newnumber6: (lasers)
Damn, just heard that the local Tori Stafford case was solved and, well, it's the worst case scenario. Man. I was kinda hoping, since it was presumed that a woman led her away, that it was one of those freaky, "I want my own kid" situations, which is good in the sense that the kid may be treated okay or maybe even a ransom. But no. Some messed up people in the world.

Anyway, no comics today, but work was okay. Came on time and not too heavy, so I got out pretty early. A bit warm though, and hungry now.

Oh, and I am amused by small and immature things sometimes. At the local large chain grocery store, I was checking out the flyer to see if they had any good deals. One of the advertised special, was those little dried-soup-in-a-cup, selected varieties. Except, the sample picture of it proudly proclaimed C*CK FLAVOUR (no censoring, and of course, meaning chicken). Now, since there are presumably multiple varieties, somebody had to have said specifically, "Okay, for the sample pick, we're going to use this variety." It gave me a giggle, anyway.

And just a brief rant. Now, I generally don't agree with the Conservative Party (of Canada, which is still usually less conservative than the US one) on issues. But there's one thing that inspires my rage in them like nothing else - their ads. Specifically, their negative campaign ads. THERE'S NOT EVEN A $#!!ING ELECTION SCHEDULED. STOP PLAYING YOUR ADS SLAMMING THE LIBERAL LEADER REPEATEDLY. We get enough of that crap during an election. You might have had a fair point had you played them then, but now all I get when I see the ads is more hatred for you.

And while I'm on a rant, is it just me, or have the standards of Lucky Charms fallen in recent years? Before, the rainbow mushroom actually looked a little like a rainbow, like it does on the box. Now, it's just a rainbow shaped marshmallow with either random splatterings of cover, or with horizontal bands of color rather than arcs, so it doesn't really look like a rainbow at all. Is a little pride and craftsmanship in the field of mass-produced tiny consumer marshmallows too much to ask?

On to TV and other entertainment media. Since it's nearing the end of the season, I've been saving my thoughts on show episodes for my big 'end of year wrapup'. So I'll just talk about Renewals and Cancellations. Old news to most, but I haven't posted about it.
The good news: Dollhouse is renewed. A bit surprising, actually, but good on them. I hope, if nothing else, this will cause the kneejerk FOX-haters to reconsider their "I will never watch anything on FOX because they don't support good genre shows" (they follow the money, and approve more genre shows than most, and in some cases, like this, where the ratings do not support renewal, they STILL give it another shot? What more do you ask? Especially when you won't watch the shows they put out.). It has gotten a lot better since the first ep, although I don't think it'll ever be a favorite.

A couple other renewals of course, but nothing I personally care about all that much that wasn't already pretty well certain.

Now the bad news. In comics, Captain Britain and MI13 is coming to an end, which will bring my monthly list back down to 2 (it went up to three when New Mutants started. Runaways is the other one). That's sad, it was a pretty fun comic. How can you not like a comic with Dracula living on the moon and launching an assault on Britain using ships that shoot vampires?! Bah, people have no taste.
Also cancelled, officially although most of us knew it was coming, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Damnit. I say again, Damnit. Seriously, I would have traded Dollhouse for Sarah Connor in the cancellation stakes in a heartbeat. I also would have traded all those shows I don't watch that were bubbled and saved. Sorry, fans of those shows for my hypothetical callousness. Anyway, Dollhouse would likely have been the only theoretical 'if only one could be saved' situation might have existed. Dollhouse, I enjoyed, and would have liked to see where it went, but I really WANTED to see how SCC would have dealt with their cliffhanger, and of course more Cameron and all the issues there. But at the same time I can't entirely blame Fox, based on the ratings. Frankly, I'm surprised they got the back end of Season 2 pickup, and I'm thankful for that, because at least they ended strongly (albeit on a cliffhanger) than on the weak stretch of eps that made up mid-S2. And of course I won't hold the cancellation against Dollhouse. How could I?

Oh, and speaking (a ways back) of Runaways, I had a Runaways-related dream. All I could remember was a) We were running cross country, I think in something like the Steinbus instead of the much cooler Leapfrog.
b) Chase had a girlfriend who was rather cool but not really connected to the Runaways, and he broke up with her on the way and we left her behind.
c) Klara was running a three-card-monte style game (can't remember the specifics, but it was some sort of gambling-related 'cheat the unsuspecting') to help earn money, but was secretly thinking of leaving the group and not meeting at the rendezvous we'd set up.
d) The only actually Runaways to appear were Chase, Klara, and Molly, with the dream 'set' sometime in the future after the rest had been rotated out, I think. Which is odd because if I was going to rotate out, Klara would be an early choice.

I guess Runaways dreams will happen when you have Runaways plot-bunnies running through your thoughts regularly. Seriously, it's getting out of hand. In my idle times I've been noodling around a sort of 'what I'd do with if I took over the book after Whedon's run/the Secret Invasion crossover' (I ignored Moore's and beyond, not only because I'm not all that happy with it but because I need a specific break or I never get anywhere beyond updating my plans because of whatever happens in the book). I've got decently fleshed out 3 arcs with loose plans for something like 6 or 7 beyond that, creating subplots, new supporting characters/recurring and/or one-shot villains/initiative members, and long term character arcs for everybody. Bah. The world will never know the genius of MONOK (Mental Organism Now Opposed To Killing), an attempt by an AIM offshoot to recreate MODOK, thwarted when he converted to the Mormon faith and joined the Utah initiative! (The Runaways have to pass through Utah on their way back since when we left off they were still in New York). And that's only one of many ideas! Okay, it's silly, but I have fun with such things.
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
Yesterday had Thanksgiving Dinner (a week late), and it was quite good. Turkey, stuffing, ham, carrots, corn, turnip, potatoes, gravy, bread and pumpkin pie. Mmmmm. And of course was nice to see the family again even if there was nobody there I hadn't seen in more than 2 weeks anyway.

Finished: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread)
Started: Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks (reread)

Already read Blindsight, so no extended thoughts on it, but I do have a selected quote (not really spoilery at all) I liked behind the cut. Before that, I might as well mention that it rereads very well - Still has some of the same problems, but I think I'm actually more impressed with it after the second read. It's very bleak, from general outlook to view of human relations, but sometimes extra bleak is good. To me, at least. Anyway, quote: Read more... )

Finished: Armor, by John Steakley (reread)
Started: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny (reread)

Armor's a reread, but it's been so long, and in fact I think the last time I read it was in the 90s, long before I had LJ. So I'll go a bit into my thoughts, and a teeny bit spoilery (general plot spoilery): In general, liked part, other parts only okay.
Read more... ) Anyway, I probably won't go through the whole Amber series again, but I might read the first couple books of it.

In other bloggage:

Assorted questions I've been pondering lately:

1) If you _were_ the subject of the song "You're So Vain (You Probably Think This Song Is About You)", it wouldn't be vain to think so, right? I mean, it'd just be factual.

2) If every living thing on Earth, right down to bacteria and viruses, suddenly died (no radiation or anything, just call it sudden magic death syndrome), except for ONE human being and the bacteria that naturally live on and inside them, would they alone be able to spread enough to reseed the world with life (not human life, certainly, but enough bacteria that could survive long enough outside the body to breed and evolve and so on).

3) Do individual episodes of Deal or No Deal really need their own promo? I mean, it's a frakking game show! It just seems a lot of pointless busy work to have a promo for every episode that says, "On the next episode of Deal or No Deal... This guy/girl you've never seen before may or may not win lots of money!". I never see individualized promos for Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.

4) Long Time No See? How did such a grammatically messed up sentence enter our commonly used phrases?!

5) Assume the kids of Harry Potter were forced to fight to the death, Battle Royale style. What would be the outcome? Who teams up with whom and who survives to the end? Assume it's circa Goblet of Fire, and only those people in Harry's year. Also, something magically inhibits magic. Is the outcome different if magic is allowed (except magic that might be used to escape the death-collars)? Read more... )

Finished watching The Girl From Tomorrow... I guess I did actually see it to the end, since there were elements I remembered, I'd just forgotten what it was. Still, I hadn't seen the beginning and it was worth a rewatch. Watching some Avatar now but probably won't get through the third season after all.

Since I was at my Grandmothers, I was able to watch Wolverine and the X-Men there instead of downloading it. If it was any other episode I might have done both (because occasional people talking and such can make it hard to follow), but, well, it's really not my type of episode and so not worth following up on anything I missed. Couple good moments though.
newnumber6: (rotating2)
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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.


[livejournal.com profile] 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... )
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
You know when you've either never played a game before or haven't played it in quite a while, and you get really into it to the point where you play for hours at a time? And when you can't even sleep because when you try your mind is still playing the game? That first happened to me with Tetris, but lately it's been Zuma sucking up my time and making it hard to sleep. Curse you, Zuma! Really it's sucked up most of my productive time the last few days, which is in part because I didn't feel much like writing and so boredom set in and a nearly mindless repetitive task of shooting colored balls at other colored balls was just the thing. (I did manage _some_ writing, here and there, but not like I wanted and pretty much all the useless variety).

Fox has started recapping some of their returning shows by doing reruns so I've been watching them, getting excited for Sarah Connor Chronicles again, and even Prison Break (yes, it's horrible, awful crack, but it's horrible awful crack you can't pull yourself away from because you have to see what cracktacular thing they'll try to pull next).

Okay, I happened to accidentally see a little tiny bit of Olympics coverage on the news (I'm still under 1 minute, I believe), and I have to say... in a swimming competition, do you really need a big line across the screen following the progress of the lead swimmer? Even if it is a recap thing and not done live (don't know, don't care), I think it's obvious enough by itself without needing help. Sheesh, what next, they'll put a blue glow around a puck on hockey?

Also, I think it was right for China to replace the ugly little girl in their opening ceremonies. There, I said it. (but no, I'm not serious)
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
So, what's been going on in my life? Not a whole lot. Same job, same thing day after day, in a rut and can't even see any end to it. Meh. No, I haven't seen any of the latest movies because I'm lame and don't really go to them. So, random stuff.

We may be getting a kitten (by we, I mean more the roommates who will be taking care of it mostly, I'll just be giving it occasional scritches). We already have an older cat.

Been writing some, of course, and actually more than I've been before... even on my 'off' weeks I've usually been writing a fair bit. Right now still working on a novel-length work on my on weeks and a comic project on my off.

What else. TV I guess. Since it's summer, I've resumed my watching of Old School Doctor Who. On Terror of the Zygons, which features the Brigadier in a kilt!

Doctor Horrible concluded. Spoilery thoughts behind cut. Read more... )

Watched Stargate Atlantis, but it was the kind of forgettable, 'we sort of have to do this set of character beats to get where we need to go next' type episode, and wasn't really memorable at all.

More annoying commercials. Wendy's is the offender again, with more tortured logic. Previously, we examined their analogy about cows coming from Antarctica, which really suggests that they believe they should serve their burgers raw. This time, though, they say "If chicken is good, and salad is good, then doesn't that make our chicken salad... good good?" No. I will demonstrate. "Gravy is good. Ice cream is good. So, logically, ICE CREAM COVERED WITH GRAVY, IS GOOD GOOD!". This all assumes 'good good' is a term at all.

Speaking of commercials, am I the only one disturbed that the Lucky Charms Leprechaun can now apparently CONTROL TIME? KILL IT NOW, BEFORE IT'S UNSTOPPABLE. Anyway, also disturbing, but for a different reason, here's a knife that will freeze your internal organs and make you explode when you get stabbed with it.

I had a dream where I was a time traveller back in the old West (specifically, Deadwood), and somebody said "Cool!" and so I suspected they were another time traveller, so I said something was "awesome" (explaining for the others involved that I merely meant literally inspiring of awe), to get his attention, and we later got together and confirmed that we were both time travellers. He was a historian, trying to find out what happened. *shrugs*.

And finally, the latest LJdickery... they announce "We're bringing back Basic Accounts", and make everybody happy, but you have to go to another community to see the truth - they're 'bringing them back', but they're going back on their word furthur by putting ads on them. Which means they're not actually bringing them back at all, they're removing them, and giving the name to something else. It's like "Due to popular demand, we're bringing back our vegetarian burger!" And then hiding somewhere, "Our vegetarian burgers will now all be made from beef". If you really, absolutely had to do crap like breaking the original promise and adding ads to basic accounts to survive as a business, you could earn a lot more of my respect by doing it honestly instead of constantly pulling bait and switch crap like this.
newnumber6: (rotating)
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*.
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
I did a Sci-Fi friending meme a while back, and got some new friends out of it. So, welcome! Maybe I'll try to do one of those intro memes going around in the next little while. One thing you should probably know is I occasionally do big random post full of whatever comes to mind, with few segues.

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

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

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

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

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

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

You know you're a comics geek when anytime someone starts talking about 'green living', you instantly suspect them of being Skrulls (or Green Martian, I suppose, for DC fans).
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
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.
newnumber6: (chase)
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.
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
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.
newnumber6: (chase)
Probably old hat since it's been boingboinged, but... Ever watch a zombie movie and wonder, "Hey, in the midst of this zombie apocalypse, I wonder how beloved magicians Penn and Teller are faring?"... Well, here's your answer.

In other news, feeling pretty low on motivation all around lately. I'd have hoped I'd pull out of my winter depression by now, but it's still going on. Anyway, despite that I've still managed to do some editing on writing. Also word comes that I may be able to get a free, secondhanded printer in the next little while, so that helps too, lets me expand my submission range.

Other computer's still running but I haven't tried to reboot and I occasionally hear odd sounds from the HD so I suspect it may only be a temporary reprieve from death, unfortunately.

Got a call today that the truck would be late tomorrow. Except the last 3 times I've gotten such a call for Monday it was followed up on the actual Monday with a call at the regular time saying it was there and where was I (combined with the driver having no idea about it even being thought to be late). So I'm not getting my hopes up to it.

In media... Atlantis finale was okay, but not as cool as I'd hoped. Still, only a couple months till the next ep, and pretty soon SG1 movie. Supernatural's renewed for another season, probably not a big surprise, but nice to hear. Still waiting on word on Terminator. Caught the new Spidey cartoon. Not bad, weird mix of Ultimate and regular continuity elements, a couple annoying voice actors, but worth a look. Wolverine and the X-Men's still a year away though, so it'll have to do me until then for comic cartoons. Comicbookresources has been doing a feature on the cast of Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI-13 comic series... unfortunately only Wisdom and John the Skrull really appeal to me, but we'll see, maybe I'll like the new char or some of the older ones I've not liked much before.

Ah well, enough for now.
newnumber6: (rotating2)
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 [livejournal.com profile] 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.
newnumber6: (rotating2)
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).
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
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... )
newnumber6: (rotating)
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... )
newnumber6: (rotating)
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 [livejournal.com profile] firefox27, probably already done them, but why not again... One Word Meme and Layers of Me
Read more... )

Stolen from [livejournal.com profile] 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.
newnumber6: (comics)
So yesterday was one of those days that make me wonder if I'm not secretly in control of the universe on a subconscious level. Why? Because I found $20 on the sidewalk. That's not all, you see, because earlier in the week my brother found $20 (and separately in another incident, $10), and he mentioned it yesterday so while I was walking to work I was thinking to myself, "man, wouldn't it be cool to find $20", and then on the way home, there it was. This was similar to another time when I was thinking about how I once found some bus tickets on the ground, and how cool that would have been, and then later that day I spot like 5 of them on the ground. But then my rational skepticism kicked in, Read more... )

Speaking of, Heroes was last night. The first of the big TV show droughts. No spoilers here, but it did feel a bit rushed with plotlines seemingly being dropped (there was originally supposed to be one more ep in the volume but they hastily rewrote when the strike seemed unavoidable, so at least there'd be a conclusion to it), and just a weakness overall. I love Heroes conceptually, but I do think they need to make a few changes in writers and maybe directors, because it's not as good as last year and there are really some dumb plotting bits that need to be smoothed out. Particularly (this is not so much spoilery for the last episode, but a problem that's been recurring throughout this season, and contains some spoilers of that) Read more... )

WGA is still on strike. 100% support for the writers here. I'd like to briefly rant about two things I keep seeing popping up on people who are down on the writers (and I realize that most people on my flist are rightly supporting the writers or haven't commented at all, but I see it on message and comment boards a fair bit, and I feel like ranting here rather than there):

1) All these writers suck nowadays anyway, TV is so lame I can't watch it, they don't deserve to get paid what they get.
2) Writers are greedy, they make too much money already, and now they want more? And what's this with residuals, they should just do a job and get paid and have that be the end of it like people who do costuming and set design.
My responses, cut. Read more... ) Anyway, rant over.

Today/Last night I had another cool zombie apocalypse dream. They're still shambling around in my subconscious, I guess. This one involved the Marvel Zombies, at least at the start. Read more... )

Oh, and I'm thinking of doing a DC companion piece for the icon I'm using. But I need ideas, both for what to say and who to use. I've got the Batman one settled (he writers on his livejournal, then gives an example in typical batman gritty style, ending with MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!), but I don't really want to just have the exact same jokes as the Marvel one with different faces, so need ideas for other ones. Feel free to comment.

Edit: Because I just found it. Spider-Man: One More Day. Either you know the rumors and have an opinion, or don't and should ignore this. But as bad signs go? The writer (JMS) himself saying he considered taking his name off the last two issues of One More Day is a pretty bad one.
newnumber6: Ghostly being (Default)
Just a bunch of random stuff. Some segues inserted for your protection.

TVwise we're getting very close to the TV Dead Zone, with nothing new going on. There'll still be Atlantis for a while (and had a pretty good episode this week... yay for Canadian references!), but the strike will cut out most things, if it hasn't already (which it has for many). Brief thoughts on this season? A bit weak. Heroes has had its ups and downs (last ep was a down, hopefully it'll end on an up). GA continues to annoy me more than make me enjoy it. Pushing Daisies has been nice. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles starts in another month or so.

2 For 1 Book Foo...

Finished: The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross
Started: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks

Thoughts on Atrocity Archives behind the cut. Minor conceptual spoilers. Short version: Not bad, but not my favorite Stross and not my style of take on mythosy stuff, so a bit disappointing. Read more... )

Finished: Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan
Started: Quarantine, by Greg Egan

Thoughts for Altered Carbon behind this cut. Not terribly spoilery. Quick verdict: Enjoyed it.
Read more... )

Speaking of fiction, NaNo is over of course, but I finished a while back so it doesn't feel like a big relief to me. Still, a big congratulations to everybody on my flist who completed the task. And those of you who didn't, well, there's always next time, good for you for doing as much as you did.

Writing wise I've decided my big goal for the next year (this is not a New Year's resolution because I don't make those, I am speaking of it as a goal from now until next December) is to finish up and start submitting some of my short stories. Read more... )

Canadian Content! So, I tried the President's Choice new ruffled potato chips. Buffalo Wings & Blue Cheese was the best - also the one I'd tasted before (not the brand, but that type). Szechuan and General Tao's chicken tasted too close to really warrant having both of them there. There were slight variations (Szechuan tastes slightly better to me, though I like the name of General Tao's Chicken way more), but it felt like a bit of a failure of imagination to do both. Neither would go into my regular rotation, though Buffalo Wings might.

Speaking of Canada, we're supposed to have the coldest winter in 15 years. Well, I'm ready. Maybe it'll inspire me to work more on the plot to Great Canadian Zombie Film.

Oh, and we've informed that our rent is going up. By $12.91, or some absurd number like that. Weird. But not a problem.
newnumber6: (rotating2)
Okay, there's these commercials for this movie called 'Nancy Drew', about some teen girl outcast who solves mysteries. Come on, can't anyone come up with any ideas other than ripping off Veronica Mars? ;) (Oh, hush, I know Drew came first, I'm just kidding, but the commercial does give me a bit of the same vibe, even though they're outcast for different reasons). Maybe if the movie does well, for the sequel they'll adapt the controversial "Key in the Clock" (so many swears).

I reconfigured my room a few days ago, reorienting my bed and putting in my desk and all my comics, so it's much more cluttered, but I like it better this way. I'd kept the old way because supposedly people were going to fix my window but since I've been here 3 months with no word on when, I'm assuming someone dropped the ball on that. Really, I don't care about the window being fixed, it's a small crack and I don't look out of it anyway.

Doctor Who was... pretty good. I do have some serious reservations about it, though. (SPOILERS for Family of Blood)
Read more... )

So some of my high school friends had planned to get together for dinner at a place relatively near me over the weekend. Although I didn't want to confirm for the dinner itself, for various reasons, it was close enough that I thought about doing a surprise drop in to say hello for a few minutes and then going back. Alas, on the day of it slipped my mind and there were no followups on it, so if they did meet I wasn't able to see them. Ah well, would have been nice to see them again. Maybe next time, if there is one.

I have some book foo to do too (wow, try saying that 5 times fast) but I'll save that for another post, I think.
newnumber6: (rotating)
Not been a great day for me in terms of the thin layer of fantasy I use to coat my everyday life.

Firstly, no comic day again. :(. Solely US holidays generally don't affect us, nor do solely Canadian ones like last week. I hope this is just Canada Post (or whoever actually handles it) slacking off these last few weeks and not a signal we're entering a dark age where we'll be delayed _both_ for Canadian and US holidays.

Anyway, since my only comic this week was due to be Teen Titans, I'm making this a skip week. I'll get the issue next week. I'm not making the hour long walk to the comic store and back just to get one book, a fill-in run by the writer who ruined Batgirl. It can wait.

Secondly, my shadow struck again. I think I've mentioned it before. I seem to have a shadow. It's often the case where I'll see a book I want in a store and say 'I'll get that next week'. And it doesn't matter if that was the first time I saw that book, or if it's been there in that same spot for months and months, the day I finally decide to go and get it? Someone (my shadow) has already purchased it. This week it was a cheap copy of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. *shakes fist at shadow*.

So, instead of comic day I'll just do a couple of random things.

But first, since someone will bug me if I don't: For lunch I had a pastrami sandwich, with mustard.

Work was a bit of a pain, hot + heavy load, so tired. Anyway, on to randomish stuff.

Things I Saw On The Way To Work, or How Hollywood (North) turns a cemetary into a fun children's parkRead more... )

Speaking of the movie biz, I found out thanks to Facebook that I went to school with an actress. Elementary school, my dear Watson. Read more... )

If I ever rule the world, in my glorious new regime, the bottom of every screw will serve as a screwdriver head for screws of that type. Then, you don't usually have to worry about having exactly the right type of screwdriver... all you need is an extra screw, and some kind of general purpose screwdriver that can use the screw as a head.

Finally, it's a hot one today, so I hope the Canadians on my list are aware that you can get $5 worth of FREE icecream from Chapmans, once per year per household, just by sending an email. I read it online and tried it out, and lo and behold, a few days ago (and only a week or so after I sent the email), I got a coupon for $5 off Chapman's products. That's one unrestricted coupon, so you could by a $5 thing of premium icecream or get a great deal on 2 of the cheaper variety (or presumably even wait for a sale). You just have to email contactus@chapmans.ca and request a coupon, saying you heard they give out one per family per year, and giving them your name and address. Sorry, only in Canada.

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