Sharknado The Second One

The first Sharknado was bad. So very deliciously bad. But – you weren’t really sure if the makers of the movie were actually intending to make a bad movie. Sharknado 2 has no such uncertainty. Sharknado 2 celebrated its awfulness in grand style. It also became a game of “where do I know that person from.”

There were homages to several classic movies and tv shows. I probably missed some but my oldest kid caught a few more than I’d expected him to. The cameos were frequent and plentiful, some of which I had to explain (like Richard Kind) but others, like Wil Wheaton, he spotted before I did. Make no mistake, it was entirely ridiculous. It was also the funniest thing I’ve seen all year. I just wish Tara Reid didn’t irritate me so much – I keep rooting for her to get all the way eaten.

I do hope there will be a sharknado 3 if only so I have a guaranteed night of laughter. It would be interesting to see where the sharknado would touch down this time and who all would show up to get eaten.

Deadpool

So there was some footage, now taken down, and it was just test footage and it was old. I know all these things. I also know that I would watch the hell out of that movie. I imagine the footage is still out there somewhere – this is the Internet after all – but I’m not going to go in search of it mostly because whatever I link to will likely be taken down before too long. The point is – there’s a slim (ok, infinitesimal) chance this “release” of the test footage was looking to gauge interest. If that’s the case, I want to throw my voice into the mix because I really want the movie to be made. I also want the movie to be made by anyone but the people who ruined Deadpool in Origins. I’d love for them to keep Reynolds as Deadpool. I certainly trust Reynolds to do Deadpool right a whole lot more than I trust Batfleck, but that’s another rant.

The list of interesting things I’d like to see made into movies is incredibly long and unlikely to happen but there’s still some hope for Deadpool. I would love to see Wonder Woman in a movie of her own. I would love to see a proper Neuromancer, Sandman Slim, or Raven (but not the Teen Titans version). I love comic book movies – even the bad ones – but I’d love to see some of the female characters headlining their own movie and not being secondary or tertiary to the male characters.

Catching up and looking ahead

My father is finally home from the hospital. I’m not exactly sure whether or not anything was actually resolved but it does sound like he’s feeling better to some degree.  Only time will tell if everything is all worked out. I’m just glad he’s feeling better.

I spent much of last weekend obsessively watching Twitter and YouTube for Comic Con news and wonderfulness. There are too many things I want to watch now. In movies I’m most excited for Horns and Mad Max. In television, I’m still obsessed with Supernatural but Constantine looks like it could be great. I already blogged about my top shows over at The Geek Girl Project. 

In less of an entertainment vein, there is all the space stuff going on. First there was NASA’s panel on The Next Giant Leap. Which I wish I could have been there for and am still searching out other clips on it. There was also the end of the mars simulation.

Years ago, when I was in eighth grade, a group of us did a project called Marsville. The point was to construct a theoretically viable habitat on mars. We researched all the typical stuff – hydroponics, mining for the raw materials for potable water and breathable air. It was a blast. We even had to bring a lunch, designed to contain all four food groups, come in under a certain weight, and the refuse from the lunch had to be under a certain volume. Oh how I wish I’d had my dehydrator then! It would have been so much easier! Somewhere in a box I’m pretty sure I still have the certificate. I think my team placed but I’m not exactly certain. I wish there were more projects like that around now for my kids.

As far as my writing goes, I might have gotten a hundred words in but I’m likely not keeping any of them. I’ve got three projects I’m working on right now and they’re so different from each other. I’ve got a supernatural thriller, a sci-fi something that I’m hoping to push more into the realm of cyberpunk, and a bit of horror. I’d considered trying to stick to one genre but it doesn’t work for me. I love Guardian of the Gods – the heroic fantasy genre, the worlds, and all that but I don’t want to find myself pushed into one category either. All of the novels I’ve finished are different subgenres and I like that. I enjoy stretching into other genres, it’s fun.

Tonight is Face Off night and tomorrow I’ll post my recap but today shall be spent working on one of those projects I’ve got going. I’d like to get the zero draft of that horror story a little closer to completion.

Round and Round We Go

The crazy merry-go-round that is the process of seeking publication continues at strange speeds. For some publications, it is lightning fast, for others it is forming amber slow. And it’s all a bit disconcerting.

I have three novels and maybe a dozen short stories somewhere in the submission process, looking for their forever homes. I’m confident in these stories (especially the novels – so far, what rejections have come in have been personal – from publications that don’t generally do that – and complimentary) but the process is still daunting.

Every publication, publisher, and agent wants everything just differently enough to make preparing the submission or query package time-consuming. From searching through markets, looking for the appropriate ones, reformatting what needs reformatted, crafting the appropriate cover and/or query letters, and waiting for what always feels like forever for responses. It’s no wonder to me why so many are now choosing to self-publish – there’s no waiting period or chance of rejection. If only they would hire editors first.

Today I’m bouncing back and forth between market hunting and drooling over pictures and videos coming out of the San Diego Comic Con. I haven’t gotten much done on the market hunting though as I’ve been busy looking at neat stuff. As far as procrastination devices go, it’s certainly been fun! Bonus: the kids are both pretty interested in most of it too!

 

The Geek Girl Project

Yesterday I said something about good news in all the muck going on right now. Today, my first post for The Geek Girl Project went up! Hopefully, it will be the first of many.

A recap of Season Seven, episode one of SyFy’s awesome Face Off. Read it. Face Off Season Seven.

 

 

 

Go Eat Worms

When I was little, there was this song:  “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms.” The song continued forever after that and I don’t know if it’s something I learned in preschool, day care, kindergarten or what but every time I’d have a thoroughly rotten day, it became my theme song. I’m sure I annoyed my mother to no end with it. Yesterday was a day like that. With one awesome exception, this whole week has been like that.

I’ll be posting about the awesome news in a few days. I both don’t want to tarnish my good news with the crud or invalidate the crud with the good news. Whether or not that makes any logical sense, I’ll leave for you to decide.

The crud is varied and cruddy, as is to be expected.

My dad is currently in the hospital and they’re trying to figure out if the problems he’s having are the same or related to the heart infection he had 14 years ago. I’m worried and trying to keep it mostly under my hat both for my stepmom and my kids. My awesomesocks stepmom is worried enough without me making it worse. We took the kids to see him on Sunday so they do know something is going on but until I have something concrete from the doctors, I’m letting them be the kids they are. If they ask questions, I’ll answer them but there’s no sense in getting them worked up when no one really knows what’s going on just yet.

There are other things too, but most of them are little things made bigger by the fact that I’m already in a not great head space and my biggest fan, best first reader, and biggest supporter isn’t really up to listen to me whine about stuff that doesn’t matter in the long run.

I know my mood must be awful as the hubster armed himself with flowers and pie before coming home from work yesterday. At least I know he’s learned something in last decade.

 

Best Garage Sale Find

At least for under a dollar!

It’s a lovely day, the rain has finally stopped for a while, the sky has hints of actual blue in it. We decided to go yard sale hopping. (In other parts of the country: tag sales, garage sales, rummage sale, moving sale, etc.)

From the time I was a wee little girl, I’ve loved space. Blame Star Trek and Sally Ride I suppose. I have all sorts of books and various other things related to the space program (including a series of Russian stamps commemorating the Mir space station).

Today, searching through a garage full of stuff belonging to a woman who was very obviously a teacher, I stumbled across something awesome. An entire school activity program from 1993 called MASCOT.

      

 

For fifty cents, I’ve got the vhs, the teaching plans, the posters (including the one above for the proposed mars missions expected to be active in 2019). I can’t wait to go through it all and see what lovely things me and the kids can learn! Best fifty cents I’ve spent in a long time!

As I go through things, I may post about this again if I find things that are especially interesting or neat.

Disclaimers and Default Settings

Sometimes I feel like I need to introduce myself with a disclaimer when I meet someone new. Something along the lines of: Pay no attention to the weird that comes out of my mouth. My imagination’s default setting is creepy and the words tend to escape before I can catch them. Promise I’m not quite as messed up as I sound!

I can’t help it. Maybe it’s too many years of scary books and movies. Maybe it happens because I sometimes write creepy stories and they have to come from somewhere. Maybe it all stems from the fact that I fall asleep every night to Forensic Files. Maybe I’m just strange and creepy. Who knows.

The other day we were driving somewhere and on the side of the highway was a relatively clean green and white cooler. I said something about how it looked like it’d been set there, not like it had fallen off the back of a truck or something. The hubster wondered what was in it. Immediately, without thought or hesitation, I said “body parts.” Who is going to stop on a busy highway to see what’s inside a nondescript, millions in production, everyone has one in their basement cooler? If it were hunting season, the answer would probably be the case but they’d be deer parts and therefore uninteresting anyway. In reality it was probably someone’s picnic but what’s the fun in that?

It’s like my brain wants things to be creepy or disturbing. Here’s a lovely drawing of a pretty girl. Here’s a the story of how she died and became a lovely, if demented ghost! Look, a beautifully kept old house! There’s a haunting. Look, a shiny new house! Did you ever see Poltergeist?  There’s a lovely sunset view of a quaint little rural community! Bet this is where the aliens will attack first.

At least the hubster is accustomed to me by now (he’d better be after so many years!). I don’t think he thinks anything of it anymore. For me, these elements will, one day, make into a story (in one case, it already has and said story is looking for a forever home), but in the mean time, I’ll file them away in the neat and creepy section of my inspiration files and let them stew until there’s a plot to go with them.

Webcomic Wednesday – Girl Genius

I love comics in all their forms but not all comics. There are some fabulous ones I’ve found online and I’d like to share them. It won’t be every Wednesday but, when it happens, it will be on Wednesday. Mostly because I love alliteration.

Today’s spotlight shall be shined upon the steampunky fabulousness that is Girl Genius.

When I first came across Girl Genius, I was immediately intrigued by the lead – a girl inventor! Exactly my kind of story. Over the next several days, in bits and pieces, I read the entire thing from the beginning. All the expectations I had based on the first panel I saw were fulfilled and then some.

Agatha is smart, resourceful, and self-reliant. She is also occasionally clumsy, mouthy, and not, as some strong female characters are, just a man with breasts. The secondary and tertiary characters are fun, well thought out, and useful. Though it does take a few times to adjust to the Jaggers speech patterns (or it did for me). The art is beautifully done and the concepts are awesome but, for me, that is secondary to the plot.

I’m always looking forward to the next page.

I do recommend reading it from the beginning. If you jump in where it’s at now, there’s a lot you won’t understand about what’s currently going on in the story. Girl Genius. New pages go online on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

 

Lucy and my kid

The oldest boy, the hubster, and I are watching American Ninja Warrior tonight and the commercial for the upcoming movie, Lucy, comes on. I grumbled a bit to myself because the premise is irksome. The oldest boy, however, impressed the heck out of me.

He spent several minutes explaining all the reasons why the premise is flawed. For example, during the commercial, Lucy is able to change her physical appearance on a whim. How does “unlocking” the brain’s power have the ability to change that? Especially instantaneously? After explaining the process by which our hair color is determined, he went on to say that he can buy telekinesis but changing the physical appearance like that? Nopity nope.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that he’s only 13. His arguments (which I have not included all of) were concise, logical, and well-founded. It makes me so proud to be his mom. We probably won’t watch Lucy, certainly not in the theater, as both of us would likely be too thrown by the flaws to enjoy it for the entertainment it is meant to be.