3rd Post in 30 Minutes

I'm not doing bad here.

So, I jumped onto Rotten Tomatoes to check out the rating for Slither, the new Nathan Fillion horror movie.

I expected 20% if they were lucky.

They're currently getting a 92% approval rating. That includes great reviews from Variety, EW, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, with an 86% rating from the "Cream of the Crop" papers.

Perspective:

Capote: 91%
Brokeback Mountain: 86%
Crash: 76%
Walk The Line: 83%
Batman Begins: 83%
Narnia: 76%

That's right, kiddies. Schlock horror movie Slither is a better movie than the four Oscar winners and the two biggest blockbuster movies of the year.

Train of Thought Rules

Rewrite, the Full Metal Alchemist theme, is written by Asian Kung-fu Generation.

I MUST keep that in mind.

Also, fun KHII stuff in Penny Arcade.

One Hour In

And I already know this about Kingdom Hearts II:

- Seifer's back! As are his cronies Fujin and Raijin.

- FFIX's getting some love.

- Christopher Lee's involved.

- Most importantly, despite the fact that they SAID you wouldn't have to beat Chain of Memories to understand the plot for KHII, I'm currently very confused. So, just to be safe, I've set Pokemon down for now and am going to try very hard to beat CoMs while working on KHII.

So, yeah, as you can tell I was able to get the game last night. I didn't have rehearsal until 8, so I had time to make some dinner, set up my Metroid card, and make a trip to the Target closest to my route (did I happen to mention there's nothing between me and the rehearsal space? There isn't.). It's fun, but so far I haven't touched anyone from the previous game beyond cinema screens, which is unexpected.

But from the instructions, I learned yet another happy: Stitch is a summons spell. Hells yeah.

I can almost guarantee this day's going to drag. However, thank God that it's only a small cast rehearsal tonight. I don't feel like being guilted into going out for food afterwards.

EDIT: After looking through Google trying to find a picture of Vivi, I came upon these two pretty things. Very nice shot, I always love when someone can give you pictures of Black Mages in action. Especially casting Blizzards, it's definitely the most short-changed on the Black Magic spectrum.

Publishing My Incompetence

To the right you will see a new addition to my sidebar: my Hunters License.

This is, as many of you may deduce, a statistics tracker for my character on Metroid Prime Hunters. Over the next few months, you will see some numbers (games played, time played, shots fired) raise relatively quickly, while others (games won, kills, headshots) raise much MUCH slower. You will also see a slow decrease in my rank.

Why? Because I suck at the game. But it was so cool to know that there's statistics available at nintendowifi.com for anyone with any wifi games (Tetris, Kart, MPH, Animal Crossing, etc) that I just couldn't help myself.

Squirming

Still no Kingdom Hearts at the downtown Target. They're as stumped as I am. I'm cheesed.

Casting Begins

The producer confirmed it: Shia LeBeouf is playing Spike Witwicky in the Transformers live action movie.

A good choice, if you ask me. And it's good to know that this thing finally has legs.

Eventually they'll be casting another 3 or 4 major/minor human roles, but there's no clue yet as to the size of any of these roles. None of them are comic or cartoon continuity that I'm aware of, so it's tough to call how many other "big" names are going to be in this thing.

Voice acting's a whole different arena, too. We're looking at 6-10 Transformers in the flick, and there's two popular trains of thought as to their voices:

- Some fans want to see the original voice actors come in, either from the original G1 cartoon or the new voices in the Armada/Energon/Cybertron series.

- And, of course, there's the celebrity voices which will probably be more likely to happen. Tom Hanks is bouncing around the rumor mill, most likely as Bumblebee or Ratchet if he doesn't appear as a human in the film. Or maybe both. The name George Clooney keeps popping up as Optimus Prime for some reason, I have no idea what his attachment is to either Bay or Spielberg.

We should hopefully be hearing more casting in the next few weeks, so I'm wired up about that.

It's almost the weekend. Thank GOD! Road trip in a few days, plus I actually have time to eat dinner tonight! Huzzah!

And, maybe/hopefully/pleasepleaseplease, I'll have Kingdom Hearts II tonight. Target's screwed me for it so far, but they say Thursday's their normal release date for games. So here's hoping a lot.

Screw This Noise

Superman Is A Dick.

Now put on my sidebar.

Just too funny for words. Beyond the dickery, there's the strange covers, the monkeys, the dumb machines, and the innocent lines and pictures that make you shake your head in innuendo.

And there's plenty of other sections, too, just check the image galleries. I've been going through them for about six hours now and am still only bout halfway through.

Eep

Along with much Superman dickery, this site also has a section of nonsensical covers that make your ears bleed.

This one's my favorite:

Still no KHII at my local Target.

Curse this metal body.

EDIT: I have to post this one since I had to dig to find it (the sequential links pass by this one), but Batman has a Boner problem.

Today's Random Webness

Superman is a dick.

Argh

So this is what my last twenty minutes have been like:

"Yeah, we were supposed to have Kingdom Hearts II in today, but they screwed up shipping, so we might be getting it tomorrow."

"Sorry, we can't fix your tire, we have to replace it. But we don't know if you have a warranty on it, and we don't feel like calling the people you bought it from."

"Oh, and the tire you had replaced last winter? It's the wrong size."

"Yeah, you'll have to pay for that one, too, we won't replace it since, you know, don't feel like calling..."

"BTW, even though you only asked for an oil change, thought we'd mention a few minor leaks you'll have to spend $600 bucks to fix. Even though you brought the car in at 7 am, it's now 2 pm and we're telling you about it, so there's no guarantee that we'll have it done by the time you need it."

"Please shop with us again."

Keepin My Fingers Out

I keep feeling the urge to go back and bulk up my story. That's probably one of the bad sides of not having found a beta yet, I can't keep the damn thing alone! Nothing too major, just a few more nice little lines about Harry and Ginny, if for no other reason than to keep it relevant.

I also decided that I want to try to start the prequel right after the wedding. The only thing that I really need to decide is a timeline: Bill/Fleur wedding vs. the first Horcrux vs. their last trip to Hogwarts vs. the beginning of their journey. If it's not going to work, then I have to start it during the journey, and if I wanna delve into anything I really want to touch (RAB, the final Harry/Ginny argument, etc) it'll have to be through flashback.

Train of thought typing is fun. I think I actually like that idea. At least making the H/G argument a flashback injected somewhere, and either start the story during their first night on the road, or maybe starting it as a final trip to Grimmauld Place after the Hogwarts journey.

The wedding's not that important in my storyline, beyond the H/G implications. Neither is the trip to Godric's Hollow, which could very easily happen right after the wedding or sometime beforehand. The trip to Hogwarts was pretty much explained as much as it needed to be in Seven Soldiers, too, don't need to see a dramatization of their conversation with Minerva.

Too bad I have zero free time to write this thing up. By the time KMK's done my head's gonna pop.

EDIT: Kingdom Hearts II comes out today. I'm on that like white on white-out.

...

wait... what?

Gator Chomp

And here I thought I was dead in this tournament...

While fiddlin around online a few weeks ago, I signed up for the WCCO Tournament pool. After the first round, I was floating in around the middle of the pack, so I forgot about it.

Now I'm glad I didn't.

As of now, I'm in 16th place out of a pool of, oh, 250, 275 people. Out of the 17 or 18 above me (tied for 16th with two other people), only me and one other guy has Florida winning the tournament.

So, basically, I could end up in second place in a fairly large online tournament if Florida goes to the championship.

If they win it... well... I'll still be in second place, since there's one guy ahead of me with Florida, so he's earning the same amount of points than me from this point on.

But, hey, there's only three people in the WHOLE POOL that picked Florida. So I'll be in some fairly exclusive company if they can finish it off.

Go Gator Chomp!

All Things Hannigan

I mention it because, well, I like her a lot. Even though I've seen, like, one or two episodes of her show in the past few months.

There's a movie being produced, a relatively under-used type of spoof: the spoof of the nature documentary.

Farce of the Penguins is a March of the Penguins spoof (duh), with Bob Saget producing it and doing the main voice. So, of course, along with, like, twenty other B- or C-list comedians, Hannigan's on board for a voice. Check the list, odds are there are a few people in it you like. Hell, they're even reuniting the Full House cast for this sumnabitch, with Stamos and Coulier being involved as voices.

I figure it's because they're both involved in HIMYM, but I could be wrong.

Also, in response to MotP's Morgan Freeman, FotP has Samuel L Jackson on board as the narrator.

Good times.

Not Feeling So Bad

"Hey look, they're sending us free lumber!"

My NCAA tournament bracket is gone. Kaput, finito, no one left AT ALL.

But I'm not alone.

ESPN's Sports Nation posted an article about their tournament bracket contest.

1.5 million contestants
3 million brackets

Number who picked all four teams that are currently in the Final Four?

Four.

One, Two, Three, Four. Count em.

My 34 points suddenly doesn't feel so bad.

HA!

Muppet Serenity.

Thanks for this, CJ.

Still Three Times Through, But...

There's comedy.

There's high comedy.

And then there's a conversation between Sybil Trelawney and Luna Lovegood.

Random Thoughts As I Sit Alone

- There's a Chipotle within a mile of my new place. This knowledge will ultimately undo me.

Or at least make them have to punch a hole in the side of my condo to get my dead carcass out one day.

- My bathtub is warm. No, not the water, the actual tub. Does this actually exist, or is there some sort of trick going on with the water heater? There are no other heat sources in that room besides the tub, yet somehow it's one of the warmest rooms in the place.

- Is it sad that I'm less than a week off of finishing the story, yet I already have prequels rolling around in my head? Fleshing out the stuff that's described in the first two chapters, the first five or six months of their journey?

Right now it's mainly stemming from a conversation I'm seeing in my head between Hermione, Ron, and a very flustered Harry having a frank discussion about the outdoor, magical equivalent of "putting a hanger on the doorknob."

Oh, Lord, I kept away from that stuff in the story because I had to. But, dammit, if I get into a prequel, one of those early chapters is going to border on slash, I think. Nothing graphic, probably just some accidental nudity in those chapters before everything starts going horribly wrong.

Heaven help us all.

EDIT: Why doesn't anybody ever TELL me that slash only refers to gay couples? Here I thought it meant any type of coupling... *sigh* okay, fine, not slash fic, just sex, alright? Hot, monkey sex...

Speaking of the Tourney...

The left side of my bracket is gone. Completely, utterly gone. Vaporized before I even hit the Elite Eight. I needed Duke and Gonzaga to keep my hopes alive, but nooooo...

I just hope a similar fate doesn't befall me tonight.

Go UConn
Go Villanova
Go Florida

More Toys

Nevermind... that was about all I had.

It should be interesting to see downtown by the time I get to my bus tonight. So far I've only seen a few Florida fans, but by the end of day around 40,000 Florida, Villanova, Boston College, and Georgetown fans will be converging on the Metrodome. Traffic's gonna suck. Thank god I'm going to rehearsal from the west now, because 35's gonna be horrific at Washington.

Better, Prettier Things

My stomach's still tight bout what happened yesterday, but, meh, it's in her court now.

On to cooler stuff.

I got my Toyfare magazine yesterday, and it included a ton of shots from the New York Toy Fair. I know everyone here is sick of me talking bout Transformers, but I know people reading this will be interested in some of the other stuff they had. Any pictures I link to will be from Altered States Magazine's website, since Toyfare doesn't have links on theirs, but some will be going through affiliates.

Pirates of the Carribean 2: a nice Will Turner, plus two of the new characters, Maccus and Palaifico, both with that human/sea creature theme going. No picture of Palaifico on the net, but, trust me, he's a coral man. Weird, but cool.

Harry Potter: Gentle Giant has some really nice busts from Goblet of Fire, all of them digitally sculpted, including Hermione, Nearly Headless Nick, and Death Eater Malfoy.

Buffy: Really nice figure sets, including five different Xanders (w/ eye patch, vampire makeup, and ice cream man uniform), a final episode Cordelia, and a Summers Family 3-pack (Buffy, Dawn, and an ax-wielding Joyce).

Fantastic Four Animated Series: Dammit, I wish I had cable. This series is coming out on Cartoon Network, and it looks awesome. Especially Dr Doom. The painted-on "4" on Thing's chest is a nice touch, too.

X-Men: Suped-Up figures, separate from the series and the movies, feature Nightcrawler, Avalanche, and Rogue amongst the cooler ones.

Final Fantasy: Kick ass mini-collectable figures of Tifa, Vincent, Tidus, and Zidane (good to see FFIX get some love)

Kingdom Hearts: Statuettes of Kairi, Sora, Goofy, Jack, and quite possibly the prettiest Cloud sculpt I've ever seen.

More later...

The Just-Sent Email, Now Off My Chest

Mrs KTR,

Here is the neopets information I've been recieving the past six months. Please change the email address, username, and password accordingly, so I don't have to recieve any more of these.

Username : xxx
Password : xxx

Classy move, by the way, with that signature. My one birthday wish was to find out that my ex-fiancee married the guy she left me for. That was sweet.

There's a lot of things I want to say, but decorum and the high road are keeping me from saying them. But I will say this:

I'm a different person than I was in December of 2001. I'm more pessimistic, more bitter, less quick to forgive. And most of that is thanks to you. I was too in love with you to realize how terrible you were to me, but the relief that I heard from friends and family when they found out our engagement was off, and the words I heard from them in the following months, opened my eyes.

I'm not your friend. And don't even think that I'm happy for your "marriage."

If you want to give me a birthday present, give me this: A check, from you, for:

- the engagement ring that you kept "so people would think you were still engaged at work" (don't think you need that anymore)

- the bills you left me to foot for the downpayment on the church and the reception

- the 15 or 1600 dollars extra I paid for an apartment that you never wanted in the first place, but were too cowardly to say otherwise (you were having doubts about us the May before we moved in together, remember?)

If you can give me these things, I can give you a mailing address. If you can't, please be kind enough to forget my email address and never contact me again.

WGM

I Am NOT The Fury

Is it a bad thing that I'm shaking in anger as I develop a well-crafted email response in my head? That everything I've been wanting to say to her over the past 4 years is coming to the surface, yet I can comfortably summarize my feelings in three or four swear-word-free sentences? Since the email address I had for her a few years ago is now disconnected, and she just lobs me this new one, and plenty of gunpowder, to boot?

BTW, CJ, DJ, if you wanna join in the fun, I have her email address. Wanna take a swing? You two are allowed, you knew her.

Giant Furry Albino Ticks

So they apparently found this thing on the bottom of the ocean floor, and had to make a new genus for it.

Amazing that there's still so many mysteries in the world. But, still... *shudder*

If it weren't March 23rd, I'd almost play it off as an April Fool's joke, but there it sits.

Good God, that thing's creepy.

In other news, I'm starting to wonder what I got myself into. Wednesday night I had probably the most intense choreography session for a show that I've had since... man, I don't know, college? Ever? The kind that leaves you coated in water, and your face on fire from overexertion. It's been a long time since I've done a number where everyone in the cast is laying on the ground exhausted and moaning when the choreographer says to do it again. And when I asked "so how much more do we still have to learn?" she responded, "two thirds."

Very fast, very hard, very sweaty. Very, um, innuendo...

In a little more personal news (and the person I'm referring to is probably reading this), I'm back on speaking terms with a friend I haven't been on good terms with for the past 4 or 5 months. Nothing quite like having an email from an ex, signed as "Mrs Guy-She-Left-You-For", to make you realize that things could be a hell of a lot worse with the rest of your social circle.

So I'll be going on a road trip next weekend because of it, because friend-in-question is the lead female in a show in her college town, and I wanna do the support thing.

Vague enough? I hate using names.

I also haven't been out of the Cities in probably a year, year and a half, so I'm all for ROAD TRIP!! w00t!!

Alright, if anyone reading this has any video game experience, I have an opinion I need. I'm planning on throwing some b-day money at some games in the next week. Is a better choice:

- Guitar Hero w/ Guitar
- DDR w/ Pad
- A combination of two of the three: Metroid Prime Hunters, Kingdom Hearts II, or Worms DS(which add up to about the same as the previous two choices)

Metroid Prime came out Tuesday, Worms comes out today, KH2 comes out next week. I want all three of them, but in the case of at least two of them I can wait for a discounted eBay or Gamestop rate. I've heard nothing but good about Guitar Hero, and I'd love to have it, but it's also a 60 dollar package. And in the case of both it and DDR I don't know if it's as much fun with my complete lack of video game social life. At least with MPH and WDS I can play complete strangers on the DS. And KH2 is one player, but I'm not going to have a lot of time to play it in the next few months because of its complete non-portability. PS2 and all.

I wanted to jump onto some of the forums for my video-game webcomics to get some expert opinions from gamers, but I'm thrown. VGCats isn't accepting new members, and I got banned from Penny Arcade, despite the fact that I've never been on there before. Odd odd odd.

OH... THANK... GOD!

Is there any way they could have pulled off Order of the Phoenix without Gary Oldman? I didn't think so.

He finally signed on.

Even though it would have been highly amusing/depressing to see how they would have handled it if he didn't come back. How they'd be able to make such an integral actor change, or remove him from the story completely.

But the script's written and he loves it. So don't expect to see a huge drop in Black screentime.

To which I can only say w00t.

Ew

When I played Final Fantasy VII, I couldn't help but be slightly unnerved by one of its little sidequests.

The only way to get the most powerful summons is the game is through, of course, chocobo breeding. Yup, if you want to get Knights of the Round Table, you need to get two perfect birds to do the horizontal mambo.

I'm not alone in feeling this way, apparently. This one leads into this one. And this one's an oldie but goodie.

Pokemon do the hunka-chunka, too. And that's cross-species thumpin, too, which is infinitely creepier.

BTW, if anyone's afraid to open the links, no, they're not porn, I promise. *shudder* Just some damn good comics.

I feel I should probably say some more, but I will later.

Seven Soldiers - The Extended Edition

I walked away from the story on Sunday night not really pleased with the climax, like I kinda skimmed through it, just to get it done.

So I thought about it a bit today, sat down after an early rehearsal, and tacked on another extra page or so... I'm not sitting at 50 1/2 pages, and a much better climax. Getting more emotion into it, getting more people involved beyond just shocked bystanders. I like it. It's good stuff.

Awwww, Cable...

I wish I still had cable. Because, after reading all about the escalating battle between Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Scientology, I wanna see all the new episodes of South Park coming out in the next few weeks.

The latest:

- Variety reports on the Scientology rerun being pulled by Paramount, after rumored pressure from Tom Cruise, whose movie, Mission Impossible: 3, is being released by Paramount. And the public statement by Trey and Matt in response, is one of the greatest press releases I've ever seen.

- Some reports are saying that it wasn't Hayes that quit the show, but Scientology quit the show for him.

- The season premiere, to air Wednesday, will poke fun at the situation and will feature the return of Chef, who may or may not be voiced by Hayes. It will also start rippin into scientology again. I want cable.

Cursed Nerd Peer Pressure

Giving me the urge to find out how much birthday money I'm getting, so I can put it down on Guitar Hero. I've heard tons of people talking about it. Then I saw someone playing it at Best Buy. Now I want.

For those who have never heard of Guitar Hero, the best way to describe it is Dance Dance Revolution, but instead of a dance pad you have a guitar. Five or six buttons on the neck and a spinning barrel on the body instead of strings. Watch the screen, find out what notes to play, rock out, win. Every song is liscenced, so it has Ozzy, Megadeth, ZZ Top, David Bowie, and about 20 or 25 more.

It might be a better choice for me than DDR now that I'm living above someone. Thump thump thump.

Thank God I don't have to budget for too many more Transformers.

Just, you know, a mortgage.

But it might also mean I have to choose between that and Metroid Prime Hunters. Oh, the choices!

Also, I wonder if they have a left-handed version. Anyone know?

In more personal news, I just got a birthday e-card from my ex-fiancee.

She's now married to the guy she left me for.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

But I'm leaning towards laughter.

Maniacal laughter.

The kind that make small children run away.

More rehearsal tonight. Since the rehearsal space kicks us out at 9:30, the director has decided to start every rehearsal at 6:30. See how I sprint.

Two Missions Accomplished

- I miscalculated: 16 major characters died in my story.

Anyone volunteer to beta this sumnabitch?

- I beat Pokemon: Emerald this afternoon on my lunch break. Well, beat it one way. Without anyone around to do any trades with, I'm never going to be able to, ahem, catch em all.

Pika Pika.

Elsewhere, I accomplished both of these just in time. This afternoon I picked up Tetris DS. And tonight I start rehearsal for a show that I'm 2 or 3 weeks behind. Woo hoo.

Oh, also, I have to make something known. I watched the deleted scenes from Rent last night, and it once again confirmed one of my beefs with the movie: They TOTALLY short-changed Benny. Yeah, he's the closest thing the play gets to the bad guy, I can see that. But after watching the deleted scenes I realized that they had filmed stuff to actually make him appear human and compationate, and begin to redeem himself. Paying for Angel's funeral, and saying he never really liked Evita anyway. Along with Mark, trying to get Mimi into therapy. Meeting with Roger after he comes back. Heck, he was even in the alternate ending.

But he was slashed completely out of the picture after the argument at the cemetary. Grrr.

Chapter 2

Cuz I'm in a celebratory mood.

Chapter 2: The Surprise

It's Done

49 pages.

22,112 words.

125,290 characters with spaces, 103,143 characters without.

15 major characters from the Harry Potter universe dead, along with an unknown number of minor ones.

1 drained boy sitting here staring at it, afraid to have someone actually beta the damn thing and tear it to pieces.

I just sent it off to all three of my email addresses in the worst-case scenario of my computer blowing up in five minutes.

I think I need some water.

Drama

I just killed five wizards in the past two chapters, including two of my favorites. Looking at at least one more death per chapter until the end.

I knew this thing was gonna get dark.

A Taste

So I'm, um, 32 pages in? 11 chapters. 14,723 words. 68,392 characters without spaces, 83,138 with. And I still probably have at LEAST another 5000 words to write. Maybe 10,000.

So why am I writing all this, do you ask? Because I got antsy.

Here, posted on my livejournal, is chapter 1 of Harry Potter and the Seven Soldiers. Completely unbetaed (is that a word?), it was basically just copied from my Word document and taped down for all to see. Not exactly thrilling, the action doesn't happen for another chapter or two, then goes into set-up mode for another five or six chapters afterwards, in preparation for the big battle to come. It also probably has more than a few grammatical errors, stuff that could be dealt with once a beta occurs.

But, anyway...

Enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Seventh Year

PS: I'm proud of myself. I tossed in a cookie to my fellow Buffy fans in an upcoming chapter that actually fits! w00t!

*shudder*

So, yeah, this is an article I wish I had avoided longer. Thank God there's no pictures. But it's yet another reason for me to root for Villanova.

During the regional playoffs versus Pittsburgh last friday, Allan Ray hurt his eye.

Well, not just hurt. He had it friggin popped out of its socket.

Augh! Ugh! Urrr... *shudder*

I never saw it happen, and it was so grisly that ESPN will never air it again, although the video's still circulating the internet if someone out there is morbid enough to want to see it.

I can handle watching hyperextensions. I can handle broken limbs. But lord help me if someone takes my eye out, because I'll go insane. For some reason that's the one body part that any thought of pain or(*shudder*) dismemberment makes my toes curl.

Good luck to ya, Allen "No, I'm not Ray Allen" Ray. I'm pullin for ya.

Dude!

PowerPuff Girls Doujinshi went and got itself a video game. Really fun, too, plays like a good old-fashioned Capcom fighting game, like Street Fighter or Marvel v. Capcom.

And an update, too, apparently. For the first time in, well, I dunno how long.

So this is the first morning I've ridden the bus from Hopkins where it actually was on schedule. And I'm thinking I'm going to like it. It picks up later than my previous buses, yet drops me off a good ten minutes earlier. Gives me time to stop at Target, or McD's, or just to sit and play Pokemon Emerald (or, starting tuesday, Metroid or Tetris (he says again)).

It seems like everything's coming to a head for me this week. Story's probably going to be finished soon, tacking on another 2 or 3 pages last night, and that was even starting at 9 pm. BTW, more non-spoilery, completely predictable action, I hooked up Neville & Luna, like anyone didn't see THAT one coming.

I'm building my Pokemon up to level 45 in order to go after the Elite Four. Which, by the way, is INCREDIBLY difficult to write during March Madness, as they have an Elite Eight and a Final Four. Hadda stop and think about that one for a minute. But, anyway, with level 45 I should be able to get through them by the end of the weekend.

I betcha I'm wrong, though, on both counts.

Other personal things occurring this weekend, too, and no clue where anything's going to land by the time all's said and done.

Wow

Alright, first off, I'm purdy cheesed at my movie sites. Or at least cheesed at myself for not finding this news earlier.

They went and cast one of my favorite characters for the next Potter movie, and never told me! Grrrrr...

Here's George Harris, who will be playing Kingsley Shacklebolt in Order of the Phoenix. Hopefully he gets a nice, thick, prominent role, since Rowling pretty much shoved him to the back of the crowd in HBP. I'm giving him a slightly more prominent role in my story, though. The spoiler-free summary is that he's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts in year seven in my world.

Also, while digging for stuff on him, I found some more pictures of Natalia Tena, who will be playing Tonks. And I REALLY wish I had found them sooner, because I like her casting now more than I did before.

I think it's from About A Boy (but I might be wrong), and it shows off a little more of Tonks' punk-like sensibilities. Even though it is a 4-year old movie, she looks a lot more like Tonks than in the other pictures of her that I've seen.

Sixteen Pages

I wrote about a page, page and a half after dance last night, before midnight, so now I'm up to almost 16 full pages. The earlier post mentioned 15, but that was closer to 14 plus another five or six lines on page 15. But this is about five or six lines short of 16 pages. And I've added MORE as I go. So I'm fairly sure that if this thing ends before 40 pages I'm going to be shocked.

But I got the difficult part out of the way, and did it a little differently than I anticipated. But it works. Deals with the prophecy, the Order, and the Army, but the former two are different. And those who have little clue of what I'm talking about can just nod their head and smile sympathetically.

Things I Learned On GoF

- Ralph Fiennes was CG, not makeup. Which makes sense, cuz I was always wondering where his nose went.

- They're interviewing the three kids, and it looks like:

1) Daniel's either going to have a haircut or a wig in the next film. Dunno if it can grow back from the length it is in this interview by
2) Emma has braces? Her mouth looks weird, and she's never pulling her lips back from her mouth like she always does. I wonder if that'll stay or go.

I finished the chapter! Woo hoo! The Chapter From Hell. It turned out a little different than I anticipated (I had to bring Fred, George, and Hagrid in earlier than expected, but I think it works). I'm busy Thursday, but I'm empty on Saturday and Sunday, so I REALLY hope I can at least get into the final battle by the end of the weekend.

Oh, and, um, 15 pages and counting.

REALLY Motivate

I just got talkedguilted into jumping onto a show that's already been in rehearsal for two weeks. I'm starting Monday. So now I'm REALLY motivated to get this shiznit done.

Motivate

To sit down this weekend and really try to finish my story, there are three things occurring in the next week and a half to motivate me:

March 21st: Metroid Prime Hunters
March 21st: Tetris DS
March 28th: Kingdom Hearts II

Once these come out, I'll probably be spending many waking, non-working hours playing one or many of them. And I will be engrossed in their world. And I will forget all about Potter again, quite possibly until the next movie. Or at least until I plug in Goblet of Fire.

And God help me if I don't get it done by April. Advent Children! Advent Children!!!

So I must must MUST get it finished by Sunday night. Thankfully I have no life, so Friday and Saturday are both looking pretty damn free.

Anyway, if all goes according to plan, I'll have my cable modem hooked up tonight, so I'll be available for those who have been knawing at the bit to chat with me again.

You know, both of you.

To Aspiring Architects

If you're going to build a giant glass building in an area that gets a lot of snow and ice in the winter, try not to build a small glass building attached to said building.

Yesterday and today they've closed off the lobby of the IDS Crystal Court because melting snow is falling from the giant building and landing on the glass/plastic ceiling. Much breakage has occurred.

Goodbye, Children

After making episodes making fun of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, Isaac Hayes quits South Park because they made fun of his religion, Scientology.

Just a tad hypocritical, if you ask me, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. I just hope Trey & Matt take full advantage of this and go nuts with Chef in the next few months. Just cast another washed-up musician with a completely non-Hayes kinda voice, and base an episode around it, something like that.

George Michael? Robert Smith? Boy George?

Nerd Sports

Someone with too much time on their hands made a baseball squad composed entirely of Nintendo characters.

I almost agree with most of his choices. My only changes would be putting MegaMan into the starting rotation (he's got a history of being able to throw boomerangs, gears, etc, plus he has a cannon for an arm), setting Samus in center (mad hops, also with a cannon arm), and Strider Hiryu in left (sliding maniac).

Cable Modem is ordered, will be installed Wednesday afternoon, and my dad'll be over Thursday night with the ethernet card and wireless router. Then I'll be good to go.

Also, I get a free modem with the subscription, so woo hoo, I can sell it back on eBay.

Ain't my life a thrill?

More Things

Even though I forgot one of the things I wanted to mention... however...

I DID start back up on my HP fic over the weekend. Well, not so much "start back up" as "edited what I had to make it more coherant." Basically started by adding Hedwig & Pig into the story, and figured out a way to transition into my next section a little more smoothly. Unfortunately it involves discarding Dumbledore's portrait, but I think in the end it'll be, if not better, at least a little less clunky and deus ex machina.

Now that I'm in the condo without internet, I think I'm gonna be able to sit down and work on it a little more this week. At the very least I'm gonna get that accursed middle section written, then it's a sprint to the end.

Nice Stuff

A cool Transformers website:

Iacon City. A website run by a guy who does nothing but make 3D renders of the characters. Very cool stuff, especially when he decides to go outside of mythology and create new characters. Monstrus, the Dinobot Combiner, is a particularly awesome construction, along with his two new Dinobots, Slam and Slash.

Why Hasbro & Takara never made a Dinobot combiner is beyond me.

Anyway, this site's going onto the sidebar.

Ayup

Friday I walked to the Metrodome to get pictures of the Puckett memorial outside the ticket office. Beautiful day, I made the trip without a jacket.

Ummm... Nevermind.

Was a hell of a day to start a new bus route, I'll tell ya that much. Yup, I'm in my condo now, got in at about 9 pm last night after a grocery run, then watched Rent while transforming some of my Transformers, prepping them for display once all the shelving's up and ready to roll.

I'm also currently without my internet access at home, which I KNOW is going to start grating on me in the next few days. But once everything's hooked up... oh, lordy... cable modem with wifi access. Just in time for three DS wifi games coming out in the next two weeks: Worms Open Warfare, Tetris DS, and Metroid Prime Hunters. Metroid will be my first experience in the highly competitive world of First Person Shooters, which has hooked tons of players in the past with internet connected games like Halo and Quake. Should be a kick.

Shit You Not

Mayor wants nude cycling nixed due to no helmets.

Ayup.

Slaps Myself Silly

Just gotta make sure I'm not dreaming.

Hasbro's releasing a series of figures in their Titanium series, diecast models previously used for Star Wars figures. Some will be 3 inch non-posable figures. Some will be 6 inch, diecast, fully transformable figures from the Dreamwave prequel series War Within, which chronicled the history of the Transformers before their journey to Earth.

The first two, which appeared at ToyFair this year, were Optimus Prime, a decent figure, and Megatron, which has been pretty much agreed that it was shown mis-transformed. In neither case were they shown in their alt-mode, although you can see Optimus' on his box.

But today, however, came the first images of the next two figures in the series. Fully transformable, it could be argued that these are the two best figures in the history of the franchise, especially for six inch figures.

I want to show these to you all, so I'm not even going to make the link, I'm going to just post them. All images come from Big Bad Toystore, an online toy retailer, and Transformers World 2005. Click the pictures for the full-size image.

First off, Jetfire:

Alt-Mode:

Robot Mode:

Thundercracker, one of Starscream's Seekers:

Alt-Mode:

Robot Mode:

What can I say? If Hasbro decides to make more figures like this, then I simply don't want them to make any more Alternators. THESE are the best figures they've ever made. You could argue that the 20th Anniversary Optimus was a better figure, but these are both beautiful and affordable, announced originally at $20 or $30, if I remember correctly.

BTW, I'm apparently back to dorking out. But I might have some pictures from the memorial later, I'm thinking of picking up a disposable cam and heading over there either at lunchtime or after work.

Meanwhile...

Daunte "Captain Stubing" Culpepper is demanding a trade, Barry's on the juice, and the NFL's ready for a lockout.

We REALLY miss you, Kirby...

More Puckett Stuff

If you're in the Twin Cities area (hell, add outstate Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois to that) and haven't heard already, there's going to be a public memorial for Puck on Sunday at 7 pm at the Dome. Doors open at 6, and I almost guarantee that they are going to have to set up monitors outside because of the spill-over.

There's a few decent articles out there with fan & professional reaction.

This AP article has stories from Cal Ripken Jr, Randy Johnson, Don Mattingley, Ozzie Guillen, and Steve Finley.

ESPN Deportes interviewed David Ortiz, the former Twin, current Red Sox MVP candidate, who got into baseball because of Kirby.

A quick picture of Kevin Garnett's shoes from last night's Wolves game, and also an interview with him about the passing of Kirby, who he considered like a brother.

Another article from the Twins website with, oh, about 20 quotes, from Torii Hunter and Brad Radke to Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa.

Finally, here's a video from WCCO.com with images from the ever-growing makeshift memorial at the Dome. I really wish I had a digital cam, because I really want to walk over there after work (it's only about a 10 minute walk from my office) to snap some pictures for you all. But, for now, this is what I have.

1960-2006

When I was, oh, six years old, the All-Star Game was in town. My parents had two tickets, and, because I didn't know baseball and my four-year-old brother was still, well, four, they brought the two of us to my grandparents house and left for the game.

That night was the first night I can remember watching a baseball game. Sitting with my grandpa on the couch in their basement, giggling at some of the funny names of some of the players. And that's the first day I heard of Kirby Bucket.

Well, a few days later I learned about Kirby PUCKETT instead. And I was a fan ever since.

Because of you, everyone wanted to be number 34.

We'll all miss you.

Fanboy Guilt

I may have mentioned it on this blog before, but don't you hate it when you buy something, think it's awesome, then discover the new improved version is coming out soon?

That's what's happening to me right now with my DS. Fantastic system, I'm having more fun with it than with, well, any other system I've ever had.

But the DS Lite, a lighter, sleeker version of the system, has been released in Japan. Going beyond a hot new system, it's become a phenomenon. Stores selling out before they even open, units being bought back for a higher price to be sold by an even HIGHER price, lines stretching around corners, fans in the US ordering them from Japan... hell, it got a mention on one of my radio shows this morning, and this is a show that doesn't enjoy many games.

There's currently no release date here in the US, but I'd think it would be here by the end of the summer. And part of me feels bad for buying the original DS if this system is supposed to be a vast improvement.

But, ah, well, I'll live. It just kinda sucks to read all the news I've read about the system in the last few weeks and knowing that I probably put down $130 dollars prematurely.

Also, another game, to be released in America in April, is the first DS WiFi RPG. Called Lost Magic, one feature that's interesting me the most is the spell-casting system which involves using the stylus as a wand, drawing patterns on the touch screen to cast an effective spell. Seems cool, kinda like the Healing Touch feature on Trauma Center.

In other news, I made a trip to Ikea for my new condo. A decent place if you know what you're shopping for, I ended up with a bookshelf, a coffee table, a wooden 4-shelf unit, an XL poster frame, a toolbox, and 2 cutting boards for $110, tax included. I usually feel wrong putting down that much in one place, but it fills up the place nicely.

Next weekend my fam's getting a moving truck to haul in the bulky stuff, and then I'll be in.

I watched the Oscars last night, and all I can say is that Three 6 Mafia's acceptance speech was potentially the greatest acceptance speech in Oscar history. Felt like was watching the Video Music Awards, or something.

Finally, I just found out that they're playing an X3 trailer during 24 tonight. Now I might actually have to watch. And be confused for 2 hours. Sweet.

headdesk

Next time my boss asks one person in my department to volunteer for a project upstairs, I have to remember to respectfully decline.

If that doesn't work, I'll have to decline a little more forcefully.

Instead of volunteering for a job that would take, oh, one or two hours, I took a job that took me 24 hours to complete. And that was after finding some shortcuts. I could still be there on Monday if I hadn't. Oy.

Thank God I'm outta here in an hour, and I don't have to be back till Monday. Now there's nothing but moving, sleeping, and hauling my parents to the airport for a week.

And maybe shovelling.

W00t.

For Your Edification

Wow... Edification... Aesthetic... Dude, big words today...

Anyway, I placed two more links over on the side, since I've been using them a bit recently:

BuffyGuide: While not the best Buffy fansite out there (they still don't have a full episode guide yet), it's always my traditional go-to site when it comes to finding quotes, episode trivia, etc.

DS Fanboy: Now that I am one. An off-shoot of Joystiq.com, DS Fanboy has multiple updates daily with news, rumors, new releases, homebrews, and basically all things Nintendo DS, both in the US as well as in Asia.

Both are quality sites that should have some of your attention.

These... Are... AWESOME!

Two REALLY cool links for both Transformers geeks and those who just have a love of aesthetics:

The Lego Transformers Project: Someone with FAR too much freetime on their hands created six gallery pages worth of Transformers out of Lego. Extremely posable, each looking about 10 inches to a foot tall, and all fully transformable. A great display.

Hearts of Steel: IDW's first in a series of "Elseworlds" style comics, these are concept images for Steampunk-style Transformers during the Industrial Revolution. Among them are Starscream and his Seekers as bi-planes, Shockwave as an Ironclad, Megatron as a cannon, and Optimus as a locomotive engine.

Btw, yes, I am now a homeowner. Well, condo-owner. Something like that. Still haven't slept there, or anything, but I now have dishes, a stereo, a small tv, and a bag of toys residing in my, um, residence.