Still more art!

Lil Fatty's Rogue's Gallery continues:

Grudge Match: Slayer vs. Slayer

"Take all that away and what's left?"

Go. Look. Drool. Comment.

An Evening of Fun and Crack Onions

Today hasn't been a particularly bad day, I'm happy to report. I'm so very almost done with this episode. I'd say how relieved I am about that, but I think I used up all my words to write the damned thing. I will NOT be sorry to see the back of this one, let me tell you. I can't even really get a grip on the ep in general, either, since I've been working on it for so long that I can only barely remember what the beginning's about. A read through is definitely in order here.

Mike is really stoked about the Serenity sneak preview, which sort of surprises me. I figured he'd be mostly blase about it – not minding to go, but not particularly caring one way or the other. Instead, I think he may actually be more excited about it than I am. Huh.

What he's not very excited about is his dentist appointment on Friday. It's the first of many many many wherein they will fix his mouth right the hell up. Not counting the last visit that I forced him into making last month, Mike hasn't been to see a dentist in, oh, about ten years. And before that lone appointment? Probably ten more. It's a mess, but he gets a sweet benefits package at his job, so I says it's high time he start using it. However stage one requires two teeth extractions, including one wisdom tooth that's never come in. He's, uhm ... he's not looking forward to it.

So, in an effort to make things better, I bribed him with Outbacky numminess. (I'm working on instilling a Pavlovian reaction in him, to where dentist = Outback. I can do wtihout the unpleasant salivation connections, however.) I'm really not hungry myself, but it always makes delicious leftovers for lunch tomorrow, so there's that. And perhaps when we come home, we'll start on Firefly! <squeehop>

My Absolutely Number One goal tonight though is to finish the episode. two more scenes, one of which will be almost entirely visual (hence easy scripting), and it's DONE. That just leaves tomorrow for the poster, and then homework. Aaaand then the prose editing process, then the next ep breakdown and okay, feeling overwhelmed again.

So yeah. Onions marinated in crack. Mmmmmm. Delish.

My Big Damn Movie!

> Fandango Purchase Confirmation - Please Read

***********************************************************
SHOWTIME & THEATER DETAILS
***********************************************************

Movie: Special Advance Preview - May 5
Date: Thursday, May 5, 2005
Time: 10:00pm

Quantity: 2 General

Where: Century 16 Eastport
4040 SE 82nd Ave
Portland, OR 97266
Phone: 503-775-0000

There is joy.

And hey, now I have to watch the Firefly DVDs right the hell now! Oh DARN.

ETA: And now Portland is sold out. <cackles and clutches tickets> What's really great too is that I realized Mike is off on Thursdays, so we can get down there nice and early. He's going to try to get Friday off too, so he won't have to worry about getting up so early the next day as well. I am content.

Swoonilicious!

Big Damn Heroes.

And I still have, like, an enforced three months before I'll allow myself to rewatch Firefly. (As mentioned previously, I've only seen the eps in broadcast.)

I can be strong. I have willpower.

....

I will hide my box set.

ETA: I just rewatched, and okay ... someone's missing in the trailer big time. Well, two someones really, but one I really want to see. Uhm, uh-oh?

ETA2, several hours later: I can't stop watching the trailer. I NEED HELP.

Shit, those DVDs aren't gonna last the next day, let alone 150 of 'em.

More Art!

"We can. We are forever."

Wow. I went out.

Yesterday, Mike dragged me from the house. Not quite kicking and screaming, but I thought about it. We got lunch at the Chinese buffet place down the road, the price for which made me shudder because, as it turns out, the character of Scrooge was based upon me. But it's very yummy and sometimes it's hard to argue with price when you have all-you-can-eat chow mein, beef and broccoli, teriaki chicken and okay now I'm hungry.

Afterward, we finally tracked down the new movie theater, oddly hidden behind the mall. I think it's primary selling point was, "It's not like the other theaters!" Hugemongous concession stand with a built-in Starbucks, and truly deluxe seating. High-backed recliner-style chairs with fold-up arm rests which I must confess were damned comfy. And they remind you about once every seven minutes (courtesy of the slideshow thingie) that they don't play TV commercials. I give them props for that one, though as Mike pointed out, there's something to be said for seeing the 50-foot sergeant actually looking like he's 50-foot as he screams at someone from within a mountain.

We were going to see Sin City – yes, we're late. I probably would've just waited and rented it on Neflix, but Mike wanted very much to see the comic book violence as large as possible pleasethankyou. I won't go into a huge thing about it, since by now if you were going to see it you already have, but I will make a couple of comments.

1) This was so utterly true to the comic book. I'm talking style, tone, flavor, looks. Someone opened Frank Miller's mind and let us take a tour.

2) The stylization of this film is gorgeous. White and black, harsh outlines, fuel-injected colour bits. I honestly could rave and rave about how this film looks. Though again I could be influenced by the comics in my enthusiasm, but I think that even if you've never read Sin City, you'd be in for a visual treat.

3) Special touches I loved most of all: How the bandages were always these little slaps of tape, including the cross ones. Everything about Marv (he was perfect). Kevin's glasses. For some reason, those glasses just captivated me.

4) Sort of disappointing: the stories came directly from the comic. And it's only "sort of" disappointing because the ones I could remember, I already knew how they ended. But it was the tiniest of tiny nits, and almost completely overshadowed by how cool it was that I could watch them.

After the movie, we pulled off another first and stopped by Cold Stone Creamery in the mall. Okay, I'd like to die now, thanks. Holy shit, that's delicious stuff. And ... really, really big. Note to us: get the smallest one possible next time.

So yeah, while I grumble and complain and worry about getting other stuff done, I confess: it was a good day and I'm glad he drug me out. Just don't tell him.

OMGWTFSQUEE

I have just been introduced to the world of Buffy art by M. Segawa.

Holy crap.

I am just floored. Comic/manga style and so very awesome. The characters actually look like the characters, while remaining stylized. I so very much wish I could draw like this, you have no idea.

Er, anyway. I found these. Hotlinking is all sorts of BADWRONG, so I've uploaded them to my server to show them here (slightly reduced in size). You should totally go tell him how much they rule though, so he'll do more. And more and more and still more. And I'm totally fangirling, so I'm mostly inarticulate. I'll let the art speak for me.

Buffy and her Vampires

Evil, Skanky and Kinda Gay

"I owe you PAIN!"

The Megawitches

Get the yellow breaky crayons...

Since I'm not too big on these particular slashy 'ships, I didn't grab Xander/Angel or Gunn/Angel. But damn. So well done.

<continues to gleefully fangirl>

It's Popetacular!

Aaand we have a new Pope. He sounds like a really fun guy, too.

I love organized religion. No, really.

To Greg, RE: Nova on Angel

Greg said: I'd be very curious, then to hear how you're feeling the second time through. With Nova's input. ;)

Much the same, for the most part. (We got through either 12 or 13.) The really high points remain really high points. My impression of a couple of things went up, and some went down. "Lonely Hearts", for example, which I really liked the first time through, didn't hold up so well. (Although I still love that song – yay for the Angel soundtrack.) "She" bombed horribly this time around, and Mum hated it. But there were one or two that I liked better second go through, and I can't remember what they were now. Typical.

Mum started off really liking it a lot, but her enjoyment's gone down a little bit, I think. Paraphrasing her words, she says that Angel thus far lacks a lot of the anticipation of Buffy. With Buffy, she always wanted to know immediately what came next. With Angel, it's more a case of "I could watch another", but that need isn't there. She's thinking it's a lack of general direction (which I told her improves next season dramatically) and no characters really appealing to her either. She really sort of liked Angel (the character) going in though, so I'll have to ask her if her opinion of him has gone down since.

I'm still looking forward to going through them again, when time permits. It's great to watch something through someone else's eyes. That's why I'm even more excited for when we rewatch Buffy together – with a few notable exceptions, she's only seen them the first time through, and as fantastic as Buffy is the first time, I think it improves dramatically on repeat viewings.

How I Rule.

I just finished up almost all the homework I have for the week. I'm about to get lunch, then sit down and write the promo for 9x03 in preparation for tomorrow's posting, make a tweak to 9x02 that needs to be done, and give the ep a final reread. After that, a little exercise, then shower. Then with all that crap out the way, I WILL finish this current act, and hopefully get a good leap into the next.

I WILL, dammit. <kicks episode>

Nine episodes later ...

Told you.

Time Sucker Alert!

Mum and I are about to begin watching Angel (which she hasn't seen yet). We're going to watch "just one". (HA.) Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!

I love Oregon, and Oregon loves me.

For the second year in a row, it turns out that I did our state taxes wrong. (Why have I lost the ability to do these things, I wonder.) But Oregon goes and double checks it all, and then sends me a happy notice that I screwed up, but that they're fixing it for me ... $300+ in our favour. And that's every expense we paid last weekend, plus some to spare. <gives Oregon a big sloppy kiss>

In other news, I was a bad Jet Wolf and did something I shouldn't have done today: I started playing Jade Empire. Holy shit, BAD MOVE. I did nothing else today at all ... well, I did a little school work, but no writing which I desperately needed to do. I'm bad. So bad.

And I want to play more tomorrow. <twitch>

What's that? Pictures you say?

Now those of you who've been asking (and those of you who haven't) are invited to partake of the latest edition to the Ego-Fest, where JW discusses at far too great a length about her trip. And it has shiny colour moments! Enjoy!

The rest of today:
   1) School stuff catching up
   2) Return to The Chosen, time permitting

How tonight will rule:

Sleeping for about ten hours straight in my own bed.

So fake it's almost real!

So here we are, in Orlando. Within three nanoseconds of getting off the plane, the South came flodding back to me. The heat. THE HEAT. THE HUMIDITY. And today we're going out in that, for extended periods of time! Arg.

I was so tired yesterday though. So tired that I couldn't do anything at all on the plane except watch their movie without sound and nod off for about thirty second stretches until there was another bump and, with a surge of adrenaline, I'd bolt upright again. Do that several hundred times in a day, and you really don't get the whole "rested" bit. Between my exhaustion and the stress, I began to actually get physically sick. Of course, because the trip thingie is biased against us west coasters (I smell a Bush conspiracy! Curse you, Jeb!), and particularly because the flight was about an hour late getting in, by the time we got our bags, registered and checked in, we only had about an hour before the first event: a big meet and greet formal dinner.

So screw that, says I. A room full of like 2200 other people, of whom 2199 I do not know, I couldn't handle the social stress (Me no likes people. Fear people.) on top of everything else. Mike, sadly, didn't have "blow off" rights, so off he went. Yeah, I'm a bad wife. But he's like, Mr. Gregarious and has absolutely no social qualms at all, so don't feel too bad.

Anyway, that left me here, alone. Now that we'd landed and I'd showered and all that good stuff—

Oh, wait, the hotel. First up, this thing is HUGE. I mean, I could write "HUGE" in thirty-story tall letters, and I would still fail to fully convey the hugeness. The thing is like a 5-acre self-contained resort, complete with their own "areas" and just ... I mean, I got lost getting from one relatively close area to another today. Our hotel has a map you need to use. That's fucking big.

They have a live aligator area. (Which I happen to personally disagree with, but the point being that they have one.) We're actually in the "Everglades" section, which mostly means that we have a whole "leaves and bugs" theme in our room (we have a dragonfly bedspread and wallpaper. Unless you know my thing about dragonflies, you can't possibly fully understand that irony.) This also means however that we have to pass through an "Everglades" section to pretty much go to or arrive from any other section. So, in the fine tradition of Disney simulated culture, it's all mocked up to be like the real thing. Meaning that walking through it, I'm immediately beset on all sides by the charming swampy conditions (including constant mist for real clothes-sticking humidity!)

But yeah, so there will be exploring in our future. And possibly pictures, but not until we get back sadly, as I can't actually connct to the Net with 'Bit here. They do provide fully working Internet-enabled stations in each room though, so that's something. Oh, make sure to look for the "Mike looks dead sexy in his fancy get up" picture soon. Yum.

Actually, I just checked the time - Mike will be back from his business doohicky soon, so I'd better get ready to walk my feet off at Disney today. I'll report on the very unusual breakfast situation in the next entry. (Just to give you a preview, this post's original title was going to be, "And they call her, the Xylophone Queen".)

Every muscle hurts. Curse you, airlines.

A weary Wolf, traveling.

First up, an entry that I tried to make yesterday:

8:12am, Phoenix time

So that's that leg done. As expected, I was able to do little aside from sit rigid in my seat, look out the window, and ask myself repeatedly, "Is the ground getting closer?" That aside, it wasn't that difficult a flight, but even those few hours felt looooong, and have left me looking forward to the following even less.

My first thought as we entered Phoenix airspace: there's a huge fucking rock in the middle of the city! I've actually never been to Phoenix before, so this is new.

My second thought about Phoenix: how interesting it was that they had a global announcement about there being an all-faiths chapel on the fourth level. (Of course, it hits me now that it's probably for the Pope's funeral, which is on the TV here at the gate.)

My third thought is that Phoenix's WiFi SUCKS. I'm connected, but can't go anywhere. Which means that I'm probably going to simply save this as a text file and post when we get to Orlando. Still, disappointing. You've disappointed me, Phoenix. You, with your blatantly southwestern-themed airport and your "cactus to go".

By the gods, I'm tired. And now they're telling us that there's a 30 minute delay in boarding. Whee!

The Great Juggling Act

Sometimes I hate the start of things. The beginning of a new school term, the beginning of a new season of The Chosen ... it all comes down at once. And given how far behind I felt after the whole FOX/Hack debacle, it's been making me a little frazzled and testy. I'm a creature of extremes – seemingly laid back to a fault sometimes, but secretly a control freak who has to have a death grip on every freaking thing.

I'm feeling even more spun because we're flying to Orlando on Friday(!!) for that trip. So there's another disruption in my schedule when I'm trying to balance it all.

I don't actually feel like it's all slipping away, but I don't feel as on top of it as I like. I'm talking like, "absolute tip of Mt. Everest" top. And it'll be hard for me to let go this weekend, because I'm not as far ahead on things as I want to be. But Mike's pretty much put a moratorium on me working this weekend. Which I honestly understand because we haven't had a vacation since we moved up here in July 2001. Not even a honeymoon. So this little three-day sojourn, he's demanding "you and me" time. That's really only fair because he has to "share me" so much and he does it without a whole lot of complaining. I just worry that all the things I "should" be doing will be niggling in the back of my mind. Yeah, so I guess, "Shut up, Mind!"

Then there's all the travel-related stress. I hate to fly. Did I mention that I hate to fly? I really hate to fly. And it's like, how much more work do I have to do to be at opposite points of the country? Portland, Oregon to Orlando, Florida. That's way more air time than I like, and I say that as a girl who's hopped the Atlantic to London and back since she was a few months old. And the worst part is, I can't be drunk for it. Because I'd really, really like to be drunk for it. It also sucks that I know Lil' Bit's battery isn't going to last the whole trip, so I can't try to absorb myself in my laptop (read: writing) either. I'm bringing a notebook, but I suspect the necessary delay in getting my words onto paper via my stupid slow hand will make that far more tedious than it's worth in the end. (What's that, you say? Shakespeare didn't have a computer? He was just crazy, man.) Mike was a sweetie and surprised me with a GBA the other day so that I could hopefully get lost in the shininess of new toys, so there's that. Just that ... Dude. It's like an eight hour flight. That's three whole MST3K episodes, with commercials.

Oh, and did I mention how the flight is leaving at like 5am? So no sleep for me tomorrow night, since I'm just gonna be a bear if I have to get up a few hours after I've gone to bed. (There's also the slim chance that I'll be so exhausted I'll pass out. This rarely works, but hey.) So yeah, people with chat programs: turn 'em on tomorrow night/Friday morning.

Ahh, but you know, I'm just bitching because I'm in that sort of mood. I mean, it's a free trip. Like, free, business-class, super-deluxe, all-expenses paid trip. And okay, so it's to Disney, which is in the south, which I loathe. But then there's the Free part again. And it'll do me good, to get out for a while without worrying about things.

Right?

...free?

For thsoe who get their news from non-news sources:

The Pope is dead.