Number6's Journal

First, in "odd things to happen to me while I was walking to work" category... well, as suggested by the name of the category, I was walking to work. Up ahead, there was a girl, could have been anywhere from 15-25 (it was still dark out), but fairly attractive. She said "Hey". Like she was saying hello to a friend, not trying to get somebody's attention. Naturally, I assumed she was talking on a phone or something. She said "Hey" again, right as I passed by, in the same way, and she didn't seem to have a wireless headset, but I'd already ignored her so I just gave a brief nod and continued. To be honest, I couldn't imagine she had any reason to want to talk to me that would be innocent, and in case she genuinely needed help or something, she could always try again with something a little less ambiguous that couldn't be interpretted as a 'passing hello'.

A few steps beyond her, I noticed another guy, same potential age range, sitting on a little raised ledge to somebody's yard. He said "No fun, brother?" I muttered something like "No," (but a polite mutter), and after I passed, he yelled, "You know what you are, a $@!$!ing (derogatory expletive for homosexuals, or bundle of sticks)!"

So, my thoughts were a) no call for that kind of hate, b) if I was gay, I'd have said a polite hello to her, and given YOU the awkward silent treatment from having no idea what you were after or if you were trying to come on to me in some way, c) Did I just pass a prostitute and pimp? Or an attempt to distract and rob people? Or a novel begging scheme? d) Whatever it is, I don't have time for it e) But you really should work on your pitch, because it's awfully crass and ambiguous.

None of those were said out loud, of course, I just kept walking.

In other news, I ordered some books online today. And a few weeks ago, too. A few weeks ago I finally relented and ordered The Clockwork Rocket, by Greg Egan (the one I was ranting about because the bookstore price was so high... the online price was much more reasonable), and, because I needed a $25 minimum for free shipping, tacked on The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Hugo and Nebula winner I believe, if not both than at least one).

But that was just a dry run, because I knew this day was coming. This day being a book I've been waiting for, for years and years. Children of the Sky, the long-awaited sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep (there was a prequel, A Deepness in the Sky, which was awesome, but the stories were very independant. Regardless, I now expect two more novels in the universe: Children of the Deepness, and A Fire Upon the Children, just to make the names all fit together) has just been released. This is one of my all-time favorite books (both, really), and made Vinge into one of a very few authors I'm willing to buy in Hardcover with little reservation. I can't wait to see how the Tines' world develops, and in a matter of days, I'll have that chance.

Again, I wanted free shipping, so I also added The Hunger Games, which I've been wanting to try for a while, despite that it's super-popular apparently.

Life update:
My last post (about a week ago, eesh) ended on a complaint that I was getting sick (in addition to a myriad of other problems, like no hot water).

I'm happy to report so far this seems to be either the shortest and/or more mild cold ever. I had about one day of more-or-less mild hell, which is what I posted on. About two of discomfort, but I could at least be mostly functional. And other than that, aside from maybe a minor symptom here or there but not long lasting or especially distracting.
I'm relieved, because my last cold hung on for EVER (or was several in a row).

In other news, happy belated Thanksgiving to all the Canadians on my flist. It was this past Monday, although we did the family thing on Sunday. Good meal (Turkey, Roast Beef, two kinds of Gravy, mashed and scalloped potatoes, turnips, corn, rolls, coconut creme, blueberry, and pumpkin pies, and lots of leftovers), minimal family drama, and one moment where I felt really old. I realized a step-niece of mine is in her first year of high school. She was born the same year (but a couple months after) I finished high school. It doesn't FEEL like a whole freshman's-lifetime ago. I still regularly feel a little like I need to get up to go to college.

Anyway, I believe that's all for today. I'll do a Book Foo sooner or later, and maybe a 'thoughts on this season's TV' roundup (sneak preview: not all that exciting). Oh well, at least Walking Dead starts Sunday, that's something to look forward to.

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.

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.

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... )

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)

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.

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*.

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).

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.

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.