bodacioussylph

In its first two years of existence, the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers gave their Grandmaster Award to Donald Bain and Alan Dean Foster. Then they irrevocably lowered their standards by giving one to me. *wry grin*

This year, they do a great deal to regain their dignity by giving it to someone who actually deserves it again, to wit, the great William Johnston.

Bravo!

"MedievalDragon" over at Blizzplanet.com has put up an excellent (and detailed) overview and review of StarCraft: Ghost Academy #1.

Money quote:

Did you read Starcraft: Ghost Nova? Then you will love reading Starcraft: Ghost Academy as it's written by the same author: Keith R.A. DeCandido -- who participated in the shaping of the main character and its world. Awesome job, Keith! Fernando Heinz Furukawa is the artist of this manga. The artwork is very enjoyable and consistent. Rich facial expressions really help to transmit each character's emotions throughout the plot. I am not into manga, but I truly dig Furukawa's style.

Overall, a good read, as expected from the writing-calibre of Keith R.A. DeCandido.

January 4, 1961, was a great day for all the longhairs in Copenhagen, Denmark--it was the day the barbers' assistants ended their thirty-three-year-long strike.

Anime Sentinel has written a nice review of StarCraft: Ghost Academy #1.

Meanwhile, StarCraftWire.net has put up a preview of the manga on their site. The images are a bit small, but you can see what an amazing job Fernando Heinz Furukawa did with the artwork, at least....

It's on YouTube, so it must be true!

Okay, not really, but it's pretty damn funny....






("Oh four tuna, bring more tuna....")

Shortly after sunset, one can see a bright beacon of light called the Evening Star over the western horizon. There's no use wishing on this star, as it is an impostor--it's actually the planet Venus.

I haven't posted much personal stuff on this blog since terri_osborne and I broke up at the end of April. This was a deliberate choice. While this is still my personal blog, I'd like to keep it professional, if you know what I mean.

However, while Terri and I did split eight months ago, it took until now for us to stop living together. Originally, she was to move to another apartment in the building, but then our landlord needed to give the apartment to their handyman, who lost his apartment due to a change in ownership of the building he and his wife were living in.

Since then, the handyman has had the apartment (and the job as handyman) taken away from him for a variety of reasons, not least being the time I had to call the police due to an argument between the handyman's son and the son's pregnant girlfriend that sounded like it was leading to violence.

Yeah.

Needless to say, Terri got the apartment right quick, amidst apologies from the landlord. She's in the process of moving right now. She started sleeping down there Saturday night, and starting late yesterday, she took Marcus and Aoki.

There was never any doubt that she would take the cats when she and I stopped living together. Marcus has been her cat since 1992 when he was six weeks old. And Cus-Cus needs his bratty younger sister, as he's getting older and crankier, and Aoki keeps him active. Basically, Marcus needs Aoki more than I do.

But last night was really really really hard. Aoki's been one of my greatest sources of constant joy since we brought her home from Bide-a-Wee in 2004. Yesterday was the last time she'll sit on my hip while I take a nap, the last time she'll rest on my tummy when I'm asleep, the last time she'll wander up to my desk chair and mrow and me hoping for scritches, the last time she'll sit on my lap while I'm working at the computer, the last time she'll knock my deodorant off the bureau because there's no food in the food bowl.

I will adjust. And there are very likely to be more cats in my future.

But Aoki will always be my little girl. She was the first cat that was truly in any way mine -- I inherited Marcus and Mittens when Terri moved in with me -- and I miss her horribly.

Paul Revere didn't make the infamous midnight ride from Lexington to Concord--he was captured by British forces and had to walk home because they kept his horse. Samuel Prescott, however, did make the ride, but it's doubtful he shouted, "The British are coming!" because nearly everyone living in America at that time was a British subject. Revere is revered because of the factually incorrect poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

I was able to see two movies this past Winter Break, and both of them had some awesome visuals...

...the first was Avatar. I understand that many people experienced motion sickness during this film, and I can understand why! Luckily, that has never been an issue for me, and I was left unaffected by the movie (in that regard) even though I saw in in 3D. Honestly, to say that the story was enthralling (at all) would be a gross overstatement. It was beyond predictable...even heavy-handed. I suppose I like my foreshadowing to be a little more...I don't know...shadowy? Still, for simply the visual aspect ot, the movie was well worth the price, both in money and time!

Yes, the 3D animation was simply awesome. I imagine it would be fun to watch again, even if it weren't in 3D! There were so many little aspects of the film that caught my attention that I was completely swept away by the visuals. I think one of the most fascinating, for some reason, were the hands of the Na'vi. I really just liked looking at them. I'm not sure why. The linguist-geek in me was also pleased that there had been some work in creating the Na'vi language and that it wasn't just sounds thrown together, randomly!

...the other film I saw was Nine.I didn't know too much about the film before going into it, only that people whose opinions I respected had liked it. Well, I did, too! Visually, although in a very different way, it was a visually stunning movie. In fact, at the final scene, the way in which it was staged had me getting teary...not so much for the emotion behind it, but for the power created with that blocking. I don't want to saty too much else about it, other than if you like stage musicals transferred to film, I'd suggest seeing this one! I will add, though, that I would have loved to see some of the secondary characters' storylines fleshed out more...

According to Harold Camping, the notion that the world will end in 2012 is a "like a fairy tale." He scoffs at the ludicrous notion based on silly, unsubstantiated superstition.

In fact, he says, the world will end in 2011, and he has biblical "authority" to prove it.

Yup.