Sneezy the Squid

Stay tuned to RevSF tonight, if you're anywhere near your computer, that is, for hourly updates with all kinds of cool geek stuff by our one and only Joe Crowe. I've done two pieces for him, and I'm thinking of doing one more.

I myself shall be at a New Years Eve party with my friends and neurotica_girl, eating my Crock Pot BBQ, side dishes, and then be immersed in our round-robin Guitar Hero 3 tournament. This game is a lot of fun, getting to pretend to be a rock god, unlike my buddy metal_aria, who really is one. :)

However you spend your end of 2007, may you have a blast. And here's to you all having a fantastic 2008. I leave you with two traditional Irish toasts, and a quote:

Here's champagne to our real friends and real pain to our sham friends.

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. - Bill Vaughan

My review of Assembled! is, at long last, finished and sent off to Joe for editing. I'll let you all know when it goes live. That leaves two or three more things on my plate, two of which I need to have done tonight or early tomorrow.

This book, though, may have been the toughest thing I've ever had to review. Even with my giving it a pretty positive review, it's hard to critique something written by people you actually know. The only thing I could do is be honest, because without integrity, you ain't got nuthin'. But it's still nerve-wracking to do so. There were frequent Bejewled 2 breaks, as well as email and LJ friends-list checkings.

But, it's done, sent off, released into the wild where I can't tinker with it anymore. I have to agree with the saying "no writing is ever finished. It just eventually escapes."

Speaking of writing, I finally picked up King's "On Writing" book, and only 50 pages in I wish I had read this years ago. I already knew I liked his non-fiction (Danse Macabre is one of my favorite books), and I just held off on this for some odd reason I could never explain. Maybe I just wasn't ready for it. I dunno. But I love his "natural" voice and this book's already given me some amazing tips. I'm devouring the book in ways I've not read in far too long.

It's also helping to read that he's unsure of his writing, as I'm feeling pretty unsure of mine these days. I try and remind myself that everyone thinks their own work is shoddy, but it's hard. Or, to quote a better writer than I:

We judge ourselves by what we are capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

First up, my review of AvP:R is now live, and it's the headline act for now.

Second up, as most of you probably know, there's a really bad trend in comics where heroines and girlfriends tend to end up crippled, maimed, raped and murdered. And some creators can't seem to help making all their women characters sluts, prostitutes or evil temptress bitches. You can find out more on this at Gail Simone's excellent webpage on the topic. She's also a very talented comic writer herself.

Now, I'm not going to go into this debate, aside from saying that Gail raises a lot of really good points. What I am going to do, though, is show yesterday's strip of Something*Positive. Normally, S*P chronicles the life of Randy, Audry, Pee Jee and the rest of the main cast, but at the end of the year he always does some different strips as a break between years of the strip. This year, he's doing some superhero stuff. And yesterday's was just amazing.

My thoughts behind the

( CUT! )

My review of AvP:R is complete, and submitted for editing. Now I just have...three assignments to finish, and I'll be caught up.

Thanks to my roomie convincing me to put some BenGay on my knee, it's not nearly as bad as I was afraid it was going to be today, so that's good. As much as I hate the smell of that stuff, it seems to have done the trick for keeping me from being too mangled up.

More later, rest now.

I went to catch AvP:R yesterday, and the movie's a solid "meh." I'll be doing up the review today, and I'll announce when it goes live.

The big fun was on my way into the theater, my big clumsy feet caught on one of those concrete parking spot block things, forcing me to take about five running, stumbling steps. It was about the second or third one before I realized that I wasn't going to be able to recover from having my upper body pitched forward at about 45 degrees, while my legs fumbled after it, trying to catch up.

Thankfully, beside the sidewalk was a narrow strip of earth covered with pine needles. I had presence of mind that landing there would be better than the sidewalk or the paved street, so I aimed for it while pushing harder with my legs. With all the grace of a wounded buffalo (and about as much bulk) I slammed into that not as soft as I was expecting ground with my right knee, followed my my elbows, and ending with my right shoulder.

While I lay there, I was aware that this is the same knee I fell and landed on not only at Dragon*Con this year, but on icy pavement about two years ago. No wonder it makes a slight click-y noise when I flex it.

The only saving grace of the whole thing is that the parking lot was empty, so my dignity (what little I have) remained somewhat intact.

Now I have a nice bruise coming in on my right knee about the size of a 50 cent piece (or two inches across for my non-American money using friends). I'm afraid of what it's going to look like when I wake up tonight.

So I guess that I can now legitimately say that I suffer for my writing. Too bad it wasn't for a better flick.

I love Irregular Webcomic, and his yearly Cthulhu Carols are one of the many reasons why.

Last year's (which I forgot to post):



This year's:



And I like Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal for other reasons. Consider this my last word on the season (for now):

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Festive Yule, Super Solstice, et cetera, et cetera. I hope everyone has a great holiday, whichever one you choose. For myself, I'm working tonight for that extra holiday pay cash, and then tomorrow I shall be having a delicious Roast Beast to celebrate the day. Then working again tomorrow night. Ah well.

Still, I hope you all get most of what you're looking for under the tree from the jolly fat man. I got myself Bejewled 2 and Rocket Mania from PopCap Games, which is having a 50% off sale right now.

But to celebrate the day here, I'm presenting what you all should know by now as one of my favorite songs in general, and Christmas songs in particular. The Pogues' magnificent Fairytale of New York.

I'm pleased that the song seems to be gaining popularity with the general public as well. In fact, it's not really Christmas for me until the gang behind The Venture Bros. release their holiday tune, usually a reworking of a classic in their unique style. They've done the "Band Aid" song, The Bowie/Crosby "Little Drummer Boy" routine, and my personal favorite: 21, 24 and The Monarch singing "Hard Candy Christmas," while Monarch was in jail, after the end of season one of the show. This year, they have Dr. Girlfriend and The Mighty Monarch singing Fairytale. You can download them all here, thanks to Quick Stop Entertainment.

But there's still no beating the original, which I present after the cut, as well as the lyrics.

( It was Christmas Eve babe )

A bunch of random stuff, as I'm time-pressed and can't put up a real post right now:

My friend re_animating on El-Jay has a great post about the canceling of The Dead Zone and 4400, and sci-fi cancellations in general here.

I can't seem to avoid watching this video once a day right now.

Speaking of music, I'm also watching this video a lot as well. All hail the Man in Black.

Speaking of men in black, this Will Smith movie looks hilarious. Being a superhero junkie, I'm gonna have to see it.

Tennant might be leaving Doctor Who. This totally sucks, if it's true.

Thanks to Aaron Williams (El-Jay user ps238principal), writer/artist of PS238 and Nodwick, I'v discovered a British show hosted by Stephen Fry called QI, where he has comics on and asks Jeopardy-style questions. This clip where Fry flubs a line made me laugh until I hurt.

This clip starts with my favorite quote from The Prisoner. Also, note the eye in the pyramid behind the chairman at the end of the clip. Illuminating.

One of the RevSF bloggers is giving his girlfriend the Principia Discordia for Xmas, which reminded me I still need to order a print copy of The Apocrypha Discordia. I mean, it's even called the "Squid Stains on Dead Mashed Tree edition of the Apocrypha Discordia". I think I'll do that today, as my Xmas present to myself.

All hail the random.

I just got done with my part of a Geek Gift Guide for RefSF, the whole staff is picking out anywhere from five to ten geeky items each we all want. I'll let everyone know when it goes live. (Hint hint)

Fourth, I'm going to be doing up a Sucks/Rocks article on City of Heroes/Villains this week, as well as my review of Assembled! So that's three articles that should be popping up before the end of the month with my name on 'em, plus the Aliens vs Predator: Requiem flick on Xmas.

Fifth and finally, the new trailer for The Dark Knight is now live, and downloadable. I have to say, so far I love all the pre-promotion stuff they've done on the web, and this looks like it's going to be a kick ass movie. As long as they BLEACH the JOKERS SKIN!

ahem

Sorry about that. It's becoming a pet peeve, and will probably be a Squid Ink post soon.

This is funny. It's very wrong, but it's also funny.

24

Looking for payday loans?

I am now here, as well as over there on the other journal-type thing.

Yea!