Monday, January 30, 2012

Mind Sieve 1/30/12

Fate has attempted to mess up this post. But a post we will have! Bwahahahaha!






Trailer for Detachment - looks weird and major 'take a hanky with' movie. Lots of great actors in it.


What fun! "What If" - Movies Re-imagined For Another Time and Space by Peter Stults.


Pencil Art by Jennifer Maestre. Not your typical way of making arts with a pencil is it? Heh heh.


This is super cool! You'll freak at the end. Chinese Art - Sugar Painting. Totally awesome.

Jelly Bryce - the Man Who Taught The FBI How To Shoot by Holmes. What I find truly amazing about this bit of history is how the FBI ever thought that they could chase criminals without having their agents know how to handle weapons. Doh!



Celebrate Chinese New Years Lego Style! From NPR. So cute! Love the fire on the business man's bum. Hee!



Probably only writers, editors, and agents will find this amusing. Heh heh. Script Cops Episode 2.


Voyager joke from Brendan Thompson. Heh heh.


SMACK! Oh my! lol. But true... :P From Motifake.com



Special Exclusive Preview of Man on A Ledge - extended preview and info from Total Films. I think this one will be fun. Hubby doesn't. Boo!


This was being shown around on Facebook. All I know is that I WANT IT! But not outside. Heavens no! That sucker deserves and inside wall in my house, facing the entry way. Drool!



Time To Reply - a really cute new song from Charlie. 

From Variety.com - Warner Brothers has acquired the right to Tad William's SF/F epic Otherland! YES!   Sweet! Loved this series!


New Poster For The Raven with John Cussak FromTotal Film. I think this one will be fun!



From Gene Lempp - Designing From Bones - Cult of the Rooster Syndrome. Proving suckers are always ripe for the picking?







From the Social Media Examiner - 26 Tips For Writing Great Blog Posts by Debbie Hemley. While aimed mostly at business blogs, many of the tips will work great for our author platforms!

From StoryFix - Further Perspective on Author Branding - You Are Forced To Choose Who You Are. Some wise words here.







25 Things Writers Should Know About Agents from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Amen, Brother! (Ooo even got something I'd been looking for in here. heh heh.)

Wake Up! It's Time For A History Lesson - how to write/use history in your writing - guest post by Victoria Martinez over at Kristen Lamb's blog.

It's Alive! Poking Dead Scenes With A Stick pt 2 by Janice Hardy. Nice approach!

When Do We Need To Know What A Character Looks Like? from Juliette Wade.


That's it this time around. Hope you find some of this useful if not fun! See you next time. :)

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Virtual Tourist - Star Wars The Old Republic 1/29/12

More Alderaan and Dromund Kaas pics.



A set of high road ruins in Aldeeraan


Overlooking view from a high set shuttle landing pad.


Hope to get a decent character face pic form this one. The default expressions are kind of blank though.


Machine looked too cool not to photograph. :P


Lower view of the road ruin.


Alderaan has suffered some major damage in places




A bird creature on Alderaan. Since most things tend to be agro, it's hard to get pics of the local fauna at most of these places. lol.


No idea on this race at Dromund Kaas. Could be off worlders since they were only at one location.


Caught this great pic of lightning hitting one of the electricity siphoning towers.


Ancient sith area.


Testing cave for an odd Sith/Jedi cult where they mix both teachings. Odd bunch of peeps.


Ah yes, another holocron or data cube - so close and yet so far. Approximately at X -800 Y 1453 Z -8


More Dromund Kass ruins.


Back on Alderaan a cool view of the ruined road and the giant chunk of land hiding the holocron we found a couple of weeks ago there.


Palace of the Clan causing civil war on the planet at present.


It has seen better days but still looks pretty good. At least here in this main room.


See the tiny glare of red on the second floor? Another holocron/datacube. Though elevators go to the second floor, they don't go toTHAT second floor. lol. X -2445 Y-434 Z 112


The main throne room. A total wreck bu the ceiling was amazing. The room is actually under water. A couple of leaks were quite worrisome. 


One of the outside walls of the palace.


Lakeside view of the gorgeous scenery.


There's a native insect life form on Alderaan. We finally found a nest area.


These guys are way unhappy, so could only take far off pics of the race.

About to leave Alderaan, so next week should have a new planet. Possibly at the end of Dromund Kaas as well.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Movie Review - Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy



Starring: Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, John Hurt, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, David Dencik, Ciaran Hinds, Kathy Burke, Tom Hardy, Amanda Fairbank-Hines, Simon McBurney, and more.

Directed by: Tomas Alfredson Screenplay by: Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan Based on the Novel by: John le Carre Original Music by: Alberto Iglesias

Premise: A forcibly retired spy in the 70's is asked for one more task after it appears that what had been thought of as the paranoid delusions of the previous head of British Intelligence about a mole in their ranks appears to be a possibility after the man's passing. (Rated R)

Review: This film is a slow puzzle being put together from floating pieces of yarn or random dots. The trick is to figure out which dot is the right one, the correct starting point you need to connect the line for the next one and then the next - the most innocuous of things actually are clues to the whole.

If you're sleepy or tired, that's not the time to see this movie. If you blink you might miss something important. Take a restroom break at your peril! Clues are everywhere, and some are incredibly subtle.

Tons of kudos to all the actors in this piece. A lot of information is gleamed from looks, a stumbled step, who finds what or not amusing. It was a lot of fun compiling all the information being provided to realize the motives and secrets laying about in the hunt for the mole.

The film might not satisfy younger tastes as it is full of seemingly random scenes and builds at a slow pace. The few sections of violence are brutal though also mostly implied. The hunt is mostly mental rather than physical, each piece leading towards the next.

What was truly lovely in the plot was a tandem mission within the mission. One that despite seeming to be irrelevant and nothing but a distraction, actually meant more than imagined when seen in the whole. There is a ton of subtext -  another reason why you dare not blink. And it was marvelously shared. The scene at the small airport towards the end was chucked full of subtext from the moment Toby entered the car with Peter. Lovely. You'll leave the film flashing on little nuggets and getting new insight all the way home.

Two items that I found super interesting was how the fired head of the Circus (British Intelligence) was only ever referred to as Control. He even signed his dispatches as 'C'. The other was you never see the face of Ann. Also was fun watching the route within HQ of the sensitive data. So many little touches!

This is a film about the rewards of long term loyalty, trust, honor, of the impacts we make on other peoples's lives which could have far reaching impacts even from a short, casual meeting.

As for the title - it is a reference to the nicknames given to those who might be the mole. So truly it is Tinker, Taylor, Soldier.

If you like puzzles and mental spy games, this is for you!

Rating: 4 out of  5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Picture Kaleidoscope 1/25/12

Food for your eyes!


Mythril and Mr Boots. They pretty much did this like synchronized swimmers. They walked down the wall then plopped down. It was to cute!


Gloria's Super Special from Gloria's Restaurant. El Salvadorian  and Mexican food. Super yummy. Their refried black beans are awesome on chips. Mmmmmm.


Just love those colors!


Trying to just give you the colors here without civilization. Didn't quite make it. :P


Looked out my window and loved the funky effect. I actually captured it! So shocked! lol 


From Barri Gotic - People in Tapas Bar. Very abstract but pleasing!


Finally, Ice In The Streams - abstract photos by Mike Moats. Some of these are quite cool looking!


Masks by Stephan Kunzler - these are cool!


Heroes for Hire Covers by HMT Studios. Oh yeah!




Grand Views of the Grand Canyon by Don Pettit. Breathtaking no?


NASA's Image of the Day - The Eagle Nebula


Hope you enjoyed the offerings this week! See you next time!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I Won the Kreativ Blogger Award - Squee!

I knew there were blogger awards out there, but honestly hadn't paid much attention. So imagine my surprise when Gene Lempp mentioned giving me one on Twitter this past weekend. Squee!

Here she is in all her beauty...



It seems there's a protocol to follow once you get one of these, so let's see how badly I can botch it. :P

Oh, and in case you're interested, here are the rules for presenting others with the award.


1) The Kreativ Blogger image must be displayed on the blog.
2) The nominator must be acknowledged.
3) The recipient must state ten things about himself or herself that his or her readers probably don’t know.
4) The recipient must pass the award along by nominating at least six blogs to receive the award.

Ten Things About Myself You May Not Know! Dum Dum DUM! (Err, quickly rummages in cobwebbed filled brain for something to put on the list.)

1) I'm actually terribly shy.
2) Which means you won't be surprised that I am a total wallflower at parties.
3) Hate doing "Hard Sales" because I loathe trying to force people to buy something they might not want. (Yes, shooting myself in foot in this business, but I'm weird. And I live better with myself this way. heh)
4) I'm always wishing I had a clone, but not sure where I would put her.
5) I somehow destroy beta readers. Still trying to figure out how I'm doing that...
6) I love delicate things but have a hard time from keeping them from getting destroyed.
7) I'll wear jewelry, clothes, shoes, until they're dead. Then be sad about it.
8) Cannot work on something and watch TV at the same time. Have no idea how my daughter does it.
9) My husband insists I am psychic. I keep insisting he's a psycho. (He likes that for some reason. Huh)
10) Never ever auto follow me in an MMO. Not only am I Wrong Way Conway, but I'll somehow inadvertently make you fall off cliffs. (Especially if I don't know you're following.) :P

This next bit I am going to fail on. Since I get most of my post viewing from Twitter, there are few blogs I actually go to on my own on a recurring basis. So on that lame note...here are some nominated winners for  Kreative Blogger:

1)  Chuck (NSFW) Wending - recipes, memories, macro photography, writing tips, writing motivation, gaming industry, publishing industry, alcohol. Chuck is all over the place. No idea how his creative brain cells don't burn up into the ether. :P

2) Kristen Lamb - loads of social media and writing tips, but what wins her, in my opinion, the Kreativ award is the wide and insane range of pics she uses to put bling into her blogs. Just went over there to get her blog link and this beauty is what I ran across.


She must troll for hours to find some of these beauties. heh heh.

3) The History Blog - all things history. From the mundane to the outright weird. Treasures, museums, discoveries, and more.

I'm supposed to have three more...and that's where I failed. :( Once I post this I am sure I'll think of more. Hah! (As usual.) Doh!

Thanks Gene for the extra WORK! lol. (No, really, very flattered. Thanks!)
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