Dear NaNo Novel,
How the flying fuck did you go from a simple murder mystery to Lovecraftian horror?  Plz to be explaining this to me.

Thanks... (I think)

PS: Cool outline is cool, however.

So, NaNoWriMo appears to be creeping up on me.  It's going to be a weird year for doing it, to boot.  I'll be couch-surfing through most of November, staying with friends and relatives and possibly on unfamiliar couches, which I'm down with, but it'll make things both odd and interesting.  Hell, I'm not even sure I can do it, but it's worth a try.  All things are, I suppose.

I also woke up early this morning with the base idea already in my head.  My theory is that it's the result of watching too much Numb3rs and rereading my old sociology text books.  Weird combo, but interesting, I reckon, providing I can work out a decent plot.  Well, not necessarily plot, I've got a particularly gruesome series of murders, a highly intelligent and resourceful serial killer, a FBI profiler, a sociology professor out of the deep bayous of Louisiana, a red herring, and no real use for the sociology professor yet...  The sociology professor is supposed to be the focal character, because there's psychologists who are heroes of crime stories but not sociologists, which makes me sad.  Sociology is awesome and more people should think so, in my opinion.

Otherwise, I've acquired a sinus infection, which makes me want to stab my face off.  Because ouch.  Of course, I don't think stabbing my face off will actually help much, might actually hurt more than the infection, but it's the thought that counts.

Recently I also acquired and have been somewhat disappointed by Sarah Brightman's "Symphony" album.  It's starts off really well, two moody and somewhat dark songs which fit with what the cover promises and those are then followed by syrupy sweetness.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy syrupy sweetness as much as I enjoy anything else, but usually the first few songs sort of set a mood, y'know?  I guess it feels a bit disjointed, all in all.  Ah well.

I'm going to bed so I can pretend like I'll be up at a sane hour.  Either that or I'm going to research names.  Either way.

Sweet buggeration!

Not a phrase I should ever utter again, really.  Y'know, even as a kid I never really kept much of a journal.  That's my excuse. Besides, my life's miserable enough without preserving it for all and sundry.  And believe you me, I'm not being all "emo" about it, as the kids are calling it these days.  That's besides the point anyway, whatever the point may be.

Writing is writing, actually quite a lot.  I'm giving my brain a rest for a day or two, but I've been banging out about five pages a day, which is a lot for me.  I don't type or write particularly fast, but the ol' butt in chair equation works quite well.  Tonight, I've decided, is my night off.  The one story I thought would have been a short story, has become what appears to be a two or maybe three book span.  I'm a touch miffed about that, but there's so much detail and so many ideas I want to explore and they just don't fit into a short story.  Oh well.

I'm also making progress on a short story that's been with me for years that I've never been able to finish, just because it never seemed quite right.  The main character, despite being monstrous on some levels wasn't actually all that interesting, but his PR Rep is.  That one blindsided me, it did.  So I've done a bit of research on public relations and have been writing it from her perspective, which is going... smoothly.  Oddly enough.  Things going smoothly worry me, probably unnecessarily, but the point remains.

NaNo is coming up... oh god.  Reckon I'm going to start plotting like now.  I'd love to do it again and actually beat it.  I think I might have the balls to do so this year and I'm used to writing a lot now, so it might work.  Of course, the Holiday Season (Christmahannakawanzaamadan, as I tell the nastier of my customers who get shirty with me over saying Happy Holidays) is almost upon us retail slaves.  I'd love to call in dead for Black Friday.  No one would blame me for slapping a bitch, right?  Well, they might blame me, but they'd understand, I'm sure.

Let's see, I'm looking forward to the end of the month, I'll be doing a project with work and will be spending most of November couch-surfing down Pittsburgh, wherever I can find a place to stay.  I truly, fully, absolutely cannot express how much I am looking forward to that.  Freedom? Fuck yeah!  Adventures? Damn straight!  So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Hm... I suppose I'll have to find an internet cafe or something.  That'll be a touch bizarre, but so be it.  Won't have a laptop, my old one died, not that I'm particularly surprised, I dug it out of a dumpster, all things considered, so the fact it worked for so long was a miracle in and of itself.

In other news, I had the most awesome purse in the world until it became... not so awesome... Which was really sad mind you.  See, I found this crudely wrought leather purse at the local Goodwill, never seen anything like it, it had two awesome pockets, and strange symbols on the front.  It took me a while to figure out the proper search string for Google to actually find the symbols and what they meant....

Let me tell you, ignorance was bliss.  My awesome purse with strange symbols?  Not awesome.  Not even close to awesome.  More like suck, because I loved that purse.  When I had no idea what the symbols meant, I used to joke around that it meant I was part of an evil secret society bent on world destruction.  (I can be a bit odd at times, of course.)  So with the proper search string, Google tells me what the symbols represent and completely destroyed the awesomeness of my purse:  It's the fucking symbol of Scientology.  I detest all manner of foolishness, and accidentally carrying around a Scientology purse was definitely not a message I wanted to send in the least.  I may get someone to rework the leather or do some sort of design over the symbols, maybe the hamsa or something like that, but I was really rather crushed by that discovery.  Awesome purse was not so awesome.  *sigh*

In other news, I'm rereading the Harry Potter series and am the better part of the way through the fourth book.  Harry Potter was my second fandom, the one I got most mixed up in and then got out of.  I missed it, spent some time reading thrashy fic and loving it.  I forgot how much I loved the series and most of the community (though the majority unnerves me) until I started reading the books again.  Before I was a major Lupin fangirl, that was in my teenage years.  Now I'm finding, a few years later, Percy has become my favorite character.  I certainly didn't expect that.  Still, I loves me some HP.

Speaking of all things fangirl.  Stargate Universe.  Sadly, I think I'm going to hate it and that depresses me.  It's 'dark and edgy' which annoys me to no end, and it lacks the charm of Atlantis and SG-1, which I'm not sure what that charm was, but Universe definitely lacks it.  Also, spaceship stranded in deep space a long way from home with a crew of misfits?  'Cause that's never been done before.  Don't get me wrong, I'll give it a chance, but like Heroes, there's only so many chances a show gets.

I've also discovered Numb3rs and Bones, and discovered I'm seasons behind.  Not that this is shocking.  I'm not always good at paying attention to the telly.  I love me some House, but I honestly couldn't tell you what time or what day it comes on.  Most of the time, I just download or rent it after the season's over and watch it in one long go.  Maybe more on that later, hard to say.  Also, the band Owl City is my new crack.  I can't stop listening to it, cause holy crap, it's addictive.

So, that's the update.  I'm off to sign up for NaNo and plot.  Work in the morning.  Chess in the afternoon and beer in the evening, which pleases me.

In comparison with the last book post, I'm not nearly as cantankerous with these books and actually enjoyed the hell out of them.

#25: Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey
I do love me some Jacqueline Carey and this book was a significantly easier read than Kushiel's Dart.  It was fun, entertaining, dangerous, and sexy.  I'm highly biased towards Carey's work because I'm enjoying the hell out of the Kushiel series.  I read this a while ago and never got around to reviewing it here, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it.

#26: Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
Woo! The Kushiel series.  I love the series, it's so dense and sprawling.  The mythology blends in seamlessly with the complex plots and social dynamics, characters are completely three dimensional, never evil for the sake of evil.  Oh, and it's sexy as all hell too.  I do have another lighter quick read around when I'm reading these books though just because they tend to get overwhelming in their detail and amount of things to remember.  That's not a bad thing, of course, they just tend to take me more time to get through than other books.

#27: Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow
The Dante Valentine series has become my read-during-breaks-from-Kushiel book.  This they're certainly not the best thing ever, but they're an easy read and lots of fun.  Much like the Nightside in that respect.  But on the other hand where the Nightside's mileau shines, Saintcrow's characters steal the day.  I'm not terribly sure how to describe the books, they're set in a relatively crapsack future where myths and human psychics, called psions, have come out of the shadows after some form of psychic awakening happened.  Demons and all sorts of strange technology go hand in hand in this series.

Dante Valentine, a necromance psion cum mercenary, is hired by the Devil to kill one of her old enemies and a great threat to Lucifer's power.  It all goes to hell from there when she's paired up with the fallen angel Japhrimael and old friends as they hunt for their bounty.  All in all, the story is generally predictable but it was a fun ride that I thoroughly enjoyed.

In Conclusion...
All the reads worked for me, versus the last post, one of which I couldn't explain my irrational distaste of one book I was pretty sure I was going to like (Hero), I'd recommend any of these three.  Right now, I'm reading Kushiel's Chosen, Dead Man Rising (the next book in the Dante Valentine series), and I'm slowly rereading the Harry Potter series as well.

So, catching up on geeky things, I just watched the 2007 movie Cthulhu.  I adore the Lovecraftian mythos but never got around to watching the movie in a timely manner, I'm not much for TV or movies to begin with.

Won't lie, I enjoyed the hell out of it and spent most of the hour and forty minutes on the edge of my seat.  I'm still a little panicky and freaked out too, just like after watching the Doctor Who episode "Blink."  Of course, I watched both Cthulhu and Blink at night with no one home in a dark and creaky house.  Yeah... that's a brilliant recipe for someone who spooks easily like myself.

Currently I'm enjoying a nice cup of tea and listening to Celtic Thunder to calm my nerves.

The film is not without flaws and the low budget definitely hurt it in a few spots, but overall, I found it enthralling and deeply sensual, though confusing in places, unless that was what the filmmakers were going for.  Dunno.  The film has a definite positive homosexual angle and was pretty well integrated into the plotline though a bit overdone at a few points.  I'd watch Jason Cottle, who played Russ (the main character), in another movie any day.  Also Cthulhu is the first anything I'd ever seen Tori Spelling in, I'd only heard about her but never watched anything she was involved with, and was fairly impressed with her creep-tastic character.

Though the movie suffered severely at the finale, it seemed way too rushed, way too confusing, and just what in all seven hells was in that tub?  That said, it was the atmosphere of the film that sold me.  It also scared the crap out of me, I'm not going to bed now, believe you me.  It ranks as one of the scariest movies I've seen in a while.  I'm not talking in terms of gore, blood and gore really isn't all that scary in and of itself, it's atmosphere that's disturbing and this movie had it by the buckets.  Just like those damned angel statues in Blink.

Good movie, if you've got an open mind and like being creeped out, I'd recommend it.  I was glad to see it.

Books twelve and thirteen were on two different sides of the spectrum: Hero by Perry Moore and Eric Nuzum's The Dead Travel Fast: Stalking Vampires from Nosferatu to Count Chocula.  Hero was YA fiction and The Dead Travel Fast could be called sociology, I suppose.  Oh, I reread the entirety of the Dresden Files too.  There's also a few other books I've forgotten somewhere along the line too, hopefully I'll remember them.

#12 - Hero by Perry Moore
I picked the book up after a discussion on women and gay superheroes on the internet.  Women and gay superheroes always get the short stick in comics.  I love me some comics but this fact does piss me off.  This book was Perry Moore's answer to the statement that homosexuals can't be superheroes.  The book is YA and clearly aimed at that demographic.  It wasn't a bad book, per se, it was entertaining and mediocre.

This book makes me irrationally angry and annoyed, I'm not too solid on all the reasons, but there's a few.  The main character and narrator, Thom Creed, was an oversensitive drama queen with an ability to heal people.  Oh, and he's gay.  And it's the worst fucking thing in the world and many pages are dedicated to angst and evil homophobes.  It doesn't help that he's a selfish bitch either, not stopping to consider the others around him until he's forced to by Deux Ex Machina.  He doesn't suffer the consequences of his actions, he just goes 'whoa me, my life sucks and everyone hates me cause I'm gay',.  The supporting cast existed either to die or cause drama or make Thom whine more.

The worst part is, in the hands of a better author, this could have been a damn good book.  I hate let downs like this.  Still, I suppose it would have appeal to teenager.  Just not to me.

I give it a meh out of 5.

#13 - The Dead Travel Fast by Eric Nuzum
This was a random "Oh this looks interesting" pick up off the shelf.  It's a non-fiction piece dedicated to trying to understand the vampire.  If you're already familiar and pretty well researched on the vampire phenomenon, don't buy this one for any new revelations.  The conclusions are fairly basic: The vampire is the reflection of society's deepest and most primal desires.

However, it's an excellent and entertaining read.  The author is hilarious and great company on his mad tour from drinking blood, watching every vampire movie ever made, walking through rainy Transylvania with new agers and drama queens, and some research.  It's worth the money and the time just for his commentary

Though I must pose the question:  What do sparkly vampires say about our deepest and most primal desires?
No, seriously.

#14 Storm Front - Jim Butcher
#15 Fool Moon - Jim Butcher
#16 Grave Peril - JIm Butcher
#17 Summer Knight - Jim Butcher
#18 Death Masks - Jim Butcher
#19 Blood Rites - Jim Butcher
#20 Dead Beat - Jim Butcher
#21 Proven Guilty - JIm Butcher
#22 White Night - JIm Butcher
#23 Small Favor - JIm Butcher
#24 Turn Coat - Jim Butcher

I love the Dresden Files.  I had the time, so I decided to reread them.  They're so much fun, just like the Nightside.  Not gonna find the meaning of the life, the universe, and everything in them, but I love being entertained.  Dead Beat remains my favorite, because, y'know, zombies.

Right now, I'm in the middle of Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart and Santa Olivia.  Love them both, looking forward to the end of those and more of her work.

I mentioned in a post some months ago that I can pretty well track my life through my various media obsessions.  Star Trek is no different.  Well, there is one difference, I've been around Trek all my life, just never involved.  I grew up watching The Next Generation with Dad but was never terribly into it.  I'd watch it if it was on but never made a point to do so.

The new movie, which isn't really all that new now, was a point of excitement.  I saw it opening night, and four times after.  Geeky?  Hell yes.  But I had so much fun.  But what's become even more fun than the movie has been going back to the television serieses (serii?) and watching them all from the beginning.  The Original Series all the way through Enterprise, movies included.  I've been working on this goal.

( Geek speak under here...Collapse )

This post can also be called 'I Am An Idiot,' just so you know.

So Thursday. Last Thursday, in fact. I helped my cousin study for a high school biology final; things which I only vaguely remember. It's been a long time since I've been in high school and I feel old. But grateful, high school intrigues are for high school. There was a spectacular electrical storm rolling through the area, it knocked out the power and we declared it an appropriate time to take a break, sit out on the porch, and watch the awesome power of weather.

Science is awesome, I have always maintained this belief.

However, I should have endeavored to consider the fact that lightning is in fact dangerous, unpredictable, and capricious. Human beings are stupid and I myself am as well. You see where this is going, yes? Mercifully, it wasn't a full on strike. Lightning struck the ground, traveled up a wire and jumped to me, catching me low on the left calf. Then it jumped from me t o my cousin, also catching her in the leg.

We're alive, quite obviously. I had a light burn and still do, she got a smaller one. I'm glad I caught the worst of it, me not her. There's been some weird side-effects too. My leg doesn't respond right and the area that took the strike feels tight and strange and a little bit numb. Normally, from my readings, shocks are supposed to cause nerve problems. I had the opposite, I haven’t had the problems with my nerves, severe shooting pain that occur anywhere, that I’m used to having nor have I had a seizure (simple partial seizure, for those interested) since. Believe me, I’ll take that one.

I could leave the insomnia though.

It’s not a complete insomnia, I can get about four or maybe five and a half hours a night, but I haven’t really felt tired since being struck. I’ve felt exhausted, sometimes painfully so… but not tired, not tired like I need to sleep. It’s the strangest thing, especially at four in the morning when logically one should be either asleep or dead tired, and I’m sitting up awake and writing. Four in the morning is actually ridiculous for me, I’m not really early or late riser, but I still haven’t done that since university.

I suppose I’ll have to get myself on a sleep schedule, because it’s not that I don’t sleep, it’s that I don’t feel tired, and haven’t, no matter how little sleep I’ve gotten. Really, I’m just hoping this is a temporary thing, I don’t particularly enjoy sleeping but having my emotions on a hair-trigger because of exhaustion is just not a valid option.

So, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I’ve got a few book reviews to write for the 50bookchallenge and what not, I’ve also got a new nerdy obsession.  More on that later, but this must be drawn to a conclusion. I’ll make it simple:

Science is awesome, I always have and always will maintain this belief.
I am also a fucking idiot for sitting outside during an electrical storm, that too is a belief worthy of remembrance.

Just got and finished the new Dresden Files book, Turn Coat.

In two words: Oh, snap.
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