an intelligent design would not include you
Now Playing: death cab for cutie - transatlanticism
power outage leads to cable off leads to cable modem resetting leads to me not getting online yesterday to write any blog entries, so, here's a quick rundown of the past couple days:

• jeopardy
• the simpsons x 2
• family guy - "ptv" - i've said it before and i'll say it again, since coming back from being cancelled, the folks at family guy can get away with anything, and i for one am glad about that
• american dad - "stan of arabia" - this show has gotten much better but this week got overshadowed by a brilliant family guy episode
• house - "daddy's boy" - great ending, great bits throughout, but finally seeing house's parents wasn't all that revealing, which might have been the point
• nip/tuck - "tommy bolton" - only bugged a little by issues with reality this episode. with all the directions this season is going, i still contend there's no chance there will be another season after this one
• the daily show x 2
• the colbert report x 2
• boston legal - "truly, madly, deeply" - remained surprisingly serious in dealing with the bestiality, and played denny's case nicely. some of the new characters already seem extraneous, though
• extras - (patrick stewart) - stewart's obsession with nudity was hilarious and gervais' style with the uncomfortable bits being the funniest is making for a great show. can't wait for the second season
• lost - "abandoned" - odd thing, until about 10 seconds before shannon was killed, she was about the only possibility for death--since the folks behind popular tv never have the guts to kill off major characters who still have important things to do... part of why i killed off some characters at the end of my lion horse tree, to get off on a tangent--i was trying too hard to try to guarantee one character in particular and a couple others sorta would survive, so i deliberately put them in a situation they could not survive... anyway, great episode, advancing numerous subplots and possibly being the only episode not to include jack (except in that brief shot in the hospital hallway, letting the audience know of a connection the characters will never know) or kate. and, interesting detail, sixth episode last season was the one in which locke helped charlie get off the heroine. this episode, the sixth of this season, brought charlie's acquisition of some heroine to locke's attention. looking forward to "the other 48 days" next week
• recorded veronica mars and invasion, haven't watched them yet
• designed a new shirt (hence the blog title today)
• wrote some on my horror-ish gardea short story
• got to thinking about wannabeheroes again, maybe doing even more detailed research on some so-called revolutionary groups (sla, weathermen, etcetera) and simplifying even more the character designs to make it easier to keep up the drawing--a page a day would get the book out quite regularly--and i'm still thinking on the project as a half hour drama tv thing, not that i've got the clout to get anyone to try to make it
• gotta go to the post office to send out part of lion horse tree
• and, should consider sending hindsight (after a quick edit) to a magazine or two

and, that's that, no against the world blog today, as it seems the governor's pet project propositions didn't get much support and i don't feel like rambling about iraq or bush today

monday bloody monday
didn't feel too great yesterday, but went to work anyway, did my part time data entry bit, picked up saer from my mom's work, walked to get kieran from school, put together lunch for the three of us, got online for a short bit, checking around delphi and writing the weekend BUD, wrote 7 pages of a new gardea short story (not sure on the title of this one, which is odd for me, but it's effectively a horror story involving organized crime, giant turtles and hemophiliacs, but set in the fantasy world of gardea (or rather the neighboring caram)), read through one of sarah's homework papers, stopped by blockbuster and whole foods--passed nicole deboer a few times in the aisles, neglected to mention how good cube was and how not so great the dead zone has become--on the way to get sarah from work, and then while sarah had class, three kids and i had some sitcom time, two episodes of the simpsons (including sunday's new one), two episodes of arrested development, one of two and a half men, while i also built a spaceship out of lego blocks, then there was prison break, the daily show and the colbert report. all in all, a normal day

the weekend in retrospect
friday night:

• saw saw ii, rather liked it. liked the first twist over the second (that is, the (font color=white>fact the video feed wasn't live over the jigsaw heir (when they could've just had the cancer be a big ol lie if they wanted to guarantee a sequel), and not the twist of the first film over the twist of the second)
• watched the season finale of real time and still don't like joe scarborough, even when he seems to agree with me
• watched threshold - "revelations", a good episode, advancing the plot well
• watched masters of horror - "dreams in the whitehouse" and while it certainly wasn't as good as the first episode, it was passable and had some nice creepy bits and good gore (courtesy of knb)

saturday:

• saw jarhead and liked it. great lines throughout. especially liked the line about the earth bleeding
• started to watch exorcist the beginning, but was too tired and stopped it early on

sunday:

• watched exorcist the beginning, and it was weird seeing the same setups and same sets and plot points as dominion twisted into new versions of themselves. this one tried too hard to be a modern horror film, but both this and dominion fell apart in the last half hour or so anyway
• watched two episodes of rome (as last week's never bothered to show up on our hbo on demand) while recording the simpsons, family guy and american dad (haven't watched any of those yet). loved the way pullo and veranus are drifting apart and how pullo had some serious tragedy going on with such a simple gesture as freeing his slave
• watched grey's anatomy, and i think meredith will be a better character without mcdreamy
• watched the boondocks and did not like it. bad voices, slow pacing, jokes that weren't the funny, nothing redeeming about it at all, methinks
  
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useless sidenote # 147
daily online i read the following comic strips:

• the boondocks
• calvin and hobbes
• for better or for worse
• brevity
• frazz
• get fuzzy
• pearls before swine

fonts, punks, jedis, comics and little toy soldiers
got a review on my recently completed short story hindsight:

This is your best story to date. There is so much depth to this...I'll be pondering it for a while. Definitely must read again. Brilliant...and disturbing.*

yesterday, 3 november 2005, i put together both the high alphabet font and the low alphabet font for iridia (a neighbor to gardea that figures in the third gardea book quite prominently), with font creator also, i watched gus van sant's last days, which, like his elephant, was a nifty moodpiece, with long stretches of silence and bits of scenes occasionally out of order. both elephant and last days, in my opinion could have used a little more blood to get a stark contrast to all the peaceful silence

also, watched revenge of the sith. it's got it's parts that play well, but there's some horrible dialogue in parts and the structure could use some work (not unlike previous star wars films). odd thing: ewan's performance in his "you were the chosen one" speech didn't work so well the second time, but natalie's "you're breaking my heart" bit worked better. go figure

and, after dinner i read stephen king's short story battleground to the kids. it bugged me a bit how lacking the story was in style and writing, but it was still fairly clever

read this week's comics purchase:

• stray bullets 40 - a good use of silence, the main character in this issue having a hearing aid and all, but the plot was a bit confusing near the end, and the issue ended a bit abruptly without a satisfying resolution
• jonah hex 1 - went ok, but i'm not sure i care enougn for an ongoing hex book
• detective comics 813 - so, it all has to do with one of the various clayface guys, right? i haven't really read batman since the start of no man's land, so maybe this all ties into something else, or maybe it's something new. this, the penultimate issue in lapham's run--and while it's obviously winding down to its conclusion, i'm thinking it's not going to be satisfying. i'm almost in the mood to drop lapham like i dropped bendis last year. haven't regretted that one yet
• little star 5 - an odd issue for this book, which almost seemed like a conclusion, but five issues seems a bit short. flashbacks to the birth of the universe and the baby mostly and little added to the present story. still, even a lacking andi watson is better than a lot out there
• bulleteer 1 - nice, self contained intro story, with great bits about superhero porn, and did that subway crash tie into guardian and klarion perhaps?

and i watched a bit of the daily show, but i was exhausted and feeling sick, so i recorded it and the colbert report to watch today. also, meaning to get out to see saw ii this evening, and considering watching revenge of the sith with commentary, or at least listening to it, while i work on yet another font--i want to get my money's worth out of font creator right away

* it should be noted that review was from my wife, sarah

paper clips, dominion and cataloguing
paper clips - fairly well put together documentary, though it was almost too easy to divide my attention between it and cataloguing some videotapes of mine, but maybe that says more about me than about the film. maybe i'm just a antisemitic videotape lover and i should rot in hell

dominion - opening scene was oddly bright, like the lighting department didn't get it, but the next hour and a half or so was pretty good, going more for a slow buildup, a nice atmosphere of weird over the more overt stuff of recent horror films--and, speaking of which, this one made me want to see that other exorcist prequel that replaced this one after it was shelved--but then, once cheche lost his hair it all quickly devolved into something a bit too simplistic, and the exorcism itself was way too short, not that i wanted a days of our lives style exorcism, taking months and playing like a pathetic sitcom, but the original exorcist film let things play out much more deliberately, even after the exorcism gets going (or at least, it seemed to, which is just as important)

and, aside from those two movies, i also watched some jeopardy and another simpsons treehouse of horror, and the hour long premiere of that 70s show, oddly enough--odd because i dropped that show way back in season two or three

and, as i mentioned, i went through 42 videotapes (...to go into the garage, plus the handful of current tapes), updating index cards for various series (yeah yeah, i'm obsessive, so what?) cause i'd been neglecting that of late, made some pasta and corn bread for dinner and debated a sidenote on abortion (notably proposition 73 here in california, about notifying parents) with sarah

i'm off work today and paid for my font creator license yesterday, so i'll be working on the iridian font for gardea this morning, and i've got gus van sant's last days waiting to be watched

talking to myself but myself keeps slipping away
Now Playing: the soundtrack of our lives - origin vol. i
sarah had to talk to herself in public for a school assignment yesterday, so a family trip to the galleria was afoot. browsed the lego store and kb toys and went over to borders to get the new daniel quinn book. that particular store's been having trouble with late shipments apparently, so i wasn't able to get the book, damn it

for tv the past day--oh, and i should mention the watching of grey's anatomy from sunday which i neglected to mention happened on monday, a fine episode of a increasingly good show, and a surprisingly great performance from monica keena--her stint on entourage made me think she'd lost all ability to act when she got the plastic surgery, but i guess that wore off--her lips even looked real again, though i can't say for her breasts as they spent the episode pressed up against that other guest star--there was jeopardy and the simpsons (treehouse of horror xiii i think it was, with the fly), some of a special about some artificial islands they're making off the coast of dubai, house (a good episode, and a nice change in having the patient being such a big part of the show, him being a doctor and all), and nip/tuck (disparate plots bordering on a theme as usual, none of the timing problems that, of late, have had me complaining), the daily show and the colbert report, both great, and i recorded boston legal (haven't watched it yet). still haven't gotten around to rome and extras from this past sunday--they weren't on hbo on demand yet, hence the dubai thing

watched danny boyle's millions yesterday, and was absolutely adoring it for its family friendly/boyle-weird visuals, and then a couple minutes before the end it lost me for a moment, not sure exactly how or why, though i liked the very end, that the kid provided two endings, either of which weren't likely to have been realistic endings for the plot as it was

picked up the following comics today (but haven't read any of them yet):

• jonah hex 1
• little star 5
• stray bullets 40
• detective comics 813
• bulleteer 1

will probably watch paper clips this afternoon, and hope to pick up dominion to watch tonight, as wednesday shows are reruns (and over there is over, and not to return)

a hallowed evening and all that
Now Playing: les miserables
not much to say

there was begging for candy on the part of the three kids and one friend, sarah and i as chaperones, and then there was prison break and the daily show and the colbert report (actually, that last one i recorded and just watched when i got home from work and picking up kieran and walking to blockbuster (returned kingdom of heaven and got millions and paper clips)

work was the usual mix of data entry bits, had me thinking about a couple more gardea stories (the horror themed southard, the sands o' red and the pseudo coming of age bit the fliers of offavtop) and reimagining wannabeheroes as a half hour dramatic tv series (a la something like werewolf or that dead at 21 show on mtv a few years back). it's a story i NEED to get back to doing, to finishing, but it requires one of a few formats i just cannot manage on my own (notably an ongoing (but relatively limited) comic book or a tv thing). i really don't think i could tell the story properly as a novel or a one off screenplay (not that either of those would have much more chance of seeing anything beyond my current audience (which can be counted on one hand--and that's if you're hitchhiking and picking your nose and your pinky fell off due to gangrene)

and, of late, i've had thinkings on the vikariad again aswell, but i don't think i'm going to get back into comic stuff again. the ship came and went, methinks. now is the time to try getting some novels out, gotta edit clubhouse blues and rewrite the man with the holes in his hands and get the query letter/synopsis for lion horse tree to some people, and i need to convince myself that sending the evolution of grace screenplay to kevin bacon is a good idea again, or knock that one out of my head altogether

and, i've still got a short story called the water change, tying the gardea stuff to my old demonangel stuff, in the rewriting/finishing department, and i need to get to my mortician screenplay, and i'll be picking up daniel quinn's tales of adam today and spending a bit of time at the galleria, and tonight on tv: house, boston legal and nip/tuck, the daily show and the colbert report

missing extras
Now Playing: soundtrack of our lives - t.s.o.o.l origin vol. i
the weekend:

there was a parade in which hayley performed with her drill team. there was h salt fish & chips for dinner saturday, and chili for dinner sunday, not much tv though. that last bit would expected for saturdays of course, but last night (still in the world series schedule time so not having much (ie, the fox animated lineup) new) was just rome and extras and grey's anatomy for me, and i recorded that last one and will catch the other two on hbo on demand or one of the various hbos later this week, as i was watching in good company with sarah

picked up that one, garden state and sideways on a blockbuster gift card yesterday on the way to the galleria (browsed the lego store and the lego section of kb toys but bought nothing), all three movies then removed from my amazon dvd wishlist. had intended to pick up kingdom of heaven (the pilgrim's guide version of which i watched saturday night) but that (and various other battle involved films on dvd) will have to wait. gotta love the extras on movies like that (except for alexander, which better have a better version (as in with more extras) coming in the future. speaking of which, i still need to watch more stuff from disc two of kingdom of heaven before i return it to blockbuster and i've got three more commentaries on the return of the king to get to, not that i'm obsessive about extras or anything of late

i am

and, in lego news, i made a bit of a exploration type spaceship saturday, first thing since my grasshopper (lifesize, mind you) last week. still haven't bothered to clear some space on my website to post new lego photos, though i should at least make space for the tiger

the first installment is always the most expansive
Now Playing: green day - american idiot

and, so it begins, with a week's worth...

this week included the following television:

• born without a face (interesting but inconclusive as it covered recent events)
• grey's anatomy - "bring the pain" (getting better by the episode)
• two and a half men - "hi, mr. horned one" (surprisingly funny despite itself)
• prison break - "the old head" (fun and convoluted and embracing of its unreality)
• the daily show (x 4) (damn funny of late)
• the colbert report (x 4) (a fantastic partner to the daily show, great interview segemtns, and gotta love "the word")
• boston legal - "men to boys" (new cast and all the resulting edits are a bit bothersome, but i'm still hopeful it will work out once its all put together, or the excess baggage will be trimmed once again. this show still has a great center in spader and shatner)
• nip/tuck - "frankenlaura" (more bad things happen, reality is ignored, but it works, damn it)
• veronica mars (could actually be more complex this season than last, and that's only a plus)
• invasion - "the hunt" (getting better and better, while still maintaining a very deliberate pace)
• over there - "follow the money" (good finale, though i almost hoped it would end mid firefight)
• jeopardy (only saw this once this week, and found myself knowing way too much about tennis)
• the simpsons (saw one rerun this week, and it was a good one, though there are so many, i can't figure out what the title was)
• alias - "out of the box" (back to basics, but if this is the last season, they really should tie those new basics into the old ones directly, throw in some rambaldi (hell, it should have been him in the box) and end it all in a big blowout)
• night stalker - "malum" (stylistically, this show is fantastic, but the plots are a bit obvious, and kolchak would've know what malum meant without consulting a dictionary, damn it. still, not as bad as supernatural (which has the potentially better premise) as far as x-files offspring go)
• real time (not the best episode of late, but still fairly good)
• masters of horror - "incident on and off a mountain road" (nice and graphic, and though i had guessed the twist about the trunk of the car early on, i'd already forgotten my guess by the end cause of all the nifty gore and chase going on. i've always contended that phantasm is a piece of crap, but that director's direction here was good. i will defintely watch this anthology some more)

the following movies:

• child's play (had seen it more than once, but rented it for the kids. surprisingly (as in, more than i remembered) simple film, with quite a straightforward plot, got in got out and that was all, pretty good as far as horror films go in that regard)
• mysterious skin (an odd little film in that the revelation is obvious before you even watch the film, and the opening sequence makes it pretty obvious, so it ends up a serious character study along a plot we know all along)
• kingdom of heaven (saw it in the theater but had to rent the dvd cause battle movies always have great extras. still haven't gotten to those extras--the pilgrim's guide subtitles looks to be interesting, but enjoyed the movie the second time and wonder why so many people didn't like it back when it was in theaters)

the following reading:

• cages (dave mckean coming at a huge story from many angles and nary a flaw to be found. it inspired me, though there might not be any direct thematic connection, to draw this)
• strangers in paradise (the beginning of the end as it's all coming back to old relationships about to be stuck facing each other again. good drama)
• tv guide (i like the new format, though they could use some episode titles in those grids)

the following writing:

• hindsight (a science fiction story set in my fantasy world of gardea, about a blind girl who gets a lesson in alternate realities from a talking cat and gets herself some new eyes (figuratively and literally))

***

check out today's, the latest, entry in my regular blog, "against the world"