24 January 2009

Jesse McCartney: Total idiot?

Dear pathetic wanker:

You are not my Zuko. Your recent interview on the John & Jay show (more info here*) showed that you've clearly done a lot of research to learn about your character. You've even taught me a few things I didn't know about my favorite show.

For example, you taught me that Avatar is an anime that was huge in Asia, so they brought it over here for 3 seasons and showed it on Nickelodeon. Wow! I never knew that creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko were from Japan!

Thanks to Paramount's idiotic casting decisions, and the sheer idiocy of the two actors who've given interviews this week regarding the property, I've gone from guardedly optimistic to pissed off and outraged. Good job, Paramount. This fan had been considering seeing the movie if the trailer looked like MNS hadn't fucked it up too badly, but now even if you gave out talking Emo!Zuko figures and gave me free admission, I wouldn't set foot in the door.

Great job!

No love,
Pissed-off Avatar fan.

*If you don't want to listen, the reactions in the comments sum it up. There's a straight mp3 version linked in comments, and the relevant part starts about halfway through.

20 January 2009

President Barack Obama.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

Oh, I hope so.

I want to shake off the feeling of dread the last eight years have given me, and be proud, or at least not embarrassed, that I am American. Dear Mr. President, please be the change we believed you could.

It's snowing!




One of those rare events here in the South, so we all get excited a bit and go in late to work, if at all, and swear at the morons driving 80 mph in their SUVs.

My employer is opening at 10:30, which is pretty awesome. Though the roads are still kind of bad.

I wonder if they'll put the Inauguration on the TV in the waiting room, or if I'll be able to watch a live video feed on CNN or hulu or something.

19 January 2009

Weekend of failure!

A friend of mine decided that, since it's a holiday weekend, she would set herself an impossible goal and fail to meet it. I joined in, since that sort of thing is always fun.

I decided I'd work on the kids' story, but I never figured out a plot, so it's sitting at 300 words. Then I decided I'd punt and work on something else, but that's not coming, either, and what I'd like to do is take a nap.

The cats sleeping on either side of me aren't helping a damn bit, either.

So maybe I'll punt Necmiye's story, too, and type up some NBR, which actually has 37,000 words typed up, so it'll be closer to 45K when I get the skeleton typed up. Then revising, revising, revising. And making it a real story, with descriptions and symbolism and foreshadowing. Maybe even sex.

The desire to take a nap, however, is overwhelming. Maybe I'll eat something, since I'm kinda hungry, too.

There's a winter storm watch from tonight until the end of the day tomorrow. I wouldn't mind a snow day from work, but I doubt they'll close. I just hope I don't get yelled at for not wanting to drive my small sporty car in 2-4" of snow on North Carolina roads, with North Carolina drivers. Or for being late, when I'm the only damn person on the road driving at a sane speed.

10 January 2009

Finished short story?

So, I've got some writing goals for the year. 1: Finish 4 short stories and submit them for publication. 2: Get NBR ready to query.

I have Seeds of Rebellion, 6900 words, awaiting crit from my writing group. I think the last thousand words or so need some editing and revision, especially the ending, but I'll get some peer opinions.

I'm working on the ghosts/trains story now. I think I need to change it to third person (it's currently first) to make it work better. It reads more like a memoir/diary than how I want it to be. But it stands at 1600 words, with some outlining of the whole thing so I know where it's going. I'm still stewing on the POV change, though.

No idea yet what the other 2 will be. I'm pondering a children's story version of part of the ghosts one, with the setting changed. There's a creepy bit of history regarding a part of the Spree River and the Berlin Wall and kids drowning because the West German fire department couldn't go in (jurisdiction and stuff) and the East German *wouldn't.* Soviet-era Germany was a strange, sad place.

NBR has about 30000 words typed up, the skeleton of the story (though I have 2 chapters yet to type up from the handwritten draft). The first chapter is reasonably polished, but that leaves 28 to go. It's gonna be exciting. I hope I can get my act together and finish it. That's why I give myself targets.