I Hope Not

   I got an email notification early early this morning from Google Webmaster Tools. Probably like anyone else with a Blogspot blog. It was just a notification that they'll email me if they detect someone's been loading my site up with malware or something, but, of course, I didn't know that until I read it. So you can guess what my first thought was upon seeing such an email. What would your response be? Exactly. Oh crap what did I do wrong. 

   It's time I make sure all of my legal bases are covered. My use of Disney's name is fair use, right, as far as it extends to Disney villains? It's a very specific way of dying. It's like saying "redshirt," right? Except redshirt isn't the name of a company that very well could sue you. (Unless John Scalzi wants to sue. You should totally read that, by the way.)

   Still, I think it's fair use. As far as it extends to names. Fanart is a different animal, so I'm going to have to check on the status of not-for-sale derivative works of commercial (yet public) characters. I'm pretty comfortable in saying that I know more about copyright law than most of the general population, but that doesn't automatically make it right.

COLLAPSE: More Spamming

   You know why spamming in forums and comments sections is so annoying? We're not talking about e-mails here, where the obvious answer is, it's clogging up my inbox. But when that's there in a conversation open to the public, the annoyance comes from the fact that the spam is unsolicited. We've grown used to paid advertisements. Endorsements have been around since the gladiators at least. Pay someone to tell people to pay for your product, we're alright.

   Maybe that's what we need. Maybe that's why my message isn't getting through. My message, to tell you to go support COLLAPSE on Kickstarter, is unsolicited. It's just a thing that I'm saying. We should start paying, putting out paid advertisements. That would work.

   Or maybe it's not working because I've done all I can do, and now it's time to need your help. My influence as one person is limited. You've seen me harp on this, you've seen me going through the film making process and post on it, and so you know what this means to me. You know i'm doing what i can. I'm still failing, though, so I need you.

   I'm not sure if Dave is even trying to gather support for this movie. I'm doing the one small thing that I can. Maybe he is getting things done. He might be advertising like I said should happen. Maybe he just doesn't know how Kickstarting works. Maybe he's too busy editing to see that no one's interested in funding. If he is getting things done, I would look like an idiot even contacting him about it, but maybe not. Maybe he needs help with whatever it is he's doing. My hands are tied either way. I'm just as in the dark as anyone else is. Maybe he's okay with funding it with his own money. (Well, he is, and it says so right there on the page, but...) Maybe I'm the one who doesn't know how this works. Maybe 90% of the funding usually is done in the final week before the deadline. Maybe he's got this under control. I sure hope so. Maybe, maybe, maybe. I sure hope so.

   But all I'm doing is talking. I've got ideas, and I don't know what to do with them. I'm relatively new to the business. I don't know how to implement anything. Or maybe I'm just saying that as an excuse not to take action. Whatever action I can take.

TV!

   Last night marked the premier of ELEMENTARY on CBS. Oh great, I hope no one is saying. Another Sherlock Holmes adaptation. As I always say (or just now started saying,) "You can never get too much Sherlock Holmes." So long as it's, you know, good stuff. Not like those books that wouldn't sell any copies if they didn't have a well-known public domain character in them. Watered-down Holmes. But actual good stuff. So, is this one good? They managed to wrangle Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy friggin' Liu into it, so...

   The time: now, the place: New York City. In this take on the mythos, they tie the Holmes-on-opiates thing into the foil-y relationship between Watson and Holmes itself. Here, it's ex-surgeon Joan Watson (Liu), who's assigned by Holmes's father to keep an eye on Holmes and support him after rehab. And then... they just jump right into the mystery. Ever restless, Holmes decides to get back into the whole mystery-solving consulting thing, which he had previously done for Scotland Yard homicide. The relationship develops from there, of course, with plenty of deductions along the way, and it's nice to see how they balance that out.

   Also premiering this week: ABC's LAST RESORT, whose pilot was also intriguing, in a I-wonder-where-they're-going-to-go-with-the-rest-of-the-series sort of way (it's hard to follow up almost nuking DC,) and mebby some other stuff that doesn't look nearly as promising as those two, who knows. (Conspiracy stuff, perhaps? Well, it worked for Prison Break, so maybe it'll work here.)

Pandas!

   Okay, I'm going to talk about friggin' pandas. On Tuesday, Blizzard released an entirely new expansion to World of Warcraft, called Mists of Pandaria, which quite frankly is halfway between hilarious and awesome. It's not about the pandas, but an entirely new continent to the world of Azeroth: Pandaria, this world's version of China, where the people are pandas. (No, that's totally not racist, Blizzard. (I can't tell whether I'm being sarcastic or not.)) Why am I even talking about this? Either I'm

1. Just in love with pandas, or
2. severely misjudging my target audience (it's comprised of people who would care but weren't in the position to know of this much-hyped WoW expansion, right?)

   Either way, there you go, I guess.

I... Don't... Know (More Killers Stuff)

   So, what... Do I... just... ask them? Or ask the producer to ask them? He's the one in charge of music clearances; he would know how this works. How about one of you do it? I don't know how to go about this... Or am I stopping myself from doing it because I'd rather not try, and fail, than try and fail? I've already shared the idea, so we're farther along then than had I not, but would that only make the failure greater now that the idea is out there? We have to have some way to gather attention for this, and there's more than one way, but how awesome would it be to have a soundtrack featuring the Killers?

   Well. There are probably quite a few independent films produced in Nevada alone, so any one of them would be in the same position for asking a Nevada-based band for some music for their soundtrack. It's still a lot fewer independent films here versus all of those not produced in Nevada-- how many Grammy-nominated triple-platinum'd bands can you think of from, say, Delaware? I thought not-- but maybe it's because they're so big that I'm afraid of even trying and asking in favor of just one of them out of them all? Still, we're almost uniquely positioned for this. It's only because Battle Born is Nevada themed that I'm even thinking of it; maybe this extra attention they're focusing on their home state will help? I'm still hesitant; I need a little validation before going on. I think.

   Well, for one, I don't know how we would even... but that's why I suggested talking to Dave, who is in charge of... but would he... and how do I even... I don't know.

   Anyway, in case you were wondering if I was woken up in a pun-based manner yesterday: maybe? I'm not sure. The end part of my dream, where I was woken up, had to do with Pictionary, and the clue was a picture of Harry Potter in a bucket. I came in, and those who were trying to guess what phrase or whatever the artist was trying to represent had failed, so the artist told me to tell them what it so obviously meant. And the alarm clock went off, and I woke up. So there might be a pun in there, and it even might have something to do with waking up. I'm still stumped. Harry... Bucket? Wizard- head- face- bucket? Potter...ing? I think it might have something to do with the word "pail," now. If anyone has any ideas, don't hesitate to share them.

The Killers (part II)

   How about that new Killers album? You take it for a spin yet? I'm following up on that review. This is important, so even if you didn't, bear with me.

   Hot Fuss as War instead of Boy... I said that because War was a very heavy album, very rock... Hot Fuss in a similar vein... Not that Boy wasn't brash, it wasn't per se but there was a much better transition from that to October than there was from October to War... If it had gone War- Boy- October and then to Unforgettable Fire (skipping over the live album Under a Blood Red Sky, whose Killers equivalent would be Live from the Royal Albert Hall, but that came immediately after Day & Age instead of before it so I'm not sure how equivalent that would be, but why not since we're switching release dates around anyway) it would seem a much smoother continuum and maybe October wouldn't be such a "Sophomore slump," because it comes third now instead of second so you'd have War there instead, but who knows?

   I was thinking about Collapse, about how it's not receiving enough money (Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing system, so if we don't meet the goal, we're not getting anything. Donate here, now. That's an order.) Maybe a little Killers blood is just what we need to rejuvenate Collapse. Collapse was filmed entirely in Nevada, making it up-Killers-alley. They'd probably be glad to licence some of their music for us, at maybe a cheaper rate than normal (hopefully free, if they're interested enough.) That would certainly get attention and people interested in the project. There's only a couple of weeks left, and we're not even at 10% of the goal. We need this attention. Runaways seems perfect, but I'm not sure how we're going to go about this. If anyone has any ideas, please share them now. Well, not necessarily now, but please share them at all. Soon. At least I'll see that people are thinking about this. Please and thank you.

The Problems

   I'm a bit burpy.

   "You okay?" someone asks me.

   "I'm alright. I've just got the 'bups.' BUP."

   And then the alarm clock wakes me up: bupbupbupbupbup. Wow. That happened yesterday, so that makes it so far every other day in which the alarm clock has woken me up into a pun. If that happens to me again tomorrow, that's like a threefer. Looking forward to it.

   We've been having some problems with our computer lately? You turn it on, but it won't boot up. Don't know what's wrong with it. I write this from the laptop. We've got no clue what's wrong with it. A piece of electronics that we actually do might have a clue as to what its problem might be? You know how I said that my external hard drive was crapping out on me? And that it might be a problem with the connection? Right here.

   As you can see, there is a... wire thing... stripped in the.... interface port.... thing. That fourth one there, where it's black when all the others have gold there? That should be gold as well. Whatever that's called. I don't think that's the problem entirely, but it might effect how the hard drive receives external power. The problems started when I tried to plug this USB3 device into an old Windows 98? From what it looks like it didn't receive enough power from that, which has thrown it off ever since. I'm not claiming to be an expert on hardware, but that's exactly it: I'm asking you, could something like that mess up the interface?

The Killers

   I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I won't go into specifics. Not that there are any plot twists or anything, and not that it even has a plot. You just need to be born naked into it. Just listen to it, you'll maybe know what I mean.

   The Killers' new album, Battle Born, is absolutely gorgeous. It almost brought me to tears on several occasions. With a single couplet of lyric, they can absolutely break your heart. Or make you grin with how clever it is. Maybe both at the same time. I'm thinking of one instance in particular. The lyrics here are deftly woven, with a lot of nods that are a really cool bonus for native Nevadans. Battle Born. The free stream of the album at http://www.battleborn.fm/ certainly captures the "driving endlessly through the desert" aspect of it (it's more fun if you invite friends along for the listen!) This album transcends the genre, and even previous expectations of what the Killers, already renowned for their musical prowess, could do. It's going to define, in many minds, what the "Killers" sound is. Think, if Killers were U2, then this album is their Joshua Tree. Exactly that.

   With Hot Fuss, they started very brash, so it's sort of like had U2 skipped Boy and October and debuted with War. Well, not that. Debuted with War (Hot Fuss), then proceeded with the post-punk soundscapes of Boy (Sam's Town) then the slightly more minimalist and mellow October (Sawdust), dug deeper to find new inspiration with The Unforgettable Fire (Day & Age) and are now on the Joshua Tree, a continuation of the Americana themes explored in their previous album. Wow. It's almost eerie how well that works out.

   In fact, the parallels go beyond that: both of their guitarists are named Dave (Dave Keuning and Dave "The Edge" Evans) both of their drummers are named after their (somewhat wimpily named) fathers (Ronnie Vannucci Jr and Larry Mullen Jr) both of their bassists have... Biblical names? (Mark Stoermer and Adam Clayton)... and both of their frontmen are... shoot... outspoken Christians? With really soulful voices, too. Able to pack layers of emotion into their singing. Both bands are also published by Island Def Jam, but that's slightly more obvious.

   Okay, so I did a little more digging, and yes, sites that export Japan-exclusive stuff to the US do exist. At reasonable prices, too. Except for what I had my eye on, of course. That's prohibitively expensive. Which makes sense, considering the aforementioned popularity of the property over there? That's some super-ultra-deluxe art book stuff, it is, there. As well as the t-shirts and the fanart volumes, but I didn't see those. Other import stuff too, maybe? What we think of as "wasabi" isn't even that. It's just horseradish died green. Urgh.

   Yes, on the side, I also managed to get more writing in. Which is what matters. I'm not sure if it makes up for all of the writing I should have been doing earlier looking at the Japanese stuff, but I managed to connect some new writing stuff and put it in with the old stuff I'm also rewriting, if that counts for anything. If that makes any sense. New scenes, and enhanced character motivation. Really enhances the flavor of the beginning of the book, which is the part that needs the most work because Cailin was obviously the most out-of-practice at that point.

   I'm thinking of adding some new scenes later, but I'm going to have to go over what exactly happens in them with her. She's got such a natural flow for how to set scenes up. It's gorgeous. Anyway.

Jamaica... and Japan?

   A Jamaica sandwich, right? As in, "Jamaica me a sandwich?" People say that, yes? That is indeed a real thing? Alright. "A sandwich, a Jamaica sandwich," my father says, and the alarm clock goes off and I wake up. I sit there, up in bed. "Jamaica sandwich?" I say to myself. "More like, I'm awake-a sandwich!"

   And then I sort of look around to see if anyone heard it, but of course they didn't, for one because there was no one around and for two because I didn't say it out loud.

   I should really be doing PoM rewrite stuff right now, but all week instead of that I've been just poking around on Japanese video game websites. The American version of the site is fine and dandy and even kind of cool, with character bios and downloadable wallpapers, so nothing against that; but when you go to the official Japanese website, it's got all that plus an extensive encyclopedia of the game world with information linking all of the canon together, as well as a store where you can buy all of the many volumes of manga and the behind-the-scenes production diaries and the official hand towels and the sticker books and the key chains, but it's all Japan-exclusive, of course. And you're sitting there, embarrassed, because to you, it was like, tell as many people as you can about this, you know; it might not be too great of a success. When you remember the original game is from Japan, apparently it's a cultural phenomenon over there, and the creators aren't going to starve anytime soon. And, well, alright. Argh.

   I just... does anyone have an address in Japan, that can be shipped to? And from there you can ship it to the states? I'm sure there's websites that can allow that, where you can buy it second-hand, like through eBay or something, but I just... I just really wish I lived in Japan right now.

More Most Disappointing Things

   More really disappointing misunderstandings. I'm beginning to detect another theme going on here.

   I read in passing about Austrian Arthur Schnitzler's Traumnovelle, which turns out to be just like a novella of dreams or whatever. Drat. I thought you said Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger was in a film called Traumaville, instead of the other thing? Which, you've got to admit, would be pretty cool. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Traumaville. It'd be about, I don't know, an action-packed simulator for emergency response teams, only then the simulation becomes all too real, and so Arnold Schwarzenegger has to fight his way out? Makes sense. I totally would have watched that movie.

   But, nope, it's just the inspiration for one or more made-for-TV movies and Eyes Wide Shut. Which-- well, it's completely different, and that's all we'll say about that. Although- that would still make sense if you combined that with the similarly titled I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream...? Traumaville would thus be some kind of computer simulation, and he has to fight against sexy robot Tom Cruise? Which makes it one step away from Westworld, which it kind of was already. And wouldn't that be a reverse Terminator, because Ahnold's the not-robot this time? That just makes it Predator, though. Oh, the things we do get ourselves into...

Groceries, Part III: The Shoppening

   I had forgotten and/or left some important stuff off of yesterday's list of groceries to buy, so now, after the shopping trip, I've compiled for you a shopping list of things that I actually did buy. It- wow. It occurred to me... That's boring. This entire thing might be boring; I might be boring. I mean, sure, I get excited over the concept of a warm fresh pair of socks, but shouldn't everyone? Shouldn't everyone?

   Once you get past the grocery-normal stuff, like the lettuce and the olives and the tomatoes, you'll find I'm also into like Greek and Indian foodstuffs. So, uh, there's that.

• Lettuce
• Olives
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Carrots
• Chicken broth bullion
• Beef broth bullion
• Hamburger (15% fat)
• Some mushrooms
• Some mushroom Alfredo sauce
• Shell noodles
• Spiral noodles
• Bisquick
• Horseradish
• Tahini
• Refried beans
• AN AVOCADO
• Cream of rice
• Hummus
• Corn muffin mix, apparently

   Also, there's the stuff I would have bought had we not already had it:

• Feta cheese
• That hash'd potato stuff from the earlier list
• I don't know, like flour or something?

   Yes, I truly live on the edge.

List

   Foods I want to know how to make?

• assorted casseroles, like tuna noodle or some other kind of casserole

   Really that's it. If you can make it to casserole, you can make it anywhere.

   It's hard to come up with a shopping list of foods you need for cooking that isn't already common stuff you know you'll have, like flour or something. Should I add those anyway? I suppose flour should be on the list, but I don't know. A shopping list for stuff to go in recipes you know or want to know how to make (if you don't know how to make it, how do you know the ingredients?) Is it restricted to just cooking foods? Or non-perishables? You can have perishables, right? Mayonnaise is sometimes used in cake recipes for moisture, but it's not like you cook with it. I focused on "base items," from which I can customize meals. So here goes.

• Sesame-based stuff: sauces, oils, pastes?
• horseradish
• Grape Nuts?
• Bisquick 
• Potato hash

Cooking?

   There was a note on the fridge this morning as I went to get syrup. My assignment for today (should I decide to accept it) is to make a list of foods I know how to make already and a list of those I want to know how to make, and then make a shopping list. There was something written on it after that, something about going grocery shopping tomorrow, but I forgot the rest, because the paper exploded on me after five seconds. Alright, it didn't, but I was getting that vibe. Here we go:

• Noodles
• Like, sandwiches, I guess
• Soup?
• Cold cere- cold cereal dang I thought I knew how to cook stuff
• Hot cereal!
• Omelettes
• Chili
• I guess I can handle stir-fries
• French fries as well
• And fish fries. See how easy this is?

   So, we've established that I can boil, and grill, and I guess I can bake as well, just follow the directions on the package. Which is how I'm able to do soup. Not that I can't customize my food preparation; I'm renowned for my ability to season, which is how I'm able to make chili so well. I guess I still can't "cook," but what is cooking other than that stuff I can already do, right? Wrong?Dang, I thought I was more self-reliant. Foods I want to learn how to make? I don't know.

• Meatloaf

seems to be the only one right now, but I'm sure I can think of others. Later. I'll have that list, and the shopping list. But right now, it's time for the NOC list, if you catch my drift. Right now, I'm gonna go watch myself some Mission: Impossible.

   Light the fuse.

SFX!

   Okay, some official Princess Bride photos are now up from the director (I say "official," because they're up from the director.) Here, as earlier promised, are some photographs of my special effects work, in action this time.

Original Caption: The Cliffs of INSANITY!!! 

Original Caption: Just look at our awesome high-tech budget! 

   Haha, great. You can see the entire album for act one here, and act two here.

The Three Little Pigs

   Once upon a time, there were three little pigs who decided to open up a health food chain. They decided to sell only food that was entirely nutritionally balanced. They thought and they thought about this, thinking, what food meets the criteria for containing all major food groups? It had to have wheat and dairy and fruits and vegetables and proteins as well as sparing fats. Right when they thought that it was hopeless and no one food met all of those criteria, the littlest pig realized, pizza! It has crust and tomato sauce and vegetables and meat and cheese and sparing fats!

   So the three little pigs labored in their pig laboratories, coming up with the perfect ratio of crust to low-fat cheese to vegetables and tomato sauce and meats and sparing fats. Finally, after months of research and development, testing with anonymous double-blind focus groups, they had it: the ultimate balanced pizza. They started off humbly enough, in a local bistro down the street, until the chain began to get picked up by swanky hotels and moved on from their to prime New York locations on Fifth Street and Main, where apparently people are cosmopolitan enough not to question that they were eating pizza made by walking talking swine. From there they expanded across the entire Eastern Seaboard and into central US, opening up prime locations in the UK and Germany all the while as well. In order to attract the valuable youth market and in order to appear hip and edgy, they began producing corny television commercials about how rad it is to eat a balanced diet.

   Such a product began to be noticed by supermegaconglomerates, such as the Big Bad Wolf's, who bought the chain and then promptly ate the three little pig's head off.

   The End.

   The moral: you can't win, you can't get out, you can't even break even. Or whatever it is that they say.

(this post written entirely by cat on keyboard)

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COLLAPSE on Kickstarter

   Collapse is now on Kickstarter, where you yes you can help fund it. Awesome, right? I know what you're thinking, and I know that a lot of projects there don't even need funding because some people just want you to pay for their crap (seriously), but we were working out-of-pocket budget before and now actually need money to do things now, and the producer is still willing to continue paying with his own money; we just need a little more help to do this thing. The principle shooting's finished, like I might-have-said earlier?, but we still need funding for post-production services and related stuff like that.

   Post-production is a pretty crucial time in a film's process. It's going to shape the entire surface aspect of the film, including whether it actually looks worth paying attention to or not. You know how much I need professional-looking product, and am unwilling to put my name on something mediocre (bad fanart aside.) Who knows, maybe we'll come out of this looking better than, say, Billy Owens, which I hope because seriously screw that movie, and it won't be hard to do. In order for this thing to happen, we need you for $8,000. It's not really all that much, so you might as well chip n your own two cents ($1 minimum pledge required.) For the children, man. It'd be fun.

   And, hey, if Andrew Hussie can raise over $700,000 in two days for his Homestuck Adventure Game, then I guess that we can raise $8,000 in a month, even though that's a pretty terrible analogy because Andrew Hussie is magical and we're not, so never mind. Nonetheless, this is actually possible, so you might as well check it out. And donate. You had better stinking donate.

"COLLAPSE" Independent Film

Cheeseburger First

   I don't think anyone was expecting anything different from the product placement in the first Iron Man movie. When Tony gets out of the cave and comes back to America and says, "I want a real American cheeseburger," everyone knows that cheeseburger = Burger King cheeseburger. The first time I watched Iron Man and he said that, I literally thought to myself that I would be disappointed with anything else. No, not disappointed. I knew that it was... inevitable. Burger King.

Coughing [2]

   Thanks to time, and antihistamines, I don't have that weird cough anymore. My dreams have gotten significantly pleasanter and more coherent. That's good. And the weird cough-singing I did is gone. I did, however, record one last song (actually I recorded this one before the other one, but I put the other one up because it was more beatboxy and this one is just kind of eerie.) Here you go (still no embeds, though):

http://comradehelicopter.wikispaces.com/file/view/coughing%5B2%5D%5B1%5D/364110696/coughing%5B2%5D%5B1%5D

Highs and Lows

   Well, it's Tuesday September 11 again. It is a time to reflect, a time to ask, tell me what's so funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding?

   Or, uh, what's so funny 'bout Pete, Doug, Dan, Juan, and Stanley?

   Yeah, that'd be funny. I really should have set that up better. But I had this great pun, and I noticed the date, so I figured, why not tie them in? Maybe I should have done that as a sketch, about comedians. There are these five guys who want to be comedians, but aren't very funny, and their names, well you know the names, and I suppose you know the punchline too. Sounds like a Mort Walker thing, straight out of Hi and Lois. The low here is the sadness of the memorial, and the high is we get a pun out of it?

   So, sorry about the crappy post. I've got something scheduled today, so I really don't have much time.

Heart Math

   Something... about politics? Maybe just a dream? No? Might be confusing Forest Whitaker with someone else... Okay, never mind.

   I noticed yesterday that my heart was beating like a rabbit's. (People... people say that, right?) I measured my rest heart rate at 120 BPM. If we plug that into W= 100p(H/T) instead of 70 makes 71.1. That's assuming that none of the other parameters have changed, which they have but I'm choosing not to calculate that because it will only prove that I'm the Beast again.

   Funny thing, though. While I was lying in bed and feeling my abnormally high resting heart rate, it halved. You read that right. My base rate dropped from 120 to 60 beats per minute, just like that. Since i was paying attention to it at the time, I could tell that it wasn't some kind of weird my-heart-was-actually-fluttering-twice-per-beat things or anything. My BPM just... dropped. Which makes my number 142.2 instead of 71.1. My BPM drops so my number doubles, is apparently how that works.

   Either way, a much healthier heart rate.

Coughing

   It was kind of hard to get a recording of this, since it was mostly involuntary, but here you go:

http://comradehelicopter.wikispaces.com/file/view/coughing%5B1%5D/363156132/coughing%5B1%5D

   (It was also kind of hard to embed, so hopefully temporarily here's a link. You can click on it now if you want, but I'd wait for that embed if I were you.) 

A Realization

   I realized something yesterday. I had written a short story in the fifth grade, one of those deals where you could pin writings or drawings or poetry or whatever to the bulletin board, and someone drew a representation of that story and also pinned it to the bulletin board. I realized that that technically counts as fanart. So I guess had fanart done of my stuff when I was in fifth grade?

   For the record, it was some Tolkien hobbits-are-falling-asleep passage-inspired description of music. Like, music. But the music wasn't literal, and it was a symbolic representation of evil? And no, the fanart didn't seem to realize this. (I think it might have been Natasha who drew it...) So, am still holding out for something better...

Deshi! Deshi! Beshara! Beshara!

   After the RNC, I was kind of wondering what the DNC would counter with. Graphic-design-wise, I mean. (Well, especially that. Maybe some other stuff. No Clint this time, of course. Um...) Anyway, the answer, of course, is a lot of blue. Even the red of the flag graphic in the background seemed kind of blue. Still, it wasn't bad. I'm not sure what that crowd was chanting, though... It couldn't have been "four more years," could it have? Meh, I prefer the Bane chant.

GATE 1
    I'm at a party, reading the Sunday funnies in the newspaper. Forest Whitaker walks up and begins reading them beside me. "H-e-e-e-y Forest Whitaker!" I say. We fist-bump, and do one of those fist-bump off-the-fly things. I recognize him; I'm cool. We chat a little, but mostly read the funnies. He knows I'm cool, but he asks the others at the table if they're also cool. They all say yes. He asks me. I don't answer, because I thought he already knew I'm cool? When I don't answer, he declares me uncool, and leaves the table. Well, dang.

GATE 2
   I'm reading a chart of James Bond facts. His IQ has been estimated to be anywhere from, like, 79 to, like, 143. Something like that. Alright. A new, definitive IQ is offered, which is exactly one point higher than my own, which makes me jealous. Only one IQ point away from being James Bond.

GATE 3
   I'm at a different party, maybe. It's a screening of the original On Our Own. I notice some cinematography mistakes that I would have fixed. I'm not sure how much of the previous dreaming was a dream. That's my puzzle. How much was a dream? A school library, blue cordon tapes. The party is at the other side. There's a screen there, but the film is being shown on a small TV in a corner, like a small hospital bookshelf nook. Most of the party is just with Cheetos and chips and dip and other party stuff, and most people in fact are ignoring the film (it is still being watched by some, of course.) Was this before, or after? Is this the same party? What was a dream? And what was a dream within a dream?

Still Have a Cough

   No, this is actually interesting, I swear.

   A lot of my coughing-type throat issues only present a real problem when I'm lying down, which makes the night kind of tough to get through. I find myself doing weird things to get over it, like laughing when I exhale, or singing stream-of-conscious songs with nonsense syllables. Maybe I'll show you what I mean.

   I get short bursts of sleep between short bursts of waking up, because it's hard to breathe. My dreams present themselves in interesting ways because of this. It's hard to put in words. Short, interconnected set pieces, like puzzles I have to solve before I advance onto the next dream. No real plot to them. Just- puzzles. Or a puzzle inside a puzzle. I have to figure out how they fit together. I can only advance when I'm right.

You Will Be Missed

   I suppose it would be fitting here after the death of Kingpin. It reminds me, on Sunday before the official Hugo announcement ceremonies, there was a ceremony of sorts to honor the deaths of those in the industry during the past year. It featured quite an extensive list of authors, creators, fans and people in general who inspired the SF field in one way or another. Just off the top of my head: William "William Sleator" Sleator, Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Steve "SJ" Jobs, Lance "Moonwalker" Armstrong, a whole bunch of others I know I'm forgetting. Aarrgh. Well, sorry. Only four, out of quite a few minutes' worth of names.

   EDIT: Oh! Bradbury! How could I have...

So... Many... Bricks... of Shock...

   The death of Michael Clarke Duncan hit me like a ton of bricks. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true.   A ton of shocking bricks of shock. Shock, but no awe. It was absolutely merciless in the utter lack of awe department. Pulling no punches and all that. Plato's dead? I thought. Who's going to voice Shredder in the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV show now? Then I realized that Kevin Michael Richardson and Michael Clarke Duncan are two different people, which, horrible as it may sound, made me feel slightly better. Kevin Michael Richardson is, just, one of my all-time favorite voice actors, you guys. May his sweet sweet deep voice be filling our earholes for years to come.

Not the Bees!

   After what happened at the Hugo Awards at Chicon 7 yesterday, it turns out I do have something to talk about here, first and foremost that copyrightbots apparently has no sense of fun. Expect backlash. Think, angry hornets level.

   First off the bat: Sorry if I linked the wrong address to the Hugo Awards Ustream account; the one I linked was the one given on the official site but turns out to have been incorrect. The correct link is here, but you don't have to bother clicking on that since that link has been shut down for copyright infringement. Right in the middle of the awards. In the middle of a speech by Neil Gaiman, too. Pretty miffy. I'm guessing it was because they may or may not have shown clips of Doctor Who for their Best Dramatic Presentation Short Form category. Meaning, if you were one of the 500-odd entities participating in the ceremony via telepresence, your stream was suddenly and unceremoniously cut off during Neil Himself explaining how Community is somehow basically just a Doctor Who spin-off. At least I think that's what he was getting at. At least we still have the CoverItLive stream and the LiveTweeters, but seriously, what the heck. A brunt of the anger has been directed at Ustream themselves, but they were (officially) just as baffled as everyone else by the sudden shutdown. With American copyright law, it's better to be safe than sorry. And, with the ostensibly legally released clips being ostensibly legally released, there are going to be some pretty sorry network executives.

   But, yay-hey-hey Digger. I'm linking it you you again here because you owe it to yourself, and I know that you didn't click on it that first time: http://www.diggercomic.com/

   EDIT: Alright, sweet. The official explanation now about that copyrightbot we should be directing our sheer unbridled fury toward. http://www.ustream.tv/blog/2012/09/03/hugo-awards-an-apology-and-explanation/

News and Commentary (But Most Especially Commentary)

   And now it's time for news-I-would-be-interested-in: news for people who can't be bothered to find their own news to be interested in or just plain look this stuff up for themselves and seriously guys quit mooching off of my thing, that's my thing. Now, apparently, with bonus commentary. Though really, you should get your own commentary, too.

   Today is the official ceremony for this year's Hugo Awards at Chicon 7. Watch it live here at 8 PM Central time, I guess. Remember, we're rooting for Nancy Fulda's Movement in Best Short Story category, Writing Excuses Season 6 in Best Related Works category, and, although Writing Excuses's very own Howard Tayler is nominated for Best Graphic Story with his Schlock Mercenary: Force Multiplication, I'm gonna have to say sorry here and say Ursula Vernon's Digger, because Schlock- unlike Digger- can always be nominated another year, and seriously, Digger. It's, uh, it's a great comic, you guys. Feel free to root for whatever other nominees in whatever other categories you want, but if you don't agree with me on that one, YOU'RE NO FRIEND OF MINE. Ahem. We're only "rooting" for these guys because it'd be kind of impossible to vote for them when the winners have already been decided. If we could vote for them, we would. Remember, this is just a reminder that this is going on today.

   In politics, the RNC in Tampa Bay. You probably knew about that one. Thus, I don't have much to say on that, except for one thing. Those screens on stage in the background behind the podium: a masterstroke of graphic design. Seriously, gorgeous. Also behind the podium: guest speakers and such. A necessary evil, I suppose, for without that there would be no reason to have those screens in the first place.

   In television, did you catch Doctor Who last night? Of course you did. You-- no? Oh, okay then. Daleks. Daleks Daleks. The Doctor Daleks Daleks Daleks, so Amy Daleks Daleks Daleks Daleks while Daleks. Meanwhile, Daleks Daleks Rory Daleks Daleks Daleks. Oh, and you'll never see the twist ending coming, in which DALEKS! (Sorry, it's just so hard to come up original humor given the popularity of the subject matter.)

   And finally, in tech and business news, Samsung is now claiming that Apple's litigation are an underhanded effort to monopolize the market for themselves. Right or wrong on this (WWSJD?), that whole conflict does raise a good point about the very nature of the free market. Samsung, of course, does not think that they've stolen any patents like Apple claims, and in fact thinks that Apple are the ones stealing from Samsung with some of their wireless technology. Either way all of this infringing upon patents and copyrights is a good thing for the consumer, right? Of course right. Free market competition and all that. In this case, REALLY free market competition. (Stealing's bad.) That's what patents and copyrights are in place to do: restrict the free market. It's a free-for-all free market, when companies or othersuch entities deliberately ignoring copyrights and patents, which may or may not be going on here (I'm going with it's some kind of parallel developmental evolution.)

   There's been a war going on lately around creator rights. As (something of?) a creator myself, I know this: there's this line between protecting creators' rights and restricting creativity itself. Shakespeare kind-of-borrowed a lot of his stories, but, you know, he was Shakespeare, so he made them awesome. Was he thus justified in this? Well, yeah, because copyright law as we know it didn't exist back then. You can see some of the benefit there. Shakespeare deserves some credit. He was the one we know as the man who wrote those plays and poems. Creator recognition. A lot of Shakespeare's plays were hard to track down, which is why we've got "folio" and "quarto" and such editions. To avoid theft of their own work, troupes would split the scripts up, making it so that the only reliable way to steal someone else's play was to be there standing in the audience jotting the lines down as the actors said them. And, um... I guess I was going somewhere with that. Huh. I guess it was, as long as the creator is recognized as the creator. Yeah. That's it. Copyright laws ensure this. Still, there's another side to this.

   A lot of the renewed interest in creator rights comes from rapid dissemination through new media. The internet makes things easier to steal. I do not condone stealing. But this is different from intellectual property damage and patent infringing. The original artist is still recognized. Illegally downloading music only serves --well, not "only," but you know what I mean-- only serves to have people actually listen to it, which makes them more likely to buy the album later if they want to support their artists. The artist still gets the credit for being the creator of a particular song, even when that song is downloaded illegally (except for those sites that seem to think that all parody songs are done by "Weird Al" Yankovic? I mean, what's up with that?)

   Compare that to an artist stealing another artist's song. Both artists are still using the song, doing two different versions of the same basic tune. This is bad for the poor sap who wrote it in the first place, as now he does not get full credit for a song that is rightfully his (in this scenario, the artist is a he. I guess I assume that because my mind was primed by the idea of illegally downloading music, I immediately thought of rap and hip-hop whose artists are almost invariably male?) It is, however, good for music as a whole. See? True free market capitalism is just a form of socialism. I just blew your mind. As well as my own.

   I don't even know what "cows" model that would use. "You have two cows. Your neighbor illegally clones one and everyone gets milk"? I guess there'd be further competition between you and your neighbor as you still have your own cows who make their own milk, and there'd be some kind of price war until you both realize that together you have a monopoly on milk supply and jack up the prices between you two-- unless someone else comes along and clones another cow which causes you both to need to lower the prices again! See, it still works. Only now, you're not being recognized for all of the milk that would and should be rightfully yours. And that really stinks, doesn't it? That's why we've got individual creator rights.

   Take it too far the other way, and no one gets milk, yeah? "You have two cows. The neighbor gets a couple of goats and you sue them for intellectual property damage." There has to be some level of building off of previous works. Advancing the public discussion. For example, I myself am blatantly using ideas other people have on the matter. Still, these ideas are open to have, and I'm at least (kind of?) citing my resources by telling you that they're not entirely my own. So, uh, happy mediums are good.

   ...yeesh, the whole post could have been on that subject alone. I guess that was just the political punditry that all good (?) news has, or something. But, seriously, that takes up more than half of the post. Couldn't I have posted that section tomorrow? I certainly wouldn't be stuck for a post then. But, who knows, maybe the case will have advanced by that point. They don't call it the "news" for nothing.

September

   The USA Rice Federation would like to remind you that September is National Rice Month.

   It is also prostate cancer awareness month, but I don't think I want to do fanart of that.