I can feel good using only for it). Also the time issue is a worry. I don't really feel up to writing on days that I work, so that means I'd have to extra load it on the other days, and all that in addition to doing things like my alternaljournal which is certainly a type of writing, but wouldn't count towards words.

Ehh. Anyway, to do my best to keep the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I'm going to resolve to do the following (whether I actually do it is another matter, but I'll resolve it here and either do it or fess up to not doing it): ( Read more... )

Apparently we're getting pretty close to being able to play our first Cybergeneration (tabletop) game, so that should be cool.

Now, let's see, is there anything actually new in my life, as opposed to the various ways I escape reality?... Hmmm, nope, not really that I can think of. But then, why would it? About the only chance I have to meet anyone new would be either at work or in chance encounters. And, well, why not, some social interaction to report: ( Read more... )

So, on Saturday I went to a wedding. ( Read more... )

As mentioned above, my roommates and I have been seriously talking about getting another RPG game going. ( Read more... )

Prison Break, Heroes, and 4400 tonight. Woot. (No, not you woot, just a general woot).

This morning I've been idly considering trying NaNoWriMo 'officially' for the first time, since I don't have school or XET to worry about this November. Normally I just sort of promised to myself that I'd try to write a little more that month. Well, technically speaking I probably still wouldn't be 'official' since I loathe signing up for things, but that I'd actually be trying to do a 50,000 word novel rather than having no specific goal and just continuing to add a little here and there to my short stories or longer term projects. Of course, I still have my alternaljournal to keep up with and November I plan to be a 'mission month', so I'd have to be writing more of that too, to keep up, and that would take time from and not contribute to my hypothetical NaNoWriMo. Hmm. Well, I'll think about it some more.

Oh, and for anyone still wondering - that convention I went to back a month ago where I met Morena Baccarin and theoretically took her picture? Yeah, there'll be no pictures forthcoming, somehow the camera lost all of them (see, I always said my face would break any cameras!). Ah well.

Yep, here we go again. Guess I had a lot to say these last few days...

First, just got back from the Taste of the Danforth, where I had Gyros. I had to include that, because gyros do not go without comment. Mmmmmmmm, gyros. Actually, I had more than that. I had _2_ gyros, some zelnic (cheese pie. Well, technically I think it can refer to either the cheese or onion or spinach pie, but I had the cheese cause I don't like the other two), and some Loukamades (honey balls). Mmmm. Although I do have one bone to pick with the second gyro. The greeks encourage attempts to innovate, but the gyro is a delicate balance, and lettuce does not belong in the balance. It throws off the flavour medly, and turns something from 'awesome meal' to 'tasty but could be better'.

Next topic! Relativity, Time Dilation, and Communications Across The Gulf of Stars
( Read more... )

Meme stolen from anomilygrace... 10 random questions
( Read more... )

Some thoughts on recent terrorism plots and the reaction to it (cut and pasted from a forum thread where I also posted it):
( Read more... )

Dream Foo. Short one. Involves someone on the flist! ( Read more... )

Thoughts on Stargate SG1 and Atlantis, episode 5 of current season. Some spoilers.
( Read more... )

Haven't done one of these in a while. Random post! Segues limited or absent!

Rants: ( Ice cream, linking etiquette )
There are a few commercials lately that have been annoying me: ( Read more... )

Non Ranty Randomness:
Forgot to add this in my Book Foo post, but one other thing about Deepness in the Sky that kinda amused me. I think it'd be cool to make a movie of it. ( Read more... )

Oh yes, and Book Foo! Finished: On The Beach, by Nevil Shute
Started: The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. Thoughts on OTB behind the cut. ( Read more... )

Friending Memes! Participated in a multifandom friending meme and a Firefly friending meme, got a couple new friends out of them I think, so hey new friends!

Oh, and again nothing much to report on the social interaction front today, ( Read more... )

Survey Memes and such!
The survey of fives (and a ten), stolen from redlantern2051...
( Read more... )

6 Weird Habits About Myself (stolen from nardasarmy.. ( Read more... )

Today I had a banana for a snack after lunch. I don't eat bananas too often. Once in a while I get a craving. Anyway, the point of it is that this is the first time since I read this article on BoingBoing that I've had to peel a banana. So, thinking of it, I tried it the monkey's way, pinching the 'end' and then peeling it from there, using the stem to help hold it. OMG it's so much easier.

Random question: Why are sails usually white? Is it just because the best material to make them is usually white? Is there tradition associated to the color? Is there a functional reason? Am I completely wrong about them being usually white in the first place?