Gloria Oliver - Unveiling the Fantastic

Movie Review - Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy

2012-01-27T23:08:00.001-06:00

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)

Picture Kaleidoscope 1/25/12

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

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!

City Silhouettes: Skylines Seen Through Portraits of City Dwellers by Michael Zhang. Neat idea!

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!

I Won the Kreativ Blogger Award - Squee!

2012-01-24T06:50:00.000-06:00

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!)

Mind Sieve 1/23/12

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

Tons of stuff to share this week. I'm rolling again! Heh heh.

Okay this sucker gave me the creeps! Going to be one nasty film. Eek! The Divide.

This one looks like a nasty mind trip too - The Kill List.

Most Anticipated Films of 2012 by CleverMovies.

New 'Amazing Spiderman' Images over at The Hollywood Reporter.

Rare Tomb of Woman Singer Found in Egypt's Valley of The Kings by Aya Batrawy at MsNBC.com

Jules Verne's Mysterious Island Behind the Scenes Video. Oooo! Love me some Mark Sheppard and William Morgan Shepphard! Should be fun!

Weirdest Seat Belt Commercial Ever! lol. First part kind of creeped me out. Last part was way cool.

New 'Battleship' Poster and Image Arrive from Total Film. This should be a blast!

New 'Promethues' Image Arrives from Total Film. It so has the feel of 'Alien' to it, doesn't it? Heh heh

Oldest-known Astrologer Board Found in Croatia from the History Blog. Cool!

Kepler Finds More Planets Orbiting Two Stars by Sindya N Bhanoo. Tatooine! They found Tatooine! Heh heh.

Tad Williams' 'Otherland' is Getting an MMO Adaptation by Ian Miles Cheong. COOL! Loved that series!

The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate - Jet Li and Kung Fu Goodness! Whee!

Designing From Bones - Percy Fawcett: Dissecting A Legend from Gene Lempp.

Sharpen Your Blogging Habits: 14 Actions to Take to Amplify Your Blog's Voice by Kristin Nador.

Why SOPA and PIPA And Other Anti-Piracy Bullshit Measures Matter To Writers by Chuck (NSFW But Says It Like It Is) Wendig.

The Road To Success Part Two - Understanding The Why Behind The Buy by Kristen Lamb.

Hooks, Loglines, and Pitches: What Every Writer Needs To Know by Anne R Allen. Nice stuff here peeps!

How To Work With An Artist To Create A Kick-butt Book Cover by Duncan Long. Sage advice!

25 Things Writers Should Start Doing by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig.

And that's it for this week. Have a great one!

Virtual Tourist - Star Wars The Old Republic 1/22/12

2012-01-22T10:33:00.000-06:00

More tourist in-game photos!

The Republic Fleet as seen on approach from the bridge of my Jedi Consular's bridge.

This is on Alderaan. We found a back way accidentally to this place and thought it was our next quest point. Because we came in the back, we found that you couldn't get down. So we were walking on an invisible bubble. That's John way in the back of the pic, floating on air. (We found out later it was an Imperial spot!)

This is me, floating, with the camera view overhead.

More cool pics of Dromund Kaas. The sky never clears and lighting is constant. They must use electric poles to disperse buildups in static electricity.

Weird glowing plants that throw off luminescent seeds.

Kaas, the main Imperial City at the heart of the Empire.

This ugly sucker is a companion for Dark Jedi's. Eek!

Monument to one of the Dark Lords.

Sith Council building.

Imperial Information Gathering Headquarters.

Sith Council Center.

An apprenctice's attempt to flatter his Master by building a humongous statue of him. Ugly cuss.

Found our first holocron on Alderaan (not that we could get to it any better than the others). lol X -162 Y -367 Z 107.

The guild I belong to Veritas Aequitas (Justice - Truth) got together yesterday to do a guild photo. Hoping they post it soon so I can share!

Movie Review - Underworld: Awakening

2012-01-20T20:35:00.000-06:00

Underworld: Awakening

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea, Theo James, Michael Ealy, India Eisley, Charles Dance, Sadrine Holt, Kris Holden-Reid, Jacob Blair and more.

Directed by: Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein Story by: Len Wiseman Screenplay by: Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, J Michael Straczynski, Allison Burnett Based on Characters by: Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman, Danny McBride Original Music by: Paul Haslinger

Premise: The humans have become aware of both the lycans and vampires then unite to clean house. Twelve years later, Selene awakens in a center for disease control facility called Antigen. She believes Michael is the one who set her free and goes off in search of him. But all is not as she believes. (Rated - R)

Review: If you're into loads of action, street chases, werewolves, mad scientists, and more - this movie is for you.

There is a quick recap at the beginning for those who've not seen any of the previous films, or haven't seen them in a while, so no worry there - for the most part. That segues into a short intro on how things got to be the way they are now - with humanity aware of the underworld and the extremes they've gone to to take care of the problem.

CGI work was great! Very nice integrations between reality and added things - there's a chase scene in the street with lycans and normal cars that was very impressive. The silver nitrate grenade explosions are especially awesome in the IMAX 3D.

The fight sequences were very well done. Selene kicks major buns as usual. David and Eve (though her name was never said in the movie) are no slouchers either. Plenty of explosions, bullets, knives, grenades, claws, and more throughout the film.

The story itself works pretty well and they even build up to leaving it open for another sequel. There were a couple of things that were glaringly ignored, probably so no one would question them, but they are definite holes. One has to do with the entire reason for the film in the first place. Another has to do with David. (Trying not to spoil anything.) Perhaps the next film will address these items, perhaps not. There were some nice twists in the plot, so they compensated a lot for the other two issues. So if you don't look at things too closely, you won't have any troubles enjoying it.

No scenes at the end, so you don't need to sit through the credits.

Overall, definitely worth a watch as it will more than fill your action cravings.

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

Picture Kaleidoscope 1/18/12

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

Let's see what food for your eyes I can come up with this time. This post will also suffer as part of the casualties of being sick last week. :(

Little Britain: Photographer Paul Stephens Creates a Miniature World from The Telegraph. These are quite neat looking! Slide show of his pics.

This one is too cute! Can only link to Flickr though. By Susannegipson - Too Cute!

Something you don't think about but there seem to be a lot of it - Coquettish Murals of Tehran by Reza.

Seattle's Space Needle by Kate. Sine great lighting and colors!

Yeah, looks like this will be a lame post... Sniff...
I'll do better next week!

Have fun!

Mind Sieve 1/16/12

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

This will probably be a very poor showing for a Mind Sieve post. Was out sick all last week and aside from sleeping and sitting on the recliner like a mummified vegetable, I didn't do much. Let's see what I can dig up anyway.

Since Supernatural has actually been getting decent again, figured I'd plug this week's episode. :P

Really neat recap of all things Gak! (Need to make time to look these all up! Oooo!)

Designing From Bones - The Stone Giant and Escalating Tension (The Cardiff Man!) by Gene Lempp. Greed, Fraud, PT Barnum! (Sucker - I fit that description. Doh!)

This one looks insanely fun - Moonlight Kingdom.

How To Self-Publish So It Benefits The Readers? by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Great stuff!

Don't Eat The Butt - Lies That Can Poison Our Writing Careers #1 by Kristen Lamb. Amen Sistah!

Here There Be Blog Trolls - How To Spot Them And What To Do by Kristen Lamb. Oh very helpful! Blogger/writer's worst nightmare. Eek!

25 Things Writers Should Know About Finding Their Voice from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Good (and mind bending) stuff as always. :)

From Kristen Lamb - What "Star Wars: A New Hope" Can Teach Us About In Media Res. Very nice!

Yes, mighty thin pickings but what AWESOME pickings they are! Heh heh.
Have an awesome week, ya'll!

Virtual Tourist - Star Wars The Old Republic 1/15/12

2012-01-15T10:01:00.000-06:00

Sorry about not having a movie review on Friday. Meant to do one of the stuff I'd been watching while sick, but didn't happen. Was feeling better yesterday so did some virtual tourism again. So here it is. :P

My ship! My lovely Jedi Consular ship! Isn't she a beauty?

This is Alderaan! A planet we've only seen from space in the films. Gorgeous world. And a marked changed from Tatooine.

Me and my flashy ride.

The Organa House.

Me and my latest matching duds. (My companion is suffering from mismatching clothes though. A fashion victim. :P)

Inside Organa House - decor is very similar to the senate's.

Look at those mountains! Almost like being in Seattle.

Bird-fish thing. Not clickable. Found out later that larger ones are used as taxis!

Like this one! Heh.

Totally breathtaking!

Now to uselessly try to catch up on other things. See you later!

Picture Kaleidoscope 1/11/12

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome!

From Petapixel - Dreamlike Photo Manipulations of Earth and the Starry Night Sky.

From Behance - Illustrations by Raphael Vincenzi. This are pretty darn cool!

15 Images for 2011 by Camera 47.

From Pelfusion - 40 Creative & Catchy Typography Print Ads.

Art of Weislaw Walkuski - cool stuff!

Surrealist art from Beksinski.

The Girl Who Loves to Levitate - 14 photos by Alice.

Time-lapse of comet Lovejoy Rising Above the Andes Mountains by Stephane Guisard - article by Michael Zhang. Pretty neat looking especially at the end.

Some artists names got bandied about a week plus ago and here's another super cool one - Pablo Palomeque.

And another - Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

John Picacio is also the BOMB!

Till next time!

Mind Sieve 1/9/12

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Howdy! Welcome to the latest round of fun. Let's see what I can rustle up to share with everyone this week.

This is a blast from the past and a total blast to boot! Star Trek as the A-Team.

From ZD Net - Japanese Vending Machines: Now Dispensing Wi-Fi. 50 meters around the vending machine. Sweet! Drink and surf! Heh.

Secrets of Life on Newport's Medieval Ship Revealed by Nicola Smith at BBC News. 10th Anniversary of the find.

Poster for Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman's "The Paperboy" - looks promising. Very retro.

Ukranian Lighting Engineer Stuns the Audience. This is way way cool. Had seen something similar before but not to this scale. Starts about a minute in, so wait for it. You won't be sorry!

This is a longer version than the one you see on TV. This is so darn cute I had to share it when I saw someone post it again. Heh heh. The Force: Volkswagon Commercial.

This is beyond wicked awesome! From the Tel-Aviv Quantum Levitation peeps at www.quantumlevitation.com This will blow your mind!

From Gene Lempp - Designing From Bones - Fantastical Realm, Real World - Lemuria. Ah King Julian causing trouble again! (Yes, I watch way too much Penguins of Madagascar. But I'm, telling you, those Lemurs can be a handful. And like Julian wouldn't just LOVE having a cult. heh heh. :P)

Worldly Wednesday: Muslim Terrorists? from Ellie Ann. Great post about seeing the whole truth. Nice!

Looters Butcher Roman Mosaic In Spain from the History Blog. This is just sad. :(

Bayard and Holmes Post Apocalyptic Management Services. Heh heh, heh heh. Heh heh heh heh.

How to Build Your Reputation as a Writer by Paul Rance. Nice, quick little post with some definite wisdom thrown in.

Your Author Blog or Website - what an editor might look for. Great post by Theresa at EditorTorrent.

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - 25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing.

On the same vein I give you a post from DIY MFA - Making the Most of Failure. More awesome wisdom for the new year!

From EditorTorrent - Switching Senses. Great tips!

Internal Dialogue from Lisa Gail Green. Nice explanation and an example! (I love me some internal dialogue!)

Okay, my eyes are being mean to me today so this is it. Enjoy!

Virtual Pictures - Star Wars The Old Republic 1/8/12

2012-01-08T09:50:00.000-06:00

Yes, I've been out playing tourist again. I even found a way to get the frames out of it. Heh heh.

Native fauna at the starport for Nar Shaada. I'd hate the feeding costs on this beastie.

Considered a high tech but corrupted world. Dangerous. But very colorful.

We'd seen these Dr Who Tardis look alike boxes in previous worlds, but only here did we realize what they were - bathrooms! They even had a line with an impatient person or two. Whoever got to build this place had a ton of fun as you will see in the next few shots. NPC's for the win!

Someone who partied too hard is throwing up in the square fountain.

This is one BIG statue for an already BIG Hutt!

Girls bathing in the fountain being fawned over by the guys. lol.

I loved, loved, loved the virtual trees.

City scape during taxi travel.

One big mean robot!

Love some of the awesome detail. Lovely carpets!

Neon bling everywhere!

Cool statue at the starport of Tatooine.

Tatooine is just gorgeous!

We got our personal vehicles here. Couldn't ask for a better venue to drive the things!

Me, my companion, and hubby. :P

Those awesome Tatooine horizons!

Holocron spotting! No idea how to get at it. Wahhh! X -641, Y -15 Z 437

This was a datacron. There's another on the roof. Found out you have to get on a balloon way on the other end of the dessert. Takes about 40 minutes to get here. I still missed the second jump. Disappointed when I found it wasn't a holocron but some kind of jewel collection? Oh well! X -2387 Y -1380 Z386

This is on the Imperial side. A couple of more pics of Hutta before I left the newbie world with my spy.

Climbed way up a mountain side and the vegetation was so lush, I had to take a pic. Heh.

Inside the Imperial Fleet.

Imperial Starport at Dromund Kaas.

An utterly lush and dark place. Caught the lightning in the back.

Weird glowing plant pods. They also excrete a glowing pollen.

Looking down from one of the cliff sides. Gorgeous!

Yes, couldn't resist. I'm sure there'll be more pics. lol.

Movie Review - War Horse

2012-01-06T22:23:00.000-06:00

War Horse

Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Neils Arestrup, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Celine Buckens, Toby Kebbel, David Cross, and many more...

Directed by: Steven Spieldberg Screenplay by: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis Based on the Book by: Michael Morpurgo Original Music by: John Williams Cinematography by: Janusz Kamiski

Premise: After a young man, Albert, and a young horse, Joey, are brought together and bond, the two are separated with the coming of World War I. But not before Albert vows to somehow meet again someday. (PG-13)

Review: Black Beauty meets The Red Violin! I don't know what it was about the previews, but I eagerly awaited the coming of this film. Hubby had no interest, but ended up going with me and loved it.

Older audiences will be reminded of great classics like My Friend Flicka, Black Beauty, and Old Yeller. And because the film follows not only Joey's adventure but Albert's father's regiment flag, as well as the encapsulated stories of those Joey meets, the film was very reminiscent of the captivating film the Red Violin.

War Horse is a family friendly movie. Spieldberg went out of his way to hide moments of death to anyone the viewers might have become vested in, so though they die, it shouldn't traumatize the kids. There are still some scenes of violence, but very few, and the blood is kept to a minimum. Do take a hanky just in case. Some will need it. (I did!)

The film is a coming of age tale showing the courage of animals and people, of hope and loyalty. Between the goose, Joey, and the major's black horse, the animals steal the show. The acting was also superb from everyone present. Some of the best scenes were those without dialogue - where a look or a simple gesture conveyed volumes. Very nicely done.

The locations are fabulous. The sets for the trench warfare and no man's land will make you feel like you are there. Some truly majestic and sweeping camera work.

Definitely worth a watch, with or without the kids.

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

Picture Kaleidoscope 1/4/12

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

Let's feed the eyes, shall we?

Our second falcon/hawk encounter. We were backing up out of the driveway. This time, he didn't move, just kept an eye on us, so I was able to click this off. Could he be getting used to us/suburbia in general?

As you can see, the dawns have been quite colorful of late.

Tried some magnification here to give more sky, less black/land.

Now for stuff I've run across.

Jetty Park at Cape Canaveral by Tom Baker.

From NASA - A Brewing Underwater Volcano.

From NASA - First Low Altitude Pictures of the Asteroid Vesta.

This pic was genius! A Chtulu Christmas Tree. Hee!

Liquid Rose Shot With Food Coloring by Anthony Chang. This is quite cool!

At the Behance Network - Tales and Stories by Kinuko Y Craft. Loads of other great art at this page.

Transform Smoke Photographs With A Dash of Color from Petapixel.

From NASA - Ring of Fire.

From NASA - Orange and Blue Hazes from Titan.

At Behance - Dante's Inferno - game trailer art. They've got the trailer there too. Pretty awesome looking.

See you next time! Enjoy!

Mind Sieve 1/2/12

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

From the guys who brought us Jedi Ninja comes Demon Hunter: Prologue. Some sweet moves in this one.

From the Piano Guys - Carol of the Bells (for 12 Cellos). What fun!

First Earth-sized Planets Spotted by Pallab Ghosh with BBC News. But too hot now for life. Bummer.

My Little Pony and Gundam stop motion crossover. lol. Love & Tolerate featured over at CruchyRoll.

From the NY Times Black Hole Forecast: A Cold Gas Cloud by Ritchie S King. What's actually most amusing about the article is the correction added on 12/29/11. Heh heh heh.

Preview for the upcoming Spartacus: Vengeance starting in late January 2012. Booyah!

From NASA - Celestial Bauble Intrigues Astronomers.

From Science Daily - Paint-on Solar Cells. This could be totally revolutionary. Sounds utterly awesome!

Top 10 Most Outrageous Opening Lines in Literature courtesy of Michael Conor Sullivan.

To Celebrate Edgar Alan Poe's 200th Birthday, the University of Virginia has an exhibition and digital compliment called From Out That Shadow.

10 Electric Cars Coming in 2012 by Patrick Connor. Looks like the movement is on!

Lego Troopers Calendar by Mike Stimpson. Some really cute pics in there!

From BBC News - Archaeologists Make Virtual Map of Neolithic Stonehenge. Seems you can download a program and take a virtual tour of the area as it would have been back in the day. A Bournemouth University and Google project. Cool!

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) Reports Discovery of Its First New Particle by Johnathan Amos and BBC News. Go Science!

Tons of info on Johannes Kepler over at NASA. Since it is his name being used for the search for habitable planets. Also, I've been stumbling over his name all week, especially since I'm reading the novel Galileo's Dream and Kepler was around the same time. Interesting stuff.

Volcanic Activity in the Red Sea is Creating a New Island from Earth Observatory. There's before and after pics with markings. Cool!

Authors: Don't Get Burned by Branding from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Tell it, Brother Beard!

Why Traditional Marketing Doesn't Sell Books from Kristen Lamb.

5 Common Writing Hazards from Kristen Lamb. Great list!

How To Force A Story To Evolve: 6 Revision Tips by Jamie Gold. Another great list!

Clearing The Air On - And In - Your First 100 Pages by Larry on StoryFix.com. Let the mental roller coaster begin! Heh heh.

Pardon Me, Passing Through: Describing Movement by Janice Hardy. More good stuff!

Okay, that's it for this week. See you next time!

Virtual Pictures - Star Wars The Old Republic

2011-12-31T09:48:00.001-06:00

As happens in a lot of games I've played, if I find out I can take pictures, I become a virtual tourist. Here are some I've taken so far in the new MMO Star Wars The Old Republic. Heh heh heh. (No, I haven't figured out if they have a key to remove the goo while I take a picture. Need to find out...)

Gorgeous sky at the newbie planet

View out the hangar of Coruscant's sky. It has all the traffic like in the movies. Real nice job!

Inside the Senate Building on Coruscant.

Me in the social dress you can buy once you accumulate some social points for grouping. My sidekick is behind me. Hubby is on the left. (Yes, he likes to play girls. Ignore him. :P)

Me again as a Padawan in the Jedi Hall on newbie planet.

Loved this floating, ginormous holocron statue at the Jedi Hall.

Some cool architecture in the Jedi newbie planet.

The Jedi Forge. The hanging lamp was cool.

Coruscant from the hangar again.

You can see the lines of traffic on this one. So cool.

Outside of the senate.

Ah, my Imperial Spy on Hutta. Just had to have all the bling. lol. (Was quite surprised I went for this race with no hair.)

Inside the local Hutt's palace.

Outside of the local Hutt's palace.

Had a hard time getting a good picture of her. Bah!

Inside the senate building in Coruscant.

Ditto.

Bought the social dress again once the game was live and I recreated myself. :P Really liked the look from the beta.

View out my Jedi ship's bridge! Woot! (You get a ship at level 15)

Third planet we got to go to - Taris. They're in a bad way here.

The Republic Fleet.

More Taris.

Giant power plant that almost went kaboom!

Ancient Jedi statue.

It didn't occur to me on the 4 we found before, but here's a pic of the 5th Holocron we found. Finding one is not the same as actually getting to it and clicking! Argh! Located around X1046 Y452 Z210

We did find the way up to get to this 5th one. But like the 2nd one in Coruscant, we couldn't make one of the leaps. WAH! Beginning spot is at X1184 Y263 Z-120 And it is a loooong way around.

New planet we reached last night at the space port. Loved the virtual tree!

May occasionally torture you all with more of these virtual tourist pics. :P

Movie Review - The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

2011-12-30T09:49:00.002-06:00

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Christopher Plummer, Stellan Skarsgard, Steven Berkoff, Robin Wright, Yorick van Wageningen, Joely Richardson, Geraldine James, Goran Visnjic, Donald Sumpter

Directed by: David Fincher Screenplay by: Steven Zaillian Based on the Book by: Steig Larsson Original Music by: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Premise: After losing much of his credibility after losing a libel suit, journalist Mikael Blomkvist is hired by Henrik Vanger to try to solve a forty year old murder. And while on this quest, he will cross paths with the emotionally stunted and abused Lisbeth Salander, who will be a major asset to solving the old case. (Rated R)

Review: First off - WARNING WARNING WARNING - No one under 18 should probably see this film and some adults will not be comfortable watching it either. The R rating is serious. While not specifically graphic, there are several heavily implied strong situations, which due to the amazing talents of these people seem very, very realistic and can be super emotionally disturbing. So beware! The previews in no way signal what you will come across here.

That being said the film was good just disturbingly strong! The acting was superb and so was the cinematography. The locations stayed true to the books and previous films and were kept in Sweden with Swedish locations. It was nice to see the names and sites not Americanized and actually kept as originally created. It gave a nice flavor to the film.

Matters move slowly as the lives of the two protagonists are peeled open and begin to intersect. The mystery too is layered and must be peeled and narrowed on bit by bit. Flashback scenes but especially photographs are used masterfully to map the journey of discovery, which was very well done. Clues and red herrings abound.

While all the actors and actresses were fabulous, special kudos should go to Rooney Mara for her portrayal of Lisbeth. The character's emotional scars, determination, disgust, her shield against the world were all masterfully presented. There better be a nomination for her! Just saying.

Another bit that really stood out was how the one person all fingers easily pointed to as probably being the one guilty of the crime, the old reclusive Nazi uncle, turned out to probably be the best and friendliest of the Vanger family. Nice to see them not fall to the old cliche.

If you've seen the original The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo film, there were definitely differences though the crime and main points remains the same. And this version was much stronger both emotionally and graphically. Had fun comparing the two. One of the few times when the remake outdid the original, in my opinion.

Overall, if you can stomach the graphic/implied content, a very worthwhile film.

Rating: 4 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price and Seeing Again for Matinee)

Picture Kaleidoscope 12/28/11

2011-12-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

Hi all!

From Petapixel - Long Exposure Photographs of Patterns Projected Onto Landscapes. Not sure why they'd do this, but it's kind of cool!

Again from Petapixel - Beautiful Photos of Freeway Interchanges.

From Aki Hoshide - Soyuz Roll Out in minus 20 degrees Celcius! (Brrrr)

From NASA - Soyuz Roll Out. Look at the size of the engines! Dang!

From BCMystery - Arizona Sky.

From NASA - A Rose Made of Galaxies. Courtesy of the Hubble Telescope.

Happy Holidays!

Mind Sieve 12/26/11

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-06:00

Hope you guys had an awesome holiday! A brand New Year is just around the corner.

GI Joe 2: Retaliation Trailer. Booyah! Looks like they may have fixed Snake Eye's mask. YAY!

This preview was too bizarre not to share - The Dictator.

From EW a new trailer for Rock Of Ages. This looks like it might be a hoot. Nostalgia with a twist? Heh.

Original Offering Found Inside Pyramid of the Sun (Mexico) from the History Blog.

Krampus - The God of Winter Death - blog post from T F Walsh from the Mythical Creature Series. Almost like an Evil Claus! Hope he didn't visit ya'll this past weekend. Heh heh.

From Mashable.com 20,000 Christmas Bulbs Bring Angry Birds to Life! Beyond cute. Now this is paying real homage! lol

This Week @ NASA. Cool 8 minutes NASA news recap video. Nice!

Interesting blog post by Nathan Bransford - How Art Changes With Us. Quite true!

Ooo! A Full Metal Alchemist movie to be released in theaters - The Sacred Star of Milos.

The Dark Knight Rises trailer 2 - BANE!!!! Looks good!

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance trailer. YES! This is going to ROCK~!

From Mary Jo Gibson - Museum Monday - Wadsworth Antheneum. Cool looking museum! Even has a Colt exhibit! Sucker below looks very steampunkish! Heh heh.

It was like MAD TRAILER WEEK! Here's one for The Hobbit. (I know where all my money is going next year - movies! Wheee!)

From Wired - The 20 Best Video games of 2011. Man, I am sooooo behind! Dues Ex was totally the bomb, yo!

Trailer for Prometheus (A field of Eggs??? Alien containers? OOOOO!)

My brother sent me the link for this - Jedi Ninjas. What fun!

Gene Lempp's Designing From Bones - Festival of Humanity. PARTY TIME!

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig comes 25 Ways For Writers To Help Other Writers. Hallelujah Brother! Tell it, Mr. Beard!

I Play Well With (Blog With) Others - Hosting A Guest Blogger by K S Elliot Shark. Wonderful advice and process.

21st Century Publishing Builds On A Healthy Radical Tradition by William Skidelsky. Some really out of the box thinking.

Author Blogging 101: Blog Analytics by Joel Friedlander. Nice post on Google Analytics and why you might want the info.

Tell Me About It - When Telling Is Better Than Showing by Janice Hardy. Great post!!!

Rachelle Gardner gives us the definition for The Intersection of Literary and Commercial.

Anthology Scams: Authors Beware by Carolyn Howard Johnson.

Okay, time's up! See you next time.

Christmas Story from Fantasy Writer Tad Williams!

2011-12-25T10:03:00.001-06:00

Famed fantasy author Tad Williams has contributed a free Christmas story to several blogs to promote the release of his new short story collection - A Stark and Wormy Knight. (Info on a special for the e-book at the end of the story.) Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!

THESUGARPLUM FAVOR

(AChristmas Story)

TadWilliams

DannyMendoza counted his change three times in while the teacher talked about whatthey were all supposed to bring for the class winter holiday partytomorrow. It was really a Christmasparty, at least in Danny's class, because that's what all the kids' families'celebrated. Danny had his partycontribution covered. He had volunteeredto bring napkins and paper plates and cups because his family had some leftover from his little brother's birthday party with characters from Gabba GabbaHey on them. He’d get teased about that,he knew, but he didn’t want to ask his mother to make something because she wasso busy with his little brothers and the baby, and now that Danny’s stepfatherLuis had lost his job they had a Money Situation. Danny could live with a little teasing.

Dannywas going to buy a candy bar for his mother, one of those big ones. That was going to be his Christmas present toher and Danny knew how much she'd like it -- he hadn't just inherited his smallsize and nimble fingers from her, he'd got her sweet tooth, too. And she had just been talking about theChristmas a few years ago when Luis had a good job with the SanitationDepartment and he'd brought her a whole box of See's chocolates. Danny knew he couldn't match that, but thelast of the money he'd saved up from raking leaves in the neighborhood andwalking old Mrs. Rosales' wheezy little dog should be enough to buy a big oldHershey bar that would make Mama smile. No, what to get wasn't a problem. The thing that had him thinking so hard as he went down the street at ahurried walk, hands shoved deep into his jacket pockets, was whether he daredto get it now or should wait another day.

In Danny's SanJose neighborhood the Mercado Estrella was like an African water hole, not onlya crucial source of nurture but also the haunt of the most fearsome predator inhis 3rd grade world. Any stop at thelittle market meant he risked running into Hector Villaba, the big, meanfifth-grade kid who haunted Danny's days and often his nights as well. Danny couldn't even begin to guess how muchcandy and other goodies Hector had stolen from him and the other kids over theyears, but it was a lot -- Hector was the elementary school's Public EnemyNumber One. About half the time hisvictims got shoved around, too, or even hit, and none of the grown-ups ever didanything about it except to tell their humiliated sons they should learn how tofight back. That was probably becauseHector Villaba’s father was a violent, drunken brute who didn't care whatHector did and everyone in the neighborhood was as scared of him as the kids atschool were scared of his son. The lasttime someone in the neighborhood had called the police on Hector’s dad, alltheir windows had been broken while they were at church and their car scratchedfrom one end to another.

Dannywas still trying to make up his mind whether to risk stopping at the markettoday or wait for better odds tomorrow (when class ended early because of theholiday) when he saw Mrs. Rosales walking Pinto, her little spotted dog. He almost crossed the street because he knewshe'd want to talk to him and he'd spent a lot of time doing that already lastweek when went to her house to get Pinto nearly every day. He was too close, though, she’d seen him, andJesus hated being rude to old people almost as much as he hated it when kidslied, or at least that was what his mama always told him. Danny wasn't expecting much from Santaanyway, but if Jesus got upset things would probably be even worse. He sighed and continued toward her.

"Lookwho's here!" Mrs. Rosales said when she saw him. "Look, Pinto mi querida, it's your friend Danny!" But when he waved and would have passed byshe told him, "Hold on a moment, young man, I want to talk to you."

Hestopped, but he was really worried that Hector and his friends might catch upif he stood around too long. "Yes,Mrs. Rosales?"

"Ishort-changed you the other day." She took out a little coin purse. It took her a long time to get it open with her knobby old fingers. "I owe you a dollar."

“Really?” Danny was astonished.

She pulled out apiece of paper that looked like it had been folded and unfolded a hundred timesand handed it to him. "I know boysneed money this time of year!"

Hethanked her, petted Pinto (who growled despite all their time together, becausePinto was a spoiled brat) and hurried toward the market. Another dollar! It was like one of those Christmas miracleson a television show – like the Grinch’s heart growing so much it made thex-ray machine go sproing! This changed everything. He could not only buy his mom's present, hecould buy something for himself, too. Hebriefly considered blowing the whole dollar on a Butterfinger, his veryfavorite, but he knew hard candies would be a better investment -- he couldshare them with his younger brothers, and it was Christmas-time, after all. But whatever he got, he didn't want to wait for tomorrow, not now thathe had something to spend on himself. Danny Mendoza had been candy-starved for days. Nothing sweeter than the baby's butterscotchpudding had passed his lips that week, and the pudding hadn't been by his ownchoice. (His baby sister had discoveredthat if she waved her spoon things flew and splattered, and she liked that newtrick a lot.) If he hurried to themarket he should still get there long before Hector and his friends, who hadmany children to harass and humiliate on their way home. It was a risk, of course, but with anunexpected dollar in his pocket Danny felt strangely confident. There had to be such a thing as Christmasluck, didn't there? After all, it was awhole holiday about Jesus getting born, and Jesus was kind to everybody. Although it sure hadn’t seemed like a luckyChristmas when Luis, Danny’s stepfather, had lost his job in the first week ofDecember. But maybe things were going toget better now -- maybe, as his mama sometimes said, the Mendoza family’s luckwas going to change.

Hewas even more willing to believe in miracles when he saw no sign of Hector and his friends at the market. As he walked in Christmas music was playingloudly on the radio, that "Joy to the World" song sung by some smoothtelevision star. Tia Marisol, the littleold lady who ran the place on her own since her husband died, was trying tohang some lights above the cigarettes behind the cash register. She wasn’t his real aunt, of course. Everybody in the neighbohood just called her“Tia.”

"Oye, little man," she called whenshe turned around and saw him. "How's your mama?"

"Fine,Tia Marisol. I'm getting her apresent." He made his way past the postres to the long candy rack. So many colors, so many kinds! It almost seemed to glow, like in one ofthose cartoons where children found a treasure-cave. When Danny was little, it was what he hadimagined when the minister at the church talked about Heaven. The only better thing he had ever seen in hiswhole life was the huge piñata at one of his school friends’ birthday party,years and years ago. When the birthdayboy knocked the piñata open and candy came showering out and all the kids couldjump in and take what they want – that had been amazing. Like winning a game show on television. Danny still dreamed about it sometimes.

Danny realizedthat he was staring like a dummy at the rack of candy when every second thedanger that Hector and his friends would arrive kept growing. He quickly examined the big Hershey barsuntil he found one with a perfect wrapper, a massive candy bar that looked asif it had been made special for a commercial. He would have loved to spend more time browsing -- how often did he havea whole dollar to spend just on candy? -- but he knew time was short, so hegrabbed a good-sized handful of hard, sour candies for sucking, took severaldifferent colors of candy ropes; then, as worry grew inside him, asuncomfortable as needing to pee, he finally snatched up a handful of bubble gumand ran to the front counter.

"What'syour hurry, m'hijo?" Tia Marisolasked.

"Momneeds me," he said, which he hoped was not enough of a lie to ruin Jesus'upcoming celebration. After all, Mom did always need his help, especially bythis time in the day when she'd been on her own with the baby and the littlestbrother since morning, and had just walked the other brother home frompreschool. He pulled the three dollarsworth of much-counted change out of one pocket and mounded it in front of TiaMarisol, then put the Hershey bar and his own handful of candy down beside itbefore digging out the crumpled dollar Mrs. Rosales had given him. She slid her glasses a little way down hernose while she looked at it all.

"Where'dyou get so much money, Danny?"

"Rakinglawns. Taking Mrs. Rosales dog forwalks."

TiaMarisol smiled, handed him back twenty-three cents, and put everything into apaper bag. "You're a good boy. You and your family have a happy Christmas. Tell your mama I said hello, would you?"

"Sure." He was already halfway through the door,heart beating.

TheChristmas miracle continued outside: other than a couple of young mothers withstrollers and bundled-up babies, and the old men who sat on the bus benchacross the street drinking from bottles in paper bags, the area around thestore was still clear. Danny began towalk toward home as fast as he could without running, because he had the bagunder his coat now and he didn't want to melt Mama's candy bar. Still, he was almost skipping, he was sohappy. Joy to the world, the Lord is come...!

"Hey, Mendoza," someoneshouted in a hoarse voice. "What's in the bag, maricon?"

Dannystopped, frozen for a moment like a cornered animal, but then he began to walkagain, faster and faster until he was running. There was no question whose voice that was. Pretty much every kid in his school knew itand feared it.

"Holdup, Mendoza, or I'll kick your ass good!" The voice was getting closer. Hecould hear the whir of bike tires on the sidewalk coming up behind himfast. He looked back and saw that HectorVillaba and his big, stupid friends Rojo and Chuy were bearing down on him ontheir bikes, and in another second or two would ride him down. He lunged to the side just as Hector stuckout his foot and shoved him, sending Danny crashing into the low wire fence ofthe house he was passing. He bounced offand tumbled painfully to the sidewalk as Hector and his gang stopped just a fewyards ahead, now blocking the sidewalk that led Danny home. The hard candies had fallen out of his bagand were scattered across the sidewalk. He got down on his knees, hurrying to pick them up, doing everything hecould to avoid eye contact with Hector and the others, but when he reached forthe last one Hector's big, stupid basketball-shoe was on top of it. The older boy leaned over and picked itup. "Jolly Rancher, huh? Not bad. Not great, but not bad." Hewaved it in Danny's face, making him look up from all fours like a dog at itsmaster. "I asked you what's in thebag, Mendoza?"

"Nothing! It's for my mama."

"Foryour mama? Oh, iddn't datsweet?" Hector's fingers hookedunder Danny's chin and lifted. Dannydidn't fight -- he knew it wasn't going to help -- but he still flinched whenhe saw Hector's round, sweaty face so close, the angry, pale yellow-browneyes. Hector Villaba even had thebeginnings of a real mustache, a hairy smudge on his upper lip. It was one of the things that made him soscary, one of the reasons why even bigger twelve year olds like Chuy and Rojolet him lead them -- a fifth-grader with a mustache!

"C'mon,open it up," Hector told him. "Let's see what you got for your mama." When Danny still didn't offer up the bag,Hector's friend Chuy put a foot on Danny's back and pushed down so hard thatDanny had to brace himself to keep from being shoved against the sidewalk. “I said show me, maricon," said Hector. "Chuy gonna break your spine. He knows karate."

Dannyhanded Hector the bag, biting his lip, determined not to cry. Hector pulled out the big Hershey Bar. "Hijole!"he said. "Look at that! Something for your mama, shit -- you weregoing to eat that all by yourself. Noteven share none with us. That's cold,man."

"Itis for my mother! It is!" Danny pushed up against Chuy's heavy hiking boot trying to reach thecandy bar, which didn't look anywhere near so huge clamped in Hector Villaba'splump, dirty fingers. Chuy took hisweight off for a moment, then kicked Danny in the ribs hard enough to make himdrop to the concrete and hug himself in pain.

"Ifyou try any more shit, we'll hurt you good," said Hector, laughing as heunwrapped the candy bar. He tossed apiece to Chuy, then another to Rojo, who grabbed it out of the air and shovedit in his mouth like a starving dog, then licked his fingers. Hector leaned down and gave Danny anothershove, hard enough to crash him against the fence again. "Don't you ever try to hide anything from me. I know where you live, dude. I'llcome over and slap the bitch out of you and your mama both." He pointed to the hard candies still clutchedin Danny's hands. "Get that othershit, too, yo," Hector told Rojo, and the big, freckled kid bent Danny'sfingers back until he surrendered it all.

TheChristmas chocolate bar, looking sad and naked with half its foil peeled away,was still clutched in Hector's hand as he and his friends rode away laughing,sharing the hard candy out of the bag.

Fora while Danny just sat on the cold sidewalk and wished he had a knife or even agun and he could kill Hector Villaba, even if it made Jesus unhappy forweeks. At that moment Danny almost feltlike he could do it. The rotten, meanbastard had taken his mom's present!

Atlast Danny wiped his eyes and continued home. It was starting to get dark and the wind was suddenly cold, which madehis scratched-up hands ache. When hereached the apartment he let himself in, dropped his book bag by the door, thencalled a greeting to his mama feeding Danny's baby sister in the kitchen as hehurried on to the bathroom so he could clean up his scratches and tear-stainedface and do his best to hide the damage to the knees of his pants before shesaw him up close. It wouldn't do anygood to tell her what had happened – she couldn’t do anything and it would makeher very sad. Danny was used to keepingquiet about what went on between home and school, school and home.

After a while hewent out and sat at the table and watched as his mother fed green goop to thebaby. Even her smile for Danny lookedtired. Mama worked so hard to keep themall fed and dressed, hardly ever yelled, and even sang old songs from Mexicofor Danny and his brothers when she wasn't too tired...

And now that cabron Hector had stolen her present, andhe didn’t have any money left to get her something else.

Later that night,when the house was quiet and everyone was asleep, Danny found himself cryingagain. It was so unfair! What had happened to the Christmas luck? Or did that kind of thing only happen toother kids, other families?

“Please, Jesus,”he prayed quietly. “I just have to getMama something for Christmas – something Hector can’t take. If that’s a miracle, okay – I mean, I knowyou can’t do them all the time, but if you got one...an extra one...”

Somethingwoke him up – a strange noise in the living room. For a moment he lay in bed wondering if SantaClaus might have come, but then he remembered it was still three days untilChristmas. Still, he could definitelyhear something moving, a kind of quiet fluttery sound. His brothers were both sprawled in boneless,little-boy sleep across the mattress they shared, so he climbed carefully overthem and made his way out to the living room. At first he saw nothing more unusual than the small Christmas tree ontop of the coffee table, but as he stared, his eyes trying to get used to thedark, he saw the tree was...moving? Yes,moving, the top of the pine wagging like a dog’s tail.

Danny had neverheard of a Christmas tree coming to life, not even in a TV movie, and it scaredhim. He picked up the tennis racket withthe missing strings Luis kept promising to fix, then crawled toward thescraggly tree with its ornaments of foil and cut paper.

Ashe got closer he could see that something small was caught in the tree’stopmost branch, trying to fly away but not succeeding. He could hear its wings beating so fast theyalmost buzzed. A bird, trapped in theapartment? A really big moth?

Dannylooked for one of the baby's bowls to trap it, then had a better idea and creptto the kitchen cabinet where his mom kept the washed jars. He picked a big one that had held sandwichspread and slithered commando-style back to the living room. Whatever the thing was, it was really stuck,tugging and thrashing as it tried to free itself from the pine needles. He dropped the jar over it and pulledcarefully on the branch until the thing could finally get free, then Dannyclapped the lid on the jar to keep it from escaping.

Thething inside the jar went crazy now, flying against the glass, the wings goingso fast that it made it hard for him to see for certain what it was. The strange thing was, it actually lookedlike a person -- a tiny, tiny little person no bigger than a sparrow. That was crazy. Danny knew it was crazy. He knew he had to be dreaming.

"Whatare you doing?" the thing said in a tiny, rasping voice. It didn’t sound happy at all. "Let me go!"

Dannywas so startled to hear it talk that he nearly dropped the jar. He held it up to the light coming in from thestreet lamp to get a better look. Theprisoner in the jar was a little lady -- a lady with wings! A real, honest-to-goodness Christmas miracle! "Are you...an angel?" he asked.

"Letme out, young man, and we'll talk about it." She didn't sound much like an angel. Actually, she sounded a lot like thatscratchy-voiced nanny on that TV show his mama watched sometimes. Her hair was yellow and kind of wild andsticky-uppy, and she wore a funny little dancing dress. She was also carrying a bag over her shoulderlike Santa did, except that hers wasn’t much bigger than Danny’s thumb .

"P-Promiseyou won't fly away?" he asked this strange small person. "If I let you out?"

Shehad her tiny hands pressed up against the inside of the jar. She shook her head so hard her little sparklycrown almost fell off. "Promise. But hurry up -- Idon't like enclosed places. Honest, itmakes me want to scream. Let me out,please."

"Okay. But no cheating." He unscrewed the lid on the jar and slowlyturned it over. The tiny lady rose up,fluttering into the light that streamed through the living room window.

“Oh, that’s somuch better,” she said. “I got stuck ina panoramic Easter egg once, wedged between a frosting bunny and a cardboard flowerpot. Thought I was going to lose mymind.”

"Wow,” hesaid. “Who are you? Whatare you?"

Shecarefully landed on the floor near his knee. "I'm a sugarplum fairy," she said. "Like in that ballet."

"Huh?"

"Nevermind. Look, thanks for getting me loosefrom that tree.” She turned herselfaround trying to look down at herself. “Rats! Ripped my skirt. I hate conifers.” She turned back to Danny. “I didn't mean to scare you, I was justpassing through the neighborhood when I felt somebody thinking candy thoughts-- real serious candy thoughts. I mean, it was like someone shouting. Anyway, that’s what we do, us sugarplumfairies -- we handle the candy action, especially at Christmas time. So I thought I should come and check itout. Was it you? Because if it was, you’ve got the fever bad,kid.” She reached into her bag andproduced a lollypop bigger than she was, something that couldn’t possibly havefit in there. “Here, have one onme. You look like you need it.”

"Wow. Wow!" He suddenly realized he was talking out loud and dropped his voice,worried that he would wake up his mama and Luis. He reached out for the lollypop. "You're really a fairy. Do you know Jesus?"

Sheshrugged. "I think he’s in anotherdepartment. What's your name? It's Danny, isn't it?"

Henodded. "Yeah.” It suddenly struck him. “You know my name...?"

"I'vegot it all written down somewhere." She started riffling through her bag again, then pulled out somethingthat looked like a tiny phone book. Shetook out an equally small pair of glasses, opened the book and beganreading. “For some reason you fell offthe list here, Danny. No wonder you'reso desperate -- you haven't had a sugarplum delivery in quite a while! Well, that at least I can do somethingabout.” She frowned as she took a penout of the apparently bottomless bag and made a correction. “Of course, they may not process the neworder until early next year, and I’m not scheduled back in this area untilValentines Day.” She frowned. “Doesn’t seem fair...” A moment later her tiny face brightened. “Hey, since you saved me from that treebranch I think I’m allowed to give you a wish. Would you like that?”

“Really? A wish?”

“Yes. I can do that.”

“You’ll give me awish? Like magic? A wish?”

Shefrowned again. “Come on, kid, I knowyou’ve been shorted on candy the last couple of years but is your blood sugarreally that low? I just very clearlysaid I will give you a wish. We’re allowed to when someone helps usout."

Hewas so excited he could barely sit still. It was a Christmas miracle after all, a real one! "Could I wish for, like, a milliondollars?" Then even if Luis didn'tfind another job for a while, the family would be okay. Morethan okay.

Sheshook her head. "Sorry, kid,no. I only do candy-related wishes. You want one of those extra big gummybears? I hear those are popular thisyear. I could bend some rules and get itto you by Christmas."

Hewas tempted -- he'd seen an ad on television -- but now it was his turn toshake his head. "Could I just get abig Hershey bar? One of those extra-bigones? For my mother?"

Thelittle woman tilted her head up so she could see him better from where shestood down on the ground. "Truly? Is that all youwant? Gee, kid, I could feel thedesperation coming off this house like weird off an elf. You sure you don't want something a littlemore...substantial? A pile of candy,maybe? A year's supply of gumdrops orsomething? As long as it'scandy-related, I can probably get it done for you, but you better decidequick.” She pulled quite a large pocketwatch on a chain out of her bag, then put on her glasses again. “After midnight, and I’ve still got half myrounds to go." She looked up athim. "You seem like a nice kid, Danny,and it doesn't look like you guys are exactly swimming in presents andstuff. How about a nice pile of candy,assorted types? Or if you'd rather justconcentrate on -- what did you say, Hershey Bars? -- I could probably arrange ashopping bag of those or something..."

Fora moment his head swam at the prospect of a grocery bag full of giant chocolatebars, more than Hector the Butt-head Villaba could ever dream of having nowmatter how much he stole...but then another idea came floating up from deep downin Danny’s thoughts – a strange, dark idea.

"Canyou do all kinds of wishes? Really allkinds?"

"Yeah,but just one. And it definitely has tobe candy-related. I'm not a miracleworker or anything."

"Okay. Then I'll tell you what I want." Danny could suddenly see it all in his imagination, and it was very,very good.

Theschool holiday party was nice. Danny andhis classmates played games and sang songs and had a snack of fruit and cheeseand crackers. Nobody brought Chips Ahoycookies, but one of the mothers did indeed bring cupcakes, delicious chocolateones with silver, green and red sprinkles for Christmas. There were even enough left over thatalthough Danny had finished his long ago despite making it last as long aspossible, he was allowed to take home the last two for his littlebrothers. He suspected that the teacherknew his family didn't have much money, but for this one day it didn'tembarrass him at all.

Afterthe bell rang Danny followed the other third-graders toward the school gate,holding one cupcake carefully in each hand, his book bag draped over hisshoulder. He was watching his feet socarefully that he didn't see what made the other children suddenly scatter toeither side, but as soon as he heard the voice he knew the reason.

"Lookat that, it's Maricon Mendoza,yo," said Hector Villaba. "What'd you bring us for Christmas, kid?" Danny looked up. The mustached monster was sitting astride hisbike just a few yards down the sidewalk, flanked by Rojo and Chuy. "Oh, yeah, dude -- cupcakes!" saidHector. “You remembered our Christmaspresents." He scooted his bikeforward until he stood directly over Danny, then reached out for thecupcakes. Danny couldn't help it -- hejerked back when Hector tried to take them, even though he knew it wouldprobably earn him another bruising.

"Punchthe little chulo’s face in,"Rojo suggested.
Hector dropped his bike with aclatter. The other kids from school whohad stopped to stare in horrified fascination jumped out of his way as hestrode forward and grabbed the cupcakes out of Danny's hands. He peeled the paper off one and shoved thewhole cupcake in his mouth, then tossed the other to Chuy. "You two split that," he saidthrough a mouthful of devil's food, then turned his attention back to Danny,who was so scared and excited that he felt like electricity was running throughhim. "Next time, you betterremember to bring one for each of us, Mendoza. You only bring two, that's going to get your ass kicked."

Dannybacked away. It was hard to look intothose yellow-brown eyes and not run crying, let alone keep thinking clearly,but Danny did his best. He dropped hisbook bag to the ground and out fell the stringless tennis racket that he hadbrought from home. Hector hooted withangry laughter as Danny snatched it up and held it before him as if it was across and Hector was a vampire.

"Que? You going to try to hit me, little boy?" Hector laughed again, but he didn't soundhappy. He didn't like it when peoplestood up to him. "I'll take thataway from you and beat your ass black and blue, Mendoza." The bully took a step nearer and held out hishand. "Give it to me or I'll breakyour fingers."

"No." Danny wasn't going to step back anyfarther. He lifted the racket, waved itaround like a baseball bat. It was oldand flimsy, but he had come to school determined today. "You can't have it...you fatasshole."

BehindHector, Rojo let out a surprised chortle, but Hector Villaba didn’t think itwas funny at all.

"That'sit," he said, curling his hands into fists. "After I kick your ass, I'm gonna rubyour face in dog shit. Then I'm gonnakick your ass again. You're gonna spendChristmas in the hospital." Withoutwarning, he charged toward Danny.

Dannystepped to the side and swung the racket as hard as he could, hitting Hectorright in the stomach. With a whoop ofsurprise and pain Hector bent double, but when he looked up he didn't lookhurt, just really, really mad, his eyes staring like a crazy dog's eyes.

"That's...it. I'm...going...to...get...you...Mendoza..."he said, then sucked in air and stood up straight, but even as he did so afunny expression crossed his face and he looked down at where he was holdinghis belly. Hector’s hands were suddenlyfull of crackling, cellophane-wrapped hard candies, so many of them that theycascaded over his fingers and onto the ground. He lifted his hands in disbelief to look and dozens more of the candiesslid out of the front of his open jacket -- candy bars, too, fun-size and evenregular ones, Snickers bars, Mounds, Tootsie Rolls, lollipops, candy canes,even spicy tamarindos. The otherchildren from the school stared in horrified fascination, guessing that Dannyhad broken a bag that Hector had been carrying under his coat. They were so scared of Hector that theydidn’t move an inch toward any of the candy that was still slithering out ofthe big boy’s coat and pooling on the ground at his feet.

"Oh,man," one of the other third graders said in a hoarse whisper, "Mendoza'sgoing to get beat up so bad...!"

Buteven more candy was pouring out of Hector’s belly now, as if someone had turnedon a candy-faucet, a great river of sweets running out of the place where Dannyhad knocked him open with his old tennis racket.

"Whatthe...?" Then Hector Villaba lookeddown at himself and began to scream in terror. Candy was showering out of him faster and faster onto the sidewalk,already piled as high as the cuffs of his pants and still coming.

"Hijole, dude!" said Rojo. "You're a piñata!"

Hectorlooked at him, eyes rolling with fear, then he turned sprinted away down thestreet squealing like a kindergartner, a flood of candy still pouring from him,Crunch Bars, M&Ms, (plain andpeanut) as well as boxes of gumdrops and wax-wrapped pieces of taffy, allraining onto the street around the bully's legs and feet, bouncing and rolling.

Rojoand Chuy watched Hector run for a moment, then turned to stare at Danny with amixture of apprehension and confusion. Then turned from him to look at each other, came to some kind ofagreement, and threw themselves down on their knees to start scooping up thecandy that had fallen out of Hector Villaba. Within a few seconds the other school kids were all scrambling acrossthe ground beside them, everybody shoveling candy into their pockets as fast asthey could.

Dannywaited until he wasn't breathing so hard, then started for home, following theclear trail of candy that had gushed from Hector Villaba as he ran. He didn't bother to pick up everything, sincefor once in his life he could afford to be selective. He stuffed one pocket of his jacket withcandy for his brothers, then filled the other just with Butterfinger Bars, atleast six or seven, but kept walking with his head down until he spotted anice, big Hershey Bar in good condition which he zipped in his book bag so itwould stay safe for his mother. The restof the way home he picked up whatever looked interesting and threw it into thebook bag too, until by the time he reached home he was staggering with itsweight up the apartment building walkway. For once, Hector Villaba had been the one who had run home crying.

Hedidn't feel sorry for Hector, either, not at all. Scared as the fifth-grader was now, he wouldbe all right when he reached home. Dannyhad made that a part of the wish and the fairy had said she thought it was agood idea. Jesus didn't want even meankids to die from having their guts really fall out, Danny felt pretty sure, sohe had done his best not to spoil the Lord's birthday. Of course Hector Villaba probably wouldn'thave a very merry Christmas, but Danny had decided that Jesus could probablylive with that.

The End

TadWilliams’ new short story collection, AStark And Wormy Knight, is available now, worldwide, as an ebook, $4.99 (orequivalent) for one month

http://www.amazon.com/Stark-Wormy-Knight-ebook/dp/B006P2QX3U

Movie Review - The Adventures of Tintin

2011-12-23T20:18:00.002-06:00

The Adventures of Tintin

Starring: Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Daniel Mays, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones, Jeo Starr, Enn Reitel, and more.

Directed by: Steven Spielberg Screenplay by: Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright, and Joe Cornish Based on the Comics Series by: Herge Original Music by: John Williams

Premise: A young journalist finds himself in the middle of a grand conspiracy after he buys a model of a three masted ship from a peddler. (Rated PG)

Review: Need to say this first so you won't have the expectation - the previews LIE. "A power that could have changed history" or "the greatest secret in all history" implies a secret weapon of some sort or something beyond anything we could imagine. It's not, it's money, lots and lots of money. No idea why the heck they didn't just say so. We all love hidden treasure, right? Rewatched the preview so I could be sure it wasn't my own fault. It wasn't. With that firmly in mind before seeing it you won't be disappointed when no ultimate anything appears. You've been warned.

That being said, the film was overall a lot of fun. The CGI was glorious - a total 5 out of 5 in that respect. There were times you'd forget it wasn't real. The attention to detail was amazing. They also do some wonderful scene changes and point of view reflections that will almost make you "ooooh" and "ahhhh" out loud.

There are several animals depicted in the film. It was a lot of fun as each showed distinct personalities and even had important parts in the chases and adventures and I'm not just talking about Snowy.

I'd seen the comics eons ago, so the first time I saw the previews I immediately recognized Tintin, Snowy, and Captain Haddock. The true spirit of Herge's work is definitely demonstrated here - homage to his art style and iconic representations of many of the characters are sneaked in early in the film. Captain Haddock uses a ton of his famous colorful, yet strange, insults/curses. It's too fun to hear them spouted about. lol.

Adventure, excitement and more are there a plenty. One wild madcap ride through a small village will leave you breathless and wishing for a pause button like mad.

The only detractors to the film were several loopholes in the plot. If only one man survived the shipwreck and he kept the secret of what was there and where, except for the story and clues he passed down to his sons and grandson, then how did anyone else find out about it? Yes, he had superiors, but they wouldn't have known about the clues or where they were kept. And it was odd the family had had money troubles and sold the estate if 'something something something' all along. (I can't tell you. Wouldn't want to ruin it! You'll understand when you get there.) Worse, when the film is over, you're left with the definite feeling there was something lacking. So because of these things the film was somewhat disappointing. Had expected more since Spieldberg, Jackson, and Moffat were involved.

In the end, it's definitely worth a watch, if for nothing more than the amazing scenery and action sequences. Though it could have been more~! Will definitely keep the kids on the edge of their seats throughout.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Picture Kaleidoscope 12/21/11

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

Hey all!
Actually have some of my own pics and some fabulous stuff I ran into through the week for ya. Feast your eyes!

Some sunrise shots.

Long flat stretch of road to Wichita Falls. Some truly gorgeous cloud cover that day.

Next two were an attempt to catch a rainbow like reflection on a cloud. It's middle bottom of the pic.

This one is a closer view that my daughter took. I was having issues with kicking in the magnification but she got hers working. Unfortunately the colors don't quite show.

Here's an Enchanting Firefly Forest. Several gorgeous pics from B for Bel.

From Ellen Datlow - Silhouette of Tree.

How to Take Beautiful Bokeh Christmas Images (With 31 Stunning Examples) from the Digital Photography School.

Eerie Hidden Mothers in Vintage Photos from PetaPixel. (Yeah...creepy...)

Infrared image of the Dragonfish Nebula from NASA.

Apollo 17 Extravehicular Activity 39 Years Ago from NASA. That is one big chunk of rock!

Halloween Dog Parade 2011 from Behance Network. I really liked this one. He looks so regal. :)

Paranoid - art on the Behance Network.

See you next time!

Mind Sieve 12/19/11

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to another round of Mind Sieve! Enjoy!

Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water from NASA. Cool, no?

As originally shared by Piper Bayard - A Very Zombie Holiday (An Instructional Video). Too cute!

From Dr Who News - Two Dr Who Episodes Recovered! (It's just sad how many of the originals were lost!)

From Best of Film - Men In Black 3 Official Trailer! Looks awesome!

From KB Owen - Flashback Friday: The Origin of Police in England. Fascinating!

Also from KB Owen - Mystery Monday: The Moonstone, "Grandaddy" of Detective Novels. The book actually sounds like fun!

This is a cool little video explaining the virtues of Galileo's Compass. This sucker did way more than make circles. You could even calculate interest with it! Amazing!

TL Jeffcoat's Weapons Weekly - The Daisho of the Samurai. (I love me them swords! So cool!)

Teaser for HBO's Game of Thrones Season 2 - The Cold Winds are Rising. Woot!

The latest Batman The Dark Knight Rises poster. Oh yeah, BANE!

This might be quite fun! Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Documentary film about one of the most famed sushi chefs of all time.

From Fans of Movies - The Flowers of War official Trailer. This looks Great!

This is out on DVD already but it looks so FUN! Detective Dee and The Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Woot!

New Poster From Ghost Rider Spirit Of Vengeance. Sweet!

Preview for the Iron Lady. This looks like it will be a great film! You forget that's Meryl Streep!

From Picture Correct - Protegion: Fascinating New Stop Motion Viral Video. This is super neat!

The Dr Who Christmas Special Trailer! YES!

From Gene Lempp - Designing From Bones: Lessons From Attila. The Hun no less. :P

From Angela James - 10 Things Authors Should Know About Twitter. Pay special attention to #3! Agents complain about this one all the time!

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - The Precarious Portentious Perils of Self Publishing. (Say THAT 10 times fast! Hah!) Great post!

I Actually Counted The Words Because I Couldn't Quite Believe It - a query post from agent Janet Reid.

25 Things Writers Should Know About Rejection - more writerly truths from Chuck (NSFW) Wending.

Aspiring Is For Pansies - Tough Love and Being a Writer by Kristen Lamb. Truth ya'll!

Okay that's it for this week. Now to go waste horrid amounts of time on Star Wars The Old Republic. Booyah!

Movie Review - Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

2011-12-16T23:37:00.000-06:00

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Rachel McAdams, Jared Harris, Stephen Fry, Paul Anderson, Kelly Reilly, and more.

Directed by: Guy Ritchie Written by: Michele and Kieran Mulroney Based on Characters by: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Original Music by: Hans Zimmer

Premise: Dr. Watson is getting married. Holmes is not dealing well with the news and to make matters worse, Moriarty has made the doctor and his new bride a target. Holmes must keep them alive while also attempting to foil the plans of his archenemy. (Rated PG-13)

Review: The unique portrayals of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson by Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are back! And adding to the team is Stephen Fry's interpretation of Mycroft, Sherlock's brother.

The film starts at a fast pace as Sherlock and Miss Irene Adler share some fun moments in some dangerous meetings. Then she is gone, pitched from the story. Not entirely sure why they went this route unless it was to make room for the new female lead, but whatever the reason, it doesn't quite work. At least to me. The expectation was that she would somehow return, that some hint of her would be seen, despite everything we're told. But such was not the case. (We sat through the credits still expecting SOMETHING! But no.)

As in the first film, we get mental foreshadowing of hand to hand combat, which are pretty cool, but possibly done too many times, in my opinion. Definitely needed to be done in the one true battle that mattered (can't tell you!) which was fabulous but otherwise... Because this meant less cases of seeing Sherlock's mental visual deductions of the crimes being committed, something which had me totally fascinated in the first film.

Great vistas and city fronts, which did much to set the locations and mood. The crossing of the border between France and Germany - hilarious!

Several good comedic moments. Some quite poignant ones. I have to say several spots and Sherlock's actions would have stopped me from wanting to be his friend. Not sure how Watson forgave him about the stag party and the following morning. Though Sherlock was able to put him back together in time. lol. Needless to say their relationship was rather strained during the film, so some of the buddy banter is not as before. :P

One thing I did totally love was when they were in Germany and also at the Peace Summit. You could see the signs of things to come in real history. The weaponry and preparations by the different players for what would in not too many more years turn into WWI. And when a lot of viewers see the cool place in Switzerland for the peace summit, the waterfall there will speak volumes. :P

There was one set of scenes interplaying with each other that were totally masterful. They formed a beautiful dichotomy as we watch the opera by Mozart unfold (way cool costumes!) and Sherlock's last minute attempt to stop a tragedy and the time after.

Their run through the woods as they are fired upon not only by bullets but then cannon was eerily cool to watch. There was a lot of action and good combat scenes.

Overall a nice and enjoyable romp. Not quite as good as the first one, but still well worth it. Especially with the Moriarty and Sherlock Face-off Supreme towards the end. (Oh come on! You knew it was coming.) :)

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

Movie Review - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

2011-12-16T22:53:00.000-06:00

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Starring: Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, Michael Nyqist, Vladimir Mashkov, Samuli Edelman, Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, and more.

Directed by: Brad Bird Written by: Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec Based on the Mission Impossible TV Series by: Bruce Geller Original Music by: Michael Giacchino

Premise: Ethan Hunt and his team are framed for an explosion at the Kremlin. Without support, the team follows the only clue they have to try to find the real culprit and stop him from carrying out his plans. (PG-13)

Review: This film was a lot of fun! Everything you'd expect and more.

The stunts and CGI were top notch, as were the hand to hand combat scenes. Tom Cruise makes all his jumps, leaps, slides seem smooth and easy as if he'd been born for action work. This smoothness is something which I'd noticed before in his last film "Knight and Day". Yet there are also plenty of normal people action and mishaps, with consequences for bad aiming or timing. I cringed for them a couple of times.

All the heavy serious mission tension is eased here and there by beautiful comedic moments. Even better were the flares of temper or impatience, making the team members people and not just cinematic machines.

The cinematography was gorgeous. A spanning view from the Dubai hotel to the horizon with a blooming sandstorm was incredible. Each city got wonderful spanning views and added a lot of foreign flavor.

My only complaint was a couple of items either never explained or done so quickly viewers could easily miss them. There are subtle hints but nothing is ever vocalized. This is mostly in relation to faulty equipment and the bad guy seeming to have some of the IMFs technology. But it doesn't detract too badly from the overall film.

One touch that I loved, and totally humanized some of the members, was some of the agents's reticence to actually do certain aspects of the job. Normally on these type of films the agents never hesitate to do things common people would be scrambling not to do. It was nice seeing them hesitate or actually having to work themselves up to do them. Very humanizing.

Over all, it was a great film. Definitely worth watching!

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Would Pay Full Price to See It Again!)

Picture Kaleidoscope 12/14/11

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

Came across all sorts of cool stuff last week. Enjoy!

From PetaPixel comes this pic of Rainbow Photographed in Candle Smoke by Grover Schrayer.

People With The Fish They Look Like over at PetaPixel- Lol, how do you come up with the idea to do this as a theme? lol.

From Jook Leung 360 view of the Space Shuttle Discovery's Flight Deck. Cool!

From Happy_pix Mirrored Autumn.

NYC as the Himalayas by Peter Shankman

Echo II, Balloon Satellite from NASA. This thing is MASSIVE! That's little people at the bottom.

White Horizon on Behance. Set of pics.

Dang, ran out of time.

Also, this is Promo Guinea Pig Wednesday! If you're interested, one of my publishers has placed three of my books on sale at 50% off! You should be able to find them here. Thanks!

Mind Sieve 12/12/11

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to another mental sifting Monday! Got a bigillion things to run through today. Loads of sharing going on this week.

Cool new video by Charlie. His stuff is always so fun!

New kick-ass trailer for John Carter of Mars. Love that this book is being made into a movie! YES!

From The Week - The 'Mysterious' Whale Graveyard Discovered in the Desert.

At Central Stn a cool post with a ton of pictures on Mysterious Paper Sculptures. Some of these are mind boggling.

15 Infant Dinosaurs Found in a Nest in Mongolia from The History Blog.

Okay, this is FREAKING COOL! Miniatur Wunderland - model railways, moving miniature cars, crime scenes, moving boats. This is AMAZING!

Shea MacLeod shares Mythos Monday: Roman Misrule, Pagan Yule and An Attitude of Gratitude. Just in time for the winter holiday season!

OMG! This is so hilariously AWESOME! Cello Wars by the Piano Guys. (Make sure to watch when the credits hit. Killed me!)

In a cool behind the scenes look, Rumiko Takahashi (Best known for Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, and Inu Yasha) shows the process by which she creates her manga. Totally fascinating!

Trailer for the Whedon-Penned The Cabin In The Woods. Looks cool in the mystery department part. Ooo!

New preview for the Liam Neeson movie The Grey. Man Against Nature booyah!

A neat post about how America got it's name from Debra Eve - Amerigo Vespucci: The Power of Recognizing the Obvious.

German City Evacuated to Defuse WWII Bombs from the History Blog. Fascinating really. I'd heard before Jerusalem has tons of unknown and still active minefields. But it never occurred to me Germany had active bombs from British and American drops in the Rhine. Eek!

A House Fit For a Hobbit. Too cute!!!!

Charity Album for SweetRelief.org called Novum Initium - Soundtracks by various artists including Christopher Lennertz and other popular game composers.

Designing From Bones - Demon, Protector, Patsy by Gene Lempp. The Black Shuck - not your typical cuddly puppy.

Nice post from Nathan Bransford on How to Network Without Networking. Great advice!

Post by Sarah over at Glass Cases on Stop Helping Yourself. Several easy tips for queries.

Be A Tweep, Not A Tool Part 2 - Beware the #FF Firehouse by Kristen Lamb.

Weather Thesaurus Entry: Snow from The Bookshelf Muse.

From Chuck (NSFW) Wendig - 25 Financial F***-Ups For Writers. Preaching wisdom with colorful language. :P

The Seduction of Self-Publishing (or "Why I'm Glad I Didn't Have The Option 5 Years Ago) by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. SUPERB post!

Is Your Novel A Spineless Weakling by Kristen Lamb.

Out of eyeballs and out of time. Enjoy ya'll!

Movie Review - Tower Heist

2011-12-09T19:31:00.001-06:00

Tower Heist

Starring: Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, Casey Affleck, Stephen Henderson, Michael Pena, Tea Leoni, Gabourey Sidibe, Judd Hirsch, and more...

Directed by: Brett Ratner Screenplay by: Ted Griffin and Jeff Nathason Story by: Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, and Ted Griffin Original Music By: Christophe Beck

Premise: After it turns out that Arthur Shaw, both resident and board member of The Tower, has stolen all the money from the workers's retirement accounts after being asked by the manager to handle the portfolio, Josh Kovacs comes up with a scheme to try to get the employees's money back. (PG-13)

Review: The previews for this one basically say it all. Still, there were some twists and other bits that build on what's already been shown to deepen it and make it more fun. The performances were also great. Alan Alda makes a super good slimy bad guy, stabbing you in the back even as he smiles to your face. You really, really, REALLY want him to get what's coming by the time things go down. Heh.

Lots of nice little comedic moments. All the acting was superb. You feel for these people, and Josh's horror and need to do something about what's happened inadvertently to all of them because of him is very heartfelt. You even feel the frustration of Agent Denham at capturing a criminal but knowing his victims will probably never recoup the losses.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade happens at part of the film, so you get to see some of the giant floats! Big movie screen size!

Some of the twist and turns during the robbery are fun. Some suspension of disbelief will be needed in a couple of places, but things work for the most part.

Overall, it was fun and definitely entertaining. Definitely worth a look.

Rating: 3.75 our of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Picture Kaleidoscope 12/7/11

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

Roll 'em!

From Adam Baldwin this gorgeous patriotic pic!

Prepare to spend hours at Desktopography. Desktop art. Just WOW!

An album of pics for Garvan Garden Christmas lights taken by Steven Lopata. Nice!

From 19Sixty3 a Landscape pic named Brighter Days in Zell Am See.

From About.com Photo of the Week - I Believe I Can Fly! (He just needs a cape!)

Went to a Cinemark theater a few weeks ago and got a shock! They had actual for real Slurpee Machines there! Oh the temptation! But I held back. Getting one would have meant missing part of the movie. :P

And the other morning, we had us some FOG! Felt like London or something. :P

Talk about pea soup! Heh heh.

Enjoy!

Mind Sieve 12/5/11

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome back for another Mind Sieve experience! Bwahahahaha!

Weird preview of a movie called The Ghastly Love of Johnny X!

Maya 2012 Apocalypse Conspiracy Blown Wide Open! from the History Blog. Yes, let the paranoia sing! Cracked me up! lol

Creating Artificial Muscles More Powerful Than Anything In Nature from EarthSky.org. There's even a cool 2+ minute video talking about it. Sweet!

Prelim info for a new Philip Gardiner film called His Name is SATAN. New take on Jack the Ripper from 1888 to 2012. Sounds kind of interesting!

From TL Jeffcoat Weapons Weekly - The Shikomi of the Ninja! Take that Pirates! Bwahahaha! (I am ever of the opinion ninjas can be pirates (they are spies after all) but pirates cannot ever be ninjas.) :P

This was too cute! 12 Tips For A Cat-Safe Christmas by PetFlow. Now none of my cats over the years has ever tried to climb the tree. Play with the dangling bits, eat the silver strings, but not climbed it. For that, we had ferrets. Myaka brought the tree down many times. Crazy thing! Heh heh.

What It Looks Like Inside Amazon.com from Matt Stopera. It's like looking at the warehouse from Indiana Jones. lol. And unlike warehouses I had to do inventory counts at, this one is super clean! Sweet!

The First "47 Ronin" Photos With Keanu Reeves and Jin Akanishi from Crunchyroll.com. Seems they've changed the story line of the 47 Ronin legend to include an Anglo. lol. I'll be there though. I'ma sucker for samurai stuff.

From the History Blog - Ancient Egyptian Leather Chariot Trappings Found. Quite cool really! Never realized they'd not had a mostly intact set before!

Maintaining Crew Health One Step At A Time from NASA and the International Space Station. Honestly, totally fascinating. There are so many variables we never think about regarding space and how it affects those up there.

7 Life Lesson You Can Learn From Star Trek by David Borgenicht. Oh yeah!

Richard Castle has published his very fist graphic novel - Deadly Storm. Yes, from the fake author who's brought you the fun reads of Heat Wave, Naked Heat, and Heat Rises - Richard Castle is now getting into comics! lol. These guys kill me. Heck, just visit the website if for no other reason to read the synspsis of Richard Castle's non-existing other books and the synopsis on the website and covers. You have got to love these people! lol. 5 pages of non-existent books! 5!!!!

Ah an ever creepier trailer for The Woman in Black. Eek!

This is rather cool! Especially for the writerly types. From Flavorwire and Romy Oltuski - Famous Authors' Harshest Rejection Letters.

From Design Taxi - Using Only Paper, Artist Crafts Stunning Sculptures. They really are!

Designing From Bones - Port of Discovery by Gene Lempp. Ancient Egyptian pet cemetery in a port city? Who knew!

5 Reasons to Sign Up For A Writers Conference by Sarah Baughman. Some good points! And if you can't afford a fancy writers conference, there's always your fantasy and SF conventions. They have writers' tracks and some even have workshops. And they're a great place for networking as well. :)

From Rachelle Gardner - How To Write A Terrific Author Bio. Some great tips!

My Social Media Survival Guide by Jenn Reese. Yes, YES! #3!!! Number 3!!!!! Lol.

Be A Tweep Not a Tool - How Hashtags Can Win Friends and Influence Enemies by Kristen Lamb.

Writers Learn the Waiting Game by Steve Laube - Great post on the waits thrust upon us as authors and there's no way to get around it. :P

Chuck (NSFW) Wendig hits it out of the ballpark yet again with his 25 Things You Should Know About Your Completed Novel. Booyah!

Wonderful post to get across by what is meant by How to Show (Not Tell): A Writing Lesson by John LeCarre from Mary Jaksch.

Nice short blog post by Nathan Bransford on Every Writer Gets Rejected.

The NaNoWriMo Epilogue: "Miles to Go Before You Sleep" by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. He's totally on TARGET, peeps! I've seen too many people think that the end of November is all there is to this. Nuh uh. You're only getting STARTED! Bwahahahahaha!

Okay, I've reached my eyeball limit. Have an awesome week, ya'll!

Movie Review - Arthur Christmas

2011-12-02T20:23:00.001-06:00

Arthur Christmas

Starring: James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Marc Wooton, Laura Linney and more.

Directed by: Sarah Smith Screenplay by: Sarah Smith and Peter Baynham Original Music by: Harry Gregson-Williams

Premise: An accident knocks a gift out of the conveyor belt during the Christmas deliveries. As it is but a couple of hours until dawn, the child left behind is considered an acceptable loss, except by Arthur, Santa's second son, who tries to do something about it. (Rated PG)

Review: This movie is a blast! It's also a lot deeper than one might think from seeing the previews.

I totally cracked up when the first thing they do is basically list all the reasons (and scientific ones!) as to why Santa can't exist as Arthur reads a letter sent to the north pole. Then they show us how it's done in the modern world.

I wanted a pause button desperately. There are a ton of little jokes and bits of info seeded everywhere (buttons, levers, scan screens), but they go by too fast! A lot of in-jokes too, and strangely they're mainly from SF movies and TV shows. Too fun!

The animation and CGI work was excellent. The character expressions and the voice acting superb. Grandsanta was a hoot, but Bryony, one of the wrapping elves, slayed me. Once you see Mrs Santa at work, you'll see where Steve's efficiency came from. Arthur must take after his Dad. :P

If you cried at UP, I suggest dragging a hanky or two along, just in case. There were many touching moments. Several were quite poignant. All is not perfect at the North Pole and generational issues abound. Some of the tales they tell of problems during other Christmas runs were a hoot.

A definite must see! If this doesn't get you into the Christmas spirit, nothing will. :)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission AGAIN!)

P.S. There's a music video as a bonus before the beginning of the film. Justin Beiber sings Santa Clause Is Coming To Town. And it disturbed me. It wasn't the song or the singing, and loved the steampunk look, but... Mr Beiber had a steampunk glove on his right hand and a ton of his moves were straight Michael Jackson moves. It was weird...even creepy. It may have been homage of some sort, but to me it was just disturbing. Hmmm.

Picture Kaleidoscope 11/30/11

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-06:00

Eye feasting time! (No, no, the other way! :P)

The Castle Art Department shared this pic of the painting in Castle's study. He was even hinting they could share places to get it!

From Petapixel - Photographs recreating paintings of the old masters. This one is my favorite!

Gloss Overload by xKimJoanne. Something captivating about this one.

Pics of the Top 10 Volcanoes To Visit in the World from Cool Story.com

Not your typical NASA pic! Heh heh. Expedition 29 Crew Lands. Something just grabbed me about this one.

Sneak peek of John Picasio's cover for Hyperion. So cool!

From actor Jim Beaver - Jack Daniel's in a Can (In Japan!)

Peaceful Peppermint by girltripped. Great for Christmas! heh heh.

From Lucienne Diver - Beautiful Moments.

Way cool time lapse video of earth from orbit.

Last but not least - Waterfall, Moonbow, and Aurora from Iceland by Stephane Vetter. A MOONBOW! Who knew there was such a thing?!?!?!

Enjoy!

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-06:00

Greetings!
Welcome to another Mind Sieve episode of DOOM! :P

A cool app brought up by Petapixel called Stuck On Earth. This could be a great boon to authors wanting to write about different locals as it will give you pictures of almost anywhere. And it's Free! (Snapped it up myself! Bwahahaha)

Bullets from English Civil War Found in Newbury from the History Blog. 100 years before ours. :)

This one caught my eye from the title on the roster at the History Blog - A Map of a 19th Century Woman's Heart. Not what you might think but somewhat fascinating! Sea of Wealth indeed! lol.

K B Owen Mystery Monday: The Butler Did it? What I find funny about the findings is that a few weeks ago I watched a comedy spoof called Murder by Death from 1976 that actually said all novels of the period were always dumped on the butler. lol.

Medieval Weapons in the American Civil War by Sean McLachlan. Stuff we just don't think about for the Civil War.

And on the creepy side of discovery news - Depleted Texas Lakes Expose Ghost Town, Graves from msnbc.com.

A lovely Exclusive Amazon Interview with Terry Pratchett!

Exclusive Amazon Interview with Sir Terry Pratchett from Neal Thompson on Vimeo.

From Hijinks Ensue - Winter is Coming. Calvin and Hobbs meets George RR Martin. Hee!

People Food For Puppies by Amy Shojai. Just in time for the holidays! Do's and Don't's!

Nathan Fillion Dishes on "Castle" : Wants to Avoid 'Moonlightining Curse' on Examiner.com.

Trailer to a movie called Gone. Could be interesting!

From New Scientist and One Percent - Electronic Contact Lens Displays Pixels on the Eyes. How cool is that!

From Kate Wood and her Tursan Tuesdays (Journeys through the Celtic World): A Story of Scathach (female warrior and teacher).

From the New York Times - Where No Museum Has Gone Before! They have an exhibit where you can even smell moon dust! I'm sold! There's 11 picts with descriptions on the side. Looks fab!

This is totally adorable and great for sharing with the kids - Mars in a Minute: How Do You Get To Mars?

Saxon Graveyard Found Under Warwickshire Patio from the History Blog. Make sure to read the last sentence, cracked me up! Heh heh.

The Mayflower: A True Story and One You May Not Know by Jess Whitkins. Nice info and some pics!

Gene Lempp's Designing From Bones series - Swamp Visions. Exploring the Great Dismal Swamp in Southwest Virginia to Northeast North Carolina.

A new Simon's Cat video - Catnap.

Lisa Gail Green gives a super quickie on Why Do You Need A Platform? (Worth it just to see the funky shoes! Heh heh.)

Life After the Contract guest post by Katie Ganshert. Some nice insights!

The Most Crucial Step To Effective Book Marketing by Tony Eldrige. Tell it brother!

Debbie Ohi shares her list of resources for Google + Guide for Newbies. Huge list!

Key To Digital Marketing Success? Be Less Digital by Mark W Schaefer. Interesting results and something I've tried to live by.

From Becca Pugglisi Weather Thesaurus Entry: Summer - How to use weather in settings.

Structure Part 8 - Balancing The Scenes That Make Up Your Novel by Kristen Lamb.

Dear Dean Wesley Smith - I'm Keeping My Agent, Thanks by Jim C Hines. More common sense talk right here!

Do You Suffer From One of These Writing Maladies Part I and Part II by Nathan Bransford.

Okay dokey, I think that's it for this week. Enjoy and see you next time!

Movie Review - Hugo

2011-11-25T17:29:00.001-06:00

Hugo

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Christopher Lee, Jude Law, Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Griffiths, Emily Mortimer, Helen McCrory, Frances de la Tour, and more.

Directed by: Martin Scorsese Based on the Book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by: Brian Selznik Screenplay by: John Logan Original Music by: Howard Shore

Premise: A young orphan doing his uncle's work at the Paris Train Station sometime after WWI finally makes headway on the puzzle/repair he and his father were working on when the latter died. Hugo is convinced that if he can just fix the automaton, it will give him a message from his deceased father. (Rating PG)

Review: The previews for this film don't begin to touch what it's about. The tale has multiple layers and each discovery spins the story into totally unexpected directions.

The theme of dreams, machines, and discovery are threaded throughout. CGI use is very subtle most of the time. So much so you will be hard pressed to tell the difference between what's real and what's not at times.

The story unfolds slowly as the world and the denizens of the train station are unveiled to the viewer. This gives the whole a great depth and wonderful layering, which will in turn support the worldview held by the protagonist.

There are no true bad guys, just people. Each trying to do the right thing in their own way. Some of the most serious are also the most humorous. And you will find yourself caring for every last one of them. Very young children probably wouldn't be entertained enough by the film, but those ten and up should find it fun and full of adventure and even magic. Adults will be even more enraptured, especially at some of the unexpected turns and discoveries.

Definitely a worth while film! (Don't want to spoil anything by saying too much! The discoveries are half the fun!)

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Would Pay Full Price to See It Again!)

Picture Kaleidoscope 11/23/11

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

Feed your eyes!

Lego store in the mall had this beauty in their window. Sweetness!

Funky fan at a new Mexican restaurant in town. Weirdest fan blades ever! :P

Autumn colors: Your Green Shoots Photographs.

If you click on the link for the larger/original image, you'll see an astronaut reflected in the photo. Loved that! NASA's Image of the Day - Bean Walks on the Moon.

There's something just pleasing about this one. Heart of Gold by lieveheersbeestje.

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Once it gets going this is amazing! Got it from Petapixel.

From NASA's Pic of the Day - McCandles orbits in Jetpack. So cool!

Jon Huertas shared this pic from Castle.

Enjoy!

Mind Sieve 11/21/11

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to one and all to another Mind Sieve round of insanity! Hope you find something fun or at least useful in this mess! :)

If you're an NCIS fan, you heard Dinozzo talk about his Bucket List. Michael Weatherly shared the whole thing with the fans here. It's so Tony! Heh heh heh.

Chuck (NSFW) Wendig shared his Recipe for Sinner's Stew (Contains coffee, beer, and whiskey! oh my!) Sounds quite nice.

Hunger Games movie preview. I've not read the books but know a lot of people who love them. Preview is definitely titillating, that's for sure. :) And I love the young man playing the male counterpart. Awesome actor.

Ellie Ann is doing a series of blogs on What I Want To Be When I Grow Up - First up A Spook. And she interviews one to get the real skinny. Fascinating.

Artist MarieMJS painted this to encourage the writers for the British series "Sherlock" to write Mark Sheppard into the cast. I totally agree! Would be a super blast! Here is a Watson and Sheppard match.

A Dr Who Movie on the Way! I'm both excited and nervous about this development! But still, Dr Who on the BIG SCREEN! Woot!

Best For Film has found out that those Muppet people also have a penchant for the Twilight films. Here's one of the three posters. You can find all three here. Too funny!

Steven Popkis has a cool discussion on Signs of Life. Basically, how do you really know if there's life on a planet.

Gene Lempp's Designing from Bones tackles Signalling Viewpoints this week! (I'm thinking another worls where electricity doesn't work so towers are manned by telepaths where the next tower right at the edge of their range - mind to mind communication. heh heh.)

Movie Preview for Mirror Mirror. Looks like it will be a blast! Not your typical Snow White story, that's for sure. lol.

New preview for Disnety Pixar's Brave. Looking forward to it!

Kristen Lamb warns - Beware the Social Media Snuggie! One Size Does Not Fit All!

Are Libraries Good for Authors? A post by Kristin Laughtin. (People actually think of libraries as book pirates?!?!?)

Well, a week of two ago, I had articles here about joining Klout. This week, I have one about DeKoutifying by John Scalzi. Heh heh. (I don't do any of the perks stuff or eagle eye my score, so...shrug) What will you decide?

Rachelle Gardner gives advice on What NOT to Blog About. And she's totally correct. The internet NEVER forgets!

Why Writers Need a Platform by Kristen Lamb.

Sharla Rae tells us Why Some Blogs Make Me Cranky. (And I totally agree. A lot of this stuff makes me cranky too! Heh heh. But then, that's why I am your Mind Sieve. Bwahahahaha!)

Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law - awesome discussion by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig and the weirdness we as writers get mired in. Go - Read - Be Free!

More from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig as in 25 Reasons Readers Will Keep Reading Your Story.

Does Age Matter For Writers? Question answered by Rachelle Gardner. (I know an author that didn't publish till her 80's and she's still kicking buns! Booyah!)

From Larry at Storyfix.com The Are of Receiving Criticism. Some very good points in this! All peeps are not made the same with critiquing skills.

Foreshadowing: How A Sore Thumb Can Prepare You For A Brutal Beating by Roz Morris. Good stuff!

Okay, the eyeballs are screaming. Time for me to stop. This should keep you lot busy for a while anyways. Bwahahahahaha!
Till next time!

Movie Review - Immortals

2011-11-18T20:22:00.001-06:00

Immortals

Starring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, John Hurt, Joseph Morgan, Anne Day-Jones, Greg Bryk, and more.

Directed by: Tarsem Sighn Written by: Charley Parlapanides and Vlas Parlapanides Original Music by: Trevor Morris

Premise: King Hyperion is searching for a special bow he can use to release the Titans trapped under Mount Tartarous. It's how he seeks to reap revenge on the gods who failed him as well as the rest of the world. Young Theseus, unknowlingly trained by Zeus, gets thrown into the middle of Hyperion's chaos as he searches for the weapon. (Rated R)

Review: I would STRONGLY caution against taking children to this one. There is a lot of carnage but also truly vicious implied torture and abuse. That being said...

This had one of the coolest and most intriguing beginnings that I've seen in a long time. The music ramped up at just the right moment to make the whole scene sing. Masterful. (And creepy. Oh so very creepy.)

Forget about what you know about Greek Mythology when you go see this film, however, as this follows it very very loosely and in some places totally changes it. So you've at least been warned. :)

Great costumes and sets and some amazing colors and contrasts. The CGI vistas are breathtaking. A lot of detail on everything. They also have a lot of fun with scene transitions, several of which were quite lovely. Depictions of murals and buildings looked very legit for the period so gave great atmosphere. And when something godlike happened, you had no doubt of it! Weirdest head gear you have ever seen as well 0 very imaginative for the gods and the priestesses. Even had some foreign tongues in a few places for flavor, though they do fall back to modern English and worse, British accents, but what the hey.

Lots of great fights! Was super impressed when Henry Cavill made some moves like pulling a sword or holding his spear (even chopping at a log that never gave) seem very natural and fluid. Aside from a little time spent on Theseus and a couple of others, the rest didn't get much in the way of build up, but it doesn't hurt the overall story too badly.

There is one bit of bad planning by the architect of the Wall, but then again I don't think they ever thought anyone would get that far. Still, the movie is fast paced, the villain has depth, and I liked the role of the gods, how they have rules they've not shared with the humans, and therefore make what they do or do not do, seem fickle to those below. Definitely a new take on Zeus for sure.

The ending was also quite neat and leaves you with a sense of unease at those things which we can't see.

Overall, quite the visual and fun romp.

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

Movie Review - Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt 1

2011-11-18T19:09:00.001-06:00

Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt 1

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Gil Birmingham, Sarah Clarke, Ashley Green, Peter Facinelli, Anna Kendrik, and more.

Directed by: Bill Condon Based on the Novel by: Stephanie Meyer Screenplay by: Melissa Rosenberg Original Music by: Carter Burwell

Premise: Bella and Edward finally tie the knot, yet something unexpected occurs while in their honeymoon. Something that might very well cost Bella her life. (PG-13)

Review: The film starts out a little off key, the dialogue and acting not quite jelling for some reason, but luckily that improved before long.

Lots of little funny moments splattered all over the first half of the film. A lot of subtle touches too, so that they 'show' a lot of emotions at certain moments rather than 'tell' them, which was great.

There was even a sub story thrown in, which if you're not paying attention could be easily missed. Keep an eye on Billy, Charlie, and their lady friend. Edward and Jacob aren't the only ones with love troubles.

The CGI for the wolves was good, though they change back to humans seemingly fully clothed. But where the movie truly excelled was all the work they did on Bella. There's a bathroom scene that gave me chills as we see her shoulders and backside. And then the scene with her almost at the end of the film. Beautiful seamless transitions that truly brought the point home. Kudos on that, guys!

As you should expect, the movie leaves you hanging for part 2, but the film itself does go full circle. Make sure to stay through part of the credits as there's a little more to see - a quick peek on what we can expect part 2 to be about. Trouble is coming!

Overall, it was fun and entertaining.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5 (Hubby's Rating: Worth Full Price of Admission)

Picture Kaleidoscope 11/16/11 - The Austin Comic Con Edition

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

Oh yeah! This past weekend was the Austin Comic Con put on by Wizard World. Got a ton of pics. (From the phone - already was carrying way too much through the airport :P)

Obligatory table shot.

Yes, the book is OUT! I held it in my little hands for the first time there. :P

Creepy companion across the isle. All weekend LONG! (She did not get prettier over time. :P)

Scarecrow?

Angry Zombie Lawn Gnome. Also across the isle from me, at least on Friday. (I think he might have wanted to date the dead girl.)

Major steampunk presence! The Airship peeps had their own table even!

Scare For A Cure - sign ups for costume contest, kids costume contest, and doing makeup for donations. Also took donations during the "Shoot the Storm Trooper" times.

Indiana Jones! Golden Idol and all!

Full form Steampunk Storm Trooper! Loved the alchemical vials.

Yes, Predator was in attendance

Summer Wear Batman - or so he said! lol.

Baddie from the Watchmen

Ood! Ood!!!

Harvey Dent. Even had words on the suit. Awesome job.

Loved this look. Better in person and his eye was also red. A dark drow, I believe.

Inspector Gadget!

Ghost Rider! Red glowing eyes too. Darn you camera!

A Roman Centurion and Maiden costumes made totally from paint swabs. Dang!

Manly Men!

Blue Bird of Paradise

Royal guard from Clone Wars and the Red Skull!

Queen of Hearts! Off with their heads!

He's BATMAN! Hee!

And what I took is only a sampling of the costume goodness at the place. I never even made it down famed peeps row. lol. Afraid to go down other aisles too. Loads of tempting goodies EVERYWHERE!

Enjoy~!

Mind Sieve 11/14/11

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

Have a huge list to sift through this week. Everyone has been really pumping out the blog posts! lol. Time is even shorter than usual though with the Austin Comic Con over the weekend, so no telling how far I will get. (Also my browser keeps dying every 5 minutes, so Murphy is working against me! Argh!)

Shared by ZombiesSchool - "Now that Halloween is over, how will we incorporate the zombie horde into the upcoming holiday season?" One answer is here.

A weird preview of a movie called Warhouse. Stars Joseph Morgan, of late, Krauss in the Vampire Diaries.

Over at Mashable Tech - Touchscreen Makes Its Way Onto Keyboard of the Future. I think this looks awesome. Would love to try it to see if I liked it. Ooo!

From Petapixel - Stop Motion Music Video Shot Over Two Years with 288,000 Jelly Beans!!! DANG! Pretty spiffy too!

The Face of My Father - a lovely post by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig about past and future generations. Might need a hanky!

From AJ Walker - Medieval Mondays - The kettle hat, humble helm of the medieval soldier. Wish he'd been able to add more info, but still pretty interesting for a quickie. :P

From Discover Magazine - Stone-cutter Finds Fossil Whale In Marble Slabs. Definitely NOT where I would have thought you'd find some! And it's a prehistoric whale of all things!

SoonerCon shared this - Nyan Cat is So Yesterday - the NyAT NyAT is where it's AT. Heh heh. Go Darth Baby!

Designing From Bones by Gene Lempp. This week - The Iceman Plot! Dum dum DUMMM!

An interesting take on blogging - Susan Bischoff - 3 Tips on Using Fiction Skills to Craft More Engaging Blog Posts.

From Evo Terra - Google + Pages for Authors. Instantly went on my To Do List. lol. Now just need TIME! (Set one up, but need to do more and add the other books as well. Ugh!)

Okay looks like this is as far as I'm going to get this week. Sigh.
Happy Reading!

Movie Review - Puss In Boots

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Puss In Boots

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thorton, Amy Sedaris, Constance Marie, Guillermo del Toro and more.

Directed by: Chris Miller Based on Characters from: Charles Perrault (Tales from Mother Goose) Written by: Brian Lynch and David H Stenberg Screenplay Written by: Tom Wheeler and Jon Zack

Premise: Running from the law after being mistaken for a thief, Puss In Boots meets once again with his once friend Humpty Dumpy who, with the help of Kitty Softpaws, convinces him to once again help him try to obtain the three magic beans of legend so they may plant them and steal the giant's golden eggs. (Rated PG)

Review: Clash of the Fairy Tales! Take pieces of several of Mother Goose's fairy tales, add a twist or two, and voila!

The previews on this one are actually quite misleading with regards to the plot. The content itself too is more adult and complex than you'd expect as they cover betrayal, lies, second chances, revenge, misunderstandings, and more. So parents, be prepared to possibly have to explain some of this. heh heh.

Totally loved the scenes with Kitty. The dance and fight numbers between Puss and Kitty are the bomb. The cat cantina was too much fun as well. Jack and Jill were scary good and even funny in places. Most twisted 'having a baby' conversation EVER! lol.

The soundtrack was most fitting and will have you tapping your feet. Sword fights, coach chases, rooftop chases, and more. Many truly beautiful and very detailed scenes. Especially the growing of the giant bean stalk and what it is like up in the clouds.

Tons of in-jokes and taking what we know of these fairy tale characters and doing something new and interesting with them, so you're never quite sure what to expect. I thought it an added treat that it was a Guillermo del Toro film and he even did one of the voices. (Reminds me of the antics by the creators of Phineas and Ferb.) :P

Fast paced and a lot of fun!

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

Picture Kaleidoscope 11/9/11

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

I left my phone at work over the weekend so you won't be tortured by any of my photos this week! Yay? :P But I will share all these other great ones I ran across during the week. :)

For this one, I suggest sunglasses before viewing, so bright! Golden Morning by thrumeye.

Cool Jurrasic Park pumpkin by Chumplet.

Orange by Ivan Andreevich. (I am detecting a theme running through pics this week. lol)

Jerry J Davis did a Timed Exposure which turned out to look like a Haunted Barn. (Too cool!)

Mar's Newton Crater from NASA's Picture of the Day.

From Martin Hsu - Totoro Creampuffs. They look so GOOD! Mmmmm

Enjoy!

Mind Sieve 11/7/11

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome! Loads of things to share!

Flight of the Konkordski - Russia's TU-144 and the deep mystery/conspiracy surrounding the disaster. Post by Holmes.

image from concordesst.com

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol featurette from Total Film. Tom really did do all the stuff off the building in Dubai. Dang!

Two clips from the forthcoming Twilight Breaking Dawn part 1 over at The Hollywood Reporter.

From Total Film, first official images of Tim Burton's remake of Tim Burton's Frankenwennie.

The Myth of the Pumpkin by Donna Newton. Some cool pumpkin photos. The birthing one is just amazing. lol.

Over at the YA Authors You've Never Heard of Blog, Kim Baccellia shares some Urban Legends. Including The Weeping Lady, The Blue Lady, and the Chupacabra.

From TL Jeffcoat - Weapons Weekly: The Kusarigama of the Ninja. Has a cool little video showing it's us in action if you've never seen one. :)

Dr Who - "The Ballad of Russell and Julie" Wrap Party Special. This is a hoot! With Davids Tenant, Katherine Tate, and John Barrowman doing a tribute to Russel T Davies and Julie Gardner. ROFL!

Designing from Bones by Gene Lempp - Zoo Arcane - Evil Little People.EVIL! Eeeeevvvvviiiillll little people! (So don't be messing with me, bub!) :P

Examiner.com has a cast picture of the "Hunger Games" as well as cast reactions.

Festival of Late Bloomers (as in writers) Day 2: Fairy Tale Tuesday by Debra Eve. Cool article on Charles Perrault author of Tales From Mother Goose!

Book Trailer for Rachel Caine's latest in her Morganville Vampire series - Last Breath. (If only mine could be this cool! Waaaaahhhhh!)

Social Media 101: Klout by Grmln (Twaitter) - Nice quick article telling what it's about. Weirdly enough I signed up on it last week after it was mentioned on a blog last week. I must have been a good girl because it started out at 36 and is now at 46. It's weird stuff.

Billie Joe Woods explores the question What if I don't Have a Book Trailer? (I can't say whether they do anything or not, but I have one for each of my books now! Bwahahahaha!)

How To Win the Hearts of Bloggers - Scoring the Book Review, Guest Post, or Interview by Kristen Lamb.

The Life Cycle of a Blogger - 10 Stages by Roni Loren. Lol. Worth it just for the insane pics alone! Hee!

The Inkslinger's Invocation: The Writer's Prayer II by Chuck (NSFW) Wendig. Booyah!

Scarier than Halloween - Bad Clauses in Publishing Contracts blog post by Agent Kristin.

Guest post by Barbara Baig on How Deliberate Practice Can Make You An Excellent Writer.

From John M Cussick - Ten Surefire Ways to Turn Off a Prospective Agent. Yeah, DOH!

25 Things You Should Know About Writing Advice from Chuck (NSFW) Wendig.

Kristen Lamb - Keeping Focused and Nailing the Pitch - Understand Your Seed Idea. Kristen uses the word log line to also equal pitch. But to me they're something else altogether? I'm probably wrong though! Heh.

A MUST READ! Writing Ain't Easy by Rachelle Gardner. (Why I was just having this mental conversation with myself the other day! lol.) Just good stuff to know. :)

Okay, ya'll if this doesn't keep you busy for a bit, nothing will! Heh heh. Enjoy!