Whaddaya MEAN You've Never Heard of Me?!?

It's time once again for me to address some of the utter crap that's been going around the Internets of late, mostly to get it off my ample chest. Because people are lazy and mean and dumb, and I like to think I'm smarter, more active, and kinder than most (based on no factual evidence, just me and my intellectual vanity wishing). For the purposes of this post, I shall refer to the Internet as if they are a cohesive collective--while knowing that, of course, they aren't.

--Remakes/Reboots.
Internet: "Why do they have to remake everything?"
Wednes: "For money. Movies are a business. Businesses work to make money. Duh."

Internet: "Can't Hollywood think of anything new and original???"
Wednes: Can't YOU? You say this same shit every goddamn time a remake comes out. Besides, originality is not the same as good. How many times have we seen a cool new concept squandered by mediocre filmmaking or a godawful screenplay? #Pixels You might as well say "Why do they have to base so many movies on books? Can't they write their own?"

--Pokemon Go!
Internet: "People shouldn't be playing this game in [place where serious historical things have happened]. It's disrepectful."
Wednes: No, they probably shouldn't be. So why are there catchable animals hiding at these places?

Internet: "This is stupid. Why are adults doing this when [tragic world event that commenter has done nothing about] is going on?!?"
Wednes: If you think adults playing a fun game is stupid, how exactly would you categorize going online to complain about it? Also, complaining about others doing something other than charity work is just empty preening bullshit unless you posted it while simultaneously doing charity work.

--Ghostbusters
Internet: "MY RUINED CHILDHOOD?!?!11/1!?!?!"
Wednes: If this is the thing that ruined your childhood, I don't know how to adequately express how charmed your life must have been or how fucking batshit stupid you are now. Remakes do NOT ruin the original thing; and they certainly don't ruin the first time you watched it. If you're honestly letting this "ruin" anything for you, you're a mewling child looking for reasons to feel wronged. Here, I'll help: Happy Holidays!

Internet: "They're making it with women just to be PC."
Wednes: So now it's "PC" to acknowledge that women do things? The only reason to depict women as anything other than a love interest, sex object, or funny fat friend is because of "political correctness?" We must be up to 5% female lead characters at this point in movie history--and it's astounding how many dudebros feel legit threatened by that. Yes, you all go right on telling yourselves that female characters (along with racial minorities, gay/bi/trans folk, those with disabilities, etc) are only in movies to appease whiners. Congratulations. You just demonstrated that many types bias are alive and well, while announcing that you'd prefer that we not do anything about that.

--#AllLivesMatter
[specific demographic of the] Internet: "I happen to think ALL lives matter, because I'm not racist."
Wednes: That's bullshit, and I think you know that it's bullshit. Anyone who says this is willfully missing the point. This can only be because they honestly believe that there's no problem with police and racial profiling, police and the murder of minorities, or minorities and the criminal justice system at large. They have to feel it's appropriate that for-profit prisons to create a demand for prisoners that is then met by railroading poor people (mostly, though surely not all) minorities and at-risk populations. People who are offered 18 months instead of 10 years for crimes they didn't commit--and who take pleas so they don't risk missing their kids growing up. People who get a total of 7 minutes to discuss their case with their PD. Anyone who believes in #AllLivesMatter seem to miss the point that responding to cries of "Stop Murdering Us" with 'Come on, you guys have to be exaggerating. Cops have never done that to me or any of the middle-class white people I know.' IS goddamn fucking racist. Even if you think all the cops in all those videos are justified. Even if you think every last victim deserved to be murdered because they moved their hand, refused to put out their cigarette, or "didn't comply" quickly and humbly enough. It's still racist to respond to "Please Don't Shoot" with "This isn't a big deal, and I'm sick of hearing about it." Beyond racism, it just makes you an asshole.
Stop being an asshole.

[specific demographic of the] Internet: Cop Haters shouldn't call a cop if they need one, because doing so makes them hypocrites.
Wednes: There's a world of difference between "hating cops" and hating that murderers get to wear cop uniforms and get paid by taxpayers even after they murder someone. It's not hating cops to be disgusted that there are otherwise good cops who cover for and defend those that aren't. Everybody knows that there are good cops and bad cops, just like every job has good or bad employees. It's just that cops are given guns and permission to use their discretion to kill if they need to. That means they deserve more scrutiny than those of us who aren't. You're not being kind to the good ones by pretending the bad ones don't exist--nor are you hating on good cops by acknowledging that they do.

There. Now I feel better.

Feeling a little sad that American Horror Story is gone for another year. If you missed my Character Retrospective, you should totally check it out. I reviewed each and every episode this season, and in case you're late to the party--I'm damn witty.
You may not even realize that you totally care what I think.
But you do...

Also reviewing Ripper Street and The Following. Ripper Street is shaping up to be really good. The Following is a couple of awesome actors doing their best with some preposterous and shitty writing. I liken Kevin Williamson's "dramatic surprises" to bird poop, in that they drop out of nowhere, with no real importance except to irritate the fuck out of you.
Plus, if everything I know about the FBI comes from watching TV, I shouldn't know way more about it than someone who is writing, directing, and producing a show that features the FBI prominently. Kevin Williamson doesn't know how to write dialogue for grown-ups either. It's also painfully, upsettingly obvious who the secret mole is.

The rest of this week is finishing the new Stig & The Puppetman, working on Millicent Mixter and a little bit of paid marketing work. I'm supposed to go get blood taken, but I keep not feeling like it. Plus, everyone outside is sick. Thinking I might watch this copy of John Dies at the End I scored. Then I can write a review of it.

Stumbled over an ad for a part-time day-job I'm looking in to, just because I think it would be enormous fun. It combines a cool combination of things I used to do, but only stuff I liked. Hint: I once worked for a magician.

I sort of wish I was good at video games. That new Aliens: Colonial Marines game looks pretty badass. I might get it for H so I can watch him play.

Got up today, prepared to do my last 8 articles for the week. After that, I was gonna be free to work on Stig and the Puppetman, which is due at the end of the month. After that, would have been Millicent Mixter. But I got hit up for some emergency work, and had to do six articles today on subjects I knew nothing about. So it actually took longer than the 8 I was going to write--and which I now have to write tomorrow. Boo!
I don't know when I'm gonna have time to work on the trailer. Tomorrow is already Wednesday, plus I'm not going to get anything done Saturday as I have a thing I'm going to. Yikes.

On the plus side, this is the last week I have to do three reviews a week. In the future, I'm not going to do more than two, though one is preferable in addition to what I do for ZZN. I need to pitch the sex site I'm writing for, though they haven't put up my last article yet. Any topics you want to see? They seem to like lists. Damn lists...fun, but kinda lazy and fluffy, ya know?

Picked myself out a new knife. It's supposed to be here tomorrow. A box of stuff from Amazon came today, which turned out to be stuff for me, from H. We have a $40 budget for birthdays, so he got me some stuff from my wish list. A replacement copy of Raving Rabids to replace the one I loaned Cindy. This one has more games on it though, so Yay! We have a riot playing Wii--usually on Sunday afternoons. Also, the original Clash of the Titans and a DVD of Tommy which I love. And Twilight Zone: The Movie which is both famous and infamous.
Poor Vic.
And finally, this glorious thing. I've wanted this zombie book for some time now, and it's even better in person than it looked online. I loves it!

For H's birthday, which is 25 days from now, he's getting the 11th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. It makes the right noise, and lights up, and is an actual screwdriver. Badass, right? He's also getting a Bugs Bunny T-shirt and a crazy hot bottle of hot sauce. He gets a new hot sauce from me every year.

Made a batch of chocolate peppermint lip balm. Well, I attempted to do that. I actually made an oily mess that had to be discarded, along with $16 worth of blank tubes. Drag. I had a bum recipe, and have done a bunch of research. This weekend, I'll buy new blank tubes and try again. We shall see... I also want to do a batch of cherry, and some cold balm with eucalyptus, lemon, tea tree, that sort of thing.

You ever window shop on the Internets and come across something that literally drops your jaw? The kind of thing that you are certain was created exactly, specifically for you by someone you've never met--or only met once in passing at a comic book store, for example? Such a thing happened to me just this minute.

Well this is one of those things.

I love the work of evandorkin. Have since the early 90's when I discovered him while buying some Serial Killer Trading Cards. Milk and Cheese was the greatest and best discovery I made back in the days when I couldn't wait for it to be Tuesday so I could take the bus to Dave's Comics in Royal Oak and see what was new for the buying. I bought a ton of comics such as Ren and Stimpy, Simpsons, Night of the Living Dead (and Night of the Living Dead London, obviously), various serial killer and zombie comics, things from Vertigo, Slave Labor, something about a guy named Nod; basically whatever struck my fancy as I have no real nerdery when it comes to comics. I just knows what I likes. And I like Evan Dorkin very much, even when he took jabs at Matt Groening in the 90's when The Simpsons was still comedy gold every single week.

I wanted to post the pic for you's mainly because it's the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen. I want to bid on it, but likely will not for two reasons. One, H would flip his lid if I spent money on art given our current finances. Two, even if I could afford to spend some monies on art, the piece will almost certainly reach bidding levels way outside my range. You know what though? I'm just really happy that this piece exists somewhere in the world. And I still have Georgina (whose name should have been Sadie, but I digress) in comic book form sealed up nice in a mylar bag. So I guess I do have a bit of comic nerdery after all. ;-]



So yeah...I'm sure you get the idea. The real one has not had the photoshop ripple effect applied to it.

In other news, Zuma for the Xbox consumes me. It is way far fun. I just realized that we have more games for the Xbox than we do for the Wii, and we've had the Wii way longer. We do still play a lot of Sports, and Cooking Mama is really fun to play by myself.

And finally, today is the 74th birthday of Jim Dale. Not to be crass, but 74 is pretty old. If he's planning on reading Beadle the Bard for us, he really should get a move on.

If you enjoy music and things that are good, be sure to hip yourself to Vanessa Mae. She is a violinist who does this wild techno fusion stuff that blows my mind. She's on the iTunes (and the Limewire, but I'm kind of on this kick where I'm paying for music because it feels like the morally correct thing to do). But I'm hoping some peeps at my work will have some of her stuff I can borrow. Because you know, over 3/4 of my workplace is made up of string players.

Still having some trouble breaking 20 hours a week at work. They just aren't able to give me the hours right now. 'Tis a bummer. I'm waiting for the new gig at the marketing department to be developed so I can apply. Not sure how long that will take, as we're heading into our busy season soon.
My department's annual pre-busy-season meeting is tomorrow. They'll give us pizza and pop and prizes, because they appreciate and value us. It's nice.

Tomorrow is also my brother's birthday. I gotta send him an E-card, plus I'll probably call him. He gave us that game, Bully, for the Xbox. It's pretty funny thusfar. Just for fun, here's the post I made about my bro's birthday 5 years ago
Speaking of Xbox, I've been playing it a ton lately. Now that I can play with strangers on the internet, I'm developing a little reputation for myself as a stomping good Scene It! Player. They have a ton more stuff available for download now, real games and what they call Indie Games which are cheap little gamelets that regular people made. Like indie films, there seem to be 100 crappy ones for every good one. There are also a bunch of cool new clothing options which I refuse to pay for because that is dumb. Anyway, my new Xbox avatar is pretty awesome:


Tru Blood and Hung were both excellent this week. Bummer about Jessica.
In ridiculously exciting TV news Frank Darabont is making The Walking Dead comic into a TV show for AMC. I sort of wish HBO was doing it, but I shall try not to judge because this is really, really good news for zombie fans. Other good newses for zombie fans include Zombieland, Dead Snow, REC2, and whatever Romero is cooking up for us. Let's just hope it sucks less than Diary.

Coraline was absolutely wonderful. I kept waiting for it to be an anti-drug allegory about why real life is better than fantasy. But no, it was a beautiful, scary, brilliant fairy tale. I loved it so much I'll refrain from complaining about the perpetuation of the "evil witch" stereotype. I certainly can't deny that evil witches exist. Many of them are members over at pagan. LOL We watched Coraline in 3D DVD, which I admit I was not crazy about. I'll probably watch is in a smaller number of D next time. Maybe 2.

And finally, I enjoyed Movits! so much that I bought the album on iTunes. It's great.

Do I seriously have to download a separate Freeware thingy just to edit animated gifs? I'm sorry, but that is stupid. I have the Adobe Creative Suite for heaven's sake! There's no reason on this Earth I shouldn't be able to edit gifs with it, but everything I'm finding online tells me that because Imageready is no more, that I can create my own gifs but cannot edit existing ones. That is punk, pos, bunk, and well, completely unacceptable. Am I missing something here?

Kinda worried about my new editor just because she doesn't seem to know much about basic document management. H pointed out that there are plenty of brilliant people who don't know dick about computers. That H, he's so smart.
Anyway, the draft is "done" and handed over to the editor officially. I just realized today that I wanted my MC to be a connoisseur of something he has merely mentioned a lot. So that's a bummer. Not a huge deal, but it will probably bug me forever now.

Tosh.0 is much, much funnier than it should be. It makes me almost want to Tweet. Not quite, but almost.

Thinking about downloading Stubbs the Zombie for Xbox360. It's not very expensive and it's gotten some great reviews. H cautioned me about it because I'm impatient when learning new games and give up easily if they are too complicated. Plus I don't really play video games by myself except on the GBA. Dead Rising was much too hard for me. Those guys in the jeep are dicks. I played a lot of Wii Sports alone when we first got it, but now it's mostly something H and I do together. We got a trial of PinballFX I think it's called. It's not like video pinball, it's like REAL pinball with a flipper delay and stupidly slanted table. I'm going to play it in a bit, actually.

Tonight I'm making chicken alfredo pasta with mushrooms and red peppers. Man, it's going to be tasty even as it is making us die of cholesterol. We're big fans of comfort food around here. Then later we're going to watch Prince Caspian because I've never seen it. I bet it's gonna be about Jesus.

Not sure why, exactly, but this is the best thing I ever saw:


EDIT:
I'm sorry, THIS is now the best thing I ever saw...

Got to finish watching DayWatch, which is the sequel to the excellent Russian films NightWatch. I was pretty surprised at how much I liked it. I found both of these films more difficult to follow than an average American horror film--if indeed you'd call this film horror. It's got action and drama, romance and the supernatural. There's a lot going on, and it's all very involved. In the end, the two films fit together nicely and I was very glad I watched. So if you dug NightWatch, by all means catch the sequel.

uterdic brought over the DVD of that Dr Horrible thing by Joss Whedon. You may remember that it basically made the internet blow up in crazy fandamonium when it came out. Having finally seen it, I can see why. Very creative, clever and funny. Plus Neil Patrick Harris totally has a Chris Masterson thing going on.

Hooked myself up with the new content for Scene it! BOS for the Xbox. It has 800 new questions, a new game mode, and was pretty cheap, about $7. I'm a fan of downloadable content to begin with, and this one was just excellent. We've also been exploring the wide world of vintage games for download. We played a bit of Sonic 3 which was originally for Sega. LOL, Sega...

There's a guy: flemco who did the excellent cover design for my first novel. Happily, I was able to get him to do the book I'm working on now as well. He has a ballsy and entertaining journal of his own. He's written some short stories that I love. While I have purchased his first novel, I haven't read it yet. I'm on a moratorium from reading until I finish this manuscript. Anyway, he hipped his readers to the the most ingenious, hilarious and potentially offensive "gag gift" I've ever heard of. And I honestly can think of a few people who deserve it. So be sure to feast your disbelieving peepers on that.

Not completely sure why THIS creepy fucking thing disturbs me so much. Probably because she looks like a corpse. Anyway, you can move her with your arrow if she gets stuck, which she does occasionally.

Finally, since all the internet information I'm reading on Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is vague and contradictory, I've decided to go ahead and call the doc. Not really in the mood to be diagnosed with a new syndrome. But since I spend such an absurd amount of time at a keyboard (all day at work, all night at home), wrist braces should have been a consideration for me long ago. My understanding is that if I get on this right away it'll be easier to deal with. Let's hope so.

Came into work today to a GIANT display of homeade chocolate candies up for grabs. I daresay, I had a few. They are also feeding us taco/nacho bar for lunch in honor of Cinco de Mayo. Don't think I've ever worked at a place that celebrated this holiday before, but I'm not complaining. I guess there will also be pinatas. I'll probably abstain from that.

We downloaded the Survival Pack for Left 4 Dead. If I do say so myself, it's bad ass. A whole new way to get killed by The Tank almost immediately. I even tried throwing a pipe bomb at that fucker and he still got me. Stupid tank. Anyway, it's riotous fun playing with H. We've also been playing a lot of Wii Tennis now that I've discovered that we can play on the same team against the computer. Neat!

Had to go to bed early last night, so I totally missed J.J. Abrams on Colbert. I'll be catching the replay at 8pm (missed Daily Show too). Also, I'm making chicken and corn bread stuffing for dinner because H really wanted it. Anyway, we're hoping to see Star Trek next Tuesday after I get off work. Plus LOST is almost done for the season. Abrams must be feeling awfully good round about now.

Actually this icon has nothing to do with what I'm posting about. I just thought we could all use a small laugh. I know I can, I'm back to work today after missing a whole week due to illness. I have a doctor's note, but I still think work is pissed at me for missing all that time. We were busy, and I'm not the only one who called out. Bummer. Not sure how late I'm working today. Could be 1pm, could be 6pm. I have no idea because I haven't been in in a week.

Thanks to everyone who suggested new music for me. I discovered some awesome stuff, like Aesop Rock, Spoon, Michael Franti and Spearhead, MC Lars, The Slackers, The Raconteurs (though I also saw them on TV) and a few others. I just love discovering new tunes. A few of you even sent me mp3's via the Email, which was awesome. I look forward to hearing the collection swayworn sent me yesterday as well.

Watched Pineapple Express last night. It was pretty funny, though very much paced for stoners. Not a problem for me, obviously, but not everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Odd thing about Seth Rogan, since I like him I assumed he was roughly my age. No dice. In fact, he is 12 years younger than me, putting him around 26. Yikes! People that young shouldn't be that rich or talented, which is what uterdic and I were just saying last night.

Racked up some video game achievements yesterday. Played Lips in freestyle mode, though I found that most of the songs on my iPod do not play on Lips. I have no idea why that is. Some of the ones that don't play are from CD's, some iTunes, and some from Limewire. I don't get why some work and some don't when they are all the same kind of AAC file. Anyway, we also played Left 4 Dead with sudrin and some Scene It! Where I got beat by about 100 points. Unluckily for me, Scene It! gives sympathy points to those who are behind. Anyway, I've got 1200 gamer points now. Whooo!

Work was crazy busy yesterday, mostly with complaints and returns. Happily, I was able to chill some people out and fix some problems that were not remotely of my making. Then I came home and played Hexic.

I'm giving the zombie game a rest for a day or two, been having some vivid and horrible zombie nightmares. Last night we busted out the Wii and played some sports and some Raving Rabids, which is still pretty fun and which we still have not finished. I don't play story mode without H because I need him to do all the stuff that's too hard for me. ;-]

After I leave work today, I'm off work for three whole days, then back on Saturday. Tomorrow night is my annual NYE affair. This one promises to be small and casual. I've only got about 5 confirmed guests, and a ton of maybes. As such, there will be chips and dips, and I'm making some brownies.

Sadly, my apartment is reaching critical mass in terms of cat whiz. Pentelope keeps peeing in my hallway floor, so it's a mess or urine, some "miracle" cleaning product, febreeze, vinegar, and soap. I need to give the whole thing a good going over with a carpet shampooer. Cindy has one, but I'd hate to borrow it and give it back whiffing like wee.

My buddy Steve brought over the most delicious pizza last night. It's an "off the menu" item from the pizza place he delivers for. I won't mention the name of the place so I don't get him in trouble. Anyway, it's a medium pizza crust stretched out to a large pizza so it's nice and thin without being crackery. Then you take a can of Hormel chili (no beans) and use that as the sauce. You cut up some kosher hot dogs and throw them on there with some onions and pizza cheese. Top the whole thing with some cheddar and bake. When it comes out of the over, you slap a little mustard on it and devour. It's like putting trash in your body, health-wise. But man is it tasty.

It's almost the end of December, which means I'll be back to writing soon. I'm also going to get more serious abut promoting Sadie and Cat's Apprentice. I need to get some signings and make some serious sales happen. People are responding so well to Cat's Apprentice that I'm feeling more comfortable asking for reviews and generally hyping the book. Right now I'm just reading over the Serial Killer manuscript so I'll have a better idea of what needs cutting when I get back to it in a week or so.

The Xbox, I have decided is not just a game system. It's a computer made specifically to play games on. But you can do regular AIM and internet stuff on it. Plus you can play games with people from all over. I'm kind of surprised by how much I'm enjoying this thing, since I've never considered myself a hardcore gamer of any kind. I think today I'm going to download a puzzle game. Also, I changed my Gamertag. It is now Wednes Fri. I hadn't realized you could use two words, but my brother is White McWhite (not sure why, I need to ask him).

I was over at imdb last night, being pissed that they are remaking Pet Sematary. I think the old one holds up just fine and you'll never do better than Fred Gwynne as Judd. But I digest. The imdb site said I couldn't get the info about the movie because I don't have imdb Pro. Of course they offered me a "free trial", but why the hell would I pay to use imdb when I've been using it for free all this time? I can understand when the guy from wikipedia wants a donation, they don't charge people to be on their site. But imdb does charge people to have pics on their profiles, and now they want to charge me too? I don't think so.

When I was a kid, we jokingly called White Castle burgers "sliders" because well, they slide right out of you. Hahahaha, gross and all that. For those not in-the-know, White Castle makes tiny hamburgers fried with onions. They are yummy, if you're into that sort of thing. White Castle is also where Harold and Kumar go, and where the Beastie Boys went and "got thrown out." The Beastie Boys also remind us that White Castle fries only come in one size, which actually is no longer true.

Anyway...
Imagine my surprise when, a few years ago, White Castle themselves decided to start calling their own burgers "Slyders". WTF, right?

Well, for Christmas, H's mom sent us a bunch of stuff from Harry & David. This includes the chocolate tower I posted about earlier, and some cheeses and summer sausage and such. We then got a box that said it must immediately go in the freezer. It was a box of "sliders" from Harry & David. Nary a mention of White Castle in sight. I checked, it's a box of tiny hamburgers fried with onions. Curious.

So I guess now the actual term for a tiny burger cooked with onions is a "Slider."

Can anyone out of state confirm or deny this?
Is this just how it is now?


In non-burger related news, I am only working two days this week. It feels very odd to be off on a Monday, even though my birthday was on Monday, and I was off. I'm working a few hours tomorrow before going video game shopping with sudrin. I guess that I will go ahead and buy Scene It! and leave Lips for another time when I have more money. Too bad really, because I bet I could really build up some gamer points with Lips.
Games shouldn't cost so much, I think.

Watched Grindhouse: Planet Terror which was hilarious and very action packed. Plus there were zombies in it, which I always enjoy. This was after H's birthday dinner at Red Robin with uterdic and smarbaby. That was very fun as well, though it's way too cold outside.

I'm curious to know what you all want for Christmas.
Not the intangibles (H asks for "love" every damn year, which is no help at all), but the buy-at-a-store material goods that you are really craving this holiday season.

As for me, I want Scene It! BOS and Lips which you all must know because I haven't shut up about them since I got the Xbox360 for my birthday.

H's mom and fam got us this, from Harry & David. It's great if you're not trying to stave off diabetes. I think H's mom forgot about that, but it's a swell gift all the same. Delicious.

So I ask again: what do YOU want for Christmas.
And if there's a disparity between what you want and what you could reasonably get, I wanna hear both!!


Now, I'm off to work!

It's Saturday and I'm at work. Frown. The good news is it's only a six hour shift, and I get to wear a T-shirt. And we might be busy, and I have a million gift certificates to process.

I got another gift from a fan who read Cat's Apprentice and loved it. Neat. It's a magnet from The Onion that says "cute kitten thinks about murder all day." Priceless, right? Plus I love getting ifts from fans. Hell, I just plain love having fans.

H and I tried to cook on the Wii with Cooking Mama. That game is a riot. You prepare foods and get medals based on how well you do. You can do all kinds of motions with the Wii remote and it's a blast. Plus it's got a very Japanese flavor to it, like Katamari Damacy kind of.
We also played Dead Rising where I was promptly devoured by zombies more than once. This game doesn't have an EASY mode, but it does appear to adjust for my overall suckiness. So that's cool. I must say though, I don't know how a metal pipe can break from hitting zombies with it.

Did four dozen mint choco chip cookies last night. Plan to do the last 2 dozen today when I get home from work. Then I just have to make the breads in the bread maker. Our Holiday post cards turned out awesome.

I'm beginning to understand how people can devote so much of their lives to gaming. Left 4 Dead is pretty horrifying and exciting, even if I'm not very good at first person shooters just yet. I keep forgetting to walk and look at the same time, the look part is especially difficult. But I'm slowly getting the hang of it. H is helping me a lot. I imagine he's pretty shocked that I'm playing shooter games in the first place.

I've been checking out other games I might want. I'm sort of curious to see what Tetris is like in the Xbox360 since they have it. I also want the singing game (called Lips) and Scene It. Those would be awesome for parties.

Probably I should get a gaming icon, for when I post about the Xbox and the Wii. I know, right? I'm a super gamer.

Anybody wanna be Xbox buddies?
I'm Lwednes, although I should have been El Wednes, I just didn't think of it in time.

It's true, today is the 38th anniversary of my birth. I'm feeling both old and spry at once.

Friday, gifts started arriving, making me wonder how I could reconcile getting an Xbox360 and finishing the NaNoWriMo. As a result, I'm a little bit behind. I hope to break 40K before I retire for the evening.

Saturday I worked all day, then came home and baked a pineapple cake for the party, while uterdic set up my Xbox for me. He's bringing me some sort of adapter that will allow the Xbox and the Wii to be plugged in at the same time. That's gonna be sweet.

Then we had the party. Many of my favorite people were there, while some were sadly unable to attend. It's a bummer that several of my best friends don't live within comfortable driving distance. Frown. But the party was enormous fun, though for some reason we never got around to doing any Mad Libs even though I have a new book of them. It was decided that I would indeed, be having some people over for New Years Eve. I got some awesome gifts including Se7en, Shock Corridor, Cooking Mama for the Wii, and Sir Graves Ghastly on DVD this last item was lovingly processed by pak_man78 just for me because he knows how much I love Sir Graves. H also got me the Underdog box set which I have been wanting forever.

Yesterday was dinner at Mark's house (my brother). It was the second time I'd seen him in 9 years, and the first time I'd been to his house. nate101000 was kind enough to drive us. I know, right. That was pretty nice. My bro's house is very cool, they have a fireplace. There is also a brick wall in their kitchen. I really like my bro's wife, and they seem to be a good match for each other. That makes me really happy to see.

Today we went grocery shopping and bought fixin's for a semi traditional Thanksgiving. We're having a casserole of ground chicken and stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and bread from the breadmaker, and cranberry sauce. Although I like to make my own cranberry sauce, they didn't have any fresh cranberries at the store. Bummer.

Not sure what we're doing tonight.
Might order food, might not.
H doesn't have to work again until Friday. Lucky guy!

I'm back from my weekend away. We went to the vacation house in Clare to write. I wrote a little more than 3 chapters, which turned out to be about 4k words. Not as many as I'd write during 3 days of NaNoWriMo, but still pretty good. Still not sure if I'm going to do the NaNo this year, I'll have to consult my idea file and think on it.

The weekend was, for the most part, nice and relaxing. I always enjoy spending quality time with absinthofheart, though I wish she didn't share her snacks with me so much. Keebler makes a shortbread cookie with fudge on it that I shouldn't have been anywhere near, it seems.
We saw an array of fun animals, as usual, though I think the dog (we took one with us) kept some of them away. There were blue jays and rabbits, a very big black cat and my favorite, deer. I love to see deer bounding around looking all majestic and whatnot.

My serial killer is coming along nicely. Right now he's decided to kidnap Elise, to see if the fortified cell he built is going to hold the girl he really wants to keep captive. Elise does not have long to live, methinks.

This week I plan to finish reading Watchmen, start reading Angels and Demons, sign all my copies of Cat's Apprentice and get them ready to send out on Sunday, and write at least 2 more chapters. That's in addition to going to work, of course.

Now, H and I are off to play Wii pool, and maybe some bowling. We really need to buy Wii Play instead of borrowing it. Cow racing and pool are way too much fun.

While I'm here, what are you guys being for Halloween?
I think I'm just going to go to work in my pajamas and be "slumber party Wednes."
Other than that, I don't have any scary plans yet.

H and I are going to see The Happening after I get done working tonight. It has gotten terrible reviews, but we have always loved M Night's films. It's sad that he gets pigeonholed as the "twist" guy and then criticized for not continueing to give people the very thing they are bitching about. The Village was handled terribly from a PR standpoint, it's a great little film. M Night is a great storyteller, and I'm excited to see what he has in store for me next. Unbreakable being one of the best movies I have ever seen.

The half-assed finale of BattleStar Galactica was a shocker. I say half assed because there's another half a season coming up in, I think January. They built up this crazy bunch of cylon related suspense and then...resolved it by the end of the episode, only to ( cut for spoilers )

Got my copy of LOST season three in the mail today. First chance I get, I'm gonna watch that season finale. Most of that season is slow and Kate-intensive. But that finale is some Hugo-lovin' goodness. I'm excited to see how they're filling up 7 whole discs.

And finally, I'd like to let everyone know that pool for the Wii (located on Wii Play) is the shizznit. H and I have been playing tons of it, and I finally got a platinum medal for my efforts. Woo Hoo!

So...

My Wii started working again. We switched out the cords and when we plugged the old cord back in, it just worked. Funny, because H and I both power cycled it several times to no avail. Lucky us! Woot!

I'm working from noon till 9pm tomorrow. It's going to suck majorly. H wanted me to go see that new monster movie, Cloverfield with him on bargain movie day. But I already agreed to work 2-9 that day. Fie! They have me working extra hours at work and I'm kind of starved for big, sweeping hunks of Wednes time.

Got my publicity pics taken today. I daresay they look pretty nice. slapnticklejr did a fabulous job as always. And as always, he gave me a great price. I'm getting excited for my book cover to come out, I can't wait to see what they give me. I hope I like it; I don't even know the procedure if I don't. I guess I should check my contract.

Also, am I the only one who thinks it barely matters between Hilary and Obama in the primaries? It seems pretty obvious that the one who wins will choose the other as a running mate, doesn't it?

I like to tell people that I celebrate Christmas in the same manner that Christians celebrate Halloween: garishly and with lots of great treats. In reality though, I'm sitting around in my pajamas (I took a shower and then put on clean PJ's) waiting for my almond cookie dough to firm up so I can bake it. I'll be pleased to have lots of cookies to give out on NYE when I see everybody.

I ordered out from Tio's last night. They have a new nacho dip called "Queso Freako" which I highly recommend. Just a bowl of melted cheese and chips with peppers and seasoning, it's delicious.

We went shopping yesterday where I got the stuff to make Chili for the Chili Con Carnival I'm going to New Year's Day. I also got the fixin's for pineapple cake and some regular groceries. Smoked Oysters were also on sale so I got some for myself. I haven't had those in forever.

Not sure yet when we're going to see Sweeney Todd. H doesn't get any extra time off for the holiday, because Monday and Tuesday are his normal days off. I hope it's soon though, I don't want to get spoiled, even though I know the basics of the story anyway.

Let me ask, when you guys cook or bake, do you use measuring spoons? I never do.
What about measuring cups for anything under a cup? I don't measure that either.

I wish I liked ham. I know a zillion recipes for it, but I don't like it.

Now I'm off to play Wii with H.

I hope that channel is showing the fireplace tonight. We watched it last year, it was pretty great.
Do look for it, they just show a fireplace burning for a couple of hours. Awesome.

H tells me that the PS3 is experiencing a $100 price drop right now. I guess Sony is no longer the number one video game company. Good thing they do a few other products. I'd say they weren't prepared for the happy splash made by the Wii. Yay Nintnedo! My own Wii age is less than my real age. Yay again!

95%The Movie Quiz

FilmCritic.com - Movie Reviews

We went to the grocery store today, then to the mall to get my wedding ring resized. It sounds funny to me that i would even have a wedding ring, but I do. In just over three months and one week, I'll be able to wear it.
I don't care for the mall this time of year. Too many kids who are ill behaved, loud sweary mouthed and just generally in need of some type of supervision. The good news is that in addition to an Apple store, the mall near me is also getting a Sephora and a Torrid. Neat.

My Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom is: Sirius Black launches a dastardly terrorist plot and rids the world of Daleks Get your Harry Potter Spoiler of Doom

It seems more likely that Barty Crouch Jr would rid us of Daleks, just because.

Tilapia and salad for dinner tonight. I love tilapia, best fish EVAR.

I spent the better part of last night playing Wii and then rereading the first 27 chapters of my serial killer novel, just to get a handle on where I am with it. Turns out, it's pretty fucking good. Later on tonight I hope to add another chapter. I just have to figure out where it's all going.
As for the Wii, my Wii age is currently 49; I think I can do a bit better than that. My tennis timing is very off. But my bowling skillz rock the house.

EDIT: it is down to 38. Woot!

Saw a pic of my handfasting besom today. In case you don't know, it's the broom we're going to jump over at the end of the ceremony. Someone at etsy put it together for me:


Nice, eh?

Some of those people at The Knot are crazy. Tonight I got badmouthed because I'm not having my hair and nails done by a professional. Apparently I'm going to look "slovenly." Then they laughed at my plan to just use curling shampoo the day before and hope for the best. I don't see any reason to not look like myself. I'm pretty cute in my natural state, after all...

I'm almost done with the wedding shopping. I just have a few more gifts to buy for people who are helping out. I love having an excuse and a budget to buy people gifts. And they are getting some fly stuff! Lots of jewelery and pretty things.

Finally went back for EMDR this last week. I'm feeling quite a bit better than I have been, except now I have a toothache. I think I've just been grinding my teeth again, I hope I don't have to go to the dentist because I can't freakin' afford it. In non-toothy news, I'm having EMDR again in two weeks, hopefully it will continue to be helpful. It better be, it's really hard work.

H and I will be out of communication range for the next few days, and then some.


We are playing with our Wii.














ps. Thanks, sudrin