newnumber6

Here's my yearly entry for One Hundred Words of Horror... only a few, sort of ran out of time and didn't have much inspiration so they're not my best, but I do like the tradition and wanted to come up with something.

Prognosis

The surgery went very well. Your husband is responsive, and the new organs are functioning better than the old ones.

Prognosis is good. I had to remove more tissue than I anticipated, but the organs need room to grow. I just want to warn you he may not look much like the man you knew.

But he’ll live. That’s the important thing. Assuming rejection doesn’t set in, he can look forward to many, many years.

With a result like that, why worry over the little details, like that I didn’t get his consent.

Or that I’m not really a doctor.

-

Inoperable

They say hallucinations are a side effect of the tumor. But I know these aren’t hallucinations. Hallucinations don’t leave a trail of dead bodies.

They’re not just dead. Mutilated, like something exploded inside them.

You’re probably thinking like the police do, that I killed them, in a delusional state. But it’s not hallucination. I don’t see anything except the carnage, and they saw that too, just a little later.

I’ve figured it out. It’s not a tumor. It’s a transmitter. To some other dimension. Telling them to come. And they’ll be coming for you soon, unless you cut it out.

-

Little Bundles of Joy

Nobody noticed the loss of the children. The thing had devoured their souls, but they kept eating, sleeping, and even playing. You don’t really need a soul to play. It’s as biologically hardwired as hunger. Children’s souls are undeveloped, barely there. Replaceable.

So the thing lent them its motives, to lure others to that spot in the woods. Parents made better meals but poor tools. Their bodies were too accustomed to their souls, and without them, ran down, and soon died in squalor.

But the children would still play, and could always be adopted, smiling automatons waiting for new thoughts.

-

(Last year's entries can be found here).

If you do the One Hundred Words of Horror meme, feel free to post a link in the comments so people who are interested can follow up on people not on their flist.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Haven't done one of these in a while, and don't remember ever doing these particular questions, so what the hell. Stolen from

angelophile...

What's the last thing you did, where you technically broke the law? ( Read more... )
Edit: Whoops, forgot to cut. Sorry about that.

Current Mood: amused

Happy Easter to all of you that celebrate it. I don't celebrate it religiously (that is, as a religious event), but I do enjoy the familyness... however, for me, Easter is _next_ weekend, the awesomeness that is Greek Easter, and so this weekend I didn't do much different than what I normally do, and so this is a fairly normal update.

So, today I finished Fallout 3. Mildly fun, althoguh I was somehow expecting more from the reviews I'd heard and hype about it being the best game of the year. (minor spoilers behind the cut, but mostly just discussions of specific issues, and good points)
( Read more... )

TV. Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead was on last night, and... ehh, it was okay. Felt like an average episode (and really, with normal episodes being something like 50 minutes, and this one being a whopping 58, lets stop calling these 'extra long specials'. It barely qualifies. When they said instead of a full season we were getting 4 extra long specials I would have hoped that they were at least 1.5 times a regular ep), and nothing really all that special. On the other hand, it didn't make me want to throw things at the screen, so for a RTD-written episode, that's a success. (Minor spoilery comments behind cut) ( Read more... )

And the other big TV is the last 2nd season episode of Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronciles, and possibly the end of the series entirely. And if the last part is true, then DAMN YOU. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL. I so want to see where they go from here. Good ep, and giving me a lot of what I wanted to see when the series was announced. (spoilers) ( Read more... )

Dollhouse was also pretty good. Only other thing I've been watching lately besides Heroes (which is still lame, but getting a _tiny_ bit better at least in the general writing category) and a few "whatever's on" shows is Lost, and it's pretty good this season but I don't find myself with a need to talk about episodes in my updates. I dunno why. *shrug*. So that's it for TV.

Finally, a meme, several installments worth. I've put off these for a long time, usually because I didn't want to post _just_ them, or a post I was already posting just got too long. But, it's about time, so here we go...

Interview Me Meme
1) Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me!"
2) I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3) You will post the answers to the questions (and the questions themselves) on your blog or journal.
4) You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5) When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions. And thus the endless cycle of the meme goes on and on and on and on...

Btw, if I asked for questions from you and you gave them but they're not here, it might have been one of those instances where LJ didn't send me the comment notification. If you're really interested you'll have to reply to this and either ask them again or link to them. So, here we go...

From

thebitterguy...

1. Were there any comics of note in the '90s? I mean, was the entire decade not a wasteland of graphic novel mediocrity? ( Read more... )
2. If I shot Ben Browder in the face, would you cry? ( Read more... )
3. Do you consciously not use tags on your LJ? Or is it just something you never got around to doing? ( Read more... )
4. I see you just re-read the Wild Cards books. Have they aged well? ( Read more... )
5. Is runaways readable in floppies? I've only read the first run as hardcovers, and got the Whedon series as floppies. I found the Whedon's not very engaging until I read them as a single story. ( Read more... )
From

soleta_nf...

1. What do you love about Toronto? ( Read more... )
2. What do you dislike about Toronto? ( Read more... )
3. Is the current economic situation affecting you personally very much? ( Read more... )
4. What's your favourite comic book movie? ( Read more... )
5. Who is the next Canadian Barack Obama? ( Read more... )

From

calliopes_pen...
1. If you had the chance to travel with the Doctor, which Doctor would you want to travel with? And where would you want to go first? ( Read more... )
2. Are you superstitious at all? If so, about what, in particular? ( Read more... )
3. If vampires were real, what would you do? ( Read more... )
4. What is the one job you would never want to have? ( Read more... )
5. If you were trapped on a deserted island, what one book would you want
to have with you? ( Read more... )

And that's it. See you all out there in Post-Apocalyptica, people.

Edit: Oh, and this seems to have exploded everywhere since I originally posted this post, but I figure it deserves spreading even more since I'm against censorship and bigotry and this has elements of both: Amazon.com is censoring it rankings and search results, specifically targetting non-pornographic GBLT books as 'adult' content (while leaving things like Playboy fully searchable).

Here's my entries for the One Hundred Words of Horror thing.

Savage Beast

"You misunderstand us, Hunter," said the man in black. "We’re not monsters. We have a deep, sacred reverence for life.

"Just... not human life. Why should we? You pollute our world, and at every opportunity you shove wood in our hearts."

His fangs gleamed and I struggled against my bonds, thinking of Mina. As if sensing that, he added, "Relax, there’ll be no bloodless corpse for your darling wife to find. That would be crass and as wasteful as you." He raised a saw, its handle made of polished bone. "We make sure to use every part of the animal."

Caveat Emptor

The occult bookstore owner promised it would completely rid the house of spirits, and offered a money-back guarantee.

After months of strange, unsettling noises since moving in, Mr. Bradley was desperate. It sounded like a good deal.

At midnight, amidst horrific moans and unexplainable knockings, the family linked hands and performed the ritual.

At last the house fell silent.

Two days later, neighbors broke through the door and found their limp, dehydrated bodies still in the circle. Only Mr. Bradley survived, and has been in a hospital since then, listless and staring vacantly, no spark of life in his eyes.

Meme

This is a short but absolutely true story, a story about the future.

The last person to read this story will die.

The fate will be inescapable.

That might seem like a grim prospect. Of course, anyone can avoid being the last reader by ensuring somebody else is. You could post the story as your own. It’s been done before, and if spreads widely enough, the last reader might be a stranger to you. Is it fair to inflict that fate on them? More importantly, was it any fairer to inflict it on you? Make your decision. Pass it on?

Long-Term Relationship

She appeared every week in Nate’s apartment to re-enact her last night. She entered, showered, changed, then sat in front of the TV for three hours before she went to the door, and was strangled by whoever was on the other side. It was the same every week, yet Nate couldn’t resist watching. He considered trying to catch the killer, to put her spirit to rest… but then he might never see her again. She was the only one in his life, sad as that was. On their tenth anniversary, Nate shot himself, having waited long enough to meet her.

(Copyright/Creative Commons info can be found here).

(Last year's entries can be found here).

If you do the One Hundred Words of Horror meme, feel free to post a link in the comments so people who are interested can follow up on people not on their flist.

So, there we go. Not the best. Would have spent yesterday working on a few more and improving these but had computer problems to deal with. More on that in a later post. Happy Halloween everyone!

Okay, last year I did this on the spur of the moment, and only posted it a day or so before the day. And only one other person (to my knowledge) participated. This year I'm starting a full two weeks before Halloween and hopefully others might be inclined to join in. So this is either a meme, if people are interested and want to take it up and repost, or just something I plan on doing personally if not:

In the spirit of upcoming Halloween, and as sort of a last minute whet-the-appetite for Nano, I present "One Hundred Words of Horror for Halloween". Nano's about writing big, this is about writing small.

The rules:
1. Write short horror stories, and post them on Halloween.
2. Each story must be exactly 100 words. No more, no less (you can choose to count arguable symbols important to the story either as words or not as you wish). This amount does not include the title.
3. The stories must be in some way horror-related. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to be scary - you can deal with horror themes in a humorous way - but it's Halloween, so these should be in a Halloween spirit.
4. Post as many stories as you like.
5. (Optional) Respond to other people's stories with candy!

Starting with Book Foo:

Finished: Permanence, by Karl Schroeder
Started: Armor, by John Steakley (reread)

Thoughts on Permanence behind the cut. General concept spoilers. Short version: Enjoyed it but probably Schroeder's weakest. ( Read more... )

Finished: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling
Started: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread)

Most of my flist is probably at least passingly familiar with HP, if not having read it (I'm behind). But I'll keep it spoilery light in case someone else is as far behind as me. ( Read more... )

Also, I'm doing this meme again cause I'm bored...

1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.

calliopes_pen gave me the difficult letter E, so, here we go...
( Read more... )

And over the last weekend I finished up watching S2 of Torchwood. And to all of you who raved about the vast improvement. Well, you lot are all filthy, filthy liars. Well, okay, not so much liars, but overexaggerators. It was slightly better. I didn't want to stab most of the characters to death over the course of the series. But it's still crap, poorly written and without even the whimsy that excuses that for Doctor Who. I'm done with it, for reals, save perhaps for an episode or two if something amazingly cool happens like they bring in The Brig.

And sadly it's looking like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may be on the verge of being cancelled. That sucks. Cancel Fringe, that show turned out to blow chunks. Sure Terminator's not lived up to its potential (and has been weaker this year than last), but it's still cool. :P

Let's start with the Book Foo:

Finished: Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds
Started: Needle, by Hal Clement

Thoughts on Revelation Space behind the cut. General concept spoilers only. Short version: Left me a little cold, actually. ( Read more... )

Finished: A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge (reread)
Started: A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge (reread)

Reread AFutD several times, so there's no need to talk about it again. Always makes me want to read the prequel immediately afterwards. Key phrases: hexapodia as the key insight, still enjoyable.

So, this weekend's been a bit strange. In addition to not having a normal TV (Which does weird and unexpected things to your sense of time), because of minor concerns with the computer of mine that wasn't specifically failing, I decided to run a ScanDisk on it, and see it through to the end. That Scandisk? Took more than 24 hours. So I was without my main talking computer (I segregate things somewhat - one computer is for mail, LJ, forums, and other such that I'm interacting with people, the other is for researching weird things and watching videos. I can do limited switchover, but not in all cases and not especially easily). It was almost a weekend without communicative net. If the progress bar didn't lie to me, it likely would have been. It was at a point where each 1% complete was taking 2-3 hours, except when it reached 95% complete it jumped right to 100%. I'm not complaining, mind you, it's just a little odd (and considering the first 80% was done in something like a half hour, well, progress bars are filthy, filthy liars). Combine that with another weekend without much TV, and it looks like a recipe for boredom.

This was alleviated somewhat with a chip orgy. I'm using the term orgy metaphorically, of course, I may have the odd fetish here or there, but I'm not a freak. Well, not in that way. Since Pringles were on sale for $1 at No Frills and so were Herrs Tortilla chips, I bought a bunch on Friday. Normally I limit my chip intake, but I figured, what the hell, I'm bored, depressed, and hungry.

The other thing I did was watch cartoons on my computer, specifically Avatar the Last Airbender, and surfthechannel.com. See, I only caught onto Avatar somewhere in the early 2nd season. I missed the 1st season almost completely, and never got around to catching the third (they changed the time on me and by the time I realized it, the 3rd season was half over). So I figured since nothing was going on, I'd go back and watch from the beginning. I'm about halfway through the first season now. It's interesting the misconceptions you can develop when you watch a show from the middle. (Cut for length, not really spoilery except for the status of characters in the first episodes)( Read more... )

Speaking of cartoons, Canada's started airing Wolverine and the X-Men (yay Canada), which means that even though I don't have that channel, due to... magic, I could watch it. Overall... promising start. (minor spoilers, and I'll be listing the characters I noticed appearing) ( Read more... )

Writing-wise, despite my writing computer being out of commision all of yesterday, because I got a good head start on it I didn't lose any time and am on target to complete my quota. Also finished a new story- still needs hellacious editing, but on the plus side it's shorter than I usually get. Next up I'm going to try a top-to-bottom restart on a story who's general concept I like but the execution blew.

And we'll finish off with a meme, stolen from

donna_c_punk....

1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.

donna_c_punk gave me the letter G. It was a bit of a tough one. Despite the letter being associated with some of my all time favorite characters, once you got beyond those, it was hard to think of any that qualified that I'd given much thought about at all. So, here we go... (images also under the cut for most of them)
( Read more... )

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.

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... )

Current Mood: grumpy

First, the regional accent meme. For reference I'm a 30 year old Canadian in Toronto (but who moved around a bit when I was young).

What do you call these things?

A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks: Waterslide
The thing you push around the grocery store: Employees
A metal container to carry a meal in: Cage
The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in: Toaster
The piece of furniture that seats three people: 3 Milk Crates
The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof: Gnome
The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening: Tree
Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages: Poison
A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup: Bacon
A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself: Gyro
The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach: Not enough.
Shoes worn for sports: Unimportant.
A flying insect that glows in the dark: Radioactive mutant cockroach
The little insect that curls up into a ball: Radioactive mutant cockroach (in defensive posture)
The children's playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down: Deathtrap
How you eat pizza: Naked
Where private citizens sell their household goods/stuff in their driveway/front yard: Pathetic
The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are: Lair
The thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places: Sink

Okay, real answers: ( Read more... )

I don't think Wendy's advertising people have logic is a strong suit. I saw a recent ad where they said, "If hamburgers were meant to be frozen, wouldn't cows come from Antarctica?"... uhm, by that same logic, if hamburgers were meant to be cooked, wouldn't cows come from volcanos? Holy crap, I'm never eating at Wendy's again, they're not going to cook my burgers.

Who was on. Plot a little dumb, though the Adiposes are cute and could make a good plushy toy. Liked Donna for the most part but was worried that they were leaning too much towards her lurving the Doctor. Yes, they made that whole speech "I'm not mating with you", but it still struck me as her earlier chats with Grandpa that felt to me more that she thought the Doctor was awesome and wanted to lurve him rather than just wanting to travel and see the universe. But most of the reviews I've read had people who came away with the distinct impression that she _doesn't_ feel that way, so I'm hoping I'm wrong and they're right. Even if I am, it still feels a bit too much like Hero worship, I'd like a little more independence in compaions.

BSG was okay, but no big comments on it.

In surprising nice news, yesterday morning as I was heading out to work, I noticed some paper in my inside jacket pocket where I keep my hat, and decided to clean it out. There, what did I find? An uncashed paycheque from work... from mid December. So yeah, that was a bit of a surprise. Pleasant one, though.

Anything else? Don't think so.

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, posting a bunch of random stuff again...

Is it just me or does "Vantage Point" look like on of those crappy "go through the same story from different people's points of view" type plots that every TV series in existence eventually does one episode based on the concept if they last long enough. If so, isn't that, as a movie plot, in the 'done to death' category?

Speaking of movies, the more I see commercials for Jumper the more I'm convinced I'm going to be disappointed in how much they changed from the book, to make it worse. It's kinda killed off my interest in seeing it.

It should be come as no surprise to my flist that I'm a man who shuns reality and lives deeply in fantasy. When I'm not watching TV or movies (which are often fantastical or SF in nature), I'm often working out story ideas or SF concepts in my head, or daydreaming around a SFish concept in a Walter Mitty way. These daydreams go back and forth, certain ones repeat every once in a while after a break, sometimes I do several different ones in a day. Lately though I've been stuck on the last man on Earth scenario. ( Read more... )

Looks like the Writer's Strike may be winding down. Yay. Hope it lasts past the initial 'back to work while we vote on the actual deal' and hope it's a good deal for them, since they deserve it. Edit to add: They officially voted to end the strike, at least until they have a chance to review and vote on the deal. So writers are back to work tomorrow.

Speaking of writing, done a writing cycle. Started a new story and managed to finish it... except I hate it. I still like the idea, and maybe one or two of the beats, but I don't like how it turned out and if I want to use it I'll probably have to write it all over again from scratch. And I'm not even sure how I'd start. So, kind of a good news bad news situation. Oh well.

I've been feeling a little iffy for the last week or so. It's odd, sometimes I feel fine, but often at some point during the day I feel dizzy and very very slightly nauseous. It's irritating, but I suppose it's better than being actually sick. Although sometimes I wish sickness would come and get it over with rather than these shadows of it coming and going regularly.

One of the few forums I hang out at closed suddenly. Most of the people knew it was coming (though not quite so suddenly) and so there's a backup getting in place for the people who hang there, but still, end of an era, of sorts.

Doctor Who Fandom Meme/Survey, stolen from

locker_monster.. ( Read more... )

Thoughts on yesterday's Terminator, the Sarah Connor Chronicles. Slightly spoilery, also with an answer from one of the producers that some Terminator fans have wondered about since the second episode about a potential 'mistake'. ( Read more... )

Finally to end on a random note completely different from all the rest, I have been craving spiciness lately a lot more than usual (I always enjoy it). Also, I've been craving trying something _different_ than all the usual stuff I try. I am considering getting a bottle of Jerk BBQ sauce when my current BBQ sauce of choice (chipotle) runs out, to perhaps satisfy a little of both at once.

Current Mood: energetic

Well, I've done it. Having abandoned a short story (in the sense of 'no work is ever finished, merely abandoned'), it was time to take the plunge, risk my fear of judgement. I sent off a short story to attempt to sell it. Because I don't have a printer, my choices were limited to places that accept online submissions (otherwise I would have had excuses to procrastinate to infinity), but it is still considered a professional market.

I'm not getting my hopes up. It sucks, and it's my second try (I did submit something when I was in my late teens, and that was also deservedly rejected), but since I'm probably always going to think my work sucks, it will at least be better practice for beating the anxiety of actually going through with it, so that if in the future my work does not suck I won't hold off on that basis, despite my fear of judgement. And anyway, I decided back in December that I would start submitting this year, and so here I am. I should hear back within 2 months.

In the meantime, (or the memetime), here's that meme that's going about:

YOU'RE ON MY FRIENDS LIST, I would like to know 37 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine ... You're on my list, so I want to know you better!

( Read more... )

Current Mood: mischievous

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I always had a simple dream. I want to be a noble drifter in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. You know, walking the blasted Earth, surviving on my wits, passing through a town now and then, helping them out with whatever problem they have, like with bandits or terrifying mutants, and then moving on because I really don't fit in with them. I'd maybe have a tame crow that follows me around, because that'd be cool, and would spend my time searching for caches of books to pass the time and pass on to others, either ones for simple enjoyment or caches of lost knowledge that can be of help.

Option 2 is to be a superhero, but I need to find a way to get some super powers, first, because no way can I manage the whole Batman thing.

Option 3 is a starship captain, but I need a starship and a crew. Then the trick is just to find work, and keep flying.

The most realistic option is an author, and even that's only marginally more realistic than the others, since I imagine only a tiny fraction of those who want to be one actually manage it, but if I can't manage this, and the others don't pan out for me, there's really not a whole lot I _want_ to do. There's a bunch of stuff I cold probably survive doing but I wouldn't really care and so it would destroy my soul, if I have any of one left.

(I thought this was going to be a poll question, but it made me make a new post. Whatever, I went with it. Didn't realize LJ made its own memes now)

Really not much to say lately, but a couple random things...

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is tonight. At least the pilot is, which I've already seen, but let's face it, until the strike's over TV's mostly going to be a dead zone from now on (except a few series burning off their last couple of episodes), so I might as well watch it again. I'm really looking forward to seeing the next ep, tomorrow. I made some icons of the first ep months ago, I'll probably post them on my master icon page after it airs.

I actually watched T3 last night, again. For some reason when the Terminator movies are on, any of them, if there's nothing else pressing on I'll usually watch them. Now, I know T3 was roundly hated by most T-fans, and I do think it was far inferior to T2, but I find it has a certain charm to it, despite its big flaws. (spoilers, including for the ending)
( Read more... )

Some Book Foo...
Finished: The Paradox of the Sets, by Brian Stableford
Started: The Depths of Time by Roger McBride Allen

( Read more... )

Also saw Stargate Atlantis... decent episode, a bit predictable at times (I could see plot points being set up for later). Good to see them doing something with that character. Heh, the badguys thought of the same plan from the last episode that I did, although that doesn't totally excuse the goodguys not thinking of it.

And a few memes:

A couple survey memes from

firefox27, probably already done them, but why not again... One Word Meme and Layers of Me
( Read more... )

Stolen from

kissingdaylight...

The Mayfly Project
Sum up 2007 in 24 words:

Much the same as 2006, with more writing. Tried NaNo for the first time, finished halfway through November. Moved once, was hell. Otherwise stable.

Speaking of Nano, I'm in my first writing cycle since before NaNo started (since I take December off from writing to the numbers, and NaNo was a single project). Not going too bad... it's been a little harder to get going but I'm still on schedule for each day's work. Working on two different short stories, while tossing ideas around for a third that has an amusing concept but I'm not sure where to work a story around it yet. Unfortunately I'm near to running out of steam on both the other two stories, so I might have to turn back to older work until I figure out exactly where I'm going with them, what the perfect ending is, etc, else I'll just be writing dross.

Current Mood: high

So, this weekend I've been focusing on editing, trying to bang into better shape a short story I finished a while ago. I'm still relatively unskilled in editing. It's usually one of the things I never get around to once the story is finished. In a few cases (like workshop entries), I give it a couple cursory passes, usually correcting problems I noticed while writing. This time I'm trying to be a little more systematic. ( Read more... )

Anyway, some memes.
Go to the Wikipedia home page and click random article. That is your band's name.
Click random article again. That is your album name.
Click random article 15 more times. Those are the tracks on your album.

Band Name: Guru Muni Narayana Prasad
Album Name Spinal moblization (which I guess means it's dancable, or the title is ironic)

Tracks: (and my commentary about them) ( Read more... )

Stolen from just about everybody! Take the first sentence (or two, or three, or however many it takes to make sense) from the first post of each month this year. Voila! - your Year In Review:

( Read more... )

Fan Explanations!

I consider myself knowledgeable about most of my fandoms. So, if there's ever anything you wanted to know about the universe or story of one of them, whether it's a serious or tongue-in-cheek question, ask! Maybe you want to know why the aliens in Stargate all speak English, or where the Doctor got his sonic screwdriver. If I know the answer, I'll answer it. If I don't, I'll make one up to the best of my ability to sound convincing.

Note: Because this involves making things up, I'll only answer questions about in universe matters. So I'll answer a question about why a character left, but not why the actor did.

Here we go... 4 100 word short horror stories, for Halloween.

The Biography of King Earl

A good biographer can capture a subject's soul in a few words. So can an evil sorcerer. It doesn't take many. One hundred will do the job, contain all that is or was about a man.

The worst part is, in a really good spell, the words come to overwrite reality. The subject is removed from history, eternally tortured by cramped spaces and a lack of detail. His deeds go unremembered, and even the sorcerer can't remember his reason. The poor man hasn't even been given a face.

Once a glorious king, his palace is much smaller now. One story.

-

IM Worried

Marybear11 (09:45:15PM): I miss u.
Bi++erPhi1 (09:46:03PM): U 2. How r the kids?
Marybear11 (09:46:35PM): Asleep.
Bi++erPhi1 (09:46:43PM): No problems?
Marybear11 (09:47:02PM): Not with them. Scary being here alone, tho.
Bi++erPhi1 (09:47:24PM): Scaredy cat.
Marybear11 (09:47:54PM): Serious, its creepy. I keep thinking someone's watching.
Bi++erPhi1 (09:48:26PM): You say that every time.
Marybear11 (09:48:57PM): Worse this time, probably cuz of what happened at work.
Bi++erPhi1 (09:49:19PM): he'll cool off
Marybear11 (09:49:31PM): hope so
Bi++erPhi1 (09:50:01PM): *hug* I'll be back tomorrow.
Marybear11 (09:50:29PM): can't wait. Brb, doorbell
Bi++erPhi1 (09:56:28PM): u back yet?
Bi++erPhi1 (09:59:52PM): Mary?
Bi++erPhi1 (10:13:14PM): U there?
Bi++erPhi1 (11:11:39PM): ...hello?

(Author's note: I consider each timestamp 1 word and each namestamp likewise 1 word)
-

There's Something Outside

There's Something outside, and it wants in. I'm afraid. I'm not sure why. Maybe It's benign, only curious about us. But maybe It's malevolent, and wants to hurt us.

I didn't expect this when I decided to sleep under the stars. I thought I was outside. I didn't know then that every outside is inside somewhere else. I fell asleep by the campfire, and awoke to the sound of Something scrabbling, pushing against the walls of what I thought was everything. Now I want that damn axe, before It breaks through.

There's Something Outside, and oh, god, it's coming In!

-

The last one I actually wrote last year, but I figured I'd include it for the theme's sake...

The Stars Were Right

They always said Millie and I were each other's destiny, but something was always in the way.

Then it finally happened. The stars aligned. We were both single.

That night was perfect until we woke and saw that thing rising from the ocean.

Now, like most, she does little besides cannibalism, screwing, and killing, indiscriminately, and yelling "Ia! Ia Cthulhu!"

I fake it, to take care of her, but she knows. We're growing apart.

It's sad to discover two people so in love can't manage to go mad together. And to think, she always said I was the impractical one.

-

(See here for copyright/Creative Commons info)

Edit:

occamsnailfile also has wrote some 100 word short horror stories here. They're quite good, you should check them out.

Here are some 30 second tales of terror written by (and read aloud by) various sources, including Neil Gaiman.

Someone on the message board I got the link from suggested it as a topic for our now only occasional writer workshop - short halloween horror, so I started writing.

Except, I find that although short horror is fine, I specifically like the "exactly 100 words" format. So I decided I'd make it a semi-meme. That is, it's a meme if other people do it. Otherwise it's just something I'm doing and making arbitrary rules for. :)

In the spirit of Halloween, and as sort of a last minute whet-the-appetite for Nano, I present "One Hundred Words of Horror for Halloween". Nano's about writing big, this is about writing small.

The rules:
1. Write short horror stories, and post them on Halloween.
2. Each story must be exactly 100 words. No more, no less (you can choose to count arguable symbols important to the story either as words or not as you wish). This amount does not include the title.
3. The stories must be in some way horror-related. This doesn't necessarily mean they have to be scary - you could be dealing with horror themes in a humorous way, but it's Halloween, so you should get into the spirit.
4. Post as many stories as you like.
5. (Optional) Respond to other people's stories with candy!

10 Questions, the Answers to Which I Will Genuinely Find Interesting
Stolen from

greektoomey
Instructions:

[H]ere's what I'd like to see: answer the questions, here in the comments thread, or in your own journal. You don't have to answer them all. To perpetuate the meme, you could either re-post my questions in your journal and ask your friends-list, or, if you don't like my questions, you could make a post including these instructions and replacing some or all of my 10 questions with questions that you're really interested in seeing people answer.

1. If a magical wish-granting genie offered you a shoe-box and told you that whatever you wanted most that would fit inside that box would be what you'd find upon opening the lid, what would be in your box?

2. Who did you want to be when you were a kid? Who do you want to be now?

3. If you could ask your friends, family, partner(s), co-workers, or even other people on the street to change the way they interacted with you in one respect in order to make your life better, what would you ask them to change?

4. If you were to make the one change in your habits, behaviour, or lifestyle that be most likely to make your life better, what would you change?

5. What stops you from getting what you want out of life?

6. What's the one thing that has happened to you that has done the most towards making you stronger, better, and more capable?

7. What skill or talent do you most wish that you had?

8. Do you have any skills or talents that seemed useless or silly to you at first, but you now are glad that you have? What are they?

9. What one thing in the world are you most in love with right now?

10. If your life were a movie, what genre would it be in? Would you prefer to live a life that would make a different type of film?

My answers: ( Read more... )

Watched Dawn of the Dead last night. Still prefer Shamblers to Runners, but the movie was enjoyable on the whole, save a couple annoying moments of characters being too stupid to live. Have some more thoughts on zombies, but will save for another post I think. Still, the movie gave my good, zombilicious dreams. Well, semi-zombilicious. Mostly the dreams involved evacuating Earth from an unnamed emergency. I think the emergency might have been zombies, but they never actually appeared, just worries about a sickness. Also, we evacuated through wormholes. I managed to get a goatload (yes, a goatload) of my stuff through the gate before the last portal closed.

And, finally, Book Foo.

Finished: Slow River, by Nicola Griffith
Started: Glasshouse, by Charles Stross

Thoughts on Slow River behind the cut. Some mild spoilers. Overall enjoyed it.
( Read more... )

Getting down to the last of the 'easy' Nebula reads. Of the ones left, 1 is a book I might have read anyway (Haldeman's Camoflauge), 1 is a book that I might have read but have never been able to find in used bookstores (Silverberg's A Time of Changes), and the rest are all either fantasy, Part X in a Series I have no real interest in, or both. So it'll be a bit of a slog to the finish line. But I'm getting closer.

The Meme: Comment on this post. I will choose seven interests from your profile and you will explain what they mean and why you are interested in them. Post this along with your answers in your own journal so that others can play along.

donna_c_punk asked me for these:
ai rights: Think I've talked about it a fair bit. I know it's probably silly to think about, since we're really nowhere near it. But one day we probably will have artificial intelligence of some sort. And I am passionately committed to the idea that AIs should have rights. A lot of people seem unreasonably insistent on the idea that machines can't "really" think, and even if they seem to it's just an illusion and they shouldn't be given any rights. My standard response is that I can't be certain that _you_ really think and that it's not just an illusion, but I give you the benefit of the doubt because, if I'm wrong, I've hgiven rights to something that doesn't need them, but if I didn't and I was wrong, I'd have deprived something deserving of rights, and that's not a mistake I'm prepared to make. Also, I'm interested in this theme in fiction a lot, both writing and reading/watching (I root for the Cylons sometimes).
alternate history: One of many fictional themes I enjoy, that of alternate history, the "What if something happened differently...?" Mostly I like it when the alternate world is encountered by people from ours (or one close to ours), rather than just straight-faced alternate history, but I like the latter too. It's one of the things that drew me to Sliders, even though they quickly abandoned the _cool_ uses of the concept, and used it lamely. I was just remarking online recently how I kinda wish they'd do another 'exploring alternate reality' show, but perhaps one where it's not a "lost and trying to find our way home", so you could go more in depth to some of the different realities, and have a home base.
nebula awards: These are the awards given to SF novels, novella, short stories, etc, by the Science Fiction Writers and Editors of America. Mostly it's in my interests because I'm on a quest to read every Hugo or Nebula winning novel (7 or 8 more to go on Nebulas, 1 Hugo). But also, as a writer, I'd like to win one someday. Oh, I know I almost certainly never will, but we've all gotta have dreams.
neverwhere: This was my first exposure to Neil Gaiman (well, to his work at least - I'd seen him dozens of times on a Canadian television show called Prisoners of Gravity)... and although I recognize some of his other works is technically better, Neverwhere remains my favorite. I even went and downloaded the BBC miniseries version of it (which came first). It wasn't as good, but it was fun as well to get some visuals for it. I guess I like the idea of a sort of fantastic world existing in parallel to our own, but that most people don't know, and the idea by walking a specific path in a specific way, you might wind up somewhere you otherwise wouldn't.
racmx: This is an abbreviation for rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, a USENET group. I used to hang out on it a fair bit, but then my net provider got rid of USENET access, and so my only way there is through Googlegroups now. I hate the interface, so I don't hang out there much, and really should remove the interest, but I'll keep it there out of nostalgia a while longer. A bit sad that USENET is slowly dying.
vernor vinge: Science Fiction author, writer of A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, and recent Hugo Winner Rainbows End. One of my favorite authors, does really good with big ideas and cool aliens, and of course is one of the creators/popularizors of the concept of the technological singularity - an event (like true AI or intelligence expansion) that is such a fundamental shift that it's impossible to accurately predict what things'll be like afterwards (because the AIs who run things, or we, will be so much more intelligent), which is a cool SF concept I enjoy.
y: the last man: Comic book by Brian K. Vaughan, creator of Runaways, in which a plague (or something) wipes out every mammal on Earth with a Y chromosone (that is, all males), except for two: 20something slacker Yorick Brown, and his pet monkey. So he goes on a series of quests within quests in this world where all the men are now gone, and the women are carrying on as best they can knowing that they're pretty much the last generation. I'm reading it in trades, and am still a little behind, but I enjoy it. I wouldn't call it one of my absolute favorite comics, but it's right now the only non-superhero one I read, and the only "closed" plotline one (that is, there is a beginning, middle, and end to the plot intended, over the course of 60 issues, rather than being an ongoing series forever), so I figured it merited a spot on my lists.

So, there we go.

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Entries tagged with meme

One Hundred Words of Horror 2009

Survey Meme

(no subject)

One Hundred Words of Horror 2008

One Hundred Words of Horror 2008

Various Entertainment Related Stuffs

Random Stuff Post, Books, Cartoons, Meme

Because Zombies are always awesome

Friday Five + Book Foo

Memes and a couple other things:

New Comic Day + A Meme

More Randomness

Line is crossed

Writer's Block: When I Grow Up...

Some random stuff

Writing and some memes...

A Hundred Words of Horror For Hallowe'en...

Short Halloween Horror

Some Random Foo

Interests Meme!