"You're brave. Stupid, but brave."
- a Wilding to Jon Snow in "Game of Thrones"

"I don't sleep. I hate those little slices of death."
- Saknussem in 1959's "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

I'd planned to do some yardwork this morning until it'd get too hot, but my job kept me up until after 3:00am. I woke up at 6:30am, and took the doggies out. I tried to get back to sleep, but it's not going to happen, thanks to the genetic trait that allows me to be functional after even a short nap - handy when my ancestors were chasing mammoths, I guess, and when you're a computer programmer.

I think I'll take things easy today. I've had the TV on the Singers & Swing channel, and I've been drinking coffee. I'll now watch another episode of "Game of Thrones".

The Devil IS in the details.
Based on what happened today, my co-workers are lucky to have an angel.

Of course I'm not comparing myself to Paul Bettany, tempting as that is, because that'd be awfully conceited. Also, I definitely do not compare myself to Tilda Swinton, Christopher Walken or Kevin Serge Durand.

I've been asked to help with judging the Children's Costume Contest at the upcoming Albuquerque Comics Expo. My name was suggested because "...you like costumes and will not crush the souls of children..."

Are there examples of police-procedural mysteries - written or filmed - older than 1948's "The Naked City"?

Rocky the Bad Cat has forgiven me yesterday's trip to the vet. That's an improvement over his peeing on my leg when I put him in his crate.

I just came back from the Post Office, having mailed another little birthday present to a friend.

"We should have talked to Serge two months ago."

So said a representative of another group when, off the top of my head, I provided information that the rest of my team didn't know, and this for a project I was made aware of only two days ago.

Frankly, there are lots of things here that'd run better here if they talked to Serge first.

Exactly fourteen weeks from now, the worldcon will begin.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvHW1oIKUxI )

I'm taking Rocky the Bad Cat to the vet tonight for his annual checkup. Yes, since I like my blood to remain inside my body, I'll use a towel when it's time to put him in the carrier.

Errands to run after work... Get new gym shoes, buy a new water filter for the gym, go to the bookstore and see if a book will say "Buy me, buy meeeeee...", go to the comic-book store and buy the 8th issue of Terry Moore's "Rachel Rising". First though, I must spend a day working for the corporation.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEpzZjB6_D4 )

“Hail! Hail the Priestess of Unexpected Violence!”

Those of you who’ve had the pleasure of reading Seanan McGuire’s novel “Discount Armageddon” were introduced to Verity Price who, while pursuing a career as a ballroom dancer in New York City, remains involved in the family business of hunting monsters, and of slaying them only if they misbehave and eat humans.

While we’re waiting for Verity’s next adventure, we can read some short stories set in 1928 that tell us how her grandparents met. In “The Flower of Arizona”, Jonathan Healy winds up in Tempe, Arizona, after reports of unusual deaths that seem to follow in the wake of a circus. At first he wonders if Frances Brown, the titular Flower, might really be a monster hiding under the guise of a beautiful young woman who’s *very* good at knife-throwing, thus the family’s mice calling her the Priestess of Unexpected Violence. When that’s cleared up, and the local situation with death is resolved, Jonathan heads back to Michigan in “One Hell of a Ride”, accompanied by Fran, but the train takes a detour in the layers of Hell closest to our Reality. In “No Place Like Home”, Fran, who’s been taking Jonathan’s activities and encounters pretty much in stride, gets to face one truly unnerving situation – the doubtful approval of his parents.

By the way, while the first story was published in “Westward Weird”, a DAW anthology, the other two are available for free on her site here:

http://seananmcguire.com/icshorts.php

Enjoy!

Cropped my chin. Washed a few dishes. Prepared my baloney-sandwich lunch. Folded laundry. Off to the gym.

One dear friend gave me a gift today.
Another dear friend received a gift from me today.
Both gifts were very much appreciated.

A few days ago, I mentionned Scott Zicree's use of Kickstarter to fund his movie series "Space Command". Not only was the financial goal reached within 3 days instead of 59, but it's now been largely exceeded. I expect that Guillermo del Toro's support didn't hurt.

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhbxI5eVnM4 )

"I'm not questioning your honor, Lord Janos. I'm denying it exists."

I watched the first two episodes of Season Two of "Game of Thrones" this morning and was quite interested in noticing that Peter Dinklage's name now is the first to appear in the opening credits. Dinklage has come a long way from 2003's "Elf", where his role was solely to serve as a joke for Will Ferrell. That being said, he's probably my favorite character because he values intelligence so much and because, so far anyway, he really is an honorable character albeit he goes at it differently than the late decapitated Ned Stark. Speaking of the latter, his daughter Arya is my other favorite character. When someone told the beanie girl that she shouldn't insult someone bigger than she is, she responded that this left nobody for her to insult.

I'm done with watering the backyard's desert plants, and with pulling weeds I'd missed yesterday. I'll now have a breakfast of a bit of cheese, crackers and coffee, while *finally* watching Season Two of "Game of Thrones".

I just downloaded to my Nook the Hugo nominees I had not yet read. I'm not sure how long ago the electronic packet had been made available, because I never received an email saying "Come and get it!" or a variation thereof. Anyway. I've got myself some more reading to do as soon as I've finished "Suicide Kings".

Today was a busy day. I removed weeds from flowerbeds. Trimmed back bushes. Moved flower pots around to where Sue wanted them. (She can't do it herself even a couple of years after her knee-replacement surgery.) Mowed the lawn. Put tools, dirt bags, and empty pots off the patio and into the shed. Took yardwork'sd branches to the dump. Dropped off stuff at Goodwill. Came home. Tired. Found a rat's lower half near the back door. Now reading "Suicide Kings" until it's time for dinner - two hot dogs for Sue, and the remaining five for me. Not sure what the evening will consist of. Probably more reading. Playing things by ear, but I know there will be coffee.

I came home early tonight so I planted Sue's last flowers. At least they're supposed to be the last. After cleaning up, I had a mac&cheese for dinner, then the last ice cream cone, then the last popsicle, and a big bag of chips. I just finished writing up a review of some short stories. Next, I'll probably watch the first episode of Season Two of "Game of Thrones".

"Toute vérité n'est pas bonne à dire."

The first time I contributed to a Kickstarter Project, it was for Mary Robinette Kowal’s puppet show at the worldcon in 2011. Then came an erotica SF book by Mary Anne Mohanraj, followed by a fantasy novel by MK Hobson. And now… Today a movie, tomorrow the world?

I was quite intrigued by Marc Scott Zicree’s "Space Command", a proposal to make a film set in the Future as it had been depicted by artist Chesley Bonestell, and in George Pal’s movies such as 1955’s “Conquest of Space”.

I was also intrigued by the idea of Kickstarter being used to fund SF movies. So I thought I’d make some contribution because if Zicree – who wrote “Star Trek” episode “World Enough and Time” – shows it can be done, others might get the idea that they too can make it work. Who knows what could happen next? CJ Cherryh’s “Merchanter’s Luck”?

For details about his Kickstarter, click here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/58936338/space-command

This week I popped in my DVDs of 1979's "The Martian Chronicles". To put it mildly, this adaptation of Bradbury's masterwork had more than its share of problems, including excessive cheesiness.

It also had excellent moments.
Such as this one.

"I beg pardon..."
"'I beg pardon?' What are you so polite about?"
"For the same reason you are not: it's the way I was brought up."
- the immigrant to the bigot in "12 Angry Men"

I came across a really cool first name this morning. I was at the big-box store, waiting to pay for two bags of potting soil when I noticed a whiteboard hanging on the wall behind the cashier, listing the place's top five employees of the month.

One of them was called Theron.

Most people will probably think of actress Charlize Theron, but, for old foggies like me, who in their early years got their steady diet of F/SF thru the newspaper's daily comic strips, it'll remind them of the mentor of Mandrake the Magician.

"Who?"

Thanks, kids, for making me feel old.
Now you get off my lawn.

Last night I took Freya to the vet for some blood tests. My old girl isn't getting any younger, nor are her legs, which is why I've been giving her half a rimadyl every morning for over a year. The doc wanted to make sure that the long-term use wasn't wrecking her liver. The results said that she's fine.

Dear diary... Today I showed great restraint at the office and did not use the verbal Fist of Death.

Sue is almost done writing her contemporary-fantasy novel "Black Ice". Rather, she *was* almost done, but a few days ago Melissa Frain, her editor at Tor, sent comments about "Mist", which is Book One of the whole affair, and that'll mean revising "Black Ice". It'll mean an even better story, if I may say so. In other publishing news, Sue received two royalty checks from her older publishers at the same time.

Today would have been my dad's 87th birthday. My mom gave me this photo in early 1993 after he passed away from a heart attack. He'd been keeping that photo in his wallet since it was taken, when I was almost two years old.

Last night we watched Alex Proyas's "Dark City". It was as strange as when we first saw it in 1998, like a Philip K Dick story, but rational - with an elastic definition of 'rational', mind you. It featured Rufus Sewell, William Hurt Kiefer Sutherland. and lots of bald men in black hats. As for then-28-year-old Jennifer Connelly, I found myself thinking how much she looked like a Terry Moore character.