The Subtle B
Seriously, how does “subtly” get away with a silent “b”?
I’ll have to look into it when my hands are less busy.
Functional Friday
It’s been a pretty brutal week for creative projects; a sizable portion of the household was down with the flu. (Likely pork based.)
I did manage to get a few more gag strips written, I’m at a point now where prodding the artist more regularly may be needed.
The serial continues to develop. Although this week didn’t see much in moving the actual scripts forward, I did arrive at some pretty meaty ideas.
Dance magic, dance
Still fencing with the swine flu, but I think we’ve got it licked. This is really just a quick post for Jessica May though, as seen on Ectoplasmosis, originally photographed by @leapdaredance.
A Dubyah Mystery solved!
This is a screen cap from an episode of the ’60s Spiderman cartoon that floated up at me from the TV aether of darkest night, while I was tending a sick child.
I’m not sure if there was a time when the “Texas pronunciation” was more common, or if this is actually an indicator of a horrible ultra-power that lies above and beyond fission/fusion.
The episode, Specialists and Slaves, can be found on the youtube:
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z51-Rh4Vr2s]
Part 1
[youtube_sc url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=617i-1PSaw8]
Part 2
Paranormal Activist
We watched Paranormal Activity over the weekend.
The characters were never really developed beyond “Reasonable Girlfriend” and “Jerkass Boyfriend”, and it opens with a few of the old fashioned loud noise/fake out scares that you might expect, but in the end it was a pretty effective little movie.
The nature of a faux-handheld camera movie frees you to not worry so much about character development, and the scares are well deployed and interesting enough to keep even a hardened enthusiast, such as myself, entertained.
Actually, in an odd way, it reminded me of Ju-on, the original version of The Grudge. Relatively simple horror stories, using relatively simple effects, each made more effective by their “home made” nature.
Function
Despite the fact that it rarely gets mentioned, the function of this blog, other than being a dumping ground for the types of random thoughts already on display below, was always meant to relate more to my endeavors in writing fiction.
The truth is, despite the fact that my original mindset in setting this up was a sort of public shaming that would help encourage me to actually get writing, the fact that I’ve avoided discussing it at all has basically negated that effect. It feels awkward to discuss my creative work though, more so somehow than using this as a platform to shout at people about how dumb their kids are.
So, what have I got on my plate, and what do I want to get accomplished?
At the moment, I’ve got two projects in my pocket:
The goofier of the two is a gag comic strip I’ve been writing. Following the suggestion of the halfpixel folk, we’re building a backlog of comics before posting anything. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve scripted out the first thirteen, and come up with general ideas for another ten. Our idea is to post 3 a week, we’ll see how it goes.
It’s surprisingly tough to be funny on demand and I’m not sure I’ve managed to do it.
The other project is a piece of serial fiction I’ve been working on for quite a while. Explaining its format is tough, its definitely experimental, but I’m excited to see if it’ll fly. It’s a pulpy story with a definite arc and ending. Sort of an ensemble cast thing.
Well, it ain’t much, but at least I’ve introduced the children. Next time we’ll get into why you should love them.
October Maintenance
Some odds and ends relating directly to this word-truck:
My top search item at the moment is “Garfield Hates Mondays”. He sure does.
The number one post currently is my item about Butcher Pete.
The number one referer, kind of sadly, is AlphaInventions, a site that displays a random blog for a few seconds and then switches to a new one. I’m not really sure how I got thrown in that mix.
lonely lunch
Given enough time alone I inevitably begin freaking myself out. I suspect this may be the big brother reflex running free and unfettered, like a bully turning on his own minion when nothing else presents itself for a bit of sport.
A bowl of miniwheats becomes full of ridiculous doubt: just why weren’t those two miniwheats better seperated from each other? Shouldn’t you have taken a longer look at it before just shoveling it into your mouth? What if some kamikaze powderpost beetle gave its life to gorge in the final moments of wheat formation, it’s bloated body absorbing the seperation blade without allowing the two suggested serving sizes to split?
Given enough time alone, I inevitably begin freaking myself out.
I suspect this may be the big brother reflex running free and unfettered, like a bully turning on his own minion when nothing else presents itself for a bit of sport.
A bowl of miniwheats becomes full of ridiculous doubt: just why weren’t those two mini-wheats better seperated from each other? Shouldn’t you have taken a longer look at it before just shoveling it into your mouth? What if some kamikaze powder post beetle gave its life to gorge in the final moments of wheat formation, it’s bloated body absorbing the separation blade without allowing the two suggested serving sizes to split?
C'mon, CNN
From a while ago, but I’ve only just re-discovered it on my drive.
I think CNN should have really dug to the real questions for the article: Should your wife have any friends? Should your wife speak unless spoken to? Should your wife spend so long in the kitchen “cleaning” in an attempt to throw you off about how many Bloody Marys she’s had to slam to be able to sit through your tedious hawing at According To Jim reruns?
The first actual question that comes to mind is: Should CNN allow people suffering from marital uncertainty to post news articles on their front page?