babies_stole_my_dingo

First of all, a big THANK YOU to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday today. *smooches you all* For anyone wondering, I turned 21 again today. *nods firmly* Really.

All we did special today was go out to dinner at Red Robin, where I ate ridiculous amounts of fried shrimp, steak fries, and fried zucchini. Seeing a pattern there? However, we have plans to go see "The Hulk" this weekend, and we hope it's playing at the drive-in with "Iron Man," because that would be awesome. Or we might go see "The Happening," because it's M. Night and we like him in spite of the last train wreck. Hey, M. Night? You're awesome, but you're not Neil Gaiman. Don't try.

We also went grocery shopping at The Evil Mart of Walls. Which had the original X-Men movie in their $5 bin. And a double disc Will Smith set that had "I, Robot" and "Independence Day" for $9. Alan Tudyk is in the first, and Adam Baldwin is in the second. What's not to love? Also, Will rocks like a big rocking thing.

Borders has "MirrorMask" for $8 this week, and the Seattle's Best Coffee places that they have in Borders has a coffee milkshake to die for. OMG YUM. So, I have new/old SF/F on DVD.

And I have comicses. New Angel: After the Fall, and Chuck #1 (of 6), which starts us out on Gilligan's Island, Chuck style. *dies of funny*

In other news, my body this morning said "Happy birthday! Here's your period and some cramps! Whee!" I growled and took ibuprofen. HAH.

And now I suppose you all are wondering why I hate my brain. Well, I was discussing with the Hubby the fact that several people have mentioned that the ending of the Faerie Show fic is "too easy," for one reason or another. So, I had a Bunny for a new ending.

And I don't know whether to go or

What if, rather than reciprocating Saffron's feelings, Amethyst does what dragonfly-winged faeries naturally do to butterfly-winged faeries...and eats her? This might require tweaking the beginning a little so that Sheila brings two faeries instead of one, so the unveiling might be a little more shocking when she gets back to her setup.

So, yeah. I hate my brain. Why does it always go to a dark place when I'm trying to be light and funny? Now, I realize that I can play this for laughs, and I probably will, but still. Sheesh.

The A&tS fic has been sent off to Writers of the Future, now that it doesn't suck. This means I'm in way before deadline and have one less thing hanging over my head.

Of course, it wouldn't be me if it went smooth, and my label printing has been... problematic lately. *sigh* I wrote out the addresses by hand on the envelopes, after trying three times with two different programs to get them to print correctly.

I should dive into the Faerie Show fic next and figure out if there's anything more wrong with it. Then I can start shipping it around as well.

AND, I need to think of what's next. The Plot Bunnies are staying stubbornly in the Hutch and refusing to hop out and play. *taps foot*

Also, I can has new Buffy and Dresden comicses. I'm soooo behind on reading the things...

OMG, y'all. I was in Moab last week and missed out on three comics, and then two more came out this week.

I am holding in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers:

Angel: After the Fall #7
Buffy: Wolves at the Gate #14
Doctor Who #4
Everybody's Dead #3
Serenity #3

At this point in time, I haven't read any of the other Who comics and I'm debating if I want to wait until I have all six issues so I can marathon them. Everybody's Dead and Serenity are complete, and I can't wait to crack them open. Angel and Buffy, I'm reading as I get them, although Buffy is still kinda blah for me. However, it's vastly improved with the advent of Dracula, and the Faith arc is now available in a trade for $15 or so, well worth picking up if you haven't.

I will have reaction post(s) later, once I've read the ones I'm going to read.

I'm turning into a big ol' nerd, ain't I? Yeah, I realize I already was one...

From the same Spike: After the Fall cover.

( Follow the bouncing LJ-cut... )
Yes, yes, I know. I should be writing. Is it okay if I use a different creative part of my brain?

No?

Augh. Five hundred words. Anyone can do that. Right?

But I'm making icons instead. I'll stick them under the cut, even though there's only four, because they're spoilery for Spike: After the Fall #3, taken from the cover.

( Who's kissing? )
And yes, I'll be writing after the NASCAR race is over. Why didn't anyone tell me there was a race tonight? I checked the TV schedule out of sheer dumb luck and found out I was missing the race. Augh.

You know, I just created a JournalFen account a couple of days ago. I've got the same name there as I do here. Feel free to friend me.

However, this is and will always be my main journal, and so the JF one is kind of sitting there, blank and lonely.

I could just...put my fic there, I guess.

In lieu of actually writing. *headdesk*

But it would be kind of shiny to have everything all in one spot, nicely tagged and indexed.

I will ponder this. In the meantime, I should be writing. That 250 words I didn't write yesterday is making me feel terribly guilty, so I'm planning on 500 today.

*snorts* Yeah, RIGHT.

And it looks like everyone on my flist has seen "Iron Man" but me. *cries* Medved gave it three and a half stars and publicly wondered what was wrong with the critics at Rotten Tomatoes who didn't like it. It's at the drive-in with "Drillbit Taylor," which I also haven't seen yet. As Adam Baldwin has a cameo in it, I must see it.

Also, Free Comic Book Day today. Yes, I'm going, and I'm going to prepay for the Urru cover of Spike: After the Fall #3, because I want to be sure and have it. Because, DUDE.

The new Dresden Files comic is in stores today! *dances* It's a prequel to "Storm Front," so you don't even really need to know anything about Harry to jump right in. And the art I've seen looks purty.

So, you know where I'm going today. I may have to hunt down the #3 Doctor Who comic someplace else, as well. I'd hate it to be available and then miss out on it because of loyalty to one particular store. I do tend to spread my spending around a little. Not much, but a little. I may make some phone calls later.

Apparently I'm just getting old. Diagnosis so far is "pre-menopausal."

Yay.

So we can deal with the early periods a few different ways. I can go back on birth control. I can just live with it. Or I can have an ablation.

You know, there's been times, lately, when I've wanted to set my damn uterus on fire. The ablation doesn't sound like a bad option.

But for now, I'm just going to live with it.

In other news, I apparently waited too long to get my Doctor Who comic, because both branches of Night Flight were sold out. They didn't want to do a pre-pay on it (even though they're ordering more) because, apparently, they're having trouble getting them in and don't want me paying for something that may not show up. I thought about going to another store, but these guys are always so nice to me, and I don't want him ordering an extra and then not buy it...So I didn't check any other stores. I can't read them yet anyway, because I'm not done with S3 of Who.

And either the Dresden comic didn't ship this week, or they didn't get it. It's on order, and I did prepay for that one, so when it gets in they'll have one for me. I just realized, while typing this entry, that there's two variant covers for it...and I didn't specify. Oh well, they're both awesome.

And I did pick up my Angel: After the Fall #6. So at least I have that. And another Writers of the Future at the used bookstore, since I was, you know, in the area and it seemed silly not to stop in.

The Dresden Files comic should be on shelves tomorrow.

Except for the part where I've got two comic stores with online thingies telling me what they've got in for this week, and neither of them have it.

*cries*

If I can't get these, I'm going to be very put out...

In other comic news, the third Doctor Who comic is also out tomorrow. Seeing as we're going to be finishing up with S3 very soon (yay, library DVDs!), I'll actually get to read them now.

In other other comic news, I saw the cover for the Spike: After the Fall #2 today, and, dudes! That is a shiny, shiny thing.

And picked up the new Serenity: Better Days book.

It's SHINY, y'all.

And this week, there's a new Angel comic as well, and another Brian Lynch one called "Everybody's Dead." I think it has something to do with zombies, but it's Brian's and I'm grabbing it.

I've done another pass through the Giant Bugs story. I'm going to let the Hubby have one more shot at it. At this point, it's as clean as I can make it, so I'm about ready to call it "done" and ship it off to Writers of the Future.

Of course, that means I've gone from "wow, this is the best thing I've ever done" to "I kind of think this sucks," but I'm going to mark that down as normal writerly wibbling and low self-esteem, and ship it off anyway.

Considering how my day has gone, this icon seems particularly apropos:



Aye well. I get to go to the post office and the comic store today. There's a new Serenity comic out! *dances*

I've gotten nothing written today. I added all of two words to the Faerie Show Fic yesterday. I'm feeling remarkably blah right now, considering the fact that I have TWO things to look forward to.

Yes. Yes, I can.

*points finger accusingly at flist* Why did no one tell me that there were BSG comics? I just spent fifteen bucks on a trade I really couldn't afford, dudes. Of course, then I found out that they take place during S2, which I haven't seen yet (we're still watching S1 on DVD), so I'll have it to look forward to later.

Any other comics y'all are hiding from me? *crosses arms*

I got my issue of Angel: After the Fall #3, and all I have to say is: DUDES! I totally didn't see that coming. And Illyria being all pissed off and protective of Spike never ever gets old. *squees* I'm kind of surprised there's not wank about that last (rather shocking) panel. Has the fandom gone sane or something? (May be spoilers in comments.)

I also picked up Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now #4, which I haven't read yet, but will.

Why you gotta do this to me, comic book companies?

THREE (count 'em!) comics coming out this week that I must have.

Spike: Shadow Puppets. And they want me to pick a cover? I realize they want me to buy both, but I can't do that, dammit.

Buffy issue 7. Gotta have it. At least they made the choice of covers easy for this one. And hey. Faith. Last month they made me go "OW" for her. Joss isn't afraid to hurt his characters...and it's a lesson I've learned well. Maybe too well.

Beowulf. Ohyespleasegivememoreofthis. It's going to be a weekly issue, so I'll have to plan for it.

My cup runneth over this Wednesday.

At least I don't have to worry about getting the Wyrms comics until February at LTUE, when I can get them autographed from Jake. But that's something I'll have to plan for as well, down the road.

Yes, I cans.

Dropped by Black Cat Comics in Sugarhouse today (why, yes, that was a shameless plug) to pick up the new Buffy comic, and got to chatting with the guy about All Things Joss. I mentioned that I hadn't read the Astonishing X-Men comics that Joss penned, and that I'd like to. He mentioned that he just happened to have issue #1 of same over in the used bin for cover price.

*grabbyhands*

I haven't read it yet, but I shall. And then I suppose I need to find the rest of them, or a trade.

Like I need another comic to start buying.

In other news, I got another 200 words written in the Abducted!Werewolf story. Go, me.

And SerenityStuff will give away a special edition of the new Special Edition Serenity DVD coming out next week to someone they randomly draw who blogs about it...

I bring you...

Twenty-Five Reasons You Should Buy the Serenity Collector's Edition DVD:

Well, wait. I'm not going to C&P all 25 reasons here. There's a link, you can click it. But I'll post highlights.

• More stuff you don’t need an all-regions DVD player to see. With this 2-disc set you’ll finally get the features that Europe and Australia got already (You don’t get the long Q&A Joss did in Australia, but you can catch that on Youtube). First up: The Extended Scenes (6 min. 45 sec.). Longer versions of some of the scenes in the movie, including more Mal and Inara.
  
• Better cover art. Way, way better cover art. It’s not 11th Hour quality, but few things in this world are and this is much classier. Not a llama in sight.
  
• The Session 416 videos! River’s scary-cool progression through the Academy. I loved seeing ‘em online but I can’t wait to see ‘em on a bigger screen.
  
• Brand. New. Cast. Commentary. Joss, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau, and Ron Glass talking about our favorite movie. Face it, this is a good enough reason all by itself.

And here's a list of what's new and what's not on the Collector's Edition, in case you're still waffling.

So, there. Go forth and buy this on the 21st.

In other Whedon-type news, the third issue of Spike: Shadow Puppets is coming out tomorrow...and Dark Horse issued a three-piece PVC set of Mal, Jayne, and River as well. Ouch, my wallet.

Saw the Transformers movie last night. It was double-featured with Evan Almighty at the drive in, so we thought we'd toddle over and see it.

And it was pretty cool. We were thoroughly entertained. Just...leave your brain at the door, because it's monumentally stoopid. More stoopid than the new Die Hard movie. They'd make a great double feature together. Big dumb action movies with big dumb plots and big dumb set-pieces. I liked the Die Hard movie better.

FWIW, Da Boy (who is six) enjoyed Transformers as well. We were hesitant about letting him watch it because, you know...scary robots doing a lot of property destruction and people getting hurt, but he thought it was really cool and thinks we should buy the DVD. We told him to save his money. *snerk*

Evan Almighty was just as awesome the second time around. More so--because there are anteaters at the end that I didn't notice on the first viewing. *flails*

New Spike: Shadow Puppets comic today!

Found this via slushgod: Habitable Planets for Man. A research tool for sci-fi writers building new worlds. Free pdf DL.

We're gearing up for the Seattle trip. I checked the weather, and the highs are going to be somewhere around 75. This is 25 degrees cooler than what we're getting here in SLC. We might need jackets! Hee!

And Da Boy just came in and informed us that there was a garter snake in our front yard. Lo and behold, there was! It went into the bushes before I could get a pic of it, though. This is the second snake we've seen in our yard; the other one was in the back. HOW COOL IS THAT???

I bring you...

ICONS.

Mostly based on comics, but a couple I made from a base I created from a photo at Snopes, which really has the coolest stuff on the planet.





( And a couple that might be considered spoilery for comics that are coming out... )

I broke a thousand words yesterday on the CatFeet fic. I haven't broken my main (human) character yet, but that's coming. Oh, yes. *rubs hands together and laughs diabolically* Fear not, for he deserves it. Way more than Jayne did.

American Idol is still bringing the blah and the meh. I still don't know half their names, nor do I care. Last year, year before last, I was excited--hell, I was voting. This year? Can't be arsed to pick up the phone and dial. *punches fist halfheartedly in the air* Go, Melinda.

Of course, the fact that I like Melinda means she'll be voted out around the five-week mark. Then she can make her own career and not be under the thumbs of these people, who probably know what they're doing with someone like her, but have no idea what to do with a Taylor Hicks. Getting voted off when he did was probably the best thing to happen for Chris Daughtry. This is a bubble-gum competition, and he's a rocker.

Not that I'm bitter.

Those of you keeping up with the Heroes Graphic Novels? There's a new one today, so they're at least giving us those while the show is on hiatus. Yay!

Also, the Buffy S8 comic comes out tomorrow, as does Issue 5 of Angel: Auld Lang Syne. You know where I'm headed tomorrow, baby.

Today was better than yesterday. For one thing, I only left the house to go to the chiropractor. I didn't have this big elaborate expensive thing I had to do that would cost us dearly if I screwed it up. So that was a shiny thing. My back still hurts, and I still can't touch my knees, but it's minutely better than it was. Yayness.

For another, my S2 Farscape DVDs came today. To my surprise and pleasure, they're four-disc sets instead of the two-disc, double-sided sets I was expecting. I looked at Amazon's reviews, and apparently they had trouble with the two-sided discs, so...here we are. Yay!

In honor of getting them, I made a wallpaper. It's probably not all that, as wallpapers go, but it's mine and I like it and I share it with you. It's snaggable if anyone wants the silly thing.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full-size pic:

1024x768

In other news, the Hubby made it to Colorado in the new plane okay, although it wore him out. Apparently we need to get a GPS for it, stat. He may stay an extra day; he hasn't decided. Depends a lot on what the weather does.

In other other news, the Angel Scriptbook comics I BIN'd on eBay three weeks ago still haven't arrived. *sigh* I'm about ready to give up on eBay for comics. Because, dude. I emailed the seller, but with the holiday weekend, who knows when I'll hear back from him. I hope to hell they didn't get delivered to my front porch while we were at Little Brother's wedding, and then someone took them. Because that would suck.

Dear eBay seller:

Okay, it's been 26 days. The thing was supposed to have been shipped via Priority Mail. I've sent you two emails, neither of which you've seen fit to reply to. If I don't hear from you by 5pm my time today, then I'm filing with eBay.

I realize you probably wanted more for those comics than you got. If that's the case, then you should have either (a) started them with a higher opening bid, or (b) used a reserve. The fact that I was the only bidder is not my problem. My problem is that I sent you six dollars and eighty cents, and I want my friggin' comics. Specifically, the #2 issue, which is the one I'm missing and probably could have gotten sooner than this if you'd just told me you were going to be an idiot before I sent you the money.

Yes, I realize it's less than $7. And no, I'm not going to pretend it's the "principle of the thing," because, dude, it's totally the money--and I couldn't give a crap less that it seems petty. That's MY damb seven dollars, and I've gotten bupkiss for it. Either give me a refund, or send me my Joss-y illustrated goodies.

No love,
agilebrit

Argh.

---

In other news, I sniped a copy of "Fray" yesterday and got it for less than half the retail price, which was shiny. I was going to bid on an anteater this morning, but when I woke up it was sitting at twice what I was willing to pay for it, so, um, NO.

Oh, look. Someone who won some comics from this seller the same day I did has left them a pair of negs for non-performance. SHINY. I'm not going to go that far just yet, because we have 90 days to leave feedback (longer if you know how, which I do)...but it ain't reassuring that I'm not the only one this seller has apparently stiffed.

Maybe something happened to the seller, in which case I will feel bad--and file for a refund anyway.