I like to watch

Username:	Password:
Forgot your password?	Remember Me

Happy birthday Thismaz!
You are a warm and wonderful person who has filled my life, not just with beautiful prose but a deep appreciation of how much we can touch each other through cyberspace. May you have a day full of joy, good health and good food. :)

Happy birthday ladycat777! Not only do you provide us all with wonderful fic but are an incredibly supportive and all around wonderful person as well. I hope your day was as special as you are.

A word about Writercon
I suspect I'm preaching to the choir here but I wanted to say a word encouraging anyone who might be sitting on the fence to take the plunge and go to Writercon this year.

I am the original wallflower and I was petrified when my husband insisted I go to the last Writercon. I was going to a place where I knew no one in a face to face capacity and I'm so far from a BNF it's not even funny.

Within an hour of arriving in Atlanta I was having a blast. I ran into people at the airport and we road the train to the hotel together chatting as if we were old friends. My flist doubled in size by the end of the con.

The con itself was wonderful! Incredibly well run with a wide variety of topics covered whether you were interested in the craft of writing, discussing meta or just meeting interesting like-minded people. The religion discussion got so involving a discussion site went up so we wouldn't have to stop. The con suite was the best I've ever encountered in 30 years of con attendance. I cannot praise the work of the concom highly enough for the forethought and effort they put into the event and suspect they are putting in again.

If you're at all interested in fandom, have people on your flist you might like to meet in person, enjoy getting great advice and/or discussion on the art of writing this is a not to be missed event.

I'm going to Writercon!
I just bought my ticket to Writercon! I'll be exhausted but it's going to be so much fun. I hope I see you all there.

Writercon conundrum
Everything and it's cat and dog wants to happen on the weekend of July 31st.

Here's what's happening. Don and I have got a trip booked for Israel that ends July 30th. We didn't pick the time, it's a chance to go with someone who really knows the historical and religious significance of all the places in the region and I'm anticipating it being wonderful!

Okay, the husband's 30th high school reunion is Aug. 1st. It's also the first high school reunion for his class. He's pretty jazzed about going.

Being the wonderful husband he is, and knowing how much I adored Writercon last time, he's suggesting we step off the plane from Israel, he flies to his reunion, I fly to Minneapolis and then we meet up back at home.

Here are the arguments I see against this plan. One, I'll likely be severely jet lagged and not in the best condition for a con where i'm likely to get no sleep. Joyously sleepless, but still.

Two, I should really be a good wife and go to the reunion with the husband. I know if I was going to my reunion (something I'd never do, but still) I'd want him with me. I'm torn in a whole bunch of directions over this. Advice?

Happy birthday
Happy birthday to clouds_loom! I hope your day was full of love, wonder and merriment!

Repo! The Genetic Opera

I was lucky enough on Friday to see one of the limited showings of this movie. I am informed by my much more musically savvy husband that it is a true rock opera and I, with my plebian understand, thought it was a damn good one.

There isn't a single weak vocal performance in the piece. Alexa Vega (of Spy Kids fame) has an amazing voice invoking innocence and passion with equal force. Tony Head does the dark, tragic figure exceedingly well. I truly loved his character switches and his ability to turn on bad ass mode. Sarah Brightman has impressive pipes and she does a couple numbers that are just marvelous. I think Terrance Zdunich as the graverobber is my favorite performance. He serves as more of a greek chorus than an actual character and his voice is simply wonderful.

I can't say much more withuot hitting spoilerland. Although I will issue a few warnings. This is not for the kiddies. It can get a little bloody and well, it's a rock opera, you know what to expect. The one part I thought was bad was the main villian's two sons. It wasn't that either actor performed badly the characters were just too over the top and uninteresting to me.

My recommendation? see it if you get the chance.

"Copy this sentence into your LiveJournal if you're in a heterosexual marriage, and you don't want it "protected" by the bigots who think that gay marriage hurts it somehow."

I don't do memes but I make exceptions for stuff like this.

Buffy meme

Gakked from all over my flist

When you see this, post another Buffy quote in your LJ. Let's see how long this can go on.

Xander: Visiting hours are over.

Angelus: Well, I'm pretty much family.

Xander: Yeah. Why don't you come back during the day? Oh, gee, no, I guess you can't.

Angelus: If I decide to walk into Buffy's room, do you think for one microsecond that you could stop me?

Xander: Maybe not. Maybe that security guard couldn't either. Or those cops... or the orderlies... But I'm kinda curious to find out. You game?

Angelus: Buffy's White Knight. You still love her. It must just eat you up that I got there first.

Xander: You're gonna die. And I'm gonna be there. - 'Killed By Death'

Happy birthday
A very happy birthday to Sparrow2000! Sparrow is a warm and welcoming presence in the online community. Always encouraging, giving freely of her time and energy to inspire the writers among us to keep at it. I'm so glad she has taken up the pen herself as she has made me laugh, cry and hurt in all the best ways.

Happy birthday! I feel priveleged to count you among my online friends.

Great weekend!
If I haven't commented when you expected me to I apologize. I've spent the last weekend at ArmadilloCon having a blast and being online very sporadically.

ArmadilloCon has a strong writer slant to it and I met some really great and wonderful writers. Got to spend time talking to several and enjoyed myself thoroughly. One of the seriously cool things is that all the writers are fans of each other. I saw big names asking for small to medium names to autograph books for them as well as the other way around. that is terribly cool!

Also, it was incredibly fanfic friendly. i was in one panel when Steven Brust said that any time you write a sequel you're writing fanfic because you're just so jazzed about that universe. And know one leaped up with a protest. i didn't feel like I needed to apologize for being a fanfic author.

Any panel Joe Lansdale was on turned into a laugh riot pretty quickly, so that was tons of fun. I went to several great readings: Joe Lansdale, Martha Wells, Joe Haldeman, Patrice Sarath and many more. Really enjoyed all of them. As you may be able to tell, I'm flying a bit high in the wake. :) But I'm back now and I shall try to catch up.

Happy birthday!
Happy birthday justmalea! You are a warm and caring person who has had more bumps in the road then anyone should have to deal with. May the coming year bring success and joy!

Happy birthday!
I've been lax with the birthday greetings of late. So I'm turning over a new leaf to wish lit_gal a very happy birthday today. Lit_gal not only writes some of the hottest, plotty porn it has ever been my pleasure to read but she's a sweet and wonderful person as well. Hope you're having a fantastic day!

Dark Knight (spoiler free)
Saw Dark Knight on Saturday. It is, indeed, dark but exceptionally good and I say that as a very long time Batman fan.

I've heard it batted about that Heath Ledger should get the best supporting actor nod, and while his Joker was brilliant I think I'd actually back Gary Oldman's Jim Gordon over him. See it for yourself and discussion can follow.

For now, a much more esoteric question and anyone can play, whether they've seen the movie yet or not. Who should be the villian for movie three. I'm assuming a third based on the massive box office two is generating.

You can pick from Batman's estensive rogue's gallery or an original villian. I'm torn, there are so many good choices, particuarly since Mr. Nolan appears to be doing the villians right.

We've lost a lot of really good people lately. Tim Russert, Cyd Charisse, George Carlin. I could have something to say about each of these people as each one touched my life even though I'd never met any of them. But there's one other individual who died recently whose death went unnoticed and that's something that just isn't right.

We lost Stan Winston on June 15th of this year. You may not recognize his name but I guarantee all of you have seen some of his work. Just to start off he won Best Visual Effects Oscars for Aliens, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. He built the Terminator endoskeletons for all the Terminator films. Remember the T-Rex in Jurassic Park? That was his work. The most recent thing you've seen on the screen? The visual effects for Iron Man.

He's operated his own studio since 1972. He was best know for creating creatures but he did some pretty amazing realistic work too. Ever seen The Ghost and the Darkness? He did the animatronic lions used in that film. You'll be seeing his work in the future on the next Terminator and Jurassic Park movies.

Somehow or other someone who has made important contributions to some of my favorite movies didn't get noticed as he passed from our lives. I just couldn't let that stand.

100% spoiler free review of Wall-E

First things first. YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!

Ahem.

Wall-E is currently battling Incredibles and Monsters, Inc. for our top spot in the Pixar hierarchy. In my humble opinion, it's just that good.

As promised, I will tell you nothing about the plot. What I will tell you is that Pixar is unmatched in their ability to imbue inanimate objects with amazing amounts of personality and to tell a complex story without words. I will also tell you that this movie has a plot that is in no way spoon fed to you. There are plot points scattered around and you, the viewer, are expected to pick up the pieces and put them together yourself. One of the truly wonderful things about this movie is that 50 people could see this movie and they would all walk away with something slightly different from it for exactly that reason. It is infrequently that I have seen a movie that engaged my mind, emotions and delighted my eyes all at once.

In conclusion, SEE THIS MOVIE!

Happy birthday!
I very happy 21st birthday to authoressnebula! Nebby is kind, compassionate and fiercely loyal. A dancer, a scholar and an all around good kid, I hope you're having a great day today. 21 is a wonderful age, enjoy being able to eat your cake without gaining weight. :)

Happy birthday!
I can't believe I almost missed it! Happy birthday to ladycat777!

Ladycat is a sweet, generous person who also happens to write some of the hottest porn I've ever read as well as the sweetest cuddly fics. Always with an edge of insightfulness about the characters that makes me think. You are awesome! I hope you've had a fantastic day.

Back home
I've been out of town for the last week and a half with very limited Internet access, so if I usually comment on your posts and haven't, that's why. I'm making my way through my backlog as fast as I can. I may not get everything (you guys were chatty :) ) but I will do the best I can. I love you all and don't want anyone to think I'm ignoring them.

Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to liz_marcs! She is a lady who always has interesting insights, well researched arguments and reliable source for the real story on any number of kerfluffles that go about lj. She's also one hell of a writer. :) Her writing has rich imagery, complex, involving plots and dynamite characterization.

She also isn't adverse to laughing at herself. I loved the mountain story! I'm lucky to have her on my flist.