The Original Dreamie – just what every couch potato needs!

I saw this infomercial at work. Looks like someone is trying to one-up the Snuggie (or whatever that thing is called). It’s called a Dreamie, and it “helps” you sleep on the couch. Not kidding. It’s made for that small niche of people that live on their couch. It looks like a sleeping bag, open on one side, with a built in pillow. The commercial shows someone watching TV and getting annoyed that the blanket they’re using doesn’t cover their feet, and the couch “just isn’t comfortable enough”. Well, get up and go to bed, doofus. Or buy a new couch.

Also, why is the bed at the hotel too nasty to sleep on, but the couch is just fine? The people that slept in the bed are the same funky people to sit their butt on the couch.

Clash of the Titans

I don’t care what people say, I love what Hollywood has been doing with all the remakes. Sure, there are some bombs, but there are also some truly amazing films, some of which are being made the way they should have been made all along. Titans is a perfect example. I love the original. Harry Hamlin, in all his goofy cheesiness, was a hero of mine. Or rather, Perseus was. Also, there was no doubt that the regal Laurence Olivier was Zeus. I hear the British born voice in my head when I read stories about Zeus, even though I know Zeus isn’t British. Yes, I had a small boyhood crush on Andromeda and wished I was flying on Pegasus’s back to save her from the kraken. But then, that meant I had to deal with the creepy Medusa. Harryhausen’s effects still haunt my dreams. That man can do things with stop-motion animation something that the likes of Freddy Krueger or Jason has never done: scare the holy bejezus out of me. All of that to say, I still love the original Clash of the Titans.

What Louis Leterrier has crafted though, is far superior looking than anything from my childhood memories. Or rather, he has given me the joy and excitement that I felt from watching Titans for the first time. That crazy Frenchman (an obvious action junkie) has pulled together some of the greatest thespians… ever, and placed them in one of the best adventures ever told. Sam Worthington is great in the Perseus role. The man has talent and he’s not afraid to do action movies. The voice in my head for Zeus, I’m sorry to say, will be changing to Liam Neeson. I can’t imagine anyone else doing the role. Maybe Ralph Fiennes, after cutting his teeth on a nasty character like Voldemort, felt the need to amp up his evilness and become Hades. I mean, how do you get more evil than the lord of the underworld? As for the pitiful wretch Calibos, the remake shows us what a person deformed by the power of the gods is supposed to look like. I threw up in my mouth a little bit when I saw him. The climax of the trailer (with a killer music soundtrack, btw) gives us the rise of the kraken. Like an unholy spawn of Cthulhu, this monster lumbers up, tentacles swinging vainly at the swift Pegasus, to reveal a sharp toothed maw bellowing in fury. If I was kept locked in a cage under water most of my life, only to be brought out to terrorize ignorant peasants, I would be angry too. I’m not a huge fan of heavy CGI characters, but Baby Cthulhu looks amazing. I would go Titans just to see that.

Click it, enjoy it!

Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice – kinda like Pirates of the Caribbean (the first one)

Disney did that thing again. They gave action junkie Jerry Bruckheimer a ton of money, an established iconic name from their catalog, and made a cool looking movie. I remember when Pirates of the Caribbean was coming out and we all laughed. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was announced with Nic Cage headlining and jokes were rampant that he would be interacting with a CGI Mickey Mouse. All I can say after watching the preview… My Fantasiastic mind was blown!

The red jacket that Jay Baruchel (the title character) wears is a nice nod to the Mickey version, as well as the soggy mop fight towards the end. Nic Cage is a wonderful actor, not a personal favorite of mine, but you can’t help but acknowledge his acting chops (he has an Oscar sitting on a pawn shop shelf to prove it). A villainous looking Alfred Molina pops up all of a sudden, casts a shiny blue spell out of moving car (first drive-by spellcasting?) and is gone again. Still not sure if he’s the overall villain, or a string of obstacles in the path of the apprentice. A hint of cultural distinction in spellcasting is shown with the moth man transformation scene and the Chinatown parade dragon coming to life. Seeing this wonderful high-fantasy action adventure tease did indeed make me hopeful that we’ve got another Pirates/Depp type of film on our hands. Come next July, I guess we’ll find out.

Disney’s Sorcerer’s Apprentice

what I’ve been doing instead

I’m a slacker. Sort of. I have not been writing much of anything. Instead I’ve been reading and trying to figure things out. Like I said before, I found this neat site that helps aspiring writers. After being pulled down slightly, I took a step back tried to put thinks right. That didn’t work at first. So, I was bummed a little… Didn’t want to write… Thought I would lose a few of the longer and cooler stories I had posted online.

THEN, I found Kindle! Sad to say, I don’t actually own a Kindle, but they are pretty cool and do open doors for indie writers. At the moment I’ve only got one story posted to my Amazon.com Kindle storefront: Broken Avatar. I’m working on putting more up, perhaps I’ll start publishing one of the serials. I’m on the fence about putting Kiss of the Spider Queen on Kindle, because I’m looking at a writing contest or sci-fi/fantasy magazine. If I go that route, I can’t throw it on to Kindle, since it would be published and blah, blah, blah…

All of that to say, I’ll be back to writing again soon. After I get the stories I’ve already written back in order. Anyway, if you own a Kindle, know someone who owns a Kindle and would enjoy Broken Avatar, then hit the link above. I found out, you don’t actually need a Kindle though. You can purchase digital books and read them through a free reader. Kinda like iTunes for books. Pretty cool stuff.

I will definitely update again when I’ve got another story ready.

My last post was when?

Yeah, it’s been a long time since I put anything up on the site. I’ve been reading a lot lately. Mostly about what I should be doing, or what I’ve been doing wrong, regarding my writing. I joined up with a workshop online to help with that. Basically, you post something that you’re writing, ask for critiques from other users/writers, with the intent of fine tuning the piece to submit it professionally. Immediately upon posting something at the site I was blasted with “you technically have been published” type of comments. Long story short (too late), by posting through my blog, I have rendered my stories unmarketable since most editors will not publish something already published. It falls under a first time copywrite agreement. So, I may have shot myself in the foot, or maybe not. I haven’t found out yet.

All of that to say…

Welcome to the new site! I’ve still got my creative writing on here, and will continue to post short stories or essays. However, that won’t be the only thing posted now. Since I am a geek, and this is a self proclaimed geek site, I’m going to use this blog to talk about anything and everything I love to geek out about. My love of comics shows in Invinci-Boy. My role-playing game hobby can be seen in Kiss of the Spider Queen. And movies… who doesn’t love movies?

At the moment though, I’m going to tweak this site until it feels right. I might switch themes again, don’t know if I’m sold on this one yet.

Objects In Motion

Jacer checked his O2 gauge for the third time, tapped the dirty glass face. Only five minutes, max. He considered holding his breath. It would be too dangerous to lower the feed anymore than he already had.

In front of him sat K’rtho, patiently waiting. Her monofilament cutter silently sparked as it sliced through the bulkhead. The metal, old and rust colored, seemed to melt as the blade slowly worked through it. Two more inches.

The derelict shipping container rotated in the vacuum of space. Around them floated large debris that resembled a broken space tug. The glass of the cockpit had shattered long ago, one the LACE drives was missing, and the main hatch was bent inward. Jagged chunks of rock were wedged into parts of the tug, no doubt an asteroid collision.

Jacer clicked his com on. “Metz, have the ship prepped and ready for us. We’re going to be coming in pretty hot.”

“Aye, cap’n,” replied the pilot.

K’rtho continued to brace the cutter and push down.

“You know,” she said. “If you had sprung for the extra tanks, like I said, then we wouldn’t need to be in such a rush.”

The captain stared at the back of her helmet, wondering if he could haul an unconscious body and a container back to the ship.

“You could learn to cut faster,” Jacer said. “You’ve been cutting for what? Almost half an hour now?”

“Or,” she continued with the disrespectful tone, ignoring him. “You could have upgraded the suits, installed a refilter system. We would never have to worry about air tanks then.”

He focused on a random spot on the back of her helmet, a slight scratch in the dark green paint. Jacer closed his eyes and tried to remain calm.

“I knew we should never have slept together,” he mumbled.

Still alive, L4D2, and Reader’s Choice

Yes, I am still alive. My computer issues are over, everything seems to be back up and operational. My firewall at work still continues to give me headaches though, sometimes blocking my site, sometimes not.

This is not related to my absence (regardless of what you might think), but Left 4 Dead 2 is amazing! I’ve been complaining about the game for awhile now, that it should be DLC instead of a new game. It’s a full game in it’s own right. Lots of new features and models, revamped oldies, and killer clowns. The Dark Carnival level should be “Kill All Clowns!” Those Bozos need to die horrible deaths. Like demented Pied Pipers, they lead the infected to you, honking that irritating nose of theirs. I usually end that march of death with a chainsaw, or a sword. I hate clowns now.

I hope to have more stories posted soon. A chapter of something will go up tonight. Promise.

Of the stories listed below, what do you all want to see me focus on? Post your vote in the comments section of the story or below this post. Thanks.

The Adventures of Invinci-Boy

Children of Deep Ones: Cthulhu Rising

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

The Saint and the Rose

With Friends Like These

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead – part 2

The tall man stood in the marshal’s office, eyeing both Williams and the undertaker outside.  Inside, the marshal lit the oil lamp on his desk and then finished signing his name on the document. He blew on the ink and held the paper out for the bounty hunter, who took it and nodded at the old lawman.

“Just head on over to the bank, give that to James, he’ll dole out your bounty,” said Williams.

The tall man folded the document, tucked it into his black jacket. The jacket was longer than most, just barely hiding the pistol on his belt. He touched his dark brown hat at Williams, took the wet cigar out of his mouth.

“There any women in this town?”

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead – part 1

Noises floated across the small town, the everyday sounds of frontier life. Wallace drove his cart through the center of the street, whipping the old mule and cursing at it. Billy poked at the toad curled up under the porch of his pa’s general store. Inside the store, Aunt Sally, for that’s what everyone in town called her, gossiped loudly with anyone that would listen while she slowly picked out fabrics for a new dress. Reverend Lewis, his black jacket dusty, continued his walk along the streets, inviting each person he passed to his next sermon. Marshal Williams leaned back in his chair, his feet propped up on his creaky desk.

Tommy, an excitable young boy from up the street, ran into the marshal’s office, panting and sweating. The marshal, used to Tommy’s normal “cry wolf” attitude, pushed his hat back so he could see the boy, and waited.

“Rider!” said Tommy between gasps for air. “There’s a rider a comin’ inta town! He’s got a body in tow.”

not a fun week

Been a little slammed at work lately. Throw in issues with WordPress not working right (at least here at my office) and issues with my home PC dying on me, and other minor things, makes putting up a post really difficult. I’m working on the home computer problem – thanks Matt – and I can’t help the WP issue. Certain sites get blocked here at my office. Sometimes WordPress gets tagged as a “social networking website”, but not always. So, sometimes if I have a late post or no post, that’s the main reason why.

Also, had a difficult time getting motivated to write this week. Got a rejection that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, and not much response from other people. Again, thanks Matt for reading.