Sunday, June 30, 2013

Virtual Tourist - Star Was The Old Republic 6/30/13

(I'm not really here....Oooooo! Still at SoonerCon!)

Star Wars The Old Republic
Jedi Consular
Corellia


Look at the giant missiles! Eek!


Either one huge logo or an awesome bit of graffiti. :)

Can you spot the giant ship hovering above the city?

Some Sith full of their own power.


I've finally found my Master's Master - he's fighting with the First Son who's a personna trapped in his body.

I think it was a glitch but looked awesome. Drove home the duality he continues to fight with. Though at least, he's the one in control again.

Corellians really enjoy tall buildings. Love the funky shapes.

Fountains in a statue courtyard - and some hidden scanning equipment. :P

Cool insignia, no?

Another Dark Child

More Corellian decor

They like 3D holograms of heads around here.

Weird seeing a place like this with all the sandbags and places to take cover

Another Sith thinking he can keep Corellia. Not today buddy. Not...today...

Leaving Corellia - have finished my Jedi Consular's main storyline. Hubby and I have hit 51 now.

Shot this from a movie once I answered a summons

My Jedi at meditation. It was funny as I finally got a dye pack (something new) and ended up with Green and brown, the green being prominent. Then I heard about the Green Jedi. Was hilarious when they showed up all in green! lol. 

Being told I am needed elsewhere. I still have my 5 companions and a ship full of politicians. Oi!

Great shot of my Jedi ship, no? Squee!

Friday, June 28, 2013

My SoonerCon Schedule for 6/28-6/30/13

Yeah, no movie review today - sorry!
Life was too hectic to squeeze an extra one the last few weeks, or I'd have had ya'll covered.


This weekend I will be a panelist and vendor at SoonerCon!



Loads of fun to be had there this weekend! Been looking forward to it.

Below is my panelist schedule:

Friday 2PM C Space - Diplomacy in Speculative Fiction:  Why isn’t everyone killing each other?

Friday 4PM Joyner - It Keeps Me Young:  Why YA Makes Great Reading For Adults

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Saturday 10AM B Space - Science in the Victorian Age

Saturday 2PM F Space - Cinema So Far: 2013 in Fan Genre Films

Saturday 3PM Theater - Yard Dog Road Show! (Must be seen to be believed!)

Saturday 4PM F Space - Build A SyFy™ Saturday-Night Movie

--------------------------------------------------

Sunday 10AM 10 Forward - Koffee Klatch - schmoozing with the guests!

Sunday 11AM F Space - British Invasion: U.S. Television and the Union Jack (Eek! I'm the moderator!)

Sunday 2PM Rice - Reading - Yes! Come hear me stumble over my own dribble! Hah!

Sunday 3PM F Space - Tolkien's Fantasies on the Silver Screen


I'm gonna be BUSY! :P

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Picture Kaleidoscope 6/26/13

Running late!!!!!



The company had a celebration last week and we had a Crawfish & Jambalaya cook out. They had a ton of sea motif lollipops. Too cute!


Should have gotten closer, but loved how the lights had cloth covers to make them look like paper lanterns. :)


Coming home the other day, the sun was playing off the back plastic on this jeep. The picture was not able to capture what our eyes saw, which was the sun playing like a rave laser pointer making all sorts of fast and squiggly shapes. Really cool looking.


Loved this decal on their window. The red is a deer and antlers and at the top give the outline of a skull. I thought it was amazing as the antlered deer motif has been heavily used in the "Hannibal" TV series (So very very good!) so it was very apt. :)


Val d'Orcia Hills by Daniele Liberati at Earthshots.org Love the way the fog is barely visible.


Some other nice ones at her website too! Here's Il Pirgo by Daniele Liberati



I'm a sucker for these night shots! Milky Way over Crater Lake by Yiming Hu at Earthshots.org


Oh! He caught the sky on fire! Awesome! Set Fire to the Sky by Yiming Hu


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

NEWS! "In the Service of Samurai" is now available as an IMABIK Audio Book!





Woot! Looks like they forgot to tell me. It's been out since 5/22!





Yes! My fantasy novel "In The Service of Samurai" is now available as an audio book from IAMBIK through Audible.

Totally love the reader's voice - her name is Availle. She has the coolest accent! But I mostly love her emotion filled reading. Yay!


Monday, June 24, 2013

Mind Sieve 6/24/13

Yet another post done by vicarious means while waiting for my back muscles to play nice. :P
Though I have to say, the issues have forced me to get creative and to play with some of the more neglected electronic devices in the house. lol









My uncle shared this with me and I have to admit it was very cool! How To Get To Mars.


Walt Disney's Frozen Trailer. Too cute!



The LEGO Movie Trailer - just when you thought it couldn't get weirder. lol



(I was wrong- this is weirder still!) Free Birds Trailer - time travelling turkeys!!! ROFL!








For lover's of Rachel Caine and her Morganville series  - she's doing a kickstarter project to get a we series done for the books! Cool! (Tried to embed the video, so hopefully that works!)

The Wolf of Wall Street Trailer - looks crazy! lol.



A new Simon's Cat! Flower Bed.


Facebook Hashtags - This Week In Social Media by Cindy King at Social Media Examiner. The FB hashtag thing sunds useful!


Does Google Know You Wrote That? by Randy Ingermanson at Gene Lempp's Blog. 




Tons of links to other writing blog posts at Gene Lempp's Blog in his Writing Resources 15 June 2013 post. Glad to have him back!

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - Ten Stupid Writer Tricks (That Might Actually Work!).


 Woohoo! Feeling a little more normal and finished the post. YEAH! *pumpsfistintheair* Wooo!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Virtual Tourist - Star Wars The Old Republic 6/23/13

Morning!
Muscles in my back seem happier - yay! This means I can do stuff again - woot!


Star Wars The Old Republic
Jedi Consular
Corellia


Hmmm a leftover from when I last played? Hmmm


New pet! Sadly couldn't get a side picture of it. When I move, it moves.



This surprised me! Statue crack! :P


Funky statue trio.


Corellian flags (And the bird is trying to steal the spotlight. Worse than the doc!)


Way funky flag. Love the crosswalk sign behind it. Heh heh


In the distance you can see a giant holographic head.


Here's a better view of two of them.


Men at Work! (Their tags say their bandits, yet they're doing manual labor. I think the Imps out them up to this.) Heh


Super gigantic statue between the mirrored buildings. Cool!


Hubby got this in one of the Cartel packs. Republic insta flag! Stays there for a minute or so. Rallying point?


Hope you have an awesome Sunday!

Friday, June 21, 2013

Movie Review - Monsters University


Starring: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Helen Mirren, Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, Charlie Day, Alfred Molina, Nathan Fillion, Julia Sweeney, and more.

Directed by: Dan Scanlon Screenplay by: Robert L Baird, Daniel Gerson, and Dan Scanlon Story by: Robert L Baird, Daniel Gerson, and Dan Scanlon Original Music by: Randy Newman

Premise: Mike has always been overlooked, but early in life he realized what he wanted to be when he grew up - a Scarer. And his dream feels close to coming true when he shows up at Monster University on his first day in college. Yet he finds out right away that there are plenty of monster who feel he's not qualified to be a Scarer, despite his high grades. Amongst them is Jimmy Sullivan, the son of a well respected Scarer. The road to his dream job, won't be as easy as Mike thought. (Rated G)

Review:

1) Voice Acting - Total Thumbs Up: Billy Crystal and John Goodman reprise their roles as Mike and Sullivan in this prequel to "Monsters Inc." The banter and one liners are as witty as the original, except this time the two monsters are working against each other even when they are on the same team. Helen Mirren was fabulous as Dean Hardscrabble. She was scarier than just about everyone there, without having to roar. Peter Sohn, Joel Murray, Sean Hayes, Dave Foley, and Charlie Day were a lot of fun as the rest of the members in the Oozma team. Julia Sweeney as Scott's Mom was hilarious!

2) Artwork/Animation - Total Thumbs Up: Pixar does marvellous work and it shows in every frame. Though the film is about a world of monsters, the look and the feel of Monster University is very much that of an old and famous university like Harvard, Yale, or Cambridge. Classical looking buildings, fraternities, orientation, school clubs looking for members, dorms, student rivalries, and all the other things one would expect as being part of the college experience. The tiny details to put all that together as well as adding things here and there things to make the world unique in its own right were amazing.

Using the versatility of animation, Pixar took full advantage and created many visual 'gags'. The chase through campus for the stolen rival university's 'pig' mascot was hilarious. Even more entertaining were the side effects experienced by those involved in the first test of the Scare Race.

3) Plot/Story - Total Thumbs Up: Since this is a prequel, a lot of the audience who are familiar with "Monsters Inc" will be expecting the eventual reconciliation between Mike and Sullivan due to their close friendship in the first film. What's fun about the expectation, though, is the fact Pixar doesn't make it easy. The problems are not something touched on then are quickly and easily resolved, but rather the eventual, expected outcome works in stages, which was quite nice.

A lot of the issues the two monsters face in the film can be plucked straight from real life or several college movies. But the one thing which will surprise many is that though this is considered a children's film, the writers don't solve the problem in an unrealistic way. If anything, the fact they show that rash actions do have consequences, and even punishment, is a path that's not the 'norm' with movies made for kids. But all is not doom and gloom, the film also showed that even in failure one can still find a way to where they want to go. It might be a longer more arduous path, but eventually one might get there. Definite kudos for that.

4) Music - Total Thumbs Up: Music isn't normally a category I use (though I am a definite believer in soundtracks being able to make or break a film), but it was definitely needed for this film. Randy Newman's score was perfect - the main title song in the style played by any college marching band. It did a lot in immersing the audience into the whole college theme.

Conclusion: "Monster University" is a fun film with a lot of content for adults as well as kids. Very nostalgic in a way - bringing back memories of college days or 80's college movies. The attention to detail is just amazing. Also, make sure to sit through the credits - there's just a tiny bit of more fun at the end. (The short cartoon called "The Blue Umbrella" which shows before the main feature is adorable!)

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Paying Full Price to See Again.)

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Picture Kaleidoscope 6/19/13

Good morning!
Back muscles are still angry, but I did actually take some pics over the last couple of weeks. Lets' see how far I get.

 
Blown glass light fixture. Really neat and classy looking. I cool little touch at Fry's or as we call it "The Toy Store." :)

 
Pic of the latest plushy attempt. Sadly, he was supposed to sit upside down to this. But the other way is what actually worked. The eyes were already screwed in, so I improvised. :P 

 
Not as many stoplights in the work route anymore, but was able to snag this one on the way home.

 
Stonebriar Mall - way cool struts. Reminded me of where I am climbing around in Dishonored. Heh heh
 
 
Bove Light by Maurizio Pignotti at Earthshots.org. He has a pretty cool website too! Love his logo.
 
 
Majestic by Michael De Guzman at Earthshots.org The black and white really makes the light almost glow, doesn't it?
 
 
 

Back muscles are screaming so that will be it for this one. Have an awesome Wednesday!

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