It has not been going well lately…

But surprisingly I’m not in a bad mood. Let’s review the past week and a half… On Wednesday I came down with a cold that I’m still suffering with. Been to the doctor’s, it’s not strep, pneumonia, or the flu (swine or other-wise..). It’s just a really horrible cold that. won’t. go away. On Friday I popped a tire and scratched up the side of my car. On Sunday my anime club, Anime Syracuse, had it’s Fall mini-con. Attendance was disappointly low and even worse… $200 went missing from our cashbox. To top off the evening, when taking down the a vendor’s display one of our helpers managed to clock me in the eye with a wire rack display. Now I have a black eye.

I should be wallowing under the blankets somewhere, shouldn’t I? But actually I’m in a pretty good mood. For one, even though I popped a tire (and am still driving on a donut…) I have road-worthy tires in my garage just waiting to be put on. Even though the Sunday event had low attendance, everyone there seemed to have a blast! And the Monday free Funimation screening was very well attended compared to last time. Also, the event provided an excuse to have the Neko-jin Girls  (Kit and Neko of Neko-jin designs) up, and we had a fun night talking shop, manga, and bizarre yahoo japan finds. We are already making plans for them to come up just for fun some time this winter during school and job downtime.

Today my cold hit me pretty hard, so I pretty much crawled into bed the moment I got home. I decided to marathon the rest of the first half of “Big Windup” (warning link takes you to site with an auto starting video, but it also has free episodes to watch). I’d won it at our first free Funimation event, and we’ve watched some episodes of it at club. I really love it. I am admittedly biased. While I can’t stand to actually watch a real sporting event, I have something of an obsession with fictional baseball. I have just about every baseball movie out there from the Natural, Field of Dreams, A League of their Own, The Sandlot… you name it I probably have it or have at least seen it, same goes for books. Sadly, the only baseball manga I can think of that came out in the west was an OEL called Boys of Summer… but I’ve read scanlations for Touch, H2, CrossXgame… So when I heard there was a baseball anime, licensed and available for sale and everything… well I knew it would be mine. And obviously it was destined to be as I won it before I even had the chance to plunk down money for it.

But the first box set ends at episode 13 (of 26) and at an AWFUL place. It could be worse, it wasn’t a cliffhanger but they were just about to start a game! Now I have to wait until November to buy it.

I was so productive yesterday…

And so very NOT productive today, and not in a good mood today either. I was supposed to have someone (two people) come over and give me an estimates on my roof today. Neither came or called with an explanation. Nor do I have their numbers to find out why. Guess who I won’t be hiring? The search for a roofer continues…

I was supposed to hang out with a friend today helping her with a project for her Halloween party, but she wasn’t ready and hadn’t really decided for sure what she wanted to do so we decided not to. That left me on my own all day, just getting progressively moodier for no reason. I didn’t even feel like reading.

You know it’s bad when you don’t even feel like reading. All the unread books I’ve got at the house are horror manga and shoujo and I’m not in the mood for either. I fell into a long block of Project Runway, which was somewhat soothing. But now I feel like sewing but all my needles and thread are over at my old apartment. =/ I’m not the least bit tired, but I don’t have anything to do that isn’t just making me more irritated.

Magical Manga Machine? (of the future!)

Image by gruntzooki via Flickr

I was reading an article on ICv2 that introduced me to a magical device call the Espresso Book Machine. It’s a kiosk that will print on demand a library quality paperback book in less then 2 minutes.  (300 pages they claim, in less then 4 minutes) There’s a video on the website that shows it in action. The ICv2 alludes to how it may change the book market, but seeing as my obsession is manga my mind immediately went to how it could effect the manga market. Most of what follows is speculation on how this could be used in the future, since the technology isn’t quite there yet. (Though the  machine is already being deployed and in use in some places.)

One of the major hurdles for current niche publishers is making the cost of printing and distributing small market title affordable. The costs are high to a small return. But what if you didn’t have to front the costs print or distribute your book?

Sure, you could go digital. But readers have been resistant, even with devices like the Kindle and and the Sony E-reader. It’s just not the same as holding a book in your hand.

The Espresso Book Machine meets the problem in the middle. Secure digital PDF versions of the book that are printed out on demand to anyone using the kiosk. Imagine being a small book publisher and your book is on a device in your local grocery store, next to the DVD rental machine. Imagine in fact that it is in EVERY grocery store, and anyone can print it out right when they want it. No shipping costs or delays! They don’t have to track it down in some specialty shop, or special order it at the book store, or order it online. Just choose your book, print, and go. You, the publisher, get your royalties and I’m sure a portion goes to the kiosk holder to pay for the production of that book.

As a small book publisher you now don’t have to pre-pay to print books, or ship them to stores…if you can even get someone to agree to put them on the shelves. You don’t have to find a place to store the unsold copies, hoping for a buyer or disposal if there is no hope. If you’re in a niche market like Manga, now you can sell any title in your catalog without any of these expenses. You don’t even have to be involved, other then uploading your PDF to the main catalogue and then you can focus on marketing and getting the people who want it that it’s available to buy. (Just go pick it up next time your picking up some milk!)

It wouldn't work right now. They’re not close to being everywhere (at over $100,000 for the machine and printer it doesn’t seem cost effective yet.) They aren’t stand-alone and have to be manned by an employee and have an unbreakable connection to the internet. I can’t imagine how often you’d have to change the paper on one of these things. But even as they are I can see the benefits to a small time publisher. A one time cost of $100,000, while sizable might be worth it if you can have a machine that can print off any book in your catalogue in minutes, ready to be shipped to anywhere. They say it costs a .01 to print a page on this, so your typical manga (of generous 200 pages) would cost $2.00 to print.

I know there are other costs besides printing the book. And in manga there is even more expenses, like the licensing costs, translation, adaptation (both the text and artwork), pre-press costs, royalties, lawyers, employees, marketing… I’m sure the list is longer then I can imagine. But right now all those costs can be contained in cover price between 9.99-15.99, with this device you could charge the same but cut out whatever portion goes to all that managing of the physical book. Print out some copies for Amazon to sell, and the rest are fufilled right out of your offices…one at a time as they are ordered.

Personally, I would love a chance to get on the ground floor for a franchise on this. Imagine being able to place these in places with long wait times, like the DMV, airports, doctor’s offices. Or open a kiosk in the mall, next to the lady trying to sell you hand cream and the guy with the kiosk with the cellphone accessories. Right now these have to be manned by an employee, but imagine in the future when they eliminate that step and you could put these on their own, any place a person might walk by. Great for a coffee shop, or a hair salon… maybe one next to those chairs the guys sit on when their significant others are shopping? (Or conversely, one in the sporting goods store next to the golf equipment or at a boat show?)

In the manga world… imagine having one of these things at a con stocked with every manga ever published in English, French, Italian or Japanese?

If I was manga publisher here in the west, I’d so be advocating that the companies come together with the makers of this thing for a “Manga Kiosk” that could be placed in bookstores, comic book stores, game shops and any other place it could fit and be manned. Stocked with every title they have a license for, all across the board. Someone wants a copy of the latest Naruto, it’s theirs in less then 5 minutes. They want a copy of The Swan volume 14? Equally easy to find. The licensers get their cut, the stores where the kiosks are placed get a paid a rental fee for giving the space (like most vending machines do, usually a percentage of it’s intake so they’re invested in it’s sucess), and the customers have someplace to go where they can get their fix. Instantly.

An in the distant future, people would have old models set up in their game rooms rigged to give free books, just like people have old coke machines now. Okay…maybe that’s a little out there. But it would be cool!

 

Venus in Love 7 Yay!

I promised myself I wouldn’t buy any books in the month of October… and then immediately regretted it when I got to the end of my available Venus in Love volumes just to discover that there was one more just released! Buying it would mean breaking my promise… and since 6 hadn’t ended in a cliffhanger I’d resigned myself to wait. But then it showed up at my door anyway! Apparently I pre-ordered it through right stuff months ago when they were having a CMX sale. Yay for thinking ahead!

In other news, after reading 1-7 of Venus in Love, 1-7 of Wild Ones, and 1-10 of High School Debut, I think I’m shoujo-ed out for a bit. Though it was nice to end up with High School Debut and it’s habit of taking most shoujo tropes and playing them for laughs. I think it over-reached itself with trying to get serious with the “love rival” chapter. Next up, I’m going to go in the complete opposite direction and catch up with Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys. I’ve only read the first one and really liked it. I was VERY tempted to make the “Friends Cult” symbol into a pin. I probably will at some point.

I’ve managed to keep up with my do three things every day promise, though sometimes the things have been very small. But everyday progress gets made, and that’s the whole point. ^_^ I’m feeling much better about it at least.

I’ve been working through my manga backlog…

Since my books are still over at my old apartment, I’ve had to plan out what I’m reading a bit more. Instead of just randomly grabbing out something, I’ve been selecting long series that I have more then one new volume of that I haven’t read. I tend to buy stuff and then wait until I have two or three new volumes before sitting down to read it. That worked fine when companies were pumping out titles monthly or even a couple months apart. But now it’s getting more common for there to be 4 months or more between a release. By the time I have a couple volumes I’ve forgotten what was going on before. When that happened I tended just to shelve the new volumes until I had a chance to read the series from the beginning and read something new that just came out.

The past month or so, I’ve been taking a series at a time from my old place and bringing it over for a re-read or in some cases a first time read. Possibly the dumbest thing I did was read The Kurosagi Corpse Delivery Service series right after I moved in the house. A supremely creepy, gory, supernatural horror in an empty house with poor lighting and no furniture… REALLY CLEVER OF ME. I slept even less then I normally do after that. However, I am eagerly awaiting any future volumes because I apparently am a masochist. See also, Ghost Talker's Daydream which I read because I figured I wasn’t sleeping anyway. It’s got a bit too much fan-service to be as creepy and unsettling as Kurosagi, but it still managed to tell a damn scary story. Too bad it seems that Dark Horse has dropped this one. Volume four (of ten) was slated for May 2009, but it’s not even listed in Amazon now.

More recently I caught up on Ouran, and am now caught up with the official English release. I also caught up on Venus in Love a title I never hear anyone talking about, and it's a shame because it's excellent. It's by the author of ZIG*ZAG, and of the two I prefer Venus. The story starts out following the main character Suzuna, as she settles into her first apartment near the school she’ll be attending Koto University. She meets her neighbor Eichi, and his best friend Fukami whom she immediately starts crushing on. Problem is, she has to get in line. Eichi’s been crushing on him since middle school! What starts out as a friendly and sympathetic rivalry (Fukami is completely oblivious to both of their affections) turns into a fun and teasing friendship.

It was nice to read a manga that is not about a fifteen year old for once, though I will admit Suzuna’s personality isn’t too far off from most fifteen-year-old protagonists in your typical shoujo. She unfortunately fits into that “Sweet, slow and clumsy” trope all too well, but she’s not passive enough to really be annoying about it. The only bad thing about catching up is that a new volume just came out. CMX titles (DC Comic’s manga imprint) never have an easy time getting on local bookstore shelves, so I’ll have to order it in… but I promised myself I wouldn’t buy any manga in the month of October (I’m saving to buy a fake Christmas Tree)!

Currently I’m reading Wild Ones, a Yakuza love story. (Kind of.) I really like this series. It’s artwork is slick and pretty. I love the covers and the interior “Five minutes Later” gag covers. The main character Sachie is rapidly working up my list of “Cool Manga Heroines.” She is not the passive shoujo heroine who just wants a prince to take care of her. I love her responses whenever her love interests say the typical tired “I’ll protect you” or “I’d die for you” type of lines. Plus she’s fully capable of kicking ass all on her own, though she does get “saved” more often then I like (especially since it seems unnecessary.)

There is a new volume of Wild Ones out too, further tempting me to break my promise not to buy books.  Plus more Kimi ni Todoke and Skip Beat!! Add to that that Rightstuf is having a 33% sale off on Viz, and Amazon is having a 4-for-3 promotion AND Borders is having a buy 4 get one free promotion. It’s like the universe is converging to get me to break my resolve. It’s not even October 2nd  yet!

Just Got Back from Avenue Q

A good time was had by all. I’d listened to the sound track before, but never seen it performed. I had a pretty good idea what it was going to be like, but I really wasn’t expecting some parts of it. (And I hadn’t even known of the existence of the “Bad Idea Bears” I love them!) The only bad part was that the lyrics weren’t entirely clear. I got the impression that the tech side of the show was not on it’s top form tonight.

I’ve got “Sucks to be You” running in a loop in my head. Only a hearty round of Burger Shop 2 will fix that!

In other news, managed to knock off my three things again today. Drew the below doodles, cleaned and replaced a light fixture (instead of wielding dangerous knives) and posted three days in a row. I think it’s a record!

Mission Accomplished, Day one…

I realized after I posted yesterday that I’d left out a few important details. I complained long and hard about how I was so busy… and then that my solution was to add more stuff to my schedule.

Yeah, that doesn’t make sense. BUT, I did forget to mention that besides all the stuff I had to I’ve been so aimless that I’ve been wasting a ton of time just zoning and accomplishing nothing. Then at the end of the day I’m mad and frustrated that another day passed that I didn’t get a single thing done that I wanted too because I just pissed away my time.

For example yesterday I ate lunch in front of the TV and got caught up in a reality tv show about a pawn shop called “Pawn Kings.” I didn’t like the show, thought the premise was boring and hated most of the cast. I watched four episodes just because I didn’t feel like doing anything I had to do (dishes, laundry, housework). Then I played Burger Shop 2, again. I’ve beaten the game and am trying to get perfect on every level of expert mode. (I cannot get past the damn sumos! Damn them and their triple bacon cheeseburgers with ranch dressing.) Time management games are a guilty addiction, which is ironic because time management is my greatest problem. So I procrastinate doing stuff like that and then wonder why I haven’t gotten anything done. And I get mad at myself for not accomplishing things.

Today I drew a doodle of myself, trying to beat Burger Shop. Today I hung the extra panels for my curtains in the living room and also cleaned up the living room. And with posting this I will have knocked down the third goal, writing something. I’ve made the goals small because I’ve tried this before and failed because I was expecting perfection from my daily goals. This time I’m just sick of being mad at myself for not doing anything, when it’s completely within my control to fix.

Also, a lot of the other things I mentioned… I’m taking a step back and trying to see what I can hand off to others. I’ve got an army of people willing to help me construct buttons (I pay them), so I should hand more of that out. That gives me more time. If I was more pro-active about scheduling my con-stuff (travel, tables, hotel) it wouldn’t feel such a scramble every time a con comes up. I’m also purposely stepping out of a few cons I’d thought about doing this October, November and December to give myself a breather and re-asses my button biz. My website has been languishing and there is a lot of “meant to dos” on the business side there that the constant con schedule has prevented me from doing. Not traveling will give me time to do that… and since that’s all writing I can include it in my “write every day” goal.

Mainly I’m just trying to get back do doing the things I enjoy and want to do first, and let the other stuff take a backseat if it has too instead of the other way around. Otherwise even the stuff I enjoy, like traveling, going to cons and participating in my local club feel like a chore.

Today I managed to do all three things AND had friends over to play Munchkin. And I still have time for a quick game of Burger Shop before bed! (I will get past this level!!) So today I feel accomplished and get to goof off. Tomorrow I’m going to see Avenue Q. I have to figure out what I’m doing on the house tonight I think, so I can do it right away when I get home tomorrow. I’ve been meaning to trim back the carpet scrap that sticks out of the coat closet into the living room for a while now. I should be able to do that before the show with no problem.

Reconnecting and getting back on track!

For a long time now I’ve kind of dropped off the internet. Part of the reason was that I didn’t have internet service, but even before that I’d kind of retreated from a lot of the forums and groups I was involved in. (Even the ones I created like my own website.)

One of the main reasons is that I’ve just been so busy. I’ve been going to about one con a month, which doesn’t sound like a lot… but there is so much planning and prep involved in the room, travel and table arrangements not to mention making the thousands of buttons I take with me that it can really eat up time. Besides the cons, I have a full time job and have gotten involved with a local anime club that’s started to put on quarterly “mini-cons.” I’m on the board of the club so I’ve been really involved. It seemed that every time I turned around I was late on doing something that had to be done IMMEDIATELY. Submit this application to a con, placate this angry customer at work, book this hotel, draw this for club, go do this promotion… So a lot of things I enjoyed, like drawing just to draw, discovering new anime and manga and most especially keeping up with the wide array of friends I have across the globe just kind of dropped off the radar. As did actually moving into my house. I moved into my house in May (after finalizing the purchase in January), and all this activity has kept me from moving the bulk of my belonging from the old apartment to my house. It’s family owned, so there wasn’t a rush… but jeeze… It’s been 9 months and I still have to visit my parents to when I want to read a book or find an art supply. I could have given them a grandchild in that time, I should at least be able to give them back storage space.

Checking in on someone’s facebook or livejournal doesn’t sound like a necessary thing, nor does checking out a new anime or just sketching. But I’ve lost touch with a lot of good friends, and that isn’t good. My day job is suffering, because I’m so tired that my focus isn’t there. I still get everything done there, but I feel like it takes me longer to get things accomplished which makes me feel rushed and annoyed. And my con enjoyment is slipping because my buttons are getting stale… I don’t know the current jokes and memes, because I’m not in the community as much anymore. I don’t mind not being on the bleeding edge, but I miss being able to kibbitz on what this author is doing, and plots on tv shows as they air… It’s really the most fun way to experience an anime, manga or any tv show, it’s just not as much fun when you’re experiencing it in a vacuum.

And I haven’t been writing… something I find extremely stress-relieving and rewarding. It’s also the main way I communicate with people, so it’s been the main reason I’ve lost touch with so many cool and interesting people.

So! What am I going to do about it?

I heard this bit of advice several places… take a calendar and put a goal on it and do it every day. Cross it off, every day. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on the goal, the standard recommendation is 15 minutes, but do it every day. They recommend making the resolution public so you have people who can hold you accountable.

So I’m going to write every day.

I’m going draw every day.

I’m going to do something in my house, every day. 

Today I wrote this blog entry. Today I drew the little sketch in this entry. Today I emptied three boxes of craft items into my craft room. Tomorrow my sketch may only be a smiley face, and I might only make a twitter post (not that I’ve ever tweeted before, but it seems to be where everyone is “at” now) or forum post to write. I may only get rid of some cardboard tomorrow at the house. But I’m going to do something everyday. I’m tired of being upset with myself for not doing it.

I have internet again!!!

Ever since I moved into my house back in May I haven’t had internet at home. But today, finally, the nice Time Warner man came by and gave me my magic modem box. Now I have the internet again, and wow am I behind. I know I’ve missed tons and tons. Livejournal/Facebook/Etc is blocked at work, and even though I was able to leech off a neighbor’s internet occasionally at home never long enough to be able to do more then check my email. Please let me know if I’ve missed anything big, and don’t be surprised if you see me commenting on some of your REALLY old entries.

Whine…Whine… Whine…

There is an inch of water on my basement floor. The water heater was spurting water for about 2 days while i was away. I got the water tank shut down, but now I have no idea how to get the water out. The only drain is at the highest point in the room. Good engineering there!

There is nothing I can do about it tonight. I need to get a shop vac or something. I just wanted to whine about it some more and I ran out of friends to call.

Anime North

I am currently running around my house like a chicken with it’s head cut off. I have never been this unprepared for Anime North before. It’s not surprising when I review the past two months.

Let’s start with April… first weekend in April I went to Tekkoshocon in Pittsburgh. Three days after returning from Tekko I went to Mexico City on vacation for two weeks. (Lots of fun was had.) Two days after returning from Mexico (lobster red and exhausted, and having returned to work for those two days) I went to Toracon, a one day con in Rochester, NY.

That brings us to May. Ten days after Toracon, my friends and I from my local anime club put on Anime Syracuse. That left me with about two weeks to really prepare for Anime North. And since I did way more business then I expected at both Toracon & Anime Syracuse, I really didn’t have enough time to build new stock to replace everything I sold. EEK!

Oh well, I managed to make over 7,000… I suppose that will have to do. ^^; (It’s really not as many as it sounds!) I’m making a few more tonight too. I don’t expect I’ll sleep.

Luckily for me I’m not driving! I’ve got a couple friends coming with me this year, my friends Kristen and Jess. I’m coming up tomorrow (Thursday) and I’ll be in Toronto until Tuesday afternoon. I’ll be at the same table I was at last year, and hopefully having two friends to help out will mean I can actually talk to people more. (Here’s hoping!)  My cellphone hasn’t changed, and I still get free text messaging. Sadly I’ve been so busy just playing catch-up I haven’t had a chance see what everyone’s else’s plans are. I should be in Canada after 7 pm or so tomorrow, so feel free to call or text if you’re in town and want to make plans.

 

 

No I don’t have Swine Flu…Just a movie addiction.

Image by Chesi - Fotos CC via Flickr

 

I’m back from Mexico! And have been for a week. It was a lot of fun, and I luckily all I came back with was a horrible sunburn. (Which thanks to my Irish heritage has now peeled away to reveal the normal glaring white complexion beneath.

No, the only reason I look like death warmed over at work is because I keep insisting on going to late movies during the week. First L: Change the World (the third Death Note movie) last night and now the Wolverine movie premiere tonight.

L: Change the World was about what you would expect for a third movie in a series adapted from a manga. As my friend Jess put it, you know going into it’s it’s going to be fan service, and a lot of it. And there was a lot of L doing what people like best, being charmingly weird and quirky. The plot of course was horrible, and a for some reason they seemed to think the best direction was to turn the pasty-faced, emo, sugar addict L into an action hero. We spent a lot of time giggling every time they had him do something new like run (still hunched over), ride a bike,  or stand up straight. He even, at one point, stands up straight AND walks.

We joked that the promo should have been “See L run, run L, run,” because really that was worth the price of the admission. The cheesy viral weapon storyline wasn’t what sold the movie, it was the weirdness like the hot pink Angel Crepe van that is apparently L’s version of the batmobile. (And yes we did sit in the back row and go da-na-na-na-na. like the old Batman TV show every time he got in it.)

I’d like to say that the new Wolverine movie, X-men: Origins, was a lot better… But also being a movie based on an overused character it suffered from a lot of the same flaws, only with a much bigger budget. It was a lot slicker, but it was still mostly fanservice for the comic crowd who just can’t get enough of those claws. When I’m more awake maybe I can give a better review.

But I will say, there were several naked Hugh Jackman scenes, so I didn’t leave unhappy.

Oh, and by the way… did I mention I was helping to put on a one day anime event on here in Syracuse? Well I am… which is one of the reasons I went to both of these movies, to hand out fliers promoting Anime Syracuse, which will be held on May 9th at the Palace Theater. I’ve got advance sale tickets set up in my shop if you’re in the area and are interested in coming. (We’ve got vendor space left too, if anyone wants to come and sell stuff.)

 

Did I mention I’m in Mexico?

Image via Wikipedia

 

I’ve had an extremely busy couple of months, and I kind of dropped off the face of the internet for a while. I’m still catching up. So I thought I’d do a quick post to let people know I’m alive, well, and still plugging along.

I’ve been up to a lot, I went to Tekkoshocon as a vendor in their dealer’s room with friends Mindy, Mark, & Darnell, and we were later joined by Morgan. We had a ton of fun, and all the booths around us were super friendly. I have to say, the Tekko dealer’s room was one of the most welcoming we’ve been in. Mary Pat, the head was very patient both before and after con with all of Mindy and my questions.  Darnell bought me the cutest plush from the Able Sisters, a hand made orange cat dressed like Kyou. Actually they have a picture of it on their site. Darnell surprised me with it and I responded by carrying it around like a little kid all the rest of the weekend. I added one of my “angry vein pop” word bubble pins and a “no glomping” pin to him.

There has been SO much done on my house, mostly thanks to my friend Kristen and her boyfriend Jay. With their help I’ve been able to get the library and living room painted. (Jay  did the living room for me, and even re-patched a wall that had an old badly done patch. It looks SO good!) Well, I say we… but it was mostly Kristen as it turns out I am a terrible painter. Mostly I bought paint, dinner and beer, and they let me work on pulling up tack strips while they painted. We also got the carpet up in the library and bedroom. The hardwoods underneath look great, I won’t even have to refinish them.

My uncle gave me a couch, so I now have furniture. All I have to do is put down some shoe molding around the edge of the rooms I pulled up carpet in and I can actually move in! Jay said he’d do that while I was in Mexico (because Jay and Kristen are awesome, plus occasionally I fix their computer.)

Which leads me to where I am now. Mexico City! I’m visiting my best friend Shelly and her 6 week old baby! Baby R (since I’m  not sure I’m allowed to give the baby’s name online), is cute as a button and very pleasant. I’ve been here since Thursday afternoon and have spent most of my time being a pillow for her. After all the forced overtime at my day job, the work I’ve been doing on my house, plus all the stuff I’d been doing to get ready for Tekko, it’s about all I was capable of. Besides being a pillow we went shopping on Saturday, and I’ve read four books.

So far I’ve read Grave Sight , Grave Surprise and An Ice Cold Grave , the first three “Harper Connelly” mysteries by Charlaine Harris. She’s better known for her Sookie Stackhouse “Southern Vampire Mysteries.” Of the two series I prefer the Vampire books, but if you’re looking for a quick mystery with a slight supernatural bent, these are pretty good. The  main character, Harper Connelly, has one gift. She can find dead bodies, and see what they died of. Not who, just what. It’s an interesting tack to take, but the characters aren’t as likable as they are in the Sookie books. (except Manfred. Manfred is awesome and should get his own series.)

I liked even better, Patricia Brigg’s Dragon Bones the first all out fantasy I’ve read in months. It’s a quick read without being simple, and I like the world and politics she’s built. She’s got good women characters too, even though her main character is a guy. I’ve already started on the sequel Dragon Blood, which I’m enjoying almost as much.

I’ll be in Mexico until the 22nd, and I do plan to do more than hold the baby and read. Friday I’m going to go see Lucha Libre! (Mexican Masked Wrestling, see pic above.) I don’t know what else I’ll do but I’ll try to post about it.

Just got home from Watchmen!

Image via Wikipedia

I just got home from a midnight screening of the Watchmen. It was totally worth how miserable I’ll be at work tomorrow. I was very happy with the adaptation, the casting was excellent and the only thing that looked visually jarring was Nixon’s nose. I’m so buzzed and pleased, that I’m already happily geeking back into my nerd happy place and designing Watchmen buttons. (I have sketches for Rorschach, Mr. Manhattan & Nite Owl.)

I saw it in the perfect grouping I think. There was Jess, who had recently re-read the comic and knew all the details and what was changed. Me, who’d read it years ago and deliberately didn’t re-read it to try to see it with as fresh eyes as possible, and Mike who’d never even heard of it before the trailers started rolling.

We all loved it! There was enough kept of the original to satisfy Jess, and I just kept hearing Mike mutter, “I like that guy!” every time Rorschach popped up. I knew the visuals would be good, and I’d heard it was faithful to the graphic novel. My one concern was if non-comic people would “get it.” Most of the audience seemed to agree that it was a good movie, but most of them knew what they were going to see. If Mike’s reaction was anything to go by, I think everyone else will be pretty entertained too.

 

Now I have to re-read the graphic novel. I wonder if I can find someone else who’s never heard of it to go see it. I like watching movies with people who are surprised.

Technorati Tags: watchmen, movie, review, recommended

What does a bright day smell like?

Me apparently. Swiped from Hymina on Livejournal, this is my name in Japanese. (supposedly)

My authentic japanese name is 坂本 Sakamoto (book of the hill) 明日香 Asuka (fragrance of the bright day).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

That's what I got when I put in "Kate" (my real life first name for those that don't know). I got this when I put in "Merrow" (the name I usually use online):

 

My authentic japanese name is 石丸 Ishimaru (round stone) 弓美 Yumi (beautiful bow, as in bow and arrow).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

 

The second one sounds like a type of slingshot doesn't it?

 

It's been two weeks since I went to Ohayocon and I'm just starting to crawl out of my Internet hibernation. I had a lot of fun, despite the hiccup with my flight. Jess made it up, and took some video of some of the events there. Sometime soon-ish I'll get it off of her laptop and be able to share it with everyone. I also met a woman who used my button designs to make the cutest cookies! This is why I like fandom so much. People come up with the neatest ideas.

I've started painting my house, or at least my bedroom. We're putting up the second coat tomorrow. For those following my stories, Full Course is still "on course" and I hope to have the next chapter up soon. I haven't started on Spotted! yet, so it will probably be up towards the end of the month.

My Hair is Gone!

As the title says, my hair is all gone! Okay, not completely but it's shorter then I've had it for years. I cut off 13 inches to send off to Wigs for Kids. It had been two years since my last haircut (when I donated 15 inches to Locks of Love.) Last time I still had enough hair to pull into a ponytail. This time I cut so much off that I can't even do that. It doesn't even brush my collar. It's been at least 20 years since it was this short. I not used to it yet, but I really like how it looks. At work the security guard stopped me because he didn't recognize me.

My Hair is Gone!

As the title says, my hair is all gone! Okay, not completely but it's shorter then I've had it for years. I cut off 13 inches to send off to Wigs for Kids. It had been two years since my last haircut (when I donated 15 inches to Locks of Love.) Last time I still had enough hair to pull into a ponytail. This time I cut so much off that I can't even do that. It doesn't even brush my collar. It's been at least 20 years since it was this short. I not used to it yet, but I really like how it looks. At work the security guard stopped me because he didn't recognize me.