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| Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | | 10:38 pm |
Best Filk Compliment EVER
I just got this from a friend in CA in response to my "Klingon" filk song: OH dear GAWD!!! I printed this out and passed it out at Thanksgiving cause most of my family are trekies...took them a couple minutes...but the resultant spooting of turkey and rink was HILARIOUS!!! My next stop with a stack of these, with all credit given to you *Bows! Worships!* Is LOSCON!!! Sci-Fi Club convention at LAX. I gotta go, as I work it. <:) As Staff. *SNUGS!* Wish me luck. And again...OMFG LOVE IT!!!In the words of my beloved Amy... I win! Current Mood:  chipper | | Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | | 12:20 pm |
New filk song by me
The Klingon lyrics by Adam R. Goss tune from “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers Runnin' into bulkheads from a woman crazed as hornets: She took out all Security, her sights still set on me. I ducked into a stateroom, and I locked the door behind me, Turned and found a Klingon man, his eyes appraisin' me. He said, “Son, I've been a warrior, but I've also been a lover. I've seen both sides of passion, and I've lived to tell the tale. So if you don't mind my sayin', I can see that you've been chosen. You can sit and heed my words, boy, or you can turn and bail.” So I took a seat before him, and suddenly he struck me! I landed on the deckplates, then he hauled me to my feet. He said, “Women are a maelstrom of tenderness and anger. If you want to woo a Klingon, then your thinkin' must be fleet. You got to know when to bite 'em, know when to fight 'em, Know when to read aloud, and know when to duck! You never look for par'Mach when you're fightin' for your honor! Par'Mach'll come straight to you... when the battle's won. Klingon women know that life is pain and pleasure: You got to take the both of them, and then you do the math. Be sure to read them poems. Beware of heavy objects! And clamp down on your fears or else her love will turn to wrath.” No sooner had he finished, then the locked door it burst open. The woman stood there seethin'. She was brandishin' a knife. The Klingon man just winked then, and pushed me toward the bookcase I ducked a flyin' paperweight an' started readin' for my life! You got to know when to bite 'em, know when to fight 'em, Know when to read aloud, and know when to duck! You never look for par'Mach when you're fightin' for your honor! Par'Mach'll come straight to you... when the battle's won. | | Thursday, November 5th, 2009 | | 7:55 am |
Reviews: Witch Way to the Mall, and Transmet
Been reading a lot lately. I gave up, temporarily, on Mercedes Lackey's "By the Sword" because of how unexpectedly dark and serious it was going (no light-heartedness of past Tarma & Kethry stories), and given how my life has been recently I can't handle that level of seriousness just yet. So I've put it aside for later. I've been reading funny (or mostly funny) books, and comic book trade paperbacks from the library. Witch Way to the Mall, edited by Esther Friesner This is essentially "Chicks in Chainmail" but for stories about witches living in suburbia. It's part one of a pair of books on this general topic released this year by Friesner and her cadre of comedic coven crafters. There's a healthy selection of tales, with one in particular ("Tacos for Tezcatlipoca" by Kevin Andrew Murphy) being the outstanding jewel in this crown of funny. I highly recommend this book, and I am looking forward to the next one, "Strip Mauled" which focuses more on werewolves in suburbia. If there's to be a 3rd book, I hope it's about vampires. Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson I just finished reading the entire run of this comic title, which I began at a friend's house a few years ago during a visit away from Long Island. It was shocking to me, and still is, but also incredibly gripping, like a train wreck but more glitzy. (Hell, the first volume's introduction by Star Trek's Patrick Stewart is shocking - who knew Picard could swear like that?!) Transmetroplitan, or "Transmet" for short, is the saga of a futuristic renegade journalist named Spider Jerusalem. In a world of rampant drugs, profanity, violence and virtually unrestrained technology, Jerusalem manages to stand out as an icon of these things while at the same time acting as a kind of perverse moralist, commenting on the woes of his society and, by reflection, our own. Decked out in numerous tatoos, an almost all-black warddrobe and his iconic mismatched 3-D eyeglasses, and aided by his lovely "Filthy Assistants" and armed with an illegal "bowel disruptor" (a weapon I'd very much like to own!), Jerusalem turns his critical eye and writing on religious and sociopolitical corruption, or anything that just happens to piss him off, all the while just barely managing to keep his raging ego from swamping out the thing most important to both his readers and himself: the cold hard truth. The bulk of the series focuses on his campaign to expose and take down a horrifically corrupt American president, so it's best to read this series in order. More comics and book reviews to come soon... | | Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 | | 8:21 pm |
A weekend and a day of SQUEE!
This past weekend I took a trip by myself to see my dear friend Lisa and stay with her for the Harvest Raid event (an SCA event, of course), and I had a fantastic, wonderful time. It was a much needed getaway and a much-needed visit with a dear friend. I ate a lot, danced a lot, played games, successfully stood up to a bully, and most importantly I laughed a lot. I laughed like I haven't done so in a long, long time. I saw familiar faces, met a few new people who turned out to live in my new area, and generally did a lot of healing. I also got to give Lisa a chess set I'd made for her as a gift, but the gift she gave to me of this weekend far outweighs anything I could ever come up with. Then, today, as part of my settling-in here in Buffalo, Amy took me on a little trip to visit and compare prices at local arts & craft supply stores--SIX OF THEM. First was Michaels, then Jo Ann Fabrics, then AC Moore, then Lowe's (ok, not really a crafts store but they sell some wooden pieces I need for my projects), then Hobby Lobby, and then a local shop called Niagara Hobby. This last one was the MOTHERLODE. They have bins and bins and BINS (did I mention they have bins??) of individual wooden pieces at very low prices, in shapes the other big-name stores DON'T sell as well as shapes the big-name stores do sell but only piecemeal in little overpriced baggies. And if they don't carry it, they can order it. My games-crafting should proceed very nicely here! Current Mood: happy | | Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 | | 10:46 pm |
Data's first (insert here)
A few days ago Amy and I were watching some old videotapes of Star Trek episodes I received from a friend, including the TNG episode "Phantasms" where Data has nightmares and hallucinations about unseen creatures feeding on the crew. There was a line that Data starts to deliver before getting cut off by a comm signal, one of those lines that seem like the writers needed Data to say *something* just so they could have him be interrupted. He was saying (to Geordi): "After my nightmare, there was a moment when I thought I--" I started to laugh, and Amy had to pause the tape to find out what was so funny. I said "He thought he was going to wet himself!" What ensued for several minutes was a list (muddled by increasingly breathless laughter) of never-seen "Data Firsts", or Human Experiences Programmed By Doctor Soong That They Can Never Show Data Having On Television. Experiences such as: - Data gets priapism - Data gets lumbago - Data's first doobie - Data gets the munchies - Data has "morning wood" - Data gets hemmerhoids - Data gets pimples - Data's first anal sex (giving or receiving) - Data experiences erectile dysfunction - Data experiences rhinotillexomania (nosepicking) - Data's first peep show - Data being IN a peep show - Data's first "I was young and needed the money" explanation - Data's first bestiality experience (Run, Spot, Run!) - Data's first STD - Data's first unexplained stains - Data's first nocturnal emission - Data gets the runs - Data's first puking in Picard's lap - Data's first erotic daydream - Data experiences Tourette's Syndrome Yes, we're sick puppies. | | 4:34 pm |
More reviews: graphic novels
Recently I checked out my new public library here in Buffalo. WOW. It's BIIIIG, with tons of music waiting for me. *heheheh* But they also have a surprisingly large graphic novel section. I don't have much money or space available for comics anymore, but since I do finally find myself with a lot more time on my hands than I did in Auburn (especially without high-speed internet or cable tv to distract me!), I have time to read a lot more than I have in the last 18 months. So I took out a few graphic novels, and have devoured them. Here are some short reviews (I'll just list the scripters and the pencillers for credits), behind the cut: ( Read more... ) | | Friday, September 18th, 2009 | | 10:07 am |
More robots...
For anyone who might want to help with my robot monopoly project (see previous post), I have a few more for consideration: ED-209 (from Robocop) Cherry 2000 (from the film of the same name) Robot Bill & Ted (from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey) KITT (from Knight Rider - does he count as a robot or as a car run by an AI computer??) Fi and Fum (from The Lost Saucer - remember that Sid and Marty Kroft show??) Tom Servo (from Mystery Science Theater 3000) Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future (from Aqua Teen Hunger Force) H.E.L.P.eR. (from The Venture Brothers) Sentinels (from Marvel Comics) | | Thursday, September 17th, 2009 | | 10:40 am |
Last Christmas I got a copy of Make-Your-Own-Opoly game, and for months I have been racking my brain for a good theme idea. Last night Amy and I came up with one: sci-fi robots! We spent almost an hour generating ideas, and came up with a good list of robots for "properties." We also came up with utilities (battery, toolkit, software, and warranty), house-equivalents (lightbulbs as "upgrades"), playing pieces (cog wheel, nut-and-bolt, washer, wire clamp, computer chip, and circuit board piece), metal dice (yes they make them), and the big square spaces on the board (Online = Go, Slag Heap = Jail, Picking up parts = Just Visiting, Oil and Lube = Free Parking). The thing is, with 22 properties, I'm not sure how to rank them. The only ones I know for sure are Lieutenant Commander Data and R2-D2 as Boardwalk and Park Place, respectively (yes, I am Trek-biased). So anyone reading this, mind giving me some ranking suggestions? Here's the complete list (behind the cut), obviously in mostly random order: ( The List ) | | Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 | | 10:23 am |
Book review: "Beyond Uhura" by Nichelle Nichols
I just finished reading Nichelle Nichols' autobiography, published back in 1994 (and therefore missing the events of the last 15 years). Nichelle Nichols, famous for playing Communications Officer Nyota Uhura in Star Trek, gives a very frank, yet remarkably snark-free account of her life. Much of the focus is on, of course, her involvement with Star Trek and how it affected the course of her life, but as the book's title clearly implies there is so much more about her life to be told. In addition to the connections made directly in Trek, the lady had a great many brushes and connections with major names in entertainment and a few outside of that industry. Her family was directly endangered by the Capone family in the early 30s while she was still in her mother's womb. She knew and had interactions with people such as Otto Preminger, Sammy Davis Jr, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr, Tony Bennett, Marlon Brando, Duke Ellington, Hugh Downs, Redd Foxx, Isaac Hayes, Burgess Meredith, Brock Peters, Sidney Poitier, Barbra Steisand, and many others, including three of the astronauts killed aboard the space shuttle Challenger whom she had helped NASA recruit in the late 1970s. Major aspects of her life include: her family's multiracial history, the challenges of being a Black woman in mid-20th century America, a traumatic near-rape incident during a singing gig in Canada (and the criminal trial that followed), her awkward relationship with her mother, raising her exceptionally gifted son Kyle, her diversification in the performing arts, her tumultuous marriages, and being typecast and her involvement with NASA after Star Trek went off the air. Also described in much detail are the ups and downs of making Star Trek, including issues she has with Paramount Studios executives, fellow actor William Shatner, and Trek-creator Gene Roddenberry, all of which she presents with a sense of fairness - some unpleasant blame on those parties is described, but also credit is given when she feels credit is due. There's also a fair amount of humor in the book, thankfully, especially in the forms of anecdotes about her son, practical jokes pulled by the cast of Star Trek, and her interaction with beloved Trek fans. An interesting side note: she was originally named "Grace Nichols." Apparently always having hated the name "Grace," she asked her mother to change her legal first name priot to her 18th birthday, for show business purposes. I know there's been much talk in the last 20+ years about behind-the-scenes turmoil when Star Trek was being made, turmoil that continued in various forms during the 1970s and during the making of the 6 classic films. Having already caught some official whiff of the truth behind such rumors in George Takei's autobiography, it was good (albeit disappointing) to find confirmation/corroboration in Nichols' book as well. Such accounts serve to remind this lifelong Trek fan that while we may love and admire the characters and stories, and even admire much of the creative effort put into them by actors, writers, producers and technical artists, the people who produced Star Trek were and are only human, vulnerable to weakness and flaws like anyone else. The title of the book is indeed aptly chosen. Sometimes it's easy for an avid fan to forget that there might be anything else at all to an actor's life other than the role they made so beloved. Goodness knows I've fallen into that trap a few times myself, especially in my younger years. "Beyond Uhura" describes succinctly that while Nichelle Nichols and Uhura will always be intertwined, so much more goes into a person's life than just one job or aspect. An actor brings everything he or she knows and has experienced in life to any given role, and just as Star Trek helped to shape Nichols' life after the show ended, so too did all the important parts of her life *before* Trek helped to shape the character of Uhura who we all love. Book and title and author all give fantastic perspective and clarity on this view. Having found my copy of "By the Sword" by Mercedes Lackey in my packed belongings, I'll be resuming my reading of that book next. | | Monday, September 14th, 2009 | | 10:12 am |
Time to accentuate the positive with another book review...
Ironically, the book I'm about to review left me with the distinct feeling that, as I finished it, it would be the last book I'd read in full before ending my relationship with the person I was living with the last 18 months... The "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion" by Terry J. Erdmann and Paula M. Block is another one of many sci-fi tv series episode guides available to fans, with synopses of episode plots and behind-the-scenes background details. The book covers the series from its original conception and through its 7-year production and broadcast, right up until the very last hours of filming of the very last episode. Unlike the episode companion for Star Trek: The Next Generation which was written by the show's scenic artist Michael Okuda, the DS9 book was written (mainly) by Erdmann who is a Hollywood publicist who has written behind-the-scenes books before. While I can't say if his position gave him any greater access to development details for DS9 than Okuda had for TNG (although working with Paramount Studios representative Paula Block may have helped a lot as well), it definitely gave Erdmann an inherent awareness of ALL the levels of television production that were involved in bringing the show to the airwaves. Okuda's TNG book would give a little info for each episode, a few paragraphs mostly, mainly about guest actors, special effects (espeically Okuda's own personal scenic touches), and maybe a little anecdote about how the story came about or something peculiar that happened during filming. Informative and entertaining, but also light. Erdmann's DS9 book, on the other hand, goes into heavy, EXTENSIVE detail about every single episode, from the original plot concept, its changes and troubles experienced by the writing staff, background information on guest actors, problems and challenges endured by the actors and production crew, special effects and make-up and warddrobe challenges, learning experiences of new directors, fan-reactions, actor-reactions, studio-reactions, and more. Erdmann also doens't shy away from being honest about episodes that the writers/cast didn't feel really worked well, or on the ones the *fans* didn't care much for. And, throughout the book, there's a sense of humor. This book was not light, fats-paced reading by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a fascinating (pardon the term) look into not only how DS9 was brought to life, but also just how much is really involved in the production of ANY science fiction tv show. The minute-by-minute coverage of the last day of shooting (taking up 2 or 4 pages, I forget now as the book is now in storage) was actually quite sad, as the reader gets caught up in the farewells to the actors and crew who worked so closely for so long on such a fantastic program. I can only hope (and somehow doubt, sadly) that the companion guide for Star Trek: Voyager (when I get to it) will be just as in-depth. I was going to be reading "By the Sword" by Mercedes Lackey next, but just after the first chapter my life went to hell in a handbasket, and the book is, presumably, packed *somewhere*. I'll get back to it eventually. So coming next will be a review of Nichelle Nichols' autobiography "Beyond Uhura," which is the first book I've borrowed from someone o read in years. (I have so many books on my shelves waiting to be read, I rarely borrow books anymore.) | | Sunday, September 6th, 2009 | | 11:52 am |
| | Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 | | 10:24 am |
On my soap box: Horror film tv ads
Just caught, on mid-morning tv, an ad for the next "Final Destination" movie. Now, I believe that censorship is wrong, and I hate to seem like a hypocrite or a wuss because I see something on tv that bothers *me*. That being said, often these tv ads for horror films push the limits of what can be shown. Ok, no gore usually, but the trailer producers have no trouble showing what leads up to that nastiness up to the very last moment, and then the television companies apparently have no qualms airing these things outside of prime time, when prime time is when children are a lot less likely to be exposed to them. I admit, I'm squeamish. I don't need blood and guts to sicken me, the sounds of people screaming in pain and terror are more than enough. I'm fully aware that I have the right to change the channel. On the other hand, this caught me by surprise, and this isn't the first time a tv horror ad has given me daymares. In a country that allows this sort of thing on the airwaves at *any* time whether we want to see it or not, in a country that allows parents to take their children to R-rated horror films to see glorification of murder and sadism, even if it is only simulated, and yet condemns the depiction of real sex as pornography... something is very wrong with the morals and priorities in this country. if I had kids, I would rather they got exposed to "Debbie Does Dallas" than Freddy or Jason or gore and violence. That's not to say exposure of kids to adult sexual entertainment is a good thing either, but that form of entertainment does at least have the virtue of being a hell of a lot more positive than depictions of enthusiastic brutality. And now I wish I had some mental floss to get that commercial out of my head. Current Mood:  sick | | Friday, July 31st, 2009 | | 1:19 pm |
Reading Review: Asimov's 10-11/1996
Well finished another book.. sorta. That "sorta" counts in two ways. First, what I was reading is actually the October/November 1996 issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Second.. I didn't really finish it, because several stories I gave up on part-way through. I'll start with the positive stuff, which itself is sadly lackluster: "The Flowers of Aulit Prison" by Nancy Kress. This was an interesting tale immersed in an alien first-person viewpoint that took some getting used to. But once you got used to the terminology and usage, part of the story's message became clear: these aliens are much like us even if they realize it or not, or just don't want to admit it - just like us in the good ways and the bad ways. This was a story about cultural prejudices, crimes, and governmental corruption. My only complaint was that by the end of the story I couldn't tell why the story had the title it has--the phrase gets used at one point, but it doesn't seem significant to me. "The Wind Over the World" by Steven Utley. This was a time-travel tale about a geologist on a government-sponsored mission through a hole in time to the Silurian Era (pre-dinosaurs, major league pre). Her mission, however, is overshadowed and distracted by the knowledge that a man sent through the same time hole just after her was lost, making the expedition's military supervisors paranoid and haunting the protagonist. The main theme of the story is the shock one feels after having a brush with death that happens to someone else but could have easily happened to you. Sometimes the time-travel scenario seems unnecessary, because such feelings could happen in many a mundane real-life situation. Setting the situation against the starkness of the Silurian Era, however, far from almost all known life and any practical means of wilderness survival (it's one thing to be stranded alone in the desert or on an island, it's another where the nearest human contact or help is millions of years away) helps flesh out the depth of the problems that haunt our heroine. "Generation Zero" by Michael Cassutt. A TV producer, in the aftermath of the funeral of a woman he was once deeply involved with, comes across the work of an old colleague whose company has invented drugs and equipment to elicit and record genetic memories - past lives. Suffocating with regrets for the past and apathy for his present, the protagonist pursues the use of the process to find out why his now-deceased lover left him. It was an interesting tale, but the end devolves into a simple resolution which has the producer wake up to what's going on his life. Granted, good sf stories should always be about how humans react, hopefully believably, in extraordinary circumstances, but in this case the ending feels rushed or flat, and the presence of the past-life process seems like a bit of a gimmick. "Bicycle Repairman" by Bruce Sterling. Okay, my personal feelings about Sterling aside (I'm not crazy about the guy, and I'll just leave it at that for now), this was another interesting read that again, sadly, fell a little flat as the end drew near. A companion story to another tale Sterling had previously set in the same continuity, the cyberpunk story tells of a young man who is dedicated to running his bike repair shop and achieving his life goals on his own in his own way. His plans get briefly complicated by the intrusion of a female government agent who is captured after breaking into his shop to capture a controversial piece of AI equipment sent to the repairman. While the means of her capture are somewhat plausible, even amusing, how she's interrogated and how the situation subsequently gets resolved seems WAY too easy and rushed. Maybe some of it was intended to be comic, but if so it's not comic enough. Like many cyberpunk stories I've read, this one starts off fascinating, but by the end the author has seemed to have gotten lost and isn't sure how to end the tale, and it feels like the cyberpunk equivalent of certain Monty Python sketches that go on too long and end very awkwardly. The rest of the stories in the magazine (I won't bother with any of the poems or articles) I started reading but each one I wound up giving up on. "Swimmers Beneath the Skin" by Ian R. MacLeod. A near-future tale of cybernetically enhanced freelance journalists covering possible war crimes in a ravaged Europe. It focuses mostly on the journalists' efforts and lifestyle and devolves into a lot of vague and confusing imagery and philosophical masturbation. "The City of God" by Gardner Dozois & Michael Swanwick. A tale that was originally written during the Nixon Administration and finished 20 years later, this story focuses heavily on a coal-plant worker in some kind of dystopian society. The pace is AWFUL and is mostly narrative, with the first eleven pages along focusing on the pain and despair of shoveling coal without hope of escape. Even reading Tolkien's wretched pace in "The Fellowship of the Ring" was preferable to this. "Try and Kill It" by Gene Wolfe. A hunter in deer season goes after an animal that turns out to be an alien of some kind, then returns to his family. The POV in the narrative, which was not first-person, felt bizarre and warped and hard to follow at times, and also had poor pacing that lost my interest only a few pages into the story. I've read a short story of Wolfe's before, and had a similar problem, so I guess this confirms I just don't like Gene Wolfe's writing. "Flying Lessons" by Kelly Link. This was the author's first story in Asimov (don't know if it was her first professional sale). A slightly disjoined and surreal tale of a girl in Scotland who commits a series of petty thefts and has a run-in with the Goddess of Love (I only found out about the deity aspect of the tale by skipping ahead and scanning the text for the sign of anything interesting). The narrative style was an annoying distraction and the revelation about unusual things happening came way too late; the story felt more like the author was showing off how non-traditional her story structure could be and less like a tale showing human beings interacting with the extraordinary. Any anthology, be it a book or magazine or TV series, is going to be a mixed bag. Some stories and authors' styles will resonate with a given reader and others will turn that reader off completely. A good anthology, for me anyways, has a majority of stories that are great or at least interesting, and as few as possible stories I just abandon (or no stories I abandon at all). This anthology, with just 8 tales, and some of the 4 "good" ones not really all that great, means I won't be keeping the issue. I'll see if I can give it to a library or something, I'd hate to just throw it into the recycling. And now, onto a non-fiction book, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion... | | Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | | 10:13 pm |
Another book finished: High Wizardry
It suddenly occurs to me I should write a little review of each book I read, and since I kinda did that with "Magic's Price" recently, I might as well keep doing it! Last week I finished "High Wizardry" by Diane Duane, the 3rd book in her Young Wizards series. DD is one of my most favorite authors, she creates such wonderful characters, and this book is no exception. The story is science-fantasy, a prefect blend of high fantasy and space opera. As one follows the protagonist Dairine (a 13 year old girl with a magical computer) on an interstellar quest, a lot of assumptions and fantasies held by us geeks and sf/space fanatics get turned on their collective ear when faced with practical questions of survival and being prepared for the unknown. The book also tackles issues of maturity, ethics, honesty and humility. There are a number of touching moments and good laughs, too. I will say that the climax of the book does suffer from her one flaw IMHO: a number of Duane's climaxes in books that involve cosmic and magical or metaphysical forces tend to be full of lots of poetic imagery, which makes it confusing as to what exactly is happening. In a sense, when it comes to these kinds of sequences in her writing, she is the high fantasy and Star Trek equivalent of cyberpunk author William Gibson (Duane's stellar debut Trek novel "The Wounded Sky" also has some of this problem, though it became clearer to me on repeat readings). Gibson's prose is riddled, RIDDLED I say, with metaphors and imagery that's very hard to understand. A friend of mine once put it best: philosophical masturbation. To be fair, however, Diane Duane does this very, very little of the time when compared to Gibson. Aside from the confusing imagery of High Wizardry's climax, and a character appearance in it that feels uncomfortably like deus ex machina, High Wizardry is a lot of fun and I highly recommend the series as well as just about anything else Diane Duane has written. Anyone looking for good starting books for her, I recommend the following: So You Want to be a Wizard - this is the first book in the Young Wizards series Star Trek: The Wounded Sky - her first Trek novel, and most of her Trek novels are interconnected or related The Door into Fire - her very first novel anywhere, the start of a 4-book high fantasy series (note: book #4 has yet to be written) She's also written some novels for Marvel Comics (actual novels, not comic books or graphic novels) and a few other stand-alones and media tie-ins, but I've not read any of them yet. I'm now reading an old issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (a friend gave me several back issues years ago). I'll review its contents when I finish it. So far, like any anthology, it's a mixed bag of good and not-good. | | 1:33 pm |
Dalek speak - Enunciate! E-NUN-CI-AAAAATE!!!
Ok, I've been thinking about this for sometime now. Daleks, those oversize pepper-shaker shaped villains from Doctor Who, are always screaming "EX-TER-MIN-AAATE!" But they can say other words aplenty, but whenever they say verbs that rhyme with "exterminate," I can't help but imagine them saying it like a screaming order. So here's what I'd like to see: everyone who reads this journal, please post examples of words that rhyme with "exterminate" what would be Just Plain Wrong for a Dalek to call out. You must type it out like the example in the subject line of this entry. I'll start off with some examples myself. Masticate! MAS-TI-CAAAATE!!! Masturbate! MAS-TUR-BAAAAATE!!! Defenestrate! DE-FEN-E-STRAAAATE!!! I won't give any more so you folks can pick some good ones too. Warning: I take no responsibility for anyone spraying or snurfling their drinks while reading this. | | 9:06 am |
God spare me from His "special" ones...! >_
Ok, you be the judge: A fellow comes to the house, tall young fellow (not quite out of his early 20s at oldest) with not-quite-blonde hair (but clearly blonde brain cells, and not the good kind), a fancy cross pendant around his neck and a clipboard. Already I am Very Suspicious.™ I asked him who he was and what he wanted.
He said "HI! I'm JAKE!" like that was some big revelation. He also says "You may have heard of me?"
Um... riiiiight.
Then he told me he was visiting houses with local high school students to tell the parents about special books. I couldn't tell if he meant religious books or books for students with special needs (one of Janet's daughters has some issues, though I don't think she needs books for special needs children).
Thinking he was someone the school sent, I told him I wasn't the father and that he should come another time when Janet would be home. Then, realizing I wasn't sure who had sent him after all, I asked him where he was from, meaning his organization.
He said "Minnesota." He even gestured to his car's license plate. At this point, I'm doing a mental face-palm.
I then managed to find out he is *selling* books, a fact that he actually wasn't quite clear about before. Either way, I told him we weren't interested and to go and not come back, and he didn't even shrug, just smiled a sheep's smile and got back in his car, like this was totally normal.
I have no idea if this kid was a religious fundie or being a busybody salesman... or both. One thing is for sure, though: someone clearly knew this kid was stupid enough to do whatever they told him to do and to get him to believe the customers would be even stupider.
Didn't know Minnesota actually *had* surfer dudes... *shakes head* Current Mood: flabbergasted | | Saturday, July 25th, 2009 | | 11:43 am |
| | 8:59 am |
Ok Keith, hurry up and put me in the comics...
What Sci-fi crew do I belong to...| You Scored as Moya (Farscape) You are surrounded by muppets. But that is okay because they are your friends and have shown many times that they can be trusted. Now if only you could stop being bothered about wormholes.
| Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) | | 75% |
| Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) | | 69% |
| Enterprise D (Star Trek) | | 50% |
| Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) | | 50% |
| Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) | | 44% |
| Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) | | 31% |
| FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) | | 25% |
| Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) | | 19% |
|
| | 8:25 am |
Oh no! Killed in my first and only episode!
You are An Expendable Character (Redshirt)| An Expendable Character (Redshirt) |
| 70% | | Deanna Troi |
| 55% | | Chekov |
| 50% | | Spock |
| 45% | | Uhura |
| 45% | | Jean-Luc Picard |
| 40% | | James T. Kirk (Captain) |
| 30% | | Beverly Crusher |
| 30% | | Geordi LaForge |
| 30% | | Mr. Scott |
| 25% | | Worf |
| 25% | | Data |
| 20% | | Will Riker |
| 20% | | Mr. Sulu |
| 15% | | Leonard McCoy (Bones) |
| 10% |
| Since your accomplishments are seldom noticed,
and you are rarely thought of, you are expendable.
That doesn't mean your job isn't important but if you
were in Star Trek you would be killed off in the first
episode you appeared in.
 | | Click here to take the "Which startrek character are you?" quiz... |
| | Sunday, July 19th, 2009 | | 12:04 pm |
Another dip into Valdemar finished
Just finished "Magic's Price" by Mercedes Lackey, concluding the life and times of Vanyel, the last Herald-Mage of the Kingdom of Valdemar. Beautifully written, definitely Lackey at her best, even if certain aspects and plot points seem a tad rushed or glossed-over. *SPOILER ALERT* I was quite moved by how Vanyel's spirit and Stefan parted ways, and then how they were reunited at the end of Stefan's long life. *END OF SPOILER* Also liked how many plot points explained how certain things came to be by Herald Talia's time (events of the first Valdemar trilogy, right before Vanyel's trilogy). I promised myself I'd read the Valdemar books in order so I could fully understand them--I started by reading the peripheral books in the Vows and Honor duology, which was the tale of Tarma and Kethry, the heroic duo from Lackey's early short stories (originally from Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Sword and Sorceress" anthology series). There is a last Tarma and Kethry adventure in "By the Sword." However, that book was written after two more trilogies were written... and I have decided that I Can't Wait Any Longer. I'm going to read "By the Sword" when I next read a Lackey book... probably. Maybe I will read the trilogies in-between. I dunno. I'm being wishy-washy about it, I know :P And now onto "High Wizardry" by Diane Duane. |
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