The Votes Are In!

Well, technically there's still another 16-17 hours left in the poll. Blame me for not realizing that I'd probably want to settle my decision before the start of the event. Thanks to everyone who voted... and I should note that I'm particularly pleased to have gotten the participation I did. I know the usual suspects chimed in, but a good handful of people dropped by specifically because I asked for their input. So thanks to both groups, I actually got a number of votes greater than 5. And I didn't even pad the number by voting.

Still, I made it clear that I'd make the final decision, and that I wouldn't necessarily listen to the popular vote. That's right, I'm an army of one. Or my own electoral college. Or something. Anyway, let's get on to the big announcement: your winner... or should I say winners, and my choice(s) for Script Frenzy are:

Wow. I'm still amazed that so many people seemed to like this idea. The name and the premise didn't seem all that strong to me, but I'm glad that something clicked with people. Honestly, I almost forgot to add this idea into the list at all. But it's an idea I've played around with enough to have a few solid ideas stored up (and a few new ones to boot).

But since there's only so much script you can do for one book (lengthy or not), and because I was reminded how much I had floating around in my head about this title (you'll figure out why that's funny later), here is winner number two:

A twisted tale of twisted people and the strange but frightening world in which they live. They're around you. They're beside you. They're.. inside you? It's Frak. And it's totally going to suck when I only script out the first episode or two. Bwa-hahaha...! But we'll see.

At any rate, I'll likely work on both concepts enough to reach a definitive stopping point. I don't believe in leaving major cliffhangers unanswered anyway. In theory.

And to show you how sick I am, I'm seriously debating staying up until midnight just to make my official start right out of the gate. Although since I have work in the morning, I just might not stay up that late. Thanks again, and stay tuned for further updates.

HouseTV: WCG Ultimate Gamer

Or: how I learned that even I could find a reality show that I can't watch.

Seriously, I'm as shocked as anyone else here. I've proven that I will not only watch but also will enjoy virtually any show with a reality or elimination format. There have, of course, always been exceptions to this. For instance, I was never a fan of some of the half hour dating shows (Elimi-Date comes to mind immediately, if only because I had that stupid theme music stuck in my head for years), and I cannot stand any of the Bachelor(ette) shows, if only because I can't wrap my head around there being any one person worthy enough to have a dozen or so people fighting over them.

But I'll give most hourly shows a try. And most stick with me enough that I at least want to see how they end. But WCG Ultimate Gamer? Nope. Don't know, don't care.

For starters, the premise sounds cooler than it is. Each week, the chosen group of uber-gamers participate in two challenges based around a given game. The first challenge is a reality challenge, meaning they have to compete in some real life aspect of the game in question. For instance, during the Rock Band 2 episode, the gamers had to perform in an actual rock band. They're all ranked in this challenge and a round of playing the actual game later. The scores are added up, and the lowest ranked player is automatically marked for elimination. The highest ranked player then gets to choose who that person will face in the "Elimination Stadium".

Why does this idea fail? For starters, see my previous comments on why Starcade was superior to Nick Arcade. For a show based around games, there is surprisingly little of any given game shown. Even the final elimination showdown is edited down to the point where you barely get to see the game. It seems that maybe they should have put more time into that, especially after noting my second fault with the show.

The fault? What else? The contestants. I'll be the first to admit that not all gamers fall into the stereotype of being boring or geeks or losers or whatever it's trendy to call them these days. But the problem is that I find it hard to care about any of these people. They try to make interesting stories of rivalries or potential hookups, but the pseudo-attachment that normally forms with reality contestants is lacking here. I think, as best as I can tell, that they're just boring people, and forcing them to live in the same house together (Reality Show Convention #3) just doesn't give them the chance to be more appealing at all.

I really want to give the show more of a chance, but I don't think it's going to happen. Boring players + boring premise = me finding something better to do with my time. G4's dalliance with professional gaming fared much better in my opinion, but then again, they actually focused on... you know, the games.

You the People: Debating Script Frenzy

Time to make the doughnuts. Or in reality, it's time to pick the subject of my upcoming efforts in the writing project known as Script Frenzy. But in this case, I've decided to look for some honest to goodness feedback on the matter. Because honestly, no one has cared enough about my previous writing project to even speak of it. Once. I love you, too.

So I'm putting it to you, all 6 of you (yes, the number's increasing), to give me some input or advice on what sounds interesting to you. Of course, I'll probably just ignore it all and do whatever I feel like, anyway, but try not to stress over that too much. At any rate, here are some of the ideas I'm floating around (all titles are tentative):

Bobby and Bill (Comedy): The classic duo comedy team formula meets a modern world and a slightly more mature set of plots. Bobby has a warped mind, but always the best of intentions. Bill is the stable, more sensible of the two, but prone to bouts of rage. Their friendship is the thing of legends, or at least the fodder of sitcoms.

This idea would also most likely spawn off a few other comedy shorts I've wanted to flesh out, since I doubt the main concept will hole for 100 pages.

Frak (Drama, Sci-fi): When Annie met Charlie, she thought he was a little off. When Annie met Chaz, she knew he needed help. But when Annie met them both together, she knew that there was something wrong with her. Annie always knew that she was a little odd, but she had no idea that looking into it would send her on a journey of self discovery that forced her to face her own duality…

And no, it's not about Battlestar Gallactica! Screw Galactica! I said it. I don't care.

Fortune Hunter: Fortune City Blues (Drama/Anthology): This is the screenplay version of Fortune Hunter, which was the basis for my Nanowrimo project last year. That project is in turn connected to a larger overall project. Which part of either project I work on in April is still up in the air.

Hardcore: The Metal Titan (comic): Meet Trey Montgomery, gifted high school senior and part-time police sketch artist. What, if any, connection does he have to metal behemoth known as Hardcore? And can either solve the mystery of the recent set of robberies in the tech district?

The Moments in our Days of the World (Soap Opera): Okay, so this is a flat concept, and I have no idea where it would go exactly. But I’ve been sporadically watching a few daytime soaps for a while now, and I’ve gotten disturbingly good and figuring out where the plots are going. So why not take a stab at the real thing? You don’t know what to expect because I don’t know what to expect.

So that's the gist of the five main ideas I'm playing with. Please vote in the poll off to the side of the site (you can vote for more than one) and/or leave questions/comments here. I'll be more than happy to expand on any of the premises if someone wants to know more.

When Amazons Attack... We All Lose

I wouldn't normally go for stuff like this, but the fact that this guy chose (or was more likely forced) to review the train wreck that was Amazons Attack and that he somehow made it five times more entertaining than the book ever was. Then again, given the book, that doesn't really take a ton of effort. Thanks for reminding me why I dodged the entire title to begin with.

Amazons Attack 1 and 2


Amazons Attack 3 and 4


The epic conclusion, complete with full breakdown of the reviewer:

My Spoiler-Free, Heavily Censored, Gundam 00 Rant of the Week

Oh, ****. Oh, ****. Aw... oh, ****! This is not good. This is not.... what? Aw, yeah. It's on now! That's what you get! That's what you get! Haro! Oh! Oh! Kill that mother******! Kill him to death!

Ah, sweet catharsis. Whew. Hmm. Well, that makes... what the...?! Kill that mother******! Oh, please kill that mother******.

Some New Toys I Found

So I'm prepping up for Script Frenzy and one of their resource pages provides links to some cool stuff.

In particular, I was pleased to find Final Draft and Celtx (two downloadable script formatters) and Zhura and Scripped (two web-based versions that do the same thing). Especially since all of them except for Final Draft are free.

And while I was at it, I started fooling around with a few more programs, too. There was the PortableApps version of Firefox, which lets you use the web browser from a portable drive. And while I was checking programs out, I finally broke down and decided to check out OpenOffice (since I don't have Word and the like on my laptop). So far both seem to be working pretty smoothly.

HouseTV: A Little Colbert...

Just a few clips from last week's episodes of The Colbert Report. The old Tip of the Hat/Wag of the Finger, complete with all of its normal insanity.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Tip/Wag - Mississippi, Talk Shows & SyFy
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

And yes, Steven, I would watch that, too.

And the conclusion(?) to the Stephen Colbert/Michael Steele hip-hop rap battle "controversy". Fa-shizzle.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Conservative Rap Battle - Michael Steele's Response
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

Abstract Thought of the Day

You know what? I still don't like Final Crisis, and I'm still not rereading it five times to find the inner layers. I shouldn't have to read something five times to find the inner layers.

Why Do I Choose to Punish Myself?

So Nanowrimo is months in the past, and conversely also months in the future. That's assuming, of course, that I can bring myself to take the plunge for a second consecutive year. It was rewarding, but it was also painful, stressful, and full of chaos.

So why, after enduring that and probably needing a few more months to even convince myself that I'm ready to go again, would I think about subjecting myself to the nonsense that is Script Frenzy? Why? Why not?

I've thought about it, and I've decided that it can't be any worse than Nano was. In fact, for some twisted reason, I seem to think that it should be a little easier. Of course, I've been wrong before. But at least in this case I'm considering it a few weeks before the event starts at the 1st of April.

And for anyone else that might be considering it, you have a few weeks to mull it over, too. The only plus to this is that if you choose to, you can have a writing partner. In theory, that should be helpful, but I'd imagine the wrong one could be just as detrimental.

At Least We Aren't This Bad About St. Patrick's Day

I'm sure there will be reports of many an interesting thing from today, but hopefully nothing close to this old report from an Alabama news station. On the plus side, this is the clearest sign imaginable that it was a slow news day.

HouseTV: Retro Retro Gaming

Someone reminded me that I hadn't provided the link I claimed I would to this site here yet, so I might as well get around to doing it. Honestly, I hadn't remembered that this show existed at all until I ran across the website.

For those of you that recall the early days of G4 (back when it was much more gadget and games friendly and less Cops and Cheaters centric), you may recall the old game show Starcade. If you don't, then here's a quick primer: kids played video games and won prizes. Seriously, it makes its own gravy.

I know what you're thinking: how is this show different from the kids game show Nick Arcade? For one, Starcade does not suck. The two problems I always had with Nick Arcade were that the "quiz" portion of the game ran on for far too long and almost never ended without time running out. The true novelty of the show - getting to play video games - became uninteresting once you realized that these kids had seemingly never touched the games that they thmeselves were choosing. If someone gives you a goal like 800 points in level 1 (and it was always level 1!) in 30 seconds, you should be able to figure out the basics of the game enough to pull it off.

Starcade seemed to find kids that had at least stepped foot in an arcade, and even claimed to give them time to practice the games prior to the episode. Don't get me wrong; some of the kids are pretty crappy at the games. But the worst appearance on Starcade dwarfs the best appearance of any Nick Arcade kid.

So check out the website here, which lets you watch old episodes of the series among other things.

"Knowledge is Power... For Real!"

News of the passing of Ron Silver today got me to thinking about the various things I know him from. He's one of those actors that was bound to pop up in almost anything, and no doubt I'll spend the next year or so playing a game of, "Hey, that's Ron Silver!" I recall him most recently from his recurring role on West Wing, but that's mostly because I've been watching reruns of that show.

But of the odd variety and a personal favorite of mine was a show he appeared in by the name of Heat Vision and Jack. It was basically an unaired pilot, and it wasn't particularly spectacular. Honestly, it reminds me of something that early era FOX television would have shown. But between Rob Schrab (of Channel 101 fame) spearheading the show, Jack Black and Owen Wilson leading the series, and Ben Stiller doing both an intro and a brief (and useless) cameo, it's hard to point out any of the oddball antics as extraordinary. Peep said opening...



But we had Silver, who was noted as playing "himself" but was clearly not an ordinary human. The joke, of course, was that Ron Silver was just that bad of a man. It didn't take much digging for to find this, which is quite honestly my favorite line of the entire pilot.



RIP Ron. In my world, I will always be afraid to shoot you in the back.

Edit: Of course, the one time I don't double-check my embeds, I end up posting the same clip twice. I like the scene, but not that much.

"Is That the Freaking Death Star?"

My discovery of Marvel.com's release of the Japanese Spider-Man series reminded me of an old Channel 101 series that follows a similar pattern. The show, Return to Supermans, somehow ends up being just slightly less insane than Sentai Spider-Man.

But the shows do have a few things in common. First, Return to Supermans features snippets of Spider-Man's theme music. Second, the entire first episode involves Supermans' epic battle with none other than Spider-Man. But be warned that you shouldn't attempt to apply logic to the series at all, otherwise you'll never be able to get past Supermans dodging all those green lasers.

The Turkish Men of Steels would later return to face Lex Lucifer, Hulk Man, Space Clowns from Kryptar, and finally Captain Americans. Feel free to check it out, with the disclaimer that like any Channel 101 show, there can be mature content (although from what I recall, this series mercifully never embraced any of the "full frontal" variety of said content).

HouseTV: A Little Bit of SNL...

I've got the episode DVRed, but since I still haven't gotten around to watching the whole thing I figured I'd drop a few clips from last week's Saturday Night Live. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson always finds a way to be entertaining. Sure, he's not Hugh Jackman, but he can carry a musical number with the best of them.



And who's to say that this isn't what would happen if our President ever lost his cool? Take note, Congress. Push him at your own peril...



And finally, after pondering this for weeks, this would explain so much about the party leadership...

Good News For HeroClix Fans?

Could the epic game of miniature comic book combat be on its way to a revival? Saveheroclix.com's Jake Theiss (also part of the producton staff of Pinata Games) made an announcement on their website on March 10th. Part of said announcement follows here:

1) We (Pinata) have reached a deal in principle with the new game company formed to purchase HeroClix. We're on-board and once their deal with Topps closes, we'll be back working fulltime on HeroClix. Whew!

The new company will staff up to support the transitioning brands, and Pinata will be one component of the new company's operations. We'll still be based out of Seattle, and we'll spend the vast majority of our time planning for and relaunching HeroClix.

2) Hammer of Thor will be the first product release post-relaunch. We're working with several vendors now to see how fast we can get it to market (without sacrificing any quality).

So basically, while a new company will have the rights to HeroClix, Pinata appears to have a deal with them in place to work on the property. And on top of that, the Hammer of Thor set is still slated to come out at some point. Later posts have asked site members what they might want from a starter set, so at the very least ideas for future sets are still being discussed/bounced around.

I'm usually the first to say I'll believe something when I read it definitively, but seeing as just a few weeks ago they couldn't say anything regarding any deals, this at least sounds like a positive sign. Even another set or two woul dbe a welcome addition to my army of tiny warriors.

Abstract Thought of the Day

Dear Random Stranger,

I know I pretty much got caught giving you a once over that could only be me checking out your goodies. But even though I got caught so blatantly that I spent half the day pondering if I should at some point stop by and apologize for doing it... I don't apologize. You know what you're doing, and if you put those bad boys on display, I'm going to check them out. It's only natural.

Abstract Thought of the Day

Why are all of the cops in the soap operas I'm watching black all of a sudden? There's got to be a better in on the set than that one. Come to think of it, why am I watching soap operas? Back in the snare again...

(Not So) Fresh, Imported Webhead

After the edtiorial choices of the past year or so, it's nice to see that Marvel can actually do something I appreciate with Spider-Man. Marvel.com has decided to show a subbed version of the old Spider-Man super sentai show. Think Spider-Man as a Power Ranger and you're on the right track. Just click below to check it out. You can check out a slightly larger version of the first episode at Marvel's website.

"But Think of the Toy Lines. The Cereal..."

I haven't seen Watchmen yet this weekend (I'll probably go sometime Monday), but it's never too early to win the internet with insanity. I have no idea how or why I seem to come across these things, but I am oh so glad that I do. And hopefully, there isn't some psychotic pitch man somewhere thinking that this is a great idea.

I give you Happy Harry's Saturday Morning Watchmen. Oh, the humanity.

Unfiltered: Project Nano - Chapter 2

(After the overwhelming response to last week's installment (when I said read it in parts, I didn't mean to take a month... sheesh...) we continue with excerpts from my Nanowrimo project. In this installment, we meet Danielle Brightstar, the would-be sidekick who ends up more of protagonist than I expected her to. Behold the opus that is tentatively entitled: Enter the Walkabout...)

“You have to stand behind the line, ma’am.”

“I’m sorry?”

The man behind the counter made a pushing gesture with his hands. “Behind the line, ma’am. It’s for safety purposes.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Danielle took a small step back to accommodate the clerk, bumping into the person behind her in the process. She offered a quick apology to the disgruntled woman, who responded with a series of odd clicks from beneath her cloth-wrapped face. Danielle tried to play it off and focus on what was ahead of her: the city. It was an entirely new concept for her. She had heard the word and seen the pictures, but to actually be at the gates of one was a completely overwhelming feeling. She made a futile attempt at remaining calm as she waited behind the line for her chance to get her pass. In her mind she tried to convince herself that if she couldn’t keep it together long enough to get through the gates, she couldn’t possibly handle what was past them.

No. That’s not an option... She adamantly told herself. She had set out to prove that she could make this work, and it was the exact wrong time to start having doubts about it.

“Ma’am?”

“… Yes?”

“It’s your turn, ma’am.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Danielle bit the edge of her lip at having lost focus long enough to lose track of being next. She wasn’t even inside the city gates and she had already managed to irritate a man behind a glass and a female… she still wasn’t quite sure what the thing was behind her, except to glean that it was female. Or at least she thought it was. This would take some getting used to.

* * * * * * * * *

Having cleared the main gates, Danielle made her way out of the visitor’s center and into the city proper. If she had any prior knowledge of things like stadiums or coliseums, she might be inclined to compare the walkway with the entrance to one of those. As it was, she was more able to equate it with a clearing at the end of a forest trail. She would, naturally enough, have been disappointed had what met her at the end of the walkway been as simple as a field of lilies. Needless to say, she was not disappointed.

The confining nature of the visitor’s center only led to amplify the effect of being in the city’s open space. It was like letting out a big breath to be exposed to the open air again, and Danielle found herself stopping for a moment just to take it all in. The city spanned outward into streets and buildings of various sorts, the first ones being the obvious ones you’d expect to see at a city entrance. The main street (named appropriately enough Main Street) split the city in half as it ran in a straight-line north. Side streets led off to the east and west, as the wall’s curvature made the ones nearest to it simply fade into the distance. The vendors and the wares they had for sale were both varied, spanning from the mundane and practical to the flamboyant and bizarre.

Danielle fought the voice in the back of her head trying once again to convince her that this was a big mistake. She tugged awkwardly at the edge of her animal skin skirt as she watched the various individuals make their way into and out of the area. She had figured that with the city’s diverse cultural background she wouldn’t feel quite out of place in her tribal garb, but she couldn’t help but feel that way as she watched the way things moved about.

“Hey. Nice staff.”

Danielle heard the comment from behind her and turned her head to grasp what the source was. She almost expected the individual to be addressing someone else despite the fact that she was carrying a rather large wooden staff. She was so used to carrying it with her that half the time she barely remembered that she had it. Danielle regarded the man who had come up behind her with an odd expression. “I’m sor…" She stopped herself short of saying that same phrase for what felt like the one hundredth time and instead offered a gently spoken, "Excuse me?”

“I said, ‘Nice staff.’” The frail looking man darted his head around in an attempt to avoid eye contact. By his manner, he seemed worried about what he’d just said.

Danielle had noticed as she turned her head that the man had not been looking anywhere near the vicinity of her staff. In fact, his need to repeat himself seemed more an attempt to make her clear that he had said staff, although why he’d need to do so she wasn’t entirely sure. She couldn’t think of any words that sounded like staff that she might have confused with something lewd, but she didn’t have the largest vocabulary when it came to that particular dialogue. She decided to ignore the fact that the guy had been staring at her and focus more on the fact that he chose to speak. “Can I… help you with something?” Danielle offered as a safe avenue of conversation.

The man squirmed around the issue, his head continuing the same darty movement it had before. It only helped to emphasize his uncertainty. “Are you… Bright-Star?” He chanced to look her directly in the eye for a second before darting his gaze away again. “I asked the girl with a tail and the Amazon lady, but they weren’t Bright-Star. So, um… are you her?”

Danielle turned to face the man fully. Her staff, as it had many times before, pressed into the ground next to her as she planted her feet again. Her face pressed into a soft state of confusion as she replied, “I am. Did the Guild send you?”

“Guild?” The man treated the word like it was an obscenity. “I ain’t part of no stinkin’… uh…” He tried to adjust his tone along with his response. “No, no. I’m not with the Guild. Although the guy… you’re supposed to meet a… he said to… I…”

“Just relax,” Danielle interjected with the start of a smile. “So, Mr.…”

“Weasel. Not Mr.… They… just call me Weasel.”

She could at least see where he got the name. “So, uh, Weasel… someone sent you here, right?”

Weasel bobbed his head in a weak nod.

“And the person is connected with the Guild, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“Okay. So why did they want you to meet me here? I thought I was supposed to meet my Guild sponsor at the hall.”

“You are. You were. There was a change of plans.”

Danielle’s grip on her staff tightened a little. “Change of plans? What kind of change of plans?”

Weasel shifted a little as he noticed the slight change in the woman’s demeanor. Just when he looked like he was about to dart off, he began to blabber again, “O’Bannon. He said to tell you… change of plans… new meeting… since he’s not there… He’s supposed to…”

“Calm. Down.”

Weasel snapped to attention at the slow talk like it set off some kind of trigger in his head. He took a deep breath, then started over, “O’Bannon. He’s the guy that you were supposed to meet at the hall. He told me to find you and tell you to meet him somewhere else. Somewhere closer. More convenient. For him, anyway. Uh… but I wasn’t supposed to tell you that last part.” Weasel tried to play off his miscue with a weak chuckle.

Danielle surveyed the man cautiously. For all of the things he seemed to know, she really had no idea that anything he said was true. The guy had a nature that made you feel like he shouldn’t be trusted, but at the same time he didn’t seem to be all that dangerous, either. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being.

“All right. Where does he want me to meet him?”

(Yes, Danielle's entrance is deliberately designed to offset the initial dread felt by an entire clan's worth of hardened bounty hunters. Of course, maybe her presence in the city really is the beginning of something hazardous. Time will tell. Ooh, suspense...)

"Missed it By That Much..."

So the story of interest today isn't what you missed at the start of the week but what missed you.

As reported by CNN.com and other sites, an asteroid 40 yards wide just missed hitting the planet on Monday night. By just missed, I mean that it was roughly 40,000 miles away from us. Which seems like a long way away, but in astronomical terms is pretty freaking close.

And while many people seem to play it off, I feel the need to point out a handful of factoids that continue to make me nervous. First of all, this particular asteroid, while not large enough to take us out like the dinosaurs went, was still large enough to cause a serious boom had it hit land anywhere. Second, since it came as close to the Earth as it did, some astronomers believe that Earth's gravity may well affect it to the point that we will continue to have near misses with it. Good stuff. But on the bright side, we should have plenty of warning next time. After all, we had... wait, what? Three days? We had three days warning this thing nearly half the size of a football field was on its way past us? Sheesh. I feel comforted.

And lastly, while I can't prove this is related at all to it, cell phone calls have been randomly riddled with static the past few days. And paranoid me is always more afraid of a near missing celestial body accidentally irradiating us than it hitting us. But hey, it's not like we can really worry about it. And if worse comes to worse, well, you know how the drill goes...



(And yes, I've had this song stuck in my head since I read this story earlier this afternoon...)

Finding the Balance

So Sam Johnson decides, almost eerily, to comment on the nature of his blog and how it does and doesn't embrace factors of his life. I say eerily because I've been nursing my own commentary on the matter for the past month or so. So I figure now might be as good a time as any to explain the nature of my page.

Many times, my blog is kind of a sticky board for my travels around the web. It's useful because I used to find myself running across cool, funny, or just plain informative things and then forgetting to recheck them or revisit them. You know how it is. You screw around and that funny clip you meant to tell everyone about slips out of your mind and your web history, never to be seen again. Not to mention as things that entertain me, they do say a good deal about me and who I am. So while it might be considered a cheat of sorts, I also consider them a form of my own expression.

And certainly, I have my page as a place that I can talk about my life. I do so mainly because talking about my life is yet another way to express myself. Not to mention that there are sometimes thoughts and stories that due to lack of time or contact I just don't get around to mentioning to the people around me. I can at least point them to here when I get the chance or just speak to my invisible friend, the Phantom Reader (I bet someone has that name copyrighted, too... dang) and get it out of my system.

But like Sam, there are things I just won't talk about. In general, I won't talk about my job, except in passing or to comment that I am or have been working. Part of that is just me being professional and not dragging any potential work issues into the open, and part of that is just common sense. My page is, after all, open to just about anyone. Given my job, it just isn't practical or wise to publicize anything related to it to the public. (And no, I am not a spy like my profile claims I may be.)

Likewise, because this is public, there are things I simply don't wish to share. I like to think that the small group of people I've alerted to the site's presence (who actually bother to stop by on occasion.... guilt trip!) are trustworthy enough not to go blabbing my useless business where it isn't needed, but all the same there are some times I won't roll the dice on that. I'm still debating whether or not I should have been so open about my political views, but I stand by that as a means of coping with a political environment whose logic was testing my sanity. Not that it's gotten much better. But I digress...

And of course there is a time issue. There are weeks when I've gotten so tied up with other stuff that I haven't bothered posting things that I've already got written. Now that's just sad.

So that's it in a nutshell. I try to express myself a little and be as open as possible about the little world I live in, but you're only going to get so much out of me. Live with it. Or don't. I'll get by either way.

My Spoiler-Free, Incredibly Censored Gundam 00 Rant of the Week

(based from last week's episode, and even containing current events from this week)


Aw, **** it. **** it. It's gonna... wait... it's gonna be... oh, no! Yes! That was.... but... oh. Aww. Aww. Aww. Oh! Mmmph! You son of a... Stupid __________ and their stupid ____ _______ and ****ing up everything good and wonderful. I knew it was going to be ****ed up, but... agggh! **** it! So ______ and ____ can't be together, but Chris Brown can get back together with Rhianna? Yeah, I said it.

So, **** you guys. I was totally okay with stuff and then they got the J-Pop and the ending with Engrish and she's all singing, "I LOVE YOU... I TRUST YOU..." and you broke my ****ing heart. It's in pieces. That's it. I'm done with you for good this time. You have hurt me, and I cannot recover and what did that preview say will happen next week? Aw, I gotta find out what happens now. In the meantime, I better watch this episode again. Oh, Gundam is a cold mistress...