We had Sovereign Summer.  Double Trouble rocked the Amazon charts, too.  Now it’s time to help the Mighty Mur Lafferty conquer Amazon with Playing for Keeps.

Mur is one of the biggest reasons I listen to podcasts at all.  I first heard her when she was on Pseudopod, and enjoyed her voice so much I followed her back to her own podcasts and fiction.  I wasn’t sure audio fiction would really hold my attention the way a physical book does, but I soon learned different.  The rest, as they say, is history.

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I live in the City of the Village, Oklahoma, a fact which amuses me to know end.  Technically, this makes me a villager.  And I always thought that when I moved in, I should have been issued a torch and pitchfork so we could periodically storm windmills or lighthouses or nearby keeps.

Enter Nycteris.  Shortly before I left for vacation, she twittered about a pin she’d added to her Etsy store that made me sit up and take notice.  It was an absolute must-have for any villager: a crossed torch and pitchfork, identifying the wearer as one ready to take up arms against the local monsters.  while I have nothing personally against mad scientists, they do need to understand that setting up operations too close to my home could upset my own plans for world domination through mad science.

I got a much bigger souvenir of my Texas vacation than I had planned.

We drove down to Houston from Oklahoma City a week ago, nine or so hours on the road. That’s about my limit for a day’s solid driving. As it turned out, that was the car’s limit as well. I lost all oil pressure going full speed down the tollway, and by the time I could get pulled over and off, the engine had seized. Even with my utter ignorance of all things automotive, I knew what that meant:

Catastrophic engine damage.

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So the mechanic called this evening while we were at dinner.  He did manage to get the car running again, but the engine still makes a terrible racket and he’s pretty sure there’s significant damage there.  He said it’s ok to drive around town here, but that I should not attempt to drive it back home.  In short, I need a new car.  I got my payoff quote for this car tonight (depressing news there) and have started the local hunt for something else.  We’re going to see what we can get on a trade in and see about getting me into something by Friday when we’re supposed to start heading north.

Hopefully the worst is now behind us so we can concentrate on enjoying our visit.

My daughter and I began our vacation trip to Houston this morning.  We started off well enough, though we were running later that I’d have liked.  This was my fault entirely, as I conked out last night before I’d gotten everything ready and packed.  I decided it was much more important for me to be fully rested in the morning than to get the crack of dawn start, and for the most part I was right.  I did forget a couple of important things in the scramble to get going, but nothing that will ruin the trip.  We got on the road only an hour or so after I wanted to get moving, so I count that, at least, as a win.

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0.7 Bolls

In my effort to watch movies so you don’t have to, I recently rented the festival of Native American stereotypes called Bone Eater.  Hopefully those of you who follow me on Twitter enjoyed reading me life-blogging the viewing.  I plan to do more of that in the future, as the responses I’ve gotten have been positive, and I had a lot of fun doing it.  Rest assured, I’ll only do it for the very worst of movies, those which really can’t be spoiled.

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I have a Netflix account I use for most of my movie viewing at home.  They have a great selection, far larger than I’ve experienced with Blockbuster and the like, and I’ve been really happy with the service they’ve given me.  What’s more, this fall they are joining with Microsoft to let me view my Instant Viewing queue directly on my Xbox 360, which will be awesome.

Sometimes, though, I don’t know a few days ahead of time that I’m going to want to watch something.  In the past this has been somewhat of an expensive prospect, as I get a hankering to watch three or more movies over a weekend, which is a pretty sum to give to Blockbuster on top of my Netflix subscription.  Enter redbox.  Now I can grab as many as I want for one dollar per night per movie.  They’re located at most of the McDonalds and Wal-Marts around me, so it’s really convenient to pick up a DVD on the spur of the moment, and the fact that I can return them at any redbox location is even more convenient.

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Double Trouble is upon us!

Tomorrow, 08.08.08, is the day that Tee Morris and Philippa Ballantine are both releasing their new novels on this auspicious Friday.  Starting at 8:00AM Pacific time, both authors are calling upon their fans to make a run on Amazon to once again show the powers that be the true power of internet marketing.

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Today’s random wanderings through the internet brought be, as the often do, to a place of joy.  In this case, the joy was a wonderful idea for an alarm clock: the Wake n’ Bacon.  The idea is you’d put a frozen piece of bacon inside before going to bed, set the alarm, and wake to the delicious smell of fresh-cooked bacon in the morning.  Waking up like that, how could the rest of your day be less than perfect?

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0.999999999 Bolls

We all know the old adage.  There should have been only one.  For many, there was only one, as they refuse to acknowlege any part of the Highlander franchise after the original 1986 movie.  I thought the first sequel (or anything set after the events of the original film for that matter) was a mistake, as Highlander was a complete story with a definite end.  There wasn’t supposed to be anything after it.  If they really wanted to capitalize on its popularity, they should have done prequels, focusing perhaps on Ramirez’s 2,000 year lifetime.  Plenty of material there for a screenwriter to put together.  But no, they had to do a sequel.  Then a television series.  Then another sequel.  Then they gave us a sequel tying in the television series.

Now, I liked the television series for quite a while, but I could reconcile it by telling myself it happened before Connor McLeod’s final battle with the Kurgan.  In fact, the series finale I wrote in my head had Duncan facing the Kurgan, and the latter taking his head, giving Connor all the more reason to take him out.  And my series finale, I must say, was brilliantly conceived, and would have brought Clancy Brown back is one of the greatest film villains ever.  But it was not to be, and I finally lost interest in the series itself.

Which brings us to now.  And to Highlander: The CrappeningSource.  Continue Reading »