A Collection of Reviews

In an effort to combat the boredom that is sitting at home filling out job applications and worrying about getting a job (after all one can't write all day, and really, when I think about it, the writing is another attempt at combating the boredom) I have been catching up with the current episodes of House M.D. and Heroes. I only had to catch up on a few episodes of House since I watched a lot of House over Easter Break, but those episodes were as good as ever, I enjoy watching Hugh Laurie who I first saw as Bertie Wooster in the Jeeves and Wooster TV series play the sarcastic, brilliant chronically rude Dr. House. I don't like the new crew of doctors as much as I liked the original spread, but the writing is still pretty good and Hugh Laurie is the one who carries the show

I had heard that the second season of Heroes wasn't as good as the first, but I thought it was still pretty high quality. The same complex interweaving plot that involved seemingly disconnected characters worked just as well in the second season as the first, though I am a little disappointed that the season was foreshortened by the writers strike. Peter Patrelli has grown a little too powerful, but they did a pretty good job of keeping him in check by having him work with the bad guy. I was a little disappointed that they brought Sylar back, even if he is one of the most impressively creepy villains that I have ever seen. I never really liked the way villains are so often resurrected in fiction in general, I like to believe that a particular threat can be dealt with permanently.

I have also been reading a lot of Webcomics as I mentioned earlier. Ctrl-Alt-Delete is an highly amusing computer-gaming comic. And Applegeeks is a quite entertaining apple-influenced counterpoint to Ctrl-Alt-Delete. Megatokyo is a well developed continuing storyline that imitates the manga style and uses a highly imaginative version of Tokyo (with ninjas-for-hire, rent-a-zillas, scheduled disasters—such as Zombie invasions—and a mech-equipped disaster police force) that draws on many ideas from many different varieties of Manga (from magical-girl stories, mecha and such) and conveys a serious and interesting message through all the silliness.More recently I have been reading Ozy and Millie , which is a highly intelligent web-comic done in a traditional old-style newspaper daily comic format. The characters are all anthropomorphic creatures (the MCs are Foxes but there are raccoons, rabbits, sheep and even a handful of dragons) and the artist uses them to convey a level of intelligent humor that has been sadly missing from almost all conventional newspaper comics that survive.

Last week I read Orson Scott Card's Empire. A look into the possibility of a civil war between the right-wing fanatics and the left-wing fanatics in America. The story was good, as is to be expected of Card, the characters were well-developed and the plot was fairly plausible and well-thought out. The only real problem I had with it was that it was too blatantly political (close to non-partisan, but not quite) and too close (and while still plausible still completely impossible) for me to be completely comfortable with it.

A Very Happy Birthday

The other day, May 24, was my birthday. I officially turned 20. One more year on the road of life and all that fun stuff. My life hasn't changed significantly, there were no world-shattering revelations. Just a good times, family and friends.

Lauren came up for the weekend to spend time with me, she drove all the way up from Maryland Saturday morning for me. All I had to do was promise to pay for her gas. Not all that difficult at almost 4 dollars a gallon. . . But it was well worth it, even though she was sick and running a slight fever when she arrived. It was wonderful to see her again, even if it has only been two weeks. She enjoyed herself and got better throughout her stay, so that wasn't as bad as it could have been either.

Sean brought his girlfriend Elaine down from Grove City for Saturday as well, so it was just the four of us while Dad and Sarah were at softball practice and Mom and the other girls were at a baby shower. It was good to spend some time with Elaine since she only started dating Sean at the end of the semester and we hadn't heard much about her. She is a nice girl and seemed to enjoy spending time with us even if we were a little crazy.

For dinner we had egg-rolls and home-made Chinese food which was very tasty. We opened presents and then watched a movie. I got the Prestige, Unbreakable, Season 8 of Stargate SG-1, a collection of Orson Scott Card's short fiction (Maps in a Mirror), Scarlet by Stephen R. Lawhead, some chocolate, beef jerky, a cool dragon ring, a black-and-red shirt with dragons on it and a new bag for my laptop. I am quite happy with the gifts I received but I am even more happy that I got to spend my birthday with Lauren.

Sunday we went to church together and played video games all afternoon. (Lauren really enjoys playing Morrowind or watching my sisters play it.) Today we went on a picnic and Lauren returned home. It is always most painful when she is traveling away from me. I wish she was here, but I know she has to return home and to her job.

After paying for her gas I am now full and truly broke. I have about 10 more dollars to my name. I really need to find a job soon. I am going to send out even more applications tomorrow, and I am going to see what I can do around the house. I'll also continue to work on Wingless to keep myself from going crazy with nothing to do.

It really was a good weekend, and Lauren really did make it wonderful.

I Can't Draw

I have been reading a lot of web-comics and I keep wishing I could do something creative, witty and funny like that. And thinking: I could write that.

There is however one slight obstacle to this idea. I can't draw. This comic pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole situation.

Summer Projects

I still haven't managed to get my hands on a job. None of the places I have applied to (predominantly retail) have gotten back to me yet. I have not given up hope and will continue to apply, but it is starting to get me down. With the economy the way it has been going I doubt a lot of places are hiring if they can help it, and those that are probably want more commitment than the three months of summer. And then there is the added difficulty that I always start by asking for Sunday's off so I can keep the fourth commandment even though most places I am going to apply to are looking for grunts to work the undesirable weekend hours.

Seeing as I haven't gotten a job yet I have had lots of time to sit around and indulge my creativity. (That is to say when I wasn't sick.) I've been throwing ideas back and forth, I wrote a short story for Inkies (my online writing group) and have been bouncing ideas for some sort of serialized (possibly blogged) piece around.

I decided to settle on one of my novels and try to get it finished with the intent of submitting it, but was faced with the problem of deciding which one. I have done considerable work on No More Than Pen and Ink, Wingless, and Rebel Dragon and I am quite fond of all of them (and none of them know where exactly they are going as far as conclusion. . .) So I asked my Inky friends Rose and Aleka (and Lauren) what I should invest my time in. The unanimous conclusion was that No More Than Pen and Ink was the least publishable since it is a compilation of worlds. It was decided that Wingless was most suitable.

So I am now going to try to figure out how Wingless ends.